Ye Yun bought the Tree of Life, which at this ti was still just a seedling.
The seedling was wrapped in a bubble. Ye Yun handed it to Nahida.
Nahida took it, examined it briefly, then looked toward Candace.
"Candace, take to the plaza."
Candace obeyed and led Nahida and the others to a plaza.
Along the way, many villagers of Aaru Village noticed Nahida and her group, casting curious glances.
So recognized Dehya and ca over.
"Dehya, who are these people? Where are you all going?"
Dehya pointed at Nahida.
"That's the Lesser Lord Kusanali. She's about to give us desert folk sothing we've dread of. Co have a look, everyone.
A miracle has finally co to the desert."
The one who asked was shocked by Dehya's words—this!!! The Lesser Lord Kusanali!
Although most desert folk harbor resentnt toward the Dendro Archon, at the sa ti, there's also awe—for she is still a god.
Word quickly spread, and villagers as well as so rcenaries resting in the village began to gather at the plaza.
Nahida held the seedling of the Tree of Life in both hands and looked up at the sky. Bright sunlight poured down, illuminating her.
Nahida popped the bubble around the seedling and personally dug into the hard rocky ground to plant the Tree of Life.
As she filled in the soil around the seedling, she softly chanted:
"A tree is a bridge between earth and sky, a witness and guardian of life.A tree is the birth of life, nature's gift.It gives people soil to live on, and provides shade and fruit for little ones.We grow together on this land and should share in the blessings of life."
When she finished, Nahida extended her small hand toward the seedling, releasing divine power from her entire body.
"Just as the rainforest people do, so should the desert folk. Today, I plant the Tree of Life here, and from now on, may there be only Suru's people."
Her divine power flowed into the seedling.
It began to glow green and grow rapidly before everyone's eyes.
In just over ten minutes,
the once tiny seedling had beco a towering tree, estimated to be sixty or seventy ters tall.
Stelle was stunned.
"Whoa! Is this what a miracle looks like? Damn, this is aweso!"
Now Stelle understood why people in more primitive civilizations worship gods.
With a display like this, who wouldn't be impressed?
The villagers, desert rcenaries, Dehya, Alhaitham—all were in a state of awe.
Nahida gently floated up, sitting on the thickest branch of the Tree of Life, gently stroking its bark.
A breeze passed through, rustling the leaves.
Suddenly, the Tree of Life burst into a radiant light. The intense brightness caused everyone to shut their eyes.
When they opened them again, a true miracle appeared before them.
From the base of the tree, the once-barren rocky ground was instantly transford into grassland.
The grass quickly spread, soon covering all of Aaru Village and continuing outward.
The village, located between four mountains, saw the grass spread halfway up the slopes before stopping.
Then,
countless flowers and tall trees sprang up from the grass. A spring burst forth at the foot of the Tree of Life, its waters flowing to form a waterfall in the canyon between Aaru Village and the Statue of the Seven.
A desert rcenary knelt down in disbelief, touching the grass.
"This is real! This is real grass!"
His words brought the others who witnessed the miracle back to their senses.
"Water! There's water! So much water! Amazing! We'll never have to worry about running out again!"
"Mommy, this flower is so pretty! Can I take it ho?"
"No, sweetheart. These flowers will wither if taken from the soil. Let's leave them here and you can co see them every day, alright?"
"Thank you, Lesser Lord Kusanali!"
The surrounding villagers and rcenaries all expressed their heartfelt gratitude to Nahida.
But at that mont, due to overexerting her divine power, Nahida had fallen into a deep sleep on the tree branch.
Aether saw this and stepped to the base of the Tree of Life, shouting loudly:
"Everyone! Quiet! The Lesser Lord Kusanali is resting. Please don't disturb her."
Hearing this, the villagers and rcenaries imdiately fell silent, afraid to make a sound.
Then, an elderly man asked a question from the bottom of his heart:
"Why?! Why didn't the Lesser Lord Kusanali co sooner? If she had co earlier, we wouldn't have lost so many loved ones!Those whose lives were taken by the wind and sand, or by hunger!"
