Chapter 456: The Descent of the Divine Mao Fa

"I... I kua your ba... such serious news, couldn't you have said it right away?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si was so angry he wanted to pounce over and give it a big tail-slap, but remembering he couldn't win, he had to force himself to hold back.

This damned tree was slow and unhurried about everything else, only the little sapling's affairs could get it enthusiastic.

The old tree said slowly: "Serious? Everything breaks, that's part of nature."

Said with such reason — the Star Burst Array is only a man-made object, it definitely has a service life, unless it can self-repair, like the world relay station in the Resting Deep Abyss.

But the self-repair of the world relay station also has conditions, there must be abundant death aura there, otherwise it would be like the teleportation array in that sealed cave in Demon Valley back then — once broken, it can't be reconnected.

The Star Burst Array also doesn't know if it has self-repair ability, if it does, would there be corresponding conditions? If there aren't these, isn't damage quite normal?

It's been built for over a thousand years, if buried in soil it would've long become an antique.

The old tree could even be slow and unhurried about its own near-extinction, what counts as serious about the Star Burst Array breaking?

"But the Star Burst Array is in the sky, if it breaks, won't it fall down?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked.

The old tree froze for a moment, a bit embarrassed it scratched its head: "Such a complex creation, I can't figure it out either, probably won't for now."

Asking a naturally grown tree to figure out such a complex creation as the Star Burst Array is indeed a bit hard, especially since it's still an old tree...

Lord Nai Ge Li Si worriedly glanced at the sky, that Star Burst Array had always been hanging in its original position, he figured this kind of breaking wouldn't be finished in a short while.

Suppressing the worry in his heart, Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked: "Any other news? Did the plants up there say anything else?"

The old tree said slowly: "Said a lot, they said the environment up there is too enclosed, the species are single, lacking diversity, it's been a long time since anything new joined, everyone's starting to degenerate, they're very happy I could come, hope I grow quickly, and when I'm grown exchange pollen with them."

While they were chatting, Seeing Ange never stopped planting for a moment, quickly filling the relatively calm half of the pool surface with plants, the growth of soilless rice promoted the growth of the World Tree, and soon the World Tree took root by the pool.

Seeing Ange then raised his hand, tapped the old tree on his shoulder with his finger, and said: "Tree-person Gor, hollow bark, absorb water."

The old tree tilted its head, didn't understand.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si was just about to translate, when the little sapling on the other shoulder had already waved its true leaves, sending a message to the old tree: Breathe—grow—breathe—grow—

"Oh oh oh, I understand." The old tree nodded in sudden realization.

When the war giant tree Gor first arrived at Meishencheng, it almost got sun-dried to death, it was the little sapling that improved its form, forming hollow channels inside the bark, thereby drawing cool air from the roots up to the treetop, carrying away the heat on its body.

Seeing Ange's mind opened up — if the bark with hollow channels can absorb air, it can definitely absorb water too, as for whether it can be done? Don't be ridiculous, even the little sapling can improve the form of tree-person Gor, would the God of Life be unable to improve the form of the World Tree?

Only to see the outer bark of the World Tree rapidly thicken.

While growing, the old tree suddenly said: "Are you trying to pump water up from here, let it flow to the desert? Then should we block the hole at the bottom of the pool?"

Seeing Ange nodded.

Another round of large-scale planting, the World Tree's growth needs the life force provided by other plants, other plants grow, then it can grow, its growth in turn provides a better environment for crops — benefiting others and benefiting itself, growing together.

Before long, Seeing Ange discovered the water surface of the pool was rising.

This pool was in the depths of a valley, formed by the impact of a large-volume waterfall, overall funnel-shaped, for every meter the water level rose, the pool's area had to expand by one ring.

As the pool's area expanded, there was more place to plant things, the life force provided grew larger, soon the World Tree grew out of the valley mouth like a vine, spread out into a stretch of forest like a banyan, endless water was pumped up, flowing toward the desert below the mountain.

Even if someone came to this stretch of forest, they probably wouldn't know where the water source came from, would probably think it was some mountain spring bubbling up.

Having grown to the valley mouth, the World Tree stopped growing, if it grew further, the mountain body probably couldn't hold up.

After blocking the underground river at the bottom of the pool, the water level rose, and the surrounding mountain body began to bear heavy pressure.

The World Tree's roots burrowed into all the rock crevices and holes, plugging them while also firmly connecting them into one whole, keeping the mountain body from collapsing.

But the mountain body always has its limit, if it keeps growing, it would exceed the limit the mountain body can bear.

However, if it can't grow thicker, it can grow longer, as long as there's a continuous supply of life force, the World Tree is the plant most adaptable to the environment, it will grow itself into a stretch, wrapping up the entire mountain.

Because the World Tree grew out from the deep pool, as the water level rose, most of it would eventually be submerged, probably no one would discover a giant had appeared here unless the pool water was pumped dry.

