The merchant was stubborn. He had just suffered a loss at the hands of the elves.
He considered the elves his enemies and the man in gray his ally.
Seeing the man in gray trapped, he didn't even look at the situation before him.
Leading his kin, the dwarves, he charged forward.
Three hundred dwarves, swinging their short axes, struck at the power of the world.
Originally, the dwarves had no magic. Though the combined strength of their short axes was powerful,
in the face of the world's power, it was like a ditch against a dragon's waterfall.
A single backlash from the world's power could make them spit blood and die.
However, the dwarves were also beings of the elven world.
The existence of the world's power was to protect all life in the elven world, and the dwarves were among them.
Therefore, the world's power would not harm the dwarves.
And so, the dwarves truly managed to hack out a gap.
The man in gray, who was at his wit's end, had no other recourse.
Upon seeing Yin Shang and the others appear, he was overjoyed.
With a thought, the gray light enveloping him poured out from the gap.
It engulfed Yin Shang and the three hundred dwarves, instantly consuming them.
His strength replenished, the light around him surged.
He broke free from the gap and fled towards the valley entrance.
How could the Elf Queen let him escape? She controlled the world's power and pursued him relentlessly.
The world's power touched the back of the man in gray, about to encircle him again.
At this moment, the beast race, led by Ting Xiao Gu, met them head-on.
The light around the man in gray immediately enveloped them.
They were instantly consumed and converted into his own power.
Then, he accelerated violently and vanished from the Valley of Life.
"Elf God, his aura has disappeared.
He has left the elven world. What do we do next?"
The Elf Queen retracted the world's power, closed her eyes to sense, and asked Ming Yue.
"It's good that he's gone. I have something I want to ask you."
Since the man in gray had been driven away, and they had learned from this lesson,
the Elf Queen would also be more vigilant. The crisis of this world's destruction had been averted.
Ming Yue wanted to inquire about the nameless fire.
After all, Tian Long Star was still frozen, waiting for her to unseal the ice.
However, before she could voice her question, a yellow leaf floated down from the sky.
Everyone looked up, their faces changing drastically.
Because the Life Tree, which had recovered, was beginning to wither again.
Half of the green leaves on its crown had turned yellow.
"Elf God, what is going on?
Did you not already make the Life Tree bloom anew?
Why is its vitality still draining away?"
The Elf Queen sensed the Life Tree rapidly decaying and was not only greatly alarmed.
"That's not right! Let me check it carefully."
Ming Yue was also surprised. The Water of Life was equivalent to the source of life for plants.
It was the essence of vitality; a single drop could revive plants within a ten-mile radius.
She had used a bottle, combined with the miraculous nature of the Life Tree.
Once it regained its vitality, it should not wither.
Could there be another reason causing the Life Tree to wither again?
Ming Yue approached the Life Tree with a puzzled expression. Unlike last time,
green light flickered on her hand as she placed it on the trunk.
"I see. It seems we only treated the symptoms, not the root cause."
A few minutes later, Ming Yue withdrew her hand. She understood everything.
She had not only found the reason for the Life Tree's wilting but also the nameless fire.
Earlier, she had used witchcraft to merge with the Life Tree.
The Life Tree was her, and she was the Life Tree.
Only then could she empathize and find the root of the Life Tree's illness.
She immediately understood the reason for the Life Tree's wilting.
It was that a large amount of fire element was contained within the tree.
Although the Life Tree was a miraculous existence that could absorb and integrate the power of the five elements,
it was not afraid of fire elements. However, the fire element it contained now was fierce and overbearing.
It was nothing ordinary fire elements could compare to.
If Ming Yue guessed correctly, it should be the nameless fire that caused the elven world to be engulfed in heat and wildfires.
Ming Yue's divine sense discovered that the deeper she went, the stronger the fire element became.
So, her divine sense followed the trunk all the way down.
It reached the roots of the Life Tree, which was already the core of the elven world.
She discovered that the nameless fire was hidden there.
"No wonder we couldn't find it after searching the entire elven world.
It was hidden in the magma of the earth's core, deceiving my divine sense.
That man in gray went to great lengths to destroy this world.
It seems I need to go down there to resolve the problem completely."
