In a forest camp, inside a military tent made of animal hides, the once-unrivaled king of Doma City lay weakly on his bed.
It had rained all night. Perhaps because he had been caught in the rain, his wounds had become even more swollen.
It seemed that not only the Ancestor, but even the great Tree of Insoff stood with the Qiu people.
But why?
Those people clearly could not hear the Tree of Insoff's voice, yet they had received Its favor.
Lying in bed, Tunnan could not make sense of it no matter how hard he thought, but his consciousness gradually began to drift.
Even now, he had yet to realize how insignificant he was beneath heaven and earth.
The one who had defeated him was never the Qiu people, nor the Ancestor, nor the Tree of Insoff. It was the arrogance and greed buried deep within his own heart.
He had thought he understood the Tree of Insoff's secrets, never realizing that he was merely an ant beneath the great tree. What he had understood did not even count as scratching the surface; it was nothing more than withered leaves and bark.
But this was not his fault.
The limitations of his era had doomed him to see the world only through an ant's eyes.
The giant destined to rise from the forest tribes had yet to appear, and enlightenment had yet to dawn.
Perhaps, as time passed, when his descendants finally left this forest, truly lit the spark of civilization, and set foot among the stars before coming to understand the Tree of Insoff anew... they might reach a different understanding.
But that would be a matter of who knew how many millennia in the future.
If their civilization could withstand the test of time and reach