Chapter 198: Planting Gods, New Divine Body

The plant-person sprouted, wilted, then died. Ange couldn't save it with Bug Ash Liquid or Essence Bug Ash Liquid.

"What's going on? Not sprouting is one thing, but sprouting and then dying? Let's ask Anthony." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said.

Two plant-person seeds — one was planted in the divine soil of the Rest Palace, the other here. The one in the Rest Palace didn't sprout, no movement at all.

The one before them — it would have been better if it hadn't sprouted, but once it did, it died, faster than a heart attack. Ange got the notification and rushed out from the temple, but in just a few minutes, the sprout was completely dead. This was very unreasonable.

This thing came from the Church of Light, might as well ask Anthony.

In the consciousness space, Ange summoned Anthony and dragged his consciousness in.

"Plant-person? You're not talking about the God-Seeding Project, are you?" Anthony said uncertainly after hearing Lord Nai Ge Li Si's description.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si sucked in a cold breath: "God-Seeding Project? What an overbearing name? What's going on?"

"You've come to the right person. Probably no one in the whole Church knows the specifics, the Pope included, because I burned those records." Anthony said smugly.

"Back in the era when the gods and monarchs hadn't yet vanished, a Pope in the Church had a sudden idea — could one plant a god, like the Tree of Life?" Anthony began narrating.

This Pope with the sudden idea not only thought it, he did it. He secretly gathered a group of capable subordinates, obtained a fruit of the Tree of Life by every means possible, then hired a large number of druids, and through various secret methods, cultivated a batch of seeds.

"The whole process was extremely tedious and complicated, and in the end there really were some results, but immediately afterward he was killed by the gods, his name even erased."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si wanted to spit blood: "Killed? The gods killed him?"

He'd been expecting to hear an epic legend of sweeping grandeur, twists, and blood-pumping excitement, but the moment the words turned, he heard he was killed.

"Yes, he wanted to plant a god. If they didn't kill him, what would they keep him for? The moment he had such a thought, in the gods' eyes he was already as good as dead." Anthony said matter-of-factly.

"Then what?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked.

"Then the records were burned by me. The whole Church's library and scripture vaults were burned down by me. I only flipped to this part — the name God-Seeding Project was rather intimidating, so I had a look." Anthony said.

"..." Lord Nai Ge Li Si was speechless for a long while: "Although your purpose was to protect the Rest Abyss, I still want to beat you up. You wasted heaven's gifts, destroying how much history and knowledge."

Anthony glanced sideways at him: "Oh great God of Knowledge, I advise you to give up that idea. You can't beat me."

"How can your words be as infuriating as lightning!?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si was so angry he wanted to jump up and smack his forehead.

Anthony hurriedly said: "The history recorded by the Church of Light was all distorted. Burning it is no loss. As for those druids, several were elves, quite long-lived. When I burned the records, they were still alive. Without the records, slowly no one knew what crime they had committed, and later they were all released under house arrest. I essentially saved them."

"Still alive? What about now? Still alive?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si's spirit lifted.

"Of course not. The longest elf lifespan is only 1,300 years. When they were captured they were already four or five hundred. Now another thousand-plus years have passed, long dead. I was in constant reincarnation back then, didn't pay much attention to them. I vaguely heard they were planting some plant-persons in some confinement area, so the moment you mentioned plant-persons, I thought of this."

At this point, Anthony couldn't help asking: "How do you know about these things? Even the current Church probably doesn't remember any of this. I burned them very thoroughly."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si explained how he had acquired two seeds for ten silver coins and one gold coin, how their group had heard about the divine soil, then came up to plant, and ended up killing one.

Anthony flew into a rage the moment he heard: "What!? You went up to the Holy Celestial Kingdom to play and didn't tell me? Have you a conscience? I've long wanted to go up but couldn't fly up. Now you can fly up and you don't tell me? You just wait!"

Anthony furiously cut off the soul link. Not long after, Seeing Ange suddenly stirred and said: "Anthony's coming, let's receive him."

"How do we receive him? There's no Rest Wind now, and even with wind it might not break through the barrier. Should we have you go down first to pick him up, then come back down when there's Rest Wind? Has he no shame?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si grumbled.

Seeing Ange tilted his head, as if listening to something, then said: "He says the Celestial Stairway can receive him."

