Lu Zhiyu walked through Sylph City, marveling at its beauty. Statues stood everywhere, and even the floors were adorned with beautiful patterns. Every building and wooden house blended with nature. It was a city nestled among flowers and trees.
What drew the eye most, however, was the enormous tree. It was twice as tall as when Lu Zhiyu had seen it before, as colossal as a pillar holding up the sky. The Divine Tree of Life and the lake around it had been cordoned off. This was the Elves' sacred ground, and their altar stood here as well.
Standing beside the lakeshore beneath the Tree of Life, Lu Zhiyu reached out and touched it. As expected, it had begun to age and wither. What he hadn't expected was to sense a consciousness inside it—a remarkably powerful one. So this enormous tree, caught between plant and living creature, had indeed developed a consciousness, though it had yet to gain intelligence.
"How can something develop consciousness without a brain? Is it because of the power of their prayers? Or has its enormous size given rise to a collective consciousness, like a forest's?"
Lu Zhiyu was certain that if he hadn't sealed access to the zero-dimensional channel, forbidding all living beings within the Maria World from extracting Source Substance, the Tree of Life would have long since connected to the channel through its powerful consciousness and become an existence that had embarked on the path of evolution, like the Insect Queen.
Unfortunately, it couldn't evolve spiritual power. Its consciousness was locked inside the Tree of Life, and when it reached the lifespan limit Lu Zhiyu had set when he created it, it would die along with the tree.
Lu Zhiyu felt a sudden interest. A powerful consciousness, no awakened spiritual power, no intelligence—wasn't this a ready-made, excellent experimental subject? Ever since all his brain cells had become deified, Lu Zhiyu had wanted to try creating other deified creatures. That was one of his plans for entering the Universe Scroll this time, though before he got started, he'd come to see how the Maria World had changed.
But the ordinary creatures of the Maria World weren't capable of clearing the hurdle of becoming deified. Without a sufficiently powerful consciousness, they couldn't extract and fuse Source Substance. Their spiritual power couldn't reach the level required for a qualitative change, so they couldn't leave an imprint in their cells. And according to the Sub-Brain's calculations, forcibly deifying cells would have unforeseen consequences. Deified cells weren't something ordinary people could handle, either!
"Sub-Brain, record the Tree of Life's life template and its consciousness fluctuations. Calculate the process for creating deified life, along with the odds of success!"
"Loading!"
"Will use 50% of brain processing capacity. Time required: three days, five hours, and forty-three minutes!"
"Confirm?"
"Confirmed!"
Lu Zhiyu hadn't expected to make an unexpected discovery while simply surveying the changes on Yalan Continent. He withdrew his hand from the Divine Tree of Life and was about to leave when he sensed someone approaching from behind.
"Who are you?"
Lu Zhiyu turned around and saw a middle-aged elf whose face was beginning to show signs of age. Anyone who had reached the aging stage must have belonged to the earliest generation of elves. Lu Zhiyu also noticed that he wore the robes of the Council of Elven Elders, with the three-leaf emblem of its speaker on his chest!
"It's you?" Lu Zhiyu recognized him at once. He was the first elf born from the Tree of Life, the child Lu Zhiyu himself had once lifted down from its branches. He hadn't expected so much time to have passed in the blink of an eye. The elf had entered his twilight years, just like Akhenaten before him!
The speaker of the elven council, Meher, looked at Lu Zhiyu in confusion. "No one is allowed near the Divine Tree without permission. Don't you know that? Who are you...?"
Meher stopped mid-sentence. He had noticed Lu Zhiyu's ears. "You're not an elf? Who are you? What are you?"
This was the first time the Elves had encountered another intelligent species. They had always believed they were the only intelligent beings in the world. Seeing another kind of creature for the first time left Meher excited and wary.
Lu Zhiyu looked at Meher and spoke in Elvish. "What's your name?"
The man before him seemed strangely familiar to Meher. "Meher, First Elder of the Council of Elven Elders!"
Lu Zhiyu nodded, then looked toward the base of the Divine Tree of Life, and beneath the altar. With his spiritual power, he found the graves of the Ant-Men he had left there long ago. After they died, they had been buried here.
"Don't go near the altar!"
Lu Zhiyu approached it and turned to look at Meher. "You buried them here?"
Meher stared at him in shock. "How did you know? Impossible! Apart from the most senior elders on the Council of Elven Elders, not even the early elves know that the divine envoys are buried here!"
Meher asked urgently, "Who are you?"
Lu Zhiyu gave a soft laugh and didn't explain. "You were the first elf born on this continent, the first life nurtured by the Tree of Life. Your bond with it runs deeper than anyone else's. You can even sense its consciousness and presence. But that has also bound your entire world here."
Lu Zhiyu said, "The world is so vast. Why not go out and see it?"
A distant memory brought the image of this man to Meher's mind. "It's you! You've appeared again! Almighty Lord of Natural Order, did you hear our prayers?"
Meher's tears streamed down his face. He collapsed onto the stone slabs and knelt beneath the Tree of Life, before Lu Zhiyu. "God, the Tree of Life is about to perish. Our Elves cannot lose it. Please save its life!"
Lu Zhiyu asked in confusion, "Why? The Tree of Life isn't essential to you. Its purpose was to create the Elves, and now that purpose is nearly fulfilled. Your people have grown and flourished. You don't need it anymore—and it's become a shackle holding you back!"
Meher straightened up on his knees and looked at Lu Zhiyu. "No! It's everything to us, and the pillar of our spirit. Without it, the Elf Kingdom will fall apart, and all our prosperity will vanish!"
Lu Zhiyu shook his head. "Couldn't that be the beginning of another kind of prosperity? It's no reason for you to keep cowering here. The Tree of Life has fulfilled its purpose. It can no longer nurture elves!"
"We beg you..." Meher tried to plead with Lu Zhiyu again, but Lu Zhiyu cut him off.
"This is only your own plea. You can't speak for all the Elves. Can't you sense the others' desire to explore the wider world?"
Lu Zhiyu reached out. The Tree of Life's consciousness was immediately drawn out by his immense spiritual power, gathering in his hand and gradually taking the shape of a beam of light. Just as he had suspected, the Tree of Life had a naturally formed soul. At the level of the soul, it was on the same level as Lu Zhiyu. It had no brain or organs for thought and emotion; its soul had been born from the Tree of Life, but the connection between them was faint.
Still, it had no intelligence or spiritual power, only an extremely faint, instinctive consciousness. It was a truly remarkable innate soul. Lu Zhiyu stepped over to Meher and handed him three emerald-green seeds. "These are seeds of the Tree of Life. If you ever face a crisis or a situation beyond saving, you can use them. A new Tree of Life will grow on this land, and it will grant you rebirth!"
Meher was so overcome that he could barely stand. He carefully cradled the seeds Lu Zhiyu had given him as if they were the most precious treasures in the world. "Thank you for your gift, Your Excellency, Lord of Natural Order!"
Meher looked up, but Lu Zhiyu was nowhere to be seen. Leaves drifted all around him. He raised his gaze to the sky and saw that the enormous Tree of Life seemed to have aged in an instant. All its life force had been drained away, and its leaves had turned yellow and fallen to the ground!
Leaves swirled through the sky, making the scene look like a beautiful dream—and as if mourning the agony of death. The entire Elven race had noticed the Tree of Life's movement and turned to look!
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