Soul of Searing Steel
chapter-176

Humans, elves, and dwarves were all the same from the original bloodline. Their place of birth was the first land that had no forests, which already existed even before the ancient times. That was also the reason why the people from three races could have interracial marriages and give birth to normal offspring. That was because, even though they had different lifespans and Gifts, however, deep down in nature, they were all the same.

Just as there were many different races of human beings, the dwarves also had several major tribes with different cultural backgrounds. Even the elves had many descendants. Meanwhile, the dominant bloodline of all the elves would be the wood elves in the Far South.

The Holy Relic of these Far South wood elves would be the [Tree of Life]. According to legends, the Tree of Life was the first tree in this world. It had once being watered by the River of Fate and bathed in the light of the Initial Flame. Its leaves are carrying the power to revive all living beings and to cure all diseases. Its fruits can rejuvenate people, making people physically stronger, and even prolong the lives of those who were dying.

Of course, those were just rumors and legends. Some things were not true. As Joshua already knew that the Tree of Life had never produced fruits before. The so-called fruits were actually the new sprouts that the Tree of Life would grow each year. Carrying along a large amount of pure vitality, the person who consumes it would have his or her body enhanced. In the meantime, he or she would also acquire a supernatural ability called [Immunity to all Diseases].

Meanwhile, there was more than just one Tree of Life. Every large gathering region of the Wood elves would have one Tree of Life. However, the Tree of Life that was located at the Lake of Eternity in Far South was almost a thousand meters tall. That was the sacred tree that everyone was talking about.

In the courtyard of the mansion, Joshua had met the messenger who sent the fruits over to his place.

This messenger was a giant bird, more like an owl that was completely blue in color.

Unlike any other ordinary homing pigeons, this kind of messenger owl which was well-trained by the elves had feet that were as long as three meters. It has a very strong body. They might be even tougher than ordinary Steel-tier warriors. Furthermore, these creatures had the wisdom of a child. They could fly extremely fast. Also, they could maintain their strength and stamina with magical elements. They only need to eat once a month. They also possessed high endurance, hence, making them the perfect messengers.

On the foot of this messenger, there was a beautiful little bag with elven patterns on it. The owl quietly stood on the branch of a tree in the yard and waited until Joshua came up to it. Then only it turned its eyes as if it was identifying whether Joshua was the target or not.

At first, it wanted to get up so that it could fly closer and hand over the parcel. However, the moment when it saw Joshua looking directly into its eyes, a horrifying shock came surging through the spiritual mind of the poor owl, causing its entire body to feel drained. It became so weak that it could not even grab on to the branch of the tree properly. It fell right off towards the ground.

The warrior's Fear Aura had evolved into an impact attack that was similar to some sort of spiritual attack.

Just as the messnger owl became so stiff that it could not move and was about to hit the ground, a hand came in and grabbed its wing. It was Joshua. He then took the parcel of the owl's leg and placed the owl nice and steady on the ground, gently.

The messenger owl was still remained paralyzed, standing on the ground like a statue, stunned. Meanwhile, Joshua had already opened up the little parcel to see the goods inside.

This parcel looked just like the other storage boxes. It was cast with shrinking spell and weight-reducing spell. There were two detailed and delicately decorated boxes and one letter in the small box.

Joshua took out the letter first.

This letter was not sent by Clyre though. The elven druid was still planting the seeds of the sun vines all over the other parts of the North. This was written by the Windsong Tribe where Clyre hailed from when they first received news about it. The rough meaning of the letter would be stating that they had understood what Clyre had gone through in the North. As Clyre's friends and elders, they were very grateful for what Joshua had done for her.

They also expressed great regret that Joshua had to experience an excessive loss of vitality. However, the elves would definitely be courteous and generous to their friends. In order to express their gratitude towards Joshua, they were willing to give Joshua two 'Fruits of the Tree of Life' as a token of gratitude.

Other than that, they had also prepared other gifts. However, the gifts did not come along with the messenger owl of course. They had sent a party departed from their homeland just to deliver the gifts to Joshua. They would be able to arrive at the territory after a brief period of time.