"Receive people? The Celestial Stairway has this function? I thought the holy spirits just flew up the stairway themselves." Lord Nai Ge Li Si was stunned.

Opening the Celestial Stairway, some fiddling, and with a whoosh, a figure appeared at the end of the stairway. He stepped out of the pillar of light one step at a time, his whole body trembling, his gaze looking into the distance, his face full of shock.

"Sigh..." Lord Nai Ge Li Si sighed leisurely: "Disguised for too long, with long-term subconscious influence, his heart has probably long taken the shape of a believer. Coming to the legendary Celestial Kingdom, losing composure is normal."

Just as he finished speaking, he heard Anthony curse: "Kua Ba Da, why is this place so ugly? Is this really the Holy Celestial Kingdom?"

Lord Nai Ge Li Si nearly bit his tongue — so that was what the shock was about.

"I thought it would be grand and spectacular, but turns out to be like this — all stones piled into massive geometric shapes and sculptures, monotonous colors, random arrangement, no sense of layering. The gods of Light are missing a god of construction or a god of beauty."

Anthony complained with a face full of shock: "The most aesthetic thing is actually this plaza — the planted crops have layers, arranged neatly, just doesn't quite coordinate with the whole, mismatched."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si said quietly: "The plaza was dug by Seeing Ange."

Anthony said with a solemn face: "No wonder it's full of beauty. The other buildings detract too much from the plaza's beauty."

"... Now I know why you can easily climb to the bishop position every time." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said in shock.

Anthony still wanted to tour the Celestial Kingdom, but Lord Nai Ge Li Si held him back: "You're already here, let's first figure out why the sprout died?"

"Does this need research? Who killed the Pope who ran the God-Seeding Project? The gods. The soil here carries the gods' will. This kind of heretical seed would naturally be purified." Anthony said.

Seeing Ange immediately reached into the Rest Palace and dug up the other seed. The seed in the Rest Palace was also planted in divine soil — it wouldn't have been purified too, would it?

But digging it out and looking, the seed was perfectly fine, fresh and alive, its skin even cracked, probably about to sprout.

"Doesn't look like it, no trace of purification at all. The one in the Rest Palace is also this kind of soil — we call it divine soil." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said.

They dug up the previously wilted sprout and looked — even its skin had traces of holy light burning. Clearly, the holy power content in the soil was too low, letting the seed hold on until sprouting, but the sprout was too fragile, far more fragile than the seed, and was burned to death the moment it emerged.

Anthony compared them, grabbed a handful of soil from the ground and sniffed it, saying: "If it's all the same soil, there shouldn't be no burning traces. My lord, did you do something to the soil when you moved it in?"

Seeing Ange tilted his head: "Afraid of fungi and bugs, purified it." As he spoke, he spread his hand and summoned holy light.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si and Anthony exchanged a glance, their eyes lighting up in unison. Anthony said: "That should be the reason. Your holy light purified the gods' will in the soil, so it won't burn this heretical seed."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si added: "It also purified some other things in the soil, causing this seed to be planted 'first,' but still hasn't sprouted until now."

So that's how it was — the cause was found. Seeing Ange replanted the seed back into the divine soil of the Rest Palace.

"Alright, I'm going to tour the Holy Celestial Kingdom. Looking at the layout here, where do the celestial citizens live? On the other side? Have you seen any celestial citizens?" Anthony keenly noticed the same problem as Shamara.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si didn't know what to say, rubbed his nose, and said awkwardly: "You'd better go see for yourself."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si's words made Anthony heave a long sigh: "Sigh, if even you say it like that, there can't be much to see. Since records began, countless celestial citizens have been guided up to the Celestial Kingdom, yet not one ever returned. They've probably all become nutrients for the Celestial Kingdom."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si flew over and patted his shoulder, not knowing what to say.

Anthony sighed again, then suddenly stirred, pulling a magic crystal tablet from his chest, with a symbol flickering on it.

He quickly pressed that symbol, then listened intently.

There was no sound at all — this was soul-level communication. The listening gesture was for Seeing Ange and Lord Nai Ge Li Si, so they wouldn't think he was spacing out.

Not long after, Anthony raised his head: "Polk found that valley where the druids of the God-Seeding Project were once confined."

"Really!? So fast?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si was overjoyed, asking urgently: "Where?"

Seeing Ange also cast a curious gaze. Druids who plant gods — he liked that. Planting gods is also a kind of planting.

