Volume 4: The End of the World Chapter 59: Weaving a Web
Soon, Flora's order to summon all tree spirits was passed down through the entire Bone White Palace's bureaucratic system to the interior of the giant tree crown temples, and received a response in a very short time.
It has to be said that over the years, Flora has imitated the imperial power structure and established a new order almost from scratch. Although it is still terribly simple in William's eyes, it is still much more efficient than the clan-based society established by Ravenwood more than a thousand years ago based on totems.
At least it won't be like in the past, where the army of the Void King is already right in front of them, and the tribes still have to take their time to decide whether to resist through hunting games.
The only thing to is that it is completely based on Flora's authority, which is superior to everyone else's. The entire system is almost maintained by her alone. Once she dies or goes crazy, or encounters an outsider who is stronger than her, all order will collapse and fall back to the way it was before.
Or worse.
This is probably the dilemma that true "strongman politics" will eventually face in a world with extraordinary power.
I don’t know how this problem will be solved in the future.
Of course, William would not be so arrogant as to think that the social evolution of his previous life could be copied to this world with real supernatural powers. But at least, he could eliminate several external interference factors for this world and finally return the power to choose the future to mortals.
Of course, this is not something to consider right now.
Finding the key tree spirit and sending Flora to another timeline—it would be best if William could go with her, this is the most important thing.
Looking at the human figures made up of floating green light spots floating into the hall one after another, William, who was staying in an inconspicuous corner, couldn't help but recall the Ravenwood quest line he had done in the past.
If you don't count the scattered side plots, there were two relatively important main plots in Ravenwood. One was the "Flourishing Disaster" that first broke out near the World Tree during the Seven Disasters. The other was that Lady Hungry and Corrupted polluted the roots of the World Tree, opened a rift in the Moon Realm leading to the "Lake of Entropy", and allowed her demon army to invade the world from here.
There is nothing much to say about the latter, but the former is because it is too lush, so that poisonous life is rampant here, making it extremely difficult for all living things to die - the cut wounds will become the seedbed for new life to sprout, and the severed limbs will become an independent individual and survive.
A world where normal death is absent and only complete "destruction" can stop life.
At this moment, the human-shaped creatures in the hall that seemed to be made up of a large group of emerald green fireflies were the disseminators of the "blessing of flourishing life" back then.
Wherever they go, life expands out of control like a tumor, creating countless disgusting deformed creatures... and in a sense, they are immortal. Their bodies are the subtrees that shelter the various tribes of forest elves, and these floating things in front of them are just their souls and thoughts. Therefore, in those days, they kept coming one after another, like chewing gum stuck to the soles of shoes.
This is also why William used illusion to conceal his true appearance at this moment - being recognized by the other party might bring some unnecessary trouble.
The World Tree is often considered to be the symbol of the Holy Spirit "Mother" in the world - a giant tree as tall as a mountain stands here like a miracle, and everyone can't help but think so. And it was the Holy Spirit Church that chose the World Tree as the personification of the "Mother" faith, which led to the spread of the "Flourishing Disaster" here.
The final solution was for William to insert a blade blessed by Lady Hunger into the core of the World Tree.
This is an extremely powerful power of Lady Hungry and Corrupted. As long as she obtains the target's blood, she can create a blade that can completely corrupt the target's body and mind. William was a little curious about how she obtained the blood of the Holy Tree Mother. After all, the game didn't explain it clearly. Unexpectedly, he now knows the answer.
"Your Highness, the tree spirits have arrived."
After counting, the clerk whispered to Flora.
"Are all of them here?"
Flora raised her head and asked.
Tree spirits can be considered as the will of the sub-trees, usually in a long sleep. However, the Forest Druid can awaken them through some sacrifices, and this is regarded by Fularo as an unstable factor in her rule. Therefore, in the later reform of the Oak Council, the power to awaken them was also taken into her own hands.
