Chapter 1 The Beginning

Above the Sea of Raging Fury, the weather repeats its unpredictable cycle of sunshine and storms.

Due to volcanic geothermal activity and warm ocean currents, the sky can be clear one moment and a pitch-black, rainy expanse the next.

In the ever-changing eastern part of the Sea of Raging Fury, on a small island closer to the Continent of Wind, a live volcano exhales what seems like never-ending black smoke.

Without a doubt, this is an island formed by a volcanic eruption, and the volcano that created it is still active. Such active volcanic islands form at least a thousand groups, large and small, in the Sea of Raging Fury. Their latent dangers make even Wind Folk adventurers, who specialize in exploration, treat them with caution.

But for the same reason, lava is the blood of the world, containing a large amount of elemental magic. If properly utilized, an active volcano can become the best energy source for a magical stronghold.

Just like the lava cave in this volcanic island.

"Send me the spatial report."

Like shells scraping against each other, a buzzing vibration echoed in the scorching lava cave, prompting an angry rumbling response: "At top speed!"

This angry reprimand carried a certain magical effect. It instantly cooled the hot air in the entire volcanic cave. In a corner of the cave, a wisp of fire elemental essence was condensing, attached to a mineral crystal in the cave. Given time, it might have evolved into a basic fire elemental sprite, but the sound, with its deathly stillness and chill directly from the underworld, made it shrink back.

Words of power.

No matter the world or the race, language, or rather, "a channel for exchanging information," is sacred and contains power.

Whether it's traditional yanling, dragon shouts, spells that follow words, sealed-mouth meditation, or holy words, the foundation of these techniques and divine powers lies in the power of language. The strength contained in that voice just now, enough to suppress the volcanic environment and the birth of fire sprites with a casual word, is something that even ordinary blessed ones might not be able to do.

On the Holy Fire Continent and the Distant Wind Continent, there are forty-six blessed ones who worship the three gods. Among them, no more than twenty can suppress a volcanic eruption with their own power, and none possess such a cold and deathly power—the Tartarus World is in the early days of a new era, and transcendent beings have long lifespans. Neither transcendent power nor inheritance has reached the point where they need to touch the power of the underworld.

"Sigh, so many unexpected events."

As the speaker's mood calmed, the chill in the lava cave gradually dissipated. The deathly pressure that faintly permeated the entire volcano gradually retreated into the body of a robed oddity at the center of many magic circles.

This robed oddity was tall, standing in the center of the semi-circular cave dome. Centered on him, circular magic circles were unfolding one after another. They rotated, and the power of the Source expanded along the runes and lines of the magic circles, forming a three-dimensional sanctuary structure. The entire sanctuary formation was drawing power from the entire volcano and gradually converting it into the purest magic, which converged toward the robed oddity.

At this moment, the oddity, waiting for the report from his subordinate, removed his hood—revealing a Wind Folk, an Antkin, face.

The human forms of the Antkin are mostly tall, and this one was no exception, standing nearly three meters tall, with a highly muscular, brown exoskeleton structure—but for some reason, this oddity's body didn't seem as powerful as a typical Antkin, but rather appeared somewhat weak, even emaciated.

Like a skeleton.

Of course, unlike humans, whose bones are wrapped in flesh and blood, as a branch of the insectoid race with exoskeletons, the Antkin's skeleton doesn't look much different from a living Antkin... In fact, although this Antkin's exoskeleton looked intact, one could see that deep blue soul light flickered within him, and the body under the robe, inlaid with gems and runes, further proved one thing.

He was a lich—a rare Antkin lich.

This lich waited patiently for a while, and then received a rather fearful message from his subordinate.

"I'm sorry, Lord Ansente… For some reason, the spatial report is delayed! I'm not lying, but it's true. I can't transmit the report to you immediately. I'm afraid you'll have to wait a few more minutes…"

The anxious and fractured voice came from the other end of the communication magic circle. The lich, called Ansente, was initially shocked, and then burst into anger: "Nonsense! How is that possible? How could the task report on spatial records be delayed!"

