Tighnari and Nafis

Gandharva Ville, Forest Ranger's Office.

Tighnari, who vaguely felt he had forgotten something, was now struggling to deal with his visiting teacher.

For some unknown reason, the rainforest had undergone many changes recently. No one knew what had caused them, but scholars had flocked here, hoping to settle their graduation theses in one go.

Tighnari was one of those confused people. Though he vaguely felt that he had once known the reason, after giving it some thought, he dismissed the absurd idea from his mind.

Come on, the investigation report I wrote myself is still right there. If I knew, how could my teacher be tearing me apart now?

No one noticed that on a tree outside Tighnari's office, a man and a ferret were secretly hiding among the branches, spying on them.

As he watched Tighnari get scolded, Lin Feng sighed inwardly.

How miserable. Not only was he forced to write a thesis to cover for me, but after finally finishing it, Lesser Lord Kusanali's power made him temporarily overlook everything related to me. And then his advisor scolded him because the thesis was terrible.

Honestly, he could not have had it worse.

Feeling deeply guilty, Lin Feng planned to shower Tighnari with Mora after Nafis left.

After all, he had already erased every trace of the Sleeping Place. Completely—without leaving even the slightest hidden danger behind.

As for how he had erased it all, that had to do with Xiao Bai's stomach, which was practically an extradimensional space.

Lin Feng had directly ordered Xiao Bai to devour every obviously abnormal plant around him—Sweet Flowers, mint, raspberries, and Dundun Peaches. As many as it could eat, it was to eat them all!

The absurdly tall giant trees—eaten!

Weeds as thick as an adult's arm—eaten!

Half-human-height giant mushrooms and Spice Fruits the size of footballs—eaten, all of them!

In the end, aside from a few lucky plants that had developed normally, everything in the abnormal area—including that impenetrable row of fences—went into Xiao Bai's mouth. The once-lush rainforest had nearly become a barren wasteland.

Meanwhile, Lin Feng, who temporarily counted as a fully realized Adeptus, used his authority, now many times stronger than before, to directly cultivate a new rainforest modeled after the nearby forest, creating a seamless replacement.

Honestly, Elemental Power was ridiculously useful. It seemed Xiao Bai's Food Expenses would not be a problem in the future either, Lin Feng thought slyly.

Of course, that was just a joke. Though Xiao Bai was not picky, it could still taste its food. While the Dundun Peaches and Sweet Flowers received its enthusiastic approval, the Spice Fruits and mint still occasionally made it burp twice with a rather mysterious flavor.

Setting aside the destruction of evidence, his first use of complete authority had also shown Lin Feng the vast chasm between humans and gods.

For his current self, creating a lifeless zone like Musoujin Gorge would be absurdly easy.

Drawing upon the power of the ley lines, Lin Feng could effortlessly cultivate carnivorous plants that were seventy or eighty levels strong. Add beautiful flowers that scattered highly poisonous pollen and living thorns with formidable adaptability and regenerative abilities, and even Vision holders would die one after another.

If the familiars cultivated by the power of vegetation were willing to give up their ability to move freely and take root in the ley lines, then when it came to mass-producing forces, no one could surpass them.

Yet strange creatures like the Aranara, which existed somewhere between illusion and reality, remained remarkably mysterious even to the current Lin Feng.

While cultivating the plants, Lin Feng was delighted to discover that his power did not simply diminish the more he used it, causing him to drop from his current power level once it was depleted.

Instead, it naturally formed a cycle with the elements of the natural world.

As long as he did not use too much power at once and break the balance between the authority and divine power within him, the missing power would slowly replenish over time, allowing him to maintain his current Combat Power for quite a long while.

Simply put, my output is limited, and I'm still not as strong as an Adeptus at its peak. But if I go all out, I can still unleash a pretty impressive burst.

Pulling his attention away from his thoughts about his own power, Lin Feng looked at the still-scolded Tighnari with an expression of helpless sympathy.

Inside Tighnari's wooden house.

An old man and a young man with similar temperaments sat at a table, studying a thick investigation report.

"So, do you understand now?"

"Even if you're fabricating an investigation report, you can't make it this full of holes!"

Nafis wore green Sage robes and a pair of round glasses as thick as bottle bottoms. He looked old-fashioned and easygoing, but before him, Tighnari was like a mouse seeing a cat—small, pitiful, and helpless.

Seeing that Tighnari had recognized his mistake, Nafis finally got to the real matter.

"Tighnari, this anomaly is no small matter. According to the records in the documents, the changes here are exactly like the strange phenomena that appeared five hundred years ago, before Lord Kusanali appeared in Sumeru and had yet to be brought back."

"But since Lesser Lord Kusanali still resides peacefully in the Sanctuary of Surasthana, we have no choice but to consider an unlikely possibility."

"—That Sumeru's god was actually meant to be twins!"

As he brought up the subject, Nafis's small eyes behind his lenses seemed to shine with visible light.

Nafis was not only Tighnari's mentor, but also the Sage of Amurta.

As the Akademiya's oldest school.

Amurta had been formed by the scholars who first followed Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, and it remained the Akademiya's largest school to this day.

Although its Main Research fields included biology, ecology, medicine, and other specialized disciplines, under Nafis's leadership, most Amurta members were conservative and easygoing, unwilling to participate in dangerous or extreme research.

As the branch that had first followed Greater Lord Rukkhadevata, Amurta was among the friendliest of the six schools toward Lesser Lord Kusanali.

As the Sage of Amurta, Nafis knew many hidden secrets due to his position, and he deeply felt that Sumeru's current path had completely deviated from Greater Lord Rukkhadevata's teachings.

The other schools of the Akademiya in particular had grown so dismissive of the gods that the problem had become impossible to reverse.

Dissatisfied with Lesser Lord Kusanali's current imprisonment, Nafis had once tried to propose reforms. But how could centuries of tradition be changed so easily? Amid endless evasions and buck-passing, even the most fervent passion would eventually become an empty fantasy.

Who would have thought that just as he was nearing surrender, Gandharva Ville would experience such an incident?

Believing this to be his only chance in life, Nafis suppressed all speculation related to the gods and personally revised his beloved student Tighnari's investigation report, lowering the priority assigned to Gandharva Ville's anomaly.

To avoid being disturbed, Nafis even hardened his heart and approved his students' meaningless research topics, disregarding his reputation in the educational world as he quietly went to Gandharva Ville to investigate.

And the reason he was willing to make such a great sacrifice was to hide this from the other Sages, find this newborn god before them, prevent a repeat of Lesser Lord Kusanali's fate, and use the new god's power to reform the Akademiya—ultimately achieving his goal of freeing Lesser Lord Kusanali.