Knight Lord: Start with Daily Intelligence.

Chapter 454 The Sacred Tree of the Elf Aetherar and Ryan

Thranville's icy blue eyes gleamed as she felt the surging power within her, a sense of control she had never experienced before. The Frost Runestone emitted a stable yet powerful icy aura, perfectly resonating with the Ice Valkyrie bloodline nourished and strengthened by the Dragonblood Amber Heart. The ancient elven combat skills bestowed by the Phoenix Crystal were etched into her very being, imprinting every movement with the elegance and lethality of an elven melee master.

“I feel my power surging.” Thranville’s voice carried a hint of icy coldness, but more so a powerful confidence. “I feel… I’ve already touched that threshold.”

The ice crystal domain surrounding her solidified further, the dense fog was completely dispelled, and fine frost patterns formed on the ground beneath her feet. Her aura had clearly reached the peak of the champion level, just one step away from the Chosen One realm, which symbolized the top combat power of the territory!
Looking at Thranville, whose aura was as deep and unyielding as a mountain, Hilder's eyes were filled with satisfaction and fighting spirit: "Good! This power is exactly the sharpest weapon we need right now! Keep going!"

With Thranville, a reigning champion, leading the way, the team advanced at an astonishing speed. The phantom spirits that had caused so much trouble were frozen and slowed as they approached the ice crystal field, only to be shattered by Thranville's precise and efficient frost or spears.

The spoils they reaped were plentiful; they acquired 13 more Phoenix Crystals and Dragon Blood Amber Hearts. If they could successfully take them out, these items could at least help the territory cultivate 5 to 6 champion-level soldiers and mages.

This incredibly generous opportunity is simply unbelievable. They had explored this Valley of Memories before; although it was dangerous, it was by no means a deserted place. Even the White Bone Merchant, Nayadarin Frostwood, had never mentioned such a thing.

I don't know what happened today, this unexpected turn of events occurred.

Just as the group was filled with doubt, the surging dark curtain in front of them was suddenly pierced by a soft, moonlight-like silver-green light! The light carried an indescribable pure life force and a calming tranquility that soothed the soul, forming a stark contrast with the intense death and resentment at the heart of the valley!

The group's spirits lifted, and they sped up to rush out of the thick fog. The sight before them made them hold their breath for a moment.

This is a relatively open circular space, its dome formed by countless pale, glowing tree roots intertwined, like a natural arch. At the center of this space stands a colossal tree beyond description!

Its trunk is not made of ordinary wood, but rather like a mixture of flowing, solidified jade and moonlight, radiating a warm yet powerful life glow. The bark is naturally engraved with intricate and mysterious elven runes, seemingly containing the ultimate truths of the world, constantly shimmering with silvery-green light.

The enormous canopy is like the most magnificent dome, composed of countless silver-green leaves that shimmer like stars. Each leaf is like a piece of the purest gemstone, exuding a refreshing vitality and a magnificent natural magic!

Among the branches and leaves of this sacred giant tree are dozens of fist-sized [Life Amber], as if formed from the purest moonlight! They exude an alluring radiance and an intensely rich aura of life essence. Just breathing in the air of this space makes one feel refreshed and all fatigue disappear!

“The Sacred Tree of Aetherarion…” Thranville’s icy blue eyes were filled with shock and piety as she murmured a name that existed only in ancient elven legends, “It has been resurrected?!”

The reason it is said to have been resurrected is because everyone recognizes this ancient tree. Its location is in the cemetery square east of the Elf Collective Graveyard, but it is usually in a completely withered state.

Just like the Moon Crown Tree in the courtyard of Zijingbao, it usually only has bare branches and trunk. But after dusk and when night falls, the tree will be covered with flowers, filling the air with fragrance.

This was the first time they had ever seen a tree bloom again, its branches and leaves covering the ground.

But such a thing is absolutely impossible!
The Mooncrown Tree is able to exhibit such peculiar behavior because it is closely related to the prosperity of its territory and possesses this unique characteristic itself.

But no one has ever said that the Tree of Athera and the Tree of Athera can be resurrected!
When they explored the Valley of Memory, they were all very certain that the sacred tree was dead! It had lost all vitality.

When the elves retreated, so many legendary mages and holy archmages confirmed this, otherwise they wouldn't have left this sacred tree here.

It's important to know that [Life Amber] is an essential resource for elves to cultivate advanced troops. In fact, in the ancient times when elves were at their peak, it was a necessary condition for constructing certain buildings and promoting the advancement of the Tree of Life.

Such a strategic treasure would certainly have been taken by the elves during their retreat if they could have taken it. The fact that they didn't means that many Saint-level archmages unanimously believe that this precious tree is completely dead and beyond any possibility of being saved.

