Plans and Accidents

White Beard was right behind the main gate.

He and Orange Cat had already turned this place into their base of operations.

But when Thor walked through the gate, the first thing he saw was not the White Beard wizard crouching on the ground, but the dense, gnarled, and twisted tree roots behind the gate.

These roots should have been underground, but now they were piled up inside the academy like the walls of a labyrinth. It was as if they had been deliberately pruned into this shape by the Gardener.

The walls formed by these roots were taller than Thor.

Only when Thor took flight could he see the even more shocking Great Tree stump inside, past the vast, forest-like wall of roots.

Just as Orange Cat had described, a tree stump that had been cut off at the waist—or rather, at the roots—lay flat in the center of the academy.

The original buildings had all been annihilated and pulverized, or pushed to the periphery.

What Thor found strange was that the stump before him should have been exposed to the air for several months by now. Yet, the cross-section of the stump remained as fresh as ever, as if it had just been severed.

Thor narrowed his eyes; countless Witchcraft Runes seemed to be swimming across the fractured surface of the stump.

They appeared on the bark one moment and submerged into the trunk the next.

Magic Power was being evenly transmitted to the surrounding roots, causing the wall of roots before him to slowly grow taller and larger.

"Don't think about flying over from above," White Beard, who was crouching on the ground drawing an array, said. "Both my and Orange Cat's Witchcraft rely heavily on the ground. If you are in the sky, we have no