“Sir, you’re simply too impressive! My feelings of admiration toward you are endless and eternal, like the gushing rivers. They are like the overflowing Yellow River, beyond control once the floodgates open—”
“Cut the crap. Just drive properly.”
“Drive?”
“...”
Meng Lei was rendered speechless. Then, he asked, “Judging from what that old crocodile said just now, prior to becoming a Saint Domain, you were just a Sixth-Grade Magical Beast?”
“Yes, sir!”
The Uni-Horned Rose Python didn’t dare to keep any secrets from him. It explained, “Ten years ago, I was indeed a Sixth-Grade Rose Python. But because I was lucky enough to get a Tree of Life fruit, I was able to become a Saint Domain Magical Beast.
“I had initially thought that after I became a Saint Domain Magical Beast, I’d be able to become buddies with those old-timer Saint Domain Magical Beasts high up above. Who’d have thought that those guys would still look down on me—”
Meng Lei interrupted Clara’s unceasing torrent of words and asked, “Are you saying that you used only a short ten years to advance from a tiny little Sixth-Grade Magical Beast into a Saint Domain?”
“Yes, sir!” The Uni-Horned Rose Python didn’t quite understand. It asked, “Is there an issue with that?”
Ten years!
It had taken only ten years for a Sixth-Grade Magical Beast to become a Saint Domain!
Wasn’t that totally an issue?
It wasn’t just Meng Lei who was shocked; even Ol’ Amos was astonished by its words. At once, he emerged from the spatial ring and urged him. “Hurry! Meng Lei, ask the python what the Tree of Life is!”
Meng Lei took a deep breath, and then he posed the question to the Uni-Horned Rose Python.
A look of idolization surfaced in Clara’s eyes at once. An expression akin to those of fanatics in relation to the deity they worshiped and believed in also came over its countenance.
“The Tree of Life is the divine tree on this continent. It’s also the spiritual belief of all living things on this continent. Be it plants or animals, everyone and everything worships and believes deeply in the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life protects us eternally!”
“Is the Tree of Life that great?” Meng Lei’s eyes flashed as he asked, “What’s the Tree of Life fruit?”
“The Tree of Life bears fruits once every hundred years. Each time it does, it only bears a total of nine fruits. When the fruits ripen, the Tree of Life will send these nine fruits to various corners of the continent for the living things here to consume.”
With much gratitude, the Uni-Horned Rose Python said, “If you’re lucky enough, you’ll be able to get one. After consuming the fruit, one will gain great power within an extremely short amount of time—just like me.”
“A single fruit has allowed you to take only ten years to become a Saint Domain Magical Beast. That fruit’s effect...”
Meng Lei found this incredible. He asked, “Ol’ President, have you heard of a fruit like that before?”
“Not at all!”
Ol’ Amos took a breath and said, “In Heaven’s Vault Continent, there are also many treasures that can help people to break through their limits and boost their strength, but none of them can compare to an amazing fruit like that.
“That thing is practically even crazier than a Laws of Nature Origin Crystal!”
“Indeed it is!”
Meng Lei nodded heavily. Laws of Nature Origin Crystals contained nature laws within them and could aid a ninth-grade expert in opening the door to laws of nature and helping them attain the Saint Domain realm. However, this was limited to only ninth-grade experts and was ineffective for those below.
However, this was evidently not the case for the fruit.
A Sixth-Grade Magical Beast had become a Saint Domain in ten years.
What was that?
A huge tonic supplement for mass-manufacturing Saint Domains, that’s what it was!
How could Laws of Nature Origin Crystal match up to it?
“I must find it! I must find that divine tree!”
Meng Lei’s eyes were blazing bright with a spectacular outburst of light. “If we can take it for ourselves and sit and wait for the divine tree fruits to come rolling in, we’ll strike gold!”
One divine tree fruit = One Saint Domain!
Just how much was the divine tree worth?
What was the big deal about having a mine?
What was the big deal about having one’s house demolished and relocated[1]?
What was the big deal about having a villa in 2nd Ring Road[2]?
Compared to the divine tree, they didn’t amount to anything at all!
However, Ol’ Amos’ countenance was grave, and there was a complex look in his eyes as he said, ‘We’ll have to look for it for sure, but I’m afraid we can’t hold ourselves against it.”
“Can’t hold ourselves against it?”
