Chapter 683: Tree Patterns and Occupation

Whether it’s the [Whisper of the Galaxy] or the [Heart’s Prophecy], as prophetic spiritual arts, both require a medium and a cost.

For most half-deer people, their prophetic medium is still their deer ears, and the cost is their lifespan.

But the fully activated shared skill gives Luo De options.

That is, prophecy without cost—but also less accurate.

What can I do?

As a human, Luo De has no deer ears as a medium, and his lifespan is merely a hundred years.

Every time I pay with my lifespan, am I even going to live?

“The chance to become a god is within reach?”

Luo De smirked, not particularly concerned.

The sand-carved characters on the stone steps faded, and the roaring wind and sand once again filled Luo De’s ears.

The Naga lady’s post-battle speech had ended, and the Naga soldiers roared with passion.

Then they began the frantic looting of corpses.

Speeches are speeches, but greed is nature—especially for the famed land-dwelling Naga.

Eve had no interest in these petty looting efforts, not even in the four seventh-rank high-tier corpses.

She had her own greedy target.

Her scales shimmered brilliantly as she approached Luo De, full of vigor and radiance.

“How was it? My line: ‘Tomorrow, the enemy will return, licking their wounds—while we’ll show them with double the fury who truly rules this battlefield!’ Wasn’t that great?”

“Fine.”

Luo De hadn’t even listened.

Eve pouted, sensing his lack of attention.

She shifted her serpent body, revealing the damaged parts of her [Radiant Scales], even the inner silver armor dented inward.

“Look, my armor’s ruined. Why don’t you give me a new one? Something high-quality—preferably a treasure.”

Her beautiful serpent eyes shimmered with hope.

Luo De smiled.

He’d acquired plenty of loot lately, and armor wasn’t rare.

But the problem was, Luo De simply didn’t want to indulge Eve’s outrageous demand.

He spread his hands: “Do I look like someone who wears armor?”

Eve’s expression immediately fell: “Pfft, what good are you?”

“Though… I could add some other properties to this armor.”

After ascending to [Child of Nature], [Growth Spirituality] gained a new effect: [Tree Pattern Enlightenment].

[“Tree Pattern Enlightenment”: Carve tree patterns onto an object’s surface to grant it specific attributes.]

This “specific attribute” sounds powerful.

But in reality, it must be used in tandem with [Growth Spirituality]’s basic function: random skill generation.

That is, [Growth Spirituality] randomly generates skills on items, and [Tree Pattern Enlightenment] can capture them and assign them to a chosen object.

“What do you mean? Are you an alchemist?”

“Just watch.”

Luo De placed his hand on her silver armor, spent five points of Growth Spirituality, and applied the attribute [Memory Metal].

A flash of tree-like patterns ran across the metal surface, then faded, barely visible.

Click.

The dented back began to bulge outward slightly.

“Huh?”

Eve cast an identification spell, her eyes lighting up instantly: “Again! Again!”

[Ownership Binding].

“Again! Again!”

Luo De didn’t mind—he’d accumulated plenty of Growth Spirituality lately.

[Glow][Illusion][Shock Reduction][Lubrication][Blindness][Auto-Translation]

He triggered several in quick succession.

Especially after [Glow] and [Illusion].

The armor enveloped Eve in a dazzling, mesmerizing halo, making her appear especially sacred and radiant.

The land-dwelling Naga loved vanity—she burst into loud laughter.

She spun around constantly, showing off.

Especially in front of Tally, as if to say, “Do you have this?”

The succubus rolled her eyes, too lazy to respond.

“Luo De, this is armor—why not add some defense-boosting properties?”

He spread his hands.

Not that he didn’t want to—he just hadn’t gotten any.

The miserable forest warden had never rolled a skill he actually wanted.

“Wait, what does this [Lubrication] mean?”

“Accident.”

Sneaking in some personal content, folks.

The land-dwelling Naga’s figure was strikingly alluring, unlike the natural harmony and perfect proportions of Kallist.

Her slightly larger frame, combined with equal voluptuousness, yet with a waist as slender as a water snake due to the different musculature of her serpent body, retained aesthetic grace.

If coated in lubricant… perhaps it would be quite an experience.

But Eve didn’t care.

She was lost in the radiant, illusory beauty of her armor, her mood soaring.

“So, shall we go in?”

Luo De nodded toward the tomb entrance.

“No, not yet.”

Eve’s smile turned sly and alluring: “Emptying the tomb is easy—go in, come out, and then it’s no longer ours. Hehe, I don’t just want the tomb—I want this territory, and the oasis region we passed on the way here too!”

Luo De understood.

First, send troops under the guise of development to occupy it, then indefinitely delay actual development—until it becomes theirs by default.

The old imperialist trick.

Luo De glanced at the tomb entrance—it still looked unfinished, the stone stairs not fully descending.

“Just say it’s one of the ancestral tombs of the Braal Clan. Forge a few Braal artifacts, claim they were dug up from inside, then declare the Gulesh Clan split off from you. Then when you attack, it’ll be perfectly justified.”

Eve froze.

Then she leapt forward and planted a loud kiss on Luo De’s face.

“Brilliant! Brilliant! With you here, I’ll become King of the Mirror Desert in no time!”

Luo De had just been joking—he’d learned from his past life that ancient rebellions always demanded legitimacy and righteous cause.

Thanks to historical conditioning, even a dropout of nine-year compulsory education could improvise a few lines.

Though the land-dwelling Naga stole tombs, broke oaths, were warlike and greedy,

their priests held high status, they never desecrated ancestral tombs, and they revered ancestral spirits—they clearly still valued legitimacy.

She’s a decent girl, you could say.

What followed was simple.

Eve urgently summoned her troops and cleared a path.

Luo De stayed put, deploying his [Aura of Fear] combined with the Bronze Dragon’s war-spirit aura—a brutal combo that terrified the arriving Gulesh Clan into disarray.

It lasted until nightfall.

Only then did the Braal Clan’s army arrive and quickly set up camp and fortifications.

The Gulesh Clan, knowing Luo De was not to be trifled with, sent a peace request by night.

Seeing their urgency, Eve immediately realized the tomb was far more valuable than she’d thought—her eyes sparkled with gold.

But forging Braal Clan relics took time, so she feigned agreement and postponed negotiations to three days later.

The enemy, overwhelmed by Luo De’s dominance, had no choice but to comply—who knew if they’d truly behave?

By the next evening, the situation had barely stabilized.

After two days and nights of exhaustion, the beloved Princess Eve, under repeated urging from her officers, finally agreed to rest in her tent.

Unbeknownst to them.

Inside the tent, another battle would begin—far fiercer and more brutal.

Princess Eve, the commanding general, was tragically captured, tormented mercilessly by a certain forest warden, until she could only utter hollow, drained whispers and gasps.

(End of Chapter)