Chapter 353

Luo De didn't know what the sweet dew and living water spoken by the Great Merciful Tree King were good for.

He only knew that after crossing Da Ma Shan and officially passing through Qian He Sha Di, the desert that originally still had some signs of human habitation became completely devoid of people.

Even those desert folk who are tougher than cockroaches.

They arrived at the Azure Stone Desert.

They also lost their means of survival.

"Five hundred years have passed, and the vitality here has not yet recovered."

The Great Merciful Tree King, changing from his previous cheerfulness, gazed at the desolation before him, and his expression grew somewhat gloomy.

Sumeru belongs to the Dendro Archon.

Although the desert of five hundred years is no longer something she can manage.

But for the desert side, she will take care of it as much as she can.

But because while cleaning the forbidden knowledge contamination for the Scarlet King, she excessively consumed her own divine power, to the point that even her primordial power was damaged.

Under such circumstances.

Even if she had the intention to solve the desert's problem.

She is indeed willing but unable.

The desert is simply too vast.

Without another deity's help, relying solely on herself, she simply cannot take care of such a vast region.

Even at her peak, she cannot accomplish this.

In the era of the three gods' joint rule, the Flower God considered this point, so she did not wish to have further conflict with the Grass God.

Later, the Black Disaster occurred.

Thus the Great Merciful Tree King's consciousness was forced to seal itself, and it no longer perceived the outside world.

When it awoke again.

What lay before its eyes was a desert and rainforest that had completely gone to extreme opposition.

And the desert that the Scarlet King, before his death, entrusted to her to care for, has also completely become a paradise for bandits and a world where people eat people.

Thus the Great Merciful Tree King pays special attention to desert affairs.

For any decision involving the desert, she will be on the front line, striving to restore the desert well.

However, the prosperity of Hope City and A Ru Cun.

Has blinded her eyes.

Due to the lack of the Void's shroud.

The desert's situation has always been isolated from the outside, and few people can understand the true desert.

The previous trip into the desert with Lei Dianying.

It was the Great Merciful Tree King's first time truly entering the desert after five hundred years.

But due to the influence of Hope City.

Plus Luo De had once swept through the Great Red Sand Sea.

Therefore the desert she saw.

In fact, it was a scene that had been heavily embellished.

Although there was still poverty and ignorance, it was not like when Luo De first arrived, with scenes of people eating everywhere.

Even in comparison.

The desert that the Great Merciful Tree King saw in the Great Red Sand Sea is actually not much different from the impoverished areas of the rainforest region.

The only difference between them.

Is that the desert folk on this side lack the opportunity to acquire knowledge.

Carrying such a preconceived viewpoint.

When arriving at the Da Ma Shan area.

The Great Merciful Tree King originally thought she could see some scenes similar to before.

The result that met her eyes was.

Indeed, a miserable scene of digging for food in the sand, stuffing whatever they find into their mouths.

And after crossing Da Ma Shan, it became even worse.

Simply, not even a human shadow could be seen.

Still the same as five hundred years ago, still a desolate world isolated from the world.

"The Void Network cannot be set up here; it cannot be built."

Luo De simply and directly pointed to the core of the problem.

Not to mention the Azure Stone Desert.

Even in Da Ma Shan, the Void Network is hard to connect.

This time, traveling with the Great Merciful Tree King to seek the Flower God's retinue.

The first thing they did was.

Was not to go look for Lilu Paar.

But rather to first complete the construction of the unfinished Void Network in the Great Red Sand Sea.

After that.

Along the way they laid down Void nodes while walking, attempting to link Da Ma Shan and the Great Red Sand Sea, thereby making them a single whole.

As a result, when laying down the Void nodes, the Great Merciful Tree King discovered a problem.

Perhaps it is because the palace of Apep is in Da Ma Shan.

In short, the void node at Dama Mountain receives huge information interference; let alone linking it with the Great Red Sand Sea, even just networking the void nodes of Dama Mountain is difficult.

As for the Cangshi Desert, there's no need to say more.

Unless a large city is also built here, it's basically impossible to establish something capable of supporting the void network.

And the void network cannot be established.

This also means developing here is very difficult.

"The task is heavy and the road long."

The Great Merciful Tree King sighed, saying a phrase Luo De used to like most.

The gods of Xu Mi all share a common point.

