Chapter 1018: Chapter 1018: It Fell, It Fell...
Sometimes, Lilina is a quirky perfectionist, which is the more artistic way to put it. Simply speaking, she might be a bit of a fanatic: as long as she’s set a standard, she’s determined to achieve perfection regardless of how much effort it takes. A prime example is the establishment of the Life Goddess Sect: back when Lilina was first resurrected by us, she declared she wanted to be Dingdang’s priest. At that time, Dingdang was still a complete novice goddess only just trying to manage the world independently (sympathetically, her few subordinates were already gods of several worlds), not to mention a priest by her side, she didn’t even have a single follower, and Dingdang herself had no idea how to spread faith. There was such a big commotion in the Vedis Empire back then that in the end, the faith of Vedis’s mortals was just a broad "Life Goddess" rather than directly her, Dingdang, so everyone thought Lilina was just joking: a tiny goddess and one whose only talents seemed to be eating sweets quickly and jumping through fiery hoops precisely - following such a deity and building a grand religious organization? And making this religion actually function as the Empire’s right-hand?
At the time, we considered this nothing more than a child’s wild talk — Lilina’s deceptively youthful appearance and personality always made us treat her like a child, and that occasion was no exception.
Yet Lilina later proved to us how high the action power of a fanatic can be when she makes up her mind. With her strength alone, she took on roles as priest, bishop, missionary, even divine servant, and she wrote doctrines (though they were revised every two days), structured the church (admittedly Googled directly), and pondered how to allow mortals to wield the power of the Life Goddess through faith (because Dingdang was of no help at all, as her leadership in faith test had only scored six points out of a full one hundred and fifty). She even ventured alone into the realm of Azeroth’s green dragons to recruit knights. As she stubbornly fulfilled this promise, she preached in Dark City, made her presence in Eastern Plague, gave lectures in Funeral Bell Town, and recruited followers in Crow Ridge — well, these efforts may have been questionable directions, but ultimately she accomplished all of it.
The Life Goddess Sect finally flourished across the Macro World. This oddly structured religion, with bizarre doctrines and occasional chaos between its followers and leaders, and wherein it’s commonly agreed that one should repeat prayers to the goddess several times, is now the largest civilian force within the Empire. They’re never at the forefront, but they symbolize the hope for the Servant Army, and alongside Leader Bee and the Regeneration Factory, they’re renowned as one of the Empire’s three great nursing brigades, and the only one solely for mortals. Lilina is highly credited.
Now, this excessively obsessive one-meter-and-nine has been struck by another rigid idea: she insists on finding a new Mother Tree for the Tree Elves, yet the newly established Heavenly Garden clearly doesn’t meet her standards.
"The reproduction and evolution of a species are altogether different from mere production and manufacturing," Lilina said, looking profoundly enigmatic like an expert scholar. If she were sixty centimeters taller, I’d dare boast her being a genius scholar at Beijing University, "The former requires flexible change, a whole set of processes for self-improvement without planning, whereas no matter how ingeniously designed the latter are, they remain rigid, assembly line products. Tree Elves should be a True Race, not mere tools. But if they afterwards rely on Heavenly Garden to generate population, as soon as the current generation of Tree Elves dies out, the next will be manufactured, never evolving, identical souls, even the date on which each child stops wetting the bed will be the same..."
Does every one of her metaphors eventually lead to something bizarre?
"Then by what you’re saying, Xyrin Apostles can’t live," I rubbed Lilina’s head; her worried little face was too strange, "Don’t forget, a lot of Xyrin Apostles walk off the production line."
"But the production line of Xyrin Apostles is itself spirited. Xyrin Apostles descend from specialized lines that generate sentience; these lines are controlled by the Xyrin Host, which is connected to the spiritual network of the whole race. In essence, the Xyrin Apostles as a whole are a giant life form, and the so-called production lines and mass-produced soldiers are merely organelles of this being. Separate them, they seem mechanical alike, but they possess a spiritual network, which gives rise to the racial soul. Heavenly Garden lacks this ’racial soul,’ or ’soul code;’ every species created thereafter carries an ’encryption’ that nobody else can replicate, not even the authentic Tree Elves by me or the Lady Goddess. Hence, this is the limitation of Heavenly Garden."
Lilina’s words were so deep and mysterious that I couldn’t help seeing her anew, but the young girl blinked, unsatisfied with my look: "Boss, what’s that look? This is my specialty, is it really that hard to understand?"
"Proceed, proceed." I thought to myself there’s truly no doubting her genius psychological background, for she discovered my intention at a glance. However, speaking of it, aren’t most genius girls a little obsessive? Take, for instance, Madame Curie...
"Whenever someone talks about something beyond your understanding, you definitely stray off-topic and go somewhere unknown," Lilina sighed in resignation, then crouched down to poke a gray-green thin vine drifting nearby. Oddly enough, the vine shrunk back with my touch, but didn’t budge no matter how Lilina poked it. "Father God is home, and finding him would surely solve the problem, but I want to settle it myself. The Life Goddess’s power she gave me should suffice. The Mother Tree itself wants to continue living; I can hear it..."
