Chapter 837 Zhou Shuren Plants Trees Again (Short Chapter)

[So-Called Power]

"You lot really don't seem to like listening to reason."

After speaking, Su Zhou stood up from his chair in the small world where the many Hedao were meeting, and sighed, "I really think my eloquence is quite good."

As he stood, the void and darkness that had filled the small world were naturally illuminated by a smear of cyan-purple flame, filling all directions with a scorching heat. Cinder soil scattering with scarlet flame dust slowly spread out in all directions, rooted at the youth's feet.

Under the astonished gaze of all the Hedao present, Su Zhou stretched out his hand, and a long blade already burned to a red-gold color appeared out of thin air in his palm, drops of liquid spiritual light like blood dripping from the edge of the blade.

His declaration could be heard.

"But it seems my handiwork is better."

The youth holding the blade took a step forward, the round table originally used for discussion bursting into flames.

Although his power on the surface was only on par with the Hedao present, his aura completely overwhelmed everyone.

[What Exactly is Power?]

Naturally, the Hedao present didn't think Su Zhou's threat was anything to fear too much.

Fifteen Hedao experts were here. Even if they couldn't really join forces against an enemy and were all scheming against each other, it would still be easy to deal with Su Zhou and the Supreme Genesis Saint and prevent them from implementing any foolish rules or laws they wanted to impose.

All the Hedao felt it was laughable that these two inexplicable fellows dared to make rules for them.

In the past, Hedao experts were beyond heaven and earth. All rules, all morality, all laws were irrelevant to them. They were the ones who established order and created the firmament. How could they be interfered with by mortal laws?

They were so powerful that all 'rules' were ineffective against them. Even the universal constants could be altered at will, let alone anything in the mortal world.

Therefore, they were free and could do as they pleased.

But now, someone wanted to restrain the once-free Hedao experts, preventing them from being as 'carefree' as they had been in the past.

Opposition. They had to oppose it.

—Because, if they didn't oppose it, their definition of 'power' would be skewed, and their own dao would no longer be able to be implemented!

Inclining Summit God Lord was one of the most resolute.

'How can Hedao experts be arbitrarily manipulated and controlled by others?!'

These were the words He roared out when facing Su Zhou's declaration and advancing with his blade. He also drew his sword from his waist, the clear sword light like a heavenly river breaking through the heat that came with the youth.

But in reality, in the heart of this divine general clad in sturdy armor, the reason He spoke those words was not anger, but fear.

He sensed a trace of crisis.

—It was the unease of having one's 'freedom' interfered with.

If the Primordial Candle Sun really succeeded in establishing a Hedao Heavenly Law to restrain all experts, wouldn't that mean They could only do things that benefited all things?

Wouldn't They no longer be able to arbitrarily dispose of the countless living beings in their own worlds, but could only guide those little people instead of directly intervening, interfering with their civilization's progress, and destroying their flourishing heavens and earth?

If that were the case, even when faced with humans who insulted, forgot, slandered, disrespected, and even despised Them, wouldn't They be unable to throw them into the fire hell, to be sliced into a thousand pieces, but could only arrest them, criticize them, and educate them?

If that were the case, where would the dignity of Hedao experts be?! It should be known that when all things in the world chant the name of a Hedao, the Hedao experts will hear it. Every insult is equivalent to pointing at Their noses and cursing!

I absolutely cannot allow such a thing to happen—this is what the God Lord was thinking.

With that being said, is this Inclining Summit God Lord a cruel god who treats the citizens of his world very cruelly and takes pleasure in torturing all living beings? Otherwise, why would He react so strongly?

After all, Candle Sun wouldn't take action unless the pressure was so great that people couldn't even dream.

To be dissatisfied with this requirement must mean that one is the ultimate evil god who doesn't even want living beings to dream.

But that's not the case.

On the contrary, Inclining Summit God Lord is a Hedao who rose from the ranks of a mortal general, fighting all the way to achieve the Dao of 'Seizing' in a righteous manner.