"… It's been almost a month. I am almost fully recovered with my self-recovery ability."

After reading the letter, Joshua sighed gently. After all, he knew everyone was the same as he was. No everyone had the power of the Azurite to support them. Normally, when a normal person loses his or her vitality, they would basically look older than their current age. Meanwhile, upon resting up for a month, Joshua's hair which most of it had turned white previously had once again turned black again. From the looks of it, he could fully recover back to his best state in weeks.

After patting the head of the messenger owl, a soft and gentle force was felt coming through the owl and nullified the stiffness in the entire body of the owl, allowing it to recover its mobility. It could finally move again- However, the awkward part about it was that the moment when the big owl could move again, it immediately flew into the sky and fled as if its life was depending on it. In just a blink of an eye, the owl had already gone flying into the sky and flew away towards the South- far away from Joshua.

Well… he had not written any letter in reply yet.

It was not because the warrior could not stop an owl from fleeing. Well, it would be too serious of him to use his power to stop a bird from fleeing. After laughing and shaking his head, Joshua took the parcel and returned to his mansion.

From the window on the second floor of the mansion, down on the ground by the stable, Ying was seen with her frowning face as she was holding a brush, brushing Black's hair, while it slept. However, after noticing that Joshua was looking at her, Ying immediately looked up and smiled, waving her hand saying hello to Joshua. In the meantime, the warrior also nodded and waved back at her as a response.

Meanwhile, in the study room, Ling was looking at a report seriously, biting the head of his pen. Upon having deep thoughts for a brief moment, he lifted his pen to guide himself through a paragraph of text. After that, he carried on to handle the next document.

"It's really a lot easier for me now."

After letting out a sigh, Joshua returned to his own room. After that, he took out the two exquisite boxes from the parcel box. Without any hesitation, he opened the first box straight away.

Magical runes were beginning to overflow out from the box like the movement of water. Along with the opening of the box and the removal of the spell that was casted upon the sealed box, instantly, the entire room was filled with an extremely dense presence of life in the form of gentle wind, brewing softly across every corner of the room. The presence of life had made Joshua felt like he was currently in the depths of a lively jungle, sensing the flourishing force of nature all around him. Joshua took in a breath of air that turned fresh all of a sudden. Even with his strength, he could not help but feel a boost in his spirit and mind. His body felt much more comfortable now.

Upon opening this beautifully decorated medium-sized box, there was a small green sprout of a tree right in the middle of it. However, this tree sprout was unusually large, if one was to look at it as a tree sprout. It was as large as a regular person's fist. It had a bluish complexion on its surface. Layers of the presence of life were rippling out from it. The rippling waves were so intense that they became visible to the naked eye, making the tree sprout looked like a treasure.

Since Joshua had already eaten several fruits of the Tree of Life before in previous life, he had not much intention to savor its appearance anymore. He simply picked it up and took a bite right into it. After chewing on the first bite several times, he swallowed it in. Suddenly, a dense presence of life began to overflow. Waves of warm energy began to flow from the stomach of Joshua throughout every part of his body. As the life force was flowing through his body, numerous light injuries on the warrior's body were instantly healed. Meanwhile, the white hair right on top of Joshua's head was falling off at a speed that could be seen with the naked eye. After that, a new thick layer of black hair grew right back on his head.

However, there was nothing more than this. Joshua's Gold-tier body was already almost perfect in a sense. He had already reached the point where all diseases could no longer invade his body. Some natural poisons were no longer effective on him as well. Hence, this normal fruit of the Tree of Life could only increase his attributes a little bit at most, and also heal up some inner injuries deep inside his body. Only that tree sprout from the eternal Holy tree could give an obvious boost to his attributes and strength.

However, the Tree of Life grew slowly in the first place. Also, the leaves on the Tree of Life would almost never fall. In order to obtain them, especially to get the sacred tree's newly grown tree sprout, one had to wait over an uncertain amount of time. After all, the tree sprout were deemed to be Legendary Mystical Items that could not be bought with money.

