Wizard: I Can Refine Everything-Chapter 417 - 36: Conquering the World Tree

In the eye of the storm, two colossal beings faced each other from afar.

On one side, a pitch-black giant tree, connecting heaven and earth, stood with a trunk as thick as a mountain and a canopy that blocked out the sun. As its branches and leaves swayed, the turbulent flows of space were absorbed and transformed into nourishment.

On the other side, Garon the Great Wizard’s figure towered once more, his body now sprouting three heads. The head on the left was wrathful, spewing black flames from its mouth. The right head dripped tears of mercy from its eyes. The middle head remained neither sad nor happy, its expression calm, its gaze indifferent as if a divine being had descended, overlooking all living creatures.

The World Tree’s branches and leaves shook, their sound overpowering even the thunder.

"Wizard, I acknowledge your strength," spoke the World Tree, "but you cannot defeat me in this world. If you retreat now, I can pretend as if nothing happened. But if you insist on courting death, then—"

The World Tree was interrupted by Garon the Great Wizard:

"You old tree, you talk too much. Once I turn you into a Magic Wand, I must seal your consciousness. Otherwise, you’re sure to annoy me to death."

With that, Garon’s three heads opened their mouths simultaneously, inhaling and creating a vacuum of energy within a thousand miles. In his hand, the White Bone Wand was alive with an endless flow of runes.

If an Alchemy Wizard were to observe closely, they would notice that most of the runes on this wand were for fortifying the wand itself.

The runes truly meant for amplification in the rune array were few and far between.

Garon’s formidable power was such that even a wand made from the remains of a Level 6 Creature could scarcely withstand it.

"Wizard, you will surely become my finest nourishment," the World Tree spoke, its voice tinged with anger as if a ten thousand thunderbolts exploded in the sky.

"I will make your soul wail upon my branches and leaves..."

Boom!

A massive shockwave instantly created a vacuum in the storm.

Garon the Great Wizard, grasping the White Bone Wand, struck the World Tree directly overhead. His terrifying power, along with the storm, shredded nearly half of the World Tree’s canopy in an instant.

For Garon, the combat techniques of a mortal body were long obsolete. The true techniques, hidden beneath appearances, were imperceptible to ordinary people.

Thus, each of his strikes was uncomplicated and direct.

The World Tree responded in a similarly straightforward manner.

Suddenly, two vine whips appeared on the World Tree, and with each swing, even the space itself shattered.

Snap!

The space-splitting vine whip merely left a white mark on Garon when it struck him.

From a distance, in the Floating City, Richard watched the two colossal beings in the storm, somewhat dazed.

At that moment, his vision suddenly changed.

The surface appearances of the world faded from his sight, revealing the world hidden behind the curtain.

"So this is... the world beneath the curtain?" Richard murmured to himself.

As a Three Rings Wizard, Richard now had the privilege to peek behind the curtain. The battle between Garon the Great Wizard and the World Tree, though appearing exceedingly rudimentary,

Indeed, involved the application of countless rules.

These rules, hidden behind the curtain, were undecipherable to ordinary people without the power of third-level creatures.

Before Richard’s eyes, all things shed their outward forms, revealing their true essence beneath.

Rain was no longer just rain but an entanglement of four elemental rules, with the deep blue Water Element Rule being predominant yet finely balanced with the other three.

The air was no longer just air but dominated by the Air Element in a tangle of rules.

All things in this world, their underlying rules interconnected, resembled an abstract painting.

It was mesmerizing yet dizzying.

In the depths of the storm, each movement of the two colossal beings involved innumerable rules. On their bodies, Richard saw an incredibly complex rule made of multiple mixed rules.

These two rules, though clashing with the surrounding ones, were interlinked.

"Is this the Rule Body?" Richard murmured to himself.

On Richard’s shoulder, Ulysses looked at the dazed Richard and nodded in satisfaction.

"Finally seeing beyond the curtain."

He turned his head, and saw that several other Three Rings Wizards observing the battle had also entered a dazed state.

The vast mobilization of rules by Garon the Great Wizard and the World Tree had a tremendous impact beneath the curtain.

These undercurrents, stirring beneath the curtain, easily allowed those with the privilege to glimpse beyond it to sense the changes and see what lay behind.

Some creatures, naturally sensitive, could even perceive beyond the curtain without reaching the third level.

"Come to think of it, this must be his first time seeing beyond the curtain," Ulysses muttered quietly to himself.

Before this, he remembered that Richard’s rules had all come through the Miracle Furnace.

It was truly his first time witnessing the rules beyond the curtain.

"Ah, such good fortune."

Most Three Rings Wizards obtained rules through observing the rules beyond the curtain, gaining just a few fragments of rules. Or by studying items that manifested certain rules over time, discerning their features, and then through rituals, stripping the rules from those items or forcibly integrating them.

But Richard, with a single Miracle Furnace, could obtain rules without even lifting the curtain.

If other third-level creatures knew of this, they might envy him to the point of grinding their teeth.

