Lord of The Mysterious Realms Chapter 858

Over the past week, Jenkins and his cat had made several trips to the cemetery on the outskirts of the city. On his travels, he’d noticed a vast, untended stretch of woods.

It appeared to be some sort of orchard, stripped of all greenery by the arrival of winter. Jenkins had the carriage stop nearby, and with the cat in tow, he ventured deep into the woods for a good twenty or thirty minutes until he was certain they were completely alone.

The purpose of this excursion was to test his newly evolved ability, [Life Source]. Its emergence had been rather peculiar, and back at the cemetery, he hadn't dared to test it for fear of waking the old groundskeeper. Today, he had specifically chosen this time and place to finally understand what was happening to him.

[Contact Healing] and [The Unknown Path] were Jenkins’s original soul source abilities, and both had served him well. He had long suspected that his connection to fate stemmed from his unique nature as a transmigrator, while his affinity for life came from the native body he inhabited. This theory had been proven correct time and again; his very soul was deeply entwined with destiny, and he had even managed to grasp its power on his own, yet he had never shown any inherent link to the forces of life.

A long time ago, upon learning that elves existed in this world, he had wondered if the Williams family had elven ancestors. He had investigated from every possible angle, but always came up empty. As he grew more powerful, however, he began to notice just how unusual this body was. Not only had he never fallen ill since becoming a Williams, but even the original owner's memories contained scarcely any recollection of sickness.

In an age , such a constitution was almost unimaginable. With a dismal healthcare system and severely polluted air, chronic and acute illnesses were something no one could escape.

“So, are Robert and the others really hiding something from me?”

Jenkins was still muttering to himself as he pushed aside a branch. The cat on his shoulder looked surprised; it had almost started to believe Jenkins was a complete idiot.

The afternoon sun streamed down from the sky, casting a mottled tapestry of shadows from the bare branches onto the ground. His black boots squelched in the muck of dead leaves, which had spent the winter rotting and fermenting under a blanket of snow. The feeling almost made him want to gag.

He bent down, plucked a withered branch from the mud, and gave it a couple of playful swings as if it were a sword before plunging it firmly into the ground.

He stepped back, brushing the dirt from his hands, and watched as the dead branch sprang back to life. In the span of three breaths, it grew at a visible rate into a small tree, lush with branches and leaves.

Under the winter sun, the little emerald tree stood alone in the center of the clearing, a truly bizarre sight amidst the withered woods. It shivered in the cold wind, ill-suited for this season, yet the supernatural power that birthed it had granted it a greater resilience.

Granting life to plants was something Jenkins could do before. But back in his [Breath of Healing] stage, he could only easily revive something as small as a bouquet of flowers or a patch of grass. Sprouting a fruit tree this casually wasn't impossible, but it would have been far more troublesome.

Jenkins and his cat stood together, gazing at the rare splash of green in the winter landscape. He then walked over to the small tree and pressed his palm against its trunk. Closing his eyes, he focused his entire awareness on the hand resting on the bark, imprinting the rough texture and slight chill of the wood onto his consciousness.

But that wasn't what Jenkins was after. He pushed his consciousness deeper into the small tree, gradually sensing a warm current flowing within the trunk. It had no source, circulating like blood through the trunk, branches, and even the roots buried deep in the earth. As it absorbed sunlight, nutrients, and water from the world around it, the flow grew steadily stronger.

Though his eyes were closed, Jenkins sensed that the current was green. He slowly and steadily infused his own spirit into it, then opened his eyes. He and his cat looked up as the small tree grew taller. Tiny flowers bloomed at the tips of its twigs, followed by small, unripe fruit that gradually swelled. He listened to the ticking of his pocket watch, counting one hundred and fifty-six seconds as the fruit grew larger and larger until, carried by the late winter wind, it detached from the branch and fell into the hands of the man waiting below.

A heavy, green apple rested in Jenkins's palm, and a faint smile touched his lips. This was the true power of [Life Source], far exceeding that of [Breath of Healing]. For plants, it meant accelerated flowering and bearing fruit; for animals, it meant the slow regeneration of limbs.

Though the name of the ability no longer contained the word 'healing,' Jenkins now possessed a far more potent restorative power. He grinned, breaking the apple in two and giving one half to Chocolate.

Even though it had been ripened by his ability rather than nurtured by nature, the apple was still delicious. Jenkins mused that when he grew old, perhaps he could take Chocolate to the countryside, buy an orchard, and live out his days there. The old cat would surely be delighted.

“Chocolate, you have to live long enough to see me grow old.”

He murmured, feeding his cat a piece of the apple. The cat glanced at him, its eyes filled with confusion, not quite understanding what he meant.

The cat had lived a very long time, but it had never heard of a god growing old. From the moment Jenkins had first absorbed divinity, he was destined to remain as he was now, unless he deliberately chose to alter his appearance.

At this thought, Chocolate felt a flicker of happiness. Those mortal women would all grow old eventually, but the cat and her writer would be eternal.

Jenkins noticed the cat's cheerful mood; it was plain on its face. The cat had been rather sullen for the past week, ever since his dream-tryst with Hathaway, and Jenkins had been wondering for the longest time what was wrong.

This sudden reminder of that enchanting night and that enchanting woman from a week ago naturally brought back memories of what had transpired in the dream. Jenkins still didn't understand what she was thinking, what she wanted, or how to navigate their relationship with a third party involved. But that didn't stop a blush from instantly creeping up his neck. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel⦿fire.net

Swallowing hard, Jenkins tried to push the pleasant memories aside so they wouldn't interfere with the task at hand.

“Speaking of which, I should probably get Hathaway a gift for the next time we meet... I wonder if she prefers gemstones or diamonds. I hear young women these days are also quite fond of gold and silver bracelets...”