"Even worlds more powerful than this one, space has never… No, wait."

Halfway through the reprimand, Ansente seemed to have thought of something. The Antkin lich stopped speaking and frowned: "Spatial delay… Indeed, it's not impossible."

He couldn't help but recall the few accidents he had personally experienced, and the legends circulating in the Pioneer Space.

[Far-Seeing · Ansente].

A well-known solo adventurer in the Pioneer Space, a grand magister specializing in elemental magic, who once won the top spot in a large-scale multiplayer joint exploration mission called [The Wishing War] by defeating six other teams single-handedly. He successfully obtained a chance for perfect resurrection, and became famous among all the explorers.

However, no matter how strong he was, accidents could happen when exploring the unknown alone.

After Ansente completed the [Wishing War] exploration mission, he followed the guidance of the Pioneer Space and went to an S-class world called [Dark Wolf · Penetrating Celestial Divine Tree] for exploration… And it was here that he made a big mistake.

The worldview of [Penetrating Celestial Divine Tree] was very peculiar. It was a world entirely occupied by a divine tree called the ‘Panrong Undying Tree’. The entire planet was nothing more than soil from which this divine tree drew nourishment. It constituted the entire natural environment of that world, and humans built cities and lived among its shade and roots.

At the same time, various monsters and demonic creatures derived from the many undying divine trees rampaged in the wild. In response, humans could only gradually shrink their living space, relying on another kind of divine tree power called the ‘Continuing Legacy Tree’ to resist the erosion of the undying divine trees and construct huge sanctuary cities one after another.

And the protagonist in this worldview was a young man burdened with the blessing of the Continuing Legacy Tree, but who had lost his memory.

He woke up from a dark and silent underground laboratory, and as soon as his self-awareness was born, he was dragged into the most secret plan within the world's highest government, the ‘Celestial Alignment,’ and the conflict with the Undying Cult, which worshipped the undying divine trees.

He had to constantly fight against these two forces, while uncovering the truth of his own background, slaying the undying monsters of the world, and repelling the powerful warriors of the Celestial Alignment and the cyborgs of the Undying Cult.

Ansente's original mission was to assist the protagonist [Zhou Zhou] in eliminating a fully mature, high-ranking commander-level demon, the ‘Celestial Calamity Wood Dragon’, located in the ‘Giant Underground Sanctuary City · Celestial Capital’, to avert the city's destruction. Afterwards, he was to work with the protagonist to sever the interference of the undying divine tree in this city, and help the Continuing Legacy Tree accumulate power to counterattack the undying divine tree.

But in the end, Ansente was too greedy and coveted the divine tree power possessed by ‘Zhou Zhou’, as well as the ‘Undying Divine Root’ left behind by the Celestial Calamity Wood Dragon at the end, so he planned to launch a counterattack after killing the Celestial Calamity Wood Dragon. He was willing to fail the main quest in order to seize Zhou Zhou's divine tree power and that Undying Divine Root, which was at least S-grade.

But as a result, Ansente, who failed to kill Zhou Zhou in one strike, triggered the hidden Boss in the [Penetrating Celestial Divine Tree] worldview—namely, the legendary body of the Continuing Legacy Tree, [Shenmu Buyi]!

Although Shenmu Buyi's power had not yet broken through the Overlord rank, it was hundreds of times more profound than ordinary commander-level beings, so exaggerated that it was practically cheating. Ordinary Overlord-level beings were probably not as powerful as him.

With one blow, he directly shattered the Celestial Calamity Wood Dragon's nest, causing Ansente's physical body to collapse and his soul to be severely damaged. If he hadn't obtained a chance for perfect resurrection in the [Wishing War] world, he wouldn't have even had the chance to transform into a lich. And if he hadn't escaped by transforming into a lich, he would have probably died a second time after resurrecting.

