Chapter 339: Extracting Memories and the Path into the White Bone Forest

Amidst the echoing pleas and begging throughout the Auction Island hall, Kaelen, Sane, and Finnick didn’t even bother to cast a single glance at the nobles groveling in the audience area.

The three of them simultaneously stepped down from the roof of the iron cage, walking straight toward Grand Apothecary Malakor, who was pinned tightly to the black stone floor of the stage by the Huy?t M?c spear.

At this moment, Malakor was suffering the backlash from the blood sacrifice array being cut off halfway by Kaelen, plus his right arm being shattered, so his breathing was extremely weak, and black blood continuously seeped from the seven orifices of his withered face. Yet, when he saw Finnick revert to human form and release up to three-tenths of the God of Life’s Origin Divine power, Malakor’s hollow eyes still glinted with mad malice:

"Cough, cough... So what if you’ve recovered a little strength? You’re too late! Your World Tree in the White Bone Forest has been sucked dry by my Master’s Broodmother for the past hundred years; right now, it’s nothing but an empty shell waiting for the day it completely rots away! You will never, ever be able to unblock the link of Life on this continent!"

With that, the black energy in Malakor’s eye sockets suddenly swelled—the remnant soul fragment of the God of Decay hidden in his brain intended to self-destruct right there to destroy all memories and clues regarding the White Bone Forest!

"Trying to self-destruct in front of me? Did you ask my hand for permission?"

Sane sneered, his tall figure appearing right beside Malakor as fast as a phantom. His right hand, covered in dense streams of Purple Lightning, clamped straight down onto Malakor’s bony crown, his five fingers locking down like five iron nails onto the black energy preparing to detonate inside his skull!

"Aaaaaah—!"

Malakor shrieked in agony as Sane’s sharp streams of Purple Lightning violently pierced through his mental defenses, directly performing a soul-search right on the spot! Sane half-closed his deep purple eyes, taking exactly ten breaths to flip cleanly through the deepest memories in the head of this high-ranking lackey, from a hundred years ago up to this very day.

When the final memory picture appeared clearly, Sane’s sword-like brows immediately knitted tightly together.

Pop!

Sane coldly tightened his five fingers slightly. Malakor’s skull, along with the foul remnant soul fragment of the God of Decay inside, was instantly crushed and incinerated into a pinch of ash by the Purple Lightning fire, completely ending the sinful life of the one who had caused a century of tragedy for the Elves.

Sane lightly brushed off his hand, leaving not a speck of dust, and turned to look at Kaelen and Finnick with a noticeably much more serious expression:

"Baby, Finnick, we must set out for the White Bone Forest immediately, as soon as possible. There is a very disturbing matter in the memories of this piece of trash."

"What is it? Is there a trap under the roots of the World Tree?" Kaelen asked at once.

"It’s not just an ordinary trap." Sane recounted in a low voice what he had just seen in Malakor’s head: "The parasitic flesh lump clinging to the taproot of the World Tree in the center of the White Bone Forest is actually a Demigod-tier Broodmother of Decay, nurtured for the past century by the God of Decay’s true body detaching a portion of his own flesh and blood. Its purpose is not solely to suck the World Tree dry to lock Finnick’s link of Life."

Finnick knitted his brows tightly: "Then what else does it want to do?"

"It is using the last remaining sap of the World Tree combined with the resentment of the entire forest to gestate something called the Void Heart right inside the belly of that Broodmother!"

Sane’s voice was as freezing as frost: "According to Malakor’s memory, because the God of Decay’s true body is blocked outside by the rules of the Heavenly Dao, he cannot descend upon the Great World himself without collapsing the space. Therefore, he has spent a hundred years turning the root of the World Tree into a giant womb! As long as the full moon night of this month arrives—which is exactly nine days from now—when that Void Heart is completed, an avatar carrying five-tenths of the strength of the God of Decay’s true body will borrow the exact tree body of the World Tree as a physical vessel to descend upon the continent!"

Hearing that the God of Decay intended to seize the body of the World Tree to forge a God-tier avatar to descend in nine days, both Kaelen and Finnick were severely shaken! The World Tree’s taproot connected to the entire water network and dragon veins of the Great World.

Once the God of Decay’s avatar successfully seized the World Tree’s body, he would use that root system to pump the toxin of decay straight across the continent in a single day, turning the entire Great World into a dead land just like the Abyss of Death of the past!

"That bastard!" Finnick gritted his teeth, the jade-green Divine power around him boiling fiercely: "Daring to target my World Tree... Nine days from now, right? We’re going right now to tear that Broodmother to pieces!"

However, Finnick had only taken two steps forward when his tall figure suddenly faltered for a beat. The green halo around him flickered a few times, and then, with a "poof", the tall, devastatingly handsome young man who had just struck fear into the entire hall shrank back down into the little golden leopard cub with black spots, sitting neatly on the stone floor!

The only difference was that this time, the little leopard cub’s fur was much sleeker and fuller of divine grace than before, its body size was also slightly larger, and right in the middle of its forehead appeared a sparkling, golden, ancient leaf-shaped mark.

