Tianxuan Continent, capital city of the largest human kingdom, the Divine Flame Nation—Divine Flame City.
As soon as they entered the city, Yali looked up toward the direction of the royal palace.
"This Haotian Venerable is indeed extraordinary. His strength is definitely not inferior to that of the Sea God Venerable," Yali raised her brows.
When they first arrived at the Heavenly Profound Continent, they had already investigated the powers of all sides.
The human Haotian Venerable was supposed to be at the Demi-God level. A few years ago, he fought a great battle against the demon army and was nearly defeated by the Terror Demon Lord. If it weren't for the Sea God Venerable's intervention, he might have perished.
But now, he had actually become a peak quasi-god, and just like the Sea God Venerable, his spiritual power had broken through to the Divine Origin Realm, just one step away from becoming a true god.
There was definitely something strange going on.
Even if Haotian Venerable had only recently broken through—
Why hadn't they announced such morale-boosting news to the public?
"Could it be that the three Venerables of the Heavenly Profound Continent are all peak quasi-gods?" Yuanen Yehui couldn't help but ask.
"Let's go see for ourselves," Yali replied.
The group once again arrived at the Eternal Forest, home of the elf race.
The Eternal Forest was similar to the Star Dou Forest on the Douluo Continent—both were primordial forests. However, it was far more lush than the Star Dou Forest.
The Star Dou Forest had been too severely damaged by humans. Whether in size or vegetation density, it was no match for the Eternal Forest.
Human destruction was one reason, but even setting that aside, the Star Dou Forest could hardly compare to the Eternal Forest. After all, the Star Dou Forest was home to massive soul beasts; just walking or running would damage the forest.
But the Eternal Forest was inhabited by elves. They had neither the massive bodies of soul beasts nor their belligerent nature.
Even the weakest among Xia Yi's group, Ye Xinglan, was at least a Soul Douluo, able to fly through the air. They quickly found the elven settlement.
In the vast forest, mushroom-shaped wooden huts occasionally appeared, each surrounded by ivy and blooming flowers. Elves with pointed ears, both men and women, carrying bows and arrows, moved swiftly through the forest.
In the center of a larger settlement stood a towering ancient tree, its verdant canopy blocking out the sky. No one knew how many years it had lived. Its trunk was so wide that dozens of people couldn't wrap their arms around it. Its thick branches stretched for miles.
According to their previous intel, this tree was the Sacred Tree of the Elf Race, the Tree of Eternity, and the home of the third Venerable of the Heavenly Profound Continent—the Eternal Venerable.
Although the Eternal Venerable wasn't actually an elf, the outside world recognized him as the elf race's protector.
Compared to the Sea God Venerable and the Haotian Venerable, the Eternal Venerable was truly only at the demi-god level. But that didn't mean he was weak.
As soon as Xia Yi's group appeared in the sky above, the Eternal Venerable noticed them. Countless green branches shot up, supporting them in the air.
"Third-level Divine Origin Realm spiritual power." Yali instantly sensed his level. Demi-god strength with third-level Divine Origin spiritual power.
What kind of configuration was that?
In her memory, only Leng Yulai had a similar setup.
As the Eternal Venerable made his move, the elven elders immediately sensed the group's presence and attacked as well—several Title Douluo-level elders joining in.
"We mean no harm," Yali raised her brows. On Seagod Island earlier, they had been detected by the Seagod Venerable because they were careless.
The Seagod Venerable, for some reason—perhaps because she wasn't confident in defeating Yali—chose not to make a move.
With that lesson in mind, Yali had specifically restrained her aura in Divine Flame City and avoided being detected by Haotian Venerable.
She had done the same here in the Eternal Forest—yet the Eternal Venerable, with his third-level Divine Origin Realm, still sensed them and even directly attacked.
Behind Yali, six pairs of pure white angelic wings of the Wish Angel unfurled. Beams of holy light fell and formed a protective shield around Xia Yi and the others.
Ding! Ding! Ding!
The Eternal Venerable and the elven elders' attacks hit the holy light barrier, creating deep ripples, but they couldn't break it.
"Withdraw. You can't harm this human Venerable," the Eternal Venerable recalled his branches and signaled the elven elders to return to the ground. He addressed Xia Yi's group: "You came to find me, I assume you have something important to discuss? If so, why not come down and talk."
"Let's go down." Since they had already revealed themselves, there was no need to hide anymore. With great confidence, the group descended to the foot of the Tree of Eternity.
Upon landing, Xia Yi noticed something—the elven wooden huts weren't made from felled trees but were carved from naturally hollow ancient trees. Some were even more incredible—trees that had grown naturally into house shapes, surrounded by flourishing branches and leaves, brimming with natural charm.
Living in such houses occasionally would definitely be a pleasant experience.
But living here long-term?
With human nature, probably very few people could tolerate it.
Too inconvenient?
"You all possess extraordinary strength. Where are you from, and why have you come to my Eternal Forest?" a wrinkled elder's face appeared on the trunk of the Tree of Eternity.
"We mean no harm," Yali emphasized again, then asked curiously:
"I visited the Sea God Venerable and Haotian Venerable before, and they were both stronger than I expected. Eternal Venerable, you're the same. I can't understand—given the three of you possess such great power, it should be easy to drive out the demon army. Why, then, are you letting them continue to consume the Continent?"
"I have something to discuss with this human Venerable. The rest of you, please withdraw," said the Eternal Venerable, dispersing the surrounding elven elders. A green light fell, cutting them off from the outside world.
"It's better they don't know too much," the Eternal Venerable smiled bitterly and looked at Yali with a helpless expression.
"I'm just a tree. If this were in the past, I could have done more. But now, I can't leave the place where I'm rooted. All I can do is protect the Eternal Forest.
As for you all—you're clearly not natives of the Continent. Why have you come here?"
"How did you know we're from another world?" Yali asked.
"The Tianxuan Continent couldn't have produced a Venerable as powerful as you," the Eternal Venerable looked at her meaningfully, sighed, and continued,
"You're only one step away from becoming a god. I imagine you've made many efforts, tried many ways to achieve that. If I'm not mistaken, you came here because of the demons.
You want to help us expel the demons and in the process earn a portion of the faith power, using that to become a god, right?"
"If you insist on saying it that way, sure," Yali looked at him in surprise.What he said was entirely accurate. She and Xia Yi had indeed come for the power of faith.
"Then I advise you to leave," the Eternal Venerable said softly.
"Our plane only has so much faith power. If you forcefully take a share, you'll be cutting off someone else's path to godhood.
To block another's path to godhood is an unforgivable offense.
I know you're powerful—the Sea Dragon Venerable and Haotian Venerable may not be your match—but the supporters behind them are not people you can afford to provoke."