The Elf King's Fall, The World Tree's Birth

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

He didn't go to the gym at this time as usual, nor did he open his computer to check the playback volume and comments on those short videos.

Instead, he stayed at home and, through the camera again, watched the scene in the laboratory.

At this moment.

The flames had already extinguished.

After all, there wasn't much oxygen inside.

But life wasn't completely burned to death, because that Giant God was frantically calling all his subjects to hide within his body.

And to resist the burning of the flames, the Giant God put on an exoskeleton, transforming into an Armored Titan.

Immediately after.

He transformed into a skeletal armored giant. After hiding from the flames as a refuge for the Giant God, he faced the next disaster:

An oxygen-deprived environment far more severe than the flames!

This Giant God evolved again, his skin began to turn green and tree-like, transforming into a Treant, performing photosynthesis to supply oxygen to all living beings in the world.

"Amazing."

Li Qing smiled, "It's not strange that there were always underwater plants inside, multiplying plant cells."

"He's like Ditto, changing with the environment, growing an exoskeleton to resist flames, and then producing oxygen as a plant. Is he trying to lead civilization to survive?"

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

Even Li Qing, an amateur who had recently been studying genetic engineering, knew this.

What would be the side effects of this disabled person, who gasped while walking, struggled to twist open a bottle cap, and needed to lie in bed constantly, successfully resisting this terrifying sea of fire apocalypse, unleashing such great physical potential.

It would be at the cost of his life.

Cause of death: Genetic collapse.

The world is balanced.

When you were a single cell, equivalent to a small program of a few megabytes, you could be arbitrarily coded and evolve into simple lactic acid bacteria, yeast, E. coli, Termitomyces, or Boletus edulis at any time. There wouldn't be any major problems, after all, the structure was simple, and the underlying code was clear at a glance.

You are now a large life form equivalent to hundreds of gigabytes of genetic code. Dare to mess with the underlying code? Aren't you afraid of having many bugs?

Even in the programmer community, there's a saying: If the code runs, don't touch it!

This can also be applied to life.

Currently, all life on Earth is a great, complex, and precise creation. The reason they don't suffer genetic collapse is that they are the most stable forms evolved over hundreds of millions of years on Earth!

The Great Emperor of Atabia also knew this.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have simplified the underlying code first, creating a simple initial life form with only muscles and bones, without eyes, ears, mouth, or nose...

The more structures and functions you forcibly cram in, the harder it is for life to remain stable!

He originally planned to gradually evolve step by step in the future, adding eyes, ears, mouth, and nose.

But what about now?

He, this newborn disabled person who could barely twist a bottle of water, struggled to save the world and his subjects...

He forcibly added a bunch of messy genetic structures, like practicing two or three internal martial arts simultaneously, leading to inevitable demonic possession.

And did he not know he would die?

He knew.

But he didn't abandon his subjects. He could kill himself, but he refused to let others kill them!

The apocalypse was over.

"Aha, the destiny he gave me, I will not follow it." The Great Emperor of Atabia had transformed into a vast and majestic being with green skin, tall stature, long willow-like hair, pointed ears, and the appearance of a handsome and aloof male statue, like a colossal elf god.

At this moment.

His genes were collapsing.

His genes were like a tangled mess of threads, completely incomprehensible. Even the billions of engineers in the entire civilization couldn't find a solution, let alone reverse it.

"Your Majesty, your genes are already collapsing. The plant cell structure and animal cell structure are interfering with and repelling each other, making them incompatible."

"Damn it! Even with our chimeric structure, we can't reduce the side effects?"

"This is too fast! He's just a newborn young god, so weak to the extreme. He shouldn't be so chaotic. If he had grown properly, even with these structures together, this wouldn't have happened..."

"The current optimal solution is to let the plant cells completely dominate, to become a tree completely..."

"Your Majesty!..."

"Your Majesty!..."

Messages kept coming.

The Great Emperor of Atabia knew clearly that he was going to die.

And his contribution to future generations before his death was: complete treeification.

He will transform into a giant, sky-piercing tree, re-supplying oxygen to this anoxic world and nurturing future generations.

"It's enough. At least this was my choice, not a choice made for me by the gods in the heavens."

The Great Emperor of Atabia smiled.

