Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 378 Shouldering the Burden of a Race

The Papal Palace in Tahrir.

This place was originally built by the first pope, Habissa II, to demonstrate his majesty, but now it has become the office of the current pope, Sacred Tree I. Although most of the time, for the Creation Seed with its clones scattered all over the world, there is no such thing as "office," but since the priests of the Earth Church said so, it naturally did as they said.

Ultimately, the Seed of Creation is still in its infancy, not yet a towering tree, and has no understanding of the profession of Pope. Naturally, it listens to whatever the priests say.

The Pope should sit in the Papal Palace, even if he has nothing to do there, but at least it makes him look like the Pope. That's how the Seed of Creation understands it.

Of course, sometimes the person sitting here is not necessarily Pope John A. I. Although those wooden figures all look exactly the same, over time, the priests have come up with some techniques to distinguish His Holiness the Pope.

That is, to see if His Holiness the Pope has a snake on his shoulder.

If a small snake is coiled on the shoulder of the wooden figure, it means His Holiness the Pope is in his true form, presiding over the position. If no snake is coiled on His Holiness's shoulder, then the person sitting in the chair is merely an avatar of His Holiness. Although both the true form and the avatar are wooden figures and there is practically no difference, the priests still hope that their Pope will, as far as possible, reside at the headquarters of the Earth Church.
Fortunately, their Pope was present today, since they had seen the small snake coiled on the wooden figure's shoulder.

However, in reality...

"Your wood carving skills are finally starting to look good."

Outside the city of Tahrir, Du Yi looked at the Seed of Creation with a look of satisfaction.

"You can even imitate my appearance, you've done a great job."

"No, I still have too many shortcomings."

The Seed of Creation humbly lowered its head.

This wasn't just empty modesty; it was because it genuinely couldn't think of such a trick—to make a lifelike wooden snake out of roots, place it on the shoulder of another wooden figure, and thus deceive the priests. It simply couldn't come up with such a thing, no matter how hard it tried.

Of course, in addition to these, there were wooden carts, wooden badges, and various applications for plant growth. This growth instinct, which could only grow ordinary roots, was developed to its extreme by its father.

It is precisely because of these measures that facilitate people's lives that the people of Tahrir have unknowingly become inseparable from the Seed of Creation.

No one would oppose any of the Seed of Creation's plans anymore, after all, they had complete trust in the Seed of Creation. If the Seed of Creation were to suffer any damage, they would probably fight those hateful enemies to the death—simply because in just a few years, at least 80% of the lives of the Tahririans had become inseparable from the Seed of Creation.

In a sense, the Seed of Creation has already achieved a substantial symbiosis with the Tahririans. If anything happens to the Seed of Creation, the entire Tahririan civilization will fall into a huge decline.

As for the planet itself, after the Seed of Creation showed its intention to establish a long-term presence, it has already reached a reconciliation with the Seed of Creation. At present, from the planet to the Taheris people and then to the Seed of Creation itself, the three can almost be said to have achieved substantial unity.

"So... how did you come up with this idea?"

The Seed of Creation grew increasingly awe of its father, for it knew that it could never have achieved this on its own—at best, it would have just sent its roots down and messed everything up, never reaching the level it was at now.

Could this be the ancient wisdom passed down from the Primordial Era?
"What's so wise about that?"

This time it was Du Yi's turn to be modest, since he really hadn't done anything this time.

This time, he was just the one offering ideas; the Seed of Creation was responsible for the execution. Often, during their travels, he would propose a concept that seemed promising—but whether it would actually work was another matter entirely. Take, for example, those identity badges that could be turned into wooden panels. Who knew the Seed of Creation could actually achieve that? Keep in mind, those badges weren't imbued with any magic, and the Seed of Creation didn't possess any magic either. The reason those badges could be transformed into wooden panels was simply because each badge was a part of the Seed of Creation.

In other words, when each person unfolds their wooden identity panel, the Seed of Creation is manually operating it from behind.

The sheer volume of work involved made Du Yi's scalp tingle just thinking about it.

But the Seed of Creation actually did it, and even more. The entire civilization of the Tahririans is now almost entirely built on the Seed of Creation. This is not because the Seed of Creation made some great invention, but because everything is manually operated by the Seed of Creation, including the actions of every wooden figure, the opening and closing of every identity badge, the operation of every wooden cart, and the self-maintenance and repair of every house.

Everything is independently supported by the Seed of Creation.

"I'd like to ask you, how did you manage to do that?"

"I have no idea."

The Seed of Creation pondered for a moment, then shook its head.

It's a bit too much to ask a sapling in its early stages to summarize any classic theories. As for why it can do this, the Seed of Creation can only describe it in general terms—simply put, those wooden doll clones scattered around can strengthen their souls by receiving gifts and using the gratitude in those gifts. And once their souls become larger, they can support the actions of even more wooden dolls.

And if this cycle continues endlessly, over a long period of time, it will eventually lead to the situation we see today.

"So I always feel that rather than me manipulating those scattered wooden figures, it is the Tahlis people themselves who are supporting those wooden figures. The wooden figures I distributed are just a vessel; what truly drives those wooden figures is themselves."

The Seed of Creation made a summary, although it was still somewhat incoherent, but for a sapling, it was already a very serious consideration.

This made Du Yi fall into deep thought. He could see that he seemed capable of doing something similar, this method of acquiring power...

"Wait a moment, Father."

Just as Du Yi was about to continue his conversation with his eldest son in the wild and have a picnic, the Seed of Creation suddenly raised its head.

"Something's happened at the Papal Palace; it seems someone's trying to assassinate us."

"……what?"

Du Yi was taken aback.

"Assassination? Are you serious?"

"There were indeed assassins."

As it spoke, the Seed of Creation stretched out its palm.

The wooden hand transformed into a wooden board, on which reliefs of the Papal Palace began to appear.

(End of this chapter)