Chapter 877 - 876: Old Friends Communicating

Chapter 877: Chapter 876: Old Friends Communicating

Now, Valhalla has two trees.

One is the Crystal Holy Tree, and the other is the Angel Giant Tree, introduced by foreign "people."

Yu Sheng stands on the rooftop terrace of the Black Cathedral, looking at the magnificent tree shadow in his view—the spiritual projection transformed by the Tree Angel now stands on a highland outside Valhalla City. The massive canopy even partly extends over the city walls, hovering above the Knight’s district, with mysterious light streams in pale blue swirling around the tree’s top, these streams then gather in the sky forming river-like patterns, spanning half the city and converging at the center’s Crystal Holy Tree.

Thus, the two Holy Trees reflect each other from afar, the glorious light river between their tops flows across the City of Souls’ sky, engaging in extensive data communication every second.

—This is because Yu Sheng has just opened part of the World Bridge’s communication permissions to the Tree Angel.

"How does it feel?" Yu Sheng, with a smile on his face, speaking through the connection established in the Soul Wilderness, can now directly communicate with the Angel Giant Tree standing outside the city, "You probably can’t recognize it anymore, right?"

In the Soul Wilderness, the Tree Angel doesn’t need a mouth substitute to speak; a slow and aged voice directly enters Yu Sheng’s mind: "It’s truly... unbelievable. The bridge we designed long ago has turned into this form. I thought it was completely destroyed, yet here it is again..."

"It was completely destroyed. Strictly speaking, this Crystal Tree is not the World Bridge but was transformed by another Dark Angel known as ’Inference Star Body’—similar to your current situation, it also ended up with a collective identity," Yu Sheng patiently explained, "I imported the blueprint data of the World Bridge into this Crystal Tree, which became the form you see now."

"...So, our sacrifice wasn’t in vain," the aged, gentle voice resonated in Yu Sheng’s mind, "The plan from back then... ultimately succeeded in sowing a seed within this Universe..."

Yu Sheng nodded: "Yes, a seed was planted, but this seed’s development is encountering some issues now."

"What... do you mean?"

Yu Sheng stayed silent, but the air beside him suddenly trembled, and then Erin appeared next to him.

In this Soul World, Erin’s form was no longer constrained by the body—as soon as she appeared, her form swiftly changed, her body shot up, and then a shell covered with magic patterns enveloped her skin, her lower half transformed into a massive spider body, while a more mature, almost divine-looking upper half rose high, happily waving towards the distant giant tree shadow.

"Old tree!" Erin, now in the form of the Spider Goddess, called loudly, "Look, look, I’ve grown taller!"

Thus that hint of divinity vanished instantly.

"Ah, omen... it’s good to see you in this familiar form," the Tree Angel’s voice echoed simultaneously in Yu Sheng and Erin’s consciousness, with a tone that seemed to carry a smile, "That current body of yours in reality now..."

"Ahem, let’s talk business first," Yu Sheng hurriedly interrupted before the old tree could slowly speak further, afraid it might touch the little puppet’s sorrow, "Regarding the cooperation you had with the ’Captain’ years ago, you should still remember it."

The giant tree remained silent for a while, unsure if it truly couldn’t recall or was simply slow to react, but after a dozen seconds, it spoke: "Ah, yes, he wanted to turn the entire world into an ark, for which an engine capable of driving the whole Universe away from this Sea of Annihilation was needed, and we provided environmental data on the Sea of Annihilation in exchange for a ticket..."

"Indeed, the World Ark Plan," Yu Sheng nodded, "It has two keys: one is the Void Engine, the other is the calibration guidance necessary for the World Ark’s safe passage through the annihilation zone. Back then, the World Bridge you released could only count as the hardware part of the Calibrator, while the crucial calibration parameters..."

Yu Sheng paused and turned to look at Erin, currently in the Omen Goddess form, beside him.

"Old tree, you should know I came with the calibration data back then, but something happened later, and I turned into what I am now, so that part of the calibration data got sealed in the depths of my mind..."

Erin raised her head, her face unusually serious, and patiently explained.

"Actually, I can’t quite remember what I was thinking at the time... Anyway, looking at it now, I couldn’t get those sealed data from the depths of my mind. According to the Captain, it requires a ’Decryption Key.’"

The Tree Angel remained silent again for a while, and then that massive tree shadow slowly swayed a few branches.

"I think... I understand what you mean," its voice was slow, the tone gentle, "You’ve had a hard time... even thinking about leaving us a path in that situation."

Erin chuckled, her eight long limbs scraping across the terrace with an air of triumph.

Yu Sheng also followed suit, sighing with relief, looking towards the giant tree: "So, it turns out the key is with you?"

"...Actually I’m unsure about what specific key you need, but I believe... it should be part of ’me,’" the Tree Angel said slowly, "Let me establish a connection with the ’data’ preserved with Erin’s omen... perhaps I’ll know what to do then."

"It’s good you’re willing to help," Yu Sheng promptly laughed, "There’s no rush, though; it will take some preparation work."

"Preparation work?"

Yu Sheng began to explain earnestly: "You should see; the ’omen’ you’re familiar with is now integrated with an Alice Puppet. That existing calibration data is also stored within the mind layer of her puppet part. Those data need to be extracted through special equipment, and then we’ll study how to make it compatible with you..."

