Chapter 1 The Seed of the World Tree

Although Hao Ren intended to announce the information regarding the seed of the World Tree and the beacon of the Dark Domain to everyone the next morning, Lily's loud voice could never keep anything a secret. By the time he reacted, the little partners in the family had already run over to see the excitement. Even Doudou, who was ready to sleep, hopped to the living room and was now curiously looking at the green sphere on the table while lying on Gunny’s head.

Nangong Sanba made his assessment on the spot when he saw the seed of the World Tree, "This thing is the world management terminal? It looks pretty unremarkable... It can't compare to those three Ks."

"Nonsense, this is just the seed of the World Tree, it hasn't sprouted yet!" Nangong Wuyue glared at her brother. "Besides, didn't the landlord just say that this management terminal is a simplified model? It's definitely a portable version, while those K1, K2, and K3 fortresses are said to be high-end goods, of course they are different."

Hao Ren laughed, "Actually, it's not entirely a matter of simplified models. The technology trees of the Starfield God System and the Hill-like God System are different, and the world management terminals are also different. The management terminal on the Starfield side is used as an operating table, while the Hill-like's sovereign hub has the functions of an armed fortress and a garrison in addition to operating the universal constants. There are also a lot of messy extra attachments, the difference between the two is too big."

"It sounds very powerful," Lily widened her eyes. "So this thing is going to sit in a chair for the bat? Can this thing really be compatible with the End Network? Didn't you say last time that there are a lot of inherent defects in the End Network..."

Hao Ren shrugged, "Anyway, Raven 12345 said there's no problem - this thing will directly shield the buggy software parts in the End Network and use its own drivers to cover those things. The End Network is just a hardware support for it."

Gunny curiously stared at the sphere on the table, her cat eyes slightly enlarged due to high interest. Seeing that no one was paying attention, she reached out and poked the sphere, which immediately rolled around on the table.

"Don't mess around!" Vivian smacked the silly cat's back lightly. "This thing is very important!"

"Meow!" The silly cat shrank her neck. She was actually listening to everyone seriously, but in the end, she couldn't understand a few sentences, and she asked Hao Ren foolishly, "So, Big Meow, are you going to plant a tree?"

"Plant a tree... Okay, saying plant a tree isn't a problem," Hao Ren said, dumbfounded. Then he looked around at his little partners. "It's good that everyone is out, I have some good things for you, I was planning to distribute them tomorrow morning..."

Everyone stared at Hao Ren's hand with burning eyes, but when he took out a pile of peanuts, melon seeds, and red dates from his portable space, their expectant eyes instantly froze. Little Elizabeth even pouted, "What - it's just these after all..."

"I swiped them from Raven 12345's place."

"Holy crap, give me some, give me some!" "Don't squeeze, don't squeeze!" "Landlord, did you just rob them?! This amount is not right!" "Who stepped on my tail!" "Those with tails, put your tails away, especially Wuyue - you're putting a big lump under the table, are you trying to scare people to death! Put it behind you!" "Why is there a cup too?"

After a while, Hao Ren's family surrounded the data terminal, sitting on the sofa, chairs, and cushions, eating melon seeds, watching movies, and discussing the matter of going to the Dark Domain. Hao Ren felt that something was wrong with such a pre-war meeting, but after looking at the melon seeds in his hand, he felt that there was nothing wrong with it...

"Going to that lost kingdom of God this time, to be honest, there are too many uncontrollable factors, it can be said to be full of dangers," Izhaks said with a calm face, peeling a peanut and feeding it to Elizabeth, who was sitting in his arms. "The worst case is that those godslayers who fell in with the goddess of creation back then did not die out, but survived the divine punishment by hiding in the Dark Domain. Now the war in the kingdom of God is still going on - in this case, we will directly enter the center of the godslaying war. When both sides are red-eyed, we will definitely be besieged by both sides."

Vivian thought for a while, "The explosion was so powerful back then, it is more likely that both the godslayers and the guardians died, but the powers they each represented remained in some form and formed some kind of continuous disaster phenomenon in the lost kingdom of God. Of course, this situation is not better than what Big Guy speculated."

"Well, the most easily thought of bad situations are nothing more than these two," Hao Ren nodded. "In the first case, we have to face the war of intelligent beings, and in the second case, we have to face the challenges of a harsh environment. In comparison, the second case is actually easier to deal with - natural phenomena at least have some regularity. But we can't pin our hopes on luck, it's better to prepare for war."

Nangong Sanba said next to him, "There will be other situations, right?"

"Of course there will be. Unexpected situations can't be considered completely, especially in that kind of time-space disordered place. We can only prepare for the predictable situations," Hao Ren nodded slightly. "In fact, this time Raven 12345 has used the power of the prophecy crystal to tell me one thing that needs to be prepared in advance, that is, to bring Doudou - but she doesn't know why."

"Doudou?!"

Everyone in the room looked curiously at the little mermaid who was hopping around the table looking for treasure. The latter was startled and looked at the adults with blinking eyes, "What are you doing... I don't want to sleep! I'm not sleepy!"

Nangong Sanba shook his head, "I really can't see what ability she has to save the world."