"You’ve already got a plan?" I studied Lilina’s expression, based on my understanding of this little girl, she most likely had a plan but wouldn’t dare to make a decision without discussing it with me first.
Lilina paused for a few seconds, then slowly spoke: "The Mother Tree itself can no longer grow, while Heavenly Garden can’t replace it, so my initial plan was to graft the Mother Tree and Heavenly Garden together. The roadblock now is their incompatibility. One solution is to turn all Tree Elves into Life Goddess’s followers, and through the reverse influence of racial individuals on the whole, it may allow the Mother Tree to gradually be imbued with Dingdang’s power for easier grafting — this is relatively easy to accomplish with a little time, everything else I’ve got covered. Secondly, well, I need something from the Lady Goddess, placing it at the core of the Mother Tree would fully change the Tree Elves’ domain." Oh, after that, calling Tree Elves wouldn’t count as a long-distance call?
"Why not just say it?" I glanced at Lilina, perplexed. She was ordinarily so close with Dingdang; the nominal relationship of god and servant aside, they were practically sisters in actuality. Given such closeness, does she really need someone else to relay the message?
"That thing is pretty important," Lilina spread her hands, "I know Boss will definitely talk me down later, so I’m letting you know beforehand; what if you misunderstand me starting trouble again, then? You’ll dislike me."
Though Lilina tried to sound easygoing, I understood the little girl’s feelings: she planned to ask Dingdang for something extraordinary, fearing I’d mistake her as coaxing Dingdang, whose wits weren’t always sharp, thus preemptively setting me straight. Oh well, the mind of a girl truly is difficult to grasp. Hasn’t the young girl exploited Dingdang enough times already? To replenish Church Holy Water supplies, she once used winter bathing as an excuse to cook Dingdang stew pot after pot without me complaining.
Maybe she’s simply suddenly afraid of being disliked; this capricious person, having sudden moods doesn’t seem bizarre. I’m just more curious about what she intends to ask of Dingdang.
"That leaf," Lilina weakly pointed at my pocket, where Dingdang, restless in her sleep, had poked a wingtip out flapping in the wind, "The Lady Goddess has two leaves on her head, doesn’t she? I want one..."
Me: "..."
Whoa, this really is some incredible thing!
"Boss, I’m serious." Lilina looked over without changing her expression, "Anyway, I’ve heard it can grow back once fallen, but should the Tree Elves perish, that’s the end for them. Spare me a thought for my saving sentiment, and the Goddess would surely agree..."
"I didn’t say anything, it’s just that what you want is so peculiar, I’m only now reacting."
The moment she heard, Lilina’s face lit up with joy, eagerly watching my pocket: where the wingtip fluttered again.
I pulled Dingdang from my pocket, the little creature still sleeping like there’s no tomorrow, her sleepy level recently being quite bizarre. Despite being inclined to sleep once full, she normally spent at least half her time playing outside. But now, aside from eating, she seems constantly asleep!
It took quite some effort to get Dingdang to open her eyes, even including tossing her skyward: I thought she’d instinctively fly like a bird once tossed, almost causing the little thing to fall, terrifying Lilina half to death.
Just awakened — or maybe still half-asleep, the Little One sat cross-legged in my palm, rubbing her eyes and glancing around: "Ah, you’ve arrived at the temple. Ah Jun, is it time to eat?"
"Seems like the Lady Goddess’s condition truly isn’t right." Lilina remarked about the Lady Goddess yet prodded Dingdang’s head without any reverence, causing the little thing to wobble: she hadn’t yet steadied herself.
"Uh, are you okay?" I finally felt that Dingdang’s situation was more than just sleepiness and couldn’t help but ask with concern. But then again, as a Life Goddess, is there really a need to worry about Dingdang’s physical state?
"It’s nothing, just feeling really sleepy these days and constantly wanting to eat." Dingdang said, swaying side to side, and eventually cuddled up to my thumb. "Maybe it’s because I was too tired from experiments recently. Ah Jun, do you need something from Dingdang?"
"Uh, Lilina needs something from you," I hesitated, feeling that what I was about to say was full of things worth ridiculing, "the leaf on your head, Lilina needs one piece to resurrect the Mother Tree of the Tree Elf."
Dingdang nodded in a daze and pulled a small leaf from her head, handing it over while muttering, "Oh, here you go. But this leaf grows on Dingdang’s head, it can’t be pulled off..."
Both Lilina and I were stunned: "..."
Only then did Dingdang open her eyes, reacting even slower than us: "... Ah, it came off!"
It came off! This little thing said it couldn’t be pulled off while she casually yanked it down herself!
