But just after Roderick led Leo away,
Then they saw the Indestructible Body Stigmata Great Wizard casually take out hundreds of branches that were folded and sealed by space from his wizarding ring, pick one up at random, throw it into his mouth, and chew it up, swallowing a small branch of the World Tree whose main body was more than three thousand meters long.
He casually put the remaining hundreds of branches back into the wizard's ring, his lavish manner a far cry from the heartbroken look he had when giving Leo a single branch.
Leo was completely unaware that the Indestructible Body Stigmata Great Wizard, wielding the Sword of Winter, had cleaved the 50,000-meter-tall tree trunk of the World Tree in two with a single strike.
The World Tree was terrified by the oppressive power of the Sword of Winter and dared not take its own branches away.
The entire 50,000-meter section of the World Tree trunk, excluding the underground portion, was divided up by the four Stigmata Great Wizard.
The Indestructible Body Stigmata Great Wizard, who was the main force in the battle, reaped the most rewards, giving Leo a two-thousand-meter-long branch. Leo was overjoyed, but for the Indestructible Body Stigmata Great Wizard, who had received half of the World Tree, it was at most a loss of a snack.
Accompanied by Roderick, Leo quickly returned to his own mothership from this mothership.
After returning to his room, Leo finally couldn't contain his joy and burst into laughter.
Originally, he just wanted to extort some money, but more importantly, he wanted to find out indirectly whether the World Tree would follow the connection to the Wizard World to kill him.
What they tried to extort turned out to be a large branch of the World Tree, a cosmic treasure that even the Stigmata Wizard couldn't obtain.
Although Leo doesn't need it now, and doesn't even know how to use it.
But even just the weight of this World Tree is terrifying; even without doing anything, swinging it with sheer physical strength would be extremely powerful.
Only Indestructible Body Stigmata Great Wizard directly told the World Tree that he dared not go to the Wizard World did Leo truly breathe a sigh of relief.
Is that branch connecting him to the World Tree still there in his mind's eye?
This is like a time bomb strapped to Leo's head, which could explode and kill Leo at any moment.
Now, with the guarantee of the Indestructible Body Stigmata Great Wizard, the World Tree dares not appear within the range of the Wizard Will. Therefore, this time bomb has become a dud, and Leo can completely ignore it.
Freed from constraints, I felt an unprecedented sense of ease, and even the Tree of Life planted in the room seemed to possess a lively and lovely beauty.
"Once all the resources have been moved, we can go home."
Leo smiled. Although this expedition was more dangerous than any before, the final gains were also unprecedented. In short... they made a fortune.
"Great! We can go back to see Alice now. You also need to prepare the betrothal gifts, otherwise the Purple Flame Stigmata Wizard might not agree to let Alice marry you." Yaoyao reminded Leo that this trip back involved the most important thing in his life.
What gifts should we prepare?
Leo's face was beaming with a happy smile, as if he was already envisioning a future life with Alice.
He opened the Shadow Space and searched endlessly, trying to find the most suitable gift for proposing marriage.
The Shadow Space was too large, Yaoyao jumped in and searched through it. In order to marry Alice, she had to be fully prepared, preferably with something that could directly impress the Purple Flame Stigmata Wizard.
"Lord Leo, Lord Yaoyao, isn't our return time exactly the time of Alice's expedition?"
Seeing Leo and Yaoyao, who were happily searching for a marriage proposal gift, Benji, sitting under the Tree of Life, cautiously reminded them that they had been away for fifty years and would have to wait twelve years to return, which coincided with the time of Alice's expedition mission.
They won't see Alice when they go back.
Furthermore, due to the failure of this mission, they will not have a century-long rest period and will soon embark on the next expedition, destined to miss Alice's return.
Alice will not be seen for the next few decades.
"Huh? There's such a rule?"
Yaoyao shouted angrily, then dug out the regulations about the expedition mission from the depths of her memory. It did indeed say that after a mission failed, there was no century-long rest period, and the next mission had to be carried out as quickly as possible to make up for the failure.
Calculating the time, their return coincided exactly with the start of Alice's expedition.
They wanted to meet Alice, and the best chance of doing so was after the next expedition ended.
It has to be a successful expedition. If we have to go on another expedition to the Homo Sapiens World, who knows when we'll have another chance to meet.
"The marriage proposal is off, and there's no need to prepare gifts."
"Fate really loves to play tricks on people."
Yaoyao slumped onto Leo's shoulder, feeling utterly defeated. Just one failed mission had caused so much trouble.
Now, not only Leo, but even Yaoyao wanted to pull up that unlucky Stigmata Wizard from Earth Pulse and kick him a few times.
Why didn't they find an easier world to conquer instead of choosing one infested with a level seven life form?
