On the gray roof above, there were countless stone spikes, from which light green liquid was dripping down, turning into small pools on the ground.
On the endless plain below the roof, a tall tree was moving slowly on the ground. The roots were the tree's feet, and it was moving without any noise for some reason. The area under the tree looked like a swamp. All the soil and stones that touched the roots were turned into muddy liquid.
The tree was more than 30 meters tall and its trunk was white. It almost looked like a statue made of white stone. There was also a humongous human face on the trunk of the tree, which had a disturbed, if not frightened, expression on it.
Angele was sitting on a branch of the tree with a blank expression on his face. He was releasing intense red light through his body, and it looked like there were red fish swimming in the red light.
The white tree stopped moving and said, "Sir, you can find the Mother Tree in the front… This is all I can do for you…
"The Mother Tree's roots are in the front; if I touch her roots, I'll be turned into her life energy…"
Angele jumped off the branch and landed on the ground without any problem. The roof was getting lower and lower. His head was around 100 meters away from the roof.
He checked the area ahead and found a deep dark fissure on the ground which blocked his path.
There was sticky dark-green liquid spurting out of the fissure like a fountain. The sticky liquid landed on the ground and painted everything green. Some of the green liquid solidified and formed a substance that looked like tinted glass.
*WOO*
He inhaled deeply and smelled something sour.
"Alright, come down."
Mogo jumped off the white tree and suggested politely, "Let me clear the path for you, Master."
"Don't worry about it." Angele pursed his lips into a sneer. "We're right in front of the Mother Tree; I can confront her alone. You can just stay here."
Angele already started advancing before Mogo responded. It took him several minutes to reach the edge of the fissure.
*BOOM*
A strange vibrating noise came from the fissure and the whole place started transforming. The fissure melted and turned into a large green crystal as a humongous hand appeared in the darkness.
The hand was around ten meters wide; it grabbed the other side of the fissure, turning into a bridge.
Angele smiled and stepped on the green hand. He walked to the center of the hand's palm and stopped moving.
On the other side of the fissure was an endless green plain, but it seemed like Angele was not going to advance.
Raising his hand, he looked at the roof.
*BOOM*
With a loud noise, the green hand started lifting Angele up. When he was about to hit the roof, a green hole appeared, just big enough to let Angele through.
Angele applied some force to his feet and charged into the hole.
*Blop*
It felt like jumping into a pool full of sticky glowing green liquid.
Angele's body was surrounded by a red light barrier, which kept the green liquid away from him. He looked like a red ball that was moving upward.
"I know why you're here…" A neutral voice echoed in front of Angele.
"Huh?" Angele glanced around but did not see anyone around.
"Are you the Mother Tree? And you said you know my purpose? Tell me about it."
"Sorry, you're currently in my vein. My body is too big for you and I can't shrink myself. In other words, the green liquid around you is my blood. I think you're here for the mark on your back, right?" Mother Tree sounded emotionless. "I could feel the evil power from the mark when you entered my vein."
"I heard that you're the most knowledgeable being here. Do you have a solution to my problem?" Angele went straight to the point.
Mother Tree remained silent for a while.
"Do you know why I didn't want you to enter the underground world? I thought you were going to die and didn't want to fight against another ancestor. However—"
"There are many unexpectable things here but I don't want to waste my time. You just need to tell me if you can solve my problem," Angele interrupted.
"First, I need to figure our whose mark it is before I can do anything…" Mother Tree hesitated for a second and continued, "Based on the energy wave the mark is releasing… It's a special mark from Sha, the Lord of the Eternal Night.
"Lord of the Eternal Night? Mark of Sha? Is there anything you can do?" Angele's brow furrowed. He had no idea what the tree was talking about. "Also, can you tell me about this lord?"
"Lord of the Eternal Night is an ancestor from the ancient times, living around the wizard world. She created the Night Realm; her power came from the darkness. She was invited by the strong wizards of the wizard world and helped them fight the Light Ancestor. She was severely injured after the battle and disappeared with the Night Realm. No one could communicate with the Night Realm after that; I think the realm is already destroyed. Mark of Sha is not a punishment. It's like a realm guardian's mark. With the mark on your body, you can only move freely in the Night Realm. When you're in other realms, you'll lose the ability to fly or teleport as time passes."