"In the North Wind God Mountain Range," Anthony said. "I had him rush over through a teleportation array — there happens to be one there, so it'll be fast."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si immediately frowned. "Why imprison him there? Freezing cold, not a blade of grass — druids fear this kind of environment most, seeds would freeze to death."

Anthony gave a wry smile. "Isn't this standard practice? Water mages locked in a wasteland, earth mages locked in a water prison, wind mages buried in dirt — just don't let them touch their familiar environment. If you locked a druid in a forest, could you even hold them?"

"Uh, fair enough — same as how you can't lock a male dragon somewhere with females." Lord Nai Ge Li Si recalled a dragon proverb.

Anthony shot him a sidelong glance and quickly stepped away two paces.

Only then did Lord Nai Ge Li Si suddenly remember — he himself was also a male dragon…

Lord Nai Ge Li Si protested weakly: "I'm the exception… what even is all this — did Porke find the place? What's there?"

"He's heading in now. The valley is full of ice and snow. Lucky he's light, otherwise he'd have sunk straight into the snow."

"There are traces of buildings on both sides of the valley, but they're all buried under snow — doesn't look like anyone's living here."

"Porke sensed something under the snow — a very strong energy reaction."

"Porke… is dead." Anthony raised his head in horror, speaking in shock.

"Dead?!" Lord Nai Ge Li Si was startled too, hurriedly asking: "What happened?"

Anthony swallowed hard, then used his soul to transmit a vision to Seeing Ange and Lord Nai Ge Li Si.

In a snow-white valley, a black knight on horseback galloped across the snow. The horse's hooves struck heavily, yet only left a shallow imprint on the snow.

Riding all the way, it was a vast expanse of white — except at the valley mouth where some snow-buried buildings could be seen, but no trace of any living activity. A desolate valley, utter silence.

In that deathly stillness, Porke suddenly sensed some pulsations — like a heartbeat, rhythmic and powerful.

The pulsations came from the snow. Deep in the valley, buried under the drifts, Porke immediately dug through the snow and quickly discovered a flower bud — a massive flower bud, snow-white and crystalline, radiating a holy light.

Porke reached out and touched the bud — it seared him, giving off white smoke. This was true holy light.

Almost at the same instant, a thought focused on Porke. The flower bud bloomed, and a powerfully built man slowly rose to his feet from the stamens, holy radiance flowing over his entire body, looking at Porke expressionlessly.

The next moment, the man leapt out violently and punched Porke.

The soul vision cut off abruptly here.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si stared dumbly: "That was a God Body?"

The radiance flowing over the man was unmistakably divine light.

Anthony was both grief-stricken and bitter, nodding with difficulty. Porke was dead — he couldn't even save him — and now a God Body had suddenly appeared. This was a huge headache.

The Church of Light no longer has any gods now. Anthony probably doesn't know yet — the last surviving Libra was killed by Seeing Ange not long ago.

But no matter what, the Church of Light is currently in a god-vacancy window. Anthony can boldly and wantonly split the church, quietly commit some blasphemous acts — but now a God Body has suddenly popped up. If it inherits the divine aspect of the Light Gods, what then?

This is no joke — didn't you see Seeing Ange himself inherit the Undying divine aspect…

"No — can't let him live. I'm heading back first." Anthony turned to Lord Nai Ge Li Si and said.

Anthony departed via the Heavenly Staircase projection. Lord Nai Ge Li Si hesitated, then turned to Seeing Ange and said:

"How about we follow too? This God Body seems newly born, alone by itself — best to kill it early. If it inherits the Light Gods' divine aspect, it'll be trouble. The Church of Light might break free of Anthony's control and deliberately oppose us, and this place will definitely be taken back by them too."

Seeing Ange suddenly raised his head, pointed at the Gods' Plaza, and asked: "This place — taken back?"

"Uh, although the Holy Heavenly Kingdom is worth way more than your shabby plot — still, yes, here, the land you plant things on will be taken back." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said 'ferociously.'

Seeing Ange turned, arched his body, and let out a long cry through his soul.

Rumble rumble — the little angels, little zombies, purple skeletons, titans, lightning horses and so on that had been scattered about playing came rushing back in a flurry, and Seeing Ange stuffed them all into the Palace of Eternal Rest in one breath.

"First get Anthony to stop — tell him to wait." Lord Nai Ge Li Si hurriedly said.