"… The taste is a bit better than the ones I tasted before in the previous life. The flavor of spring, and it's sweeter than I thought."

After eating the fruit if the Tree of Life, Joshua knew that he had enough of it. Currently, his body was overwhelmed with life force. He even had the itch to move his muscles in battle. The second fruit of the Tree of Life would not have given him anymore effect even if he consume it now. Unless the warrior was injured again in the future days and he needed to replenish his life force again in the future, this fruit should stay in storage for the moment.

However, it seemed that because of the overflowing energy in the body, Joshua could feel the Azurite slowly warming up right before his chest.

The warrior took out the Azurite that was hanging on his chest. Then he carefully examined the blue-green crystal that was radiating. The core of it no longer emitting dazzling lights. However, it was still slowly burning in the middle of the crystal. The sacred runes were flowing all over it, exuding powers that reassure people.

Currently, due to the overflowing power of Joshua, it seemed to be stimulated, causing it to release pure Order radiance into its surroundings.

"So who exactly is the Sage who left behind the Azurite and the Dual Blades of Order?"

Staring at the kindling flame, the Legacy Crystal which could guide him into the 'King of Searing Soul' Mode, Joshua muttered to himself and went into deep thoughts.

The Evil God, the Sage, those were all news and information that he never heard or knew existed. Of course, based on his guesses, these roles should only appear in the fifth patch, the fifth version of the game. Regardless of whether the struggle of humanity was a success or a failure, the Evil God of the Void will only emerge after the Invasion from the Abyss had ended.

Meanwhile, by that time, it would be a war between numerous Legendary-tier champions, the Gods, and the Evil God. Meanwhile, the information about the lost Sage should be unveiled by that time.

It seemed that even after living through that experience once, there were still many things that remained unknown to him. The real world was so vast that people could not help but be curious.

Upon letting out a sigh, Joshua let out a laugh right after.

Well, it would not matter much even if he did not know about the information. Didn't he still become the legendary warrior even though he did not know about the information in the previous life?

With his great advantage, he did not even have the slightest sense of worry nor fear of the future.

However, every time he recalled the incident where the abyss invaded the world, Joshua could not help but to remember on his final battle back in Fort Naya.

So the question remained. Who was the actual one that betrayed them all? Who was the one who stabbed him in the back while he was on the battlefield where the war between men and demons was brewing on?

Putting his hand on his abdomen, which was precisely the position where he was pierced by the mercury blade in his previous life, Joshua revealed a deadly serious look on his face. His eyes were cold. He seemed to have remembered the feeling when the cold metallic silver blade pierced through his body, followed by countless most brutal curses spreading into all parts of his body, stripping all of his power off his body.

That feeling of helplessness and unwillingness had struck deep into his memory. It was truly unforgettable.

In fact, he was being much more generous than everyone thinks he was. That would be the tolerance that a champion should have. However, the only type of person the warrior would not forgive would be the betrayer. The warrior would never rest until those betrayers meet their doom. That would be the only ending those betrayers would have.

Since there had been no major incidents happening around recently, it might be a good idea to look for the betrayers who stabbed him in the previous life. Joshua grinned with a sense of chill on his face. He was recalling on the details of the incident deep in his memories.

It was certain that the betrayers were not his comrades in his battle party. There would have been a notification when a player attacks another player. So the person who performed the betrayal strike on him must be a local from the continent. Meanwhile, there were actually not many locals fighting alongside with his battle party at the Fort Naya. Joshua believed that as long as he could slowly eliminate the suspects one by one, he would one day apprehend the betrayer who did that to him.

Footsteps were heard from the stairs.

Temporarily pausing his thoughts, Joshua lifted his head and looked at the door of the room.

Briefly after, along with the light footsteps of a little girl, the shadow of the silver-haired girl appeared right in front of him. In the meantime, at that moment, the eyes of the warrior only turned a little more gentle and calm.

"Master."

Ying was still holding the brush in her hand. She furrowed her brows. She seemed to have some doubts in her mind. "Um… about Black… there seems to be something strange about it…"