<h4>Chapter 165: Fruit of The Divine Tree, Deification By Religious Faith</h4>


    “Sir, you’re simply too impressive! My feelings of admiration toward you are endless and eternal, like the gushing rivers. They are like the overflowing Yellow River, beyond control once the floodgates open—”


    “Cut the crap. Just drive properly.”


    “Drive?”


    “...”


    Meng Lei was rendered speechless. Then, he asked, “Judging from what that old crocodile said just now, prior to bing a Saint Domain, you were just a Sixth-Grade Magical Beast?”


    “Yes, sir!”


    The Uni-Horned Rose Python didn’t dare to keep any secrets from him. It exined, “Ten years ago, I was indeed a Sixth-Grade Rose Python. But because I was lucky enough to get a Tree of Life fruit, I was able to be a Saint Domain Magical Beast.


    “I had initially thought that after I became a Saint Domain Magical Beast, I’d be able to be buddies with those old-timer Saint Domain Magical Beasts high up above. Who’d have thought that those guys would still look down on me—”


    Meng Lei interrupted ra’s unceasing torrent of words and asked, “Are you saying that you used only a short ten years to advance from a tiny little Sixth-Grade Magical Beast into a Saint Domain?”


    “Yes, sir!” The Uni-Horned Rose Python didn’t quite understand. It asked, “Is there an issue with that?”


    Ten years!


    It had taken only ten years for a Sixth-Grade Magical Beast to be a Saint Domain!


    Wasn’t that totally an issue?


    It wasn’t just Meng Lei who was shocked; even Ol’ Amos was astonished by its words. At once, he emerged from the spatial ring and urged him. “Hurry! Meng Lei, ask the python what the Tree of Life is!”


    Meng Lei took a deep breath, and then he posed the question to the Uni-Horned Rose Python.


    A look of idolization surfaced in ra’s eyes at once. An expression akin to those of fanatics in rtion to the deity they worshiped and believed in also came over its countenance.


    “The Tree of Life is the divine tree on this continent. It’s also the spiritual belief of all living things on this continent. Be it nts or animals, everyone and everything worships and believes deeply in the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life protects us eternally!”


    “Is the Tree of Life that great?” Meng Lei’s eyes shed as he asked, “What’s the Tree of Life fruit?”


    “The Tree of Life bears fruits once every hundred years. Each time it does, it only bears a total of nine fruits. When the fruits ripen, the Tree of Life will send these nine fruits to various corners of the continent for the living things here to consume.”


    With much gratitude, the Uni-Horned Rose Python said, “If you’re lucky enough, you’ll be able to get one. After consuming the fruit, one will gain great power within an extremely short amount of time—just like me.”


    “A single fruit has allowed you to take only ten years to be a Saint Domain Magical Beast. That fruit’s effect...”


    Meng Lei found this incredible. He asked, “Ol’ President, have you heard of a fruit like that before?”


    “Not at all!”


    Ol’ Amos took a breath and said, “In Heaven’s Vault Continent, there are also many treasures that can help people to break through their limits and boost their strength, but none of them canpare to an amazing fruit like that.


    “That thing is practically even crazier than a Laws of Nature Origin Crystal!”


    “Indeed it is!”


    Meng Lei nodded heavily. Laws of Nature Origin Crystals contained naturews within them and could aid a ninth-grade expert in opening the door tows of nature and helping them attain the Saint Domain realm. However, this was limited to only ninth-grade experts and was ineffective for those below.


    However, this was evidently not the case for the fruit.


    A Sixth-Grade Magical Beast had be a Saint Domain in ten years.


    What was that?


    A huge tonic supplement for mass-manufacturing Saint Domains, that’s what it was!


    How could Laws of Nature Origin Crystal match up to it?


    “I must find it! I must find that divine tree!”


    Meng Lei’s eyes were zing bright with a spectacr outburst of light. “If we can take it for ourselves and sit and wait for the divine tree fruits toe rolling in, we’ll strike gold!”


    One divine tree fruit = One Saint Domain!


    Just how much was the divine tree worth?


    What was the big deal about having a mine?


    What was the big deal about having one’s house demolished and relocated[1]?


    What was the big deal about having a vi in 2nd Ring Road[2]?


    Compared to the divine tree, they didn’t amount to anything at all!


    However, Ol’ Amos’ countenance was grave, and there was aplex look in his eyes as he said, ‘We’ll have to look for it for sure, but I’m afraid we can’t hold ourselves against it.”


