For a moment just now, he had resonated with the World Tree Seed in a way that defied description — drawing him in, pulling him toward fusion with it.
Had the World Will not roused him, he might not have woken so easily.
And even waking, he would have paid the price of losing his humanity in exchange for a greater share of divinity.
Though Baixuan had already ascended to godhood, had stepped into the realm of the divine, humanity remained an essential part of him.
Lose that, and a god would be indistinguishable from a will without feeling — a state of thought so still it nearly ceased to exist.
God, yes. But reduced to part of the world itself. Call it void, call it oblivion.
It sounded powerful in theory. But Baixuan refused to allow himself to slide into thought stagnation, to merge with the world and be reduced to something purely conceptual.
That path might grant greater power — but what was lost would far outweigh what was gained.
Afterward, Baixuan and the World Will exchanged words about the World Tree Seed.
Then, quietly, the World Will departed.
Within the World Tree Seed there still remained fragments of the Marvel World's laws. After all, the World Tree of the Marvel World had given rise to the Ten Realms — its contained world-origin was far from negligible.
Even as merely a seed of that great tree, it still carried substantial world-origin.
Absorbing it and converting the Marvel World rules within the seed into his own world's rules — that was no easy task.
But Baixuan possessed the [Authority of Nature]. Blessed by the World Will, he could call upon any law of Earth with near-impunity. So if he wished to transform the World Tree Seed, it was by no means beyond him.
BOOM!
With a thunderous roar, the laws of the Small World took shape as distinct runes, emerging from the void to orbit around the seed.
The World Tree Seed drifted slowly from Baixuan's palm and floated toward the central landmass of the Small World.
BOOM!
A second roar — and a green seedling erupted from the earth, then surged upward with staggering speed, growing faster than the eye could follow.
The golden, arcane rule-runes of the Small World fused in that instant into the growing World Tree.
This was a process of world-rule transformation — the reception and integration of another world's rules.
The Marvel World's rules were swiftly recorded, parsed, and broken down by Baixuan and the World Will, then converted into something belonging to this world.
Among the rules they parsed and rejected — those the world's new order could not accept — slowly condensed into a sphere of light.
Strictly speaking, this orb was merely the "impurities" from the seed, the rules deemed incompatible. But rules were still rules, and they retained enormous value.
Were it listed in the chat group, it would be worth several hundred thousand points.
Rules — they were always rules.
This was a domain only gods could enter. Beyond a rare few, no one could触碰 the rules before achieving godhood.
Baixuan was fortunate. Exceptional. Not everyone could, as a mere mortal, receive the World Will's blessing, be granted the highest-tier authority, and even join the chat group.
It was why he had ascended to the divine realm in so short a time.
Among the chat group's members, how many could truly be called gods — even if only gods of their own world?
In the time that followed, Baixuan purchased several Marvel World items from the chat group.
The World Tree's growth required some Marvel World laws to proceed. And laws — apart from outright purchase — could only be extracted from high-grade Marvel World objects.
The points needed to purchase laws directly were more than Baixuan could bear.
Besides, with his own power, extracting the laws contained within those items was entirely feasible.
For the three days that followed, Baixuan immersed himself entirely in the transformation and cultivation of the World Tree. Throughout this process, he was constantly inundated by the insights the World Tree supplied.
As the wielder of the [Authority of Nature], Baixuan was himself the god of plants.
No one surpassed him in the manipulation of plant life.
What he needed was not a tree identical to Marvel's World Tree — it had to be a World Tree suited to his own world.
Transformation and guidance were necessary.
As the third day drew toward its close, the initial transformation of the World Tree was complete.
A tree that pierced the heavens stood at the center of the Small World, as if propping up the very fabric of this realm. Its straight trunk was encircled by branches, and verdant boughs散发着 life-giving breath.
Currents of purest, most concentrated spiritual energy poured ceaselessly into the World Tree's roots. Across its massive trunk, golden runes spread in faint patterns.
Those runes were bizarre — part pattern, part script — and though their forms were unfamiliar, the moment one laid eyes on them, the corresponding name surfaced unbidden in the mind.
Flames. Frost. Earth. Wind. Mountains. Rivers. Oceans. Divine Dragons. Phoenixes. Qilin…
Elements. Regions. Divine beasts — anything one could imagine had its place among these runes. Beyond them, there were also special runes, stranger still.
Pikachu. Charmander. Squirtle. Bulbasaurus. Gardevoir. The Pokémon living in the Small World — materialized by Baixuan — manifested within these runes as well.
The World Tree's growth had consumed vast quantities of Baixuan's resources and the endless spiritual energy of the Small World. But now that it had taken its first great growth, it drew unimaginable quantities of energy from the void, converting it to sustain the Small World.
The World Tree's function was to draw elemental energy from the cosmos and convert it into the nutrients a world needed to develop.
In the Marvel World, this energy took the form of divine power, of magic. In Baixuan's world, it was spiritual energy.
The World Tree could transform any element in the universe into spiritual energy, feeding the Small World's growth.
What did this mean?
Even if an era of magical decline arrived, Baixuan could still artificially create an age of abundant spiritual energy.
The current World Tree was still juvenile — capable only of sustaining the Small World. Once it reached maturity, supplying spiritual energy to the entire Earth would be no difficult thing.
The World Tree's nourishment drove the Small World into yet another transformation.
The land spread toward the seas. The seas expanded further into the formless混沌 beyond. Mountains grew taller. Rivers cut new channels in every direction. Forests spread outward, and seedlings sprouted and matured in rapid succession.
Baixuan's [Authority of Nature] grew stronger as well.
Though these were only changes within the Small World, its area had already become comparable to Earth's. When the next transformation came, the Small World would be Earth's equal in scale.
This, of course, created a new problem: the Pokémon were spread thin.
They were growing accustomed to it, yes. But watching their homeland expand ever outward, the Pokémon still wore expressions of pure bewilderment.
The land had grown far faster than their numbers could keep pace with.
Baixuan would likely need to purchase more before long.
(End of Chapter)
[Author's Absence Note]
Leave of Absence
Brothers — today's been packed at the factory. Got overtime tonight, won't be able to post an update.
Working a job really makes you realize how good college life was.
High school really was too exhausting. College — that's where it's at.
(End of Chapter)
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