Chapter 139: I’m So Jealous (2)
Chapter 139: I’m So Jealous (2)
The World Tree is dying.
For the elves, this was a matter of life and death.
“Wait a moment. So, the reason you didn’t use spirit magic during the tournament was also because of the World Tree’s condition?”
At Patrick’s question, Elione nodded.
“Yes. The World Tree serves as the bridge between the spirit realm and us elves. Every time we utilize spirits, it places a burden on the World Tree.”
“So that’s why you couldn’t give it your all.”
“To be honest, I didn’t even want to participate in a tournament like this. I only entered to maintain amicable relations and exchange with humans.”
“I see. Then, would the results have been different if you had used spirit magic?”
A faint smile touched Elione’s lips at Patrick’s words.
“Of course.”
It was a short answer, but one filled with absolute certainty.
Even if Antorius was a leading figure of the Holy Kingdom’s next generation, if she was a true Elven Knight, comparing the two would be an insult to her.
Patrick nodded and spoke.
“I understand the situation. But why are you trying to take me with you? I don’t know the first thing about how to save a World Tree.”
“That was not my choice.”
Elione reached into her robes and pulled out a branch of the World Tree.
“When Mother saw you fighting in the finals, she conveyed her will through this branch. She told me to bring you.”
“And the reason?”
“I do not know that either. I simply assume Mother has her reasons.”
Patrick frowned at her words.
“Blindly following the ‘will of God’ and forcing it on others is the fourteenth thing I hate most in this world.”
“You certainly have a lot of dislikes.”
“I’m a delicate man, you see.”
Patrick replied grumpily.
Even in his past life, his stomach would turn whenever those shaven-headed monks would claim everything was the ‘will of Buddha’ and chant Amitabha as if there were no other choice.
To put it bluntly, the World Tree might be a god and a Mother Tree to the elves, but to Patrick, it was just an old piece of wood.
‘No, wait. It is a tree overflowing with Natural Qi. I wonder if I could brew it into a spiritual medicine?’
If Elione had known what he was thinking, she would have been foaming at the mouth in a rage. But then, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind.
‘Wait, Natural Qi?’
He had been momentarily distracted by the grand name ‘World Tree,’ but at its core, it was a living organism.
There are many reasons why a living thing might die, but if a perfectly fine tree is withering away, it means its very life force is vanishing. If that’s the case…
“Can I take a look at that branch for a moment?”
When Patrick asked for the branch, Elione hesitated.
To her, this branch of the World Tree was more precious than her own life.
Asking to borrow it was beyond rude; it was a sacrilege.
Under normal circumstances, she would have been justified in drawing her sword and attacking him on the spot. However…
‘He might be our only hope.’
Deciding that the World Tree’s will took priority, she squeezed her eyes shut and held out the branch with trembling hands.
“Please… be careful with it.”
‘She’s being awfully stingy over a little wooden stick.’
Patrick took the branch from Elione and examined it.
As expected, he could tell the moment he touched it.
This was an artifact containing the purest Natural Qi in the world.
And he realized one more thing.
‘It’s dying.’
It was hard to notice because of the presence of the clear, refined Natural Qi, but regardless of that, the branch was parched, and its life force was flickering out.
It felt like holding a patient who had become as frail as they could possibly be.
‘Let’s see…’
Patrick first tried to carefully infuse his own Ki into the branch.
However, the branch rejected his Ki, pushing it away.
It was as if it were saying such turbid energy didn’t suit it.
“You’re on your deathbed, yet your tastes are damnably picky.”
“Pardon?”
“No, it’s nothing.”
Patrick pouted as he thought.
Having practiced cultivation since before he could even walk, Patrick’s Ki was exceptionally pure for a human.
But he was still human.
He ate meat full of fire energy and drank alcohol.
In fact, considering how much booze he shoved down his throat, it was shameless of him to expect his Ki to be perfectly clean.
‘How was I supposed to know? It’s not like I’m a monk or a Taoist hack.’