This colossal giant, tens of thousands of feet tall, stomped his feet, shaking the earth, crossing mountains and rivers. He dragged a group of microorganisms in his hand and said:

"Death is death. My life is also to provide precious data for the divine lives of those who come after. The death of a pioneer is only right."

The giant said dismissively, "Humans on the ground cannot become giants comparable to gods in one go. I have long been prepared to die. I have no regrets after experiencing being a Giant God in such a magnificent spectacle."

"I have become the past, but you still have a future. I hope you will continue to resist the injustice of fate after me and complete the great exploration of life's evolution."

The Great Emperor of Atabia suddenly laughed again, gazing at the Crystal Wall.

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

He kicked aside a pile of cans, picked up a steel rod from the storage shelf, and began to spin it against the Crystal Wall: "Our flesh and blood lives currently have limits. What if it were this special material?"

Drilling for fire.

Sizzle!

The green elf Giant God spun a long metal staff, like a colossal deity from ancient myths wielding a divine weapon, breaking through the world's barrier.

"Even this won't work!!!"

The Great Emperor of Atabia suddenly went mad.

He held the iron rod, spinning and spinning.

He maintained a single posture, a single frequency.

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

He was like Kuafu from ancient myths, who was unswerving. He drank when he was thirsty and ate meat when he was hungry, but his body's collapse prevented him from taking in any energy. His movements slowed, from afternoon to dusk.

"Wuwuwu."

Countless wise men of Atabia wept uncontrollably.

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

Atabia was different from them.

Different from all the wise men.

He was born at the pinnacle of humanity.

His wisdom was unique, his talent unprecedented. He even leaped over the stages of civilization, building the Tower of Babel, nearly creating a true Giant God to confront the world outside!

Crack.

The god slowly spun the blade in his hand, slower and slower, like an old man.

Suddenly, the lament of the Church of the Suffering echoed throughout the world again:

"The rain will collapse into floods~~ Purple clouds will cover the earth into an abyss~ Ruins will erect high towers~ Bones will be covered with flesh~ And I will return to the heavens, suffering eternally in the lake of fire for the righteous on earth..."

The music was a send-off.

The sky-piercing Tower of Babel, shattered by an Outer God, became a sky-piercing giant tree.

Splash!

As the golden twilight shone in from outside.

Amidst the collapse of the ancient elf Giant God's genes, he stopped his movements at some unknown point, his entire being turning into a tree.

Before his death, he maintained the handsome, statue-like posture of drilling for fire, becoming a colossal wax statue of ancient times. Then his skin was gradually covered by bark, transforming into a verdant, sky-piercing primordial Divine Tree.

"The power of gods is truly admirable," the treant's face was completely submerged by bark.

"The king has fallen, the rebel leader has been executed. The Atabian civilization is completely finished."

Li Qing put on his blindfold, closed his eyes, and left the room.

Everything had finally settled, and he dared to go out for dinner.

Li Qing withdrew his gaze, his expression filled with emotion: "Atabia, you yearned for the power of gods. How could I not?"

There are worlds beyond worlds. Compared to the vast universe, we are incredibly small and pathetic.

Your civilization was just beginning, hence your yearning for the mysterious. But the scale of our civilization is but a drop in the ocean; the universe is too vast and magnificent.

Atabia, that madman, even at the last moment of his life, was pursuing the truth of life, exploring the ends of the world. This filled Li Qing with both emotion and shock.

Would he himself, one day, among countless civilizations, embark on a path similar to Atabia's, pursuing the truth and future of the world, the ultimate evolution of life? Would he die on the path like him? Or reach the end?

Walking on the street after dinner, bathed in the evening glow.

Li Qing looked at the ordinary giant humans, feeling as if he had crossed epochs.

Witnessing the death of his strongest opponent, Li Qing felt no sense of victory, only immense shock.

The ordinary humans we see everywhere on our streets spent trillions of lifetimes of effort in their civilization, yet they haven't even reached the starting line to become giants like us.

Li Qing suddenly thought, "Perhaps he is another Pangu. After Ning Guochang, he too has fallen, transforming into a world tree to nourish the entire world, separating heaven and earth. Like a great whale falling, all things are born."

Perhaps, this way, it was a perfect revenge for Ning Guochang.