Half an hour later, little Loren flew out of Logan's nest in a sorry state.
Although he had successfully obtained the answers he wanted from his own old father, he had also been thoroughly dealt with by Aki—whose maternal affection had all but evaporated—on the grounds that he had disturbed Logan's rest.
This left little Loren feeling deeply hurt.
Surely… he was just an accident, wasn't he?
However, after learning of his old father's plans, little Loren's heart relaxed a great deal. At the very least, the situation was not as exaggerated as what the cats had been spreading. It was nothing more than relocating a nest—hardly a permanent departure. Besides, while he had just been inside the nest, he had even received encouragement from his old father: in the future, the Ancient Tree would have to rely on him!
As little Loren continued flying, he suddenly paused.
For some reason, he always felt as though he had been tricked.
...
Inside the nest, Logan—whose rest had been interrupted by little Loren—also no longer felt like continuing to sleep. With nothing better to do, he began carefully planning the Ancient Tree's next ten-year development plan.
Whenever he thought about how that unfilial son of his, after a round of praise from him, had willingly taken on the role of a management tool-dragon, he could not help but want to laugh.
Were there heirs apparent in this world who lasted for hundreds of years?
Yes—there were, and possibly more than just hundreds of years! As long as Logan did not die for a single day, little Loren would, for that day, remain merely…
Logan shook his head, forcibly casting those thoughts out of his mind.
Given his current level of strength, looking after the Ancient Tree was purely a matter of responsibility, not for any other reason. Just thinking about having to watch over the development of a civilization for several hundred years gave Logan a headache.
Sure enough, it would be best to decisively let go once little Loren was capable of taking over.
After all, as long as he was still alive, he would forever be the "god" of the Ancient Tree civilization!
...
On the shrine's side, after learning the Fire Wyvern boss's more detailed intentions, although they still found it somewhat hard to accept, it was far better compared to the scenario of complete separation described by Tonkotsu.
The news brought back by little Loren was simply too timely. After being disseminated outward through the shrine, the unrest on the Ancient Tree quickly began to subside.
The ancient Wyverian scholars, who had originally been prepared to study the Ancient Tree at any cost, swiftly adjusted their upcoming research tasks. Their focus shifted from studying how to make the Ancient Tree stop metamorphosing, to studying how living beings could survive within the "god's" domain.
The only side feeling somewhat conflicted was the Ancient Tree research base. They had already dispatched personnel at top speed to the Astera outpost to report the Sunblaze Dragon's departure. Now, with this sudden turn of events, they had no choice but to send another person, hoping to catch up with the previous messenger and deliver the latest information.
…
Ever since that small wave of unrest at the Ancient Tree, Mother Chameleos was no longer in a hurry. It only needed to know that Logan also had the intention of leaving the Ancient Tree, and that was enough.
Mother Chameleos had resolved the knot in its heart, and it happily continued to mooch food and drink, waiting for Logan to make his final decision.
Meanwhile, over at Astera, the Commander looked at the former Provisions Manager pacing back and forth in front of him, unable to stop for even a moment, and he also had a headache.
Earlier, when news came from the Ancient Tree that the Sunblaze Dragon was going to leave, it had nearly frightened him into asking the Admiral to go over and inquire about the situation.
Only later did the follow-up message make it clear that the Sunblaze Dragon was merely moving its nest deeper into the New World, not leaving the Ancient Tree forever.
That finally put his mind much more at ease.
The Admiral had actually taken advantage of the time when he went to the Hoarfrost Reach to vigorously push forward the relationship between the Research Commission's hunters and the Ancient Tree Fire Wyverns, greatly deepening the hunters' sense of identification with—and belonging to—that civilization of the Ancient Tree.
By the time he returned, the development of the matter was no longer something he could stop.
Therefore, at such a critical moment, if the Sunblaze Dragon were to abandon the Ancient Tree, ignore it, and leave on its own, this turmoil would likely trigger an earthquake—perhaps even causing the Old World to be affected as well.
After all, the current trade volume between the New World and the Old World was not small at all!
However, as always, no sooner had one wave subsided than another rose. In the second message, it was mentioned that the Sunblaze Dragon's thoughts of leaving the Ancient Tree could not be separated from one of their Research Commission's veteran First Fleet members, and one of Astera's greatest trump cards: Mother Chameleos!
Leaving aside how many resources the Research Commission had spent to support it, just consider this: without such a special individual—a Chameleos—how much would Astera's overall defensive capability and risk-resistance capability decrease?
As for the little Chameleos, it could not be counted as conventional combat power.
