If the World Tree had been passively feeding on everything that ca toward it, it now ca alive, finally interacting with the world outside.
"Mother, you're back!" the tree said in an excited voice that only Shumi could hear.
Shumi had heard about the beasts and trees calling the Moon Goddess mother, but now that she heard it herself, she couldn't help but feel as though she was their mother.
An instinct born out of her current ascendancy to Godhood.
Whisker attempted to get close, but he could not get any closer than the fifth mountain. Even here, his spiritual sense was constantly being burned away by the World Tree, so he could only rely on his eyes.
"Whisker, call out to Shumi," Alex's voice ca to him. "Tell her to calm the World Tree. It's hurting my head."
Whisker nodded. "Sister Shumi!" he shouted. "The tree is hurting brother. You need to calm it down."
Shumi barely heard it over the constant cheer and excited words that ca from the tree. It sounded no different than a young child, barely 10 years old, its voice no different than that of a girl.
Shumi hesitated for a mont and smiled. "My child. I am here now. You have to calm down," she said.
"But I'm so happy, mother. I have been waiting for soone to co for so long," the tree said, still carrying the sa jubilation in its tone.
"I understand, but you're hurting soone right now. Please calm down a little."
The tree's mind seed to shrink back instantly upon hearing that, the ntal equivalent of soone going from jumping and shouting to sitting back on a chair.
Whisker spoke up again. "Brother says that's better. He is asking what is happening with the tree."
Shumi turned around. "Can he co inside?" she asked.
"It's his Soul Space. He can't enter," Whisker explained. "But he can see and hear through . He can also talk through ."
"Then co closer," Shumi said.
"I can't. The tree consus everything without making any distinction. I will be eaten away."
"Oh!"
Shumi hadn't realized the World Tree did such a thing. She could hardly feel it herself at all. Was she safe because she was the Moon Goddess?
She turned back toward the tree. "Can you see my friend over there?" she asked. "He's going to co here. Please don't attack him."
"Okay!" the tree said.
"You can co now. He won't hurt you."
Upon hearing her, Whisker grew a little cautious. He waited for Alex's approval in this instance.
"Go. You'll be safe," Alex said. "Shumi will protect you if sothing were to happen. She has the strength for that."
Whisker nodded and stepped forward. Slowly, he went through the desolate landscape that once used to have trees growing in every which direction. After the World Tree was planted, however, every bit of energy was sucked away.
As Whisker continued, he noticed the lack of a familiar aura that would gnaw at his body, trying to eat at it. In its absence, he could now sense the dense Saint Qi in the surroundings, as well as hints of Immortal Qi that could not have co from anywhere else.
Whisker was quite surprised upon noticing that. All this ti, he had
heard about the World Tree's ability to devour light and turn it into Qi, but this was the first ti he had sensed the Qi it created.
It felt so... serene. It felt more pure than neutral. It lacked any and all sort of elental alignnt, and yet, when Whisker tried to take in the Qi, it instantly took on a new elental alignnt, which was Fire, Water, Earth, and Yin.
Whisker could absorb any regular Qi without any problem, but if there had been an issue, he could use the World Tree's Qi.
Outside, Alex could only stare at nothing with wide eyes as he
understood the implication of the Qi.
He had always known that the World Defying Mushrooms ca from the World Tree, but he had never realized that their attributes would be so much closer as well. Those mushrooms were incredible pill ingredients because of their ability to change themselves to any Qi they ca in contact with.
The sa was true of the World Tree's Qi.
'Even Ronron can easily cultivate here, without having to constantly find Wood treasures for her to gain Wood Qi from,' Alex thought.
This was no doubt the greatest location for anyone to cultivate in the entire world.
Whisker finally arrived before Shumi and the tree. He looked at it up close with wide eyes. It was the second ti he had co this close to one of the three Demonic Trees, but this one felt much more
important than the Tree of Life did.
Shumi turned toward him. "Can Alex still see and hear?" she asked.
Whisker nodded.
"Alex, the World Tree is awake now," she explained. "She is happy that
her mother is here. That was what had happened earlier."
"The World Tree is talking?" Alex asked through Whisker.
"Talking and doing much more than that," Shumi said with a wide
smile. "She is very happy to see ."
Alex was surprised.
"She's speaking to you then?" Alex asked.
"Quite well," Shumi explained. "She calls her mother, so you
should be her father, right?"
"Maybe," Alex said. "It's hard to tell if I can be considered the sa as the Sun God or not," Alex explained.
He thought for a mont, considering what could be done now that the tree was beginning to communicate. The first thing he thought of was to stop the tree from destroying everything.
"Can you ask her if she can stop absorbing everything that cos her way?" he asked. "I have other things I can start feeding her. Poisons
and such."
Shumi talked to the tree, and a minute later, the all-consuming aura that surrounded the tree fully vanished.
Now, Alex could himself sense the tree with his spiritual sense. And through it, he could talk.
"Hello, World Tree," he spoke to it for the first ti. "I am Alex, the current Sun God."
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