Unlike the martial arts of Buddhist or Taoist sects that prioritized the purity of internal energy, the martial arts of the Twin Dragon Sect didn’t obsess over it.
He hadn’t cared until now, but in this situation, he felt the lack.
Where was he supposed to find clear, pristine Ki?
There were no monks or Taoists in this world. The Divine Power of the Holy Knights was different from Natural Qi.
“It would be great if those shaven-headed monks were around. Seriously, you can never find dog dung when you actually need it for medicine. Useless, the lot of them…”
The Shaolin Temple, the pillar of the Martial World, was being treated like dog dung in this other world.
“Ah, wait!”
If human Ki didn’t fit, what about the Ki of another race?
Patrick turned to Elione, who was standing beside him, fidgeting anxiously after handing over the branch.
“I have something to ask.”
“What is it?”
“Is your Ki… clean?”
“…Excuse me?”
It was a question she had never received in all her years as an elf.
As the saying goes, seeing once is better than hearing a hundred times.
Similarly, doing it once is better than seeing it a hundred times. Therefore…
“Let’s do it once.”
“…….”
Elione placed her hand on her dagger and spoke with a look of utter contempt.
“As expected of a human…”
“No, no, not that!”
He had been too hasty with his words.
Patrick hurriedly corrected himself.
“I’ll explain in detail. Just listen.”
“…….”
Under Elione’s suspicious gaze, Patrick explained his plan.
First, he would connect his Ki meridians with hers so he could control her Ki.
Then, he would extract the pure Primordial Energy of an elf and inject it into the World Tree’s branch.
Then, even this pickily-tasted branch might accept the energy and have a chance to recover its life force.
He explained this very kindly.
There weren’t many instances where Patrick was this kind and detailed in his explanations.
To which Elione replied…
“Is this what humans call a ‘snake oil salesman’?”
“…….”
Patrick felt like he was going to cry.
To think the great Radiant Dragon Hero would be treated like this.
If she weren’t a peerless beauty, he would have just…
“Let’s just try it. If it doesn’t work, you can give up then, can’t you?”
“…….”
“Or do you have another way?”
At Patrick’s words, Elione let out a sigh.
“How do we do this?”
* * *
A short while later.
Elione sat cross-legged, just as Patrick had instructed.
She held the World Tree’s branch in her hands, which were clasped as if in prayer, and Patrick sat behind her, placing his hands on her back.
He had never injected Ki into a tree branch before, but he figured this was the best way.
‘Alright. Shall we?’
This was a first for Patrick as well.
Steeling his resolve, Patrick began the True Qi Guidance without hesitation.
The first step was to connect his Ki with Elione’s.
And Patrick was more than a little surprised.
‘Ho, an Elven Knight indeed.’
Inside Elione’s body was a massive amount of Primordial Energy.
That energy was far clearer and purer than any human’s.
For a moment, Patrick felt like he understood how a Demon Warrior who practiced the Soul Absorption Demon Art felt.
How much power would it grant if one could absorb such clear and pure energy?
If those demons were given an elf, they would probably go mad for it.
This was no different from a living, top-tier spiritual medicine.
However, Patrick carefully moved that energy, guiding it not toward himself, but toward the branch of the World Tree.
“Mmm…”
Elione let out a small groan.
The sensation of someone else moving the energy inside her body was foreign to her.
However, she didn’t open her mouth or resist the flow of energy, just as Patrick had warned her beforehand.
He carefully pushed her clear energy into the branch. And then…
‘Good. It’s working.’
Like pouring water onto a parched desert, Elione’s Primordial Energy naturally seeped into the branch.
As the Ki entered, the branch began to show more vitality than before.
‘It’s a success.’
Patrick mentally pumped his fist.
As expected, using the clean Ki of an elf could restore the World Tree’s life force.
Now that this was confirmed, all he had to do was negotiate with the elves…
“Mmm…”
That was when something Patrick hadn’t anticipated happened.
Patrick had intended to withdraw his Ki after the successful experiment, but the World Tree refused.
It began to pull Elione’s Primordial Energy in indiscriminately.
“Ugh…!”