Ming Yue muttered to herself, giving instructions to the Elf Queen.
She used the earth-遁 (earth escape) technique from witchcraft, disappearing from the ground, and headed towards the earth's core.
In the earth's core, crimson magma churned.
The heat was oppressive, capable of melting even steel.
Even so, it was merely mortal fire.
It could not even harm the roots of the Life Tree.
The Wu clan's bodies were strong, and Ming Yue was naturally unafraid.
She didn't even activate a shield, walking leisurely through the magma.
Giant roots of the Life Tree were everywhere, though they showed signs of scorching.
But it was definitely not due to the magma. She walked towards the most severely damaged roots.
"The Hong Ling of Creation! How could it be?"
Upon seeing what appeared before her, Ming Yue's face rarely showed surprise.
It was a fiery red long sash, winding and undulating in the magma.
It radiated scorching power, fierce and domineering.
It seemed capable of burning the heavens and boiling the earth, destroying everything.
Even with Ming Yue's robust physique, she couldn't endure being within ten zhang of it and couldn't get closer.
She quickly took out the Heavenly Dao Disk, activated a shield, and protected herself.
Ming Yue recognized this red sash, as it came from the Primordial Era.
It had connections to the Wu clan and the demon clan.
In the Primordial Era, the Demon Emperor Di Jun and his wife Xi He had ten sons.
Di Jun was a Golden Crow, and his sons were naturally Golden Crows.
Golden Crows possessed the True Sun Fire, which could illuminate the heavens and earth, bringing light to the mortal realm.
It could also help all things grow. As the Demon Emperor, Di Jun
ordered his ten sons to take turns guarding the sky and illuminating the earth.
However, the ten Golden Crows were mischievous and appeared in the sky simultaneously.
As a result, the earth experienced severe drought, and the heat scorched the forests.
It dried the earth and withered the crops and vegetation.
Beings on earth died from the heat, bringing disaster to the Primordial Era.
Their actions angered Hou Yi, a great sorcerer of the Wu clan, who used the Sun-Shooting Divine Bow to kill nine Golden Crows.
He saved countless beings in the Primordial Era, but it also became the fuse for the Wu-Demon war.
The bodies of the nine Golden Crows shot by Hou Yi fell to the southern part of the East Sea.
They transformed into a square mountain, called Wo Jiao, also known as Wei Lü.
This mountain possessed endless energy. As soon as seawater approached,
it would evaporate without a trace and would never be submerged.
The souls of the nine Golden Crows were wounded by Hou Yi's Sun-Shooting Divine Arrow.
They could not reincarnate and faced dissipation.
Di Jun, loving his sons, collected their residual souls in one place.
He nurtured them in a treasure, which was the Hong Ling of Creation before her.
This Hong Ling of Creation had a profound origin; it was a fragment of the Pangu Banner used by Pangu to split the heavens and earth.
The Pangu Banner possessed the power to tear apart the primordial chaos and shatter the forces of time and space.
It had the Dao of boundless creation, the merit of controlling all profound laws, and the ability to open up the heavens and earth.
Furthermore, it could control the might of heaven and earth. Its offensive and creative powers were ranked first.
It had four profound meanings: Break, Establish, Seal, and Annihilate.
Break: Tearing chaos, splitting time and space, opening up the boundless Primordial world.
Establish: Separating yin and yang, regulating the five elements, deriving endless wind, water, fire, and earth.
Seal: Disturbing the primordial, obscuring the universe, evolving infinite void.
Annihilate: Breaking heaven and earth, ending antiquity, destroying countless universes.
During the creation of heaven and earth, Pangu exerted too much force, causing the Pangu Banner to be damaged.
The Hong Ling of Creation was a piece of cloth that fell from it. Later, it was obtained by the demon clan.
Although it was a fragment, it still possessed the profound meanings of the Pangu Banner, albeit with much less power.
However, using the profound meaning of "Establish" to nurture souls was more than sufficient.
"This is difficult. I didn't expect this nameless fire
to be the Golden Crow True Fire released by the souls of those nine Golden Crows.
The Hong Ling of Creation has Emperor Di Jun's seal on it, and I can't break it!"
Looking at the Hong Ling of Creation, Ming Yue appeared troubled.