294: Dry earth revives

Under the gaze of an existence that had been deathly silent for who knows how many epochs, Li Dong pressed the seed, which held an entire spring within it, into the cracked earth.

There was no earth-shattering roar.

There was no light pollution from the collision of Laws.

The movement was as light as a falling feather.

Yet, in the thousandth of a second after the seed sank into the soil.

"Click."

A cracking sound, so faint it was almost inaudible, came from the earth beneath Li Dong's fingertips.

It wasn't the cracking of dry soil; the sound was more like... an eggshell breaking.

The old village chief's cloudy eyes suddenly contracted. His arm holding the wooden staff tensed, his withered knuckles turning white from the effort.

He had heard it.

Immediately after.

"Crack... crackle..."

The sound was no longer a solo; it was a symphony!

With Li Dong's finger as the center, the spiderweb-like cracks were no longer lifeless scars; they began to wriggle and close!

That land, cursed for eons, where even stones had weathered into sand, was actually... breathing!

With every breath, visibly, the earthy yellow ground was deepening in color, shifting from the gray of despair to a... deep brown, rich with moisture!

"The... the soil has come alive?"

A villager uttered a trembling voice like a dream. He couldn't believe his eyes and rubbed them hard. When he opened them again, the scene before him further overturned his perception.

In the center of the moist soil, a touch of green, incredibly savage and overbearing, pushed open the soil layer!

It was not a weak sprout.

It was a declaration of war against this [Barren] world!

The moment it broke through the soil, a fragrance impossible to describe in words, mixed with grass and earth, burst forth!

For the villagers who had long been accustomed to decay and dust, this scent was no less than the most potent poison, rushing straight to their minds!

"Ah—"

The woman sitting on the threshold with hollow eyes suddenly covered her nose, her whole body trembling violently. Two lines of cloudy tears rolled down from her dry eye sockets without warning, washing two clear gullies onto her dust-covered face.

She cried.

Not because of sadness, but because her Soul, soaked in [Despair], had smelled a scent that shouldn't have existed in this world.

That was the scent of "Hope".

Everyone froze. They watched that touch of green, at a speed that completely defied common sense, madly shooting upward!

One inch, three inches, one foot!

Leaves unfurled, stems stretched high; it was not growth, it was a riot of life!

In the time of a few breaths, a verdant plant, one they had never seen before, grew before their eyes, stretching out its spirited leaves, as if mocking the sickly gray-white of this world.

"Miracle... a miracle..."

The old village chief's wooden staff fell to the ground with a "clatter." His back, hunched for a lifetime, could no longer support him; his knees went weak, and he knelt down heavily.

He was not kneeling to Li Dong.

He was kneeling to the miracle before him that overturned everything he had known in his life, something that should have been impossible!

"Thump!"

"Thump, thump!"

One, two... all the villagers at the village entrance who could move, like dominoes being pushed over, knelt on the ground one after another.

They couldn't say anything, just opening their mouths, making a "ho-ho" sound in their throats. Tears flooded, venting all the sorrow and confusion that had been sealed away for countless generations.

The child who wouldn't even cry when falling in the dust now had wide, round eyes, small hands clutching his mother's ragged clothes tightly, his little mouth formed into an "O" shape.

Mo Chen was also stirred by this surging life force.

The brush in his hand was humming, yearning!

He did not hesitate. The tip of his brush dipped into the colors condensed in the Void Realm, and with the most primitive, most uninhibited strokes, he slammed this "touch of vibrant green" onto the "eons of dead gray-yellow" on the scroll!

When that stroke fell, the green on the scroll actually resonated with the plant in reality. A [Variable] that awakened hope, carried by the breeze, blew across the entire village.

Li Dong stood up, not looking at the kneeling villagers.

He just raised his hand and pressed it lightly in the air above the plant.

[Attunement]! [Anti-Devour]!

He could feel that deep within this land, the persistent [Barren] Law was frantically counterattacking, attempting to strangle this "anomaly."

But in the face of Li Dong's higher-order Law, this resistance appeared ridiculous and pathetic.

The concept of [Barren] was forcibly distorted by his [Attunement], "devoured" in one bite by the [Anti-Devour] Law, and then... transformed!

The "poison" originally used to strangle life had now become the purest nutrient to nourish this plant!

Nourished, the plant's growth rate skyrocketed again!

Just then, Li Dong turned and walked toward the dry well in the village that had been dried up for who knows how many years.

He reached out and pressed lightly on the cracked well rim.

The Origin energy of the heart of the universe, following his arm, like a waking Dragon, probed deep into the earth's veins.

"Glug... glug..."

From deep at the bottom of the well, there came an unusual sound.

All the villagers' hearts were in their throats.

The next second, a clear spring, like an elf breaking free from a cage, gushed out from the bottom of the well!

The water was so clear, so sweet!

The splashing sound of water was the most beautiful symphony in this deathly silent world!

"Water! It's water!"

A man nearby rushed over like a madman, buried his head in the water, and gulped it down in large mouthfuls.

The cool spring water slid down his parched throat, and he let out a whimper of satisfaction and pain.

With water, with crops...

Could they... survive?

Just as this thought arose, an even more shocking scene occurred.

In the field at the village entrance, the tip of that crazily growing plant actually began to change color!

From verdant green, it rapidly transformed into a brilliant, dazzling—gold!

The heavy grain ears bent the stems; every grain was so full it was about to burst, gleaming with a sacred luster under the gray-white sky.

From sowing to harvest.

Before and after, it took no more than half a day.

The villagers went completely insane.

Songs of joy mixed with weeping, sounds never before heard in this land of despair, echoed through the valley.

Li Dong walked to the terrified child, casually picked a bunch of grain, and handed it to him.

He didn't explain any "Dynamic Equilibrium," nor did he preach any profound Laws.

He just looked into the child's eyes and stated a fact in the most plain tone.

"Take it, eat."

"This land is not dead; it was just... deceived by a lie for too long."

"Now, it has awakened."

The old village chief walked over tremblingly, cupping a handful of golden grains, tears streaming down his old face.

He grabbed a grain, put it in his mouth, and chewed it hard.

A warm current instantly rose from his abdomen, surging to his limbs and bones. His old, aching legs, sore for years, actually felt a long-lost sense of comfort!

This grain could not only satisfy hunger! It could also... heal!

A god!

This was definitely a deity walking in the human world!

The old village chief knelt again. This time, it was out of sincere conviction, a fanatical worship. He kowtowed heavily toward Li Dong's back.

"Divine Venerable!"

Amidst the cheers of the entire village, Li Dong slightly raised his head, looking toward the bare mountains in the distance.

Just a moment ago, at the very moment the miracle occurred, he had felt a gaze.

A gaze from a higher dimension, cold and devoid of any emotion.

That gaze held no anger, no surprise.

Only a kind of... amusement, like The Chess Player watching a chess piece make a "brilliant move."

The peaceful village, because of this abnormal harvest, was destined to be peaceful no more.

The chess game had only just begun.