CHAPTER 503: HOLY ROT

Everyone knows about the World Tree, which is a tree that is being protected by the Elves. Pretty much all of these trees are considered sacred and holy by the Elves, and they are not wrong about it, as the World Tree is one of the natural sources of Holy Power and one of the places where even Saintesses of various religions visit a World Tree just to restore their holy power or if they need to get enlightened.

However, the revelation that the Grand Sage revealed seems to have made less sense.

"Wait a minute, Master. I know dragon corpses are considered dangerous due to how they pollute and even corrupt their surroundings if left alone, but this is the first time I have heard of World trees rotting!" Julia was not expecting the Grand Sage’s words.

"It was pretty rare, and there are only small instances where World Trees rot, and even then, they are not really that different than regular World Trees; it’s just that their rot will instead transfer their holy power to the ground and momentarily cleanse the surroundings as a result. However, what do you think would happen if the rot of the World Tree and a rotting, dead dragon meet?" the Grand Sage grinned.

"Since World Trees are considered a natural source of holy power and something called the plant that directly channels the power of the Creator God, that must mean the World Tree would cleanse it in the process!" Julia answered.

"Wrong," the Grand Sage smiled after achieving the trap he had laid out, and Julia took it quickly.

Yona, on the other hand, thought a bit before answering with reluctance, as she is not entirely sure either.

"If the two forces of nature meet, aren’t they going to clash?"

The Grand Sage quickly snaps his fingers. "Correct, Yona."

Julia sighed and looked at the Grand Sage with disappointing look. "But that doesn’t make sense... You said earlier that even though rotten, it would still cleanse the surroundings."

The Grand Sage shook his head. "That’s only the case if the rotting of the World Tree happened separately before the curse of the dead dragon applies itself. But like I said before in the situation on the Land of the Dead, the World Tree itself is still alive and well and is growing well underneath the land."

He shook his head. "This is only a speculation on what happened, so don’t rely on i,t as I might have just made up the details. The dragon is fatally wounded but didn’t die immediately and managed to flee underground, where he found something that led him to the place. At that time, the World Tree quietly stood still on that land, quietly growing. But then the dying dragon came. Perhaps he felt the holy energy of the World Tree while he was dying and decided to seek it out, or perhaps he felt the World Tree’s energy beckoning him, which ultimately led him to his fate. Considering that the land was still ravaged by war, he didn’t want to risk other dragons rescuing him and decided to spend his last moments there."

"Then, the dragon died beneath the World Tree. It would have been fine if the world tree remained fine, but after months, the rot starts to spread, and the World Tree’s surroundings start to rot. The holy power of the World Tree managed to delay it, but it was inevitable after quite some time, and soon, the World Tree slowly succumbed to the curse. Normally, the curse won’t work on the tree, but being exposed to it every day, the holy power will gradually weaken, and before it even gets to cleanse the curse, the curse continues to persist."

Elaina nodded and guessed the next result. "In the end, the World Tree’s holy power is not enough and succumbs to it, causing it to slowly die. And since it was on the cursed power under the dead dragon’s corpse, the power of the holy seeps through the soil, attempting to purify it. But considering how the dead dragon’s curse seems to have adapted after quite some time, it started to fight with the holy power, and soon, this affected the soil above it, causing brutal changes to the surface. And considering the two powers continue to cause problems, the land slowly terraformed into a dangerous place, which resulted in this end result. This is also the explanation as to why it was not possible to remove the impurities present in the Land of the Dead’s soil."

"It’s not because the holy power is ineffective but because it is already happening. A second cleansing won’t work," Julia quickly summarized it.

"Correct. You can say the rot of the World Tree became holy, that even the curse it was trying to dispel is benefiting it in the process, masking itself, which resulted in the current situation of the Land of the Dead and how it cannot be salvaged."

Elaina nodded in response to this and looked at the soil in the pot. To think something big was happening underneath the ground that no one knew of the current struggles of the soil to remain fertile, yet the battle remains to this day.

Learning about this, Elaina is now determined to reverse it. "Is there a way to reverse the situation and remove the curse and the rot altogether?"

The Grand Sage shook his head. "Honestly, I don’t know. This situation is too unique, and what I said earlier is pure speculation, and nothing certain about what to do. But if you are dedicated to fully cleansing the land, then perhaps the first thing that you need to do is to find and contact both the Elves and the Dragons."

"I understand about the dragons since they might have a way to remove rot, but why also the elves?"

"Considering that they are more knowledgeable with the World Tree, they might have an idea of what to do with a rotten world tree. Since they consider the world tree as something holy, the world tree rotting without their presence would actually make them want to remove that and bring it to a place where it can rot safely without causing problems, and instead help them out of the situation."

Julia shakes her head. "Sis, just so you know, what the Grand Sage said is probably true, but that doesn’t mean that they are easy to find of a race. After the war ended, the elves decided to hide themselves from society, while the dragons decided to leave the humans to their own terms. You might find a chance to talk with the dragons, but I don’t know about the elves. You either need extreme luck or you meet one in the process. In short, this is a grueling task."

Elaina nodded her head. "There is no harm in trying it out. In the end, all that is needed to do is remove the source of the impurities of the land. This information is really a good way for me to know about the other races. It might be hard, but I will still try my best."

The Grand Sage nodded. "I would totally applaud you, Miss Elaina, if you could even ask for help with the proud dragons and elusive elves. Maybe uniting every race won’t be a hard thing to do in the future."

Elaina only smiled. Although uniting every race is something that she was not expecting to do, it would be a bit funny that in her pursuit to collect and unlock the locked pages of the Almanac, she does the unthinkable. Of course, that is putting things lightly.

But now that she had a way to solve the problem of the soil of the Land of the Dead, the next step is to confirm the assumption of the Grand Sage and perhaps solve it once and for all.

...

...

...

While everyone who heard the assumption of the Grand Sage was just pure speculation on his part, he mostly managed to fully recreate the scene...but with a of minor wrong details. The dragon in question is not yet dead. But it is still alive. Although his body is dying, something that is currently causing him to heal perpetually keeps him from succumbing to death.

This resulted in him producing the "Dragon curse" despite still living. For the dragon, this would have been easy to deal with...if not for the fact that a dragon slaying spear is currently impaled on his body, penetrating both the tree and his dying body.

The dragon in question roars in pain every day, causing minor earthquakes in the surroundings, but due to his constant deterioration and restoration, his body mostly gives up. But he still isn’t giving up. One day, someone will save him from the impalement and stop his perpetual suffering. He knows that he is already forgotten by the world, considering how long he was still alive, but there is a chance, and even though it was only a chance, he hopes he will be found and freed from the eternal torment.

Perhaps the human who recently visited the cursed land might be the key to his freedom.