Finally, when Ansente returned to the Pioneer Space in a disheveled state, what he saw was [Shenmu Buyi] confronting the awakening [Panrong Undying Tree]. The aura of the two divine trees, one small and one large, even broke through the atmosphere and soared into the high heavens.

This was probably the original meaning of the name of the [Penetrating Celestial Divine Tree] world.

And it was at that time that Ansente first noticed that his space mission report had experienced a brief delay… It was delayed by at least a few minutes, and then it slowly listed his gains and losses in the [Penetrating Celestial Divine Tree] world.

This was hard to imagine—how could such a powerful Pioneer Space be delayed?

However, Ansente didn't pay too much attention to it at the time, because he was in the critical period of lich transformation to continue his life, so he didn't have the mind to care about these things.

But even so, Ansente's experience served as a warning to all adventurers in the Pioneer Space: The Space certainly encourages exploration, doing things that can explore more unknowns, but before taking action, one should consider one's own capital.

The water is very deep in every mission world, and one cannot underestimate it. Otherwise, the Pioneer Space wouldn't have sent them there to complete missions.

Originally, Ansente, as a native of the Tartarus world, felt that his hometown didn't actually have much deep water.

As a member of the Antkin tribe in the past, he had always lived as an ordinary farmer under the arrangement of the Wind Lord. It wasn't until he had enough of such boring days and received the call of the Pioneer Space that Ansente felt that there was anything special about his world.

Yes, the Wind God, the Fire God, and the Judgment God are all gods. The three gods are indeed very strong. Even in the evaluation of the Pioneer Space, they have the strength of the Overlord rank and are natural gods who have obtained innate divine objects.

But that was all.

The hidden Boss ‘Shenmu Buyi’ in the [Penetrating Celestial Divine Tree] world also had power similar to theirs, or even surpassing them, not to mention the ‘Panrong Undying Tree’, which was even stronger than Shenmu Buyi and occupied most of the natural power of that world!

The power of that divine tree, in the delayed report of the Space, had entered the rank of ‘Immortal’, surpassing the Overlord! It was an existence that was enough to suppress the world and control all things, the ultimate super life!

In addition, the ‘Progenitor Dragon’ who was responsible for fulfilling wishes in the [Wishing War] world; the Six Paths of Tribulation Lords who ravaged the world in the [Six Paths Heavenly Demon] world; and the Twilight Dragon who intended to end all things in the [Twilight Strife] world… These powerful existences, these super lives at the top in multiple worlds, were far stronger than the three gods of his hometown!

With the help of the Pioneer Space, witnessing the powerful existences of so many unknown worlds, Ansente initially held a high-up, condescending attitude towards his hometown.

——I have seen scenery you cannot imagine. I have seen the servants of the Twilight Dragon climbing out of the abyss, and the Six Paths Heavenly Demon riding meteorites flying down from the burning sky.

Indeed, the three gods were existences that he could not compare with now, but under the cultivation of the Pioneer Space, he was destined to surpass them in the future.

But, as mentioned earlier, Ansente, who originally thought that his mother world was ordinary and had few undercurrents, discovered many incredible things in this world when he returned.

During his first return, he saw a trace of hazy gray mist outside the protective shield given by the Pioneer Space.

And through that hazy gray mist, Ansente, who fell into spiritual vision, seemed to see that hazy thing that enveloped the entire world and was breeding in the depths of the earth…

And it was at that time that he noticed that the report of the Space was delayed again, and it slowly listed his report after a long time.

This may indicate that… there are also existences similar to the ‘Panrong Undying Tree’ in his mother world, or even more powerful ones.

"Could it be that the struggle between the Judgment Dragon and the Judgment Lord is related to that gray mist?"

With too little information, the Antkin lich paced back and forth in the magic circle, stirring up bursts of elemental light mist.

At this time, his heart was filled with fear and excitement: "Originally, I thought I understood the situation in my hometown very well, but now it seems that I don't understand it at all!"