"Interesting… So, the Lord of the Eternal Night wanted me to become a realm guardian?" Angele concluded, though he was not sure if Mother Tree was telling the truth. "What can I do to remove the mark?"
"It's simple. You need another ancestor to transfer the mark for you. Also, you can go to Guardian Cinderella. She's familiar with ancestors' marks and can handle most of them. Also, I can temporarily help you with your movement."
"Sure, what do you want as a payment?"
"I found something I need from your storage device. If you can give that to me, I'll be grateful."
Angele nodded and untied the mirror from his belt. He threw the mirror into the air.
The mirror rotated in the air and poured a lot of random things out.
"Go find the item you need. Here are the items that I can give to you as a payment." Angele dumped all the random items he collected over the years; he only kept the rare bones and weapons.
Mother Tree stopped talking. She coated the items with some special green liquid, which turned into a bubble. Several minutes later, Mother Tree found something that made her feel excited. It seemed like she got what she needed.
Angele was not concerned at all. He did not need any of these items. There might be a hidden treasure among them, but he did not care.
The green bubble returned to Angele with a lot of random items inside. Angele checked the items and noticed that a piece of green crystal was missing. The crystal piece was from the green jade greatsword he'd used in the intestine of the world.
"You can have all of them if you want." Some red light flashed in his hand. "Let's sign the contract. In the name of chaos."
"Sure," Mother Tree responded quickly. "I would have invited you to my world had I known you had such a rare item."
"It's okay." Angele waved his hand and a red scroll appeared in front of him. "In the name of chaos, we agree that…"
He listed the rules and what the Mother Tree needed to do for him in the contract.
Angele slowly pressed on the scroll after finishing the word.
A translucent arm appeared on the other side of the scroll and also pressed on it.
Their palms touched through the scroll while leaving their handprints on it.
Angele exhaled slowly after lowering his hand, and the red light disappeared.
"Alright, I removed the remaining mentality wave from the crystal piece. You should help me with the mark now."
"Of course." Mother Tree chuckled.
The green liquid around Angele's body turned into rays of green light, rotating around him at impressive speed.
The green rays were moving faster and faster. They almost turned into a light circle.
Some purple light dots started coming out of Angele's body and flew into the green light circles after moving through the red light barrier. The purple light dots screamed after entering the green light circles.
It took a while for all the purple light dots to leave Angele's body.
Angele felt relaxed after everything was done. His sight fell upon the floating scroll.
*CHI*
The scroll suddenly broke into shreds of paper and disappeared into the liquid. It meant that the trade had been completed.
Angele was satisfied with the result.
"I've temporarily removed the negative effects for you, but you need to find Guardian Cinderella within five years if possible. The negative effect won't impact you during this period but it'll get worse after that."
"A guardian, huh?" Angele nodded. If one was strong enough, he could easily find the realm guardians.
Angele just needed to do something to break the balance and the guardians would come to him.
"Also, I can send you and your friends to the exit of the underground world through my roots," Mother Tree added.
"Sounds good." Angele knew what she was worried about.
She did not say anything else.
Several hours later…
By the exit of the underground world, a brown root that was over ten meters long appeared in front of a black stone gate. The root cracked and released some green liquid. Angele, Mogo, and Lance were covered in the liquid. They landed on the ground with a red light barrier around them.
"That was fast…" Angele smiled. "Alright, let's return to the surface."
"Master, even the Mother Tree respects your power…" Mogo thought Angele and the tree had a fight.
Lance was staring at Angele anxiously. She was scared that Angele might take her to the surface. Lance took two steps back and was ready to escape.
Lance disappeared into the air when Angele was not paying attention to her.
She ran for a while and sighed with relief after she noticed that Angele was not going after her.
Angele did not care that the night elf escaped. He stepped into the damaged stone gate and disappeared into the darkness with Mogo.
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