Chapter 1103: The Heart of Nature Begins to Pulse |
He had cultivated for two thousand years and presided over the Ancestral Court for a long time, yet this was the first time he had felt something like this. What happened? Had something monumental just taken place?
He gathered his divine consciousness and poured it into the Celestial Fox Sacred Mountain beneath him, using it as an amplifier for his sensing power. He wanted to see if there had been any shifts in the fortune of the plane.
But everything had seemingly returned to normal, as if nothing had ever happened.
The Celestial Fox Demon Emperor could no longer sit still. He shot up from his seat, and in the next instant, he appeared high in the sky, spreading his divine consciousness outward to detect whatever subtle change might have occurred.
Yet after a full half-hour of careful sensing, he found nothing. It was as if everything he had just experienced had been a complete illusion.
Illusion? There is absolutely no way. Something is off. He was a peak Demon Emperor who had in his hands the literal fate of the continent. He knew, without a doubt, that such hallucinations were impossible for someone like him. Something had happened, but it was so elusive that even he couldn't detect it. And for one who controlled fate, nothing could be more torturous than this.
***
Meanwhile, a faint smile crept onto Tang San's face. A trace of icy radiance flashed in his eyes as the seven-colored gemstone in his hands trembled lightly under the influx of faith power, releasing an even more brilliant multicolored glow.
Looking up at the sky, he said calmly, "Just watch. Because even if another million years pass, you won't be able to create another Heart of Nature. I'll leave it behind when I go. But if you interfere again… you know what the consequences will be."
What was the Heart of Nature? It was not just a treasure but the treasure of heaven and earth, born only when a realm's natural energy became overly abundant and naturally condensed. A plane could only ever produce one, and this fist-sized Heart of Nature was the only one Tang San had touched in all his lifetimes.
Did its name imply affinity with nature? Of course, but that was not remotely its most important purpose. That purpose was best described by another name: Divine Realm Cornerstone.
For a plane to evolve into a divine realm, it had to first produce a Heart of Nature. Then, with the guidance of a supreme being, divine energy could be generated through it, gradually leading to the evolution of the entire plane.
In other words, if a plane wanted to become a divine realm, the Heart of Nature was absolutely essential. Moreover, only the Heart of Nature born from that plane could serve as the divine realm's core.
One could imagine how precious it was.
It was extremely difficult for any plane in the universe to become a divine realm, and the hardest part was the awakening of the plane's consciousness and the enlightenment that let it reach a higher level of existence. Whether the Heart of Nature had been formed for ten years or ten million years, if no one knew how to use it, the plane would never become a divine realm. And if the Heart of Nature was destroyed, the possibility would vanish forever.
Therefore, when Tang San activated the Heart of Nature, the entire Planet Falan was instantly alarmed. Its first reaction was terror and rage. Even if the planar ruler didn't know what the Heart of Nature was or how to use it, it understood what it would mean if this item were to be destroyed.
Even the most powerful Emperor on this plane—no, even all Emperors together—wouldn't be able to activate it. Only true divine energy could awaken the Heart of Nature. And at this moment, as Tang San used faith energy to summon his divine seat, the Heart of Nature was indeed activated.
The planar ruler's agitation quickly subsided, and all tremors ceased.
In Tang San's hands, the Heart of Nature trembled softly, as though it were shyly releasing its aura toward him, almost fawningly.
Tang San gazed at it and shook his head, murmuring, "This plane isn't ready yet. And I don't have the strength either. Remember: If this world remains ruled by demons and nymphs, it will never evolve into a divine realm. Only when humanity becomes the true sovereign of this world will you have the chance to fully evolve. So now, I'm going to borrow part of your power to create an opportunity for humanity."
The Heart of Nature trembled again, seemingly communicating something to Tang San.
"Don't be hasty. You should understand how the laws of the universe suppress and reject divine realms. Since you were born, this plane has made some preparations, but they are nowhere near enough. A plane can only become a divine realm through trials and tribulations. Only after enduring those can it complete its final evolution. Planet Falan is one of the strongest mortal planes I've seen. That means your future trials will be even harsher. I'll help you, but you must also protect humanity."
The Heart of Nature ceased trembling. Now, sensing the divine energy and faith energy flowing from Tang San, it expressed a desire—a longing for Tang San to activate it, so that it could become the cornerstone of a new divine realm. A desire for him to guide Planet Falan on the path of ascension. But that was easier said than done. Whether he had his God King power or not, Tang San would never trigger a plane's evolution prematurely. Doing so would invite annihilation by the greater universe. Only a plane that grew naturally from within could evolve into a divine realm without being destroyed.
Tang San lightly tapped the Heart of Nature with his right hand. Four light dots emerged from it and floated before him—blue, red, yellow, and green.
With a wave of his left hand toward Pearl Island, beams of light fell across a ten-kilometer-wide stretch of sea around the island. All the nearby marine creatures were gently pushed away, leaving the waters crystal clear.
The four light dots drifted in four directions, falling into the sea.
At first, there was no significant change. But soon, the color of the sea began to shift in a curious and wondrous way.
The inspiration came from the mysteries of the Magma Red Sea and the way Firedawns lived within. That sea was rich in fire energy, ideal for the Firedawn clan, and it was all thanks to the Fire God's Scepter. But what Tang San sought wasn't a place like the Magma Red Sea, which was a complete habitat suited for a single elemental race to live within permanently. He wanted pure and untainted Elemental Seas, places where humans could observe, comprehend, and cultivate elemental power without being tied to the place itself.
He had created the Elemental Pools, and they had been useful for selecting people with some measure of potential, but the energy within was simply insufficient to sustain the cultivation of multiple people over the long term. He needed something much more powerful than that, a primary source of elemental energy that was capable of continuously generating such energy in large quantities. In other words, mere divine artifacts simply would not do.
And indeed, nothing was more suitable than the Heart of Nature, which was in practical terms a cluster of all types of energy in a plane, in such tremendous amounts that it had taken solid form.
Now, Tang San had separated four elemental seeds from the Heart of Nature and placed them around Pearl Island. These seeds would attract their corresponding elemental energies, and the surrounding areas would soon transform into Elemental Seas.
The four elements he had "planted" were the fundamental elements: water, fire, earth, and wind. With these, and the growth of the elemental seeds, more types of Elemental Seas would eventually emerge, since all derivative elements stemmed from the basics. At the same time, separating these four seeds wouldn't really harm the Heart of Nature.
Gradually, the four areas of water began to glow faintly. The formation of the Elemental Seas was now just a matter of time.
the poing team's Thoughts
penguin: so let us calculate how powerful the Heart of Nature is! If it’s about the size of a fist and about the density of a diamond, we can assume it’s about half a kilogram in weight. The novel doesn’t describe it as particularly heavy, so that should be about it. Let us then assume this mass can be perfectly converted into energy. Using Einstein’s formula would give us 4.5 x 10¹⁶ Joules, which is indeed a metric fuckton of energy. In nuke terms (because one must nuke the fox at some point), it would be somewhere in the vicinity of 10.5 megatons of TNT. This would make it about 500 times stronger than the Hiroshima bomb and about on par with Castle Romeo, which is… nr. 9 on the list of the most powerful nukes ever detonated. Seems kinda underwhelming from that perspective, but it would simply vaporize the entire Ancestral Court and everyone in it.