Chapter 478 World Dust and the Growing Divine Tree (7200)

"...What are you thinking about!"

Su Zhou was stunned for a moment, pondering for a good while before he understood what 'tree' Elias had been so evasive about.

Immediately, he reprimanded, amused and annoyed, "Do I seem like someone who would make that kind of joke?"

"On the contrary, you're four hundred years old, why are you still making jokes like that?"

[Aren't you also hundreds of years old? It's just a little joke.]

In response, Elias shrugged - although he looked like a young boy, he had actually spent hundreds of years in the world, so such a small joke came naturally to him.

Rather, he had never been a very serious person, but for hundreds of years, he had been shouldering the responsibility of the world's survival, to the point that his humanity had been gradually worn away, leaving him only able to rack his brains for methods to pass on order.

But now, Su Zhou's return had dispelled most of the pressure... Although the future was still a long and arduous road, he could finally catch his breath, naturally giving him the leeway to relax.

Moreover... looking at his teacher's slightly shaking head and slightly annoyed expression, the trace of unease in Elias's heart gradually subsided.

--Su Zhou was also a normal person, who would be petty over such trivial jokes between men.

Ever since they had met again, in Elias's eyes, Su Zhou had always been so serious and proper, as if he had come to save the world from collapse, to the point that he had even suspected whether Su Zhou was some kind of crisis response measure, appearing whenever the world of Tartaros was in danger.

But now, it seemed that this was not the case.

This was quite gratifying.

"In short, the tree I'm talking about... is my companion divine tree."

Although Su Zhou possessed the Heart of Non-Thought, he could only sense that the other party's mood had eased a lot, due to Elias's deliberate concealment. He didn't really have any emotions about it, so after casually complaining, he showed Elias his personal space: "It's that tree. The Wisdom Tree."

The space cracked open at Su Zhou's will, and a small world floated before the Fire Lord's eyes.

Elias craned his neck to look and found that the other side was a small world with a complete cycle of the four elements, containing wind, sea, earth, and fire.

And in the center of the world, there was indeed a towering divine tree several tens of meters tall, its entire body cyan and white, radiating the light of wisdom. A bee-human girl was playing happily with this divine tree, surrounded by all kinds of creature sculptures made of grass, while a divine sword was slashing at the air in mid-air, cutting out fiery traces, looking rather bored.

But the World Tree Spear remained motionless.

[...I see!]

After carefully examining it, Elias was amazed, but also noticed some oddities in this world: [Is there no other life in this world?]

"There might be in the future, but for now, there are only some plants."

Su Zhou didn't really care. He had complete control over his personal space, so whether or not there was life in it was all the same to him.

He waved at the Wisdom Tree, greeting it, and it waved its branches in response, saying 'Hello~'. Su Zhou then closed his personal space, his expression somewhat serious: "The growth of the divine tree requires soil and water. In the past, I used Yao Pool water and Kunlun soil to cultivate it, but now, it's slightly insufficient, and I can't find any other better divine soil or divine water for the time being."

"That's why I wanted to see if the 'World Dust' that can maintain the survival of the world has any effects that suit my needs."

[I understand completely.]

Elias nodded slightly, withdrawing his gaze. He said with a smile: [Then now, allow me to take you to the outer reaches of the world.]

Along the coast of Twilight City, the relocation of the Sea People and pirates continued.

In the sky, two divine lights flashed and disappeared.

Su Zhou was actually very familiar with the passage to the outer reaches of the world.

When he and Elias returned to the center of the Holy Flame Continent, the vicinity of the Dawn Holy Mountain where the Central Sanctuary was located, and entered the deep precepts at the bottom of the Holy Mountain, he immediately understood.

The Dawn Holy Mountain was formed from the corpse of the Earth God of the previous era. His massive body, which once spanned several layers of labyrinths, absorbed endless earth elements at the beginning of the era, condensing into a divine mountain in the center of the world.

And in the deepest part of the mountain's bottom, was the place where the four elemental hearts and elemental souls were created at the beginning of the last era, the underground sea of lava.

Golden-red lava bubbled, and endless fire elements gathered within. In this huge, scorching ocean at the deepest layer of the world, surging magical power flowed continuously, even condensing into nearly materialized fire essence and elemental barriers.

