Didn't you go to Teyvat to earn money to support me?

But then he thought, "Could the second half of this prophecy be 'One of my closest relatives will die because of me'?"

Nabu knew the first half of the prophecy was already known, and the second half was easy to guess as well. This could be considered a leak of the prophecy, but Nabu wasn't too worried about the punishment for leaking the prophecy... The laws of nature that could punish her would, in fact, come sooner or later no matter what she had done.

“I would never kill anyone close to me, Aunt Nabu, you may not know this.” Shen Liang thought for a moment, “I have no ambition, not even any desire to conquer or invade. I don’t ask for anything, so how could I possibly harm the people around me for profit?”

"So upright?"

"I wouldn't call myself upright; I just don't have many desires. And almost none of the people around me are hostile to me, so I don't need to personally confront them," Shen Liang said confidently.

He had to be confident; you could say that in this world, his level of indifference far surpassed that of any moth chasing the flame or Earth itself! He hadn't made enemies with anyone, didn't take advantage of anyone, and would never become a thorn in anyone's side.

He wouldn't touch anyone else's cake, nor did he have anything worth anyone else touching... To put it bluntly, anyone who wanted to covet him would have to think twice about their own strength. The only beings on this continent qualified to pose a threat to him were at least god-level. And the gods of Teyvat were almost all good guys, all benevolent and compassionate...

Even if some gods aren't exactly benevolent, once they reach the divine level, Shen Liang has nothing left for them to covet. He can even claim kinship with any god, regardless of their status or ruling class; he can simply call them aunt or uncle without hesitation—they're all family now, how could he possibly target them?

Shen Liang felt that he was truly invincible.

“You’ve never made any enemies. Liang’er is a very well-behaved and good child.” Nabu smiled slightly.

Her gentle expression as she looked at Shen Liang sent a chill down Shen Liang's spine.

What he didn't know was that Nabu was more concerned with the first of the three prophecies, which said that "the prince will fall in love with a great god."

It seems Shen Liang isn't interested in men; he's definitely a scumbag who prefers women. And the great goddess…

Considering that Shen Liang can only travel to a few countries, Sumeru is a very likely candidate... Sumeru, after all, has two goddesses.

Compared to Nata and Fontaine next door, Nabu pondered her own plan, feeling that no matter what, she, who dared to challenge the system of natural law... could also be considered great.

She suddenly smiled confidently.

"Then Liang'er, you have an enemy now."

"?"

"My dear Liang'er, the days when you could disguise yourself as a beautiful young girl and have people willingly serve you are over," Nabu declared emphatically.

"?"

"If you want control of the World Tree and to integrate the ley lines, you have to take it yourself. This is a rule you've known all along."

Shen Liang's eyes sharpened. Nabu looked at him with a smile, and her sweet breath made Shen Liang's breathing quicken at close range.

He glanced at the "ill-intentioned" fairy girls around him, then looked at Nabu's soft little hand that hadn't let go of him yet, stroking his belly.

He roughly understood what kind of beings the fairies were, and he also roughly knew about Nabu's rules.

“Buyer is waiting for us at the temple,” Nabu whispered, leaning down and biting his earlobe. “It’s time to set off.”

-------------------------

The alliance between Sumeru and Inazuma Liyue, which later scholars called the "Garden Alliance," established diplomatic relations, opened telegraph lines, and jointly launched the Kanria campaign, which produced a series of butterfly effects.

The Crimson King no longer needed to wage war year after year. The army of Sumeru finally had a leader. Heavenly Principles intervened to suppress many of the Beast Realm Gates within its borders. The dark calamity within Sumeru was eradicated before it could spread to human city-states.

However, scholars speculate that the price paid by Sumeru was equally staggering, and Inazuma's assistance was probably not entirely without reward. Because soon after the war ended, the Flower Goddess was buried in the yellow sand, followed closely by the Red King, and Sumeru quickly transformed from a divinely ruled country into a human-ruled country under the Doctrine Council.

Even with the Dark Calamity resolved, such devastating news still arrives, leading many to question the very nature of the god of Sumeru's demise. Conspiracy theories suggest that Inazuma sacrificed the god of Sumeru to save it… but this explanation is somewhat untenable, because even if the demon god loved one, the nation's problems after the demon god's death would be no less severe than the war in Kanria.

As it turned out, after the death of the Crimson Flower Goddess, a large part of the Sumeru lands turned into desert... This calamity was probably even more desperate than the Dark Calamity.

But that's all in the future.

On the 23rd of October, Shen Liang entered the Tree King Palace for forty-nine days.

A towering vine enveloped the entire temple in layers, so much so that those standing outside couldn't even see the temple's beams and pillars. This was the power of the Tree Queen, Buyer, who sealed off the temple when she disliked being disturbed.

