But it is getting further and further away from completing the other two goals: winter and dark clouds.
Although the severe cold of winter threatens the survival of trees, it cannot kill the jungle. The real problem is the lingering dark clouds and hidden troubles: plant disasters.
They are natural chasms that stretch across the land to take away the remains. Without the strength of the remains, the ordinary jungle will not be able to withstand the destruction caused by natural disasters.
"What causes dark clouds to form?"
Ophelia could not answer Lu Li's question. Although as a scholar and library employee she could answer that it was formed by water vapor.
"Protect."
The God of the Deep Sea did not know when to look at the dark clouds covering the earth with them.
"What?"
Lu Li's eyes fell on the lingering shadow under the cloak of the God of the Deep Sea.
"The clouds protect the world from being exposed to the stars..."
"What will happen if...exposed...outside?" Ophelia asked.
"The world... returns to silence..."
Ophelia didn't like the God of the Deep imitating her frustration, but it did give the words a sense of weight.
Lu Li thought of what he had seen in King Allen City: the awakened ancient gods roared to the sky, the vast sea of stars condensed into eyes, and looked at them, and the ancient gods turned into ashes.
“Are the clouds easily dispersed?”
"It's a rule, made by...I can't remember." The power carried by the eyes is limited.
The clouds called rules by the God of the Deep Sea are at the top. At least the black ring hanging in the void in the Farmland Garden is not as high as it is, and the sky torn apart by the Light Stealer and the Sky of Illusion are not as high as him.
Lu Li brought the question back to him: "Can you tell the difference between seawater and freshwater?"
"You are provoking the majesty of God." The God of the Deep Sea whispered coldly.
"Can?"
"I...can't do it. But maybe I can..."
Before continuing to talk, the Shadow Chuo people sent word that the worms digging around Shadow Town found a bone burial ground underground.
Leaving the God of the Deep to continue draining water, Lu Li and Ophelia headed to Shadow Town.
A few hundred meters away from the ruins, some six-legged monsters and shadowmen gathered around. The bulging soft soil proved that the worm had burrowed out of the ground, and it brought the rotten wooden coffin covered with soil.
It was discovered that the problem was not the body itself, but the edges of the coffin that were nailed shut by iron nails. Due to severe decay, many of the iron nails were no longer useful, and the coffin lid could only be prevented from falling off during the jolts.
"Open it."
The six-legged monster crept to the coffin faster than the believers and opened the rotten coffin lid.
Gray bones that were difficult to piece together were scattered around the shabby aristocratic clothes, and a faded notebook rested in a boot stuffed with leg bones due to bumps.
Ophelia took out her notes.
The writer calls himself Johnson, and is the first mayor of Shadow Town. He claims to have been framed by a cultist who took his identity, knocked unconscious, nailed to death in a coffin, and buried underground.
The scrawled and brief content illustrates the pain of Johnson, who claimed to be the mayor. Maybe when he woke up, there was not much air left in the coffin, and he died in pain from the heat and suffocation.
Ophelia put the notes into the chest of the noble clothes in the coffin, and the charred palms bloomed with heat, burning away the contamination.
"Bury him in Shadow Town Cemetery."
Lu Li said that it is meaningless to look back at what happened a hundred years ago. The people at that time are no longer there, and neither is the system.
The six-legged monsters took the closed coffin to the cemetery on the outskirts of the ruins and buried it next to the cemetery where the first mayor Johnson's tombstone was written on it. They pulled out the tombstone and stood in front of the real Johnson's tomb, and then stood in front of the fake mayor's grave.
The tombstone of [Liar].
"I asked my servants to do this..."
The Swamp Mother appears in the cemetery to answer Psius and Ophelia's questions.
"Have you used the eyes left on the coast of Luokou Town?"
Lu Li asked the merchant Anthony, and after receiving a negative answer, Lu Li asked the believers to erect more than a dozen tombstones. Pusius called out the names and carved the names of the believers who died underground on the tombstones.
The believers behind him prostrate themselves in prayer, and the act of "god setting up tombstones" turned them into fanatical believers. The strong faith that only the Mother of the Swamp could see lingered around him, but he was excluded.
"They believe in Anna, and they also believe in you?" Swamp Mother asked.
"To them, I am the consort of the gods."
Although Anna is not a god.
"Why can your banyan tree grow?" Lu Li suddenly asked him.
"Faith brings strength... I am strong because of them, and they are also strong because of me."
Believers' faith allows gods to gain strength, and the power of gods' feedback allows believers to grow.
This is the only way to prevent the jungle from dying due to lack of light.
"Then would you mind if the jungle became your disciple?"
…
Lu Li and the Swamp Mother went to the depths of the Twisted Jungle to believe in the Swamp Mother in exchange for hope of survival.
Surprisingly, the giant tree easily agreed to Lu Li's request because it didn't think that his friend would hurt it.
The Swamp Mother did not skimp on the human side either: she forgave the twisted jungle that had provoked the twenty-year war, and she did not let the jungle become her servant.
Shadow Swamp will no longer be divided into north and south.
The Shadow Man, the Hexagon and the newly born Firefly ran wildly in their new home. The giant tree quickly accepted the new family, or was accepted by the new family, and happily felt the birth of the jungle.
Of all the good things, there is only one being who is dissatisfied with it.
"Why not let it...believe in me."
Feeling the increasing power of the Swamp Mother, the God of the Deep Sea expressed dissatisfaction. After thinking for a moment, He overruled himself: "No...it doesn't believe that I am right."
In the long period of time since the fall of the God of the Deep, his powerful servants have established themselves as new gods, and their believers have been corrupted. If the jungle believes in him, the new believers will be usurped by them, and they will also know about the resurrection of the God of the Deep.
Young heirs have no choice but to let their wealth fall into the hands of greedy relatives before they have the strength to protect it.
In five days, all the seawater in the swamp was drained, revealing exposed silt that has not yet dried up and a breakwater nearly half a meter high that was built day and night. The ground in the east was also reclaimed by worms, allowing the gravel to expand.
The jungle also solved its existential crisis through faith.
…
Everyone gathered in front of the giant tree.
"Am I going to be the same as before, knowing nothing?"
Trembling sounds echoed.
"You are my believer, and you will no longer be affected by the broken body." The mother of the swamp said softly.
The god of the deep sea ascended to the tree crown and touched the remains of the finger bone
The indescribable breath spreads, the sound of the waves is very close, the illusion fades away in a brief trance, and the God of the Deep Sea falls back to the ground, leaving only the traces left by the surrounding water flowing away.
"I...have become stronger again." The God of the Deep Sea whispered.
This change is reflected in His outline: the black robe is darker, vaguely outlining an unrecognizable outline.
Now, after resolving the dispute in Shadow Swamp and retrieving the remains of the God of the Deep, it's time for them to say goodbye.
On the eve of departure, Lu Li returned the gift from the giant tree: he gave it many fairy tales, geography and biology books.
The Swamp Mother lowered her eyes and stared at Lu Li.