Make Do

A line of text appeared on the computer screen.

[The Flayer's faith has completely vanished from the vicinity. Its followers will begin searching for a new god.]

Lu Yao suddenly had a bad feeling.

Deep underground, Isabelle and the others never encountered another [Mad Flayer]. At the end was a passage spiraling upward.

Lu Yao looked and found that the view had actually shifted back to the world map. This place was in a hidden area deep within the northern forest. However, the surroundings were rather unusual. The trees and grass nearby had been burned away, and the ground was carpeted in black ash.

In the center of that blackened area stood a black stone statue of the Flayer, densely covered in red eyeballs.

Piles of firewood had been stacked around the base of the Flayer statue. Flames burned atop the wood, as if they had never gone out for years.

Isabelle stood beside the statue, a Dialogue Box appearing above her head.

"My lord, this burning wood is made from the corpses of Treants."

"These flames have been continuously burning the souls of the Treants, preventing them from returning to the Sea of Lingering Souls."

Senjian, the Cave Dweller Shaman, also said, "Apostle, this is the destination indicated by the tree bark. Perhaps it hides an artifact left behind by the Forest God."

Because the inheritance had been broken for many years and they had nearly lost their writing, the Sen clan knew very little about tree bark as well.

Isabelle looked around.

"My lord, if we destroy this Altar, the Treants' souls can rest in peace. We may be able to obtain more information from the dead. Shall we destroy this place?"

Lu Yao agreed.

After receiving the order, Isabelle summoned the Holy Sword.

She swung the Holy Sword and slashed down in rapid succession. A faint red glow radiated from the Flayer statue's surface, but it quickly shattered into a pile of black rubble.

The flames beneath the statue seemed to lose their strength. The fire rapidly dwindled and soon went out.

Isabelle stood with her sword planted on the ground. Specks of green light emerged from the ashes and debris, gathering into a tall, brown humanoid entity.

[Treant].

Lu Yao double-clicked the Treant and obtained a more detailed status panel.

[Treant Lv20][Created by Isabelle]

Health Points: 990/990

Mana Points: 222/222

Damage: 20

Defense: 25

Speed: 7

[Thick Hide]

Innately possesses high Health Points.

[Self-Propagation]

Can produce new offspring.

[Leaf Shot Lv15]

Fires leaves from afar to attack enemies.

[Revival Lv15]

Continuously restores Health Points when it rains.

[Forest Elemental Level 1]

A Forest Elemental Creature that helps forests grow rapidly. All attributes are enhanced within forests. The effect depends on ability level and Health Points.

Lu Yao examined the panel description from top to bottom.

Treants were suited for positional warfare. They had balanced offense and defense, thick Health Points, and could take a beating, but they were slow. So, to use a Treant, he had to let it stand its ground as a meat shield or fight head-on. The forest was its home-field advantage.

If a Treant's Health Points kept dropping, he could use [Rainfall] to heal it.

The only regrettable thing was that this [Sword of the Forest] had created only one Treant. The conversion rate was not especially ideal. However, with [Self-Propagation], theoretically, as long as there was enough time, this Treant could serve as a mother body and continuously produce little Treants.

After creating the Treant, white light radiated from Isabelle.

The [Lingering Prayer] ability activated.

Wisps of black smoke rose from the ground. This time, the smoke finally slowly coiled together and turned into a writhing Black Orb of the Dead.

Isabelle held an encrypted conversation with the black orb.

As they spoke, Isabelle also interpreted simultaneously for Lu Yao.

"...This was originally the Forest God's Altar, as well as the first core from which faith in the Forest God spread through this fragment world."

"When the Forest God fell, this place was invaded by two foreign gods, the [Whistleblower] and the [Flayer]."

"The invasion Legion they dispatched burned vast stretches of forest, shattered the Altar, and sought the Main God Space, [Golden Plains], at the center of all the Forest God's dimensional worlds."

