Sovereign of the Ashes

Chapter 684: Verdant Leaf World’s Fate

The war in Verdant Leaf World had entered its fourth year when the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army reached the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Royal City.

Blazing Sunflower, the demigod-level plant from the north, made a strong initial impact.

As resistance from the native creatures of Verdant Leaf World dwindled, more and more fell to the invaders.

Among these, most were the insect species—the most populous in Verdant Leaf World.

The true rulers of Verdant Leaf World were the Bamboo Leaf Dragonflies, who had little in common with the other insect species that had already lost their fight for the sovereignty of this plane.

The other insect creatures did not really care who ruled this plane; they simply wished to live.

The Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army extended preferential treatment to the native creatures of Verdant Leaf World who yielded in time.

The sooner they surrendered, the more favorable their treatment.

For the insect creatures who chose to fight alongside the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Clan to the bitter end, the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring showed no leniency.

They were destined to vanish into the annals of history along with the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Clan.

Lorianne planned to develop this world and had no intention of destroying it.

Thousands of years later, once Verdant Leaf World had reached new heights, the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Clan would be largely forgotten by the native inhabitants.

Perhaps only a few long-lived plant creatures might remember them, but even these recollections would eventually fade into the river of history.

***

Meanwhile, at the ancestral land of the Bamboo Leaf Dragonflies...

Although the war had entered its fourth year, the vast disparity in strength between the two sides had already made the outcome apparent to all involved.

Even the less intelligent subordinate insect creatures were defecting and turning against each other in succession.

As the dominant race of the plane, the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Clan was a highly evolved and intelligent species among insect creatures.

Those Bamboo Leaf Dragonflies above Rank One clearly recognize their precarious situation—the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Royal City represented the last bastion of the clan.

The Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Clan would have nowhere to go if even the royal city were to fall.

While the most elite warriors continued to hold the front lines, the few remaining dignitaries of the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Clan gathered at their ancestral land, seeking guidance from their ancestor.

Despite having led the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Clan through countless battles, their ancestor had suffered severe injuries multiple times. Until today, none of the dignitaries had managed to meet with this revered figure because the demigod-level Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly, Lantz, was also seeking an audience with another forebear.

***

The heavy stone door slowly creaked open, having been sealed for nearly a thousand years.

This also meant that the entity within had not emerged for a millennium, determined to make a breakthrough, even at the risk of its own demise!

In the history of the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Clan, it was the only female to achieve demigod status—a figure of unparalleled potential within its clan!

Even the guardian had acknowledged it as the most promising Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly to ascend to Rank Four in the last ten thousand years.

Sadly, its attempt to break through failed. With the current state of Verdant Leaf World and the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Clan, it would take tens of thousands of years to amass enough resources to nurture another Rank Four creature and elevate this microplane to a low-level plane.

The arrival of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army, coupled with the catastrophic losses the Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly Clan suffered from interplanar warfare, had significantly weakened Verdant Leaf World.

After all, the strength of a world was measured by the number of its ranked inhabitants, its wealth of resources, and the completeness of its laws.

The onslaught of the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army had drastically reduced the number of Rank One or higher creatures.

Additionally, the resources that had been nurtured by the plane over the ages were now at risk of being plundered.

Even the foundational laws of this world had been compromised after consecutive, fierce battles.

Upon her initial entry into the world, Tourmaline had destroyed several of Verdant Leaf World’s laws.

Not only her, but the presence of non-native demigods also caused significant damage to the foundational laws of Verdant Leaf World.

The demise of a native demigod would also further impact the will of this microplane.

Furthermore, the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring Army had no intention of sparing the current guardian, the Ancient Verdant Banyan.

It was time for a change in guardianship.

The fall of the guardian would profoundly affect the developmental trajectory of the plane.

Previously, Verdant Leaf World was on a path to evolve into a lower-level realm within the next twenty to thirty thousand years

Now, that progression could extend beyond a hundred thousand years after the war’s conclusion.

Without the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring’s permission, the Verdant Leaf World could not possibly nurture its own Rank Four creature.

In the Magus Alliance, only a select few allied planes received substantial support from the alliance, enabling rapid development and transformation. Yet, these instances were rare.

Verdant Leaf World, not being a member of the Magus Alliance but merely Lorianne’s personal enslaved plane, naturally did not enjoy such privileges.

Additionally, when the Magus Alliance extended strong support to a plane, there was usually a deeper strategy at play.

This could be to showcase the superiority of their system in order to attract more planes and civilizations, or because evolving that world into a higher-level plane could benefit the Magus Civilization itself, thus warranting its strong support.

The analogy was simple—to get milk, one must feed the cow.

The Magus Alliance’s Activator Fairy World was the best example.

The Magus World had effectively nurtured this plane to a medium-sized world for one reason—it could generate more value for the Magus Civilization!

Those in the Activated Fairy World were nothing more than livestock, unaware of their actual standing.

The Verdant Leaf World was not so lucky. Lacking special life forms or precious resources, it was unable to follow in the footsteps of the Activated Fairy World.

However, given the expansion trends of the Magus Civilization over the past one hundred thousand years, Verdant Leaf World’s time as Lorianne’s enslaved plane might not extend beyond forty to fifty thousand years.

Once she had extracted as much value as possible, she would likely push this microplane to join the Magus Alliance through compulsion from the Divine Tower of Verdant Spring.

Joining the Magus Alliance would not bring many changes to the Verdant Leaf World.

It would remain under Lorianne’s control unless a higher-ranked Magus World powerhouse decided to buy this microplane from her.

In a stone cave, a slender Bamboo Leaf Dragonfly seated cross-legged on a stone bed remarked, “I feel the decay and decline; the Verdant Truth of this world has significantly diminished. What exactly has happened?”