CHAPTER 27: CHAPTER 25: THE FALL OF THE ELF KING, THE BIRTH OF THE WORLD TREE

It was already three in the afternoon when Li Qing returned to his room.

He didn’t go to the gym at this time as usual, nor did he turn on the computer to check the views and comments on the second video.

Instead, he stayed at home, once again using the camera to watch the scenes inside the laboratory.

At this moment.

The flames had already died out.

After all, there wasn’t much oxygen inside.

But life hadn’t been completely burned away because that giant was frantically calling all the people to hide within its body.

And the giant, in order to resist the scalding of the flames, donned an exoskeleton, becoming the Armored Titan.

Following that.

He transformed into a Bone Armor Giant, serving as a refuge for the Giant God after evading the flames, only to face the next calamity:

A low-oxygen environment far more severe than the flames!

The giant evolved once more; its skin began to turn into green wood, becoming a Tree-man, conducting photosynthesis to supply oxygen to all the living creatures in the world.

"Impressive."

Li Qing smiled, "There have always been underwater plants inside, multiplying plant cells, so this is not surprising."

"He’s like a Ditto, adapting to environmental changes, turning into exoskeleton to resist flames, turning into plants to produce oxygen; is he leading civilization to survive?"

Li Qing suddenly revealed a hint of regret, "No, he’s going to die."

Even Li Qing, a layman recently studying genetic engineering knowledge, knew.

This person, walking and breathing heavily, struggling even to unscrew a bottle cap, needing to lie on a sickbed at all times, successfully resisted this terrifying apocalypse of fire; what is the side effect of such a huge outburst of physical potential?

It’s at the cost of life.

Cause of death: Gene collapse.

The world is balanced.

When you were a single cell, you were like a few MB small program, freely coded, evolving into simple lactic acid bacteria, yeast, E. coli, termite mushrooms, boletus—naturally, there wouldn’t be a big problem, after all, the structure is simple, the underlying code is clear at a glance.

Now, you are like a large life form with hundreds of GB of genetic code, dare to randomly change the underlying code? Aren’t you afraid of many bugs?

Even in the programmer circle, there is a saying: don’t change a working code!

This can also be applied to life.

Currently, any life on earth is a great and complex precise creation, the reason for not having gene collapse is because they are in the most stable form evolved through billions of years on earth!

Emperor Atabia knew this too.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have first simplified the underlying code, leaving only simple initial life of muscles and bones, without eyes, ears, mouth, nose...

The more structural functions are forcefully added, the harder it is for life to maintain stability!

His original plan was to slowly evolve step by step upwards later, developing eyes, ears, mouth, nose.

But as it stands?

He, this newborn infant who had just emerged, struggling to twist a bottle cap, a newly disabled person, to forcibly save the world, save his own people...

Went headlong into adding a bunch of haphazard genetic structures, like cultivating two or three different inner strengths simultaneously, inevitably leading to chaos.

And didn’t he know he would die?

He did.

But he didn’t give up on his people, you could kill him, but if you wanted him to kill, he just wouldn’t do it!

...

...

The apocalypse has ended.

"Aha, the fate he destined for me, I just didn’t follow it...." Emperor Atabia had already transformed into a grand majestic life with green skin, a tall stature, draped in hair like willow branches, with sharp ears, a handsome and cool appearance like a statue of the towering Elf God.

At this moment.

His genes are collapsing.

The genes are simply like a tangled mess of threads that can’t be sorted out, with no way to repair, even the entire civilization’s hundred-billion engineers can’t find a solution, can’t even reverse it.

"Your Majesty, you’ve already started experiencing gene collapse, plant cell structures and animal cell structures are interfering with each other, unable to be compatible."

"Damn! Even with the use of Chimera structures, we couldn’t reduce the side effects?"

"This is too fast! It’s just a newborn young god, extremely weak, it should never be this chaotic, if properly grown, even with these few structures on the body, it wouldn’t appear..."

"The current optimal solution is to thoroughly let the plant cells take the lead, completely becoming a tree..."

"Your Majesty!..."

"Your Majesty!..."

Message after message arrived.

Emperor Atabia clearly knew he was going to die.

And the contribution he could make to future generations before his death was: complete arboreal transformation.

He would turn into an enormous sky-reaching giant tree, to once again provide oxygen to this anoxic world, nourishing the living beings of future generations.

"It’s enough, at least it’s my choice, not the choice of the gods in heaven."

The giant Atabia smiled.