"Dingdang changed leaves?" The Little Goddess finally came to her senses, her eyes widening. She held the leaf she’d just pulled off and touched another "hairpin" still on her head. Suddenly, she cheered, "Yay! Dingdang changed leaves!"
Both Lilina and I were completely baffled, but Dingdang had no intention of explaining. She was flipping around in the air excitedly like she’d ingested a pound of stimulants, making us dizzy within a few minutes. It wasn’t until five or six minutes later that the little thing spun herself into a dizzy state, bumped into me, and was flailing while holding onto my thumb, "Ah Jun, Ah Jun, Dingdang changed leaves! Dingdang is an adult now! From now on, Dingdang is a grown-up!"
I dumbly accepted the leaf handed to me by the little one. It was hard to tell anything while it was on Dingdang’s head. But once in my hand, I realized it was incredibly tiny, not even half a centimeter long, looking like a flattened green bean from afar. The base was a simple leaf stalk, and I couldn’t understand how this thing used to be on Dingdang. I handed this strange thing over to Lilina and looked at the even stranger Dingdang. Finally, I realized, "Adulthood? Oh! I remember, the first time the Life Goddess changes leaves. Dingdang, this is your first time changing leaves, huh?"
"Hmm, hmm," the little thing was happily hopping around, "after plucking off a leaf, it feels so light and not sleepy at all. I felt foggy-headed these past two days because of this. Dingdang is amazing——Dingdang needs to report this good news to Father God! Ah Jun, come along, and Lilina, come too!"
Lilina and I exchanged dazed glances, and by the time we came to, Dingdang was gone: this hurried little one just opened a teleportation gate and returned to the outside world. She was considerate enough to leave the gate open for us, but unfortunately, neither Lilina nor I could use it—the radius was only as big as a pancake.
At this time, Father God was sunbathing in the courtyard with a book. When he’s got nothing to do, he seems to have a hobby of reading any book he can get, from the big tomes Bingdisi carries around to textbooks Sayaka uses for classes. Father God can immerse himself for half a day. Dingdang’s sudden chattering entrance made Father God pause for a moment, but he quickly understood what the cheerful little one was about.
Soon, everyone in the house was drawn over by Dingdang. After hearing the news about the leaf change, more than half of them were only half-understanding, but they vaguely knew what was going on—we’ve heard a bit about what the leaves on a Life Goddess’s head signify.
"So, Dingdang wasn’t an adult before?"
Qianqian’s thought process went a bit off-kilter, and she was the first to think of this question.
"No, in terms of age, Dingdang is already an adult among the Life Goddesses," Father God said with a gentle smile, lightly touching Dingdang’s head. "Uh, of course, it seems like all Life Goddesses never grow up, but Dingdang is indeed considered an adult now. However, because the Divine Race has an infinite lifespan, there are several criteria for determining adulthood for a Life Goddess—there’s a standard age, completion of basic knowledge training for a Life Goddess, and the first leaf change—each of these criteria holds significant meaning for them——although I don’t know why it matters so much. These little ones usually live in a muddle, so let’s not delve too deeply into the details."
"Changed leaves, changed leaves..." Dingdang joyfully lay on Lilina’s head. Seeing the little one so happy, even if I didn’t understand why leaf changing could be a criterion for adulthood, I still felt it was something worth celebrating for Dingdang. She had already given one leaf to Lilina, and there was still one on her head. It was said that a Life Goddess’s two leaves change simultaneously, so does that mean the other leaf can also...
Thinking this, I gently reached out to touch Dingdang’s head... and the second leaf fell off.
... Seriously, it just fell off when I touched it!
I was stunned, and my sister and others froze as well. Everything that had happened just now was abnormal, but what I did now seemed to be the most discordant of all the abnormalities: I actually managed to pluck Dingdang’s last leaf.
"Eh?" Dingdang felt an emptiness on her head, instinctively reached to touch it, then saw the small leaf in my hand, and didn’t mind. She just climbed up and took back the leaf, "I can only give one to others. This one will be kept for myself."
Father God looked at me with a particularly strange expression, "The leaf of a Life Goddess, especially the first one that’s been changed, is an exceptionally important item. Apart from them plucking it off themselves, only the closest person can..."
At this point, he took a look at the completely oblivious Dingdang, coughed twice, "Cough cough, never mind, it seems she’s closer to you than to me. A grown daughter can’t be kept at home, eh? Don’t bully her in the future." Why does that sound so odd to me?
"Dingdang, Dingdang," Qianqian was the only one untouched by the surrounding environment. She was still busy teasing the little one, "Will you grow new leaves in the future?" "Of course, new leaves will grow out soon!" Dingdang counted on her fingers, "Anyway, it’ll be very soon."
Bingdisi also came over, "Dingdang, what do you plan to do with this leaf?"
Dingdang thought for a long time and clapped her hands, "Plant it! I’ll plant a small Dingdang, and in the future, I can play with it together!" (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on . Your support is my biggest motivation.)