Moreover, given their understanding of Mother Chameleos's lazy disposition, once it left, it would probably be difficult for it to come back.
Whether from the perspective of interests or from the perspective of feelings, Astera's side found it hard to accept—especially the former Provisions Manager, who had deep feelings for Mother Chameleos.
He had already been wearing down the Commander here for several days, precisely because he wanted to go to the Ancient Tree and ask Mother Chameleos for a clear explanation!
At such a critical juncture, however, the Sunblaze Dragon's relocation had been brought about by Mother Chameleos in the first place. Going to the Ancient Tree now—wouldn't that just mean becoming a vent for those cats' pent-up anger?
For a moment, the Commander truly had a headache!
...
On the Ancient Tree, after having laid out his plans for the Ancient Tree's development over the next ten years, Logan also made his decision.
Leaving the nest, he found Mother Chameleos sleeping soundly in the medicinal herb plantation. Without a word, he grabbed it by the back of the neck and made it lead the way.
Although the Guiding Lands were located beside the New World, he did not know the exact position. In order to save time and reach the area early to find a suitable nesting site, he ignored Mother Chameleos's protesting croaks and forcibly dragged it into high-speed flight.
With Mother Chameleos acting as such a burden, Logan took a full day of flying before finally reaching the Guiding Lands.
Watching Mother Chameleos lying sprawled on a reef, continuously spraying medicinal mist to recover itself, Logan silently complained in his heart that it was a weakling, then quickly absorbed bioenergy to replenish the energy he had expended.
"Gwa~"
A somewhat resentful cry came from Mother Chameleos. Aside from the lingering fatigue in its eyes, the bodily damage caused by prolonged turbine-accelerated high-speed flight had already recovered under the treatment of the medicinal mist.
Mother Chameleos stared at him with a dull, listless gaze, inwardly condemning Logan for not treating a dragon like a dragon, yet still having no choice but to continue guiding him.
The Guiding Lands were very small—so small that even the ley line tributaries could not fully cover the existing landmass.
But precisely because of this small size, ley line energy there was extremely concentrated, and ecological competition was even fiercer than in the New World.
Battles could be seen almost everywhere; large monsters whose ferocity and physiques rivaled those of the Elder's Recess; and Elder Dragons hidden all around, watching the spectacle.
Aside from its relatively small continental area, it could be said that the ecological cycle here was even healthier than that of the New World, with monsters active even more frequently.
The moment they stepped into the forested region, Mother Chameleos caught the scent of something that made it very displeased. Using the unique methods of a Chameleos to locate the territorial markers left by that Chameleos, it quickly greeted Logan and then entered a state of perfect invisibility, intending to go and cause trouble for that fellow.
In response to this, Logan did not pay it much mind and instead began to survey his surroundings, checking whether they could meet his needs.
But as he continued flying, his heart suddenly sensed a kind of summons, as if something within his body were about to break free.
At that moment, as Logan arrived at the Guiding Lands and carried out the act of searching for a new nest, the natural affinity progress bar that had been stuck at ninety-nine percent finally reached one hundred.
Amid a burst of garbled code on the panel, the display interface suddenly turned completely blank.
All the previously quantified data vanished entirely, sinking into silence just like that.
Logan was completely unaware of this. Following the voice that had surfaced within his heart, he quickly flew toward the northern part of the Guiding Lands.
He passed through the forest, crossed the ice fields, and entered an enormous canyon.
This was the terminal region of the Guiding Lands' ley line tributaries. With little circulation of life energy, it appeared rather desolate.
At a deep pit, Logan ignited flames to use as illumination and, without hesitation, dove straight down into it.
After circling within the pit for quite some time, he stopped above a pool of magma.
Ahead lay a dead end—and the source of the stirring in his heart came from here!
It was not inside the rock wall, but within the slightly distorted space directly ahead!
As Logan arrived, that distorted space seemed to receive some kind of signal.
Very quickly, the air began to warp, and life energy started to pour in.
The space before Logan's eyes tore open in a rapidly spiraling distortion. From within the pitch-black void, a familiar yet unfamiliar aura was transmitted—an energy presence that did not belong to this world!
Seeing such an abnormal situation, Logan cautiously retreated a little, when he suddenly sensed that something within his body seemed to be peeling away from various places, then gathering in his throat.
Acting on instinct, he spat out the foreign object in his throat, only to find that it was merely a small grayish-white stone fragment!
Yet no matter how he looked at it, this stone fragment felt as though it had been forcibly broken off from the corner of a complete stone slab.
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