Chapter 1 The Roar

Hao Ren had barely recovered from the dizziness caused by the mental link when he heard a thunderous roar. He nearly passed out again—after all, he was connecting with a "Firstborn," and even with the Soul-Suppressing Stone of the Spirit Thief, the stone was at best a firewall. It didn't do much to enhance the stability or comfort of the connection, and his mental state wasn't exactly rock solid at this point.

So, he staggered for a few seconds, then managed to "see" his surroundings clearly.

The scene before him was spectacular and frightening.

He stood on an endless ocean, the entire surface a disturbing, pitch-black color. Dark waves surged, one after another, churning the world. A leaden sky pressed down, with only a dim circle of light on the horizon that, instead of bringing brightness, only intensified the oppressive atmosphere. In this nightmarish world of black water, gloomy clouds, storms, and twilight, all that could be seen was a strangely shaped mountain in the distance, rising abruptly from the sea.

Hao Ren was surprised: he was actually seeing something tangible in the Firstborn's mental domain that a human could understand.

The mental form of the Firstborn was extremely peculiar. To humans, their thoughts and memories were an indescribable, blurry shadow, a torrent of difficult-to-interpret information swirling in their vast minds, forming shapeless, illogical fluctuations. In Hao Ren's connection with Zorm, for example, he had only seen an amorphous mass of light surrounded by chaotic space: and that was only because Hao Ren himself was a demigod, his spirit partially compatible with the Firstborn.

But here, this turbulent, dark ocean baffled Hao Ren: Could the Firstborn actually generate a solidified mental sea?

His confusion didn't last long. The booming voice echoed again from the distance: "You grandson! Coward! Come out and fight me three hundred rounds! If you can't kill me today, you're not the one who birthed me! I'll fight you to the death!"

Hao Ren was nearly blasted into the mental sea below—though that was just an illusion. As an intangible, immaterial mental entity, he wasn't subject to gravity here. As long as he was awake, he certainly wouldn't fall. But regardless, the roar was certainly stimulating: who would have thought that Yggdrasil, the World Tree, would have such a vigorous personality?! Speaking of which, Ygg-brother (or sister?) this cursing style doesn't seem very Norse…

Hao Ren steadied himself and looked towards the strange, thorny black mountain on the distant sea.

If he wasn't mistaken, the shout had come from that direction.

Moving in the mental world was a highly technical matter, because there was no real "physical feedback." Except for those special life forms born as spirits, ordinary creatures needed a long time just to adapt to their soul form in the mental sea, let alone move around in the mental world of a Firstborn. Even Hao Ren had struggled quite a bit before finally adapting to the "environmental constraints" of this black ocean. He turned towards the thorny mountain and accelerated towards it, slowly at first, then faster.

During this process, the cursing from the thorny mountain was almost constant. The voice, presumably Yggdrasil, was constantly provoking some enemy in the world with all sorts of insults, using a variety of styles, from the rough "screw your mother" to the refined "why doesn't your excellency ride the wind." He must have cycled through at least seven or eight thesauruses. Hao Ren had never encountered anyone who could develop cursing to such a high degree—if you ignored the vulgarity, it was damn near an art! Had Yggdrasil been doing nothing for two thousand years but cursing?

The storms and waves on the black ocean seemed to echo the fierce cursing, rolling with a thunderous roar. But no matter how loud the roar, it couldn't drown out the voice from the thorny mountain, which further convinced Hao Ren that it was Yggdrasil cursing.

Finally, he reached the foot of the thorny mountain and was surprised to find that it wasn't a mountain at all: it was actually a mass of twisted thorns.

Or rather, some kind of deformed, flame-like, tangled Firstborn tentacle.

Countless black and red tentacles stretched up from the depths of the dark ocean, intertwining to form a magnificent mountain thousands of meters high on the surface of the sea. There was no dirt or rock between the tentacles. The entire mountain was a complete combination of tentacles, and deep within this combination, a dim red light could be seen flashing rhythmically, like breathing. This was undoubtedly Yggdrasil's image in the mental world.

Hao Ren slowly approached the thorny mountain. The dark sea around it was much calmer, and the violent waves and storms were mostly unable to get within a kilometer of it. He found the largest tentacle on the mountain, something that seemed to go "straight to the core." Hao Ren stood on the platform formed by this tentacle's curves and tried to call out: "Yggdrasil?"

The heaven-shaking cursing stopped instantly, and then a rumbling sound came from inside the thorny mountain: "Who's there?!"

Hao Ren didn't expect it to be so easy to talk to this "Firstborn." He remembered that Mimiel had had a difficult time communicating with him, and couldn't even hear what Yggdrasil was saying—now it seemed that his peculiar talent for mental connection was really useful.

Even better, according to the information sent by the Datastream from the real world, the "World Tree branches" that ran through the Nine Realms had not been affected by his mental connection, which meant that the previous judgment was correct: the "Firstborn's" unstable state was due to the struggle between the diseased and healthy brain cores. As long as the nerve fibers around the two brain cores were controlled, Yggdrasil's condition would not worsen.

"I'm here to help," Hao Ren steeled himself and tried to adjust his mental state to the most peaceful level. He knew that the Firstborn were skilled in mental and spiritual power, and that his mental state during the direct connection was the most important factor in determining the success rate of the communication. "We're standing near your mental organ. I'm speaking directly to you through a special mental connection. We've seen the lesion in your mental organ: a corrupted 'brain core' is fighting your healthy brain core for dominance. We're trying to…"

Before Hao Ren could finish, the top of the thorny mountain suddenly trembled, and a mass of constantly shifting light appeared on the summit. Yggdrasil's voice came from the light: "Run! You're standing on the edge of an abyss! Adventurers, do you have no sense of self-preservation?!"

"Wait, wait," Hao Ren said quickly, trying to calm him down. "Don't worry, don't worry, we're fine—we're professionals at dealing with this kind of situation."

"Professionals?!" Yggdrasil's voice was almost deafening. "Do you know who I am?! Do you know who my creator is? Of course I know there's something wrong with me, that's why I'm waiting to die! You can't…"

The moment Hao Ren heard the word "creator," his heart skipped a beat. He suddenly realized that this Firstborn probably still remembered the Dream Plane!

So he replied immediately, "Of course I know you. Your creator is the Mother of All Life, the Creation Goddess. You are the Primeval Vine hatched from the Seed of Origin, the Firstborn of God. Am I right?"

Whether it was an illusion or not, Hao Ren felt that the entire dark ocean seemed to freeze for a moment as his words fell, and then the storms and waves continued as before, but Yggdrasil's attitude had completely changed: "You actually know my mother?! Who exactly are you?"

"Like you, I'm a demigod," Hao Ren said, recalling the most effective opening line they had discussed with Zorm and Mu Lu about when meeting other guardians. "My team and I are investigating the truth of the war ten thousand years ago. We've found many crucial pieces of evidence and witnesses, and you should be one of the most important."

"Demigod… oh, I see, no wonder you can stand here. I can feel the enormous energy contained in your soul… and some purer external forces," Yggdrasil's voice was full of interest. "You actually crossed the barrier between two worlds?!"

Although it was expected, Hao Ren was still slightly surprised. "You know about the Wall of Reality?"

"The Wall of Reality? Is that what you call it? Well, whatever it's called, of course I know about it! Because Mother ordered me to cross that 'wall'!"