Man on the ark, forced to become king

When a blessing is bestowed, the flesh, blood, life, and even the soul of the one who is blessed will ultimately return to the golden tree, becoming nourishment for its growth.

A seemingly sacred tree requires the sacrifice of countless lives.

It craves flesh and soul more than pure energy.

However, although the golden tree is growing very well, its location is really not good.

This location is near the edge of the city and inside a neighborhood.

After a moment's thought, Lin Lu handed the problem over to W, asking her to instruct Gaetano to re-examine the planning of this neighborhood.

The Lucchese family is now almost entirely under the control of the Golden Tree, and under Gaetano's leadership, all family members have been forced to accept the blessing.

Controlling the Lucchese family is tantamount to controlling the city in a practical sense.

Then, the next problem is not difficult to solve.

Since the location is not good, let's replan the city, cancel the surrounding streets, and build a building here specifically to guard the Golden Tree. This is not a difficult task for the true master of this city.

Overall, this trip to Syracuse was incredibly profitable and fruitful. Controlling a mobile city is still quite useful for the Golden Tree.

That represents a significant increase in productivity, resources, and personnel, which would elevate the overall strength of the Golden Tree to a whole new level. Once it incorporates the Tower of Babel, it should be able to arm a competent army.

After lying low for a while, once the Golden Tree enters the Life Furnace stage, Lin Lu will be confident that she will no longer fear any power on this land, and even being an enemy of a country is not out of the question.

Of course, all of this was done with the permission of the owner of Syracuse.

Syracuse is, after all, the territory of the Wolf Mother, and the Lucchese family are also descendants of the Wolf Mother. Although these descendants are not very promising, they are still connected by blood. Before making a big show of bringing them under the Golden Tree's command, the Wolf Mother's opinion must be sought.

The wolf mother didn't seem to care much about this; this goddess was surprisingly indifferent, showing apathy towards everything.

He stands on the earth, looking down upon all living beings, and sees something far greater than any particular individual.

This is the true god.

He observes, He protects, yet He doesn't care. All things in the world are but fleeting passersby to Him, destined to be swallowed up by time. Only with such a detached mindset can He be worthy of the name 'God'.

Like "Year" and "Evening"... they're just not quite there yet.

They are also immortal beings who have lived for countless years, witnessing the changing times and the transformation of the world, but their behavior and emotional fluctuations are closer to those of 'humans'.

Xi likes to eat light food and occasionally enjoys beautiful scenery, capturing it in her paintings. Sometimes she will secretly buy pastries from outside and hide them to eat by herself, only to be discovered by Nian and ridiculed.

He was impatient and always considered himself a great director, making terrible films with awful scripts and actors. These films couldn't be sold, so he kept them for himself to enjoy, claiming that "they weren't bad films, but masterpieces that hadn't yet been recognized by the times."

But anyone could tell she was just being stubborn.

There's nothing wrong with that—at least that's what Lin Lu thinks. Compared to communicating with a god like the wolf mother, he prefers playing with Nian and the others; that feels more human.

The wolf mother's standards were too high and too detached, making communication very difficult.

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"Oh? Is that how you see me?"

In the courtyard of the Luches family, a giant, pure black wolf lay on the ground, its head slightly raised, its beastly eyes flashing with a human-like light.

She's like a wise woman; she observes silently and yet understands everything. It's really hard to feel relaxed around someone like that.

—The last Sir Hundred Wisdom who gave him this feeling had already been killed by him in the royal city of Rodel, and even in death he kept babbling a few words.

Lin Lu thought this to herself, but didn't show it. She nodded slightly and said, "I am indeed very uncomfortable talking to someone like you. It makes me feel like I'm being questioned by an elder."

"Someone said that to me many years ago, a long time ago."

The wolf mother spoke calmly, as if reminiscing.

To be regarded as 'long ago' by a god like Him, one can easily guess how long that period of time must have been.

"Back then, I was building homes in the mountains with my children, teaching them to plant and hunt... Ah, sorry, I just like to reminisce as I get older. It's normal for you to feel this way. After all, you're still young and have many ideas and ambitions to realize. That's a good thing. For old guys like us, there's nothing else to do but sleep."

"It's alright, actually I quite enjoy listening to people talk about the past."

This wasn't just a perfunctory remark; Lin Lu was genuinely interested in the history of this world, especially the ancient artifacts hidden in the cracks of history.

Can I ask you a question?

"Of course, we're here to chat, aren't we?"

The enormous wolf head swayed slightly, a human-like smile curving at the corner of its mouth. The wolf mother said softly, "Don't worry about what my purpose is. Just think of me as an old fellow who has been sleeping for a long time and wants to have a chat. Ask me any questions you have, and I will tell you anything I know."

"How could I have assumed that about you? In fact, your generosity has exceeded my expectations."

Lin Lu smiled, carefully choosing her words, and asked her question: "I want to know, beyond this land, beyond the existing civilization, are there other non-human beings, such as demonic species?"

"So that's what you wanted to ask."

Upon hearing this question, the wolf mother remained silent for a moment before nodding and saying, "Those things do exist. Terra is not the entirety of the world, but merely one continent within it. Humans thrive and multiply on this land, while other races exist beyond the boundaries they cannot explore."

"The alien demons you mentioned are one of them. They are born with power far exceeding that of humans and can devour the emotions that humans release to strengthen themselves. However, this power comes at a price. They do not have human intelligence and live like wild beasts. They can only be considered as wild beasts that control great power. The very few special individuals are not enough to support the operation of the species, so they are still kept outside of civilization."

