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It had to be acknowledged that Floral had replicated the empire’s power structure over the years. It was almost a restructure of a new order. Although it was still alarmingly simplistic to William, it was far more efficient than Ravenwood’s clan-based society established over a millennium ago with totems as the link.

At the very least, it wouldn’t be like in the past—the Void Sovereign’s army was already at their doorstep, and the tribes were in no rush to determine if they wanted to resist by first carrying out a hunting game.

However, the only thing worth fretting over was that this mechanism was completely founded on Floral’s authority that surpassed every individual’s strength. The entire system was almost sustained by her alone. Once she perished or lost her sanity, or encountered an outsider more robust than her, all order would crumble and regress to the past.

Or worse.

This was a dilemma that even the strongman politics in a world with transcendental powers would eventually confront.

He wasn’t aware of how this predicament would be resolved in the future.

Certainly, William wasn’t conceited enough to assume that the social evolution of his past world could be replicated in this world where genuine transcendental powers existed. But at the very least, he could eliminate a few external factors for this world and eventually restore the authority of choice to mortals.

Of course, this wasn’t something to consider at present.

The most critical task was to locate the key tree spirit and transport Floral to another timeline—it would be optimal if William could accompany her.

As he observed the humanoid shapes formed by hovering green specks of light drifting into the hall one after another from his inconspicuous corner, William couldn’t help but reminisce about the Ravenwood quest line he had completed in the past.

Back then, there were two more crucial main plots in Ravenwood. One was the Luxuriant Calamity that initially erupted near the World Tree during the Seven Calamities. The other was the Lady of Starvation’s contamination of the World Tree’s root system, opening a Moon Realm rift that led to the Lake of Entropy, allowing her demon army to invade Currere.

There was nothing to say about the latter. As for the former, poisonous life proliferated here because it was excessively lush, rendering it exceptionally arduous for all living beings to perish. Cut wounds would become a seedbed for new sprouts, and severed limbs would become an independent individual that could subsist.

In a world where normal death was absent, only complete obliteration could halt life.

At present, the humanoid entities in the hall that appeared to be formed by a large congregation of emerald-green fireflies were the disseminators of the Blessing of Life from back then.

Wherever they traveled, life burgeoned out of control like a tumor, creating countless grotesque malformed creatures… Furthermore, they were, in a way, indestructible. Their primary bodies were the sub-trees that safeguarded the Forest Elf tribes, and the floating things were solely their souls and thoughts. Thus, there was no end to them and were as difficult to deal with as chewing gum stuck to one’s shoes.

This was why William used illusions to mask his true appearance—being recognized by the other party could cause unnecessary trouble.

The World Tree was often regarded as the emblem of the Holy Spirit, Mother, in Currere—a colossal tree as tall as a mountain stood here like a miracle. Everyone couldn’t resist thinking so. Back then, it was the Holy Spirits Church that selected the World Tree as the foundation of the persona of Mother that caused the Luxuriant Calamity to spread here.

The ultimate solution was for William to plunge a blade blessed by the Lady of Starvation into the core of the World Tree.

This was an exceedingly potent authority of the Lady of Starvation. As long as She obtained the target’s blood, She could forge a blade that could entirely corrupt the other party’s body and mind. Back then, William was a tad curious about how She acquired the Holy Tree Matriarch’s blood. After all, it wasn’t explicitly stated in-game. He didn’t expect to know the answer now.

“Your Grace, all the tree spirits are present,” the clerk whispered to Floral after a headcount.

“Are they all accounted for?” Floral inquired, looking up.

Tree spirits could be deemed as second-level subtree wills and were usually in a prolonged slumber. However, forest druids could rouse them through certain sacrifices, and Floral deemed this an unstable factor for her governance. Therefore, in the subsequent reform of the Oak Council, the authority to awaken them was also vested in her.

The clerk shook his head slightly and muttered, “One tree spirit is still in a deep slumber. We cannot awaken it.”

