Deities: Rulers of Nature

While the Xishan tribe was quietly developing, Ji Xuan was not idle either.

The location of the Mountain and Sea Divine Realm has been moving over the years. Every time Ji Xuan accumulates enough Faith Points, he will explore the world surrounding the Divine Realm.

The Xishan Serpent Clan needs Blood Orchid, Crystal Dew Fruit, and Jade Rice to purify their bloodline. Crystal Dew Fruit and Jade Rice can be found in the Mountain and Sea God Realm.

Jade Rice was bestowed upon the Serpent People by Him in His first divine grace. Due to its harsh growing environment, Crystal Dew Fruit could only grow around natural oak trees in recent years, but now it has grown into a Crystal Dew Fruit forest, which can be bestowed upon the Serpent People at any time.

Over the years, only the Blood Orchid has remained elusive.

To achieve bloodline purification, the Blood Orchid is an indispensable key.

At present, Ji Xuan can only hope that He can find a world where Blood Orchids grow. He is willing to venture into even a remnant realm. As long as He obtains one, with the All-Knowing Eye and the Natural Oak, He will surely be able to cultivate it.

In order to explore the Blood Orchid, Ji Xuan even used the plant domain, just to increase the probability of success. This is also why he took away the corpse of the Illusion Flower.

Fortunately, perseverance pays off, and He finally found it, and even gained something unexpected.

[Half-plane]

[Territory: Approximately 990 square kilometers]

[Environment: Swamp]

[Spiritual Plant: Blood Orchid (Bronze)]

[Spirit Ore: None]

[Spiritual Landscape: None]

[Intelligent Race: White-Scaled Serpent People (Medium Race)]

[Dimensional Creatures: Ink-scaled Boa (Bronze), Ink-scaled Snake, Deadwood Crocodile, Blind Eel, Spiny Carp, Lungfish, Swamp Grass, Rotten Root Reed...]

[Information: This is a fragment of a deity from an ancient era that was destroyed. Originally, the overlord was a Black Iron-rank withered crocodile, but it unexpectedly gave birth to the Bronze-rank spirit plant Blood Orchid, causing the Black Scale Serpent and White Scale Serpent to evolve. Among the Black Scale Serpents, the Bronze-rank Black Scale Python was born, and the White Scale Serpent gradually gained intelligence, evolving into the intermediate race, the White Scale Serpent Human.]

Ji Xuan looked through the crystal wall into the demiplane.

This is a nearly circular demiplane, entirely covered by swamps, with Blood Orchids growing in the center of the swamps.

Blood Orchid

[Rank: Bronze]

[Spirituality: Snake Marrow]

[Appearance: The entire plant is 50 centimeters tall, resembling a crystal-clear, blood-red orchid. It has a long root system, and the veins on the stem resemble snake scales.]

[Growth Characteristics: Blood Orchid can only grow in nutrient-rich swamps and must be constantly nourished by snake blood. If it cannot absorb snake blood for a long time, the Blood Orchid will gradually wither.]

[Yield: Provided there is sufficient snake blood, a single plant can produce ten Blood Orchids.]

[Information: A bronze-tier spiritual plant imbued with the essence of snake marrow. When the Blood Orchid blooms, it attracts all snakes in the vicinity. Long-term consumption can nourish flesh and blood, regulate blood vessels, strengthen scales and bones, and has a very low probability of awakening the spirit in snakes.]

Snakes fight over the Blood Orchid. The victor swallows the Blood Orchid, and its blood nourishes the roots, causing new Blood Orchids to grow the following year.

Ji Xuan could imagine that it all started with a racial conflict between the Black Scale Snake and the White Scale Snake. Blood spilled into the swamp and, along with some coincidences, nourished the Blood Orchid. The conflict between the two races intensified, but the Blood Orchid led them down two completely different evolutionary paths, and in the process, they drove the original overlord, the Drywood Crocodile, out of the game.

Pulling his wandering thoughts back, Ji Xuan continued to observe the demiplane.