But now, this ancient spirit tree has been revitalized, and the powerful tree is covered with abundant fruit!

This is incredible, absolutely stunning!
Seranville looked up at all of this and shook her head, saying repeatedly, "No...no...absolutely impossible! How much energy would it take to revive such an ancient tree? With so many magical winds gathered here, even if this spirit tree were revived, it would be eroded by the dense chaotic winds! This simply doesn't make sense!"

As the chosen one of the Goddess of the Sun, Hilde was quick-witted and immediately guessed the reason, saying, "This should be an image left by the Sacred Tree of Atherarion in the Valley of Memory, a remnant of ancient times, but I don't know why it has reappeared today."

The others immediately realized that this was the most reasonable explanation; it was perfectly normal for the Valley of Memory to recreate a segment of the past.

However, Thranville's brow remained furrowed as she hesitantly gazed at the tranquil scene, feeling as if it were all real, especially the dozens of eerie "statues" standing around the roots of the sacred tree.

They are not made of rocks or mist, but rather twisted and petrified living human bodies! They are the "Rock People" who have gone mad trying to interpret the dreams of the dead!
Their postures were contorted in agony, their faces frozen in eternal terror and ecstasy. Most of their bodies were covered in greyish-white rock, with only a few patches of dried skin and fragments of clothing remaining. Their eyes were empty and lifeless, yet now, within those hollow sockets burned an eerie flame of the soul! A powerful and distorted mental field, like an invisible wall of thorns, enveloped the entire Sacred Tree space!

The next moment, Thranville's icy blue pupils suddenly contracted, as if a crack had opened in a polar glacier, reflecting the incomprehensible scene before her.

Her voice trembled almost unmistakably, piercing through the eerily tranquil life radiance of the Sacred Tree space: "Steward Hilder! I... I clearly saw that rock dweller's finger move just now!"

The sound wasn't loud, but it struck everyone's hearts like a cold bolt of lightning. Hilde turned her head sharply, the power of the blazing sun instinctively flowing within her, and golden divine runes flashed briefly in the depths of her eyes.

She looked in the direction Thranville pointed—the rock-dweller statue, its posture contorted and frozen in eternal torment, now seemed to cast an indescribable shadow on its greyish-white stone surface under the soft light of the sacred tree.

Its finger… that stiff index finger, as if broken by an invisible force, seemed… to have actually curled up slightly for a moment? Or was it just an illusion caused by the changing light and shadow?
"It...moved?" Hilde's voice lowered, the previous relief and fighting spirit gone, replaced by a heavy, leaden vigilance. As a chosen one of the gods, her soul perception far surpassed that of ordinary people. At this moment, an indescribable chill was quietly rising up her spine, causing the divine radiance around her to fluctuate slightly.

"Impossible!" A mage who had been observing coldly suddenly exclaimed in a low voice, "This is an ancient image of the resurrection of the Sacred Tree of Atherarion! It's the glorious past of the Valley of Memories reappearing! Those Rock People... they were transformed from those elves who frantically interpreted the dreams of the dead after the Sacred Tree withered and the elves withdrew! In ancient times, there were only pure elves here, so where did the Rock People come from?!"

These words were like a thunderclap, instantly exploding in the minds of Thranville and Hilder!

Boom!

It wasn't real thunder, but a roar from the depths of her soul when her understanding was overturned! Seranville felt a chill run from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head. Her icy blue eyes flashed with a sharp light, and the solid ice crystal domain around her trembled violently, instantly freezing the few wisps of dark mist that approached into dust!
“Yes…yes!” Thranville’s voice carried a sense of profound realization after shock, like a surging undercurrent beneath the ice. “The Rock People…are a product of later tragedies! Twisted creations that appeared only after the death of the Sacred Tree! They…they could never appear in this ancient image that represents the life of the Sacred Tree!”

Hilder's expression turned extremely solemn, her golden pupils like two blazing suns obscured by dark clouds, staring intently at the strange stone carvings surrounding the roots of the sacred tree.

She suddenly recalled the scenes from her previous visits to the Valley of Memories: beneath the withered, lifeless remains of the Sacred Tree of Atherarion, there were indeed some similar Rockman statues scattered about! Those were real remains that existed in the present moment!
"Could it be..." Even Hilde's heroic air was taken aback, feeling a chill run down her spine to her scalp. "This isn't just a simple reappearance of ancient images? Rather... fragments from two different timelines... have overlapped here?!"

Her gaze swept over the sacred tree radiating boundless vitality, then returned to the rock-dwelling statues burning with eerie soul fire, belonging to the calamities of future generations. A chill originating from antiquity enveloped her.

