All Gods: Starting with Two Families

Chapter 12 Eight Years of Sleep”I must find a balance... or... find a way for the sandworms to produce Spice without completely desertifying the Divine Realm...” This thought weighed heavily on his heart.

For now, he could only hold on using the Spring of Life, which was also an A-rank wonder.

A strong sense of fatigue came from the depths of his Divine Thought; it was the mental exhaustion from traversing Planes, experiencing the totem Awakening, and the trade fair.

Zhou Zheng thought no more. His vast Divine Thought slowly withdrew and fell silent, like entering the deepest hibernation, beginning to heal the depletion caused by Plane-shuttling.

...

Time has no meaning in the Divine Realm; only the growth rings of the willow tree and the flowing spring water silently recorded the passage of time.

Eight years passed quietly, nourished by the eternal surge of vitality from the Spring of Life.

The Oasis was no longer in the predicament of being just one square kilometer as it was years ago.

The original [mist-locked pond willow] had now grown into a towering giant tree! Its trunk was as thick as a castle tower, covered in a thick layer of bluish-black bark that looked like Dragon scales, flowing with a warm, jade-like luster.

The massive canopy blotted out the sun, and the thousands of drooping willow branches were like a giant emerald curtain. As they swayed in the wind, the dense white mist they exhaled became even thicker and more majestic, almost condensing into a tangible sea of clouds!

What was even more surprising was that, under the guidance of the Priest, the followers tried to propagate the willow tree by taking its new, Life-filled branches for cuttings.

Under the continuous nourishment of the Spring of Life, these cuttings miraculously survived!

One by one, patch by patch, the new willow saplings grew outward like loyal guards, surrounding the mother tree.

Though they were far from being as massive as the mother tree, each one tenaciously exhaled white mist, together weaving a larger protective barrier.

Now, this mist barrier supported by countless large and small willow trees had expanded the Oasis to an astonishing one-tenth of the Divine Realm’s total area!

Looking down from high above, in the boundless golden sea of sand, a patch of vibrant green dotted with flowing clouds and mist looked like a magnificent emerald embedded in the sea of Death.

The effects of the Spring of Life went far beyond this. That eternally flowing emerald spring water contained an inexpressible Life vitality.

Under the long-term nourishment of its aura, the fertility rates of the Serpent-man and Eagle People tribes significantly increased. The small tribe that originally had only two hundred Serpent-men had now achieved a Breakthrough of the thousand-person mark! Among them were about six hundred Serpent-men and four hundred Eagle People.

The tribe’s settlement was no longer crowded; simple earthen houses and eagle nests built on the branches of the giant willow trees were scattered in an orderly fashion, filled with a primitive and vigorous Life Qi.

This scale had also just reached the minimum follower population threshold required for the Beast God’s centennial trial.

Eight years of living together, under the Bloodline connection of the feathered serpent totem, had long since dissolved the initial barriers.

Serpent-man Warriors and Eagle-men Hunters patrolled the borders together, the keen vision of the Eagle People sentries perfectly combining with the early warnings of the Serpent-man stalkers.

Young Serpent-man cubs would curiously look up at the Eagle People youths circling at low altitudes, while the Eagle People youths would sometimes land by the pond to share news of the sky with their Serpent-man companions.

Two completely different races, under shared faith and survival pressure, had formed a strange yet incredibly harmonious symbiotic relationship.

Although the level of civilization had not advanced rapidly—tools were still mainly made of bone and stone—the internal cohesion and hope for the future were far beyond what they were eight years ago.

Zhou Zheng’s Divine Thought woke from its long slumber, sweeping over his kingdom like the rising sun. The prosperous sight of the Oasis lifted his spirits.

With a slight movement of his Divine Thought, the feathered serpent totem on his forehead flashed with light.

”Hiss—!” A feathered serpent phantom with a wingspan of several meters, composed of pure cyan-gold energy, appeared out of thin air!

With a hint of innocent joy, it circled and danced around Zhou Zheng’s Divine Thought.

This was the totem spirit born from the totem, the initial manifestation of the tribe’s protective will.

Zhou Zheng sent over a gentle, soothing Divine Thought. The totem spirit let out a joyful low cry, turned into a cyan-gold stream of light, and happily dove into the vast sea of clouds at the edge of the Oasis.

The development of his followers was on track, and the spatial issue was temporarily eased. Zhou Zheng’s gaze once again turned toward the torrent of calamity cards.

[All-Knowing Eye], activate!