This colossal giant, countless miles tall, stepped on the earth causing it to tremble, crossed over mountains and rivers, dragging a handful of microorganisms in his hand, said:

"If I die, so be it. My life serves to provide precious data on divine life for future generations. The death of the pioneer is as it should be."

The giant looked unconcerned: "People on the ground can’t become giants on par with gods in one go. I’ve long been prepared to die, for the grandeur before my eyes has turned into a Giant God once, and I have no regrets."

"I am now the past, but you have the future. I hope you continue to resist the injustice of fate after me and complete the great exploration of life’s evolution."

Emperor Atabia suddenly laughed heartily, gazing at the Crystal Wall.

"I have one last wish, to make one last attempt. I want to see what the world outside is like!"

He kicked over a pile of cans and picked up a steel rod from the storage rack, starting to twist it against the Crystal Wall: "Our current flesh and blood life has its limits, but what about this special material?"

Drilling wood to make fire.

Sizzle!

The Green Elf Giant God held a long metal rod, twisting it as if an ancient mythological Giant Deity wielding a Divine Weapon, breaking through the barriers of this world.

"Even this can’t do it!!!"

Emperor Atabia suddenly seemed like a madman.

He held the iron rod, kept twisting, and twisting.

He maintained a single motion, a single rhythm.

This was his war, as a mortal against the gods, his final persistence.

He was like the unwavering Kuafu from ancient myths. Thirsty, he’d drink water; hungry, he’d eat meat. But the collapse of his body meant he could no longer take in any energy. His movements slowed, from afternoon to dusk.

"Wuwuwu."

Countless wise ones of Atabia cried uncontrollably.

Everyone knew their spiritual leader was about to fall, and the kingdom named after this great man, Atabia, would completely collapse.

Atabia was different from them.

Different from all the wise ones.

He was born standing high above the world.

His wisdom was unparalleled, his talents unmatched through the ages. He even leapt over the civilizational hierarchy, built the Tower of Babel, and almost created a true Giant God to meet the world outside!

Crack.

The deity slowly rotated the Sharp Blade in his hand, slower and slower, like an old man.

Suddenly, the world resounded once again with the lament of the Suffering Church:

"The storm will collapse into a torrent~~ Purple Mist covers the land into an abyss~ Ruins will raise a high tower~ Bones will cover with flesh and blood~ And I will return to the Celestial Gods, suffering for the righteous on earth in the lake of fire to become eternal..."

The music bidding farewell.

The towering Tower of Babel, struck down by the Outer Gods, became a giant tree reaching the heavens.

Rustle!!

When the golden twilight of dusk shone in from outside.

The genes of the ancient Elf Giant God collapsing, not knowing when he stopped the movement of his hand, his whole form entirely petrified.

Just before death, he remained in a statuesque pose of drilling wood to make fire, becoming a gigantic wax figure of the ancient era. Then, skin gradually covered with bark, turning into an evergreen World Tree reaching the heavens.

"The power of the gods is truly alluring." The Tree-man’s face was completely engulfed by bark.

...

...

"The king has fallen, the traitor has been executed, the civilization of Atabia is completely finished."

Li Qing put on an eye mask, closed his eyes, and left the room.

Finally, as the dust settled, he found the courage to go out for dinner.

Li Qing withdrew his gaze, his face filled with an emotional expression: "Atabia, you long for the power of the gods, how can I not long for it too?"

Beyond the world, there is another world, and compared to the vast cosmos, we are insignificantly small and pitiful.

Your civilization is just beginning to sprout, hence looking up to the mysterious. Yet, the scale of our civilization is but a drop in the ocean, the universe is too grand and magnificent.

This madman Atabia, even in the last moments of life, pursued the truth of life and explored the ends of the world, filling Li Qing with both admiration and shock.

Would he, in the future, perhaps one day, among countless civilizations, step onto the path of Atabia, in pursuit of the world’s truth and future, ultimately evolving life, dying in pursuit as he did? Or would he reach the end?

Walking down the street after dinner, welcoming the leftover glows of the night.

Li Qing looked at each ordinary giant human, as if it were a world apart.

Upon witnessing the death of this strongest rival, Li Qing felt no gratification of victory, only a profound sense of shock.

The ordinary humans we see everywhere on the street, in their civilization, spent trillions of lives’ worth of effort yet never shared our starting line to become giants.

Li Qing suddenly thought, "Perhaps he’s another Pangu, falling after Ning Guochang, transforming into a World Tree nourishing the entire world, creating the heavens and earth. As a whale falls, everything reborn."

Maybe this way, it’s a perfect revenge for Ning Guochang.