Meng Lei was rather puzzled.
Ol’ Amos asked slowly, “Do you remember a certain sentence that the Uni-Horned Rose Python said just now?”
“Which?”
Ol’ Amos replied slowly, “That all living things on this continent, whether plants or animals, worship and believe deeply in the Tree of Life.”
“Yes, I know that. What about it?”
Meng Lei was even more puzzled now.
“You once asked me in the past how one can become a deity, right?” Ol’ Amos didn’t answer his question. Instead, he asked, “My answer was that laws of nature maketh the deity, right?”
“Yes!” Meng Lei nodded. “You once said that deities were also known as the controllers of the laws of nature. If one can fully comprehend a type of laws of nature, they’ll be able to become a deity.”
“Deification by comprehending the laws of nature is only one of the methods available.” Ol’ Amos said slowly, “In truth, that’s not the only route to deification. There’s also another very common method that’s the easiest to achieve, yet also the hardest.”
Meng Lei was taken aback. A very common method that was the easiest to achieve, yet also the hardest? What kind of method was that? Why was it so self-contradictory?
“Ol’ President, the method you speak of is?” Meng Lei was terribly curious.
“Deification by religious faith,” Ol’ Amos answered.
“Deification by religious faith?” Meng Lei perked up.
“As long as you have enough believers worshipping and devoutly believing in you, you don’t even need to do anything, and you can become a deity. Even if you’re just lazing about and doing nothing every day, you can still become one nonetheless!”
A smiling Ol’ Amos explained, “That’s what deification by religious faith is! What do you think? Isn’t it simple?”
Meng Lei was rendered speechless. “One can become a deity without even doing anything? Isn’t that taking the matter a little too lightly?”
“Thus, deification by religious faith is very simple to achieve. Compared to comprehending the laws of nature, it’s practically cheating.”
Then, Ol’ Amos changed the course of the conversation and lamented, “It’s just a pity that it’s not easy to gain enough believers. In fact... It’s extremely difficult!
“Take Heaven’s Vault Continent, for example.
“There’s the Beast People Empire in the north, the Dragon God Empire in the east, the Fairy Empire in the south, and the Titan Empire in the west.
“Yet all four great empires have their own gods that they believe in. Even though there are trillions of living things in Heaven’s Vault Continent, do you think it’s possible to snatch believers from the four great empires?”
Meng Lei gave a wry smile in response—that was something totally impossible, alright? Or at least, that was currently the case.
“Therefore, deification by religious faith is also a method as difficult as nailing jelly to the wall—because it’s totally impossible for you to find a sufficient number of believers to provide enough religious faith for you to become a deity.”
Ol’ Amos shook his head lightly and went on. “As a result, the only thing all living things in Heaven’s Vault Continent can do is to properly comprehend the laws of nature and go down the route of deification by comprehending laws of nature.”
Meng Lei asked, “Ol’ President, you’ve mentioned just now that deification by religious faith is also a very common method. What do you mean by that?”
“In Heaven’s Vault Continent, deification by religious faith is indeed very tough, but this may not be the case for other existential planes.” Ol’ Amos explained with a smile, “You probably don’t know this yet, but in the vast and boundless universe exist countless planes of existence. The Heaven’s Vault Continent is only a very ordinary material plane among them all!”
“Huh?” Meng Lei pretended to be astonished.
“...”
Ol’ Amos explained at great length before he finally said, “Existential planes are much like bubbles. New planes are constantly being born, and old planes are constantly dying out every moment.
“In those newly-born planes, neither deities nor experts exist. The living things there live the life of savages and are primitive and backward.
“The living things that those planes birth are innocent and ignorant. They harbor great respect for the heavens and are fearful of nature. Therefore, they easily hold religious faith toward certain supernatural phenomena or inexplicable things and incidents.
“For example, they may worship a powerful person, a snake, a ball of fire, a rock, and so on.
“That’s the earliest form of religious faith—primitive worship!”
Meng Lei murmured to himself, “Primitive worship?”
“To primeval lifeforms, the act of primitive worship doesn’t mean much. It’s nothing more than just pure faith. However, to the subjects of worship, it’s something incredibly extraordinary!
“Because... Primitive worship can allow them to... Become deities!”
[1] Referring to the huge compensation payment from the relocation
[2] A district located in the heart of Beijing, where land is very expensive