Level 1 to Infinity: My Bloodline Is the Ultimate Cheat!-Chapter 370: The Ancient Guardian

The Legendary elixir, the Primal Element Seed, truly lived up to its reputation. Moments after Dot swallowed it, her complexion returned to normal, and a faint, ethereal mist began to swirl around her body.

Uncle Jed, watching this unfold, playfully nudged Nora. "Looks like you won’t need me to make an appearance when you return to the Vance family this time."

Nora was captivated by Dot’s transformation, her heart swelling with relief and joy. The shimmering mist lingered a while longer before slowly receding back into Dot’s body. No one could say for certain whether it had really connected her to the world’s energy, but one thing was undeniable—her headaches, convulsions, and all her other symptoms were gone.

They rested there for a while, taking in the change and allowing Dot time to adjust.

---

To Ethan’s amusement, the monkey and Dot had become fast friends. Now the two were bickering over a dozen bottles of peach juice and several boxes of bananas he’d set out.

"You said you only wanted five. The rest are Dot’s!" Dot insisted, hugging the boxes to her chest.

"Squeak-squeak-squeak..." the monkey chattered back, waving its little arms.

"I don’t care! You said what you said, and I’ll have Uncle Ethan put the rest away!" Dot huffed.

"Eee-ooh-ooh..." The monkey let out a long, pitiful whine.

"No! Dot’s all better now, and she doesn’t want your seeds!" she declared, her nose in the air.

Their argument grew surprisingly heated, and everyone was astonished Dot seemed to understand exactly what the monkey was saying. But it was her last remark that made Ethan’s eyes light up.

With a thought, he waved his hand, summoning a pile of fresh fruit. "Little monkey," he called, "how about I trade you all this for your seeds?"

"Squeak-squeak-squeak..." The monkey launched into a flurry of animated gestures. Dot translated solemnly, "It says it’s not a ’little monkey.’ It’s a Medicine Spirit."

"And..." She pointed toward the glowing ancient tree in the distance. "It says even if it gave you the seeds, you couldn’t take them away. Without the protection of that great tree, everything here would turn to dust."

’Oh...’ Ethan thought. He’d assumed only the Primal Element Seed was untouchable. But apparently, everything here was connected to that tree. Without it, this entire place probably would’ve crumbled into ruins long ago. And this monkey—calling itself a Medicine Spirit—could it have once been a guardian of some sort of medicinal garden?

Given the circumstances, there was nothing he could do. He let the idea drop. Everyone had eaten and rested enough, so he gathered them to continue their journey. Dot and the Medicine Spirit monkey exchanged reluctant goodbyes. Ethan didn’t bother packing away the remaining fruits; they were too ordinary for him to care. He left them as a parting gift for the greedy little creature.

As they drew nearer, Ethan finally grasped the true scale of the glowing ancient tree. Up close, its trunk was thousands of feet thick, and its vast canopy seemed to hold up the entire stone city above. In front of the colossal tree lay a small, crystal-clear pond. A broad platform jutted out from the trunk itself, clearly built by the civilization—or whatever race—who once lived here.

Staring up at the giant tree, Ethan felt no sign of life within it. The wood looked dead and withered, yet it radiated an immense, natural power. It was as though the entire will of nature resided within that hollow shell.

The group stepped onto the stone platform. Just then, the small sapling inside Ethan’s body began to tremble. A strange aura drifted out of him.

Ethan froze, staring as emerald-green energy welled up from his core. As if guided by some invisible current, it shot directly into the great tree before them.

Buzz...

The air vibrated. The green light seeped into the tree’s fibers like dye spreading through cloth. Veins of fresh, bright green traced their way up the trunk and into the canopy above.

Ethan could only watch, transfixed, as Uncle Jed, Nora, and Dot suddenly collapsed to the ground. Alarm shot through him. He stepped forward, about to check on them, when a resonant, ancient sounding voice echoed around him.

"Don’t worry. They’re fine. They’re only asleep. Thank you for your gift, my King..."

The words seemed to come from the tree itself.

"You?" Ethan’s brows knit together.

"It is I, my King. Would you be willing to step inside for a moment?"

Even as the voice spoke, countless roots slid across the stone, weaving themselves into a staircase that curved gently toward Ethan’s feet. He glanced back at Uncle Jed and the others.

"My King, rest assured. Aside from that little monkey, nothing else remains here."