With that, Ulysses turned his gaze back to the storm.

Although he had seen beyond the curtain often, he hadn’t seen many battles of this magnitude.

He too had much to learn from it.

...

In the storm, the two colossal beings entangled like the most primal of beasts.

Their every strike was so powerful it shattered space, the World Tree’s vine whips and branches, each twitch wrapped in chaotic space currents. But in front of Garon the Great Wizard’s terrifying form, such feats failed to even scratch him, leaving only a white imprint.

Garon the Great Wizard’s White Bone Wand, though profoundly mighty as each strike made the branches and leaves of the World Tree tremble and wood chips fly, backed by the world, such injuries would heal in an instant.

It seemed destined to be a prolonged battle.

Suddenly, Garon the Great Wizard’s furious head revealed a strange smirk. His compassionate head shed a tear.

The middle head, neither sad nor happy, spoke, "It’s over."

The next moment, Garon the Great Wizard thrust his wand into the ground, and the earth immediately split open with a huge rift.

Deep underground in the Magma Sea, a massive root ball tangled with countless roots was constantly absorbing nutrients from the magma.

This was what Garon the Great Wizard had been searching for—the core of the World Tree.

All the World Trees they had seen before were merely the tendrils of this root ball.

"World Tree, won’t you surrender?"

All three heads of Garon the Great Wizard spoke in unison.

"If you surrender, I will make you my Magic Wand Spirit so we may share in prosperity and decline together. But if you remain deluded, do not blame me for sealing your soul away, never to see the light of day again."

Garon the Great Wizard’s voice boomed like thunder, scattering even the rain clouds in the sky.

But the World Tree was not panicked.

"So what if you found me?"

With that said, a milky white glow abruptly emerged around the World Tree’s core.

"The World Origin."

Garon the Great Wizard’s expression grew somewhat grave.

He had not expected this World Tree to have rooted so deeply, almost turning the World Origin into its core.

If it succeeded, even destroying the world wouldn’t kill it.

"I am shielded by the World Origin; if you can shatter it, come at me quickly."

Watching the World Tree’s core, Garon the Great Wizard’s angry head burst into laughter, his compassionate head’s eyes brimming with tears, and even the middle head sighed.

"Clinging to delusion, what a waste of my wand."

With those words, Garon the Great Wizard retracted his arm and clenched his fist, drawing nearly half the world’s Magic Power toward him.

Naturally, the World Tree wouldn’t let him continue.

The branches and leaves of the World Tree swayed dramatically, and countless roots burst from the ground, brazenly seizing two-thirds of the energy meant for Garon the Great Wizard.

Without energy, even Garon the Great Wizard, powerful as he was, could not break through the defense of the World Origin.

Such a move would indeed be effective against a normal person.

But unfortunately, this time the World Tree was facing one of the wealthiest wizards in the Wizard World.

Suddenly, a Space Rift opened beside Garon the Great Wizard.

Dark masses of Magic Essence flowed out like a river.

In wizard battles, it was often a confrontation of wealth.

And Garon the Great Wizard was one of the wealthiest wizards.

In an instant, countless Magic Essence shattered, transforming into energy that entered Garon the Great Wizard’s body.

A concentrated punch of energy that pierced through the earth reached the core of the world, instantly breaking the milky white glow surrounding the World Tree’s core.

As the punch disappeared, the enormous dark tree on the ground suddenly became motionless.

Without its core, this grand tree was indeed just a regular tree.

But soon, Garon the Great Wizard noticed something was amiss.

"Oh? It’s still not dead."

Garon the Great Wizard looked towards the edge of the world, where a small sapling suddenly trembled.

"Don’t kill, don’t kill, I’ll go with you!"

The World Tree’s panicked voice sounded in Garon the Great Wizard’s ears. He returned to his normal size, took a step forward, and arrived beside the sapling.

"So, not so cheeky now?"

Garon the Great Wizard gripped the trunk of the sapling, smilingly asked.

"Not cheeky anymore, not cheeky anymore," the sapling trembled as it spoke.

It never dreamed that a being akin to itself would be capable of breaking through the defense of the World Origin.

Each world’s World Origin is of utmost importance to that world. Its defensive strength, strong enough that even great beings could at most destabilize the defense of a miniature world.

And the Green Forest World was a smaller world; logically, Garon the Great Wizard should not be able to breach its defenses unless...

The World Tree suddenly trembled.

"You could have become the Master of the Star Realm a long time ago?"

"Oh, you figured it out." Garon the Great Wizard appeared somewhat surprised. "But you’re a bit off. It’s not that I could have become the Master a long time ago, but that I already have the qualifications to become the Master.

However, there is still a small step I must take to truly become the Master."

As he spoke, Garon the Great Wizard uprooted the World Tree.

"Little sapling, being my wand is not a bad deal. What fun is there in being the World Tree? Even if you became the Master of the Star Realm, you would still be trapped in this world.

Isn’t that just putting yourself in a cage?

Come with me, and your future days will certainly be rich and colorful."