The new crater was nested right in the center of the previous one, gouging down nearly fifty meters further from the original thirty-meter-deep bottom.
The walls of the crater were as smooth as if sliced by a knife, and the sand along the edges had melted into dark purple, glass-like crystals under the extreme heat and energy impact.
There was absolutely nothing at the bottom of the crater.
The old woman's corpse, that dark purple crystal, and the amulets and Wizardry Tools she carried had all been reduced to nothingness in the explosion.
Ethan stood at the edge of the crater, looking down at the dark purple, glass-like floor.
“Self-detonation?”
He clicked his tongue.
The entire net worth of a First-Tier Wizard was worth at least dozens of magic crystals.
Amulets, Wizardry Tools, storage gear, potions, scrolls—any single one of these items would have taken a normal Third-Tier Apprentice years of saving to acquire.
Now, they were all gone.
Vines sprouted from beneath his feet, reaching down along the walls of the crater.
The tips of the vines tapped gently against the glass-like crystals at the bottom, producing a crisp, metallic clinking sound.
The vines searched the entire bottom of the crater.
Nothing.
Not even a single fragment of a Wizardry Tool remained.
“The old hag was certainly decisive. What a waste of my spoils of war. Tsk, what a loss.”
Three days later, Ethan ran into a wizard force that was clearing out stragglers.
Under the command of several Third-Tier Apprentices, over three hundred slaves were crushing an Amons camp hidden in a valley.
Ethan glanced at them and left immediately.
The further north he went, the less frequently he encountered forces from the Wizard World.
After the thirtieth day, Ethan went half a month without seeing a single friendly unit.
Even the Amons stragglers had vanished.
In their place, various high-tier lifeforms began to appear.
To avoid trouble, Ethan no longer chose to strut openly across the surface.
Instead, he went back to his old trade.
Digging holes? How vulgar.
It was called stealth.
Uncultured swine.
Once he became a mole, the surface patrols, Priests, and Guardians had nothing to do with him anymore.
Deep underground, between roots and rock strata, amidst soil and gravel, he nudged his way north, step by step.
A vine drill ground up the soil ahead, while thick roots propped up the tunnel walls on both sides to prevent cave-ins. The soil and loose stones were pushed behind him by the vines, refilling the passage once Ethan passed through.
In the fourth month, he crossed over an underground river. The water rushed through cracks in the rock strata, letting out a muffled roar.
In the fifth month, he passed beneath an Amons temple. That temple was built inside the belly of a volcano, with scalding lava flowing deep underground.
In the sixth month.
Ethan's vine drill suddenly hit empty air.
The rock strata ahead disappeared, replaced by soft, damp soil.
The soil was filled with decaying fallen leaves and rotting root debris, along with an extremely faint, almost imperceptible ripple of energy.
He had finally arrived.
The Azure-Dyed Forest.
The moment he emerged from the ground, a scent mixed with the earthiness of soil, rotting leaves, and the fresh fragrance of resin flooded his nose.
Beneath his feet was a thick layer of humus, so soft that stepping on it felt like walking on cotton.
The surrounding tree trunks were ridiculously thick; even the thinnest one would require seven or eight people to hug. Their bark was dark brown, and their surfaces were covered with dark green moss.
The canopy spread out in layers high above, blocking out most of the sunlight. Only a few fragmented beams of light filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting mottled patches of light on the ground.
Vines snaked across the ground, the bushes were taller than he was, and the fronds of the ferns were as large as sails, each leaf glistening with wet dew.
Ethan stood in the gap between the roots of a giant tree.
The forest was quiet.
Unusually quiet.
There were no insects chirping, no birds singing, nor any sound of animal activity. There was only the rustling of the wind through the canopy and the faint murmur of a stream in the distance.
Suddenly!
The hairs on Ethan's neck stood on end.
His scalp went numb.
The muscles in his back tensed all at once.
Wood Armor activated automatically, emerald-green plates overlapping to cover his torso and limbs.
Vines erupted from the ground beneath his feet, weaving into an airtight wall of vines around his body.
His mental power spread out in all directions, and Plant Affinity pulled the sensory perceptions of all surrounding plants into his consciousness.
However.
There was nothing.
There were no enemies around, no energy fluctuations, and no threats he could perceive.
Ethan's pupils contracted slightly as he sensed his surroundings again with more care.
No!
This wasn't a hostile lock-on, but rather the sensation of some high-tier lifeform catching sight of something novel by chance.
It was like a giant looking down and casually scanning an ant by his foot.
There was no killing intent, no pressure, just pure observation.
An observation born of curiosity.
Right then, a wave of consciousness flooded in from all directions.
The consciousness was as gentle as a spring breeze brushing across water, without a single trace of aggression.
It directly bypassed the outer defenses of his mental sea and tapped lightly on the surface of his consciousness.
“Hehehe, do not panic, young friend. This old fellow means no harm.”
The hairs on Ethan's arms stood up even straighter.
An actual powerhouse.
To bypass all his senses and transmit a consciousness directly without even triggering his Combat Instinct—this kind of method was beyond what a First-Tier Wizard could achieve.
At least peak Second-Tier.
Or perhaps even higher!
Ethan suppressed the rising alarm in his heart and composed himself. “May I ask who you are?”
“Hehe, come up and see.”
As the voice faded, the giant tree closest to Ethan moved.
A thick tree vine descended from the canopy.
The vine slowly lowered, its tip stopping precisely by Ethan's feet, less than half an inch from the ground.
He stepped onto the vine.
The vine trembled slightly, then began to ascend.
However, the speed of its ascent was strangely slow, so slow that Ethan could see the veins of every single leaf along the way.
The vine beneath his feet was trembling slightly.
Ethan looked down.
Well, it was probably because this giant tree had never carried anything so heavy before.
After all, his body had been tempered countless times by the Elemental Torrent Body Refinement Technique, making his bone density and muscle fibers far exceed those of ordinary people.
Maintaining even this speed must have been a real struggle for the tree.
With great effort, the vine finally delivered Ethan to the canopy.
Ethan stepped onto the thick branches at the very top of the canopy, and the branch beneath his feet seemed to shudder.
Just an illusion.
It had to be an illusion.
Ethan withdrew his gaze and raised his head.
And then, he saw the World Tree.
At the end of his vision, a giant tree that defied description stood tall between heaven and earth.
Its trunk was incomprehensibly massive.
It was not a tree, but a mountain rising from the edge of the horizon, a colossal wall that dominated half of his vision.
Measuring the width of the trunk had lost all meaning, for Ethan could not even see where its edges lay.
It simply lay across the world, connecting heaven and earth.
The canopy spread out at an extreme height. It was no longer a canopy, but an emerald-green continent floating in the sky.
Layers upon layers of branches and leaves extended above the clouds, blotting out half of the sky.
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