Elias was the Lord of Fire, so he could naturally easily cross these obstacles. Under his guidance, Su Zhou passed through the sea of lava and arrived at the deepest part of the earth, where the 'Source Earth Bedrock' was located.

[Beyond the bedrock is the void outside the world.]

In the flowing sea of fire elements, Elias turned his head and said to Su Zhou cautiously, while the youth nodded slightly, solemnly replying: "I feel it... is this the end of the world?"

The feeling of passing through the bedrock was not special. To Su Zhou, it was just a very dense earth element barrier, which could be broken through with brute force with the power of a Hegemon, but under Elias's guidance, the process was unexpectedly easy, feeling like simply passing through a space-time gate.

Generally speaking, Elias would not cross the world in his true form. To reduce consumption, he mostly traveled with his divine soul -- but this time he was accompanying Su Zhou, so he didn't mind spending a little more effort.

Soon, the two arrived outside the world.

--Frozen Void - The Great Ashlands--

Covered by a layer of hazy gray light, the world bloomed with crystal-like radiance in the Frozen Void. It was located in a hazy mist that enveloped all things, even the void itself. The brilliant light was refracted and shifted layer by layer, presenting countless colors and radiances.

And two insignificant points of light slowly lit up from this crystal-like radiance, then broke through, appearing on its surface.

"Is this the void?"

When Su Zhou arrived outside the world, he didn't have any particularly unexpected feelings. If he had to make an analogy, it felt like being in a surging ocean current that was ten million times more turbulent than the sea. Endless power tried to carry him along with the world's rotation and movement.

Moreover, without the protection of the Celestial God Scale, he felt the void around his body slowly solidifying, slowly freezing. If he didn't release energy to resist, he would be completely sealed in the void like an insect frozen in amber.

"As expected of the Frozen Void... a 'sealed world' after the Great Seal."

Buzz -- A cyan-purple Celestial Soul emerged from the top of his head, transforming into a light sphere-like shield. Su Zhou stabilized himself in the void. He turned his head to look at Elias and found that the other party was also surrounded by layers of fire runes, used to maintain stability in the void.

[Normally, if it were a divine soul traveling, it wouldn't encounter so much resistance. Traveling through the void with a divine soul alone is many times more convenient than crossing in true form.]

Elias explained, as he had been traversing the void around the world of Tartaros for hundreds of years, so he was naturally extremely familiar with it: [The World Dust is difficult to collect here. Let's go to the other side.]

"As you say."

Su Zhou took a deep breath, transforming into a cyan-purple stream of light, following closely behind Elias.

And during the journey, he couldn't help but raise his head, gazing at the distant void.

He could see that even under the cover of the endless hazy World Dust, he could still see the brilliant light released by the infinite worlds in the Frozen Void, a radiance that was billions of times more dazzling than the stars.

But within this endless radiance, there were silver lines that seemed to pierce toward the infinite distance, spanning across all worlds and the infinite void, as if they pierced through the entire multiverse, even the Great Seal itself.

With just one glance, Su Zhou knew that these silver lines were the 'Harbingers'.

Or rather, the last legacy left by the Harbingers -- the main body of the 'Harbinger Space'!

And in the world of Tartaros, there was also a silver line coming from the infinite distance, connected to this world.

"...As expected, the Harbingers' hands have reached here."

Gazing at this line, Su Zhou followed its radiance, scanning the entire Reincarnation World, but as he looked, he couldn't help but be stunned: "Wait, isn't that..."

His gaze locked onto the surface of the Reincarnation World, some slightly dim areas like sunspots... In those areas, there was still a portion of gray mist spreading, absorbing the surrounding ash and dust, supplementing the world of Tartaros, maintaining the survival of order.

"Unexpectedly, the Gray Mist incarnations of the Silent Lord still exist, and haven't left?"

Watching those gray mists, although Su Zhou had long known that the Silent Lord had been watching this world, he was still somewhat astonished: "Elias said that when he and the Wind God left the world barrier and came to the void, they saw all the gray mist receding... Thinking about it now, his departure was merely to cultivate the ambition of these two gods."

At this moment, the youth could roughly understand the Silent Lord's thoughts.

The other party simply wanted the life within the Reincarnation World to progress little by little, and he would guide them little by little, until finally, the life within the world could completely grasp the birth and death cycle of their entire world.

Then, gradually transcend reincarnation.