That is, they hope the road Luo De speaks of—four‑way thoroughfare—will be built, allowing the people to live in peace and prosperity.

But such a grand aspiration cannot be accomplished overnight.

Conflicts among the peoples, economic difficulties hard to develop, and various obstructions from the desert's natural barriers.

Even in a world with such extraordinary power.

Even if gods can intervene in this matter.

Wanting to rebuild the desert into a complete country ultimately still relies on human effort.

All of this, everything.

The Great Merciful Tree King and Nadixa have placed all their hopes on this Flower God's Birth Festival.

This is also why they proposed letting Luo De replace the Red King, return to Xu Mi as a god, and run around for that purpose.

The desert desperately needs a god who can unite them.

Like Luo De's previous harsh management system starting with the death penalty and Nadixa's unlimited appeasement policy.

The eventual effect remains rather ordinary.

Duotuolei only needs a small provocation.

The two clans' hostility, which had finally calmed down, flares up again.

So they hope to let the two sides naturally merge through time and appeasement.

Even if it could succeed.

That time would likely be very long.

Not even a century might be enough.

But Xu Mi simply cannot wait that long.

Under the corrupt rule of the Academy.

Everywhere Xu Mi is riddled with holes; aside from knowledge, there's nothing to show, and inside it's already rotted into a mess. In this regard,

Nadixa, who handles government affairs all day in Xu Mi Cheng, has the most say.

She can deeply feel how much trouble the two clans' opposition brings.

For example, when she proposes a policy originally intended to prepare reforms for the rainforest area, as soon as the proposal is released, someone will immediately oppose it because the policy might benefit the desert, harming the rainforest's interests.

Some people can be more subtle.

Others bluntly argue that they cannot let foolish desert people seize the rainforest's resources, openly challenging Nadixa.

Yet Nadixa cannot move those people.

Moreover, not to mention Nadixa.

Even Luo De, who always advocates harsh punishments in chaotic times and starts with the death penalty for all crimes, has no good solution for this.

Such a severe punishment starting with the death penalty.

Only effective in a desert that venerates the law of the jungle.

Or only in Hope City, where the power structure has just begun, can Luo De's personal prestige suppress everything and make it usable.

Also, just as the clearly rewarded and punished, strictly disciplined A Ru Cun can enforce such harsh orders, Kantisi can likewise rely on her personal prestige to suppress all opposition voices in A Ru Cun.

But upon reaching the rainforest,

the people there won't buy this.

On one hand, the rainforest area adheres to absolute rationality, meaning Luo De's baseless strategy of immediate killing is not usable here.

Furthermore, the rainforest area's power structure is complex, with major factions intertwined; moving one person could inadvertently affect the whole body, directly causing a major collapse of all strata in the rainforest, leaving Nadixa with no one usable.

This has actually happened once.

Those extreme rainforest officials once went to the Puregood Palace gate to sit in silent protest, fasting to express their dissatisfaction with Nadixa's policies.

Nadixa is a merciful and soft‑handed god.

Even with the Great Merciful Tree King helping him execute the Great Sage to boost his personal prestige.

But as the time spent together grows longer.

These officials, who see only profit, discover that Nadixa's nature is very soft; as long as it doesn't touch her reverse scale—such as blasphemy or playing with taboos—

then no matter what you do, Nadixa will ultimately, forced by circumstances, helplessly choose compromise.

Regarding this,

Those people still consider themselves wise, proudly showing off their cleverness to others.

Nadixa knows these.

Yet she is truly helpless.

A single god cannot govern a country well.

She also once thought of going to Xu Mi's Zhongli to ask for advice.

And Zhongli's reply was.

Even gods are not omnipotent; one cannot control a vast country by one's own strength alone.

So either like him, leave a successor who can guard the nation, letting humanity manage itself; or oneself slowly handle the situation, pulling out those termites one by one, smoothing out the chaotic situation.

What he said is quite right.

Nadixa acknowledged this.

But she demonstrated that she cannot do the first option.

Because Xu Mi has already rotted to the root, if we let them control power themselves, that would be the next Inazuma.

Although the words are a bit harsh.

But Lei Dian Zhen and Raiden Ei's sister have no opinion on this.

Inazuma is also a thoroughly rotten country.

However, Raiden Ei can deter those petty villains through killing, and thus she has her own way to gradually bring Inazuma back onto the right track.

Unfortunately.