"Like... those distorted spacetime folds deep within the Chaos Demon Realm? The boundary between order and chaos is blurred here?!" As soon as this thought arose, the atmosphere of the entire Sacred Tree Space suddenly changed drastically! The originally refreshing radiance of life now revealed an indescribable eeriness.

The sacred tree itself remained sacred, but the dozens of rock-dwelling statues burning with the fire of their souls were like filthy ink stains rooted in a sacred scroll, emanating a chilling resentment and madness. Space seemed to be distorted and stretched by an invisible force; the ancient vitality and the later desolation, the twisted despair of the later elves—two diametrically opposed currents of time and space that should never have intersected—had undergone a terrifying fusion at the core of this Valley of Memory, shrouded in the anomaly of the twin moons!

This place was too eerie. Syld could only suppress the fear in her heart and immediately ordered, "Let's pass through here quickly, and be careful not to awaken any beings."

"Something exists"—everyone knows what she means.

If those rock people inside really didn't die, but were affected and tormented to this day by the magical winds from antiquity and chaos, then they must be an extremely terrifying existence!

It's likely that each of them is at least at the level of a chosen one! There's even a possibility that many of them are at the legendary level.

Once they are awakened, all of us will surely die!

Hilder's command, like a cold, ironclad rule, instantly froze all the surprise and shock in the group. The air seemed to solidify, leaving only the eerie silver-green glow of the Sacred Tree space, a mixture of ancient vitality and the deathly stillness of the future, and the eerie soul fire burning in the hollow eye sockets of the Rockman statue, silently watching these uninvited guests.

"Go!" Hilder's voice was extremely low, each syllable carrying the weight of the sun's divine power, dispelling the chill in everyone's hearts. She took the lead, her golden divine radiance receding like a thin veil, covering only her body, carefully avoiding the twisted rock statues that seemed rooted in the rifts of spacetime. Each step was as light as a feather, landing precisely, as if afraid of disturbing the fragile balance of this overlapping spacetime.

The crowd followed closely behind, their hearts pounding heavily in their chests. The champion warriors restrained their surging blood, the mages extinguished the flickering light of magic, and even their breathing slowed deliberately, as if they had become ghosts. They walked beneath the dome formed by the intertwined roots of the sacred tree, beside the trunk where emerald and moonlight mingled, and among the rock people whose postures were eternally filled with torment.

The scene was both eerie and magnificent. On one side was a sacred tree flowing with life runes, its branches and leaves radiating an alluring glow from the [Life Amber], a glorious projection of ancient elves;

On the other side were the Rock People, frozen in despair and madness, the twisted remains of later elves tormented by death and chaos. Two timelines that should have been separated were now strangely intertwined and overlapped.

The group walked along the edge of an epic scroll that had been torn apart and pieced back together, each step treading on the crack between history and destruction. The air was thick with the scent of life, yet it could not dispel the chilling resentment that emanated from the Rock People statues, a resentment that seeped into their very bones, and the distorted feeling brought about by the temporal and spatial disorientation.

Seranville walked in the middle of the group, her icy blue eyes sharp as a hawk's. Her ice crystal domain was compressed to the extreme, forming only an almost invisible protective film on her body surface.

Her perception reached its peak; every movement of air, every shift in light, every tremor of a speck of dust on the Rockman statue was clearly reflected in her highly concentrated mental world. The Dragonblood Amber Heart throbbed steadily within her chest, providing immense power; the bloodline of the Ice Valkyrie lay dormant, poised to erupt; the chill of the Frost Runestone was contained, yet ready to freeze any threat at any moment.

Time seemed to stretch on endlessly as everyone held their breath. The procession moved silently, rounding the rock statues that seemed frozen in place, their silent roars palpable. They drew ever closer to the other end of the Sacred Tree space, to that relatively "safe" expanse of inky fog. Hope flickered like a faint candlelight on the taut strings of their hearts.

Just as Thranville was about to step off the last few patches of ground covered with fine frost patterns, preparing to enter the relatively open exit area—

A sudden change occurred!

"Roar--!!!"

A terrifying roar, filled with the friction of rocks and the shrieks of the soul, which could not be uttered by a human or any living being, ripped apart the tranquility of the space without warning!
The source of the sound was the very rock-dweller statue that Thranville had first pointed out as having a slight twitch in its finger!

The once-solid stone statue's grayish-white rock covering its body cracked and peeled away inch by inch, like rotting tree bark! The cracks didn't contain flesh and blood, but rather a torrent of dense, inky, chaotic energy mixed with specks of scarlet soul fire! In its empty eye sockets, the two points of soul fire suddenly surged, like two ghostly lamps from the depths of hell, locking onto the most peculiar aura of Seranville!

"Snap! Snap!"

A series of sickeningly loud cracking sounds filled the air. The rock dweller, in an utterly illogical manner, broke free from the shackles of petrification!

