this infinite world

Varo felt he was truly unlucky.

Having been struck in the knee by an arrow eighteen thousand years ago, and lost in the turbulent flow of time for a long time before finally escaping, and then surviving for nearly a century in the Lord of the Rings world as a herbal slime, whether due to lingering luck or divine intervention, Varo has finally found an opportunity—an opportunity to reconnect with the Reincarnation Squad…

...But damn it, nobody ever said that this "opportunity" would be so incredibly difficult!
After enduring countless hardships, he finally managed to wriggle to the vicinity of the goblin kingdom in this herbal slime form that he could never adapt to. However, he was horrified to sense the echoes of the Holy Path in the nearby void...

saint!

It should be known that when the sacred hymn is sung, all life in the entire plane will inevitably feel it, that is the awe engraved in the origin of life; and the pressure of the sacred path is not something that ordinary will can withstand. Ordinary people cannot even put up a fight before their minds are taken away; even those fourth-level powerhouses, if they have not broken through their inner demons and gathered the light of their true self, are no different from ants in the face of such a baptism... After all, the saying "below the saint, all are ants" is by no means an empty statement.

Fortunately, although Varo had fallen to this state, he had not lost his true spirit. Before the arrow to his knee, he was a hero of his own, with his strength already reaching the advanced fourth tier. If he were to add the Holy Spear that had been with him through thick and thin, he could even contend with a novice saint... And faced with the opportunity to return to the God Realm and escape this state that he hated so much, even if it meant shattering mountains of knives and burning seas of fire, he would definitely hold on to this last hope.

...So, after sneaking close, what did he sense?
Three saints.

Three high-ranking saints.

Besides Ilúvatar, the creator god, there are two other beings who are at least high-ranking saints, gathered in this Lord of the Rings world!
"Aieeeeeeeee! Why are there saints here? Why are there high-level saints here?!"

Upon realizing this fact, Varo was utterly stunned, even letting out a scream like a groundhog deep inside his heart... Those were high-level saints! There were only a hundred or so of them in the entire positive multiverse, and now three of them had gathered together!

When he realized that these two high-level saints were actually creating a plane in the void and engaging in battle under Ilúvatar's watchful gaze, Varo truly felt that he was going to die. Although he had chatted and laughed with Emperor Fu... Pei Xi in the past and had seen many saints and high-level saints, some of whom he had even personally "dealt with," this was the first time he had ever witnessed two high-level saints fighting.

Perhaps the gods were too busy fighting to notice the mortals beneath their feet; perhaps fate had other plans, and Varo's luck hadn't run out, preventing him from being as unlucky as someone else who was killed by a passing rock... In any case, after a journey that Varo himself felt was incredibly lucky, he actually managed to enter the goblin kingdom right under the noses of these three high-ranking saints, successfully meeting his long-awaited reincarnation team members, his hope for returning to the main god space—

—But can someone tell him why, when he confidently threw out his super-powerful item, the Master Ball, in an attempt to capture a member of Team Reincarnation as a Pokémon, that idiot named Zhang Heng just happened to open his mouth wide and swallow his Master Ball?
Is this something a human being could do? Is this even human?
As Zhang Heng rolled on the ground clutching his neck, Varo was internally devastated. While the Master Ball could forcibly ignore certain conditions and guarantee capture of the opponent's Pokémon, thus establishing ownership and bringing him back to the main dimension with the returning members of the Reincarnation Team, it was ineffective if the opponent simply swallowed it without any contact. In fact, the Master Ball could be used against them… This was a condition determined at the time of exchange.

But so be it, he figured he could just explain the situation to these younger generations back in the God's Space and everything would be fine, Varo thought. But when he actually returned following the God's guiding pillar, he discovered… —Damn it, how come this guy, who's at least a high-level saint, came back too?!
The moment Varo saw Yang Yun's figure appear in the Main God Space, he was devastated. Even knowing the vast difference in strength, even at his peak, with the double A-grade causality item he had exchanged, and even the stone hat meant to reduce his presence, he couldn't fool the other party... In other words, his herbal slime appearance had already been seen through by the other party.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense would know that in the God's Realm, where everything is laid bare, a herb slime would be as conspicuous as a black dot on a white sheet of paper, and Varo himself knew he couldn't escape its gaze. Even so, he chose to pretend he didn't see it; after all, death was the only inevitable end, and his heart held no more joy or sorrow…

"It really is a slime."

Yang Yun stroked his chin, watching curiously the green slime that had chosen to be an ostrich, burying its head in the sand.

Back when he returned to the Main God Space, Yang Yun had already noticed this slime that had suddenly appeared in the Arctic team. Although its physical and soul structure was indeed no different from that of an ordinary slime upon initial investigation, both the causal prop on its body that could reduce its own presence and the entanglement it had established with Zhang Heng indicated that it was not born this way, but had encountered something extraordinary that caused it to become like this.

"Huh? This is..."

Suddenly, Yang Yun's divine sense detected an anomaly within the herbal slime's body. It was some strange substance deeply embedded in the genetic chain, emitting a feeling that was strangely familiar to him.

No, rather than saying that "Yang Yun" was familiar with it, it would be more accurate to say that he had seen a similar substance in his memory. It was during the time when Nong and Fuxi were treating Nuwa, who had been transformed beyond recognition by the Heavenly Serpent Clan, in the Human Emperor's Palace, and this kind of gene virus was present in the scene.

If it weren't for the gun-shaped object within this herbal slime continuously radiating protective light, firmly preserving a sliver of its true spirit, this strange life form would likely have long since become a mindless, low-level demon, like other experimental subjects modified by the Celestial Serpent Clan, with no chance of escape...

—Wait, Holy Lance, a member of the Reincarnation Squad… Could it be?

Recalling what Xuena had mentioned about the great war eighteen thousand years ago, Yang Yun gazed thoughtfully at the herb slime that was still feigning death before him, and tentatively asked—

"Father Varosti?" (End of Chapter)