"Whatever, since the goddess specifically reminded us with solemnity, it's better to follow it," Vivian said and looked at Hao Ren. "Speaking of which, since we want to prepare for battle... are we going to take a whole army in?"

"That's too reckless, and the difficulty is too high," Hao Ren waved his hand. "First of all, we don't know the environment on the opposite side. Taking an army in directly is like jumping into an unknown battlefield while completely exposing the target, so we need to scout first; secondly, the beacon reorganized by Raven 12345 can only be used for the navigation system of the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace, although it can guide the signal to it, that requires the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace to first arrive at the destination of the beacon."

Lily shook her ears, "Can't we just build a portal?"

"No way. After all, the situation in the Dark Domain is special, it is not an 'alien space' that can be reached through conventional hyperspace navigation. It is very complicated to open a 'portal' to its interior. Raven 12345 has given me a set of plans, which is to let the Giant Tortoise Rock Terrace carry a high-power rift generator, first let the ship use the beacon to enter the Dark Domain, then open the rift generator and broadcast to the main material plane, so that the army left outside can share the path opened by the beacon."

Vivian rubbed the cat girl's ears absently, and said thoughtfully, "In short, all this can only be started after successfully planting the World Tree, right?"

Hao Ren, "That's right - use the World Tree to start the End Network, and use the power of the cosmic rules to 'anchor' us, only in this way can we ensure that everyone will not get lost in the Dark Domain, this is an indispensable prerequisite, without this prerequisite, entering the Dark Domain is almost equal to courting death."

"Then let's go to the hub to 'plant a tree' first," Vivian said with a faint smile, "and let Salaman know that we are about to march into the Dark Domain. I think those guardian giants have been waiting for this day for a long time."

It was late at night after the meeting, and the house soon became quiet.

However, Hao Ren did not fall asleep - after coaxing Doudou to sleep, he put on a piece of clothing and climbed to the roof along the ladder.

This is a good place to watch the moon.

The night was slightly cool, the sky was clear and cloudless, and a bright moon hung high in the sky, with a trace of faint blood red in the moonlight - this ray of red was invisible elsewhere, only within the scope of this big house, could one see such extraordinary phenomena.

Vivian was indeed not asleep either, she was also sitting on the roof, and she was staring at the sky in a daze.

She sensed Hao Ren's approach, turned her head and showed a faint smile, "Can't sleep again?"

"I didn't sleep at all, Doudou was particularly energetic tonight, I finally got her to sleep," Hao Ren sat down next to Vivian, suddenly noticing that there was actually a third "person" on the roof, it was Little Weakling, this little thing was actually lying on Vivian's lap, covered with a handkerchief as a quilt, and was already asleep, "This little guy... you brought her up here?"

"She came over by herself," Vivian lowered her head and glanced at the little thing. "I didn't understand what she wanted to do, anyway, she suddenly came, and then threw energy arrows at the sky for a while. After playing tired, she climbed onto my lap to sleep... She's really a self-absorbed fellow."

"No one can understand the structure in this weakling's head, maybe she herself doesn't have any clear ideas, but sometimes I'm quite envious of her," Hao Ren looked at the little one on Vivian's lap, the latter seemed to hear the surrounding movement, mumbled and turned over, and covered her head with a handkerchief, "Now at least she has relatively clear emotional reactions and preferences, and you can see that she is closer to you."

Vivian laughed, "Anyway, I'm already very grateful that she doesn't just biubiubiu at the newly made dishes."

Hao Ren looked into her eyes, "What were you thinking about just now?"

After a brief silence, Vivian whispered, "Am I... about to see the Goddess of Creation?"

"Are you a little nervous because you're going to see your birth mother?"

"I don't know - I never had this concept," Vivian shook her head, her voice a little ethereal. "I've been wandering in this world since I was conscious, wandering as a very powerful creature. I have no memory of growing up, and no process of being raised or cared for. Although I've seen other animals or humans raising offspring, I'm still used to my own situation..."

She stopped, and Hao Ren waited patiently until she continued, "But, I still have a creator."

"Are you worried that the Goddess of Creation will be difficult to get along with? Or that your current appearance does not meet the Goddess of Creation's original 'design'?"

"Maybe a little bit. I don't think I've reached the standard that the Goddess of Creation expected. I didn't complete the work as a guide, and I didn't return to the Dream Plane with my own strength. In the end, I even rejected the Throne of the End. It can be said that I didn't complete any of the tasks that the Goddess of Creation gave me after she created me... Do you think she thought of these things when she created me?"

"I think... a goddess who likes to play elimination games is definitely not petty."

"Eh?"

"So don't think so much, she definitely won't blame you, and even if she really is petty, so what? I still have test papers here that can make her do it to death," Hao Ren randomly took out that big box of God Realm textbooks from his portable space, patted the box and said, "If she bullies you, I'll leave her homework."

Vivian couldn't help but laugh out loud, "Pfft - don't be silly, and I don't think the Goddess of Creation is a petty god, I'm just nervous myself."

"Then are you not nervous now?"

"Yeah... thank you."

"Come on, let me kiss you -"

"Don't be silly, Little Weakling is here..."

"Oh right, I'll put her in my pocket first."

"..."