This is a wooden staff with a dark sheen throughout, and it feels warm and smooth like jade. Through a layer of glossy black patina, you can see the wood grain inside. The staff is not straight, but gnarled and twisted like tree roots. The thicker end of the staff is curved, somewhat like an ancient dragon-head cane.
The moment Qingmu grasped the scepter, it felt as if he were holding the roots of a living tree. A vast Mental Power surged through the texture of the scepter, like the tree's breath.
He unconsciously adjusted his breathing rhythm, which gradually synchronized with the wooden staff's breathing. The frequencies of the two breaths seemed to resonate, and then he heard the heartbeat of the entire world.
This was certainly not a real heartbeat, but rather a kind of pulsation felt in the void. The origin of this pulsation was unknown, as if it came from an extremely distant place, at the center of the Milky Way, or even more distant at the center of the universe, where a fetus was being conceived, and this pulsation came from the fetus's heartbeat, rippling and spreading outwards like waves.
The Qingmu transformed back into a tree, towering and upright, but unlike before, it could no longer move. Its branches, through the scepter in its hand, stretched out one by one, reaching towards the sky, towards the earth, and towards the people kneeling on the ground.
He clearly saw one of the branches penetrate into a savage's brain, but what he saw was not the brain structure, but the man's consciousness.
Yes, it's consciousness. He established a strange connection with his consciousness, like telepathy. He didn't need to hypnotize him, didn't need to guide him. He could see his every thought, and likewise, he only needed one thought to make him understand.
The savage crawled even lower, not daring to raise his head, and uttered low, guttural groans.
Qingmu couldn't understand his words, but he understood his thoughts: God, we obey your command!
He tried to give the savage a thought, to make him stand up. The savage stood up. But the savage was not entirely his puppet; he had his own consciousness, his own thoughts, and he was still himself.
There was a connection between them, as if a nerve bundle had passed through some invisible space, connecting their brains. Like two points on a plane, if connected by a line, they become a single line, and the two points become part of that line, integrated. But now these two points are connected by a line in three-dimensional space, invisible to people on a plane. On a plane, the two points remain two points, independent, their relationship only arising from the higher-dimensional connection. This relationship is virtual on the plane, yet it undeniably influences each other.
Qingmu began to direct the large group of savages. He made them all stand up, then line them up in neat rows.
Only then did he truly understand why Situ's troops looked so disorganized when he commanded the battle. Because he could now direct the actions of every single savage at any time, each person had become his hand. How foolish it was for them to stand in such a formation, like a square!
The universe always achieves its optimal laws through a seemingly disordered yet orderly system. Look at the stars in the sky; they are extremely scattered and disordered, yet each has its own laws of motion. If they were all arranged in neat rows, then God's intelligence would be about the same as that of humans.
Qingmu sent out a thought, telling everyone to go about their own business. The savages scattered with a whoosh, leaving only a few old savages and some curious children behind.
The savage shaman remained kneeling before Qingmu. Qingmu did not tell him to get up, so he did not.
Qingmu, through a wisp of Mental Power penetrating the mind of the savage shaman by the Divine Wooden Staff, discovered that the savage shaman still harbored doubts about him. Unlike other savages who readily submitted upon seeing him, he was trying to ascertain whether the person before him was indeed the god they had sung about.
Qingmu wanted to learn more about their god and the Divine Wooden Staff from him, but he found that the savage didn't know much more than he did.
Petru and Mrs. Larry walked over.
Petru stared at Qingmu for a long time, seemingly trying to ascertain something, before finally asking, "Who exactly are you?"
Qingmu said, "Actually, I don't know either."
Petru then asked, "So, what's your relationship with these savages? Are you... related?"
Qingmu was taken aback by the question and said, "I don't think so. You see, I don't look like them at all."
Petru said, "That's good!" Then he drew his pistol and pointed it at the savage shaman's head.
Qingmu did not stop him.
On the surface, it seems that Qingmu has now become the god of this tribe, and all the savages have become his subjects, including this savage shaman. If he accepts this fact, whether it is to maintain this relationship, cultivate his wings and power, or deal with the complex situation that he will face next, he should protect his people and not let them be harmed.
But Qingmu was a very lazy person. He was too lazy to be the leader of these people, too lazy to think about how to be a qualified leader, and even more too lazy to analyze how much benefit the tribe's power could bring him in the future.
Moreover, he didn't understand why the savage shaman had handed over the scepter so easily, without offering any resistance. It was clear from his consciousness that he was unwilling, yet he handed over the scepter without any apparent reasoning behind it; perhaps even he himself was confused.
Qingmu didn't know how he had become like this. At first, he thought it was the willow branch on his body, but later he realized that shouldn't be the case. The willow branch was broken off from an old willow tree in the distant Liuying Lane, and Bi Shenghua had secretly put it in his bag. It couldn't possibly have anything to do with this distorted space on the Orion Arm, a thousand light-years away.
If this wasn't a coincidence, but rather a preordained event, then the Bi Shenghua is the true deity! But that's clearly impossible. And if it truly was a divine power brought about by this willow branch, then it should have replaced the Divine Wooden Staff and become the new scepter, but it didn't.
Qingmu also thought it was the effect of the Sun in the sky, because when his spirit became a tree, a total Sun Sun was taking place. However, he couldn't find any connection to this, and it didn't even have anything to do with metaphysics.
The savages had submitted, but he knew one thing: if he lost his scepter, they would no longer listen to him. Therefore, he didn't dwell on the details; he only needed to make one decision—whether or not to stop Petru?
In the end, his decision was—I can't be bothered with you!
Petru pressed his gun against the savage wizard's head, his finger reaching for the trigger. The savage wizard's Mental Power was not weak; even without the scepter, his Mental Power remained formidable. But strangely, he did not resist; instead, he silently watched Qingmu.
Mrs. Larry suddenly grabbed Petru's arm. "No, Petru, you can't kill him!"
"But, madam, I promised to avenge you." Petru stubbornly stretched out his arm, the muzzle of his gun not trembling at all. "Have you forgotten what these people did to you?"
Mrs. Larry said, "I certainly won't forget, Petru! But we need them! There's a third tribe here, and we might encounter a fourth, a fifth, and who knows what might happen. Now that Mr. Qingmu has finally managed to subdue them, we have to work with Mr. Stone to unite the two tribes to survive. And there are still so many things we don't understand, like mysteries surrounding us. Petru, you can't kill him, at least not now. Put down your gun, listen to me, put down your gun! Everything will be alright!"
Petru's Redbeard twitched incessantly. He took a deep breath and holstered his gun. "Alright, madam, I'll do as you say. But I hope these guys behave themselves from now on, otherwise I can't guarantee my gun won't accidentally go off."