The Great Thief

Bathran was still a ghost, waiting at the same place that Lu Li had left him. The treant looked sad; it’s only desire was to be granted relief.

Upon seeing Lu Li, his eyes lit up with anticipation.

”Adventurer, did you get the Wildfire?”

”Bathran, I almost died because of you,” Lu Li said impolitely. ”Did you deliberately conceal the fact that the Wildfire would harm me so I couldn’t escape the camp?”

He had to stand firm on his values, otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to ensure he got a good reward.

”It just hurts a little at the start; its fine after you get used to it,” Bathran said embarrassedly. ”But seeing as you have returned unharmed, I must have chosen the right person.”

”…” Lu Li wanted to explode. The damage had caused him to be revealed in front of the whole camp and resulted in three Wolf Riders chasing him.

”My body is to the north, adventurer. Help me find peace so that those creatures can no longer abuse my hair, and even better, so I can finally regenerate,” Bathran said, his face cheerfully smiling.

”What, you can revive yourself?” Lu Li was surprised.

”It’s not a revival; it’s a regeneration, which is not the same,” Bathran explained as he waved his arm. ”I’ll start life anew and I’ll be young, energetic and curious about the world once again.”

”But,” Lu Li couldn’t help but interrupt, ”Will it still be you?”

”Child,” the ancient Tree of Knowledge said as he smiled bitterly at him, ”You know, there are rules that cannot be changed. Life and Death should not be tampered with; I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Lu Li couldn’t be bothered to refute his point; he knew that Aegwynn had revived her son Medivh.

However, whether Medivh could truly be considered to be alive was another question.

Led by the ghost, Lu Li quickly found the body of the Tree of Knowledge. It was a great old tree that was still half-buried in the soil even though it had fallen. But, the strange thing was that the tree was still luscious; it didn’t give off any impression that it had died.

”Are you sure you want to burn it?” Lu Li asked.

”Yes, my child. The end has come for me.”

Bathran looked over this tree who had existed for thousands of years. He waved his hand and a green seed flew from the tree into his hands.

”This seed is the only thing I have produced in thousands of years. I don’t even know what to do with it.” Bathran handed it to Lu Li and continued, ”I will give this to you and you can find a place where there is lots of moonlight to plant it. I don’t know what it’ll produce, as each seed holds its own secret.”

Wasn’t this the responsibility of the parents?

Lu Li took the seeds and carefully put it into his bag.

No one else knew what this was, but he had a pretty good idea.

As someone who had experienced Rebirth, Lu Li would never forget the myth of Peerless City.

As hundreds of thousands of Glory Capital troops raided the Peerless City base, everyone though that they were finished. However, a battle horn sounded and a great multitude of treants rose on the battlefield. They fought fearlessly and bought enough time for Peerless City’s reinforcements to arrive.

After some analysis, they realized that Peerless City must have had a Tree of Knowledge on their side.

An ancient Tree of Knowledge could summon all trees within a certain range directly into combat.

They attacked just like ancient tree would, throwing stones that were near them. They would give up their life to prevent the advance of the enemy, making the location’s defense just as strong as Stormwind City.

Fortunately, these kinds of ancient trees were very rare. The Gray Valley had many trees, but most of them weren’t ancient trees.

”Maybe one day when you walk past this place, you might hear me say hello,” Bathran said as he smiled.

”I hope that day does come. Mr Bathran, my name is Lu Li.”

Lu Li took out the Wildfire and threw it onto the ancient tree.

Transparent flames spread and soon engulfed the entire tree.

As the flames rose, Bathran became a shadow and soon disappeared with a pop. Lu Li had no idea if he had actually regenerated, as there was no way to tell, but he didn’t believe that a being that had lived for thousands of years would die so easily.

Back in Astrana.

Lu Li had just returned to Pelturas’ front door when Evena Stillwhisper greeted him. He anxiously said, ”Did you get Bathran’s hair? The child’s health is getting worse by the day… ah, you did get the hair! This is a good start, but we will also need other materials. The hair is by far the most important material though. Whatever the Orcs were trying to do with this plant, I just hope it doesn’t become a weapon…”

”It won’t happen; the ancient tree has been turned into ashes,” Lu Li shook his head and said softly.

Evena was stunned as he listened to Lu Li story. He was a little skeptical, but it was still good news. He didn’t need to worry about what the Orcs were doing with Bathran’s hair anymore.

”Master! My daughter, my daughter! Please save her; she looks like she is in pain.”

Pelturas didn’t care about some Orc conspiracy; his only concern was for his daughter.

Evena took Bathran’s hair into the alchemy room while Lu Li stood by waiting.

If he had guessed correctly, this quest was not over yet.

Soon, the potion was completed and Evena was slowly feeling it to Little Leila.

After a while, the potion began working and the little girl wasn’t in so much pain anymore. However, she still didn’t wake up.

Evena was a little embarrassed – he had claimed that this would cure the girl.

He thought it over for a moment before saying, ”The potion worked, but I have underestimated the force of this evil and how weak she is. As such, she is unfortunately still afflicted.”

The poor Pelturas knelt before Evena once again.

Evena carefully thought before coming up with another idea.

”If you can expose this potion to a baptism by the Moon Goddess, I think the evil forces will be unable to resist.”

This sounded like a good idea, but required the help of the Moon Goddess. It was probably way too difficult.

”It’s actually not that difficult, so we will have to entrust it on our brave warrior once again.”

Evena was referring to Lu Li.

”There’s a place southeast to Lake Farathim where the Moon Goddess’ light shines every day. Please take pity on this little girl and expose the potion to this light. Be careful though – I hear that place is no longer peaceful.”

Lu Li sighed in his heart. Of course it wasn’t peaceful – it was close to the Warsong Canyon which was a warzone.

”Alright, I’ll do it,” Lu Li accepted as he took the potion.

”Little Leila is in danger; there isn’t much time left. Young adventurer, you only have 30 minutes and you need to let the potion soak for at least 5 minutes,” Evena added.

Dammit, this one was actually time limited…