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nTranslator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

nEarly the next morning, Sofia carried a few of her homemade sponge cakes up to the castle so that Yang Ling could try some. But when she entered the yard and saw that the sapling of the Tree of Life had grown to waist-height overnight, she stopped in shock.

n“Brother Yang, this… What’s going on?” Sofia rubbed her large watery eyes in disbelief.

n“In order to obtain the Water of the Spring of Life as quickly as possible, I thought of a shortcut!” Looking at Sofia’s fair, tender face, Yang Ling revealed a mysterious smile.

nSeeing Yang Ling steal glances at her perky breasts, Sofia blushed in shyness. She said cheekily, “What are you looking at, hmm? Your eyeballs are about to fall out. Tell me, quickly, what is the shortcut?”

nA normal sapling of the Tree of Life would take a thousand years to mature, so this sapling was growing at an unimaginable rate. Sofia couldn’t understand how Yang Ling had managed to accelerate the growth of the sapling by several orders of magnitude.

nAfter picking up a delicious piece of sponge cake from Sofia’s flower basket, Yang Ling devoured it without hesitation. He put on an act and said, “Sigh, in order to obtain the Water of the Spring of Life as soon as possible, I spent the whole of last night pulling the stem of the sapling upward. After a full night’s work, I finally made it a few times longer. It was so tiring!”

nPulling on the stem?

nAfter freezing for a moment, Sofia saw the faint traces of Yang Ling’s naughty smile and came to her senses. She angrily hit him on the chest several times. “Tell me what’s going on! If you don’t, I’m leaving!”

nSeeing Sofia about to leave, Yang Ling quickly grabbed her right hand. What Sofia did not expect was for Yang Ling to seize the opportunity and lay a gentle kiss on her earlobe. That electrifying feeling quickly spread throughout her body, causing her to go limp.

n“Sofia, have you noticed that the spiritual energy in this yard is especially rich?” Just as Sofia was blushing, Yang Ling changed the topic to something serious.

nPlayfully glaring at Yang Ling, Sofia took in a deep breath. She tried her best to calm down and said, “I do not know what spiritual energy is, but the Magical Energy here is clearly several times greater than the outside world…”

nCould it be that the stronger the surrounding Magical Energy, the faster the sapling would grow?

nAs she spoke, Sofia suddenly had an idea. The yard had rich Magical Energy, especially during the night, when the energy was so thick it looked like a layer of white fog. Since being in the yard could accelerate the speed of training, it could perhaps boost the growth of the sapling of the Tree of Life.

nAfter drinking the sweet spring water Sofia had brought down from the elf tribe, Yang Ling gave a satisfied burp and said, “That’s right. If my guess is correct, it was the thick spiritual energy, or Magical Energy, that boosted the sapling’s growth.”

n“Great, that’s great! I’ll tell my grandfather immediately and get him to notify the other elf tribes. Oh yes, Brother Yang, have you made any progress with the psychic spell?”

nSofia was very excited. If they could greatly accelerate the sapling’s growth, the forest elves would be able to obtain more Water of the Spring of Life and increase the overall battle abilities of the tribes.

nAfter a moment’s deliberation, Yang Ling told Sofia everything he had discovered. But strangely, no matter how hard Sofia tried, the large trees surrounding them did not move. On the other hand, all Yang Ling had to do was sit cross-legged and recite the mantra silently for the surroundings to be covered with rings of pale green life force.

nSofia was anxious, and Yang Ling did not understand what was going on. They were using the same location and the same mantra, but no matter how hard Sofia tried, the large trees surrounding them remained unmoved.

n“Brother Yang, will you return to the elf tribe with me and try it with my grandfather?” After countless attempts, Sofia was drenched in sweat and had no choice but to give up.

nDeliberating for a moment, Yang Ling said, “Sofia, perhaps it’s because my yard is a little strange. Let’s split up. You can go back and test it with your grandfather, and I’ll try it within Terras Forest and see what kind of effect it has!”

nYang Ling guessed that Sofia’s strange inability to use the mantra might be somehow due to the influence of the Spirit Gathering Spell Formation within the yard. In order to test this, Yang Ling had decided to head to Terras Forest, where the spiritual energy was thick, to conduct an experiment.

nWithout wasting time, they bade their goodbyes and split up. Sofia rode the Gryphon that Yang Ling had tamed and quickly returned to the elf tribe, while Yang Ling headed straight for the vast Terras Forest.

