Mighty One - Lord of the Forest

When Yu Xian voiced this thought, Niman was tempted. But Xiao Sensen cried out in terror, "Don't! Whatever you do, don't give that order! Something... something horrifying will happen!" "Something horrifying?" Yu Xian looked at Xiao Sensen. Xiao Sensen nodded gravely and explained, "Yes, something very, very horrifying! Once, someone obtained a miraculous item known as the 'Anything-Goes Magic Lamp.' This miraculous item could summon the Anything-Goes Genie, which was said to grant any wish. However, the item came with a restriction: none of the wisher's desires could contradict each other." "And what did he wish for?" Yu Xian asked. Xiao Sensen answered, "For his first wish, he wanted to become the wealthiest person in his world. So he took the place of the richest person in his world, becoming the wealthiest of all. Then, he wished to become the most powerful person..." "And then he became an emperor?" Niman guessed. Xiao Sensen shook his head. "No. After he made that wish, every living creature in the entire world died, leaving him as the only one left alive..." "..." A collective chill ran down everyone's spines. Although after every living thing died, he truly had become the most powerful person in the world, that was far too terrifying. Yu Xian analyzed, "There was an inherent flaw in his wish. He wanted to become the 'most' powerful person, but what that 'most' truly encompassed was open to interpretation. For instance, every person is the master of their own body. Even if he became an emperor or a president and held all military authority, he couldn't simply order a person bent on dying to stay alive and expect them not to dare to die, right? "If he wanted absolute, unmatched power over everything, the only way was to wipe out every living soul in the entire world. That way, he truly became the most powerful." "So in the end, the problem was with how he phrased the wish," Nora remarked after hearing this. Niman shook her head, however. "It wasn't just a problem with his wish. The Anything-Goes Magic Lamp itself had an issue. The way it fulfilled wishes lacked intelligence. Add in the fact that wishes couldn't conflict, and once it produced disastrous consequences, there wasn't even a chance to undo them. Muse might not even be on par with the Anything-Goes Magic Lamp, so when giving orders, we must be all the more cautious and deliberate." "Then let's use it cautiously for now, and try to avoid giving any outrageous orders," Yu Xian said to the group. Niman and Nora both nodded in agreement. As for Little Nora and Little Huangquan, the two little ones had no command authority whatsoever. They were both far too young, and Niman didn't trust them to issue orders to Muse at all, so granting the two permission to command Muse hadn't even been considered from the start. "Yu Xian, if you got your hands on the Anything-Goes Magic Lamp, what would you wish for?" Niman looked toward Yu Xian and asked with a smile. Yu Xian pondered a moment, then answered, "Tell me, if I wished for transcendence—if I wished to transcend—could it grant me that?" "Transcendence? What kind of realm is that?" Niman asked, taken aback. Yu Xian had previously explained the realms of cultivation to the others, but Niman hadn't joined back then, so she had no idea what the realms beyond Cosmos Rank were actually called. "Transcendence is probably what you'd call... the end of cultivation," Yu Xian looked at Niman and answered with a smile. He then carefully explained the cultivation realm divisions he had learned from Zhenwo Changjing: after Cosmos Rank came the Void Realm; after the Void Realm came the Tribulation Realm; after the Tribulation Realm came the Emptiness Realm; and beyond the Emptiness Realm were the Mighty Ones. The cultivation of a Mighty One had no end—unless one could... transcend. Niman was actually familiar with the term "Mighty One," but the word itself was used loosely to describe powerful figures; in many worlds, Star-rank powerhouses were also referred to as Mighty Ones. She knew it was a specific realm, but had no idea just how far away she was from a Mighty One, knowing only that it was extraordinarily, unimaginably distant. In the past, she had always felt lost, unsure of how to progress beyond Cosmos Rank. Her joining Yu Xian's team had merely been due to the advice of the "Mighty One" Zhenwo Changjing. Yet at this very moment, she felt a sudden rush of clarity, as though the path ahead had become crystal clear. "To think that someone in the Lost Epoch actually knows the concept of transcendence! Yu Xian is right—transcendence is the end of cultivation! The Great Lord of the Forest once said that Transcenders are omniscient and omnipotent; so long as they wish it, they can do anything. "Creator Gods, Primordial Gods—none of them are truly gods at all. Only Transcenders are true gods: omnipotent, omniscient!" Xiao Sensen nodded smugly after hearing Yu Xian's words. Niman looked at Xiao Sensen and asked, "Then... is the Great Lord of the Forest a Transcender?" "I once asked the Great Lord of the Forest that too, but the Great Lord of the Forest said, 'The Lord of the Forest is just the Lord of the Forest,'" Xiao Sensen said, a little depressed. After all, it had just praised Transcenders to high heaven, and now it turned out the Great Lord of the Forest wasn't one. Didn't that mean the Great Lord of the Forest was inferior to a Transcender? Niman smiled slightly, understanding immediately in her heart. Since the Lord of the Forest was not a Transcender, He was without question a Mighty One. However, there were likely vast differences in power even among Mighty Ones. After all, as Yu Xian had said, a Mighty One's cultivation was endless. So before reaching transcendence, there surely existed super-powerful Mighty Ones who had cultivated to extreme heights, and perhaps the Lord of the Forest was just such a supreme Mighty One. Invincible beneath transcendence. For such an existence, pride was only natural. Refusing to associate with other Mighty Ones and establishing a realm of His own dubbed the "Lord of the Forest" was hardly surprising. If she ever became a Mighty One in the future and grew far, far stronger than other Mighty Ones, she would definitely create a new realm for herself too—something like "God of Mushrooms" or "Lord of Mushrooms." Thinking of this, she couldn't help but chuckle, feeling her thoughts were a little irreverent. In truth, Yu Xian's thoughts were quite similar to Niman's. Through Xiao Sensen's answer, he too had deduced the Lord of the Forest's level of power, and there was no longer any need to debate his earlier question. The Lord of the Forest was merely a Mighty One. A miraculous item created by Him naturally couldn't enable transcendence; wishing for transcendence would likely produce no effect at all, or perhaps even lead to a terrible outcome. What was more, this meant Muse's abilities definitely had their limits. Of course, even if it was "merely" at the level of a Mighty One, that was more than enough for small fry like them. A Mighty One like the Lord of the Forest could already be considered a true deity. Muse's power had limits, but so long as they used it with care, it would still serve as a tremendous aid on their path of cultivation. "..." After chatting a bit longer, Little Nora woke up. Whenever this little rascal slept, she stuck her rear end up in the air, and her way of getting up was just as peculiar. Relying entirely on her leg strength, she popped her head straight up in an instant, looking like a rooster heralding the dawn. "Transform!" Though still groggy, the girl instantly conjured a massive metal bone. Thud! With a tremendous crash, the massive metal bone smashed right through, carving a huge crater into the bridge of the Aska. "Muse, repair the ship, quick!" Seeing sizzling sounds coming from the pit and flashes of electrical sparks, as though it were about to blow up the next second, Yu Xian, Nora, and Niman shouted in panic. Chaos erupted throughout the warship in an instant.