Chapter 548: The Birth of the World Tree
The divine kingdoms in Earth’s universe, such as Babylon’s, are somewhat different from those of the true gods in the multiverse. They possess the characteristics of divine kingdoms while also resembling natural planes. Even if the true gods die, their lost divine kingdoms do not gradually collapse. Instead, they remain intertwined with the material world—whenever one exists, the other, even if destroyed, will slowly regenerate.
This dual existence of divine kingdoms and material planes greatly interested Donald. If his own divine kingdom could also be connected to the material world in this way, he could send his power to the main world without limits, and his kingdom would become even more stable, with almost no possibility of destruction!
The creation process of the Sun Well artifact went smoothly. Soon, with Donald’s supply of divine power, the completed Sun Well reached the level of a true artifact at the peak of the elementary artifact category.
Moreover, it was not just a true artifact but also a carrier for a semi-plane. Today, such semi-planes have broken free from the surface of the Land of Truth and no longer depend on these powerful higher divine kingdoms. They can exist independently in various parts of the material world, as long as they carry the Sun Well with them!
However, while this approach solved the problems of energy and growth for the semi-planes, it lacked sufficient vitality within their internal environment, and their development and evolution were somewhat slow.
According to Donald’s calculations, with the Sun Well in place, even without further divine power, the artifact itself could absorb stray energy from the main world and rise to the level of a medium artifact within decades. At the same time, the semi-plane could evolve into a complete small material plane, neighboring the vast material plane of the main world.
But Donald’s wedding was approaching, and he couldn’t wait that long. Thus, he came up with another idea.
Based on the historical legends from the previous life’s Warcraft game setting and his understanding of the World Tree in Loki’s divine realm, he thought of creating a World Tree similar to the core of Asgard, the divine kingdom of the Northlands. He could use this World Tree as a bridge to connect his kingdom of Azeroth with the semi-plane, creating a situation similar to Babylon’s divine kingdom.
“Since I already have the Sun Well, creating a World Tree shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
Speaking of the World Tree, one must mention its descendant: the Tree of Life!
As the main structure of the Night Elves in Warcraft and the sacred tree of the elves in the main world, this world’s Tree of Life is considered a descendant of the legendary World Tree.
Yes! The legends about the origin of the multiverse are very similar to those in Norse mythology—both describe numerous worlds arising from a World Tree. It is said that in ancient times, even before the gods were born, the entire multiverse was a colossal tree containing various worlds with countless beings living within them. However, the first ancient war between gods severely damaged the World Tree, causing it to break apart into the many worlds of the multiverse. Yet, to the gods of the Pantheon, this is just nonsense. While the structure of the multiverse does indeed resemble a tree, it did not originate from a single tree but rather resembles countless small bubbles within a larger bubble, with positive energy rising to the upper part and negative energy flowing to the lower part. The substances that arise from the combination of positive and negative energies exist in between. This has been confirmed by the oldest true gods! As for the World Tree, it does exist, but it was merely one of the most powerful ancient species from ancient times. It is said that its power was comparable to that of a supreme god, enabling it to give rise to the powerful race of high elves. Unfortunately, this species was destroyed in wars, leaving only seeds that retained some of its power—these are the origins of the Tree of Life. Initially, there was no concept of the Tree of Life. Donald could also connect his divine realm to the material plane, thanks to the powerful computational capabilities of the Book of Truth. Technically, there was no difficulty in achieving this. But relying solely on the power of the Sun Well, which is currently at the level of an elementary divine artifact, it would take hundreds of years to achieve that great goal. Even for Donald, as a powerful true god with an immortal lifespan, it would be a long wait. Therefore, after calculations using the Book of Truth, the most advantageous plan suggested was to combine the Tree of Life with the Sun Well, allowing them to support each other and greatly accelerate the growth of the demi-plane. It would be best to add another facility with functions similar to those of the Sun Well. Donald knew of a few such entities, the most powerful of which was the arcane core—the central power source of the Sky City. His impression of the Sky City, ruled by the great archmage Serah, was profound. Although it was an inanimate object, its formidable defense system and the powerful logical processing capabilities of its virtual divine entity left him in awe. Its value to a true god was no less than having an additional divine realm!