Aether then told everyone how the sages had imprisoned Nahida and explained that her return this ti was to reclaim her position as Archon.
The rcenaries were furious upon hearing this.
So it was you damned sages who did this!You locked up soone as kind as the Lesser Lord Kusanali?!
Seeing the crowd's emotions reaching a peak, Aether raised his arm and shouted:
"Everyone! Will you help the Lesser Lord Kusanali reclaim her rightful place as a god?!"
The crowd roared in agreent!
Especially the rcenaries.
"Hell yes! I'm going back to gather reinforcents! The Lesser Lord Kusanali gave us land to survive on! She's our greatest benefactor!"
"Exactly! We desert folk never forget a debt! Let's go!"
The rcenaries left Aaru Village in small groups to gather reinforcents.
Ye Yun watched all this, clicking his tongue.
"Incredible... Aether really is a 'top student' of the Abyss Order. His pyramid-sche-like charisma is unbeatable—just a few words and people are ready to risk their lives. What a sneaky fox."
The next day arrived.
Nahida had woken from her slumber. As she slowly opened her eyes, she found herself still lying on the Tree of Life.
Beside her, the six little Klee girls were playing on the branches.
Stelle, March 7th, and Firefly were taking photos with caras.
Dehya saw Nahida awaken.
"Lesser Lord Kusanali, you're finally awake."
Nahida rubbed her eyes and looked around.
The once sparsely populated Aaru Village was now packed with people.
rcenaries filled the entire village—all of them had arrived overnight.
Aether was organizing defenses with several rcenary leaders.
He had long known the Aranara, and had taken responsibility for all 76 of them.
He completed the "Book in the Woods" in just one day and returned to Aaru Village.
After all, unlike Lumine in the original story, he already knew those little guys.
anwhile, the 30-person group from Caravan Ribat had already heard about the miracle the day before.
Naturally, Azar had received the news too. He had gathered most of the Thirty's forces and was heading toward Caravan Ribat, planning to attack Aaru Village and recapture Nahida.
***
Aether looked toward Rahman, the leader of the largest rcenary group in the desert—personally recruited by Aether himself.
Last night, Dehya ntioned that Rahman's group was the biggest. If they could be brought over, it would greatly strengthen their side.
Unfortunately, Rahman had always believed in the Scarlet King and thought the death of the Red King was caused by the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata.
After hearing Dehya's explanation, Aether made a personal trip.
He knew the truth. He took Rahman to the High Priestess's tomb and showed him the truth.
It turned out that the Greater Lord Rukkhadevata was not an enemy, but a benefactor.
Rahman then inford all his rcenaries of the truth, and the entire group decided to help Nahida to repay the Greater Lord's kindness.
"Rahman, I'll leave the main road to you. Your group is the strongest."
Rahman patted his chest.
"Don't worry! If anyone wants to harm Lesser Lord Kusanali, they'll have to step over our dead bodies first!"
Then he turned to his n and asked:
"Brothers, am I right?"
His n shouted in unison:
"Right!"
Aether nodded in relief.
"Don't worry, I'll fight alongside you."
Rahman was overjoyed.
"Even better! That gives even more confidence!"
After that, Aether assigned the remaining defense zones to the other rcenary groups, who accepted without hesitation.
They had co prepared to die.
The desert had finally seen hope—it couldn't be lost now.
Most of them had beco rcenaries out of desperation, living a life of licking blood off knives.
They didn't mind dying, but they didn't want the next generation to live like them.
Even if it ant death—they would protect the Lesser Lord Kusanali and the Sacred Tree.
The Sacred Tree was what the desert people called the Tree of Life.
Yesterday, Aether had explained the Tree of Life's properties to them.
As the tree grew, it would expand the oasis. One day, it might even cover the entire desert.
Nahida looked down at the bustling village below, a little stunned.
"Why are there so many people here?"