This kind of project — adding a river to the desert, changing the ecological environment on a large scale — a single World Tree completed it.

"Wah? Squeak-squawk!" The appearance of the new river immediately attracted a group of cave dwellers, they carried crude stone axes and stone hammers, ran out from various caves in the North Wind Mountain Range, and came to the river's first bend.

First they performed a worship here, erected a totem pole, some cave dwellers stayed behind, some ran back.

Before long, more cave dwellers were brought over by those who had run back, and soon a tribe of cave dwellers appeared at the first river bend.

They chopped down trees, fenced in the river bend, hunted small animals, gathered fruits and seeds, ate the fruits, and casually scattered the seeds around the tribe.

Given time, a gathering place of life would form nearby, animals and plants thriving endlessly.

"You're even providing them with fruit? Those fruits — you forced them to ripen, didn't you?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si saw the ripe fruits on that little trunk and couldn't help complaining.

"Yes, do you want some?" Along with the old tree's words, a fruit also grew on a tree beside it.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si carefully sniffed it, then licked it, sweet, having been tricked by the old tree before, he only ate it with confidence after repeated checks, then had diarrhea all night.

The old tree's explanation was that its stomach was different from the cave dwellers', its stomach was too delicate, which made him so angry he chased the old tree breathing dragon breath.

The cave dwellers had left their safe caves, which also attracted natural enemies, a group of bear goblins from god-knows-where quietly crept over, taking advantage of the night to break through the tribe's defenses.

Just as the bear goblins were preparing to drag the cave dwellers off for roasting, Seeing Ange and the others rushed out, beat up the bear goblins, then threw down some food, and traded the cave dwellers away from the bear goblins' hands.

They put the cave dwellers back in the tribe at the river bend, and along the way helped them reinforce their defenses, building a six-meter-high wall.

The cave dwellers resumed their lives here.

"Kua ba da, the little people we just raised almost got wiped out." Lord Nai Ge Li Si said with lingering fear.

These were all small episodes on the road of reclamation, as the river extended, the environment of the southern desert was greatly improved, wherever the plants extended, the World Tree's perception extended.

As plants increased, the land's water retention also increased, and the desert rapidly turned green.

When Andoni brought people over, what he saw was an endless grassland and neatly divided farmlands.

"This... I... kua ba da—" Andoni didn't know what to say, he couldn't help cursing, only this could express his feelings.

He was wondering, wouldn't Seeing Ange really want to grow out thirty billion jin of grain, and then replace the entire North Wind Desert?

This period was the calm period of the entire plane, the Sorcerer Alliance and the Undying Empire entered a strategic stalemate, whoever dared to disrupt order would receive a double blow from both sides — the meaning of double blow is, you beat them up, and I also have to go beat them up, otherwise it wouldn't be fair.

So let alone war, even bandit groups tucked their tails and behaved.

Merchants traveling on the road sighed that this was an unprecedented safe period, no theft gangs on the road, no need to travel in groups, no need to hire mercenary escorts, saving a lot of costs.

The landlords and nobles also saw the announcement posted at the Afterlife Home, were greatly shocked, and began one after another to refuse to collect deposits, fearing the things prophesied above would happen.

A small portion still loyal to one side were still willing to collect deposits first then expand production, but they discovered that whether it was the Sorcerer Alliance or the Undying Empire, both had tacitly canceled the method of paying deposits first to encourage grain growing.

Because the ones most afraid of the situation prophesied in the announcements were precisely both sides—if this continued, either grain would become cheap and harm the farmers, or food production would drop and mass starvation would follow.

In the House of the Departed, no matter what methods the Cloaked Man used, he could not delete the announcements posted by the silver coin, unless he shut down the House of the Departed entirely.

But the Cloaked Man clearly did not have that authority. Did the Council of the Dead? No one knew either way; in any case, the announcements just kept hanging there.

After finding Seeing Ange, Anthony first reported on the situation over the recent period, then said: "my lord, we have completely won the trust of High Priestess Mo Nika. She reported our situation to the upper echelons of the Sorcerer Alliance, and they too believed our identities. From now on, we are the orthodoxy of the surface Church of Light."

"What? Orthodoxy?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si was startled—they were the orthodoxy just like that?

"Yes, we are the orthodoxy. The original Church of Light, which had no Pope, no Supreme Holy Spirit, no god, and only an Archbishop Truk, has already been diplomatically downgraded by them. Now the Sorcerer Alliance only recognizes me as Pope—Saint Anthony." Anthony said.

"…" Lord Nai Ge Li Si didn't know what to say. Anthony had already pulled off this kind of operation once on the Material Plane, and was very practiced at it.

Back then he had successfully made the elves and dwarves recognize only his Eastern Diocese, and in the end even won over the Western Diocese's support, completely hollowing out the Holy See.

But at that time, he had the resources and personnel of the entire Eastern Diocese to mobilize, plus Seeing Ange backing him up, so achieving this wasn't remarkable. But what did he have now?