"It sounds... complex."

"No choice, given it’s a grand project to save the world that involves integrating information from inside and outside the Universe," Yu Sheng shrugged, "Can’t just plug in a USB stick and have it worked right—however, rest assured, we have very capable technicians here. They should be able to come up with a plan soon."

"Alright... I’ll wait..."

The voice of the Tree Angel gradually faded away, leaving only the brilliant flow of light crossing the two Holy Trees that continued to span the sky over Valhalla, causing the sky to occasionally resonate with pleasant spiritual energy.

Erin shaded her eyes, looking towards the direction of the Angel Giant Tree outside the city, appearing to be in a good mood: "Great, now the old tree is local too!"

Yu Sheng was also in high spirits: "Yes, it’s rare to have something go so smoothly, and it’s actually stable and reliable. Although it’s a bit slow, at least it doesn’t seem to cause too much commotion."

Erin nodded repeatedly: "Yeah, yeah, the old tree is really steady..."

However, just at that moment, before Erin could finish her sentence, a low humming sound suddenly interrupted their conversation.

Yu Sheng was momentarily stunned and quickly glanced towards the sound, only to see the connecting flow of light between the Crystal Tree and the Angel Giant Tree flicker a few times before being cut off.

In the next moment, under the stunned gaze of Yu Sheng and Erin, the majestic Angel Giant Tree by the Valhalla city wall slowly swayed, then unhurriedly pulled out its roots. It stretched its branches as if warming up, then began to stride leisurely towards the depths of the wilderness.

Yu Sheng was dumbfounded, not understanding what this Dark Angel, who had just taken root in Valhalla, was up to. Erin, beside him, exclaimed in surprise: "Whoa! Old tree, where are you going?"

After several seconds, they finally heard a slow voice echoing in their minds: "I’m going for a walk..."

Erin: "...But you’re a plant?!"

"Yes, which is why I walk slo-wly—"

The imposing Angel Giant Tree swayed as it moved leisurely towards the depths of the wilderness, leaving Yu Sheng and Erin standing on the terrace, dumbfounded. After a while, Yu Sheng turned his head and looked at the Spider Goddess beside him: "...Has it always been like this?"

Erin blinked her eyes: "...I don’t know! Well, we didn’t have a Soul Wilderness when we floated outside the World Barrier before, so how would I know it had this kind of hobby!"

Yu Sheng’s eyelid twitched as he looked up at the Crystal Tree above the cathedral which was emitting a soft holy light: "...Will it come back for photosynthesis?"

Erin waved her hand, looking exhausted: "Don’t ask me."

The scenery of the Soul Wilderness swiftly faded in his consciousness, and the light and breeze of the real world once again dominated his perception. Yu Sheng blinked and quickly regained his senses.

He was still standing on the island in the center of the lake, surrounded by a clear lake surface, with tall and lush giant trees standing quietly in the center of the island.

The Tree Angel in the real world still stood silently—if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, Yu Sheng couldn’t have imagined that this figure was striding confidently in the Soul World at the moment.

Erin stood beside him, seemingly reminiscing about her eight long legs in the Soul Wilderness, while Hu Li had already sidled up: "Savior! Is everything settled? How did the communication go?"

"It’s settled. Just like with the Knight father and daughter before, it’s now on Valhalla’s collective registry," Yu Sheng said as he nodded at Lucrecia, who was also looking in their direction, "We’ve also discussed the calibration data packet stored in Erin’s mind. Once I set up the large Teleportation Gate, I’ll get Marin to set up an ’Alice Tree’ here as well to see if we can extract that data packet."

Lucrecia nodded: "Okay, I’ll inform Father of this good news, and we’ll confirm the Calibrator’s construction plan with him as soon as possible."

"Let me think if there’s anything else," Yu Sheng rubbed his forehead, reviewing his thoughts before waving his hand, "There shouldn’t be anything overlooked. Anyway, now that the Tree Angel is tied to the Soul Wilderness, we can contact it directly if we think of something else... let’s head back to the camp."

On the way back, Hu Li was allowed to enjoy a run, and then the group returned to the camp near the "Gate of the End."

The camp looked unchanged from before, except for a few new busy figures and some equipment that was obviously just transported from the other side of the gate, currently being adjusted and installed by technical personnel.

Clearly, Baili Qing was about to expand the scale of operations here soon.

"By the way, why do I feel like we forgot something?" Erin, sitting on Yu Sheng’s shoulder, muttered while touching her chin.

"Forgot what?" Yu Sheng turned his head, "We’ve successfully established contact with the old tree, it’s registered too, and we’ve discussed the Calibrator..."

Erin crossed her arms, furrowing her small brows: "I don’t know, but I feel like something’s been missed."

...

In the center of the plain, on the Lake Heart Island, under the dappled shadows of the trees, swaying sunlight fell, and beside a giant root protruding from the ground, a lush humanoid figure was lazily sunbathing and happily performing photosynthesis.

A fruit suddenly fell from the branches of the giant tree above, instinctively caught by Zheng Zhi.

The fruit, bright red, was fragrant and sweet, with abundant juice.

Zheng Zhi took a bite of the fruit at his mouth, squinting his eyes happily.

"So comfortable..."