"The water is deep, the water is too deep!"

Ordinary people would naturally feel a little frustrated when encountering such things. This kind of thing that was originally full of certainty suddenly becoming unpredictable is indeed a very annoying feeling.

But for the explorers in the Pioneer Space, this kind of noticing the novelty in their original familiar things is the most wonderful thing in the world.

And at this time, Ansente finally received the report from his subordinate.

The Pioneer Space actually encourages team exploration. After all, how much unknown can one see alone? With multiple perspectives, the explored areas will become larger, so every explorer who gets an A or above rating will get an ‘Exploration Team Building Permission’ to establish a multi-person exploration team.

But, it's a bit embarrassing to say… Ansente has a bit of social anxiety.

It was precisely because of social anxiety that the Antkin lich was incompatible with the Wind Lord's constructed mental network and the collective life of the Antkin race.

Can you imagine?! The Antkin actually have collective bathhouses, with hundreds of people bathing together! And they eat in groups of hundreds or thousands, and their blind dates and pairings are also in groups of hundreds or thousands… Even if he didn't join the Pioneer Space, Ansente felt that he would eventually not be able to stand that damned environment and defect to the Seven Seas to become a pirate.

But even with social anxiety like Ansente, in order to facilitate the collection of information in his hometown, he still used the Exploration Team Building Permission to recruit two local subordinates on two continents to collect information to assist in completing tasks.

One of them happens to be doing business in Sunsetglow City recently. He witnessed the divine descent of the Judgment Lord, and the subsequent battle between the two Judgment Lords.

At this time, the report from this subordinate was transmitted to Ansente's mind.

[Optional Faction Mission: Ascend to Divinity]

[Help the Seven Seas Pirates obtain the Soul of Source Water and ascend to the position of the Water God. For each Water God born, gain one B-grade Opening Permission and 7000 Exploration Points.]

[Optional World Mission: Reconstruct the Cycle]

[Break the stagnant era and recreate the era cycle. Successfully reshape the era, break the cycle of reincarnation, gain one S-grade Opening Permission and 80000 Exploration Points.]

[Optional Team Mission: The Myriad Peoples of the Sea]

[Help the Sea Folk establish their own kingdom. Depending on the degree of completion, obtain one C-grade Opening Permission and 2000 Exploration Points, to two A-grade Opening Permissions and 60000 Exploration Points.]

Ansente only glanced at these simple task reports—they were all tasks that he had deliberately triggered after returning to his mother world.

Missions in the mother world are considered a bonus for explorers.

After all, exploring other worlds not only takes a short time, but also requires the completion of various main quests, making it very difficult to explore the world while completing the mission.

But the mother world is different. Here, except for triggering them yourself, there are no compulsory tasks, and every explorer must be very familiar with their hometown, so exploring along the clues is naturally much easier than exploring an unfamiliar world.

Ansente is very clear about the ins and outs of the above tasks, and he is also very clear about how high the difficulty of those tasks is—at least he can be sure that the Pioneer Space did not trick him, they are indeed so difficult.

Then, he glanced at the bottom of the report.

[Investigation into the Background of the Tartarus World]

[Completion: Medium. Obtain 6549 Exploration Points, one B-grade Opening Permission.]

Even in his extremely familiar hometown, plus a long time of exploration, Ansente's exploration of the background of this world is only a mere ‘Medium’.

Even so, he got a B-grade mission reward for it.

And according to the Pioneer Space's evaluation of 'Very Few, Few, Medium, High, Very High, Perfect', if he completely investigates the background of his hometown, he may be able to get a reward that surpasses an S-grade mission!

But for Ansente, the most important thing is still a hidden mission that appeared with the investigation into the Tartarus World, that is, in the eyes of other Pioneer Space explorers, the background of the [A Song of Wind and Fire] world.

[Final Chain · Awaken the Great: Source of Life · Destination of Death]

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