"Besides the land, there is a similar race in the vast ocean. Unlike the alien demons, they are not born with great strength or all sorts of strange abilities, nor do they have much intelligence. Their only ability is alien, which is evolution."

"That race is called the Sea Heirs. They are born in the sea and devour the flesh and blood of other races to improve themselves. They have an extremely strong reproductive ability and can quickly adapt to various environments. Weapons used to deal with them will become ineffective after only a few uses. Whether it is Yan Kingdom magic or Agor's technological weapons, they will be quickly eliminated in the battle. Compared to the limited number of demonic alien species, they are the greatest enemy of land civilization."

"Located at the bottom of the sea, the underwater kingdom of Agor has been fought against by the land-based countries such as Yan and Iberia for a long time, and they can only barely maintain a balance."

"There are actually such creatures?"

The wolf mother's answer caught Lin Lu off guard. He had only wanted to ask about information related to the demonic species, but he never expected it would lead to another big scandal.

Rapid evolution... doesn't that sound a bit like the Golden Tree's Life Furnace?

If the wolf mother is right, then this absurd evolutionary ability is far stronger than that of the golden tree. The Life Forge can only create creatures with multiple biological characteristics, but it does not have the ability to quickly adapt to various weapons and spells.

The idea of ​​"Hai Si" sounds absurd.

“They are real and have existed for a long time. The Sea Spawn has a strong reproductive capacity and can assimilate surrounding organisms, transforming them into Sea Spawn, so they are very difficult to deal with.”

"Their existence has consumed a great deal of energy from Agor, Yan, and Iberia; otherwise, the world might not be what it is today."

“Countries that live inland are fortunate. They do not have to worry about the alien demons that are eyeing them from the borders, nor do they have to worry about the endless invasions of the sea creatures. Therefore, they can develop and grow stronger in peace and fight each other.”

"So that's it."

Lin Lu nodded, feeling that she understood.

The wolf mother's meaning is not hard to understand—she is almost explicitly stating that Agor, Yan, and Iberia are far stronger than any other country on land, and that if they were to set their sights on something, they could change the existing order of the world.

However, they didn't have time to deal with the civil wars and conflicts on land, but instead focused most of their energy on dealing with the Sea Si, which led to the current world situation.

No wonder Yan Kingdom has always been peaceful and stable, it is an anomaly among the countries on the continent, and has never launched a war against foreign powers.

No wonder that although the name Iberia appears in available historical records, this vast country is virtually unknown on the international stage, with almost no information about it surfacing.

Agor had never even heard of him.

It turns out they had all focused their energy on dealing with external enemies.

This world may seem peaceful, but it is not peaceful at all. It is only because someone has kept all dangers away from the land and civilization that it appears prosperous.

While pondering the matter of the Sea Heirs, Lin Lu thought for a moment and couldn't help but ask, "Just how strong are those Sea Heirs? As far as I know, the Yan Kingdom is capable of dealing with gods, but even with that kind of strength, they can't contend with the Sea Heirs?"

"Of course not, because there are gods in the sea, and... perhaps even more than on land."

The wolf mother's eyes were filled with memories, as if she was recalling something that had happened in the past, and her voice became much lower.

"Among the gods of the sea, there is one who impressed me deeply. Her name is Isamara, and she is the god of the sea."

"He represents the will of the Sea Sibs, or rather, He is the Sea Sibs group itself, the convergence point of the Sea Sibs species, the collective consciousness. Through His power, all the Sea Sibs can connect with each other and share memories and knowledge."

“In the past, the gods of land and sea once fought a battle before the emergence of existing civilization. We fought each other for hundreds of years before the prototype of the current world was established.”

"Can it also share consciousness, memories, and knowledge?"

Lin Lu wasn't very interested in the ancient wars of the gods; he was more concerned with something else—that the Sea Si actually had a group consciousness and could share everything with each other.

Good heavens, the ability to evolve at an abnormally high speed, the ability to infect and assimilate, the ability to reproduce individually, the ability to adapt to the environment, and the interconnected collective consciousness, with the backing of gods, this is just too outrageous!

Is this thing really a creature that can be born naturally?

If they keep fighting and learning, wouldn't those Hai Si become invincible?

They grow stronger and more numerous with each battle, and the means to deal with them become fewer and fewer. Who can control these things?

Lin Lu suddenly understood why the wolf mother had singled out Agor, Yan Kingdom, and Iberia.

How could a creature that has been able to fight such an absurd creature for thousands of years and maintain its balance without being at a disadvantage not be strong?

Other countries are just people fighting each other, maybe on a larger scale. But these three are directly targeting gods and unimaginable, unconventional beings. If they didn't have some tricks up their sleeves, they probably would have already split apart by now.

Indeed, one should not underestimate the people of the world.

He had just thought that once the Golden Tree grew to the level of the Life Forge, it would be able to gain a certain degree of influence in this land.

It seems that it's still lacking something.

He only heard Wolf Mother talk about Hai Si and he felt that it would be difficult to deal with. How terrifying must the real strength of Yan Guo and Iberia be, which they were able to fight back and forth with?

I wonder if the Golden Tree can devour sea creatures as nourishment...

A sense of crisis suddenly rose in her heart. After the demonic creatures outside the Ursus Icefield, Lin Lu put the matter in the sea on her agenda again—to set a small goal first, to capture two sea creatures to take a look and study.

Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated. Some things need to be prepared for as early as possible. If you are completely clueless when you encounter them, it will be too late.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The False Sky, Golden Tree Dewdrops