Chapter 183: Stepping directly into the Authority Realm!

Bidding farewell to the Three Fates Sisters, Song Qi briefly checked his bearings and flew toward the Mountain Tiger Tribe.
Less than ten minutes later, Song Qi descended. He had already arrived at the gathering place of the Mountain Tiger Tribe.
With Brother Monkey's template, his traveling speed had reached a whole new level.
However, at this moment, none of the familiar faces in the tribe were present. Only a sturdy-looking man came running over.
The man looked at Brother Monkey, mistaking him for some kind of demonic beast, but he kept silent and honestly walked up to the two of them.
"Commander Song, have you come back to look for the Chieftain, or Vice Leader Chu?"
"Both. Where are they?" Song Qi asked.
"Our Chieftain has gone to the west to level up. Vice Leader Chu went to the southeast. The two of them are quite far apart. If nothing unexpected happens, they won't be back until evening."
"However, both of them left word about their locations in advance. Do you need me to go find them and call them back?"
"No need. When they return, just have them come directly to my room to find me."
With that, Song Qi's figure flickered and he vanished on the spot.

...

Swish!
Back inside the room, Song Qi took out the World Tree Fruit.
The moment he took it out, the entire room was illuminated with a verdant green glow emitted by the fruit.
The rich aura of life, merely leaking out, caused fresh sprouts to grow on long-dead, decayed wood.
"Are you planning to use it now?" Sun Wukong asked out of curiosity.
Although he had never heard of such a treasure, just seeing the various strange phenomena allowed him to guess that this fruit was definitely extraordinary. Not to mention the energy contained within it, the boundaries of which he couldn't even perceive.
"Yes," Song Qi nodded. "I plan to use it to upgrade one of my skills."

The World Tree Fruit had a total of three effects.
Effect 1 was to strengthen the world's barriers and enhance the world's tier. But currently, the human race hadn't even managed to retake a single continent. Strengthening the world barriers and raising the world tier wasn't very useful right now.
Effect 3 was granting a wish, but the wish-granting process was rather unstable. For Song Qi, certainty and stability were paramount, so he directly chose to abandon this effect.
Only Effect 2 could directly elevate a skill to the Origin stage!
This effect was the simplest and most brutal way to boost his current strength!

The World Tree Fruit was not very large, only about the size of a cherry tomato. Song Qi slowly placed it into his mouth.
The moment it entered his mouth...

[Ding!]
[Detected that the host is consuming ultra-high energy food. Would you like to activate the auxiliary digestion function?]

"Auxiliary digestion function?"
Song Qi raised an eyebrow. This was the first time he had seen this function. "What is the specific effect?"
"After activating this function, energy dissipation during consumption will be significantly reduced."

Reduce energy loss?
"Then activate it."
[Ding! Activating...]

As the system sound rang out, Song Qi only felt a coolness in his mouth!
Then, a massive wave of energy erupted from within his mouth!
The surrounding trees and the newly sprouted shoots were all trembling, bending toward Song Qi's direction. Beneath the earth, countless plants shattered the floorboards, eagerly wanting to get closer to the energy in his mouth!
Plants within a radius of hundreds of miles suddenly began to riot!
But before he could react...
Splash!
That surge of energy directly flowed down his throat. All the strange phenomena vanished in an instant.
In a split second, powerful life energy permeated his entire body!

[Please select the skill you wish to upgrade!]
"Upgrade skill... Possession!"
Song Qi chose this skill without the slightest hesitation.
After he went back this time, he would most likely be going to attack the demons. He didn't need to worry about combat power, but his physical body needed attention. In case there was a powerhouse at the Authority realm in the demon camp, they might forcibly pull him out of his ethereal state and beat him up!
After all, although this skill had a high quality, it had not yet been infused with the world's origin. Once he encountered an ability with even a slight counter, it would be cracked. It was simply too unsafe.

[Ding! Selection completed!]
A skill model constructed in Song Qi's hand.
The next moment, all the energy began to pour frantically into this model!
Song Qi's vision changed once again!
That peculiar origin vision emerged anew. Within the massive world origin, a long river was pulled by an invisible force and cascaded downward, also falling into the model.
The fruit's energy and the world's origin blended together, continuously merging and intersecting...

