Card Apprentice Daily Log

Chapter 3111: Thalorien’s Questions

Date: Unspecified

Time: Unspecified

Location: Myriad Realms, Lil’ Red Storm Realm

What was he facing? A Celestial? An array formation? A World-Devouring Tree? Or somehow all three?

The thought left Thalorien staring at Dalia in a daze as her roots continued to devour his massive frost rule steam at an astonishing pace.

The Tarnished Glacier had revealed far more than he wanted to know. Through its unique Frost Rule Meaning, Thalorien had been able to examine the structure of the roots, trace their properties, and compare them against the knowledge he had accumulated throughout his life.

The evidence was overwhelming. The roots were unmistakably those of a World-Devouring Tree. Yet Dalia was also undeniably a Celestial. And the entire Lil’ Red Storm Realm was simultaneously functioning as a Celestial array formation whose will was intertwined with her existence.

Three completely different forms of existence had somehow become one. Thalorien’s mind repeatedly tried to separate them, searching for a simpler explanation. A World-Devouring Tree replacing a Celestial Will? Was that even possible?

He had seen realms devoured by World-Devouring Trees before. The process was always the same. The tree would consume the realm, devour everything within it, and eventually exhaust the world of anything worth feeding upon. But it never actually replaced the will of the realm it consumed.

Once its hunger could no longer be satisfied, the World-Devouring Tree would revert to its seed form and wander aimlessly through the Myriad Realms until it encountered another suitable victim. That was the nature of the race, they didn’t build civilizations, they didn’t establish territories, they didn’t cultivate realms, they consumed them. Hence their name.

Most importantly, a World-Devouring Tree didn’t possess a true sentient will. There was no ambition behind its actions. No long-term planning, no desire to rule, only hunger. An insatiable hunger so fundamental to its existence that, when it couldn’t find anything else to consume, a World-Devouring Tree would eventually begin devouring itself, shrinking and regressing until only its seed remained.

That made what Thalorien was seeing even more absurd. How could something without true sentience replace the will of a Celestial? How could it suppress its natural instincts long enough to remain hidden inside a barren realm? How could it develop the intelligence required to construct and operate a Celestial array formation?

And even if, by some impossible coincidence, a World-Devouring Tree had somehow developed sentience, its hunger alone should have made hiding in a barren realm impossible. It would consume everything around itself, then the realm, then itself.

There was simply no scenario in Thalorien’s understanding where such an existence could quietly cultivate itself while maintaining a Celestial-level realm. Yet Dalia was standing before him. Alive, sentient, intelligent, and apparently perfectly capable of controlling herself.

There was another problem. A much bigger one.

Just as the Origin Source rejected beings that attempted to replace the will of a realm and artificially attain Celestialhood, it should have rejected a World-Devouring Tree attempting the same thing.

Such an existence shouldn’t be recognized as a true Celestial. It shouldn’t be able to establish a genuine connection with the Origin Source. And, most importantly, it shouldn’t be able to sense a Rule Source. Yet Thalorien could clearly see Dalia’s Space Rule Stream.

It was growing, developing, strengthening. That could only mean one thing. She had access to the Space Rule Source. Thalorien’s thoughts became increasingly chaotic. Every piece of evidence contradicted another. The World-Devouring Tree shouldn’t have sentience, but Dalia possessed it.

The World-Devouring Tree shouldn’t be able to replace a Celestial Will, but Dalia had apparently done exactly that.

A replacement Celestial shouldn’t be recognized by the Origin Source, but Dalia could sense the Rule Source.

And a World-Devouring Tree should never have remained dormant in a barren realm. Yet Dalia had somehow made the Lil’ Red Storm Realm her home. Established a celestial array formation that trapped and brought new food to her.

For the first time in his life, Thalorien found himself staring at an existence that didn’t merely contradict his knowledge. It contradicted the rules he had used to organize that knowledge in the first place.

So, another possibility occurred to Thalorien. Could Dalia actually be a Celestial who had somehow incorporated a World-Devouring Tree into her body instead of following the normal path taken by other Celestials?

That explanation was at least theoretically easier to accept. But even then, another question immediately arose. How could a Celestial possibly overcome a World-Devouring Tree in the first place?

The entire existence of a World-Devouring Tree was practically designed to feed upon realms and their Celestial Wills. As far as Thalorien knew, Celestials were almost helpless against them.

Once a World-Devouring Tree successfully took root within a Celestial’s realm, the situation became extremely difficult to reverse. The tree would burrow into the realm, spread its roots through the womb, and gradually devour everything that sustained the Celestial.

Celestials couldn’t simply destroy it through brute force. They needed their native races. That was one of the reasons Celestials cultivated civilizations within their realms in the first place. The native races weren’t merely inhabitants. They were part of the Celestial’s strength.

When a World-Devouring Tree invaded, the Celestial could rely on its native races to fight the tree from within the realm, weakening it before it grew beyond control. If the tree was stopped early enough, there was even a chance of killing it and using the remnants of its existence to strengthen the realm.

But Dalia had no such advantage. Thalorien’s gaze swept across her enormous body. The womb of the Lil’ Red Storm Realm was practically empty. It was simply impossible for her to have native civilization. Dalia hadn’t even established her own complete native system yet. So how could she have accomplished what normally required an entire native civilization?

She couldn’t have used her native races to weaken a World-Devouring Tree. She couldn’t have relied on them to suppress its growth. And she certainly couldn’t have used them to help assimilate the tree into her realm.

Yet somehow, that was precisely what appeared to have happened. A World-Devouring Tree had become part of Dalia. A Celestial array formation had become part of her. And the Lil’ Red Storm Realm itself had become intertwined with both.

That was where his understanding broke down. The problem wasn’t a lack of knowledge. It was precisely because he possessed too much of it.