"...[The Flayer] stripped the bark from every Treant. Some were made into [Mad Flayers], while the rest became fuel for this Flaying Altar."

"[Golden Plains] is the Forest God's divine treasure vault. The Treants said they did not know its exact location either."

"It is a special world that can only be entered by passing trials."

"The first trial known to the Treants is to restore the vitality of the forest to this ancient land, turn the desert back into a forest, and cover the mountains with vegetation once again."

"There is another requirement: the trial-taker must never have regarded faith in the Forest God as an enemy faith."

Lu Yao considered this.

Put simply, it meant planting more trees.

Could landscaping complete the first trial?

Lu Yao felt that condition was a little unreliable, so he typed out a question for Isabelle.

"My lord, you are entirely correct. This is the trial one must complete to become the Forest God's successor."

She explained, "The Forest God was once a highly esteemed Main God. [Golden Plains] is a priceless treasure vault to any god."

"If possible, my lord, please do not miss this opportunity."

Lu Yao thought it over for a while.

If he was going to plant trees, at worst he would lose some faith activating [Miracle].

In the long run, Treants were indispensable core members under his command, and reforestation was a major direction anyway. Planting trees early could count as investing and laying the groundwork early.

He had over 10,000 faith sitting in the account with nowhere to spend it.

Faith had to be spent to create more value. Otherwise, it was just a number.

The Blood Knight was currently indiscriminately attacking friend and foe and going berserk in the castle. He could not deal with it anytime soon.

Then plant trees!

For a god player, planting trees was not difficult. He only needed to activate [Rainfall] through [Miracle], then use [Scorching Sun] once. By alternating the two, the other Treants could handle the rest.

The whole process was like kneading dough.

One layer of rain, one layer of sunlight. If there was too much rain, add sunlight; if the sun was too strong, bring rain.

As a god, Lu Yao's main task was preparing enough faith to activate [Miracle] over a wide area.

And he needed to cover the entire southern desert and the Western Mountains. The faith cost was even higher than he had expected.

The situation in the mountains was somewhat better.

After fifteen uses of [Rainfall] and eleven uses of [Scorching Sun], combined with the Treants' [Forest Elemental] ability, green shoots had appeared across most of the bald mountains.

The desert was the disaster zone.

Lu Yao used [Rainfall] a full forty times and [Scorching Sun] thirty-five times before achieving preliminary coverage of the desert and getting green sprouts to grow there.

Those two rounds alone consumed 1,700 faith in total.

The mountains merely needed the finishing touch. There had already been trees and grass there. Though sparse, there was still a foundation. So after the first round of Rainfall and sunlight, the greenery there gradually grew denser.

The desert situation was far more complicated.

What Lu Yao had not expected was that the first creatures to cause trouble were actually the Sand Worms.

Seemingly realizing that the saplings posed some potential threat to them, the Sand Worms began secretly wrecking and digging up the saplings. Furious, Lu Yao sent Isabelle over to keep watch.

Whoever dared destroy the green mountains and reforestation would die!

After Isabelle killed more than a dozen Sand Worms, they finally realized that their lives mattered more. Most migrated to the sandy coast in the south, while a small number burrowed deeper underground.

In short, those desert natives had backed down.

Before Lu Yao could relax, more trouble arose in the desert. Many saplings withered before they could grow up, and their demand for rain and sunlight was enormous.

He had no choice but to keep experimenting. After spending another thousand-plus faith activating [Miracle], he finally stabilized the desert situation.

Staying up late was the epitaph of those who stayed up late.

At midnight, Lu Yao lay in bed, so sleepy that his eyelids were fighting each other.

But he could not fall asleep. His mind kept drifting to those tiny pixel saplings, and his eyes involuntarily glanced toward the computer screen on the desk...

Might as well keep going. What else could he do?

Thanks to What Stir-Fried Kidney Flowers for supporting with 4,500 Qidian Coins.