Chapter 298: Raiden Ei's Reward

It's because of the tree!

During the time when Raiden Ei and Yae Miko were preparing Luo De's reward, Luo De thoroughly and carefully studied his own consciousness space, and also asked Nadixa and the Great Merciful Tree King many questions about consciousness space.

In the end he reached a conclusion.

What draws the Thunder God's scattered consciousness into his own consciousness space is the patch of forest that Huasanli planted.

In fact.

The Great Merciful Tree King and Nadixa, the two deities who specialize in dealing with consciousness, also couldn't figure out exactly how Huasanli managed to plant trees in Luo De's consciousness space.

This is highly abnormal.

Just as Luo De can only fight her in Raiden Ei's consciousness space but cannot open a tricolor rice ball shop there.

Under normal circumstances.

To alter a person's consciousness space, one needs at least a dimensionality-reducing strike‑type mental power.

At that time, Huasanli's state could not overwhelm Luo De's mental power.

Furthermore, Luo De's consciousness space is shielded by the World Tree's leaves.

This would only be possible with a force strong enough to shatter the World Tree.

Otherwise.

Even the deities cannot forcibly modify Luo De's consciousness space.

After much discussion.

Nadixa and the Great Merciful Tree King concluded that only Huasanli's consciousness had been assimilated to share Luo De's essence.

This also aligns closely with Luo De's own feeling.

In short, it is merely Huasanli's act of planting trees.

It caused no damage or negative change to his consciousness space, but was purely a boost in mental power, and therefore did not trigger resistance from the World Tree's leaves.

As for how Huasanli drew the Thunder God's remnant consciousness into Luo De's consciousness space, that is even harder to say.

On the contrary, Yae Miko has her own explanation.

"Huasanli treats your consciousness space as an object and fuses her own consciousness space into yours."

"Then, when you are affected by the River of Time and your mental guard is at its loosest, she drags the Thunder God's scattered consciousness into her own consciousness space, using her consciousness space to hold the Thunder God's existence."

"Just that."

"With her mental power at that time, she could not possibly preserve the Thunder God's consciousness."

"That is why you see that situation."

Combining Yae Miko's words with the analyses of those several deities.

The thunder in Luo De's consciousness space can, with some effort, be assembled into a reasonable explanation.

In short.

The first and most important step is that Huasanli's consciousness becomes tainted, transformed into an external information state compatible with Luo De's consciousness space.

And those trees are Huasanli's own consciousness space.

In other words.

Huasanli's tree‑planting behavior.

It actually consists of splitting her consciousness into pieces and gradually merging them into Luo De's consciousness space.

"This is a very painful process."

Luo De has never felt the pain of consciousness fragmentation, but Yae Miko is very experienced with it.

"According to her,"

The pain of splitting consciousness is no less than humanity's highest defined pain level.

Furthermore, Huasanli's tree‑planting amounts to utterly shredding her consciousness and, besides, wiping away the consciousness that belonged to her in those trees, so they can merge into Luo De's consciousness space as trees without being rejected.

This is also why Huasanli's tree‑planting results in Luo De's mental power growing.

Just thinking that Huasanli bears this pain daily and still can chat playfully with herself makes Luo De shudder involuntarily.

This woman is truly ruthless toward herself.

The living Fox Zhai Palace is strict with itself, and the dead Fox Zhai Palace is even stricter.

And it is precisely this practice of merging her consciousness into Luo De's consciousness space that enabled Huasanli to forge another consciousness space within Luo De's consciousness space, thereby pulling in the Thunder God's remnants that have utterly lost self‑awareness.

However.

To be frank.

After receiving an explanation close to the truth from Yae Miko, Luo De's first reaction was not sympathy for Huasanli but intense anger.

Such unilateral decision‑making.

To Luo De, this is truly overstepping.

This time.

Even Yae Miko, who usually prefers to gloss over matters, can no longer brush this aside lightly.

She, aware of her fault,

She straightforwardly made a host of promises, some for Luo De, some for Sumeru.

Some of those conditions are clearly overreaching, entirely beyond Yae Miko's ability.

However, Luo De didn't dwell on those details.

After all, Yae Miko can represent Raiden Ei.