After returning to his territory with the Sky City, Donald had also considered using it, but unfortunately, this greatest creation in the history of the Arcane Empire was far too eye-catching. With his abilities at the time, he couldn’t ignore the gazes of numerous powerful rivals, which made him abandon that idea. Now, as he was about to ascend to the throne and had a powerful supreme god like Loki as his backing, it was the perfect time to showcase his strength. Thus, it no longer mattered for Donald to reveal the existence of the Sky City, which also served as an indirect explanation for his rise and provided a reasonable cover for the existence of the Sacred Book, a high-tier divine artifact. Through the calculations of the Sacred Book, an accurate conclusion was reached: using the Sun Well as the energy source for the demi-plane, the Tree of Life as the core of the plane, and the Sky City as the control center for the plane—these three combined would undoubtedly multiply their effects. The Tree of Life could address the life-related issues that the Sun Well lacked, and the numerous arcane mage towers in the Sky City each contained element pools that could draw energy from other planes, further compensating for the Sun Well’s slow energy accumulation rate. With the virtual divine essence in the Sky City responsible for operation and regulation, their combination could accelerate the growth of the demi-plane by at least dozens of times. In other words, what originally took five hundred years to form a stable spatial structure and initially develop the laws of reincarnation to become a complete small material plane could now be reduced to just a few years. With sufficient external energy support, this time could even be shortened to within a year! After formulating a complete plan, Donald immediately set out to take action. Obtaining the Tree of Life was the simplest step—just summon it from the list created by the Sacred Book. However, the problem was that such an ordinary Tree of Life had limited potential, capable of evolving at most to the legendary level. To break through the threshold of a demi-god, external help was essential! Donald first went to the Tree of Life located in the elven tribe’s territory, intending to use it for experiments. To evolve this Tree of Life was actually quite simple—just a fragment of divine essence could transform it into a divine being, surpassing ordinary legendary entities. When Donald inserted a temporarily formed fragment of divine essence containing the elements of nature into the trunk of the Tree of Life, which had shown affinity toward him, the tree immediately transformed into a tree-man, its body surrounded by light as it waved its branches.
The changes in the Tree of Life caught the attention of the nearby elf inhabitants, who rushed over to take a look. The first to arrive, Elder Ilya, saw Donald’s figure before bowing respectfully and signaling to the elves behind him not to worry, urging them to step back. Donald nodded at Ilya and continued observing the changes in the Tree of Life. About half an hour later, as a powerful being of the natural realm, it effortlessly integrated this fragment of a divine essence from the same realm—much more easily than humans could. Of course, it would still take some time to fully assimilate it. The transformed Tree of Life had now become a divine being; its original natural barrier had evolved into a far more powerful natural realm that covered almost the entire Dalaran, as well as a large part of the Greenmantle Forest. A domain was a hallmark of legendary powerhouses—within such a domain, the owner was like a god. Those below the legendary level, unless wielding powerful artifact-grade weapons, would be at the mercy of the domain’s master. Although the Tree of Life couldn’t accompany Donald on battles like other legendary powerhouses, its advantage lay in its vastness, far exceeding that of ordinary legends or even demigods. Within hundreds or thousands of square kilometers, all outsiders would be suppressed by natural laws, unable to exert even 30% of their true strength. Moreover, all plants within the domain could be summoned by the Tree of Life to become peculiar lifeforms akin to tree men to fight for it, granting all its allies a 100% strength boost, with combat power, endurance, and recovery nearly doubling. Yet this still fell far short of Donald’s vision for a World Tree—one that could merge with a demi-plane to become its core and evolve into a great entity like the World Tree of Asgard’s nine divine worlds. At the very least, it would need to be a true god-level Tree of Life to achieve this! Thus, Donald set his sights on Loki, the only true god remaining in Asgard’s pantheon. Donald sought out Loki not for anything else but for the Golden Apple Tree, a high-tier divine artifact born from the branches of the former World Tree. Donald didn’t expect to obtain the entire tree; even a small portion of its branches and leaves would suffice to extract enough life imprints and divine power to endow the Tree of Life with greater potential.