Let's endure, what else can we do?

A line of subtitles appeared on the computer screen.

[The Flayer's faith has vanished completely nearby. His believers will begin searching for a new god.]

Lu Yao suddenly felt a sense of foreboding.

Deep underground, Isabelle and her group encountered no more Mad Flayers. The path ended in a spiraling upward passage.

Lu Yao looked—the screen had shifted back to the world map. This position was a hidden area deep in the northern forest. The surroundings were peculiar: trees and grass had been burned to ash, and the ground was covered in black cinders.

At the center of this blackened zone stood a stone statue of the Flayer, its surface densely packed with red eyeballs.

Piles of firewood were stacked around the base of the Flayer statue, flames burning atop them as if they had never gone out for years.

Isabelle stood beside the statue, a dialogue box appearing above her head.

"Milord, these burning logs are the remains of Treant corpses."

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

The Cave Dweller Shaman Senjian added, "Apostle, this is the destination guided by the tree bark. Perhaps the Forest God's relics are hidden here."

Due to generations of lost heritage and nearly complete loss of writing, the Sen clan's knowledge of the tree bark was limited.

Isabelle glanced around.

"Milord, if we destroy this altar, the Treants' souls can find peace. We might gain more information from the dead. Shall we destroy it?"

Lu Yao agreed.

After receiving the order, Isabelle summoned the Holy Sword.

She swung the Holy Sword, slashing rapidly. The Flayer statue's surface emitted a faint red glow. Soon, it shattered into a pile of black rubble.

The flames beneath the statue seemed to lose their power, shrinking quickly before extinguishing.

Isabelle stood with her sword planted in the ground. From the ash and debris, faint green lights emerged, coalescing into a tall brown Humanoid Entity.

[Treant].

Lu Yao double-clicked the Treant, pulling up a detailed data panel.

[Treant LV20] [Created by Isabelle]

Health Points: 990/990

Mana Points: 222/222

Damage: 20

Defense: 25

Speed: 7

[Thick Hide]

Innate high Health Points.

[Self-Propagation]

Can spawn new offspring.

[Leaf Shot Lv15]

Fires leaves at enemies from a distance.

[Revival Lv15]

Continuously recovers Health Points during rainfall.

[Forest Element LV1]

Forest Elemental Creature. Benefits forest growth. All stats are boosted in forests. Effect depends on ability level and Health Points.

Lu Yao examined the panel description from all angles.

Treants excel at positional warfare—balanced offense and defense, high health, and tanky, but they're slow. So using a Treant means letting it hold the line as a meat shield or face enemies head-on; the forest is its home turf advantage.

If the Treant's health keeps dropping, he could use [Rainfall] to heal it.

The only pity was that [Sword of the Forest] only created one Treant this time—the conversion rate wasn't ideal. But thanks to the [Self-Propagation] ability, given enough time, this Treant could serve as a mother body, continuously spawning new young Treants.

After creating the Treant, Isabelle's body emitted a white light.

The [Lingering Prayer] ability activated.

Wisps of black smoke rose from the ground. This time, the smoke slowly twisted together, forming a writhing black sphere of the dead.

Isabelle held an encrypted conversation with the sphere.

As she spoke, she faced Lu Yao and provided simultaneous interpretation.

"...This was originally the Forest God's altar, the core from which the Forest God's faith spread in this Fragmented World."

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

"The invasion legions They sent burned down vast stretches of forest and shattered the altars, seeking to find the Main God Space [Golden Plains] at the center of all the Forest God's dimensional worlds."

"...The [Flayer] stripped the bark from all the Treants, turning some into [Mad Flayers] and the rest into fuel for this Flaying Altar."

"[Golden Plains] is the Forest God's divine treasury; the Treants say they don't know its exact location."

"It's a special world, only accessible by passing a trial."

"The first trial the Treants know of is to restore life to this ancient land, turning the desert back into forest and making the mountains lush with vegetation again."

"There's also a requirement: the trial-taker must not have held the Forest God's faith as a hostile belief."

Lu Yao pondered.

In simple terms, plant more trees.

Doing some greening would complete the first trial?

Lu Yao felt this condition was a bit flimsy, so he typed to ask Isabelle.

"Milord, what you said is entirely correct. This is the trial needed to become the Forest God's successor."

She explained, "The Forest God was once a high-ranking main god, and [Golden Plains] is a priceless treasury for any God."

"If possible, Milord, please don't miss this opportunity."

Lu Yao thought it over for a while.

Planting trees—at worst, he'd just lose some faith using [Miracle].

Anyway, in the long run, Treants were indispensable as his backbone forces, and afforestation was a solid direction. Planting trees early was like investing early.

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

Faith had to be spent to create more value; otherwise, it was just numbers.

The Blood Knight was currently berserk, attacking friend and foe alike in the castle, and couldn't be taken down anytime soon.

So, plant trees!

For a God player, planting trees wasn't hard. He just needed to use [Miracle]'s [Rainfall], then follow up with [Scorching Sun], alternating between the two, and the Treants could handle the rest.

The whole process was like kneading dough.

A layer of rain, a layer of sun—too much rain, bring out the sun; too strong a sun, call for rain.

As a God, Lu Yao's main concern was preparing enough faith to use [Miracle] on a large scale.

And covering the entire southern desert and Western Mountains cost more faith than he'd imagined.

The mountains were slightly better.

After 15 [Rainfall]s and 11 [Scorching Sun]s, combined with the Treants' [Forest Elemental] ability, green shoots had basically sprouted on the bald peaks.

The desert, however, was a disaster zone.

Lu Yao used a full 40 [Rainfall]s and 35 [Scorching Sun]s just to get initial coverage, making green seedlings grow in the sand.

These two rounds alone cost a total of 1,700 faith.

The mountains were just icing on the cake—they already had trees and grass, sparse as it was, but the foundation existed. So after the first round of rain and sun, the greenery there gradually thickened.

The desert situation was far more complicated.

What Lu Yao didn't expect was that the first to cause trouble were the Sand Worms.

Seeming to sense that these seedlings posed some potential harm to them, the Sand Worms began secretly destroying and uprooting the saplings, infuriating Lu Yao so much that he sent Isabelle to stake out the area directly.

Whoever dared to sabotage the greening of the mountains would die!

After Isabelle killed over a dozen Sand Worms, they finally realized their lives were at stake. Most migrated to the sandy southern coast, while a small number burrowed deeper underground.

In short, these desert natives had backed down.

Before Lu Yao could breathe easy, more trouble came from the desert. Many seedlings couldn't survive to grow, withering away, demanding huge amounts of rain and sunlight.

He had to keep experimenting, and after spending over 1,000 more faith on [Miracle], he finally stabilized the desert situation.

Staying up late is the epitaph of the sleepless.

At midnight, Lu Yao lay in bed, eyelids heavy with exhaustion.

But he couldn't sleep—his mind kept drifting to those pixelated saplings, and his eyes couldn't help glancing at the computer screen on the desk...

Push through, what else could he do.

Thanks to Stir-Fried Pork Kidney for the 4,500 starting point coin support.