A moment later...
Hum!~~
The entire origin world began to vibrate!
Song Qi felt that the world origin falling this time was even more massive than when he had drawn down one hundred thousand units of origin previously!
The lines in his vision that had always remained stable and maintained the order of all things began to tremble at this moment!
The "lines" contained within a single tender shoot suddenly tightened to their absolute limit, and then...
Snap!
A crisp sound rang out, and the origin line snapped!
This seemed to set a good precedent!
Immediately following...
Snap, snap, snap, snap...
Countless lines broke, danced, and then lashed toward Song Qi!
Dense, continuous system notification sounds rang out!

[Congratulations! Your baseline physique +1!]
[Congratulations! Your baseline physique +1!]
[Congratulations! Your baseline physique +1!]
...
[Congratulations! Your baseline spirit +1!]
[Congratulations! Your baseline spirit +1!]
[Congratulations! Your baseline spirit +1!]
...

The numerical values on his panel were soaring at a terrifying speed!
Among them, spirit increased the most, while the other attributes lagged slightly behind.
Soon, Song Qi, who originally only had a few lines inside his body, was wrapped by countless origin lines into the shape of a mummy.
At this point, the strange noises finally stopped.

"Hoo!~~"
Song Qi let out a long breath, feeling completely refreshed and invigorated!
Then, the system prompt sounded once again...

[Congratulations! Your skill..."Possession" has successfully been infused with sufficient origin, breaking through the rule-tier skill and becoming the first stepping stone for you to wield the Authority of Life!]
[Congratulations! You have obtained the talent... Authority of Life!]
[Authority of Life: Rules can no longer bind your will and intellect. To a certain extent, you possess power equal to the World Will!] (Current authority level is junior; you can devour and master beings possessing corresponding authority to upgrade.)

Authority realm?
Authority of Life?
Song Qi was stunned for a moment. Didn't the text description say it could only reach the Origin realm?
Was the system really this generous, directly promoting him by a major tier?!

He opened his eyes and looked around again, only to find that the world in his eyes had completely changed.
As far as his gaze could reach, tiny insects and ants that he couldn't notice before had now become clearly visible. There was a flickering green light within the decayed wood that constructed the house.
He could even clearly feel that as long as he was willing, he could completely grant new life to this pile of decayed wood, while also allowing the insects and ants to elevate their life tier.
At the same time, he stood up and moved his body slightly. With every gesture, an imperceptible green shimmer fell, and the surrounding life seemed to rejoice!

"Is this the Authority realm?"
"What a wondrous feeling!"
Song Qi felt deeply amazed. When he channeled that strange energy into his pupils, he could even see that every living being possessed a light within them.
For instance, the light within those insects and ants was extremely faint, impossible to observe without looking closely, though it was slightly brighter than the light inside the decayed wood.
Looking up toward the outside through the window, the light within those tribal warriors was about the size of a match flame.
He could clearly perceive that if he wished, he could easily extract the light of life from those insects, ants, and even the tribal warriors.
He looked at himself and found that the light within his own body was like a huge fireball, radiating a glow sufficient to light up the entire room, shining brightly beyond comparison to the life lights of those warriors!

"Concentrating energy in the eyes allows one to make a preliminary judgment on the strength of life."
"In other words, the stronger the life form, the more vigorous the light within them?"
"That being said, my strength is actually quite decent." Song Qi chuckled.
"I wonder how Brother Monkey is doing? I am in the Authority realm now too; my situation shouldn't be too different from his, right?"
With that, he turned his gaze toward Brother Monkey.
However, the moment he turned his head!
Hum!
A blinding glare struck him directly in the face!

"What the heck!?"
Song Qi hurriedly raised a hand to shield his eyes, squinting and trying hard to look forward. Through the intense glare, he managed to make out the situation:
A huge, glowing orb, blazing red to the point of purplish hue, was blooming from within Brother Monkey's body!
Its brightness was comparable to the midday sun, dazzling enough to make one's eyes sting!

Song Qi glanced back at the light inside his own body, which looked like a small campfire. Then he looked at the life light inside Brother Monkey.
They were simply not on the same level!
He was somewhat speechless.
"Seriously, did it have to be this exaggerated?!"