1852 Growing

Whisker appeared in the Soul Space, moving next to Pearl while he said his final goodbye. Whisker remained next to him as a brother and a friend for Pearl during this time.

After Pearl finished saying his final goodbyes to his father's corpse, Alex pushed it away toward the formation that was around the World Tree.

The corpse got closer and closer to the World Tree, and when it finally reached it, the World Tree's free roots moved around the corpse, capturing it and taking it in.

The roots slowly wrapped around the entire corpse and started pulsing as they began absorbing the corpse.

"It will take some time," Alex said. "It took about 5 hours to fully take away the Dragon Emperor's body. It should take much longer now."

"That's alright. I'll stay and watch," Pearl said.

Alex said nothing and let Pearl do that.

Pearl watched as the roots slowly took away his father's body, completely hidden from his sight. They had completely wrapped their roots around his giant father's coiled-up body, and they shrunk slowly, but visibly, which let Pearl know how long it would take.

Pearl had thought he would only be watching his father's body go away, but to his surprise, he also saw the tree start moving and growing.

It got slightly bigger each time the roots shrunk around his father's body.

The 10-meter-tall tree was growing, getting closer to 11 meters and maybe a little more. It wasn't just growing tall, but also somewhat wide, as the branches grew around it, and leaves grew out of it.

Pearl didn't use his spiritual sense, so he couldn't tell what was happening around the tree right now. Whisker could perhaps tell the situation with his whiskers, but he would have to go closer.

Unbeknownst to them, the tree was giving off Qi, as it always had. But unlike the other times, this Qi was slightly better and stronger.

Until now, the Qi coming from the tree had improved, getting closer to the strength of what a Mind Tempering realm cultivator would have in his body.

But now, it had improved once more. With Pearl's father's incredible Immortal body, the Tree was getting closer to releasing True Disciple realm Qi.

The best part about these Qi was the fact that if they were left out long enough, they would break down to become weaker and weaker until they turned into nothing but the energy they came from.

As such, everyone in the true realm, and below it, could easily absorb the Qi around the tree.

It wasn't just the World Tree that seemed to show any change either. The Yang Tree began glowing much brighter as well.

It wasn't only glowing bright, but hot as well. Pearl could feel the heat from the tree growing ever so slightly. Whisker could tell exactly how much hotter the tree had gotten thanks to his little whiskers.

That heat was of course going to go back into the World Tree to turn into Qi again, continuing a loop.

8 hours passed in a flash, and the World Tree's roots finally opened up, revealing a complete lack of anything. Not even the bones had remained.

Tears fell down Pearl's face once again as he saw that nothing remained again of his father. "Brother, it is done."

Alex watched through Whisker's eyes, seeing the complete lack of anybody within the World Tree. The World Tree had grown taller, becoming a bit taller than 12 meters.

It had been growing for all this time, and with just a single Immortal Corpse, it had grown by 20% more. Alex wondered how much more he could make it grow by feeding it whatever else he could come across.

Maybe the Immortal spirit stones?

'No, that won't do. I need those,' Alex told himself. He would have to take it slow with growing these plants.

'But I absolutely need some place to grow the tree. Some place where I won't have to gather the Qi around using formation, and can actually put it to good use.'

Alex would have to think a lot about that.

"In a way, my father will forever be with the tree, won't he?" Pearl asked.

"In a way," Alex answered.

"We can come visit your father whenever you want, brother," Whisker said to Pearl.

Pearl nodded slowly.

The three of them remained there, watching the slow transaction between the World Tree and the Yang Tree as they reached equilibrium again while remaining far enough away from each other.

"Do you wish to stay there for a while?" Alex asked Pearl.

"No, I'll be leaving," Pearl said. Both he and Whisker flew out of Alex's Soul Space

As soon as they were out, they took a deep breath, feeling the breath of air fill their lungs. Being inside without any air was a very weird experience for Pearl at least.

Whisker was more used to it as Alex sent him inside multiple times to check on the trees as his own Spiritual Sense was absorbed by the trees if he got too close up to them.

Once they were out, Alex looked toward Pearl. "Go to your uncle and tell him what you want to do. He should help you prepare for the funeral."

Pearl nodded and left to meet his uncle. He returned a while later and told Alex that it would take a day at least to make the preparations since the Azure Dragon's funeral wouldn't be something simple.

It might even take longer if the entire continent were to be made privy to the event, which Pearl decided to make happen.

Given how many of the people of the continent had fought on his father's behalf in the war, it did not sit right with him to make the funeral just something for himself.

The entire continent looked up to his father, so it was even necessary in a way.

With Pearl's uncle doing all the necessary preparation, Pearl returned with Alex to meet the rest of the family.

Helen and Ronron were more than happy to see Pearl doing well. They hadn't seen him since he had left for the war, so they were more than worried for him.

Pearl felt a warm feeling grow inside of him, as he remembered that while he had lost his father and mother, not everything had been lost just yet.

He had more people in his family than just his father and mother. A smile formed on his face.

While Pearl remained with the others, Alex went to meet up with Long Huan, who had requested that he come to his tent.

When Alex arrived, he found a gathering in the tent, one that made him wonder just what was happening.

There were not just Long Huan and Hannah in the tent, but also Long Hanjue, Yan Yating, and several other leaders of the army and legions, as well as many other people that Alex did not recognize.

He got curious about such a large gathering.

"What exactly is going on here?" he asked.

"Your Majesty, thank you for coming," Yan Yating said. "With you here, we may be able to finally decide the future of the empire."