The nobles sneaking peeks from the audience area: "..."

Finnick looked down at his two stubby front paws that had just returned, his leopard face cold and expressionless, but his round ears had drooped slightly in embarrassment:

"The link of Life at the White Bone Forest is still having its source locked by that Broodmother, so even though I broke through three-tenths of the seal thanks to my people’s faith, the world’s rules only allow me to maintain the form of an adult True God during combat. Normally, if I want to conserve Divine power to prepare for the big battle at the White Bone Forest... I still have to keep this form."

Kaelen, who had been tense over the news of the Void Heart, seeing his son aggressively demanding to go tear the enemy apart suddenly turn back into a tiny furball, couldn’t help but press his lips tightly together to keep from laughing out loud in front of so many people. He walked over, naturally bending down to pick the little leopard cub up and place him back onto his familiar shoulder, patting the small head with the golden leaf mark lightly:

"It’s okay, conserving strength until we reach the White Bone Forest is the most important thing. When we fight, you can just turn back into an adult; while we’re traveling, just let Papa carry you."

Finnick had no choice but to bitterly accept his fate as "Papa’s shoulder pet" for a few more days without daring to argue a single word.

Before leaving Auction Island to head toward the White Bone Forest in the Northwest, Kaelen turned around, definitively resolving the situation of Silver Port and the alliance of the Seven Autonomous Cities that very night.

Under the watchful eyes of over two thousand guests from all countries, Kaelen pointed up at the presiding balcony where Gideon, Marcos, and the ten merchants, now crippled old men, were lying gasping for breath:

"The Council of Twelve Merchants of Silver Port, colluding with evil gods and using human blood to refine poison that killed countless living beings, is officially deposed from this moment on! All properties, ports, merchant fleets, and treasuries of the Twelve Merchants across all Seven Autonomous Cities are confiscated to compensate the Elves and the harmed slaves; as for these twelve men, they will be locked in the very iron cages on Auction Island for the people across the East Coast to see with their own eyes the consequences of drinking the immortality elixir!"

Next, Kaelen turned to look at the over two thousand royalty, princes, and grand merchants prostrating themselves in the audience area:

"As for all of you down there, especially the four hundred of you whose lives we just saved from the parasitic worms in your bellies, if you want to keep the lives you just snatched back, you must complete two tasks for me within three days."

Kaelen’s voice resounded throughout the palace like spring thunder:

"First, anyone who has ever spent money buying the Immortality Elixir or trading slaves in Silver Port must voluntarily declare and hand over double that amount to the reconstruction fund for Sir Godfrey to audit.

Second, all the princes, envoys of the three Northern kingdoms, and lords present here today must immediately sign the Contract of Life under the witness of the Gods: From now on, across all your territories, hunting Elves and slave trading in any form is absolutely forbidden!

Anyone who dares to violate half a word of the contract, even if they hide at the ends of the earth, will be blasted to pieces by the Purple Lightning of the God of War!"

The princes and grand nobles below, having just experienced the horror of parasitic worms gnawing at their internal organs, now hearing that they only needed to pay money and sign a contract banning slave trading to keep their lives, rejoiced like drowning men finding a log, simultaneously kowtowing and shouting loudly:

"We swear before the Gods to immediately sign the contract and pay the compensation in full! We absolutely dare not reoffend!"

Kaelen nodded in satisfaction, handing over all the tasks of collecting the money, signing the contracts, and taking over the military defense lines of Silver Port to Sea King Godfrey along with the fifty Crimson tribe warriors and the three hundred newly rescued Dwarven and Beastman former slaves. At the same time, he also used the communication ring to inform Mayor Elric and Mr. Hollis in the city of Lyra to immediately send a fleet carrying administrative staff, accountants, and teachers over to take over the Seven Autonomous Cities of the East Coast!

As for the nearly two thousand newly rescued Elven clan members, after being settled in to rest at the hillside mansion area of Silver Port, Grand Elder Sylphie, along with the thirty strongest Elven warriors and the little girl Ivy, adamantly requested to follow Kaelen, Sane, and Finnick to act as guides leading the way into the White Bone Forest.

"My Lord, the White Bone Forest is currently covered year-round by the highly toxic mist of the Broodmother, and the terrain inside features ancient arrays left by our Elven royal family from ten thousand years ago." Grand Elder Sylphie, her eyes now clear, knelt on one knee before the three of them, her voice resolute: "Only I and the royal bloodline know the secret path leading straight to the roots of the World Tree the fastest. Please allow us to follow and serve You!"

Kaelen and Sane looked at each other; seeing that the nine days until the full moon night left little time, they nodded in agreement.

Early the next morning, as the sun had just risen above the Eastern sea, shining upon the docks of Silver Port—now completely under new ownership—a compact group, yet carrying enough power to overturn heaven and earth, departed through the Northwest city gate, riding the wind and speeding toward the most notorious dead land in the Great World—the White Bone Forest!