Chapter 233: The world tree stopped growing Ethan didn’t rush him. He had enough time to play with. Alex was silent after hearing Ethan’s offer. He was calculating the pros and cons of the situation. This man was clearly far superior to him in terms of strength and status. Besides, Alex always felt that mysterious pressure from him. Alex had the bloodline of the World Serpent, the highest-level bloodline out there, but he still felt his bloodline was not enough somehow. He could refuse the offer, but then what? Would this man let him go? Even if that happened, where would he go? His enemies were far too powerful for him to handle now. But if he accepted the offer, the man had promised to protect him. After considering for ten minutes, Alex came to his decision. "I accept the offer. I will work for you, but if you order me to do anything that goes against my conscience, I would rather choose death than obey." Ethan smiled when he heard this. "Yep, definitely a protagonist." Associating with protagonists often brought bad luck to their comrades, but Ethan was someone outside that range of misfortune. "Sure. I want you to be my general and train my army. I want you to recruit people with talent. Then I want you to conquer other kingdoms for me. And conquering kingdoms is a must. If you think it wouldn’t go well with you, the deal is canceled. I’ll erase your memory and throw you out of my kingdom." Alex was stunned. "He could erase my memory? What level of power is that? And why would someone like him want to conquer other small kingdoms?" Alex asked, "Do you want massacre when conquering, or do you want conquest regardless of the process?" Ethan said, "I want the other kingdoms to come under my wings. If you can make it happen by kissing their asses or sleeping with them, I don’t give a shit. That’s all for today. Go back to your work." Ethan canceled the domain and let Alex go. After Alex was gone, Ethan again started watching the World Tree. It had almost caught up with the size of the black hole. What would it do now? Ethan watched patiently. After two more hours, the World Tree became as large as the black hole, and it didn’t show any signs of stopping. "Would it kill me and come outside of my body now?" Ethan thought with amusement. But then what he saw stunned him. The World Tree wrapped its branches around the edges of the black hole and then started making the black hole grow with it. Ethan’s stats were also increasing. He had never seen a scene like this where his stats continuously rose. It was already night. Ethan heard a knock at the door. "Your majesty, this is Nilim. Can I talk to you for a bit if you allow me?" Ethan opened the door of the carriage and went outside. Jonathon and some other soldiers were standing behind. As soon as Ethan came out, they all knelt on the ground, including Nilim. "We are honored to have such a ruler like you, your majesty. Thank you for not abandoning us." A few hours ago, Alex went back to them and told them he would become the general of the royal army from now on and train the soldiers for conquering other kingdoms. This was an order from the king. Everyone was stunned by this sudden announcement; some of them didn’t even hear the full content. They just heard that this supreme expert was going to be their general and train them, and this was the king’s command. They felt immense joy and excitement at the news. Their king was capable enough to keep a supreme expert like Alex under him with just an order. Who was their king, actually? But did such details matter? Of course not. So they came to show their respect to the king. All this time they thought the king was just a young, immature, and inexperienced rookie who became king because of the sudden death of the previous one. But now they knew—the new king was the kingmaker, not just a puny king. Now they felt satisfied with their loyalty, glad they never left his side even when some of them were not pleased with him. Ethan said, "You don’t have to do this. If you truly want me to see how grateful you are, train under Alex well and help me conquer every nation. Can you do this?" "Yes, your majesty." They didn’t say any fancy words. They would show their resolve through actions. They left the area. Meanwhile, in other regions of this realm, all the candidates arrived at their designated places. Some became kings of immortal dynasties. Some became kings of advanced civilizations. No one was like Ethan, a pauper with a mortal kingdom where the subjects couldn’t even cultivate power. This was surely done by that alien spirit. He hated Ethan—whether for no reason or for taking five or six rare species from him. He could always revive the dead monsters, but what Ethan had taken couldn’t be revived. That was probably the reason he sent him to this low-class kingdom. Everyone started taking action to capture the power of their designated backgrounds. They couldn’t attack ordinary people, only other candidates like themselves. So they had to claim authority over the power they were given. Ethan went back inside the carriage. Nilim had said there was a good place to stay the night, but Ethan refused. He wanted to observe the progress of the World Tree. Would the World Tree keep growing like a cancer cell? Where would it stop? The night passed. The World Tree was now the size of a full galaxy—and then it stopped growing. "System, has the evolution of the tree finished?" [Not even a little, master. It’s just taking a rest, that’s all. When you break through to the Galactic Realm, the World Tree will awaken again.] Ethan looked at his panel: [Master: Ethan Hunt Physique: 2 billion Cosmos Spirit: 2 billion Cosmos Talent: Infinite Comprehension] Strength had become 2 billion cosmos from over 700 million, it was alsmost 3 times increment. More over the evolution of the world tree was not just getting strength, it was to get a sentient manager which would manage his inner world. When his black hole would turn into a galaxy, life would start to appear. Not complex life form but simple life form. If Ethan wanted, he could even create a specifc lifeform according to his will, but if he wanted to create something fancy, like humans, he would have to be to way more powerful. That would totally depend on his realm level, not power. Sigh! "Hey system, the earth I came from, where is it now? I would like to go there someday." [Master, the earth you came from is located in the prime reality. Prime reality is the anchor point of all realities under the 3rd dimension. If you want to go there, you would have to remember, that reality has too many variables, too many powerful existences, even higher dimensional beings are present there.]