Tian Shu Lishi hugged his knees and curled up beneath the roots of the Giant Tree.
This root bore no fruit, nor was it a place where nutrients were absorbed. Few soapfolk came here.
Tian Shu Lishi liked this place very much.
He felt as though he were like one of these useless branches.
He was useless. That was universally acknowledged. It had always been so.
As a Recycler, his work efficiency was far too low. He was always drawn to magical artifacts with very low recycling priority. Or rather, he was the only one who collected "scroll-type" magical artifacts.
For ordinary scavengers, the most popular magical artifacts were still blunt weapons forged entirely from metal. Hammers and clubs were especially prized. In order to better kill enemies, such things usually carried greater weight.
The delicate scroll-type magical artifacts, meanwhile, were disliked by everyone.
He gently stroked the scroll he had picked up. He did not understand the writing on it. He only looked at the pictures.
More than half the things in those pictures were things he had never seen before. He only recognized houses. These houses were different from the low buildings of Ge Tianzong Village, and different from those in his hometown. They were of another style entirely.
He could barely recognize the trees. The great tree, attendant of the Savior Devil King. That was the only plant he knew.
To him, "rivers," "suns," "clouds," and "wild beasts" were all piles of meaningless patches of color.
Yet he still loved looking at them.
How should he put it? It was as though only when facing these picture scrolls could he sense "the truth of history."
The soapfolk's homeland had long since been destroyed. It was the Savior Devil King who had brought the soapfolk into Its world.