Forged Faith

"Was I really right to do this?"

The Metamorphic Tree leader sat blankly on the ground, muttering to himself.

"I deceived everyone, created a totem, fabricated a faith, and used everyone. Was it really all just to fulfill my own goals?"

As Mo Ling listened to the Metamorphic Tree leader's fragmented confession, he gradually pieced together the life of this Metamorphic Tree.

The leader was different from the other Metamorphic Trees.

Since his birth, he had not been in the same unconscious state as the others.

While the other Metamorphic Trees stumbled dazedly toward the Great Tree Cave, he already knew how to avoid incoming beasts.

The price of having consciousness was bearing the pain that came with it.

He watched his kin get devoured by beasts without any defenses, filled with anger yet powerless to do anything.

A great many Metamorphic Trees were born. Even if most of them were eaten, some could still reach the Great Tree Cave safely.

It had originally been a delicate balance.

But the leader could no longer endure it. He awakened a muddleheaded fellow tribesman and told him that their mission was to save the Metamorphic Trees suffering in misery.

The strength of two Metamorphic Trees was still too limited, so the leader constantly expanded their ranks.

He found a safe area near the forest where Metamorphic Trees were born and established a tribe.

He then casually fabricated a square totem. He wanted the Metamorphic Trees to become angular, to learn how to resist.

Gradually, the Cube Tribe came into being.

The Metamorphic Trees voluntarily awakened their newborn kin and told them about the disasters the Metamorphic Trees were suffering.

Gathered together in groups, the Metamorphic Trees finally gained the strength to resist.

They used traps and tools to kill some weaker natural enemies, and this encouraged the leader.

But the good times did not last. The massive gap in combat strength meant every act of resistance came with grievous casualties.

Watching his kin die one after another, the leader began to fear. He somewhat regretted taking this path.

He did not know whether more of his kin died by resisting or by dying in a muddled state.

Resistance came at a price.

The leader discovered that these simple-minded tribesmen never doubted him and believed everything he said.

If he told them to fight their natural enemies to the death, they went to die.

If he told them to form a wall with their flesh and bodies, they stood firmly at the front.

Simple-minded, yet utterly pure.

The Metamorphic Trees had originally only wanted to reach the Great Tree Cave, but the leader told them that what they were doing now was for future generations.

Hearing of a future where newborn Metamorphic Trees could reach the Great Tree Cave without worry, these Metamorphic Trees set aside their longing for it and chose to follow the leader without hesitation.

The leader had always wondered whether what he was doing was right, often doubting his own actions.

"Holy Object, have you truly come?"

He turned around and stroked the Cube.

The Cube's arrival had been beyond his expectations. He had thought it was merely an object with a similar appearance, something that could raise morale if carried around.

He had never expected it to truly save the tribe!

Only after hearing the leader's confession did Mo Ling gradually understand why everything had felt so coincidental.

So the leader had been deceiving everyone all along. The totem and the Holy Object had both been lies, and he had been using the Cube to keep those lies going.

Mo Ling also felt the leader's helplessness.

Deceiving his own kin with lies all this time must have tormented him terribly.

"Holy Object, why did you come so late?"

The leader took out a strange spinal bone from the backpack behind him.

Holding the spinal bone in his hand, he muttered, "I originally thought I would need to use this."

Mo Ling stared at the spinal bone in confusion.

What was this thing now?

"Must change."

The leader suddenly spoke those three words.

Mo Ling's heart jolted, and he could scarcely believe what he had heard.

The Voice of God?

Though Mo Ling had never heard it himself, he clearly remembered what Li Luo had said.

The Voice of God she had heard in the Great Tree Cave had said those very three words.

Had the Voice of God come from the leader?

Could this be another coincidence? Mo Ling found it hard to connect that terrifying voice with the weak Metamorphic Tree before him.

The leader murmured, "Holy Object, the Metamorphic Trees' abilities are simply too weak. During my brief life, I learned one thing: the more we resist, the more we realize that the Metamorphic Trees' abilities have limits. Unless we become another species."

The leader raised the spinal bone in his hand, his eyes shining brightly. Then he looked at the Cube and slowly let go of his concerns.

"But compared to the Holy Object, this is merely the power of an unorthodox path."

He carefully placed the spinal bone on the altar before the Cube.

"No matter where you came from, in my heart, you are the Holy Object of the Cube Tribe."

The leader kowtowed several times to the Cube. When he rose again, he had regained his former fighting spirit.

He slowly walked down from the altar and disappeared from Mo Ling's view.

The guards closed in around him again, as if nothing had happened.

The leader's muttering kept echoing through Mo Ling's mind.

But no matter how deeply he pondered it, Mo Ling still could not find an answer.

"I still know too little."

Firelight flickered atop the altar, and the Cube lay motionless at its center.

"I should worry about myself instead."

Mo Ling could not even figure out his own situation now.

"I wonder how Li Luo is doing."

Mo Ling felt utterly stifled. At least when he had been with Li Luo, they could communicate with each other. Now, there was truly no one to talk to.

He teleported in the spinal bone that had been placed on the altar and examined it carefully for a while, but found nothing special about it.

Yet judging from the Metamorphic Tree leader's reaction, it seemed to be a Relic?

He wondered whether it was related to the Voice of God.

The day's battles had exhausted Mo Ling. He set the spinal bone aside and fell asleep amid the crackling bursts of flame.

Early the next morning, when Mo Ling woke up, he had already been carried by a group of Metamorphic Trees to the tribe's speaking platform.

The leader was giving the Metamorphic Trees a pre-battle rallying speech.

"As long as we eliminate the last natural enemy, our mission will be complete!"

"The Cave Demon is the creature that harms us most. It lurks within the Great Tree Cave, constantly hunting our newborn kin."

"It has defiled our sacred Great Tree Cave!"

"The arrival of the Holy Object is guiding us. The time has come to destroy it!"

The leader looked at the Cube with complete confidence, while the Metamorphic Trees cheered jubilantly.

After the rally, the Metamorphic Trees made their preparations and carried the Cube toward the Great Tree Cave.

Since all the creatures blocking the way had been killed by Mo Ling, the path from the tribe to the Great Tree Cave was completely clear.

The Metamorphic Trees had originally guarded against their surroundings out of habit. Only after realizing that their natural enemies had all been eliminated did they stop moving so cautiously.

"Praise the Holy Object!"

After arriving beside the Great Tree Cave, every Metamorphic Tree's face was filled with longing for it.

However, a roar made every Metamorphic Tree tense up.

Hearing that familiar howl, Mo Ling's heart also lurched.

It was the creature that had sent him plunging into the depths of the Great Tree Cave!