Whether it was finding a method to completely maintain the world's survival, or leaving their homeland to find a completely new and stable new world, whether it was the Fire Lord who remained, or the Wind Lord who went to the distant lands, they were all methods of transcendence, all roads to escaping reincarnation.

And this cycle of reincarnation, this process of maintaining order, transcending the world, and exploring the endless distance, was a [Song of Wind and Fire] worth celebrating by all life.

At this time, Su Zhou was marveling at the Silent Lord's profound intentions -- of course, to put it simply, perhaps it could be summarized with the simple label of 'Silent Lord Mommy'. After all, this great existence that painstakingly cultivated its children, even if that love was a little twisted and unacceptable to ordinary humans, was probably the only one.

At the same time, Elias, who had already started moving, arrived at Su Zhou's side with a piece of World Dust.

[Teacher, look.]

Following the young god's thoughts, Su Zhou turned his head and saw Elias holding a mass of deep gray, cloud-like mist in his hands. The hazy energy radiance even caused layers of silver light spots to appear in the surrounding void. These light spots were interconnected like human nerves, transmitting some kind of mysterious information, transforming into scenery that was even more magnificent than star clusters.

Looking around, this kind of World Dust was endless, filling all the surrounding void. Even with Su Zhou's utmost eyesight, he could not see the end.

"It's a little more beautiful than I imagined."

With a sigh, Su Zhou stretched out his hand, and spiritual power transformed into an invisible giant net, wanting to capture a portion of the surrounding World Dust to observe it closely - but strangely, the Storm Shield Hand, which was originally enough to capture millions of tons of seawater and grab a small hill, seemed useless at this moment. It passed through the gathering place of World Dust, but did not scoop up a single speck of dust.

[Teacher, World Dust cannot be captured with magic power.]

Watching this scene, Elias chuckled, showing Su Zhou his technique: [World Dust can only be captured with the soul - which is why I only traveled with my divine soul in the past, because bringing my true form would not be of much benefit.]

The so-called magic power was actually another name for spiritual power. Perhaps they had different subtle distinctions in different worlds, but in essence, they were the same thing.

Su Zhou looked intently and noticed that what Elias was covering the World Dust with was indeed not magic power, but a pure network of soul stars.

Immediately, he marveled, then asked his external search engine in his soul space.

"Yala Yala, do you know what's going on here?"

The scarlet snake spirit was currently at the very top of the Wisdom Tree's spirit, using its tail to pat the fruits hanging on it, which were transformed from the souls of the Heavenly Demons. After hearing Su Zhou's words, it said lazily: "It's very simple. World Dust is the pure essence remaining after the destruction of a world. It is itself a higher-level essence that transcends all energies such as spiritual power and magic power. Using spiritual power to salvage it is like scooping water with water, to no avail."

"But the soul itself is a condensed and stable form of spiritual power. Although it is also water, its nature is more like ice. Not only can it scoop up water, but it can also absorb a certain amount of World Dust with its own structure, temporarily solidifying them."

Speaking of this, it turned its head, using Su Zhou's peripheral vision to look at Elias: "Your student, who is twenty times your age, has had his divine soul in contact with World Dust for many years, so he can travel freely in the void. In this regard, your soul cultivation is far inferior to his."

Saying this, Yala seemed to be lost in some kind of memory. It couldn't help but mutter in a low voice: "The soul captures energy in the void and returns it to the world after its demise. The world nurtures life, and life relies on gradually increasing energy levels to nurture the soul, gradually making the world's spirituality and energy thicker and thicker, until finally, it becomes a true extraordinary world."

"And if the world perishes and is destroyed, it will transform into more World Dust and scatter in the void, allowing other worlds to capture and absorb it, nurture more souls, and create a virtuous cycle... This is the path to the world's advancement, the path to reincarnation."

With a long sigh, Yala stopped speaking, and Su Zhou carefully memorized all this information.

"The relationship between the soul and the world is actually like this? The connection between the world and life is actually so close..."

Thinking in his heart, Su Zhou temporarily suppressed this doubt, then adjusted his soul, transforming it into a giant net, capturing the World Dust in the distance.

And this time, just as Elias said, it was much simpler than using spiritual power - although some hazy gray mist still slipped through the net, most of the World Dust was captured by Su Zhou.

[That's right!]

