In the original Hebrew, it was also called ???????. It was translated as Tree of Cabala/Kabala/Qabalah/Kabbalah, a mystical symbol used in Judea and part of the Judean philosophical tradition known as "Kabbalah."
Kabbalah used it to describe the so-called path to God, or the way God created the world from nothing.
It was said that studying Kabbalah allowed one to see the "mysterious causal relationships of the cosmos" and understand the secrets of the universe.
There was also a saying that the Tree of Life represented the vast universe, the human body as a microcosm, and the spiritual journey toward the realm of God. The close connection between these three formed what was known as Kabbalah thought.
In short, the Kabbalah Tree of Life was deeply connected to creation, which was why it was also called the World Tree.
Besides those three types of World Trees, nearly every other mythology also had similar divine trees.
For example, the Cosmic Tree of ancient Indian mythology.
Or the Heavenly Tree of ancient Egyptian mythology.
All of these could be called World Trees.
Yet while they could be called World Trees, they were not World Trees in the true sense.
Rather, the divine trees in this world were parts of the true World Tree.
If they had been true World Trees, those mythologies would not have been crammed into a single universe. Each would have possessed an independently functioning universe of its own.
The creation supposedly performed by those World Trees—the creation of universes and the like—was in fact merely other dimensional spaces within the universe.
The true World Tree existed at the Cosmic Origin.
So then, was the towering tree behind Bai Yue, in the direction of Xianyang City, a branch of the World Tree? Or was it a World Tree in the truest sense?
It was a true World Tree, and he had obtained it as a reward after reaching a certain level of role-playing progress.
However, the reward had not directly given him a World Tree.
Instead, it had given him something through which he could acquire a World Tree.
So what had the reward been? It had been an item reward: the Fusang Tree that the First Emperor had sought in the Fate world.
When he obtained the Fusang Tree, Bai Yue himself had been beside another Fusang Tree—the one belonging to the world he had reincarnated into, the Fusang Tree of this world's Immortal Realm.
How had he found that Fusang Tree? Through investigations into ancient times, he had discovered a hidden entrance leading to the Immortal Realm.
Only after entering the Immortal Realm had he discovered that it was completely empty.
After some exploration, he found the Immortal Realm's Fusang Tree.
Then, using the rewarded Fusang Tree, he successfully claimed the Immortal Realm's Fusang Tree for himself and, by accident, fused it into a true World Tree—Seed.
It was only after coming into contact with the Immortal Realm's Fusang Tree and viewing the Immortal Realm's Akashic Records through it that he understood why the Immortal Realm was utterly deserted. The Immortal Gods of the Immortal Realm had already left this universe.
During the Yin-Shang period, the Immortal Gods of this world had accidentally discovered another brand-new universe. To keep the gods of other mythologies from finding out, they had quietly moved away.
Of course, they had not simply abandoned the humans under their jurisdiction.
During the Yin-Shang period, a brutal war had erupted, and the Immortal Gods had intervened. In truth, they had used the war to conceal the relocation of the population.
They had taken away the superior humans.
Returning to the matter at hand, he used the now-empty Immortal Realm as fertilizer to catalyze the World Tree Seed.
He fused and reforged that nearly ruined Immortal Realm space, creating a new Little Garden.
When Two Roles Were Operated Simultaneously
Come to think of it, he was currently playing Xiang Yu, wasn't he?
Then why had he been rewarded with the Fusang Tree?
Xiang Yu seemingly had nothing to do with the Fusang Tree.
If the Fusang Tree had been a reward for role-playing the First Emperor, that would have made more sense.
After all, the First Emperor in Fate had come into contact with the Fusang Tree. By analyzing it, he had obtained the method of ascension and ultimately created artificial immortals.
In truth, although Xiang Yu was also one of his role-playing identities, the rewards did not include the Fusang Tree.
There had been two rewards: one was the Kuaiji Zero Type blueprint, while the other was the skill Future Precognition.
The Fusang Tree had been a reward from the previous role-play before he entered the role of Xiang Yu. That role had been the First Emperor.
Wouldn't that create a problem here?
The First Emperor and Xiang Yu were figures from the same era, weren't they?
Historically, the First Emperor was recorded as having lived from 259 BC to 210 BC.