However, forty-nine days have passed since Nabu and Shen Liang entered the temple and met with Buyer.

No news came through, and Gan Yu was frantic with worry. She had been pacing outside the temple for a month and a half, going daily to see the fairy maid named Lilupar. Lilupar was one of the fairies allowed to enter the temple to serve the Flower Goddess, bringing food and water with her each day. But every time Gan Yu grabbed her and asked her questions, Lilupar would only blush slightly, then smile cryptically before slipping away from Gan Yu's grasp like an eel, offering no answer.

Gan Yu was very panicked and had even contacted Liyue.

In her view, Sumeru was not a friendly country, especially Nabu. Her attitude towards Shen Liang... made Gan Yu feel like a lioness had spotted a delicious wolf cub. Other gods were completely blind to the maternal love shown to their juniors. Being with her... Gan Yu felt that she was not even as safe as the Crimson King, who was always engaged in killing.

Laozi only imprisoned Sun Wukong for forty-nine days. Was Shen Liang refined into elixirs inside?

Gan Yu couldn't help but glance at Ahmar, who sat solemnly outside the temple with his eyes closed, like an iron Buddha. The Crimson King seemed to have no doubts about Shen Liang being taken away and imprisoned by the Flower God Tree King, but he didn't explain anything.

Gan Yu mustered her courage and asked him to tell her how Shen Liang had been treated, in accordance with diplomatic protocol. Ahmar only gave her a deep look, his eyes filled with... mutual sympathy.

But Ahmar remained silent. Unlike Gan Yu, who guarded the temple every day, Ahmar only came once a week. The rest of the time, he still needed to oversee the overall situation and suppress foreign enemies. This was his seventh visit. Each time, he would only wait here for six hours, or half a day, just looking at the Tree Palace without saying a word.

But Gan Yu finally saw the difference.

This time, after waiting for six hours, with the sun high in the sky, Ahmar stood up, turned to look at Gan Yu, and said, "It's over."

In Chapter Eight, the Tree King didn't say a single word.

Inside the Tree King's Palace, a temple with sixteen long pillars stands, the bedroom of the Tree King, Buyer.

Among the three gods of Sumeru, the Tree King is the most aloof from the world. Unlike the Flower Goddess Red King, who is almost on the same side, the Tree King, although also one of the three gods, is not familiar with power struggles, nor does she understand human nature or worldly affairs.

However, rather than saying she didn't understand it, it would be more accurate to say she didn't want to understand. As the goddess of wisdom, the Tree King rarely came into contact with the complexities of the human world, only doing so out of personal interest. Her plans for Sumeru differed from those of the other two gods. While the other gods were more interested in how to rule and develop, Buyer never cared about such things, but simply used her divine power to slowly adjust the rainforest's ecosystem.

The entire Sumeru region is lush and verdant, with very little yellow sand. This is almost entirely due to the Tree King Buyer's use of the earth's veins to govern the entire desert and transform it into an oasis.

The people of Sumeru revere the Crimson King and the Flower Goddess, but only have affection for the Tree King. Compared to the beautiful, powerful, and autocratic Flower Goddess, the Tree King is like a gentle girl who brings spring breezes and shade, and bestows upon pure and kind hearts.

Inside the Tree King Palace stands a grand bathing pool. A custom inherited from the Age of Gods has led the goddesses of Sumeru to bathe in their own palaces. The nobles of Sumeru enjoy conversing and relaxing in the bathing pool. Sometimes, dozens of people would choose to discuss matters there, where everyone would be completely open and honest, surrounded by delicious food. In the rising steam, things would naturally come to fruition.

However, for women, being naked in front of outsiders is simply unacceptable. To be precise, Nabu is alright; as the goddess of beauty, she is very confident in her body, and she often enjoys herself naked in her palace with her fairy maidens. But Buyer is a conservative, even old-fashioned, girl. Compared to the flower goddess's curvaceous and taller-than-average supermodel figure, she is much weaker. Although she has a C-cup, compared to her best friend, she feels like she hasn't even started developing.

Therefore, apart from Nabu, even the fairies who served the gods had never seen Bouyel's body.

Before Shen Liang, there was probably only Nabu.

Today is the forty-ninth day at the Tree King Temple.

With her long, snow-white hair cascading down, the slender girl knelt on the edge of the bathtub, looking up at the boy with equally white hair reaching his hips standing in front of her. Unable to speak, she could only show a loving smile, a smile that seemed to ask, "Did you do a good job, sister?"

"Sister Buyer is great." Shen Liang stroked Buyer's soft hair, gently pressed her head down, and then, for some reason, felt like sighing.