nAfter days of training, absorbing spiritual energy, and soaking in the seven-colored light released by the various Magical Beast Essence Crystals, Yang Ling felt that his abilities had improved greatly. His speed and power were now a notch higher than they had been in the past. Jumping from one tree to the next required little to no effort, as if he was riding on clouds. He unconsciously moved further and further away from the edge of the forest.

nEven though it would have been faster to ride the Unicorn, Yang Ling was not willing to miss any chance to train. Ever since his narrow escape from the heaven-ranked assassin, he had realized that improving his abilities was the most important thing in this world. Otherwise, no matter how many Magical Beasts he controlled or how powerful they were, he might be killed before he could summon them to aid him in battle.

nIt was dawn, and Terras Forest was covered with a layer of thick fog. After experiencing the female assassin Gulania’s sneak attack, Yang Ling did not dare be careless. He summoned all two thousand of his Horned Bee Beasts and split them into five teams. Leaving one team behind to act as his personal bodyguards, he sent the rest of the four teams to patrol the area within a two hundred step radius. He did not want to miss the slightest movements.

nA few hours later, Yang Ling arrived at a small lake, largely untrodden by humans. There were ancient trees all around him, the scenery green. A massive amount of spirit energy had gathered there.

nTo ensure safety, he set up a simple Maze Formation near a large tree, then summoned his Evil Eyes, Withered Tree Warriors, and the Unicorn. He instructed the Magical Beast army to get into a formation and heavily guard the area. In order to prevent any Magical Beasts from suddenly charging up while he was training, Yang Ling sat cross-legged in the top of a tree after confirming that there were no high level Magical Beasts nearby.

nEven though the spiritual energy was richer in the deeper parts of Terras Forest, and his abilities were now much stronger than they had been in the past, Yang Ling was not willing to take unnecessary risks. Both the elf elder’s warning and the Unicorn’s memory told him that there were many terrifying Magical Beasts deep within the forest. Yang Ling did not want to act recklessly before he advanced to the level of Earth Wizard.

nThere was a decent amount of spiritual energy around him. Even though it was not comparable to the Spirit Gathering Spell Formation he had set up in Wissen Tower’s yard, it was much better than any other location within Wissen Town. Yang Ling only needed to recite the psychic mantra once when he felt the trees around him releasing a blanketing life force. After the life force was absorbed, it melded with the red Wizard Power in his body before circulating around his body on a mysterious path.

nIn the yard, a few large trees had already managed to release a large amount of life force. How much life force would be released in the parts of the Terras Forest which were largely unpolluted by humans?

nFeeling the increasingly rich life force, Yang Ling was incredibly excited about his training in the future! Even though he did not know exactly how to use the green energy for the time being, he knew that there would definitely be unexpected benefits after he absorbed a large amount of this energy.

nWith the activation of the psychic spell, all the trees began manically absorbing the rich spiritual energy that had gathered in the forest before releasing a massive amount of life force. Even the lowly stumps on the ground and the ever-present maize were no exception, as they all released streaks of pale green vapor.

nSlowly, the massive life force formed a green fog, becoming increasingly thicker as it enveloped Yang Ling on the treetop. If Yang Ling opened his eyes now, he would have seen that tender leaves were emerging from the ancient trees around him. Even the ever-present grass on the ground was slowly becoming thicker and longer.

nThe horde of Horned Bee Beasts once again underwent an evolution. Their skin slowly became green, and all of them developed angled wings. As for the hundred lucky Horned Bee Beasts, even though they did not evolve to the fourth level, the angled wings on their backs became more sturdy. At full speed, they were definitely much faster than they had been before.

nAt the same time, the Evil Eyes also underwent some changes. The two tentacles on the sides of their bodies slowly became thicker. Each large, single eye alternated from red to dark green as they devoured the thick green energy.

nThe Horned Bee Beasts and Evil Eyes had visibly benefited from the energy, but their changes were minute compared to the Withered Tree Warriors that were tens of meters tall. The bodies of the Withered Tree Warriors swelled and contracted repeatedly in a cycle after absorbing the spiritual energy and green life force in the surroundings… Slowly, thick sharp spikes protruded from their shoulders, elbows, and knees. Their entire bodies were also covered with a thick layer of tree armor…

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