    “Can’t hold ourselves against it?”


    Meng Lei was rather puzzled.


    Ol’ Amos asked slowly, “Do you remember a certain sentence that the Uni-Horned Rose Python said just now?”


    “Which?”


    Ol’ Amos replied slowly, “That all living things on this continent, whether nts or animals, worship and believe deeply in the Tree of Life.”


    “Yes, I know that. What about it?”


    Meng Lei was even more puzzled now.


    “You once asked me in the past how one can be a deity, right?” Ol’ Amos didn’t answer his question. Instead, he asked, “My answer was thatws of nature maketh the deity, right?”


    “Yes!” Meng Lei nodded. “You once said that deities were also known as the controllers of thews of nature. If one can fullyprehend a type ofws of nature, they’ll be able to be a deity.”


    “Deification byprehending thews of nature is only one of the methods avable.” Ol’ Amos said slowly, “In truth, that’s not the only route to deification. There’s also another verymon method that’s the easiest to achieve, yet also the hardest.”


    Meng Lei was taken aback. A verymon method that was the easiest to achieve, yet also the hardest? What kind of method was that? Why was it so self-contradictory?


    “Ol’ President, the method you speak of is?” Meng Lei was terribly curious.


    “Deification by religious faith,” Ol’ Amos answered.


    “Deification by religious faith?” Meng Lei perked up.


    “As long as you have enough believers worshipping and devoutly believing in you, you don’t even need to do anything, and you can be a deity. Even if you’re justzing about and doing nothing every day, you can still be one nheless!”


    A smiling Ol’ Amos exined, “That’s what deification by religious faith is! What do you think? Isn’t it simple?”


    Meng Lei was rendered speechless. “One can be a deity without even doing anything? Isn’t that taking the matter a little too lightly?”


    “Thus, deification by religious faith is very simple to achieve. Compared toprehending thews of nature, it’s practically cheating.”


    Then, Ol’ Amos changed the course of the conversation andmented, “It’s just a pity that it’s not easy to gain enough believers. In fact... It’s extremely difficult!


    “Take Heaven’s Vault Continent, for example.


    “There’s the Beast People Empire in the north, the Dragon God Empire in the east, the Fairy Empire in the south, and the Titan Empire in the west.


    “Yet all four great empires have their own gods that they believe in. Even though there are trillions of living things in Heaven’s Vault Continent, do you think it’s possible to snatch believers from the four great empires?”


    Meng Lei gave a wry smile in response—that was something totally impossible, alright? Or at least, that was currently the case.


    “Therefore, deification by religious faith is also a method as difficult as nailing jelly to the wall—because it’s totally impossible for you to find a sufficient number of believers to provide enough religious faith for you to be a deity.”


    Ol’ Amos shook his head lightly and went on. “As a result, the only thing all living things in Heaven’s Vault Continent can do is to properlyprehend thews of nature and go down the route of deification byprehendingws of nature.”


    Meng Lei asked, “Ol’ President, you’ve mentioned just now that deification by religious faith is also a verymon method. What do you mean by that?”


    “In Heaven’s Vault Continent, deification by religious faith is indeed very tough, but this may not be the case for other existential nes.” Ol’ Amos exined with a smile, “You probably don’t know this yet, but in the vast and boundless universe exist countless nes of existence. The Heaven’s Vault Continent is only a very ordinary material ne among them all!”


    “Huh?” Meng Lei pretended to be astonished.


    “...”


    Ol’ Amos exined at great length before he finally said, “Existential nes are much like bubbles. New nes are constantly being born, and old nes are constantly dying out every moment.


    “In those newly-born nes, neither deities nor experts exist. The living things there live the life of savages and are primitive and backward.


    “The living things that those nes birth are innocent and ignorant. They harbor great respect for the heavens and are fearful of nature. Therefore, they easily hold religious faith toward certain supernatural phenomena or inexplicable things and incidents.


    “For example, they may worship a powerful person, a snake, a ball of fire, a rock, and so on.


    “That’s the earliest form of religious faith—primitive worship!”


    Meng Lei murmured to himself, “Primitive worship?”


    “To primeval lifeforms, the act of primitive worship doesn’t mean much. It’s nothing more than just pure faith. However, to the subjects of worship, it’s something incredibly extraordinary!


    “Because... Primitive worship can allow them to... Be deities!”


    [1] Referring to the hugepensation payment from the relocation


    [2] A district located in the heart of Beijing, wherend is very expensive