As he spoke, Grayson's branches, glowing with a dense white light, swiftly swung forward, instantly reaching the twisted space that covered the outskirts of the group.

Tens of thousands of branches, big and small, were just engulfed by the twisted space and immediately dispersed by the endless forces of virtuality.

"Huff— huff—"

The branches began to slow down at a speed visible to the naked eye, and the white light on the branches also dimmed.

They didn't even touch the defense barrier at the end of the twisted space and already had no strength to move forward.

"How is this possible?" Grayson's heart chilled.

To it, the fact that even its full-force attack couldn't approach the enemy was utterly incomprehensible.

"Actually, it's not reckless either."

In the sky above the treetops, Lor, ignoring the swirling branches, smiled and explained, "You saw earlier when those two five-hundred-meter Saint Asia trees on the other side had a duel, this species advocates competition. Except for the earliest fourth and fifth tiers, the others have ascended through repeated life-and-death battles."

"For these trees, having experienced countless deadly battles, the first thought when meeting us was understandably a desperate fight."

"Quite the peculiar racial system." Francis shook his head, then lost interest in communicating with the giant tree below.

He waved his hand gently, and centered on the fourth-tier Saint Asia tree, with a radius of five thousand miles around it, waves of bright or dim green light emerged from all living things and drifted toward him.

In just an instant, all flora and fauna within a five-thousand-mile radius, including first to third-tier Saint Asia trees, turned into lifeless black powder, disappearing into the air with the wind.

Only the fourth-tier giant tree directly below Lor and his companions stubbornly maintained its vitality with the support of its faith origin.

"What sort of method is this?" Grayson felt itself rapidly weakening, its black body full of bewilderment.

It wanted to continue whipping those tiny creatures but sadly found it lacked the strength to lift its branches.

Moreover, it also noticed its faith origin was depleting rapidly, and at this rate, it would be exhausted in no more than a minute.

That would mean its utter death.

Beyond the five-thousand-mile range, all Saint Asia trees witnessing this scene decisively uprooted their roots and fled further away without hesitation.

They indeed did not fear death but preferred not to die meaninglessly.

For a moment, a small-scale commotion erupted in the Land of the Far West of the Forest Plane.

...

Meanwhile, in a forest seventeen thousand miles away, a Saint Asia tree only a hundred meters tall and pristine white was awakened by a transmitted message from five thousand two hundred miles away.

"Ancestor, a message just came from the northwest that a group of lifeforms with life energy as low as ancient levels and some even..."

The voice hesitated here, seeming a little afraid to continue.

"What... so...ever?" The hundred-meter Saint Asia tree spoke, its voice carrying an ancient resonance as if from endless eons ago.

"Some of these lifeforms' life energies even exceed yours." The one-hundred-thirty-seven-meter-tall giant tree five thousand two hundred miles away hardened its heart and honestly reported the distant news to the ancestor.

If the message is false, the ancestor would likely punish the source of the false transmission, the ancient Saint Asia tree named Grayson, instead.

"Exceed me?" The hundred-meter Saint Asia tree's voice became much more fluid, hastily asking, "Where did they come from? Didn't we already eradicate all extraordinary life forms? Why are such beings appearing?"

It was certain its descendants wouldn't joke about this, else they would face dire consequences.

But the sudden occurrence of such an absurd event took it aback.

"Well... the message from the Far West did not describe their origin, just that they appeared suddenly." The fourth-tier Saint Asia tree awkwardly replied.

"Got it." The hundred-meter Saint Asia tree replied and hesitated for a moment before suddenly uprooting itself, flying eastward.

It would be too dangerous for a single tree to investigate the distant situation, possibly with no return, so it was best to call on old friends to check together.

...

Atop the canopy of a fourth-tier Saint Asia giant tree in the Land of the Far West of the Forest Plane.

Lor looked at the dense life elements gathered outside the twisted barrier, intending to open a passage to let them in. However, the next moment, these life elements turned into a ring and radiated over a five-thousand-mile area.

Wherever the life elements passed, a thin green barrier quietly appeared, eventually forming a massive defense shield covering five thousand miles.

Francis' maneuver impressed many speakers.

From their perspective, this green barrier was maintained not by Francis' own elemental power but by the pervasive free elements within the plane.

The implication is monumental, as it no longer requires magic array construction materials or energy furnaces to form a perpetual magic array.

If this could be promoted, the significance would be tremendous, elevating the Wizard Alliance's combat power by several levels.

Jerald spoke first, "Speaker Francis, perhaps you've already researched a perpetual magic array that doesn't require carrier materials."

"Compared to a perpetual magic array, I'd rather call it perpetual witchcraft." Francis' lips curled into a smile, followed by a somewhat regretful tone, "Unfortunately, this emerged as a trait post my fusion witchcraft and isn't scalable."

"Its operation essence is me planting a seed, then autonomously drawing from the world's free elements to continually strengthen itself, ultimately reaching an approximate intensity of 6.7 rings."

"It's a trait, indeed unfortunate." Jerald sighed.

"I've been researching traits lately."

Speaker Yi Ao of the Gold Element added, "If we could uncover the fundamental formation of traits, the Alliance's combat power would undergo a qualitative leap. I even suspect this might be the breakthrough path to the Seventh Ring."

"Speaker Lor, you can see the future. In the first future, did I ever tread this path? Was I successful?"

"Uhh... well..." Lor opened his mouth, trying to say something, but eventually held back.

The reason behind his hesitance was simple. In the past life, when the Silver Wolf invaded, Yi Ao was among those who chose to escape via the cross-plane teleportation array, taking a few loyalist wizards with him.

This resulted in many mortals and low-tier wizards suffering and dying innocently.

Of course, they didn't escape in the end, as they were captured and tortured to death after the Silver Wolf unlocked the entire Wizard Plane Group.

Regarding whether Yi Ao was researching traits, Lor wasn't sure, merely knowing that the research likely... possibly... probably wasn't successful?

Lor pondered deeply, and his expression suddenly grew serious.

Perhaps Yi Ao's hypothesis wasn't without merit. What if the path to the Seventh Ring indeed lay in traits?

This fellow might have found a lead back then, explaining why he'd ignore the plane-destroying threat of Silver Wolf to hide and attempt ascending the Seventh Ring for a counterattack?

"Speaker Lor, did I perhaps die early in the future, or did I find no results from my research?" Seeing Lor's initial awkwardness and then growing solemn, Yi Ao's heart started to race.

The other speakers also turned their gaze toward Lor, curiously observing him.

"No."

Lor shook his head, bypassing Yi Ao's first question, sweeping his gaze around, solemnly stating, "I haven't acquired the method to breach the Seventh Ring from the future, and the conclusion of Speaker Yi Ao's research is unknown to me."

"But from various other traces, I feel Speaker Yi Ao's thinking might open a new path for us."

"This path is not about replicating traits for other sect wizards to add to their witchcraft but leads to the Seventh Ring!"

"The Seventh Ring?"

"Traits are the path to the Seventh Ring?"

"This..."

The faces of the thirty-three speakers simultaneously showed expressions of astonishment. They had never expected that a discussion on the replicability of traits would abruptly pivot to the path of a breakthrough to the Seventh Ring.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.