His dao is that as long as He defeats an enemy, He can obtain corresponding feedback from the defeated enemy. Even if He only inflicts damage on the enemy, He can recover some of His own injuries… This dao is a majestic and righteous path, originating from the principle of 'The Way of Heaven diminishes what is in excess and supplements what is insufficient; the Way of Man diminishes what is insufficient to benefit what is in excess,' fully expressing the foundation of all things in heaven and earth.

An evil god? Not really. Inclining Summit God Lord is now a wandering Hedao. He has not established a heavenly court, nor has He built a divine realm. He merely resides high above the nine heavens of his own universe, overlooking the world and quietly watching the cycle of all things, passing the time in boredom.

Sometimes, He even takes action to guide some people He admires. When He really can't stand seeing people living too miserably, He endows them with His own Great Dao divine power, seizing the power of those who harm them and changing their fate.

However, the transformation from being the one seized from to being the one who seizes from others will inevitably turn the dragon-slaying hero into an evil dragon… Tired of seeing the 'protagonists' who obtained His divine power creating even greater tragedies time and time again, causing more people to repeat the cycle of seizing and being seized from, Inclining Summit God Lord also grew tired of this bestowal and became increasingly indifferent, merely gazing.

In a sense, this Hedao God Lord is actually very close to his Dao Transformation tribulation—He is about to completely merge into His own dao and no longer interfere with anything.

But Su Zhou's declaration awakened this indifferent expert and even aroused His indignation.

Because the 'power' that Inclining Summit God Lord has in his heart is 'unrestrained'.

He was once a great general of a dynasty. When He won a great victory in resisting invading foreign tribes, He received a 'retreat' order from His king, full of suspicion.

If He obeyed, He would be giving up all the fruits of past victories and allowing the foreign tribes to recuperate. But if He resisted, He would be disobeying the emperor's order, violating military orders, and be disloyal, unjust, and a traitor to the country.

Inclining Summit stared at the military order, his hair turning white overnight. Then He decided to raise troops and continue to conquer the foreign tribes. As expected, after the victory, He heard the news that His family had been uprooted and that He had been branded as a traitor.

This is righteousness, this is the law, this is a life bound by heavy morality and justice.

—This is weakness.

There's no need to mention what happened afterwards. It was nothing more than the general occupying a territory, defeating the foreign tribes three times in a row, destroying the former dynasty, and then pacifying the world—but at that time, the man who had already become emperor abandoned his throne and went into seclusion, cultivating in the deep mountains. Then, when the world was in chaos again, he re-entered the world. He repeated this process, cultivating and growing stronger, until today.

Forced orders?

Inclining Summit God Lord would certainly not harm living beings, and would certainly not take pleasure in the suffering of living beings—Candle Sun hoped that living beings could dream, and He supported this with both hands and feet.

But to force Him, to make Him have to support it, and to say that not doing so is illegal and wrong.

Then He would absolutely not allow it, and would absolutely not agree.

With this pure and simple thought in mind, He unhesitatingly stepped forward and swung a clear and dazzling sword light at Su Zhou.

[Why Do Living Beings Crave Power?]

This sword light flew forward without any gorgeous special effects, any dazzling flashes, or any激荡 shockwaves or oscillations of the Great Dao.

There was only a semi-transparent ripple like clear water flying forward, but careful experts could notice that the color of this clear sword light deepened as it advanced, becoming more and more similar to the color of the Great Dao surrounding Su Zhou.

This was clearly forcibly seizing Su Zhou's power, and then using his power as a key to destroy Su Zhou's defense—this single sword was enough to show Inclining Summit God Lord's attainments in His own Great Dao.

However, Su Zhou did not make any defensive posture. When the clear sword light approached Su Zhou, it had absorbed too much of Su Zhou's power. It completely turned into a mass of cyan flame, and then seemed to hit an invisible and solid wall, instantly shattering into countless sparks of fire.

The endless light spread out, forming a ring-shaped shock wave that swept away in all directions, impacting everything around it.

In the cautious silence of the Hedao experts, this shattered sword light turned into a rain of fire that swept across the entire small world. It even broke through the world barrier and headed towards the void of the multiverse—with the eyesight of Hedao experts, they could naturally see this divine light penetrate many spatial and temporal turbulences and fall into world after world on the other side of time and space.

