Chapter 790: Chapter 790. Elyne and Verdant Elder.

It had been one week since the Verdant Elder arrived in the Golden Sap Empire. The people on the ships had disembarked and moved to the prepared housing. Of course, they were not prohibited from buying housing, so some of them spread out.

When they realized that there was a functioning and perfectly integrated Teleportation Hub in most cities, they received another shock. Yet, the biggest shock was seeing living World Trees.

Life Trees, as said previously, were born after a True World Tree took over a world. After all, even high-level Life Trees had trouble going multiplanetary unless they purposely evolved in that direction.

However, what they could not accept was the existence of other World Trees. Fortuna, being the closest, was a sight that left them reeling with surprise and shock.

The day the Verdant Elder discovered Fortuna’s existence and noticed that she was not a Life Tree but a World Tree due to her female-shaped trunk, he went straight to find Elyne and ask questions.

Elyne received them in the Eternal Cathedral and moved toward one of the wing rooms to speak. The cathedral, while it was imposing and magnificent, didn’t intimidate or surprise them. After all, the Covenant Church’s main building was even more extravagant.

Still, it was a gorgeous piece of architecture, though they had no mental capacity to admire it, due to the convoluted feelings from discovering Fortuna.

Once in the room, the Verdant Elder sat down and activated the runic field to avoid eavesdropping. He didn’t know that, since they were within the Eternal Cathedral, and the Eternal Cathedral was Liu Shu’s precious baby, their conversation was being listened to.

Still, Liu Shu couldn’t help but frown. ’That runic field is quite powerful. I need to learn countermeasures.’

Breaking through it was not impossible, but if she did it, she would be discovered. At that moment, she didn’t have the ability to break the anti-spying runic field undetected. ’When my skills reach S- Rank, things will change.’

The Verdant Elder’s voice reached her through the cathedral. "Elyne, we need answers."

Gently brewing Eternal Tea, Elyne asked with her back to them to hide her smile. "Answers? Ask away then. I do not know what you want to talk about."

The Verdant Elder frowned. "Don’t act like that. I am sure you know perfectly well what we want to ask."

Elyne continued brewing and chuckled. "Well, what can it be besides the existence of the other esteemed World Trees? Otherwise, Lord Verdant Elder wouldn’t have such an expression when we met."

The Verdant Elder glanced at Elyne’s back. That jade-green hair, instead of the previous golden-colored one, made him feel... unfamiliar. Even when he had interacted with Elyne for a few thousand years, he still felt... as if the woman in front of him had changed greatly in the span of just a few decades.

"World Trees are enemies. They might tolerate each other’s existence, but they act like predators with each other. When the other side is too weak, it isn’t a fellow predator, but food. That’s the harsh truth of their species."

Elyne asked, raising her head without turning back. "Is it? Perhaps... that absolute truth is not as unchanging as you thought." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Impossible." The Verdant Elder spoke with certainty, even after seeing it broken in front of his eyes. "For as long as history has developed in our galaxy. For as long as stories have been told, recorded, and spread out, this fact has always been truthful and never broken."

Elyne, having prepared the tea cups, picked two and turned around with a faint smile. "And yet, your eyes have already seen that the immutable truth you and I believed in is not as absolute as we believed it to be."

Seeing Elyne place the cup and go back to take the other two for his two accompanying escorts, the Verdant Elder asked in a low tone. "Is Lady Heavenly Willow using some sort of dominance skill?"

Elyne’s hands paused, a touch of anger flashing in her eyes before she swallowed it back. While she abhorred the implications of those words, she was not too surprised that someone at the level of the Verdant Elder would think in that way first.

She carried back the two cups and spoke, her tone calm even if her heart was cold. "Liu Shu has never hidden it. She indeed has a <Title> related to what you are thinking... but not as you are thinking."

The Verdant Elder and the two archbishops sitting by his side frowned. "What do you mean?"

Elyne sat down elegantly, her hands smoothing her priest’s robe as she lowered herself onto the chair. Then, she picked the wooden teacup and sipped the hot tea. The sensation of the delicious liquid going down her throat and warming up her body made her squint for a moment, diffusing the anger she had felt a moment ago.

"This is actually one of the stories in our Bible. One of the earliest ones." Elyne spoke, her tone a touch reverent but not fanatic. "When Liu Shu first encountered an enemy World Tree, she didn’t react with enmity. Back then, Liu Shu was young, she was gentle, and she was slightly simple-minded. However, above all, Liu Shu showed an uncharacteristic touch of kindness toward the first World Tree she met."