This tree kept calling him King, and Ethan had no idea why. Was it because of the sprout growing inside him? He hesitated, but in the end, curiosity outweighed caution. He stepped onto the staircase. Without waiting for him to climb further, it lifted and carried him upward.

When he reached the level of the trunk, the wooden surface ahead shimmered like water. The staircase moved straight through it, delivering him into a vast hollow chamber within the tree.

There, an old man’s face emerged from the wood itself—only a face, his body long petrified, fused into the trunk around him.

"My King... please, be seated."

A chair of interwoven vines rose behind Ethan, forming itself with uncanny precision. A table sprouted before him. Everything in the chamber smelled of resin and damp earth.

"My King has bestowed upon me the power of origin," the old treant said. "I have nothing to repay you with, save for my last essence, which I offer back to you."

Ethan hadn’t even spoken yet. A vine-woven goblet appeared on the table, filling instantly with a shimmering emerald liquid that smelled of grass and woodsmoke.

"What is this? Essence? And who are you? Why do you call me King?" he demanded, finally voicing the questions that had been burning in his mind.

"I am merely a seed of your... Well, you could say the World Tree within you—left behind in this world. After countless ages, I too became the World Tree of this realm."

Ethan’s pulse quickened. "The World Tree? That sprout inside me?"

He had always assumed it was a strange form of his Energy core. Even when Morzan hinted at it, he’d never mentioned a name.

"It seems... my King is unaware of its true nature," the treant murmured. "I, too, don’t understand why our World Tree would grow within a human host. And moreover—a Royal Tree..."

He trailed off, lost in thought. After a moment, Ethan spoke again. "Can you tell me what the World Tree actually is?"

"Indeed," the old treant said gently. freёwebnoѵel.com

"Our World Tree, strictly speaking, is not a lineage at all. In truth, there is only one of us—the one inside you. The others in different worlds are merely its branches, roots, or seeds. Our purpose is to maintain the balance of nature itself.

"I must have been asleep for tens of thousands of years. My life is nearly at its end. Once I perish completely, this world will soon follow. I speak only of this minor world."

Ethan felt as if the ground had dropped away beneath him. That plump little sprout, he realized, was the one and only World Tree across all realms. The others were simply extensions. Only the one within him could experience rebirth. The old treant before him had no such power. When it died, this world—the Umbral Star—would die too.

Only planets with a World Tree could birth countless species. So... was there one on Earth as well, hidden beyond anyone’s knowledge?

At last, the treant gestured toward the goblet. "Please, my King—drink. My essence is no longer needed to sustain me. With your gift, I will enter nirvana, transforming into a seed. This world will thrive again, perhaps for millions of years."

Ethan hesitated, but the treant’s calm conviction left him no room to argue. He lifted the goblet and drank.

[Ding... System Notification: Completed the fortuitous quest, Save the Umbral Star. Reward: Bloodline Level +1.]

[Ding... System Notification: Completed the fortuitous quest, Drink the World Tree’s Essence. Reward: Unknown!]

Two notifications appeared in his mind. The first filled him with satisfaction, but the second, with its vague "Reward: Unknown," was just annoying. He checked himself carefully, hoping the sprout might have grown larger, but it felt exactly the same.

Sighing, he looked up. "Do you know where the Bloodline Map is hidden in this city?"

The treant smiled faintly. "I have slept for so long, I am not clear on recent events. But if such a thing lies here, you can ask that little monkey. And... please, take it with you. I am about to become a seed, and this dome will no longer stand."

’That monkey again’, Ethan thought with a grimace. So, he still had to coax the location out of it. As he pondered, the old treant’s face sank back into the wood, growing still and gray.

"Wait—I still wanted to ask how to get back to the surface!" Ethan blurted, but it was too late. Silence filled the hollow chamber.

He cursed under his breath and turned to leave. Without the staircase, he simply leapt down to the stone platform below. Outside, everything looked unchanged, though the glow of the ancient tree seemed dimmer.

"Squeak-squeak-squeak!"

The Medicine Spirit monkey came sprinting over, waving its arms and shrieking. Its eyes glistened with tears as it pointed frantically at the great tree.

Ethan tried to explain, but the monkey’s wailing only grew louder. He could see the hurt and anger in its expression—clearly, it believed he was to blame for the treant’s passing.

He sighed, trying to muster patience. He needed this creature’s help to find the Bloodline Map Fragment. Without it, this city was vast, and without being able to use his Soul sense, he might search the ruins for the rest of his life.