“Bastard!
Harald!
We’re not friends anymore!
You’re a coward!”
With one final thunderous crack from the split heavens, the earth-shaking battle that had ravaged the Underworld came to an end.
The chaos gradually subsided.
Loki craned his neck toward the distant battlefield, but he was far too far away to see what had happened.
The frustration had him scratching his head and fidgeting impatiently.
Hua Ye, meanwhile, remained perfectly calm.
He had already sensed the presence approaching from afar.
“Damn it!
Failed again in the end.”
Rocks emerged from the ruined remains of the primeval forest.
Eclipse had already been sheathed.
He carried a number of injuries, but none seemed particularly serious.
The most noticeable thing about him was the mixture of irritation and frustration written all over his face.
“Got rejected?” Hua Ye asked.
“Yeah.
Embarrassing, isn’t it?” Rocks snapped.
“I’ve invited that bastard so many times, and somehow every rejection gets firmer than the last!”
Then he noticed the small giant sitting beside Hua Ye.
Harald’s son.
Loki.
“Rocks!
What were you two doing just now?!” Loki immediately became excited at the sight of him, his voice filled with unmistakable admiration.
“Nothing!
Your father’s an idiot!” Rocks had absolutely no concept of how rude it was to insult a man’s father directly in front of him.
“Join the World Government?
Get accepted by outsiders?
That’s like a tiger ripping out its own claws and fangs just to make weaklings feel safer!”
“The Giant King is too naive.” Hua Ye shook his head.
“I understand what he’s trying to accomplish, but the World Government can’t be trusted.
He wants the giants to become part of the world.
The Government will only see them as slaves and military weapons.”
“That’s exactly what I told him.” Rocks’ anger gradually cooled.
“But all that bastard wants is to leave the giants’ violent history behind and guide this country toward peace.”
People who walked different paths couldn’t truly work together.
If Harald sincerely wanted to move Elbaph closer to the outside world, there was nothing more Rocks could say.
“Rocks, are you leaving?” Loki hurriedly asked.
“Take me with you!
I want to go out to sea too!
I want to follow you!”
“Huh?
A little brat like you?
I already told you no!
Keep pestering me and I might kill you!” Rocks made an exaggerated face.
“Don’t underestimate me!
Everyone in the villages is afraid of me!
That’s proof I’m strong!”
Loki stood up and beat his chest like a gorilla.
“Hahaha!
This kid really is nothing like his father!” Rocks laughed and glanced toward Hua Ye.
Even while joking, Rocks couldn’t help feeling a little emotional.
He had spent years trying to recruit Harald, only to be rejected every time.
Instead, Harald’s still-young son had latched onto him and refused to let go.
“I already promised to take him,” Hua Ye said.
“What?!”
Rocks stared at him in surprise.
“He’s way too young…
All right, he doesn’t look small at all, but are you sure about this?”
“Harald refuses to leave.
Loki doesn’t.” Hua Ye looked up toward the giant prince.
“If Loki wants to go, his father can’t decide otherwise for him.
Right?”
“Yes!
Exactly!
That’s exactly right!”
Realizing his goal might actually have been achieved, Loki burst into delighted laughter.
Rocks remained silent for a moment before speaking slowly.
“Hua Ye…
you’re definitely a bastard too.”
“It’s a world full of bastards.”
Hua Ye smiled.
Coming from Rocks, those words were basically approval.
“Yes!
I can finally get out of this stupid place!”
Loki began jumping around excitedly, turning left, then right, almost dancing in circles.
“Don’t celebrate yet,” Rocks said.
“How the hell are we supposed to get him out of here?
He’s gotten even bigger than he was years ago!
You want me to stuff him onto my ship?”
“Treasure Tree Adam.”
Hua Ye swept his gaze across the surrounding forest.
“One of the rarest woods in the world and one of the best materials for building ships.
And here…
it’s everywhere.”
“You want to build a ship from the trees here?” Rocks spread his hands.
“I’m warning you now, I don’t know a damn thing about shipbuilding.
I can help cut trees, though.”
“I can help too!
Just give me an axe!” Loki said enthusiastically.
“No need.”
Hua Ye’s response was calm.
The next second, the entire area began to shake.
The tremors were so violent that Loki instinctively lowered his body to keep from falling over and embarrassing himself.
Rocks remained steady, his eyes sweeping across the surroundings.
The roots of ancient trees—trees that had lived for who knew how many years—burst from the earth one after another.
They writhed like giant serpents awakened beneath the mortal world.
Or like ancient dragons rising from their slumber.
Wet soil and chunks of stone were thrown upward, then fell back down in showers and rolled across the ground.
The trees did not grow chaotically.
Every movement carried a strange sense of purpose.
Upward.
Toward the sky.
Toward a higher point.
The old, twisted trunks moved as though manipulated by invisible hands.
They spiraled around one another, entwining, twisting, and locking together as if suddenly given life.
Thick roots, dark brown and rough with the marks of age, intertwined in increasingly complex patterns.
“Form.”
Hua Ye’s eyes sharpened.
The ancient wood pressed together.
This was no crude pile of logs.
The roots wove, interlocked, and fitted into one another with astonishing precision.
It looked as though countless invisible craftsmen were performing intricate woodworking at impossible speed.
The sight was both magnificent and eerie.
The thickest roots bent first, taking shape in midair like a ship’s keel and defining its general structure.
A broad hull formed, its bottom curving gently upward.
More roots rose like ribs along both sides, bending inward and gradually creating the curved body of the vessel.
“A ship…”
Loki raised his head, completely stunned.
“It’s turning into a ship…”
Even Rocks was visibly shaken.
It was as if he were discovering Hua Ye all over again.
Hua Ye hadn’t moved a finger.
He simply stood there while every tree in the surrounding area responded to his control, weaving itself into a vessel.
The finished hull wasn’t smooth or polished.
It retained the natural roughness of the roots and the irregular beauty of living wood, every grain carrying the history of the ancient trees from which it had formed.
The ship seemed to have grown as one complete organism rather than being assembled from separate pieces.
A rich woody fragrance and an ancient sense of life radiated from it.
Its structure was simple.
It didn’t even have proper cabins.
It possessed only one outstanding quality.
Size.
It was enormous.
Enormous enough to carry a prince of Elbaph whose body dwarfed ordinary humans.
At last, the tremors subsided.
Hua Ye released a light breath.
“Now we have a ship.”
To everyone else, what had just happened was incomprehensible.
To Hua Ye, it was merely an application of his power—altering the surrounding environment and forcing matter into a specific form.
Reishi existed everywhere, just as air did.
As long as the Reishi belonging to the surrounding environment fell under his control, creating and reshaping physical matter from nothing was possible.
It simply required an enormous amount of power.
“Can this thing actually sail?” Rocks asked skeptically.
“It looks like an oversized wooden raft.
Don’t tell me it’s going to sink the second it hits the water.”
“It’ll move as long as I’m on it,” Hua Ye replied.