Nadixa also cannot do this.

Her martial strength is not enough to deter those in Xu Mi who harbor ulterior motives.

Therefore, what she can do is, by slowly removing the termites, accelerate the promotion of the Academy's new generation, cultivate them into her confidants, so that these young people can contend for power and influence with those old-timers.

But this method is still slow.

Therefore, looking at all the methods Nadixa devised to govern Xu Mi, none are as good as letting a deity descend into the desert, thereby from the deity's perspective once and for all resolving the ethnic conflict that is the underlying code causing Xu Mi's chaos, and then increasing efforts to carry out the operation of removing the termites.

This way can greatly reduce the estimated time they previously planned.

Passing through the Azure Stone Desert.

Luo De and the Great Merciful Tree King finally arrived at Fu Luo Yong.

"There are many more seals here."

Along the way, the Great Merciful Tree King, familiar with the road, led Luo De, while his eyes slightly narrowed, speaking of a different situation.

When she first came to Fu Luo Yong back then.

The things she did were planting Myriad Mother Trees, releasing the Divine Bird Simurgh, and letting it drink the nectar and living water, thereby transforming into myriad spiritual lights, forcibly blocking the Khaenri'ah National Gate, this most terrifying abyssal pollution outflow point.

"The Turbid Black Abyss."

Luo De's gaze and the Great Merciful Tree King's are not in the same direction.

His attention is entirely on that deep abyss entrance which emits tremendous allure for him.

As the national gate of the ancient nation of Khaenri'ah.

The pollution level of the Turbid Black Abyss is a trouble that has not been completely resolved even to this day.

Even because of its backlash.

The Myriad Mother Trees that once firmly suppressed it have now fallen into silence, and even face the risk of being counterattacked and withered.

"I never expected that the Myriad Mother Trees and Simurgh would not completely cleanse that place."

The Great Merciful Tree King naturally also noticed the existence of the Turbid Black Abyss.

But for her.

This pollution is still just a trifle.

When the Khaenri'ah war broke out, countless abyssal pollutants surged out from the Khaenri'ah National Gate, with the Turbid Black Abyss as the center, spreading in all directions.

Especially those two giant dragons that emerged from the Turbid Black Abyss.

Even the Great Merciful Tree King herself has no confidence she can definitely defeat those two abyssal creatures.

Fortunately, the Flower Goddess had already foreseen this day back then and had arranged the situation in advance for the Great Merciful Tree King.

After the abyssal pollution from Khaenri'ah spread out.

The Hydro Archon E Ge Li Ya escaped from the Khaenri'ah National Gate, but she was already severely wounded, on the brink of death.

Originally, given E Ge Li Ya's nature, as long as she could return to the primordial fetal sea, she could use the power of the fetal sea's water to heal herself.

Just as the Great Merciful Tree King enters the World Tree to recuperate, recovering from the injury caused by the backlash of her authority.

But E Ge Li Ya did not do that.

She said to the Great Merciful Tree King who came to rescue: "I have already chosen the heir; it is also time to cleanse the sins of the Fontaine people."

After saying these words.

She then went to Fu Luo Yong and peacefully passed away there.

Before her death.

Her eyes were always fixed toward the direction of Fontaine, with a smile of finally being able to be freed, she completely passed away, transforming into a pool of nectar and living water scooped from the heart of the primordial fetal sea.

What the Great Merciful Tree King could do.

was to endure the grief.

According to the arrangement left by the Flower Goddess, she planted the seeds of the Myriad Mother Trees in this nectar and living water; then, seeing the Myriad Mother Trees, with the aid of E Ge Li Ya's remnant soul, begin to absorb abyssal power with the purest power in the world, she again released the Divine Bird Simurgh, indicating it should drink the nectar and living water, to use myriad spiritual lights' power to go suppress the spreading abyssal pollution, and in the subsequent backlash of the Academy, after a long time, finally sealed the Khaenri'ah National Gate, the source of all evil.

During this process.

Simurgh's consciousness dissipated, dividing among each spiritual light.

These spiritual lights later turned into flower spirits like Lan Na Luo, and to this day they still carry out the unfulfilled wish of Simurgh from back then, continuing to exert all effort for the seal.

Coincidentally.

As the Great Merciful Tree King progressed in breaking the seal, she and Luo De encountered a flower spirit entangled by the dark power.

(End of chapter)