Xiang Yu, meanwhile, was recorded as having lived from 232 BC to 202 BC.
Their lives overlapped for more than twenty years. They had existed at the same time, so what was going on with him?
Could it be that, in this world's true history, the two had not actually lived in the same era? That there had been no overlap?
Before the First Emperor died, Xiang Yu had not actually existed in this world?
No, they truly were figures of the same era.
The reason was that he had operated two roles at once this time.
Before the First Emperor's role had ended, the system gave him a second role. That meant controlling two bodies at the same time and splitting his attention in two. It truly tested a person.
When he acted as the First Emperor, it had not taken long after formally inheriting the throne for him to seize complete power.
In fact, he could have launched the conquest of the Six Nations—Han, Zhao, Wei, Chu, Yan, and Qi—ahead of schedule. There had been no need to wait until 230 BC.
Nor did he believe it necessary to spend nearly ten years doing so.
He could have completed all of it ahead of time.
The reason he had not done so was because advancing too early might have caused a problem with the role-playing progress bar?
He believed that even if he truly had done that, the progress bar would not have regressed.
One reason he had somewhat followed history was to stall for time.
The reason he needed to stall was that he had accidentally discovered the entrance to the Immortal Realm and, at the same time, obtained the Fusang Tree as a reward.
Then, he created the World Tree Seed and used the Immortal Realm as fertilizer to catalyze its growth. A brand-new space was born, one beyond the reach of this universe's Akashic Records. It could be called the birth of a new universe.
The newborn universe was pitifully small, containing only one sun and one Earth.
However, this new Earth actually had an environment similar to the Earth of the main universe. It had every animal it should have, except for humans.
That change had occurred because he adjusted it through the Akashic Records that belonged to him.
Furthermore, the relationship between the two universes, one large and one small, was somewhat like the relationship between microorganisms on a human body and the human body itself.
A person might know there were microorganisms on their body, but they could not immediately pinpoint exactly what a newly appeared microorganism was. They probably would not even notice it unless it caused too much commotion.
That was why, with an Earth that was practically a Parallel World, he had stalled for time.
Like those Immortal Gods who had moved away in the past, he used a war as cover to quietly relocate, moving some humans away in a massive migration.
But since the gods of the Immortal Realm had all fled, did he still need to hide things so carefully?
Of course he did. The gods of the Immortal Realm had fled, but the gods of other mythologies had not. He needed to guard against those gods noticing something unusual here.
Back in the Yin-Shang period, the Immortal Gods had taken action, naturally alerting the gods of other pantheons.
However, the gods who intervened from outside had been brutally killed by the people of the Immortal Realm. They had even issued a ruthless warning: any god who crossed the boundary would be mercilessly reduced to cosmic dust.
Thus, the gods of the other mythological systems had been frightened by those madmen from the Immortal Realm. Since that warning, they had never again entered the human nations under the Immortal Realm's jurisdiction.
But even now, would the gods of those other mythological systems still abide by that agreement? Could someone be unable to resist sneaking across the border?
That was what Bai Yue worried about.
Until he incorporated all Six Nations into Qin, he discovered no problems, and roughly three million people had been relocated.
After the Six Nations were unified, the Qin Dynasty was formally established. When he officially confirmed the title of Emperor, his progress also happened to reach the percentage required for the second reward.
The second reward was somewhat similar to Solomon's reward for developing Magic. It allowed him to understand how to use immortal arts to develop electronic technology.
So, after first developing several things based on immortal arts, he accelerated the Qin Dynasty's Industrial Revolution and began advancing toward the age of machines.
Of course, he had no intention of allowing the Qin Dynasty in this universe to truly enter the industrial age. That was impossible; it would absolutely alert the other mythologies.
Therefore, he would carry it out within his own small Parallel World.
However, there was a problem. At first, the various productive capabilities within the small Parallel World were far inferior to those here, so he would first develop things to a certain extent on this side before gradually transferring them into the small Parallel World.
Afterward, the so-called fall of the Qin Dynasty would be part of the plan carried out by one of his identities—Xiang Yu.
On the surface, it was the destruction of the Qin Dynasty. In reality, it was the removal of traces that should not exist in that era.
In short, from the birth of the Qin Dynasty until its destruction, what gave Bai Yue the greatest headache was still the possibility of gods from other mythologies crossing into his territory.
