Chapter 619: Pressuring with Power

Leaving aside the thoughts of the members of the Hakli Adventure Team, Donald teleported deep into the forest immediately after leaving them.
Inside the Withering Gorge, the demigod ghoul still held his position, though having lost most of his subordinates and three companions, only scattered undead creatures of gold and silver rank remained patrolling the vast gorge. The demigod ghoul was forced to move to the core area to prevent invaders from discovering its secrets.
Most importantly, after the spatial passage leading to the abyssal layer disappeared, its once-powerful Death Domain, capable of suppressing a demigod, shrank significantly—now it could only maintain the core area of the gorge!
This meant fewer undead creatures would be born in the periphery, while more external entities would come here. The demigod ghoul, with a mind no less sharp than that of ordinary humans, couldn’t help but feel deeply concerned.
In truth, it didn’t care much about its own life and death—after all, it had already died once. As undead creatures, aside from a few exceptions, few were afraid of death. Or rather, most no longer possessed emotions like fear that normal living beings have!
When Donald’s avatar walked unhidden into the Withering Gorge, all the undead creatures there sensed his arrival.
This was because Donald radiated a golden divine glow. With each step he took, emerald-green light spread over thousands of feet around him, dispelling all cold, decaying negative energy and foul evil aura in that area. The once-dry land regained vitality, with countless green grasses and leaves sprouting, transforming the once-mortuary-like environment into a fresh, verdant spring landscape.
This aura of nature and vitality was very pleasant for living beings but was like poison to undead creatures filled with negative energy, evoking disgust and rejection from the depths of their souls.
With such an obvious presence, how could they possibly not sense it?
Donald knew there was only one demigod undead creature left deep in the gorge, so he had no need to hide his intentions.
Sure enough, after purifying an area of several square kilometers of the Ash Forest, the demigod ghoul became restless.
The subordinates he sent were no match for the invaders—clearly, the opponent was at least as powerful as himself.

But with the most important task given to it by its master—protecting the altar array at the bottom of the valley—it itself cannot leave that area, especially now that it has lost its three other companions. So it can only wait for enemies to come to the valley before deciding to fight them. The negative energy here is still very strong, and on its own home ground, it should have a better chance of winning. The changes that occurred in the Ashen Forest were immediately sensed by the powerful beings in the main world and the true gods who paid attention to it. However, due to Donald’s previous unrestrained actions in destroying the Golden Body, even the powerful true gods could sense it. They also knew who was responsible for all this. Naturally, the Guardian was currently a prominent true god in the Pantheon. Given their past actions against the forces of the Lord of Dawn, most true gods knew this god was not someone to be trifled with, so despite some curiosity, they did not send anyone to investigate. As for those even more powerful true gods, they were not interested in the secrets here—after all, it was just a few demi-godish creatures. But the demi-gods within the main world were somewhat confused. Their own factions and allied forces had received notifications from Dalaran, so they naturally wouldn’t take any action. Still, some curious demi-gods came to investigate. Right after Donald left, a man in black arrived outside the Ashen Forest. Instead of entering the forest to investigate, he went to the temporary camp of Hakli’s team. “May I ask you…” Hakli couldn’t finish speaking before being overwhelmed by the powerful aura before him. “You’ve been here all this time? Tell me everything you know…” Although the middle-aged man with a gloomy expression didn’t use any threatening words, his presence made it impossible for them to refuse. Moreover, his strength was far beyond what they could match, so Hakli had no choice but to tell them everything that had happened in recent days. The man in black listened without showing any reaction. Only after Hakli and the others finished speaking did he say coldly, “So, a mage went in, and all of this was caused by this mage?” Then he snorted. “Are you trying to deceive me? What is the Ashen Forest? As far as I know, no mage in the main world has ever been able to do such a thing!” Just as the man in black was about to take action, someone spoke up, “Am I not a mage?”

The figure of the gray-robed mage appeared dozens of steps away, utterly motionless. This made the man in black tremble; he immediately subdued his demeanor and bowed respectfully, saying, “The earthly representative of His Majesty Banson greets you! May I ask which lord’s avatar you are?”
The gray-robed mage did not answer. Instead, his cloak untied on its own, revealing his young and handsome face.
“So it’s His Majesty Donald! I didn’t realize your avatar was here. It’s been a long time since we last met. I’m sorry if I offended you today, Hoaking!”
Seeing that it was an avatar of the Natural Guardian, Hoaking, the demi-god chosen by the King of Lies, breathed a sigh of relief, though still somewhat fearful.
This Natural Guardian had a cooperative relationship with their Tower of Chaos, so he probably wouldn’t trouble himself over such a minor offense. What worried him was that if he had truly offended this person, even with the King of Lies as a guarantor, he might still suffer consequences.
As for those mere mortal adventurers, Hoaking didn’t give them a second thought. For a powerful being from the evil faction like him, eliminating a few foolish mortals wouldn’t cause any moral burden. But he would never dare do such a thing in front of a true god like Donald, who belonged to the neutral faction and favored order and goodness!
At Hoaking’s wisely sincere apology, Donald nodded and decided not to press further. He waved for the four still shocked adventurers to retreat.
Since the Book of Truth had been returned to its original form, he had had to go through some trouble to deal with the demi-god ghoul inside it, dismantle the entire negative energy spell array and death altar, and was about to continue purifying this terrifying forest that had existed for thousands of years. Then he sensed someone disturbing the presence he had left with Hakli’s group, so he rushed back and witnessed Hoaking forcing Hakli and the others.
Although Hakli hadn’t officially agreed to his conditions, in Donald’s eyes, they were his own people. As for the forces of the Tower of Chaos like Hoaking, though they cooperated with him, the other two factions were not on his side.
Of course, he wouldn’t offend Hoaking for no reason either—after all, he had one of the most powerful gods among the pantheon, the God of Intrigue, standing behind him.