The cold wind plundered the warmth of the World Tree, covering its branches with frost. Even the thick bark of the World Tree’s trunk seemed unable to withstand such temperatures, beginning to crack and freeze.
Next, tiny particles, like a swarm of locusts, attached themselves to various parts of the World Tree. They squirmed and crawled on the branches, as if searching for food to devour in a frenzied wandering.
Unfortunately, the World Tree had already shed its leaves prematurely, leaving only bare trunks.
Thus, after the cold wave persisted for three hundred years, or was it five hundred years, the frigid wind continued to blow towards more distant places. The locust-like particles also followed the cold wind and left the World Tree.
With that, the World Tree successfully “endured” the torment of “winter”.
In the following thousands of years, it was the season of spring. Some of the withered fallen leaves that had previously fallen into the Source Sea were like spring mud. They were transformed by the Source Sea into nutrients, becoming the foundation of the world, that is – the Source.
The Source became the nourishment for the World Tree, allowing it to awaken from its winter slumber. On those bare branches, the source material transported from the Source Sea became new tender branches, the buds of leaves, and a new world.
After another tens of thousands of years of reproduction and growth, the World Tree once again returned to the season of “summer”, with lush branches and leaves, verdant foliage, and one brilliant civilization after another.
This scene was the same as the image Renji saw at the beginning.
At this point, it was the entire cycle of the World Tree that the Source Lord had shown him.
A cycle of tens of thousands of years, millions of years, or even tens of millions of years.
Seeing this, Renji finally fully understood the Source Lord, the cold wave, and the obsession of the Sources.
“Your world, how can it not be our lifeblood? In the past, we cherished every world, because each leaf was the foundation formed by our compatriots. But it is precisely because of the cold wave that the World Tree has no choice but to force the leaves to fall by spawning Miasma, otherwise…”
“You’ve seen it too. If the World Tree doesn’t do this, when the cold wave arrives, the leaves simply cannot withstand such low temperatures and will still die. Even if there is a powerful civilization that can truly resist such extreme cold, the following specks of light, those insect tribes that come with the cold wave, will completely devour these leaves and civilizations.”
“These insect tribes are different from Miasma. Miasma is essentially still the power of the World Tree. All worlds destroyed by Miasma will fall into the Source Sea and, after settling in the Source Sea, will return to the World Tree itself.”
“But once the leaves are absorbed by those specks of light and devoured by the insect tribes, this part of the Source power will completely leave the World Tree and be truly seized by foreign species. In other words, the World Tree will completely lose this part of its power.”
“If this continues for a long time, the World Tree will truly become weaker and weaker until it finally perishes.”
At this point, the voice of the Source Lord Phoenix became low. This was also the inescapable predicament of their Source.
The Sources did not want the leaves to fall, did not want the worlds formed by their compatriots to be corroded by Miasma. But on the other hand, because of the existence of the cold wave, the falling of leaves seemed to be necessary, otherwise the consequences would only be more disastrous.
“Our ancestors tried many methods without success, until, until…”
The Phoenix proudly raised its head.
Without the Source Lord saying it, Renji could understand from this expression that this generation of Source Lords, that is, the Phoenix in front of him, had tried to use the creature called “player” to successfully resist Miasma, so that the leaves would no longer fall and the Source’s world could be preserved.
And afterwards…
“So you didn’t tell the truth to the other Sources, but instead deliberately provoked conflicts between the Sources and the World Tree?” Renji recalled the worlds that were ravaged by the Sources one by one.
The so-called “ravaging” of the world by the Source was from the perspective of the native creatures of the world. But from the higher perspective of the Source, it was the Source relying on the world to cultivate and enhance its power.
“That’s right. We have successfully passed the hurdle of Miasma, and next we have to face the cold wave. The power of the cold wave has been verified many times. The civilization of the native creatures is simply unable to resist it, so we can only do it ourselves.”
“I will gather all the healthy leaves and concentrate all the power. Only in this way, when the cold wave arrives, can I use my wings to shelter the leaves and protect other worlds from having their power plundered.”
The Phoenix raised her head again. In the Source Lord, Renji saw a sense of mission and firm will. This was not a lie. She really wanted to do this, to resist the cold wave with her own strength.
So now the plundering of the world by the Phoenix Source Lord was more like… foraging before the arrival of winter? Accumulating strength?
At this point, Renji understood the whole truth.
He also found the solution he hoped for.
“If I have another method to resist the cold wave that will come tens of thousands of years later, then can you and your Source tribes stop endlessly occupying worlds?”
“Occupying… That’s not occupying at all! The worlds themselves are a part of us!” The Phoenix was about to express dissatisfaction with Renji’s wording, but sensing the sword edge descending again, she quickly chirped and pulled back from the cliff.
“It, it’s possible… We are only doing it for survival. But I highly doubt you. I don’t believe you have such a method. If I’m not mistaken, your so-called method of resisting the cold wave still relies on higher-dimensional creatures like you, right?”
Saying this, the Phoenix couldn’t help but snort, as if saying, hasn’t she tried it before?
However, the fact was…
“You are very strong, I admit. If all the leaves could give birth to worlds as strong as the one you are in, perhaps they could truly resist the cold wave. But… on your planet, how many people can be like you?”
“According to my observations, in fact, those so-called saviors find it very difficult to resist even Miasma. They barely succeed by relying on the numerous assistances we bestow upon them. With such strength, how can they face the cold wave that is countless times more severe than Miasma?”
“Moreover, even for your world, the development is too slow. Just relying on a single higher-dimensional creature like you is not enough. The most direct evidence is, look, has your world made progress in the five hundred years you disappeared?”
It could be seen that the Source Lord had indeed done her homework on him, even knowing that he had disappeared for five hundred years.
And what the Source Lord said was indeed the truth.
In these five hundred years, his world, after he was gone, although it had been moving forward, the magnitude of progress compared to before was really too weak. In terms of world strength, it had even regressed.
After all, during the period when he was there, the Ashen Empire had hundreds of Disaster rank Eclipse creatures. But now, there were only five at the highest level in the world.
In short, the root of the problem was…
Players, as the driving force of the world, with only one player per world, were too few and far from meeting the driving force needed by the world.
Moreover, once the player went offline, it was equivalent to the world stagnating and losing vitality.
This was why the Source Lord Phoenix denied Renji’s reason.
Indeed.
Under the single-player mode she had previously set for “Fallen Chronicles”, it was indeed insufficient to resist the cold wave.
But…
As an independent game enthusiast, although Renji was reluctant to admit it…
The true use of players, the way to maximize the potential of players, to bring out ten times, a hundred times, or even a thousand times the power and enthusiasm of players, was definitely not the “single-player” mode.
The Phoenix Source Lord was obviously still at the stage of groping and stumbling when it came to this new model of players, a confused manager.
But Renji was different.
“How long is left until the next cold wave arrives?”
“About… three thousand years.” The Phoenix calculated for a moment, then quickly asked suspiciously, “What exactly do you want to do?”
“Three thousand years should be enough to rebuild a game otherworld into an online game…” Renji muttered.
“Online game?”
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