Light fell—

In a remote and dangerous port city in another world, the son of a merchant whose mother had died early and whose father had been kidnapped by pirates was suddenly illuminated by a ray of light.

He had already fallen into despair. The losses suffered by other partners due to the hijacking of his father's merchant ship naturally had to be compensated by his family, especially since one of them was a nobleman who could not be fooled or evaded.

The house had already been mortgaged, and his sister had lost the opportunity to study at a church school. If all the debts could not be repaid before the end of the year, they themselves would be sold as slaves and suffer all kinds of bullying.

However, the light fell and bestowed upon this merchant youth the divine power of 'Seizing'—as long as he could 'seize' the wealth of others through trade, he would obtain 'skill points' that could increase his power, intelligence, physique, agility, and even skill levels!

Of course, it had to be a legitimate transaction… Making money was seizing, and forcefully taking was also seizing, but an invisible force restrained the immensely powerful power of the 'Dao of Seizing', suppressed its nature, and guided it towards a restrained and stable righteous path.

With this power, the dazed and desperate merchant youth broke through numerous obstacles, repaid all his debts, and even fulfilled his wish: to regain a merchant ship of his own.

With this merchant ship and constantly enhanced abilities, the merchant youth sailed the seas, taking ship after ship of goods all over the world—he met many friends, and even had several partners who adventured with him. During their round-the-world voyage, they even solved the conspiracy of an evil king in a certain place, prevented his evil conquest plan, and ensured peace (and stable trade) in that area.

The youth grew stronger and stronger, gradually becoming a young man and then a man. But what remained unchanged was his heart—even after becoming the wealthiest and most powerful merchant in the world, he was still thinking about how he could 'benefit'.

Not in terms of money, but in terms of 'skill points'—how could the enjoyment of mortal money compare to transcendent power?

He was making too much money and accumulating too much profit, which prevented many people from buying his goods and engaging in righteous 'transactions'… Realizing this, the man unhesitatingly abandoned his past trade principles and, with his own 'transcendent benefits' as the highest standard, benefited the world.

In other words, in order to maximize his share of transactions, he used every possible method to increase the wealth of everyone in the world—because only legitimate trade could get a return, and all exploitation didn't count.

He could only think about how to make everyone in the world richer, how to make the whole world peaceful and tranquil, and how to constantly develop technology so that enough people could trade with him and allow him to continue to obtain skill points.

This was his greed, and it was also his generosity.

This was selfishness, and it was also selflessness.

It was seizing, and it was also innovation.

Thus, the world moved towards 'better'.

Light fell—

In a desolate world, a small tree that could be described as 'young', located near a volcano, was illuminated by a ray of light.

This small tree and the surrounding forest were all built in the volcanic ash deposited by the eruption of the volcano. Because it was so fertile and rich, the area around the volcano, which had only been dormant for less than a century, had already become a lush forest, with many beasts, insects, and birds breeding, and people had settled and prospered around it.

However, this small tree was in critical condition. There was a magic crystal mine directly below it, and humans had already discovered the mine. Soon, an exploration team would be sent to clear the surrounding debris, which naturally included it.

But the descending light not only gave it wisdom, but also gave it power—as long as it constantly seized the power of the surrounding myriad beings, it would rapidly become stronger. Just as grass and trees provide themselves to all things as food, all things will eventually become the fertilizer of grass and trees, and this power only accelerated that process a little.

However, there was also a force that suppressed this powerful seizing power… The small tree not only could not kill other living beings to seize their power, but also needed to obtain the permission of other living beings before it could 'seize', or rather 'borrow', a little bit of power.

Although the corpses of dead living beings would also provide it with power, it could not absorb them if it intentionally killed those living beings for the sake of power.

As for the standard? Would people killed in self-defense count as living beings who died normally? Would living beings who were lured to attack oneself intentionally in order to obtain power and then killed in self-defense count as…

It was up to one's conscience.

The small tree was naturally not like a human. It was very simple. Since it could only obtain power if other living beings were willing, then it would pay first and then 'seize'—it forcibly condensed a fruit, a spiritual fruit, with the power of light.