Its twisted limbs stretched out, its movements stiff yet carrying an overwhelming force. Every step it took on the ground caused the frost-covered surface to tremble violently, and spiderweb-like cracks spread outwards!
Its remaining dry skin and tattered clothes fluttered in the chaotic airflow, exuding an aura of decay and madness. A terrifying pressure, mixed with petrification curse and the resentment of dead souls, which was enough to make even champion-level powerhouses change color, surged toward Thranville like an invisible tsunami!

"Watch out!" Hilder shouted, her golden divine flames erupting like a miniature sun, attempting to dispel the approaching curse and chaos. But she immediately realized that the rock-dweller's target was exceptionally clear; all its killing intent and oppressive aura were locked onto Thranville alone! It was as if... it had come specifically for her!

The monster has really set its sights on her!

Thranville's hair stood on end! Not from fear, but from her body's instinctive reaction to impending extreme danger!
Her long, icy blue hair moved without wind, and the surging bloodline of the Ice and Snow Valkyrie within her was like a terribly enraged ice dragon, unleashing a deafening roar! The Dragon Blood Amber Heart throbbed violently, providing an inexhaustible source of violent power; the Frost Rune Stone shone brightly, compressing and condensing her ice crystal domain to its extreme, transforming it into a layer of azure ice armor flowing with countless ancient elven runes, covering her entire body!

Faced with the death charge launched by this terrifying monster, born from a temporal distortion and a fusion of ancient chaos and the resentment of later generations, the last trace of surprise and doubt in Seranville's icy blue eyes completely disappeared, replaced by an extreme calmness like that of ancient ice and... a boiling fighting spirit!

"Since you refuse to let me go, then let's fight to the end!" she shouted, her voice sharp and penetrating, like clashing ice crystals. The spear, shrouded in a chilling aura, hummed and trembled in her hand, a point of cold light gathering at its tip, seemingly capable of freezing time and space!
She did not retreat! Because she clearly sensed that this bizarre rock-dwelling monster, though its power fluctuations were terrifyingly chaotic, subtly resonated with the icy essence within her. This was not a simple attack, but more like an… ultimate trial originating from the depths of chaotic spacetime, for her, the Ice Valkyrie successor who had touched the threshold of divine selection!
Boom!

The rock monster, carrying a destructive chaotic aura, shattered the distance of space. A gigantic fist, composed entirely of broken rocks and chaotic energy, with the terrifying force to crush mountains and destroy stars, smashed down towards Thranville! Wherever the fist passed, even the life radiance emanating from the sacred tree was briefly distorted and devoured!
The sky was blotted out! Destruction was imminent!
Thranville's pupils reflected the ever-growing fist of destruction. The runes on her ice armor erupted with a blinding blue light, and her spear, like a frigid meteor tearing through the darkness, met the attack head-on! Wherever the spear tip pointed, the space groaned under its strain, freezing into beautiful yet deadly cracks!

"break!"

Ice and chaos, order and disorder, new life and decay collide violently in this sacred place where time and space are out of balance!
The next moment!
boom--! ! ! !

An indescribably terrifying roar erupted!
The colossal rock fist, wreathed in chaos and soulfire, slammed solidly into Thranville's hastily condensed ice crystal spear! The surging power penetrated through the spear and continued to relentlessly pierce into Thranville's body.

Time seemed to freeze for a moment.

The ultimate ice shield she hastily conjured around her, powerful enough to withstand a full-force attack from a champion-level peak, groaned in agony the moment it made contact! Countless fine cracks instantly spread across the entire shield surface as if they were alive! The ancient elven runes flowing on the shield surface flickered uncertainly under the erosion of the black chaotic energy, emitting a hissing sound as they melted away!

An overwhelming, unstoppable, and seemingly primordial destructive force pierced through the ice shield and slammed into Thranville's body without any feint.

"puff--!"

Blood stained the sacred tree's silvery-green glow. Thranville slammed into the pale roots of the giant tree like a kite with a broken string. A searing pain instantly engulfed her; at least two ribs were broken, and her internal organs felt displaced. The ice spear flew from her hand, embedding itself diagonally in the ground some distance away, its light dimmed. Her ice shield had long since shattered and dissipated, and the runic ice armor covering her body was riddled with cracks. Wisps of chaotic black energy, like maggots clinging to her bones, attempted to erode her icy essence.

A wave of excruciating pain and the chilling premonition of death washed over her, threatening to overwhelm her consciousness. But in that critical moment, the berserk will within her, awakened by her severe injuries and stemming from the bloodline of the Ice Valkyrie, combined with the surging life force provided by the Dragon Blood Amber Heart, erupted like lava beneath a dormant volcano!
(End of this chapter)