"What is this?" Yu Jin asked, looking at the withered sapling on the table.
Could it be that Lisa encountered problems with planting trees? But he couldn't plant trees either; he only knew how to burn them.
"This is the Golden Seed you left behind. After it sprouted, it's been in this half-dead state. None of my methods have worked, so I came to ask you."
Lisa said somewhat dejectedly, looking at the sapling that was almost prostrate on the ground. She had used every method she knew just to get the seed to sprout.
The result was this half-dead state, which made her quite anxious. She had put a lot of effort into it and naturally didn't want it to die just like that.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have sought out Yu Jin during her rare holiday time. Now, Lisa's attitude towards questions was much better than before.
Previously, she would try her best to avoid having any academic questions. Even if she did, she wouldn't seek answers.
The cost of 'knowledge' had left a deep impression on Lisa's heart.
"Is this a Golden Tree?" Yu Jin slapped the table and leaned in closer.
The Golden Tree Sapling Lisa cultivated grew extremely sparsely under the dual limitations of the world and methods.
A wooden stick the thickness of a chopstick was its main trunk. At the top of the sapling, two branches struggled to split off, and on these branches were two or three leaves like emerald jade.
Perhaps due to severe malnutrition, simply bearing those two or three green leaves made the sapling exceptionally strained.
Its main trunk bent downwards under the weight of the green leaves, yet, perhaps due to the sapling's inherent 'golden' character, it still tried to support itself, preventing the green leaves from touching the soil in the pot.
"Hahaha! Oh my! A petite Golden Tree." Yu Jin laughed aloud, looking at this somewhat 'delicate' Golden Tree Sapling.
If he were still in The Lands Between, he would definitely make the Greater Will, that old bastard, see this little sapling.
Hearing Yu Jin's mockery, the Golden Tree Sapling trembled as if it had consciousness. It moved its leaves to close, like a human covering their face out of shame.
This anomaly naturally didn't escape Lisa's eyes. A conscious tree? This was the first time Lisa had seen such a thing.
She looked at the Golden Tree Sapling, which was trying to turn its back to Yu Jin, with surprise and secret delight, and said:
"Little tree, can you understand what we're saying?"
At that sentence, the Golden Tree Sapling immediately froze. It had hidden for so long, and today it was completely exposed because of Yu Jin.
Actually, it couldn't be blamed. It had fallen into the world from the brilliant Golden Tree, and it should have taken root, sprouted, and grown into a new Golden Tree.
But circumstances are unpredictable. Before it could realize its ambitions, Yu Jin picked it up from the ground.
Then it watched Yu Jin cut his way all the way to its old mother—the Great Golden Tree—and finally, he burned the Great Golden Tree down.
It could be said that it endured a long time under the double torment of Yu Jin's shadow and its pride as a Golden.
Later, Yu Jin threw it to this woman. This world had no soil for the Golden Tree to grow, and it should have experienced eternity within its golden shell.
But the tides of time are always unexpected. Just as Yu Jin had dug it out of the ground back then, this time, this woman dissolved its golden shell, and it saw the light of day again.
Parting the leaves, the leaves closed; bending the main trunk, feeling the resistance. Yu Jin fiddled with the Golden Tree Sapling, and the latter always stubbornly refused to yield.
"Stop playing! You'll break it!" Lisa immediately pulled the Golden Tree Sapling into her arms when she saw Yu Jin constantly teasing it.
Yu Jin, hearing Lisa's words, reluctantly withdrew his hand. Why had he never noticed before that Golden Tree Saplings were so much fun?
Actually, the Golden Trees of the past never had a sapling stage. Under the protection of countless corpses and people, Golden Tree Saplings always rapidly grew into towering trees.
"You still haven't said how it's supposed to grow!" Lisa pulled Yu Jin back from his daze; he still hadn't answered her question.
"Little tree, little tree, tell Big Sister what you want to eat?" Lisa lifted the flowerpot, smiling at the now relaxed Golden Tree Sapling.
