310 Wealth in The Palm of One's Hand

Unaware of Lilith's complicated thoughts, Leon arrived at the foot of the World Tree and began ascending with Divine Will. 

The soldiers and palace guards did not need his direct supervision in dealing with the aftermath of the battle and knew what to do. They were trained to handle situations like this and had a steady chain of command. It would be too arrogant and conceited of him to believe they need his leadership.

300fts… 400fts… 500fts…

Leon continued to ascend along the trunk of the World Tree. The higher he flew, the denser the spirit energy in the air became. 

"If my speculations are correct, then… It should be possible for me to reach the crown." Leon thought as he was drawing closer to 600ft altitude, even though the World Tree is over 10 thousand feet high.

No, the World Tree has grown slightly taller in the days he had been away. 10 thousand feet was just the initial height of World-level trees. 

World Trees still had a lot of room for growth after reaching this height and can grow to a staggering 30 thousand feets.

550fts… 580fts…

Soon, Leon flew past the 600ft altitude mark, but he still had a long way to go before reaching the bottommost level of the World Tree's crown. The crown should be where the spirit energy was the densest.

700fts… 800fts…

"As I thought. I have already broken past the 600ft altitude mark, but I have yet to feel the sky's suppression. The unknown force that makes one difficult to fly higher does not apply within the World Tree domain."

Leon felt a bit excited as he concluded this point. 

Flying had always been something achievable by any Heaven Ascension realm practitioners and beyond when he was back in the Divine Realm. But here in Gaia, it had become a luxury only the strong can afford to achieve.

Being infected by the contagious Gaian mentality, Leon felt the joy of being able to fly high. The higher he flew, the further he could see. 

At a certain point, he would be able to see the entire Human Domain. He might also be able to see the rest of the Wildlands if he could train his [Spirit Eyes] to the next level and not get his vision obscured by the veil of clouds.

It did not take long before Leon broke past the 1000ft mark, but he did not show any sign of slowing down, nor any signs of being suppressed by the unknown force from the sky.

"About another 5000fts to reach the bottom level of the World Tree's crown, huh? I should reach it." Leon concluded. He depended on Divine Will to fly, but the expenditure of mental energy was minimal. This was something Leon had noticed after his various experiments with the usage of Divine Will. 

Divine Will expends the most mental energy when used on intelligent lifeforms with their own wills, moderate amounts when used on the environment, and the least amount when used on himself.

Putting all thoughts aside, Leon increased his pace and shot up even faster like he had just kicked the air itself, leaving behind a spiraling trail of wind.

…

His actions did not go unnoticed. He had attracted a few curious gazes even before he started shooting into the skies. 

"What are you doing? Why aren't you working?" A palace guard questioned many soldiers who had stopped pushing their earthen wheelbarrow filled with ant parts.

A few soldiers rubbed their eyes as one of them proceeded to answer, "Sorry, Sir. I might be seeing things, but I think I just saw the prince break through the sky's suppression."

"What nonsense are you talking about? Only Transcendents can easily fly within the suppression zone."

"He's not speaking nonsense, Sir! Take a look!" 

A few soldiers defended and urged the palace guard to glance at the direction they were pointed. It did not take long before the palace guard became just as surprised as the rest of them. 

Elder Evergreen and the Elven Tribe's Supreme Elder were having a small chat when they also paused due to the ongoing commotion. 

"This boy is full of surprises, isn't he? I am sure that he had yet to reach the Transcendent realm. Is he supposed to be flying with such ease?" Elder Evergreen commented after listening to the crowd.

Elder Evergreen was intrigued. Living underground his entire life, he had never heard of the suppression of the sky.

"That's for sure. I'm rather interested in what ability the prince is using to fly. I cannot sense any manipulation of elements from His Highness." Marquis Haldir said, before adding, "As for the sky's suppression… there isn't any."

Elder Evergreen was taken aback. It was true that he could not sense any force pressing down from the sky, but the soldiers would not spout rubbish without reason. And when there is a whole crowd doing it, there must be some truth to it.

"There is indeed a tremendous force suppressing the entire sky, but we will not experience while we are within the World Tree's domain, Senior. The World Tree is blocking off the suppression."

Marquis Haldir was relatively aged, but compared to an old monster like Elder Evergreen, he was still considered rather young. He was also slightly inferior in cultivation. As such, it was only right for him to address the other person as senior despite both being in the same realm.

Both the Supreme Elder and the elven princess Faelyn were familiar with the cause due to their experience with their Elder Tree. As such, they did not share the crowd's sentiments when they witness Leon ascending with ease.

"I see. That is interesting. Still, I am quite curious about what that boy is planning to do up there. What do you think?" 

"I'm afraid only his Highness can answer your question. I am just as clueless, Senior." 

"Never mind then." Elder Evergreen gave the Supreme Elder a look and asked, "It seems you also have something you want to talk to me about?"

"It seems I can't hide anything from Senior's discerning eyes. There is something I wish to discuss with Senior about…"

…

As the two elders continued their discussion, Leon finally stepped foot on the bottommost level of the World Tree's crown. The place was seething with spirit energy that it was naked to the human eye. 

Leon took a deep breath as his eyes brightened with a refreshing feeling, before mumbling, "If I can practice divine cultivation here, it should not be a problem breaking through to Revolving Core in a month."

This is just base on the standard breathing technique of absorbing and refining spirit energy. If he relied on additional abilities and cultivation pills, his divine cultivation speed would shoot up drastically. 

Let alone one month, it might be achievable in a single week, provided that the density of spirit energy did not decrease.

"Haiz, better focus on the first two objectives first. I can come back again after resolving everything the present problems."

Leon shook his head as he recalled what he came to do. After reaching the central region of the World Tree's crown, Leon sat down on a thick branch that was no different from a very fat log.

"Let's try something first!" 

Leon swallowed a Spiritual Enhancement Pill and regulated his breathing before activating Divine Will.

"Spirit energy, gather!"

Swoosh!

The leaves rustled with the gushing wind as dense amounts of spirit energy began to rush towards Leon's palm from every direction like numerous pythons.

After the ball of spirit energy floating above his palm became as fat as 16 watermelons, Leon stopped gathering further spirit energy and began to slowly clench into a fist.

"Condense!"

Leon's eyes lit up when the ball of spirit energy shrank into liquification, but he did not stop and went one step further.

"Compress!"

The spherical liquified spirit energy began to shrink even more until it finally solidified into a walnut-sized crystal rock.

"It works!" Leon was overjoyed as the ball of solidified spirit energy dropped onto his palm. Feeling the texture of the object and sensing the spirit energy inside, Leon laughed, "Hahaha, I created a spirit stone, and it's a spirit stone of the highest grade!"

"If anyone had this kind of ability back in the Divine Realm, they would never have to fear having no money!"

Spirit stones were the primary source of currency in the Divine Realm and were divided into four grades of low, mid, high, and supreme. 

100 low-grade spirit stones were equal to 1 mid-grade spirit stone, and 100 mid-grade spirit stones were equivalent to 1 high-grade spirit stone. By that subsequent order, 1 supreme-grade spirit stone was worth 1 million low-grade spirit stones.

Looking at the size of his walnut, it was quite small compared to the standard supreme-grade spirit stones, but it was a supreme-grade spirit stone nevertheless! It should be worth at least 500 thousand low-grade spirit stones!