Elias nodded with a smile, not at all surprised that Su Zhou learned it so quickly. After all, this matter was very simple once it was explained: [I don't know how much World Dust you need, teacher, but just capture it yourself.]

[My true form represents the fire element incarnation of the world of Tartaros. Leaving the world for too long may cause a 'fire element imbalance', so I'll go back first, then travel with my divine soul.]

"No problem."

Su Zhou naturally would not refuse, and he also understood the constraints of the elemental spirits on the gods... Their bodies had become human pillars to maintain the survival of the world, and they could not leave the world too far. If they wanted to travel far, they could only travel with their souls.

Elias's golden-red light disappeared into the outer shell of the world, and Su Zhou tried to materialize the purely essential World Dust after capturing a large amount of it, but found that unless he split off a part of his soul, it would be difficult to turn it into something like the Xirang divine soil he imagined.

"Could it be that I have to use my own soul, or evil souls, as a culture medium? That's not impossible... it's just a bit of a waste."

Troubled by this, Su Zhou quickly remembered the 'burned-out embers' that had been left behind in his soul after being burned by karma fire.

The burned-out embers were the soul ash left behind after the evil souls had been completely burned by karma fire. Su Zhou hadn't found out its effects yet, but in general, it presented a pure soul trait... If only the soul could store and stabilize the essence of World Dust, then the burned-out embers should also be able to.

Thinking of this, Su Zhou took out the burned-out embers from his soul space.

In the dense black mist, the cold light of black and white karma fire flickered, swaying in the void like high-temperature smoke and dust spewing out of factory chimneys.

This thing, like burned-out charcoal, was the burned-out ember.

Su Zhou tried to fuse it with the World Dust, and the result was encouraging.

The burned-out ember did indeed exert the effect of a soul. It completely absorbed a portion of the World Dust. The two groups of smoke and dust fused with each other, and finally, in Su Zhou's hands, transformed into a pile of pitch-black powder... This powder had no measurable weight, but it had a texture similar to that of matter. It was a pure spiritual existence, it was the materialized World Dust!

And the materialized World Dust was carefully picked up by Su Zhou, then placed in his mouth, and tasted carefully... Not a real eating, but using his soul to sense the characteristics of this material.

As a result, the taste immediately brightened his eyes: "Very good!"

"Although it's a bit bitter, it's very 'fragrant', very delicious... It's almost... almost like black chocolate powder. Although the taste has a bitter flavor, it still has a rich aroma!"

Because a portion of the materialized World Dust was composed of burned-out evil souls, Su Zhou immediately felt a force feedback after swallowing these powders, replenishing a large amount of his soul power - although he didn't need it now, if his soul was severely damaged in the future, then he could completely use some stored World Dust to quickly repair his injuries!

At this time, there was no need to hesitate. Su Zhou took out all of his burned-out embers, as well as some of the Heavenly Demon evil souls of the awakening, transcendent, and lord ranks that he had saved before because they were too weak and even the Wisdom Tree had no interest in them, and all of them were used to fuse with the surrounding World Dust.

But when he was halfway through, he suddenly frowned: "Wait, soul, to put it bluntly, is not some strange material. I have a reserve of evil souls, so I don't need to use my own soul to store them, but if there is an evil powerhouse who notices the magical effect of World Dust, how could he not harvest the souls of all living beings to capture World Dust as a reserve?"

At this time, all kinds of legends about the soul in mythology appeared in Su Zhou's mind. Among them, the point that the soul was the currency of transactions between gods and demons always confused Su Zhou in the past - what virtues and abilities did human souls possess that could gain the favor of gods and demons? Especially after he himself became transcendent, knowing that the soul was just an extra thinking organ of intelligent life, this confusion grew even stronger.

But now, after realizing the wonderful relationship between the soul and the world, the soul and the World Dust, Su Zhou suddenly realized... Perhaps in this multiverse, for those who can travel in the void, the soul might indeed be some kind of currency.

For a time, Su Zhou's heart suddenly became heavy, but soon, he shook his head: "Oh well, it's just speculation."

"After I really run into this kind of existence in the future... then I'll think about how to kill them."

Temporarily putting these thoughts aside, Su Zhou opened his personal space and directly sprinkled the materialized World Dust next to the soil around the Wisdom Tree.