Buyer was less than five centimeters taller than him, probably around 1.55 meters, the difference was negligible. Seeing such a white-haired girl deity being bullied by him like this, while it wasn't exactly unpleasant, it still... gave him the illusion that the one kneeling before him was himself.

At this moment, the golden-red-haired goddess, taller than the two of them combined, hooked her arm around Shen Liang's neck from behind, gently poked his waist, and then looked at Buyer, who was still struggling on the ground, before mischievously smiling and saying, "Liang'er?"

"Ah."

"Have all the hidden injuries on your body been healed?"

Shen Liang clenched his fist slightly, but felt no burning sensation. In the forty-nine days since arriving at the Tree King Palace, he had cooperated well with the two goddesses, and this was his first time undergoing gene fusion with a god-level being, so the backlash on his body had been almost completely eliminated.

To be precise, it wasn't forty-nine days. Shen Liang used his "Momentary" power during that time, accelerating the three of them tenfold. Excluding the forty-nine days spent sleeping, it should be more than a year. A year was enough time for the pure and shy Tree King, Buyer, to shed his many inhibitions and become as comfortable with Shen Liang as drinking water and eating.

“I told you, this is a win-win situation. Everyone got what they wanted.” Nabu chuckled. “Buyer and I gained power, and you gained two goddesses.”

"What I want are the ley lines," Shen Liang reminded him.

"Hey, a whole year has passed and you still remember what you wanted? I thought the two of us had already made you forget everything?" Nabu was behind him, her soft skin pressed against his back. "Whether it's the ley lines or the World Tree, they're essentially hers. Hasn't Buyer been perfectly educated by you? She's not like me. She's very loyal to whoever she likes. If you want it, can she refuse?"

Buyer looked up at the two of them with displeasure and glared at Nabu.

"Aunt Nabu, are you saying that your affections aren't loyal?" Shen Liang looked at her, her expression somewhat cold.

"Oh dear, is our little wolfhound jealous?" Nabu released him, turned around, and slowly materialized a white cloth covering her body, her laughter mischievous. "You dare to lay a finger on even a god? You're probably the most despicable kid in the world. Do you even care about other people's loyalty? Isn't such a strong possessiveness annoying?"

"Fortunately."

"fine?"

"I have many annoying traits, but possessiveness alone isn't even a fault in me," Shen Liang said coldly, stroking Buyer's little head. "But whatever."

"Whatever you want?" Nabu was taken aback, then saw the tenderness in Shen Liang's eyes as he gazed at Buyer, and she understood somewhat.

Indeed, the boy was very perceptive; he could sense who was kind to him. He could tell whether someone harbored romantic feelings for him or simply desired him, and he didn't really care about the latter.

Nabu was the latter type. He could sense that Nabu's demands on him were solely for some unknown purpose, without even a hint of passion. So naturally, he was "casual" in return. For someone who wasn't even a lover, and whom he could simply ignore after the relationship was over, he couldn't be bothered to ask for more.

only……

Sensing Shen Liang's opinion of her, Nabu became slightly unhappy.

—Is it really just "casual"...? They're the same person, yet Buyer gets his gentle treatment, even his address changes from the distant "aunt" to the affectionate "sister." Why is she considered "casual"? You know perfectly well that it's not that I'm emotionless, it's that I'm incapable of having feelings...

But this feeling only flashed through her mind for a moment before Nabu chuckled and forgot about it.

—To think so much about whether a boy cares about you, Nabu, when did you become such a foolish, sentimental woman? Or is it that even the gods can't escape this conclusion, "Women will never forget their first man"?

— Utterly ridiculous.

Nabu turned around. Forty-nine days had passed, and the vines that had been wrapping around the Tree King's bedchamber were finally untied one by one, allowing the sunlight to stream in.

"You guys have fun, I'm leaving now." Nabu strode away.

Shen Liang realized the door was open. He had been forcibly kept here for forty-nine days; Nabu demanded he guarantee she would gain the power to transcend this world before letting him leave. Now that the door was open, Shen Liang surprisingly remembered that someone was waiting for him outside.

He had been in the Tree King Palace for over a year now! Although it wasn't boring, it was incredibly tedious. Even though the two Sumeru Princesses who accompanied him were both stunning beauties with different charms, he still missed Liyue Cai from Jigong a little.

Yes, that's what I mainly miss.

But just as he was about to turn around and chase after Nabu, he felt a pain and looked down to see the white-haired goddess kneeling in front of him, her chubby cheeks puffed out as she glared at him angrily.

"Waaaaah! Waaaah! Waaaah!"

“It seems Buyer isn’t so willing to let you go. Well, that makes sense. After all, she’s a pure girl different from me. She probably wants to experience the feeling of having you all to herself. I understand.” Nabu looked at her cute best friend with affection and leaped off the vines.