Surrounding the Blood Orchid area are six Black Scale Boars, each at least thirty meters long, and a dense swarm of Black Scale Snakes constantly coiling and swimming around them. However, judging from their size alone, they are more like Black Scale Pythons than Black Scale Snakes.

Clearly, the spiritual essence of the Blood Orchid's snake marrow has an exceptionally strong nourishing effect on snakes.

As an intelligent race, the White-Scaled Serpent People could only live on a corner of dry land at the edge of the swamp. It can be seen that they had hardly developed any civilization. They lived in muddy caves, and their bodies were very thin. Their scales had an unhealthy grayish-white hue, and they were even worse off than the newly evolved Xishan Serpent People.

Not a single member of the entire race has condensed a seed of extraordinary talent. Although the White-Scaled Serpent People's talent is not as good as that of the Tide Mountain Serpent People, they are still a mid-level race, so it shouldn't be this bad.

Ji Xuan's gaze swept across the entire demiplane again, and he found that apart from the six bronze-level black-scaled pythons, there was not even a single black-iron-level wild beast, not even among the black-scaled snakes.

So it's quite clear that it's not that Black Iron-tier monsters can't be born, but rather that they'll be eliminated by the Inkscale Python as soon as they're born.

However, this actually made things easier for Ji Xuan.

The demiplane lacks sufficient resources to produce ranks of the Steel Rank or higher.

The six bronze-tier Inkscale Pythons are far stronger than the Xishan Serpent People in terms of individual strength, but Ji Xuan is not worried.

The Xishan tribe now boasts forty-two elite Black Iron Rank snake-men, including individuals like Qinglv and Chihong who can defeat Bronze Rank wild beasts on their own.

If war were to break out, Ji Xuan would have the advantage.

Moreover, taking over this demiplane would yield far more than just the Blood Orchid and the richer terrain of the Mountain and Sea Divine Realm. Ji Xuan looked forward to the White Scale Serpent People and the Xishan Serpent People creating new sparks.

Without further hesitation, He left a mark of divine power and returned to the Divine Realm of Mountains and Seas in a single turn.

Almost simultaneously, a divine thought entered the Xishan tribe. Qinglu and Qingdao immediately summoned all the temple guards, and soon forty figures arrived at the central square, where they were neatly arranged in five rows.

The whole process was very quick and didn't even make any extra noise.

Every snake-man here was wearing tanned animal hide armor, which protected their chest, waist, and abdomen.

Some had stone knives at their waists, while others carried stone spears on their backs.

Qingdao arrived directly in front of the temple guards carrying a wooden staff. This staff, named the Staff of Nature, was bestowed upon him by Ji Xuan.

The main material comes from a branch of a natural oak tree and was forged by Ji Xuan's divine power. Although it is not a divine artifact, it still has a good effect.

The Staff of Nature amplifies the range of Qingdao's divine spells while also conserving some mental energy, and has now become a symbol of the High Priest.

"Our Lord has issued a divine decree."

"The battle for glory is about to begin."

"A new demiplane awaits our conquest."

"My people, the time has come to show our bravery and piety!"

Seido spoke slowly, and every word he uttered was clearly heard by the snake people present; everyone could feel the solemnity in his words.

The moment Seido finished speaking, a unified shout rang out in the central plaza:

"For the glory of our Lord!"

"For the glory of my people!"

"The Serpent Clan of Xishan swears to defend it to the death!"

All the temple guards were highly motivated to fight, and their shouts even startled the birds in the forest. Even the domesticated animals, who had gradually become accustomed to their current lives, began to look around in surprise.

The crimson figure gazed at the two stone pillars in front of the altar with fiery eyes, its excitement barely contained.

In the last battle for glory, he was still young and not strong enough, so he could only watch as Qinglu and the others stepped into the interdimensional passage.

To be honest, he can hardly remember how he felt back then, but he was probably very envious, just like the way those little snake people look at him now.

Fortunately, this time he was able to participate in the battle personally.

For the glory of the tribe!

Crimson swears to defend the glory of the God of Nature to the death!