A conscious tree, such a magical life could only exist outside this world, she thought.
"It needs to eat blood and flesh." Although this scene was very warm, Yu Jin still took the initiative to break the tranquility.
The Golden Tree, its light could spread throughout the Sky. However, the price for this brilliance was incredibly heavy.
In The Lands Between, the Death Rune was sealed, and the original death was replaced by "returning to the tree."
At that time, after people died, everything was not yet over. Their souls would enter the Golden Tree to be re-sculpted, and their bodies would be placed beside the Great Tree roots spread throughout the underground of The Lands Between, turning into nourishment for the Golden Tree.
These would eventually transform into a continuous stream of grace, pouring down from the Golden Tree, bringing endless blessings to life.
It sounded truly beautiful: life nourishing the Golden Tree, and the Golden Tree bestowing grace upon life. The more life there was, the stronger the Golden Tree became, the more grace it shed, and the more life there was.
This cycle continued, until the entire world became incredibly prosperous. However, while the Golden Tree was good, the Golden Order was not.
The Golden Order allowed no change whatsoever.
Therefore, the Golden Tree that covered the Sky in The Lands Between had grown by absorbing the corpses of countless lives.
And this little fellow now, without a life-furnace to graft it, and without the corpses of countless people to absorb, naturally couldn't grow big.
"Blood and flesh?" Lisa listened to Yu Jin's words and stiffly put down the flowerpot she was holding.
She looked at the Golden Tree Sapling in front of her; although it had just sprouted, it still emitted a faint golden glow all over.
The patterns on its branches were intricate, profound, as if woven from the essence of countless lives; its green leaves were vibrant, pulsating, with the vitality of life etched within them.
Lisa found it truly difficult to imagine that this sapling, like a divine creation, could be so ferocious!
The Golden Tree Sapling in the flowerpot seemed to sense the change in atmosphere and immediately became anxious.
It strained to straighten its main trunk, flaunting its green leaves. The miniature golden light grew a little larger, and its remaining green leaves began to tremble continuously.
It looked like it was, well, like it was trying to go to the toilet, and constipated at that.
"This is..." As a Vision wielder, Lisa could naturally sense the flow of elements.
She felt that the elemental energy, which was normally flowing steadily in the air, seemed to be drawn by some suction, rushing towards the seemingly fragile little sapling on the table.
"Pop!" On the green leaves of the Golden Tree Sapling, some dew suddenly appeared. Very, very tiny drops of dew, this was the grace that this little fellow had condensed with all its might.
The dew shed by its mother tree could cover all of The Lands Between; the grace formed by its brothers, who grew into small Golden Trees, could nourish a region of land.
And it itself, could only manage this much.
The Golden Tree Sapling became even more withered, but it still sent this almost imperceptible drop of dew to Lisa's eyes.
"What is this?" Lisa asked the Golden Tree Sapling when she saw the dew floating in front of her.
The latter, of course, couldn't speak. Now its leaves were already sprawled on the ground, and the pride it had held onto for so long was thus abandoned by itself.
"Grace. This little one likes you very much." Yu Jin looked at the Golden Tree Sapling trembling on the ground, then at Lisa nearby, and said, "Try it?"
After hearing Yu Jin's words, Lisa stroked the Golden Tree Sapling, then swallowed the dew.
There was no sensation upon entry—the dewdrop was simply too small.
Soon, Lisa felt an abnormality within herself. She suddenly discovered that she seemed to be able to sense the flow of elemental energy.
This sensation was not manifested through an external organ like a Vision, but rather a feeling almost akin to instinct.
No, it wasn't just sensing!
Lisa extended a hand. Then, seven-colored light began to shine. The seven elements obediently followed her guidance without obstruction, as if controlling elements was an instinct.
Lisa suddenly realized that some fundamental aspects of her life had changed at that moment.
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