Immediately, the pitch-black dust flew down, and silver light spots still flowed inside. They transformed into crystal-clear lines, falling like rain, and at the moment when these silver lights and black dust came into contact with the earth, they immediately collided with a group of bright light mist, enveloping the surprised Wisdom Tree and Sarah.

"What, what is this?" The Wind People girl next to her was still a little confused. She waved her arms, but found that she couldn't fan away these smoke and dust. Her hands would even pass through them, as if these light mist didn't really exist.

But in the next moment, accompanied by a sudden surge of joyful soul fluctuations, echoing in the personal space, Sarah realized that a strange suction had appeared, and began to absorb all the light mist that she couldn't touch at all, pulling it all backward.

Turning her head, the bee-human girl was surprised to find that the cyan-white divine tree was now emitting a pure white, holy radiance, and all the silver light, mist, and black dust were absorbed by its roots and branches, and emitting pure joyful fluctuations.

Buzz -- It could be seen that the fire sword angels surrounding the branches of the divine tree were also beginning to transform. One by one, they flew in the air, drawing mysterious and profound holy runes, and then all returned to the branches of the Wisdom Tree, beginning to cocoon and sleep.

And the light on the Wisdom Tree's trunk was even more dazzling, almost like the sun. The benefits of World Dust to it seemed to exceed imagination, causing the divine tree to make an incomparably joyful sound.

"Zhou... Zhou Zhou good!"

Hearing this, Su Zhou, who had been smiling and watching this scene with joy, suddenly darkened his face. He waved his big hand and scolded: "What Zhou Zhou!"

"Is Zhou Zhou something you can call?! Thinking about it carefully, I'm your dad!"

Although it sounded like simple verbal abuse, in a sense, it was not a lie - but at this time, the Wisdom Tree no longer had the energy to care about these things. The divine tree, which was originally in its infancy, once again received high-level fertilizer that it shouldn't have at this time, and was once again immersed in accelerated growth, falling into a short period of sleep.

"Thank, thank you~ Ah, I'm so, amazing!"

Muttering such soul fluctuations, the divine tree's consciousness fell into joyful slumber.

The growth of the divine tree will eventually transcend the world, reach the void, and become a 'Void Divine Tree' that transcends the world... And at that time, the nourishment that the divine tree extracts and uses for self-sublimation is the world itself, and the World Dust scattered in the void.

Su Zhou's guess was not wrong. World Dust was indeed a better material for the divine tree than any divine soil, but... he didn't expect that this was like giving a child medicinal wine. Because it was too nourishing, it instead put the Wisdom Tree to sleep in an instant.

"Oh dear, this, this..."

For a time, Sarah, who was watching all of this, couldn't help but be stunned. She never expected that the Wisdom Tree, which had been playing well with her, would just fall asleep like this.

But before she could react, Su Zhou, the Lord of Judgment's voice, sounded in her ears.

"Sarah, you play very well with the Wisdom Tree, and the Wisdom Tree seems to like you very much... What do you think of this place?"

Hearing this, the Wind People girl nodded blankly: "Tree, Tree Tree is indeed very, very good. I'm very happy here, I'm almost forgetting my original world..."

"Then, would you be willing to stay here and take care of the World Tree?"

At this time, Su Zhou really didn't want to abduct the little girl... As an old father, he was really racking his brains to find a companion for his child.

Reacting to this, Sarah's eyes lit up, and she immediately wanted to agree - but soon, she frowned, as if she had something to say.

Su Zhou understood what she was thinking, and he smiled and said before Sarah could speak: "You want to know how your parents are doing now? It's a very simple wish, I heard it."

"Don't worry, I'll go help you find them."

After instructing Sarah to help take care of the Wisdom Tree's condition, Su Zhou's will returned to the void once again.

He recalled the joyful soul fluctuations of the Wisdom Tree and couldn't help but shake his head with a smile.

"I have a tree, and under my influence, the current Judgment Dragon also has a Source Water Divine Tree... Thinking about it carefully, the legends of the Zhutian Torch Dragons are quite consistent."

Thinking like this, he thought of his good friend on Earth and showed a thoughtful expression: "Speaking of which, Qiming is also walking the path of the divine tree."

Recalling the surprise that Shao Qiming gave him before leaving Earth, the 'Torchlight Group', Su Zhou couldn't help but nod slightly: "This time, I'll bring him a gift too."