213 Three Stages of Transcendence (1/2)

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The space around the elder tree shook and rumbled at the force of its tree roots slamming into the ground. The sudden eruption of battle immediately startled Lilith, Zorbek, and the palace guards as they shot up abruptly from their resting spots in alarm.

The treants on the other hand, simply open their eyes for a brief moment before closing them and continued their hibernation. Since the 'birds' didn't cackle alarmingly, it meant there weren't any intruders. Evidently, they were used to the ant's persistent assaults on a regular basis.

However, it hadn't been a full 9 hours since the last battle between the elder tree and ants. Even if the ants attack frequently, it shouldn't be this frequent, right? Their kind would eventually be killed off at this rate, especially when the elder tree was slaughtering them like ants in both the metaphoric and literal sense.

”Do ants usually attack this frequent, elder?” Leon asked curiously.

”No. There is usually a day to three day's rest between their attacks. This is the first time they've attacked within the same day. Most likely it had something to do with your arrivals.” Elder Evergreen responded, before inputting his assumption.

Leon smiled wryly when he heard this. ”You won't blame me for this, right elder?”

”No, it doesn't matter. Whether those ants attack frequently or less frequently, the result will still be the same, that is to become nutrients for the elder tree.”

Towards this opinion, Elder Evergreen displayed irrefutable confidence in the tree spirit. He had witnessed many battles and not once had the elder tree's defenses ever been breached. It was a one-sided massacre.

Leon nodded in agreement. The elder tree's strength was unimaginable. But then he remembered the figure of the humanoid ant. It's strength also couldn't be measured from that distance, but just based on the pressure and aura exuded, it was exceedingly dangerous and beyond any ordinary Transcendents, he had seen.

Catching a glimpse of Elder Evergreen's profile, Leon thought that the elder was also not ordinary among Transcendents, although it was sealed and vaguely sensed.

”Elder, I have a request to make.”

Leon pondered for a moment before he stated.

Elder Evergreen gestured for him to continue, neither expressing his acceptance nor denial of the request and implied that the elder was willing to listen first before deciding after hearing his request.

”Can you explain to me about Transcendence and the different levels of the Transcendent Realm?”

The reason he asked was that he was sure that from the vague mentions in Arden's Diary, Celestial was an existence that could traverse among the stars, something only Divine Origin Realm practitioners were capable of.

He understood that the leap in power from breaking through to Divine State will generally be big, but he felt the leap from Transcendent to Celestial was far, far too big of a leap. If it was to compare awakening cultivation to divine cultivation, it was like a divine practitioner leaping from the Revolving Core Realm directly to Divine Origin Realm, skipping Heaven Ascension and Void Realm.

The gap was just that big. Which is why he suspected there were different levels or stages within the Transcendent Realm.

”So that was your request?” Elder Evergreen was surprised before shaking his head in a self-deprecating manner. ”And here I thought it was going to be some difficult request. Sure, I'll explain it to you. But first, I want to hear why know. Such a thing should be considered general knowledge, no?”

Leon smiled bitterly when he heard this. If it was considered general knowledge, then humanity wouldn't have fallen to such dire straits.

He began to explain the power structures of the Human Domain and the strongest awakeners he was aware of, before proceeding to further explain the beast's side with his limited knowledge. The best person to explain this part would be Lilith, but that girl wasn't willing to divulge much information about the Wildlands.

After Leon finished his explanation, Elder Evergreen could not help but sigh. Because Leon didn't mention the current strength of humanity and only talked about their situation in their prior conversation, he had been under the false impression that the foundation of humanity's cultivation was still as strong.

Elder Evergreen could not be blamed for having this misunderstanding. He had lived underground his whole and had been told that the surface was too dangerous for humans to live.

With his limited and outdated understanding of the world, he had naturally assumed the animals on the surface had grown in the same proportions of the ants, which was around 2000 times.

2000 times was enough for any animals to become a colossal being among colossal beings. And when Elder Evergreen follows that train of thought, the fact that humans were still alive on the surface made him believe that the western frontier was like a constant battlefield between titans and gods.

Elder Evergreen was silent for a long time before he recovered with a wry smile of his own.

”Pardon me, Child. I didn't expect the cultivation heritage of humanity to have regressed to such point.” The elder apologizes beginning his explanation on Transcendents.

”There are three minor realms that exist within the Transcendent Realm, namely; the Preliminary Accession, Seeking Insight, and Acknowledged Paragon. Transcendence is the process of exceeding human boundaries and gaining the world's recognition for it.”