The Verdant Elder listened, trying to filter things that were spoken to cause reverence. He was, after all, a high-ranking religious member. He understood how things were told when trying to convert others.

The difference was that... Elyne was not exaggerating but telling things as they were. This made it slightly harder than when hearing exaggerated stories where you could clearly see the intent to cause awe.

"So, Liu Shu didn’t try to stomp her kind. Both sides went to war. That war was one of the first full-scale wars Liu Shu went through. Yet after winning, Liu Shu didn’t desire to exploit or destroy her opponent. Instead, she wished to live alongside the other party. Therefore, Liu Shu extended her roots, not to conquer but to get entangled with the other side. It was at that time that the System recognized Liu Shu’s intent and gave her the qualifications in the form of a <Title>."

Elyne smiled, her finger gently caressing the rim of the smooth wooden cup. "So, instead of killing the first World Tree she encountered, Liu Shu made friends with it. This World Tree is Lady Fortuna. The only World Tree living within Golden Sap City besides Liu Shu. She is, of course, respected by all due to her gentle and welcoming personality."

The Verdant Elder and those two archbishops around him fell silent after listening. In their mind, they completely filtered adjectives. Yet, even after filtering everything, what ended the story was still a World Tree that saw the first of its kind with a favorable impression and even welcomed it instead of suppressing it like any other World Tree would’ve.

This made their hearts uncomfortable because, even when they didn’t want it to, a touch of admiration blossomed in their hearts. Even if they wanted to deny it, Elyne’s story, if real, made it impossible for them to ignore.

The Verdant Elder asked, taking a sip of the tea calmly. "You say that there is proof. Where is that proof?"

Elyne smiled, but her tone was a touch colder. "Do you think something like this can be faked for over a century, Lord Verdant Elder? We’ve not only seen it, but Liu Shu has also shown us a record of System messages that show how that <Title> evolved and merged to its current version. Have you ever seen a World Tree do something similar?"

The Verdant Elder also noticed that his sentence was a bit defensive. Therefore, he didn’t get angry at Elyne’s rude tone. He sighed and asked. "Can I see it?"

Elyne stood up slowly and moved to the side, picking one of the few religious books on a shelf. After presenting one to each of them, she sat back down. "You can read slowly. The system messages are naturally written in our sacred book."

At this moment, the archbishop spoke up. In the past, she had been a senior, but now, the archbishop couldn’t help but feel that Elyne could crush her in terms of strength. So, her tone was not that of a superior, but that of an equal. "Elyne, I’ve noticed but... why do you call Lady Heavenly Willow by her name so intimately?"

This was also an oddity that the Verdant Elder noticed since their first conversation. Still, he had not pointed it out because it was neither the place nor the time to ask those things back then. Now that the archbishop brought it up, he listened attentively.

Elyne took another sip of the warm tea and spoke. "That is also written in the book. The summary, though, is that Liu Shu actually dislikes being seen as an idol or a target of blind faith. Liu Shu had always wanted to be part of her environment, not above it. Therefore, when she is put on a pedestal just for... being, Liu Shu feels uncomfortable."

That answer came as another shock for them. After all, in their opinions, a World Tree had all the qualifications to be treated as a truly superior being. They were an existence spanning solar systems and with the potential to cover the entire galaxy. Such a being was naturally godlike, even when compared to other High-Level individuals of humanoid species.

So, hearing a World Tree deny that godlike part of herself was, once again, confusing and shocking. It caused many questions, such as "Why wouldn’t she want to be seen as such and gain more influence?"

Elyne didn’t explain further though, pointing out that most answers would come to them if they just read the book. While this was a blatant attempt from Elyne to convince them to read their sacred book, it was an offer they couldn’t deny, as curiosity had already taken root in their hearts.

’To deal with other believers, you can’t be roundabout like with normal people. To convert high-ranking members of a religion, you needed to show the positive differences between both sides. This would subtly reveal the inadequacies of the other side. Of course, for fanatical believers, the result would be either anger due to blasphemy or straight-up denial of facts.

Rationality was often not a dominant thought process when being exposed to truths that didn’t align with one’s own thinking.

Meanwhile, Liu Shu heard their conversation and was thoughtful. ’The reaction was not as... negative as I expected. The main emotion, at least when exposed not through word of mouth but with direct proof, is mainly governed by shock, surprise, and curiosity about the details.’

This was a shared trait among all who encountered Fortuna. ’Now... I want to see the reaction from those who encounter it through word of mouth.’

These people would naturally be those the Verdant Elder was reporting to, so the results would take a while to show.