Those excessive promises, when viewed from Raiden Ei's position, become reasonable and proper.

And such an attitude.

It also lets Luo De temporarily set aside his anger at Huasanli's arbitrary actions.

Anyway, as Yae Miko would say.

Anyway, Huasanli's consciousness fragments and the true consciousness fragments of Raiden are both held in Luo De's hand; to Lei Dianying, these two things are even more precious than Inazuma, so he doesn't need to worry at all about Yae Miko and Lei Dianying breaking the contract—he can just relax in Inazuma waiting for Lei Dianying to deliver the reward.

Luo De agreed with that.

That's why he felt at ease staying at the Thunder God Grand Shrine, focusing on studying the consciousness space.

He also figured out a bit of the trick.

First, the true consciousness fragments of Raiden were drawn in by the memories of Huasanli, or rather, the memories of the Fox Purification Palace; this is why Luo De saw part of the Fox Purification Palace's memories when he backtracked through the river of time.

Originally, Huasanli had inherited about one-fourth of the Fox Purification Palace's memories.

After planting the trees.

Although she pretended well, the fact is that the memories she left behind are still less than half of what they originally were.

Later, when Luo De was observing the Fox Purification Palace, that abrupt halt was not only due to the dissipation of Raiden's true consciousness, but also because Huasanli's memories had dwindled to that extent; even if that consciousness space still existed, Luo De could not see what came after.

«What a ruthless person. »

Whenever he thought of Huasanli's maneuver, Luo De couldn't help but sigh.

Quite obvious.

Upon entering Raiden's true consciousness space,

Not only did Luo De discover the extraordinary power hidden within the One-Thoughtful Mind, but Huasanli also discovered that Raiden's true consciousness still existed.

Having experienced the restorative effect of Luo De's consciousness space on consciousness entities,

She then resolutely decided, using her own layout, to seek a sliver of hope for Raiden's true consciousness.

Even if doing so would offend Luo De, who holds her life and death in his hands, and even if Luo De might fly into a rage and erase her existence entirely, she did not hesitate.

«You've given me a tough problem. »

«It's all shattered like this. »

Luo De, having withdrawn his consciousness, didn't know how many times he had sighed.

Compared to Huasanli's consciousness,

Raiden's true residual consciousness is even more fragmented. Don't look at the vast thunder she manifests in the consciousness space and think it's powerful.

In fact, these thunderbolts are merely pieced together bit by bit from consciousness residue, lacking any continuity, and are not even as good as the trees Huasanli grew that can connect into a forest.

What's worse,

As for Raiden's true residual consciousness, Luo De truly sensed no trace of consciousness left—it was just a mass of thunder that couldn't communicate.

«Is it difficult? »

«The true consciousness. »

Lei Dianying, who idly came to take a look, just happened to catch Luo De's complaint.

It's been almost a month since leaving Raiden's true consciousness space.

During this time,

Luo De was busy researching his own consciousness space, while Lei Dianying was busy preparing his reward.

And today,

she came to deliver the reward.

«Hmm, very fragmented. »

Luo De shook his head: «It's much harder than Huasanli's situation—I don't even know if I can restore her consciousness. »

«Like that. »

Lei Dianying lowered her head slightly, her expression unreadable.

But from her tone,

regarding her sister's situation, she actually felt both worried and disappointed.

«Let's not talk about that. »

«This is the reward I personally made for you, an idea from Yae Miko; if you're not satisfied, I can remake it. »

Saying this, Lei Dianying handed Luo De a purple gem shaped like a thunder eye.

Eye of the Evil Star.

This is what Yae Miko offered as a stake to preserve Huasanli back then.

According to her description, this grants the user divine vision, enabling the user to achieve the Electro Archon's sword-drawing speed and precision.

However,

If it were before,

Luo De would surely be satisfied with such a reward.

But now,

Because of this unexpected incident with Raiden's true consciousness, Luo De, dissatisfied, shook his head and said: «Is this the only reward? »

He no longer treats Lei Dianying with the same respect as before.

On the contrary,

Over the course of this month's contact,

Luo De discovered that Lei Dianying is blunt, her emotions are scarce and pitiful, caring only about those she herself cares about.

Yet she is indeed sincere.