Elione groaned from the pain of having her Ki drained, and Patrick’s expression turned grim.
‘This is unexpected.’
Should he expect no less from a divinity?
He hadn’t realized that a mere tree branch could control Ki as if it had a will of its own.
The branch, in its severely weakened state, was greedily sucking in energy like a man dying of thirst pressing his lips to a water bottle.
If it kept draining her like this, Elione would wither away and die like a mummy.
‘You’re just a piece of kindling good for roasting meat, and you want to try me?’
Patrick grit his teeth and entered a tug-of-war of Ki.
With Elione’s Primordial Energy caught in the middle, Patrick and the World Tree’s branch clashed.
And Patrick very easily shook off the World Tree’s control and reclaimed Elione’s energy.
The World Tree tried desperately to suck the Ki back in, but Patrick’s control was too perfect.
‘Who do you think you’re messing with? I’m the man who won a True Qi duel against a Demon Warrior who had mastered the Soul-Sucking Demon Art to its peak.’
Patrick, who delicately managed two dantians, possessed superior control over Ki.
He had never lost such a confrontation, even in his past life.
He just needed to recover the energy and return Elione’s Primordial Energy to its place. However…
Woooooong.
The branch of the World Tree cried out.
It emitted a sorrowful emotion so intense that even Patrick, who wasn’t an elf, could feel it.
The will conveyed by that emotion was only one thing.
[I want to live.]
The desire for life.
That desire, which every living being ought to have, was vividly transmitted.
“…….”
Do you want to live?
Do you wish to exist longer?
The sacred being called Mother by the elves was now begging for life.
‘Right. That’s only natural.’
Patrick didn’t find this pathetic.
It is natural for a living being to crave life.
Life is completed by death.
But before that final period is placed, it is the duty and natural order of a living thing to crave life with all its might.
‘World Tree, do you wish to live?’
Woooooong.
Will responded to will.
And Patrick spoke with a gentle smile.
‘Then first, empty yourself. To fill something, one must first make it empty.’
Did it understand Patrick’s intent?
The World Tree actually began to push its own energy into Elione.
As it did, the branch withered further, and the thread-like life force it had been clinging to began to fade.
“Ah… No… cough…”
Elione, who tried to speak at the change in the branch, shut her mouth again.
“That’s dangerous…”
Patrick’s hands moved swiftly, striking her pressure points.
After sealing her so she couldn’t move, he began to control the energy in earnest.
The World Tree’s energy flowed through Elione and into him. The energy she couldn’t contain, Patrick absorbed and stored in his own dantian.
Emptying and emptying again, until finally, the moment the World Tree’s Natural Qi was completely exhausted…
“Now, let’s fill it.”
Twin Dragon Primordial Chaos Heart Method.
The characteristic of this bizarre mental method, which involved destroying one dantian to create two, was destruction and reconstruction.
Destroying a dantian and rebuilding it was something an ordinary martial artist wouldn’t even dream of.
But Patrick had done that crazy thing not once, but twice.
So he knew.
This moment, when all energy was emptied and everything was hollow, was the only moment the World Tree’s Natural Qi could be reconstructed.
Woooooooooooong.
His two dantians activated fiercely, sucking in the Ki of Great Nature indiscriminately.
However, the intake wasn’t through Patrick’s breath, but through the World Tree’s branch, which was connected to his meridians.
As a result, a massive amount of Great Nature’s mana poured into the branch, and the World Tree converted it into pure Natural Qi and absorbed it.
‘Ah… Ahhh…’
Elione trembled.
She was feeling it now.
She felt what Patrick and the World Tree, both connected to her, were doing.
She was experiencing this miraculous moment firsthand.
The branch of the World Tree rejoiced in ecstasy.
The Ki of nature seeped into the withered branch.
The result was astounding.
As if welcoming spring after a long, long winter, life force was beginning to stir.
And soon, the overflowing life force brought a change to the branch.
A soft vitality swirled around the dry wood, and leaf buds began to sprout between the twigs.
[Ah… I am alive now.]
The branch of the World Tree felt the joy of life.