A mouth, demigod-level strength, two Supreme Holy Spirits showing their faces once—and that was enough to settle it.

But returning to the Sorcerer Alliance's standpoint, who held power in the surface Church of Light—what did it matter to them?

Anthony's side clearly had more strength, so naturally they recognized the stronger one. At the very least, here there were two Supreme Holy Spirits and a Pope; the other side only had an archbishop.

Archbishop Truk probably never dreamed in his sleep that without even meeting face to face, his orthodoxy would be snatched away.

"However, the Sorcerer Alliance has also raised one request. They have a very important figure who needs treatment for hair loss, and they hope we can proceed under absolutely safe conditions. They need to inspect and verify everything about the treatment process." Anthony said.

This was perfectly reasonable. It wasn't possible that just because you said you could cure baldness, they'd hand a VIP's head over to you. Safety inspections and verification were very necessary.

Back then, it was because all of Aubrey's students had given good feedback, plus she had hidden her identity and gone secretly, and Seeing Ange and Lord Nai Ge Li Si had also won her trust at the time.

Otherwise, given her identity as a Dead Star, any treatment method would have to be repeatedly inspected and verified before it could possibly be used on her.

But Lord Nai Ge Li Si's first reaction was: "Doesn't that mean they'd have to inspect the little sapling? That won't do."

Anthony also said: "Right, I also feel it won't do. What if it gets bumped or knocked? That would be trouble. And if our Church of Light pulls out a Tree of Life, what does that look like? Isn't this just telling them that the God of Light can't solve baldness, but the God of Life can?"

"Isn't that just like their God of Truth? When the time comes they'll definitely start wondering if we're just like them, secretly stealing the Light faith."

Lord Nai Ge Li Si curled his lip: "Does that even need wondering? We are."

"No, no, no, we're not. We are followers of the God of the Scales, one of the orthodox Light Gods. Lord Nai Ge, familiar or not, don't go saying things like that, or I'll sue you for slander." Anthony said righteously and sternly.

Lord Nai Ge Li Si curled his lip. Arguing reason with Anthony was pointless, so he dropped it.

"So what we need now is a method that can grow hair within the reasonable scope of the Light Gods. I don't know if my lord has one? If not, then I'll turn them down." Anthony asked.

Seeing Ange nodded, then ran off. Not long after, he came back dragging a cave dweller and a bear goblin.

He plucked a tuft of hair from the top of the bear goblin's head, yanked it bald, then let it go. The bear goblin shamefully covered its forehead and ran off cursing.

Seeing Ange patted the cave dweller's forehead. The bear goblin had been plucked bald, but the cave dweller was naturally bald—barely a few hairs on its whole body, only a sparse ring of hair around the back of its head, its forehead gleaming and shiny.

The cave dweller grinned foolishly, even kneeling down and kowtowing to Seeing Ange. The two-legged god who had saved their tribe had patted its head—how wonderful.

Seeing Ange first stuffed the bear goblin's hair into the Divine Kingdom, closed the Divine Kingdom, and after a while took it back out.

"This is… inactivation?" Anything stuffed into the Divine Kingdom would lose its vitality, even seeds were no exception, so Seeing Ange never put living things into the Divine Kingdom anymore; seeds were specially stored in storage bags.

Seeing Ange nodded, took out a bottle of concentrated worm-ash liquid, dipped one end of the hair into it, then jabbed the worm-ash-soaked end into the cave dweller's forehead.

"And why is this? First inactivation, then using worm-ash liquid to restore vitality? Isn't that redundant?" Lord Nai Ge Li Si asked, puzzled.

The Old Tree, however, felt it made perfect sense, and said unhurriedly: "Different species of tree cannot be grafted onto each other—they'll reject."

Seeing Ange nodded.

After one Purification of Appearance, the hair grew firmly onto the cave dweller's forehead. The cave dweller, now sporting a thick mane of bear-goblin hair, returned to its tribe and blew all its companions' minds.

They unanimously gathered around the bear-haired cave dweller, broke into primitive dance, and enshrined it as chieftain.

The bear goblins happened to discover this cave dweller's bear hair and instinctively believed it carried bear-goblin bloodline—after all, when bear goblins went into heat, they often crossed species boundaries too.

And so the bear goblins and this cave dweller tribe actually lived in peace from then on. When the bear-haired cave dweller grew old, chatting about this matter with its descendants, it proudly called it—the Descent of Divine Mao Fa.

This treatment method, which used only worm-ash liquid and Purification of Appearance, quickly passed the Sorcerer Alliance's safety verification, and the Descent of Divine Mao Fa landed upon the bald goblin sorcerer's forehead.

The goblin sorcerer was very pleased with his carefully chosen green hair, and happily shook Anthony's hand: "Pleased to meet you, pleased to meet you, Your Holiness Saint Anthony. I am one of the twelve joint chairmen of the Sorcerer Alliance, Cabrela of the Eye of Truth."