Now look what's happened! Not only is he dead, but he's also ruined Leo's chances of getting married.
Leo could only manage a wry smile; it was simply too much of a coincidence.
But we've already come this far, so what's a few more decades?
If you can't force it, then let nature take its course.
Three more years passed, and finally, with the tireless efforts of tens of thousands of warships, all the valuable mineral veins were mined out.
After all the wizards had redeemed their battle merits, the four motherships initiated the Stellar Leap, beginning their twelve-year return journey.
The expedition failed, the planet was destroyed, and the space portal could not be opened. They could only return the way they came, wasting an extra twelve years.
This is all the fault of the Earth Pulse Stigmata Wizard!
Before falling asleep, Leo carefully placed the exchanged Water of Life in the Shadow Space. Although the expedition mission failed, the number of battle merits he gained was not small at all.
After all, he provided a wealth of reliable and accurate intelligence, and he didn't miss a single battle or mission to mine the Planetary Core.
The only difference this time was that the battle merits were not exchanged for the Planetary Core, but instead Leo exchanged them for the Water of Life, which is more beneficial to plants.
Plants watered with the Water of Life have a certain chance of awakening their own consciousness, and their life essence can also be elevated.
Leo's Tree of Life is still in the most basic plant stage. If it is allowed to grow and transform on its own, it will most likely remain unchanged until its death.
After all, in terms of Bloodline, the Tree of Life belongs to one's own Bloodline descendants, so it's understandable that Leo would exchange some Water of Life for it to nurture it properly.
On this point, Yaoyao had no objection. He no longer clamored for Leo to exchange for Planetary Core as before. It was probably because the number of Planetary Core stolen this time was a bit too much for him to consume, and he wouldn't ask Leo to get Planetary Core for him for quite some time.
In the boundless universe, stars suddenly dim and then slowly regain their brightness. Ordinary life forms would definitely think this was the wrath of the sun god.
In reality, it was nothing more than a starship absorbing a large amount of stellar energy to perform a super long-distance leap.
Twelve years later, Leo awoke to the cold sound of a radio broadcast, feeling the familiar surroundings and a surge of power.
They've returned to the Wizard World!
Benji revealed his true form, embracing the Tree of Life as he flew off the starship, with Leo and Yaoyao following behind.
The mothership stopped at the exact spot where it took off.
They found their wizard tower at a glance, where tens of thousands of Gulu Beast were already lined up outside, waiting.
"Welcome back, Lord Leo, Lord Yaoyao Yao, and Ancestor!"
The perfectly synchronized voices, clearly the result of long rehearsals, made Yaoyao burst out laughing. These Gulu Beast, whose sole responsibility is reproduction, actually knew how to pull off something like this.
"Get up, all of you."
Nearly 60 years have passed since then, and the original number of Gulu Beast, less than 7,000, has now multiplied to 40,000, all of whom possess strength of level one or above.
Leo's smile vanished after a quick glance; he noticed something amiss with these Gulu Beast.
After a two-hundred-year-old life species enhancement program, the essence of the Gulu Beast has been elevated.
However, only Gulu Beast have only a high probability of advancing to level one, meaning they still have a certain probability of not being able to advance.
These Gulu Beast that cannot advance should make up the largest number of the Gulu Beast race, but Leo hasn't seen a single one yet.
Furthermore, the number of Gulu Beast is incorrect. Based on the calculation that they double every 10 to 20 years, they could have multiplied their population to over 100,000 within 60 years, but the current number is only 40,000.
Within the hundred-kilometer radius he controlled, there were originally only two wizard towers, one for the cubs of the Gulu Beast to protect them from being torn apart by the violent elemental aura.
The other one is the wizard's tower where Leo usually lives, conducts experiments, and enjoys his daily life.
Now, the number of wizard towers in the territory has reached twenty, not just two, and they are all thirty-story wizard towers, fifteen stories above ground and fifteen stories underground.
In Leo's perception, there were many Gulu Beast cubs in these wizard towers. These strong Gulu Beast cubs, who were clearly ten generations or older, had already filled three wizard towers. Once they reached adulthood and advanced one level, they could walk out of the wizard towers.
Compared to these Gulu Beast reach level 1 upon reaching adulthood after the tenth generation, it seems that all the Gulu Beast cubs before the tenth generation have disappeared.
The quantity is wrong, the cubs are wrong.
The Gulu Beast Clan must have suffered something.
Can anyone tell me what's going on?
Leo, who was originally happy to be home, suddenly turned grim, and his voice revealed an undisguised murderous intent.
If anyone were to harm these carefully trained Gulu Beast during his expedition, he would show that person what the madness of Elemental Body Refinement Wizard truly meant!