A wild boar smelled the agile and pure fragrance. It was willing to help the small tree in order to eat this fruit. The two reached an agreement, so the wild boar not only lent a part of its power to the small tree, but also sought out high-quality spiritual soil and incomplete corpses of other beasts for the small tree.

It repeated this process, and the cycle continued.

The small tree grew rapidly.

It reshaped the surrounding soil structure with its gradually expanding root system, drawing out the surrounding springs and rivers, nourishing the surrounding grass and trees. It also reconstructed the ecological structure of the forest with its power, raising the most living beings with the most reasonable section.

It bloomed, allowing many rare insects that lived on it to grow stronger; it bore fruit, allowing many carnivorous beasts to be full; its leaves and drooping whiskers were nutritious, which any herbivorous beast loved; its branches were so tall that they could even solidify the magic power in the heavens and earth, turning this place into a rare magical secret realm.

The massive divine tree stood on one side of the Banda Gul volcano. Even the most powerful magi and the most outstanding druids could not know its secrets.

Some said that it was the catalyst of the magic crystal mine, and others said that it was a miraculous mutation.

But all of this could not explain one thing.

With the growth of the divine tree, the volcanic eruption that originally occurred once every few decades and destroyed the entire northern ecosystem of the kingdom had not occurred for a long, long time—according to the Magi, the divine tree absorbed the power of the volcanic eruption, which made the north, which was originally fertile but had few residents, become more prosperous.

A church that worshipped the divine tree had already appeared, and many druids voluntarily went to protect this miraculous tree.

Yes… This was not seizing at all. The tree was simply paying, simply paying.

And then…

The entire forest, the entire volcano, the entire kingdom, and even the entire world in the future, would be 'seized' by it, and would become part of the divine tree's 'power'.

—He who steals a hook is punished.

—He who steals a kingdom becomes a prince.

—He who steals heaven and earth is a sage.

The legend of the Sacred Tree was far from over.

The radiance continued to shine.

Inclining Summit God Lord's attack against Su Zhou contained the essence of His power, but it was shattered by a more profound force of innovation, turning into endless light and scattered throughout the multiverse, creating countless beings who received grace.

However, as the Hedao experts saw—the restrained 'seizing' lost a lot of convenient power, but for some reason, it was more beneficial to all living beings, and it also became more powerful.

Although the essence was still seizing, the final outcome presented 'innovation'.

With Inclining Summit God Lord's Great Dao, countless seeds of 'innovation' were blooming in the multiverse—if Inclining Summit God Lord did not curb it, even His own mother world, the Hedao world, might suffer such a situation and be 'invaded' by innovation.

—Candle Sun, how terrifying!

Such a skill in manipulating the Great Dao made Them shudder.

[The So-Called Power is the Power to Demonstrate One's Will]

[Whether it is the enemy's rules or the enemy's world, whether it is restrained or not, or whether one is the restraint itself—being able to demonstrate one's will in any situation and at any time]

[This is power]

"Look."

Su Zhou waved the Blade of Annihilation in his hand, holding it upright in front of his chest, staring at the many Great Dao imprints slowly flowing down on it.

Then he looked up and looked at Inclining Summit God Lord on the other side, who had widened his eyes but said nothing, as if frozen in place and lost in shocked contemplation: "You want to seize my power, then I will give you my power—but this result is still my victory."

"If you can't figure out the reason for your failed attack, if you can't understand why the Dao of Seizing can also achieve the happiness of all living beings… it can only show that you have never restrained yourself, so you can't get true 'freedom'."

The youth shook his head slightly: "Your power can completely make living beings better, but you have never thought about this possibility."

"You slashed me once, and I also slashed you once. We owe each other nothing."

Saying this, he no longer stared at the silent Inclining Summit God Lord.

The Primordial Candle Sun looked around at the surrounding Hedao, and he grinned: "What about you."

"Do you also want to attack me, show me your 'will and capriciousness', and prove your 'power'?"

Su Zhou laughed loudly, and on the cinder soil rising with endless flames and ashes, he raised his other hand that was not holding the blade, palm up, and provocatively hooked his fingers at the Hedao.

"Then come on."