She is not like Venti, full of mischievous ideas, nor like Zhongli, who enjoys playing the straight man; in fact, she always maintains a strong sense of detachment from others.

At least, based on Luo De's experience with her,

Lei Dianying is the type who says exactly what she means, never lies, never hides her feelings—likes are likes, dislikes are dislikes, and she never deliberately utters pleasantries.

Just as she just said directly: if Luo De is not satisfied with the reward she gave, all he needs to do is tell her, and she will remake it.

This is not something a god could say.

It is precisely based on these reasons.

Luo De's attitude toward Lei Dianying also improved greatly; everyone is straightforward with each other, no one should hide anything.

Being dissatisfied with this remuneration is just being dissatisfied.

Luo De bluntly said: "This remuneration is too little, not enough, far from enough."

"Hmm."

"The god child also said that."

Lei Dianying brought out Yae Miko, expression unchanged, said: "This Evil Star Eye is specially made by me; inside it, there's not just the Evil Star Eye—I also put in the materials used when making the Nation's Collapse, such as tears and hand spears. Yae Miko said you're not a puppet, so you don't need to put all the components out in the open, so I've placed all these things inside the Evil Star Eye. You can try it first; if you're still not satisfied, I'll continue to remake it."

Oh?

There's this much stuff inside?

After listening to Lei Dianying's explanation, Luo De's interest, which had just faded, immediately surged back.

He lifted the Evil Star Eye and examined it carefully in the sunlight.

It is an eye-shaped purple crystal gem; from its appearance, none of the functions Lei Dianying explained can be seen, but judging by its size, it can be set into his own Rock Dragon Crown.

How do I use it?

Luo De was just about to try it when he realized that Lei Dianying had talked for a while but never said how to use this Evil Star Eye.

This has an identification measure.

You need to first use your elemental energy to activate it once, letting the Evil Star Eye accept your identity verification, after which you can use it directly.

Lei Dianying briefly taught Luo De how to use it, then added: "The elemental energy inside is pre-injected by me; the supply is limited, and if it runs out, it needs to be left to rest for seven days before it can recharge fully."

Oh

Luo De nodded.

This Evil Star Eye still falls short compared to the Rock Dragon Crown.

This Rock Dragon Crown, plucked from the head of the Naga Dragon King, draws its power from the earth's veins.

In other words.

As long as Luo De stands on the earth, the elemental energy he manipulates with the Rock Dragon Crown is endless, and it can fully match his fully activated Descendant identity.

In contrast, the Evil Star Eye personally crafted by Lei Dianying

It actually stores energy, but when the energy runs out, it needs to rest to recover, making its use overly troublesome.

That said.

When the Evil Star Eye is fully activated, the suddenly enhanced field of view and reaction ability let Luo De feel a comfort he had never experienced before.

Compared to the Rock Dragon Crown, it is an increase in elemental energy.

Rather than being an offensive artifact, the Evil Star Eye is more like a supportive artifact.

After using it.

Luo De's field of view directly became a 360-degree blind-spot-free vision, and with Lei Dianying's elemental energy boost, his reaction speed and action speed became several times faster than before.

Not bad.

After actually trying it once, Luo De's prior dissatisfaction with the Evil Star Eye vanished; he nodded very satisfied, then raised another question: "If I embed this into that, can the thunder elemental energy I draw from the earth's veins guarantee that the Evil Star Eye's function won't be interrupted?"

That's a good question.

Inside the Rock Dragon Crown lies the Naga Dragon King's innate dragon king authority, which allows one to draw water, fire, ice, and thunder elemental energy from the earth's veins; with Luo De's current ability, he can infuse these four elements separately into the skull, heart, spine, and limbs.

Thus Luo De came up with a bold idea.

That is, to draw thunder elemental energy from the earth's veins to power the Evil Star Eye, thereby avoiding the embarrassing situation in battle where, if the energy runs out, it cannot be used.

After Lei Dianying took the Rock Dragon Crown and examined it carefully, he also gave an affirmative answer: "In theory it's possible, but it needs time for modification—about a month more or less."

Okay, that works.

Luo De nodded with a delighted smile and said: "Then I'll leave it to you."

(End of chapter)