The clerk shook his head slightly and said:
"There is still a tree spirit that is still in a deep sleep. We cannot wake it up."
After saying that, he immediately added:
"This is a very common situation. All tree spirits have their own sleeping cycles. In other words, they themselves may not be able to distinguish which is reality and which is a dream."
"Please mark which tree it is later."
Flora spoke absentmindedly, then glanced at William Kane in the corner without leaving a trace, and the other party nodded to her at the same time - she had never expected that things would go so smoothly.
What we need to do next is to use this opportunity to stabilize the envoys sent by the empire.
"Dear children of the Great Mother, thank you for responding to my call during this time."
Flora said this to the buzzing tree spirits under the throne.
Most of the tree spirits bowed their heads slightly as a gesture of greeting.
She continued:
"I won't waste any more time on polite talk, let's get straight to the point. About half an hour ago, an envoy from the Imperial Senate came to me, hoping that the Jade Province could provide direct military assistance for their subsequent expedition to Ava Continent..."
According to Flora's standards, her speech about mobilizing the tree spirits to participate in the subsequent defense of Green Harbor can be regarded as a generous speech - she first deeply analyzed the common interests between the Empire and the Jade Province, and explained the benefits of helping the Empire win the war. Then she turned to say that if it were not a defensive war to protect the country, it would be extremely difficult for the forest elves to raise a large-scale army in a short period of time.
In the end, she hoped that these tree spirits could share some of their power and create a summoned army composed of fragments of souls to participate in the war.
These words were seven parts true and three parts false. The main purpose of saying this was to conceal his true intention of summoning these tree spirits to the Bone White House.
On the other hand, the tree spirits were totally uninterested in her proposal. After some bargaining, they finally agreed to put together a legion of summoned creatures that were only enough to serve as a guard of honor to assist the empire.
Yangzhuang ended this temporary summons angrily. After seeing the last tree spirit leave, a smile appeared on Flora's lips.
Sending a guard of honor to reinforce him would be more in line with the envoys' expectations. This way, at least they could stay quietly in the embassy for a while. Even if he was stuck in another timeline and couldn't come back for the time being, he wouldn't have to worry about them making any big noise here in the short term.
"So why not just kill them all first?"
After listening to his explanation, William couldn't help but frowned and asked.
"Mr. Judge, killing an imperial envoy is a direct treason. Currently, three legions are still in the Jade Province... I think at least before completely solving the problem of Ravenwood and thoroughly integrating the resources of the two provinces, you don't want to fight on two fronts at the same time, right?"
William remained silent.
Fularo was right. This was the Year of Hunger and Corruption. If he could get rid of Lady Hunger and Corruption once and for all, or at least severely injure her to some extent, he would have a window period of more than half a year when the Moon Realm could not directly interfere with the world. He could then use this time difference to complete the cleansing of the empire's high-level officials and prevent the Moon Realm from taking advantage of the power vacuum.
It would definitely not be a wise choice to declare war on the Lake of Entropy and the Empire at the same time.
Moreover, the reinforcements of Remedios and Black's demon generals were on their way. There were only a handful of people in the world who could defeat them.
But this was not the reason that kept William silent.
For some reason, he always felt that the envoy was a hidden danger. Perhaps the timing of his arrival was too coincidental, or perhaps their mission was too targeted.
"Lord William?"
Flora's tentative question pulled William out of his thoughts.
"Let's go to the tree spirit first. Hurry up."
William, who had come to his senses, said immediately.
Maybe I'm just thinking too much...?
…………
In the infinite sky, in the empty nothingness between the stars, in the moon mirror that reflects the shadows of the present world.
In the place called Moon Realm.
From the perspective of a certain king's six flashing red eyes.
Countless threads of conspiracy were entangled with a being as dazzling as a torch, and were gradually woven into a large web that led him into a fate of destruction.
She chuckled and plucked another thread of spun conspiracy, causing the existence of its own destiny to begin to tremble.
