I Can Upgrade Everything Infinitely

"Let’s go!"

BZZT!

Xu Qing took a step forward, transformed into a streak of light, and vanished into the Void. Following the directions of the Wood Root Elf Race, he set off toward the Sea of Life.

「Time flew by.」

「One day later.」

Even at Xu Qing’s speed, it had taken a full day to reach the Sea of Life. This just went to show how vast the Natural Forest within the World of Wood Origin truly was.

At the same time, this indirectly demonstrated just how large the World of Wood Origin was.

In fact, the entire World of Wood Origin was composed of two parts: the Natural Forest and the Sea of Life, each occupying half of the world.

"Haaa..."

With his hands behind his back, Xu Qing gazed out at the boundless Sea of Life. It was so vast, its grandeur was difficult to describe. Endless waves surged, seeming to reach for the very heavens.

ROAR!!!

Suddenly, Xu Qing heard a roar. The Sea of Life was home to the Wood Root Sea Demon Beast race, who, along with the Wood Root Elf Race, ruled this world.

Additionally, standing beside Xu Qing was another person. It was an acquaintance he had run into on his journey, someone he hadn’t seen in quite some time.

It was Zhang Ling.

"Xu Qing."

Zhang Ling looked up at Xu Qing and said, "I never thought we’d meet here. It must be fate."

"Mm," Xu Qing nodded slightly.

"I didn’t expect that your first Root Source World would be the World of Wood Origin, same as mine," Zhang Ling remarked with a sigh.

"Well..." Xu Qing trailed off, taken aback.

Obviously, Xu Qing’s first Root Source World had been the Golden Root Source World. He had already passed its trial, collected enough Token Fragments, and obtained the Token for the Golden Root Source World.

This World of Wood Origin was the second one he had entered.

Zhang Ling clearly didn’t know any of this. He assumed that, like him, Xu Qing had chosen the World of Wood Origin as his first Root Source World, which was why he’d said what he did.

"Yeah," Xu Qing said after a moment’s silence. He didn’t explain, simply nodding along with Zhang Ling’s assumption. "I really didn’t expect our paths to cross like this."

"Hahaha..." Zhang Ling laughed heartily.

"Let’s go."

"Onward!"

SWISH! SWISH!

The moment they finished speaking, Xu Qing and Zhang Ling transformed into two streaks of light, shooting through the air and into the Sea of Life before them.

SPLASH...

The waters of the Sea of Life were a deep, ink-green. Every single drop felt as heavy as a mountain. This was clearly no ordinary seawater, but the water of life itself.

It carried the weight of life.

"Xu Qing," Zhang Ling said. "This is the World of Wood Origin. Logically, there shouldn’t be anything like ’water’ here. This Sea of Life..."

"Try to sense it carefully," Xu Qing said. "This isn’t water. It’s a liquefied form of Life Energy. This is extremely pure Wood Root Source Energy."

"This..." Zhang Ling was stunned. His eyes widened slightly as he carefully sensed the surrounding fluctuations. A look of astonishment appeared on his face. "You’re right."

Xu Qing and Zhang Ling had already entered the Sea of Life and were beginning to search for corrupted Wood Root Sea Demon Beasts.

Suddenly, at that very moment...

SPLISH SPLASH...

Directly ahead, Wood Root Source Energy, flowing like water, coalesced into humanoid forms. They were the legendary Mermaids.

Two Mermaids, in fact. They appeared right before Xu Qing and Zhang Ling.

"Sea Demon Beast?" Zhang Ling paused. "A Mermaid?"

Xu Qing remained silent.

"Honored outsiders," the two Mermaids, who looked so alike they must have been twins, bowed to Xu Qing and Zhang Ling. It was the formal greeting of their Wood Root Mermaid Race.

"What is it?" Zhang Ling asked, collecting himself.

"We need your help." The two Mermaids glanced at each other. Their voices were extremely respectful, their eyes and tone filled with pleading.

"Help?!" Xu Qing and Zhang Ling couldn’t help but look at each other, seeing the stunned expressions in each other’s eyes.

After all, right after entering the World of Wood Origin, they had met a Wood Root Spirit who had also asked for their help.

Now, they had entered the Sea of Life only to encounter Wood Root Mermaids.

Most importantly, these two Wood Root Mermaids also needed help from Xu Qing and Zhang Ling.

Xu Qing and Zhang Ling suddenly felt that this matter wasn’t so simple.

"What do you need our help with?" Zhang Ling asked after a moment of silence.

"Honored outsiders," one of the Wood Root Mermaids said, her expression sorrowful. She spoke slowly. "A thousand years ago, the Wood Root Source Life Sea Spring in our Sea of Life was tainted by some unknown filth. This caused the Wood Root Source Life Sea Spring to suffer unprecedented corrosion."

"Over the course of a thousand years, the Wood Root Source Life Sea Spring has become unable to produce clean water of life. It has even begun to pollute the entire Sea of Life."

"As a result, many of our people have also been corrupted. They’ve lost their minds, becoming twisted and bizarre ’Wood Root Sea Demon Beasts’."

"However, if we can obtain enough Purifying Hearts, we can cleanse the pollution from the Wood Root Source Life Sea Spring and restore it to normal. This will also allow our people who were corrupted and lost their minds to recover."

At this point, Xu Qing spoke up. "What’s in it for us if we help you? Also, how do you know we can help?"

"The Supreme Sovereign told us all of this," the two Wood Root Mermaids answered directly, not hiding anything. "As long as you help us, we can give you what you need."

"Specifically, a Fragment of the Wood Root Source World Token."

"A single Purifying Heart can be exchanged for one fragment."

’Just as I thought...’ Xu Qing’s expression was contemplative. He said nothing more.

"How do we get Purifying Hearts?" Zhang Ling asked.

"You need to go to the Natural Forest and kill the corrupted Elves. Those corrupted Elves have degenerated into monsters like Dark Elves and Elf Tree Demons," the Wood Root Mermaid said. "If you kill these monsters, you can dig the Purifying Hearts from their bodies."

"We can’t leave the Sea of Life, let alone enter the Natural Forest, so we can only rely on you outsiders."

"Please, you must help us."

The two Wood Root Mermaids looked at Xu Qing and Zhang Ling with pleading eyes.

"Haaa..." Zhang Ling and Xu Qing looked at each other, both taking a deep breath as they began to think.

The situation had just gotten interesting.

The Wood Root Spirit wanted Xu Qing and Zhang Ling to go to the Sea of Life and hunt the corrupted Wood Root Sea Demon Beasts. But here in the Sea of Life, the Wood Root Mermaids had appeared, and they needed Xu Qing and Zhang Ling to go to the Natural Forest and hunt the corrupted Elves.

There was a subtle connection between the two requests.

"It’s not that we don’t want to help you." At this point, a glint flashed in Xu Qing’s eyes. He looked up, a regretful expression on his face, and said, "When we first arrived, we met a Wood Root Spirit."

"She asked for my help, and I agreed to her request. I promised to help them, so I’m afraid I can’t help you."