In the quiet inner courtyard of the Athenaeum, the instant Shi Feng took out the sapling of the Tree of Life, the mana throughout the courtyard seemed to go berserk, madly converging toward the sapling in his hands.
The Tree of Life sapling appeared to have come alive, allowing Shi Feng to clearly feel its pulse. The life aura it emitted was visible to the naked eye, and the vibrant green it radiated caused the surrounding flowers and grass to grow wildly.
"It finally worked!" Shi Feng breathed a deep sigh of relief as he gazed at the vibrant Tree of Life sapling.
If it still hadn't worked, he would have had no choice but to give up on cultivating the Tree of Life and try again after Stone Forest City was upgraded to a main city. There would have been no other possibility.
The difficulty of upgrading a guild city to a main city was extraordinary. Not only did the guild need sufficient strength, but more importantly, it required a massive amount of time to develop the city.
Shi Feng promptly planted the Tree of Life sapling right in the center of the courtyard.
The entire inner courtyard had been specially designed by Shi Feng, with a patch of soil reserved in the center specifically for the Tree of Life, surrounded by a pool of water. Energy-gathering magic arrays were carved into the pool, and numerous magic crystals were embedded within it, keeping the water saturated with dense mana at all times. The daily consumption of magic crystals alone amounted to nearly two hundred to sustain the Tree of Life's needs — this was essentially the standard configuration used by the various superpowers in his previous life for cultivating a Tree of Life.
If not for the Philosopher's Stone, the magic crystal cost alone would have driven anyone to madness. It was fair to say that the Tree of Life was simply not something ordinary powers could hope to cultivate.
The moment Shi Feng finished planting it, the very air in the courtyard began to tremble.
In an instant, the cool, serene courtyard turned scorching hot, and even Shi Feng, a Tier 3 Class user, felt a wave of heat crash against his face.
After lasting two or three seconds, the Tree of Life sapling grew at a speed visible to the naked eye, becoming a verdant tree so large it would take two or three people to wrap their arms around it.
The instant the great verdant tree took form, rich life energy spread throughout the entire courtyard, filling it with lush greenery. Moreover, the dense life energy made the courtyard incredibly warm, completely replacing its former tranquil atmosphere with one that felt bathed in warm sunlight.
"So this is the effect of a Sacred Relic fragment?" Shi Feng watched the transformed courtyard, inwardly astonished.
Merely planting it had filled the entire courtyard with life energy of an almost inconceivable density.
Not only did being here cause the strange energy within his body to dissipate rapidly, but he himself felt incomparably clear-headed.
This clarity was different from the cold, emotionless composure that mana typically brought. It was a pure, clean lucidity, as if everything in his mind had a clear path forward — as if he knew exactly what he needed to do and what he should do.
If a player were to comprehend combat techniques here, the boost to their improvement would be absolutely enormous. After all, combat techniques were different from magic skills — they required a player to have a clear understanding of the technique in order to execute and practice it more effectively.
"It's a shame that as good as the effect is, it can't be easily shown to others," Shi Feng said with a bitter smile, gazing at the Tree of Life in the center of the courtyard.
The Tree of Life had already taken root in the courtyard. Any player who came here would discover it, and even a casual observation skill would reveal it as a Sacred Relic fragment. If word got out, forget about players — even those NPC forces would never let Zero Wing off the hook and would inevitably try to seize it by force.
Unless Zero Wing possessed the strength to contend with NPC forces, once the news leaked, there would be nothing but a dead end — no other possibility.
Even so, Shi Feng was quite satisfied. After all, his original goal hadn't been the Tree of Life's supplementary effects, but rather the items it could produce.