He hastily added, “This is a commonplace occurrence. All tree spirits have their periods of slumber. Or rather, they may not even be able to distinguish reality from dreams.”

“Note which tree spirit it is.”

Floral acted absentmindedly and covertly glanced at William Kane in the corner. The other party nodded at her as a sign—she didn’t expect things to go so smoothly.

Their next course of action was to exploit this to keep the envoys dispatched by the empire at bay.

“Children of the Matriarch, I appreciate your response to my summons at this hour.”

Floral addressed the buzzing tree spirits beneath the throne.

Most of the tree spirits inclined their heads slightly in a bow.

She proceeded, “I won’t beat around the bush. Let’s cut to the chase. Nearly thirty minutes ago, the Senate envoy from the empire approached me, requesting that Emerald Province provide direct military support for their forthcoming expedition to Ava State…”

According to Floral’s standards, her speech mobilizing the tree spirits to partake in the defense of Green Port could be deemed inspiring. She initially assessed the mutual interests between the empire and Emerald Province and expounded on the advantages of aiding the empire in winning this war. She then stated that, if not for the protection of the country, it would be exceedingly arduous for the Forest Elves to assemble a large-scale army in a short time.

Ultimately, her position was to hope that these tree spirits could contribute a fraction of their power and create a summoned army of souls to join the war.

These words were 70% veracious and 30% counterfeit. Her primary goal was to conceal her authentic intentions of summoning these tree spirits to White Bone Castle.

On the other hand, the tree spirits were uninterested in her proposal. After some haggling, they ultimately consented to congregate an army of summoned creatures that could solely be employed as an honor guard to assist the empire.

Floral feigned fury and adjourned the emergency meeting. As she witnessed the final tree spirit depart, she couldn’t help but smile.

Dispatching reinforcements the size of an honor guard was more in line with the envoys’ expectations of her. This way, at the very least, she could allow those individuals to remain peacefully at the embassy for a period. Even if she was stranded in another timeline and couldn’t return presently, she didn’t have to worry about them causing a stir for the time being.

Upon hearing her explanation, William scowled and inquired, “Wouldn’t it be better to eliminate them all first?”

“Presiding Judge, assassinating the empire’s envoys would immediately brand us as traitors. Three Legions are still stationed in Emerald Province… I don’t believe you want to engage in a two-front war before completely resolving the Ravenwood issue and fully consolidating the resources of the two provinces, do you?”

William remained silent.

Floral’s argument was sound. This was the Year of Starvation. If he could rid himself of the Lady of Starvation once and for all, or at least inflict severe damage on Her, he would have a window where the Moon Realm couldn’t meddle with Currere for over six months. During that time, he could exploit this gap to eliminate the upper echelons of the empire and prevent the Moon Realm from capitalizing on the power vacuum.

It wasn’t prudent to initiate a war with the empire concurrently with the Lake of Entropy.

Furthermore, Remides and the reinforcements from Blake’s Demon Generals were en route. Few individuals in Currere could subdue them.

However, this wasn’t why William was silent.

For some inexplicable reason, he sensed that the envoys were a latent threat. Maybe the timing of their arrival was too coincidental, or perhaps their mission was too targeted.

“Lord William?” Floral’s probing query roused William from his reverie.

William snapped out of his trance and said, “Let’s proceed to the tree spirit first. We must make the most of our time.”

Perhaps I’m overthinking…?

…

Amidst the boundless sky, amidst the void between the stars, in the Moon Mirror that reflected the silhouettes of Currere, in a place known as the Moon Realm, from the viewpoint of a certain sovereign’s six flickering, crimson eyeballs, innumerable plots enshrouded an entity as brilliant as a torch. Furthermore, they were progressively intertwined into a colossal web that lured him towards ruin.

She chuckled and tugged on another strand of the woven conspiracy, causing the entity’s destiny to quiver.