He had a way to deal with one or two gods. So long as they entered Xianyang City, he would give them no chance at all. In an instant, World Tree branches from the small Parallel World would pierce through to this side, drag them over, devour them immediately, and turn them into nourishment.
But if there were too many gods, it would become troublesome. Moreover, if too many gods vanished without explanation, it might alert other gods. If they could not find them, they might use the Akashic Records to investigate.
Thus, another thing that gave him a headache was this world's Akashic Records.
Could he not ask the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons to help? To avoid creating unnecessary complications, he abandoned that idea.
Besides, he did not want the Seventy-Two Pillars of Demons, or even Berial, to know certain secrets. He did not want those secrets exposed.
If they were accidentally exposed, Human History might very well be monitored under the tightest watch, all for the sake of rooting him out.
The two problems that had been giving him headaches were resolved after Brunhilde came to him.
He had also been certain that she would come!
Chapter 042: Using Brunhilde as a network cable?
So, what problem would Brunhilde's arrival solve for him?
He wanted to use Brunhilde to invade the Akasha System of the Main World and thereby disguise the Qin Dynasty within it.
How would he come into contact with that Akasha System? By using the Akasha System within his own small Parallel World to invade it.
That was why he needed Brunhilde.
Brunhilde's function was equivalent to a network data cable, allowing the Akasha System, originally an intranet physically isolated from the outside, to be connected from an external network.
If that was the case, why had he allowed Brunhilde to leave now?
Had he already secretly invaded the greater Akasha System through her without her knowledge?
No, he had not. To operate the Akasha System of this Little Garden, he needed the First Emperor's identity to be recognized. He was currently Xiang Yu and lacked the authority to operate it.
Did he no longer have the First Emperor's identity? At this point in time, it had indeed ended.
The First Emperor had a clearly recorded end date in history. Once that date arrived, the role-playing period drew to a close, so he could no longer act using the First Emperor's identity.
As Xiang Yu, the only authority he possessed now was to place a mark on Brunhilde, a mark that allowed her to be recognized by this world.
Once branded with that mark, Brunhilde would not be suddenly treated as something harmful by the World Tree when she entered Xianyang City in the Main World, like a virus, and instantly attacked and turned into fertilizer.
At that time, in order to avoid exposing the Qin Dynasty's abnormalities, the World Tree that had also spread into the Main World would immediately attack whenever it detected a divine presence within Qin's territory—the territory of Qin before it unified the Six Nations, not the entire territory of the Qin Dynasty. Thus, if Brunhilde were not marked, the World Tree might kill her before he could react.
Then there was another question. Brunhilde had originally used the Akasha System to travel to 221 BC, so why had she suddenly been transferred to the period of Xiang Yu's suicide at Wujiang?
Someone had clearly tampered with this Akasha System. It was as if a trigger program had been set up, waiting for Brunhilde to head to 221 BC before activating and transferring her to 202 BC.
Who had set this program? Had he asked one of the Supreme Four Pillars of Demons to tamper with it? No.
The one who had tampered with this Akasha System and implanted the trigger program was he himself.
Had his future self secretly invaded it? No.
The time of that intrusion was in 221 BC, the very time Brunhilde had been heading to. It was a hidden program left behind when he used Brunhilde as a network data cable to invade it.
In fact, for him at this point in time, this had already happened. He had already successfully disguised the Qin Dynasty from 259 BC to 210 BC.
Therefore, after the disguise and concealment were completed, anyone who traveled to Xianyang City through the Akashic Records would discover no problems. Naturally, they would not suddenly be treated as harmful by his World Tree, attacked in an instant, and turned into fertilizer.
In that case, there was no need for him to deliberately keep Brunhilde in this era, was there? Could he not simply let her travel directly to that time?
Of course not, because this involved a Time Paradox.
For example, if someone traveled back in time and killed his grandfather before his grandfather married, then with his grandfather dead, there would be no father; without a father, there naturally would be no him.
But if he did not exist, then he could not possibly travel back in time and kill his grandfather.
Likewise, if he had not kept Brunhilde in this era and instead allowed her to jump normally to that time, she might accidentally have become World Tree nourishment. Then the event of him invading the Akasha System would never have occurred, and the disguise and concealment that had already been completed would not exist.
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