The Tree to the Sky

Nereus patted him on the shoulder nonchalantly, then picked up the Hour of Glory again.

Upon seeing this scene, the Spirit Emperor was shocked as if he had seen a ghost.

Under normal circumstances, any being with emotions will feel pain and sadness because of something.

All he needs to do is dig out this hidden pain and amplify it, and the other person will inevitably be affected by their own painful emotions.

There are generally only two explanations for Nereus's seemingly innocent situation.

First, the other person's will is so strong that no amount of suffering can shake it. Second, the other person has never experienced any emotional changes in this area since childhood and cannot even understand what sadness is.

With his keen perception of emotions, the Spirit Emperor could vaguely guess that Nereus belonged to the latter category.

But he could never have imagined that the reason why Junius had never experienced sadness since childhood was because the other person was only a few days old.

But this isn't entirely the only solution.

Even if the other person has never experienced sadness, it doesn't stop him from directly stuffing other people's chaotic emotions into their body.

Especially when facing someone like Nereus, whose consciousness is still developing, the destructive power of this move is increased to another level.

But at this crucial moment, the Spirit Emperor hesitated for a moment.

He had only anticipated this move; if he actually used it, the opponent would probably die.

However, it was this brief hesitation that allowed Nereus to gain the upper hand.

"Whoa!!!"

With a loud whooshing sound, Nereus appeared in front of the Spirit Emperor.

The Spirit Emperor instinctively tried to block, but he clearly underestimated Nereus's power.

With just one sword strike, the Spirit Emperor watched helplessly as his body was cleaved in two.

"It's no use. I am a king who lives by my emotions, and this kind of simple fatal flaw is something I cannot..."

Suddenly, a tiny blackish-red flame ignited at the cut on his body.

"Whoosh..."

The flames quietly died out, and the Spirit Emperor's life vanished into the world along with them.

The whole process happened extremely quickly. In Rouness's eyes, the result was that he had successfully killed the Spirit Emperor with a single sword strike.

At this point, half of the four kings had died, with only the Northern King of the North and the Mountain Lord of the West still alive.

Nereus sheathed her sword and was about to leave the Southern Territory when she suddenly stopped, turned around and looked at the sacred tree that was now only half-built.

"To grow to this height is, in a way, a sign of receiving the attention of heaven and earth. It's just a pity that one-way taking is destined to be short-lived. I hope that from today onwards, you can sprout again and be reborn."

As he spoke, Rouness took out a portion of the blessing of the sea that Elira had left him and incorporated it into the half of the sacred tree.

Under the blessing of Zehai, the sacred tree lived up to expectations and successfully sprouted some green on the cut surface.

"Since you're a new student, let's forget about your previous name. Let me think about it. Since you're destined to grow high in the sky, let's call you the Tree of the High Heavens from now on."

After choosing her name, Junius embarked on her journey to the North, thus leaving the South.

Xie Bai's figure quietly appeared after she left.

"Hmm, this time it was pretty good, it ended quickly, and it didn't last too long."

Looking at the battlefield where Nereus once stood, Xie Bai nodded with satisfaction.

Don't be fooled by how easily Nereus defeated the Spirit Emperor just now, assuming that the Spirit Emperor is the weakest of the four kings.

Among all the abandoned eras she collected, there was a section dedicated to Nereus, a relic of the old era.

Similar to today, Nereus in the old era also decided to embark on the path of defeating the Four Kings only after he felt the harm they posed to the world.

Among them, the threat posed by the Spirit Emperor to Nereus was the greatest of the four kings.

When facing the other three kings, Junes could overwhelm them with her almost invincible stats, but when facing the Spirit Emperor who controlled emotions, her immature consciousness was like being attacked by a special forces. If the Spirit Emperor hadn't been reluctant to kill, she probably would have had to be eliminated in the second round.

Because of his overly sensitive perception of emotions, the Spirit Emperor has always been terrified of the despair that comes after death. Therefore, he has never killed a single life, nor has he allowed any accidental death to occur in the southern territory under his jurisdiction.

This also resulted in the Southern Territory having the lowest mortality rate among the four territories, despite its chaotic governance, impoverished living conditions, and the daily waste of enormous human and material resources on the Sacred Tree.

You could say that while life wasn't great, at least they were alive.

"That being said, these four kings are indeed all remarkable figures."

"The hero who initially led the people to resist injustice eventually became the ruthless lord who profited from conflict; the meticulous and wise king eventually became the closed-minded spirit emperor; and the Northern King who adhered to rules and order inevitably went to the extreme of oppression."

"On the contrary, the tyrant who was initially a combination of strife, indifference, and oppression later became the only wise ruler of the mountain and marsh among the four kings. However, his personality was still extreme, and in the end, he still stirred up great chaos for his own ideals."

"Fate really likes to play these reversed developments. The previous reversal of cause and effect was the same, wouldn't you say, Archbishop of the Civilization Church?"

Xie Bai narrowed her eyes and looked at the man who was tied up by her.

The other party was the church man who had communicated with the Spirit Emperor before. Some of the technologies that the Spirit Emperor had mastered that did not belong to this world were provided by this man.

When the Spirit Emperor went to inspect the collapsed sacred tree, she secretly appeared and kidnapped him.

To be honest, Xie Bai didn't expect to see these people again in the Third Era, nor did he expect that even in the Third Era, the First Court still couldn't fix such an obvious loophole.

"So, dear archbishop, can you explain to me what exactly your civilized church does? There isn't even a god of civilization in this world."

The archbishop was initially flustered, but upon hearing Xie Bai's next sentence, his attitude instantly changed, and he spoke with indignation.

"Nonsense! My Lord is clearly a real, existing god, but the existence has been concealed by the combined forces of these current gods. Otherwise, would that divine spark of civilization in Valhalla have simply appeared out of nowhere?"

"..."

Xie Bai suddenly fell silent for a moment.

In a sense, the divine status of civilization seems to have truly come out of nowhere.

"So, the reason you want to use the power of the Spirit Emperor to promote the Church of Civilization is essentially to make the world remember the God of Civilization, so that he can return one day?"

The archbishop nodded.

"More or less. Since you've realized this, you must be someone who has broken free from the control of the gods. In that case, why not join our Church of Civilization and fight against the gods together?"

Looking at the archbishop who was still bound, Xie Bai smiled and declined the invitation.

"Sorry, I'm not really interested, but I know someone who would be very interested in you."

"…who?"

"Hmph~ Guess."

……