Dehya chuckled.
"Lesser Lord Kusanali, they're here to support you, to help you deal with the Grand Sage."
Hearing this, Nahida smiled with relief.
At that mont, Stelle spoke.
"Honestly, Nahida, want to just go cut that Grand Sage down? I can totally do it."
Alhaitham replied.
"No. The Lesser Lord Kusanali needs this war to establish her authority.
Killing Azar outright won't solve anything. If he's gone, another Grand Sage will just take his place.
What she needs is the people's will—to defeat the Grand Sage's faction fair and square."
Stelle shrugged.
"I don't get why you guys make it so complicated. I could just take one swing."
March 7th agreed.
"Yeah! Why not just fight them head-on?"
Nahida smiled.
"Stelle, March, thank you for the thought. When the ti cos, I'll definitely ask for your help."
Stelle nodded.
"Alright. We'll be hanging around in Suru for now. Just give us a shout if you need us."
Then she pulled March 7th and Firefly along.
"March, Firefly, let's borrow a few of those beasts from the rcenaries.
How about a racing match on mounts?"
March 7th and Firefly were intrigued.
"Let's go check it out!"
The three of them jumped down from the Tree of Life and ran toward Rahman.
Stelle, March 7th, and Firefly found Aether and Rahman.
"Aether, can we borrow three of those beasts? We want to ride them for fun."
Aether looked at Stelle, exasperated. These guys had ditched him the day before.
If he hadn't already known the Aranara and explored almost every cave in Suru, he'd still be out running errands for those little guys.
"You really left hanging yesterday!"
Stelle gave a sheepish laugh—they already knew what had happened.
Basically, Aether had ended up on a tough errand, crawling through all the tunnels in Suru.
Now they understood why Ye Yun had told them to get out of there fast.
"Hey, it's not my fault! Ye Yun told us to go—we didn't know anything!"
She imdiately pointed the bla at Ye Yun.
Aether sighed and turned to Rahman.
"Rahman, lend them three beasts. They're friends of the Lesser Lord Kusanali, and they're here to help."
Rahman agreed heartily.
"No problem! Friends of the Lesser Lord Kusanali are friends of mine. I'll have soone take you to choose."
Stelle cupped her hands in thanks.
"Much appreciated."
After each of the three picked a beast, they rode out into the desert beyond the village.
The beasts were huge and heavy, and when they ran, they thundered across the sand.
They galloped past a Statue of The Seven and arrived in the desert between Caravan Ribat and Aaru Village.
Stelle tugged the reins hard and shouted:
"Yah! Yah! Faster! Charge!"
Her mount sped up in response.
March 7th and Aether followed, racing after her.
Without realizing it, they had arrived at Caravan Ribat.
At that mont, the place was under lockdown.
At the gate, a few mbers of the Eremite Thirty spotted them.
"Halt!"
Stelle pulled her reins, and her beast stopped.
"What's the matter?" she asked.
One of the rcs said:
"Caravan Ribat is under lockdown—no one from the desert is allowed in!"
Stelle pouted and turned her mount.
"Alright, we'll head back to Aaru Village."
But as soon as she ntioned Aaru Village, the rcs alerted their comrades.
"They're from Aaru Village! Seize them!"
Stelle was baffled.
What the heck? Why are they trying to arrest us?
She suddenly rembered sothing March 7th had said:
"Every few worlds, we end up on a wanted list."
Stelle thought, Is this one of those tis again?
Well, getting arrested was not an option.
She thought about pulling out her Judgnt of Shamash weapon—
—but realized these guys were too weak. That weapon would be overkill.
Instead, she jumped off her mount and taunted the rcs.
"Co on, all of you at once."
The rcs rushed her.
In less than ten seconds, they were all on the ground, defeated.
Stelle clapped her hands.
"Done and dusted. March, Firefly, let's go."
At that mont, a voice rang out:
"You're not leaving just yet."
Stelle looked up and saw a boy wearing a jackal-head helt step forward.
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