To be honest, even Karya himself wouldn't claim to be alive.
He looked fairly normal. Aside from wearing a mask, he was often no different from an ordinary person—except that he didn't need to eat or drink. But at the end of the day, the body he was moving around in was nothing more than a magical construct.
Karya knew full well that his true self was a wretched exile, forced to hide in his own little world and use a Darkin body as an anchor.
So when the tree swore, "I can feel the life in you," Karya couldn't help finding it rather absurd.
Life?
What life could I possibly have?
The vitality of an Elemental Golem and the force of life are two entirely different things!
"Give it a rest." Karya waved a hand. "It's precisely because I'm caught between life and death that I understand better than you what it means to truly be alive."
His tone seemed to puzzle the other party.
The great tree cautiously extended a branch toward Karya. It circled before him, as though trying to confirm something, then finally withdrew after a long while.
"Give it a rest! You're alive!" The tree sounded as if it had suffered a shameful deception, its voice turning somewhat exasperated. "The force of life flows through your body. You're just some fool who heard strange rumors somewhere and is trying to break the boundary between life and death!"
The force of life?
How come I didn't know that?
Still puzzled, Karya was about to ask more, but the great tree seemed to have decided he was a liar. It simply blocked the way and ignored every question he asked.
When the tree refused to cooperate, Karya simply ignored its warning and tried to walk in the