Water it more?
Su Zhou fell silent, then slowly asked, "That's it?"
"What else?"
Yara, on the other hand, seemed a bit confused. "Don't you humans water your flowers, fruit trees, and potted plants? I clearly saw—" As it spoke, the Snake Spirit raised its tail, bent it, and pointed toward Su Zhou's balcony. "You have quite a few potted plants at your place."
Su Zhou looked up. Those were some flowers and plants his mom kept, and he was usually the one in charge of watering them.
Of course, in a classic move for the people of Zhengguo, his dad had also planted a row of chives, garlic, and scallions.
He could see that both the potted plants and the vegetables were looking a little wilted since no one had watered them while he was away on his trip. Su Zhou quickly grabbed his Squirtle Sprayer and, with a 'Squirtle! Squirtle!', began to water them.
After watering the plants, Su Zhou returned, a conflicted look on his face. He said to Yara, "Alright, it's just... doesn't this seem a little too easy? I mean, humanity was driven out of Eden by God just for eating a Wisdom Fruit!"
Besides, Su Zhou couldn't shake the feeling that something was off about how easy it was to care for the Divine Wood—even if it was just an imitation. In all the strange legends and web novels he'd read, similar items were almost always incredibly delicate or required a great price to use.
"Which do you think is stronger? A 'Divine Wood' that can survive and keep growing even if just a single leaf falls to the ground, a Divine Wood that can alter its surroundings to make the world adapt to it? Or a 'Divine Wood' that can only be nourished by the soil of Eden and water from the Supreme Heaven, and withers the moment it leaves an environment rich in Spiritual Qi?"
Sensing the thoughts wandering from its Contractor, Yara sighed and corrected Su Zhou's misconception.
"It's not that the latter type doesn't exist, but most powerful Spiritual Objects will conceal themselves for self-preservation during a Dharma Decline Era. They survive as long as possible while preserving their core Spiritual Energy and Spirit Rank. Your knowledge in this area is sorely lacking. After you cultivate a Wisdom Fruit, I'll teach you how to identify rare materials so you don't miss out on a Divine Object or mistake trash for treasure in the future."
"Besides," the Snake Spirit's voice grew faint here, as if muttering to itself, "it wasn't exactly 'driven out' back then... It's a complicated matter, not easy to explain to you."
"I understand." Su Zhou nodded obediently, not arguing the point. He thanked Yara for its guidance, then seemed to remember something. He turned and rummaged through his suitcase for a moment before his hand finally closed around the object.
The mysterious, Silver Pocket Watch.
"Yara, those other two things were so powerful. What in the world is this?"
As he said this, Su Zhou was genuinely curious. Neither the True Cross Fragment nor the Wisdom Tree Branch had fully withstood the siphon of Spiritual Energy from Yara's ritual in the Void; they had both lost a great deal of their power.
But this Silver Pocket Watch was different. According to Yara's own words, its escape had been interfered with by this thing, causing it to be sealed again. It had only managed to break free a sliver of its True Spirit, which could only eke out an existence in the present world after forming a contract with him.
The first two were already so strong—so what exactly was this Pocket Watch, which was clearly a cut above other Spiritual Objects and had even made Yara's main body extremely wary?
The Snake Spirit was silent for a moment before sighing. "I don't know. Or rather, I can't be sure."
"However, this thing is undoubtedly related to the 'Sealing Gate'."
The Sealing Gate.
Also known as the 'Great Gate'.
Su Zhou clearly remembered the thing Yara had once shown him: the black rift that spanned the Celestial Vault, tearing apart the sky and the Star Sea.
"Really?"
The Snake Spirit's words made Su Zhou's expression turn serious in an instant. He tightened his grip on the Pocket Watch in his right hand and stared at it. "This thing... is it really related to those black rifts?"
Thinking about it, it did make sense. Yara had said that the Sealing Gate was the source of the Spiritual Qi Revival, sealing away Great Beings like itself and serving as a gate to Otherworlds. And the Silver Pocket Watch had indeed knocked Yara's Divine Intent, which had been on the verge of descending, back into its seal. If the two were related, it was certainly plausible.
"It's not related to the rifts. Those rifts are actually fissures in the seal. This Silver Pocket Watch is clearly the material manifestation of a certain sealing node."
Yara's tone had always been cheerful or flippant, tinged with a strange sense of amusement.
But when it spoke of the 'Seal', its spiritual fluctuations became serious and calm, carrying a faint trace of Majesty. "Su Zhou, behind the countless rifts I showed you are numerous worlds filled with Spiritual Qi. Those colossal rifts in the sky lead to the far reaches of time and space. They are what brought the vast Spiritual Qi that caused the Spiritual Qi Revival in this world."
"And this Spiritual Qi will also carry information from each Otherworld, catalyzing the emergence of all kinds of Spiritual Objects, Monsters, and even 'Evil Demons' in your world."
At this point, the Snake Spirit nipped Su Zhou's ear, a signal for the boy—who had zoned out, seemingly imagining what Evil Demons looked like and whether they were tasty—to pay close attention to what came next. "Remember, Evil Demons are the 'keys' for those from the Otherworlds, and even for beings like me, to open the seal. The more of them there are, the more likely the seal is to crumble and the gate to open."
'Evil Demons... are the keys for other Great Beings to open the Sealing Gate?'
"Then, what happens after the gate opens?" Snapping back to reality, Su Zhou mentally filed away all the information and asked with a frown, "Will beings like you... descend?"
This was exactly what he was worried about.
Even a single drop of its blood could trigger a world-shaking Thunderbolt Anomaly and stir up a storm in a nation in a world where Spiritual Qi had not yet revived. So what would a drop of Yara's blood do in the Era of Spiritual Qi Revival? What about its sealed main body? And what about its main body, freed from the seal?
Even if the being didn't seem malicious right now... sometimes, the mere existence of a powerful being is enough to bring about immense changes to the world.
"One or two gates opening might not change much." Yara closed its eyes, seemingly deep in thought, then answered Su Zhou's question in a low voice. "As for a being like me, my current main body is just a tiny remnant fragment compared to my peak... If things progress gradually, by the time that happens, I don't think humanity will lack a Powerhouse capable of slaying that mere remnant."
"But, Su Zhou, if too many of those Sealing Gates crisscrossing the boundless void open—if they surpass a certain limit..."
Yara's tone shifted. It opened its eyes, stared calmly at Su Zhou's profile, and stated a fact. "Your entire world—and by that, I mean the entire cosmos."
"Will be destroyed in a chain reaction."
Just as a sheet of glass is weakened by a single bullet hole, countless rifts will spread out, ultimately destroying the entire universe from one tiny point. Such a chain reaction was not impossible.
For a moment, Su Zhou made no sound, and Yara said nothing more.
The entire room was plunged into silence.
"...I believe that."
After a long while, Su Zhou gave a slight nod.
He neither disbelieved nor blindly accepted this news, which was so vast and grand it bordered on the fantastical. The young man took a deep breath, calming himself down.
Then, Su Zhou lowered his head, took Yara from his ear, and placed it in his palm. He looked the Snake Spirit in the eye, his expression grave, and said softly, "The Leader of the Continuous Prayer Meeting said something similar before he died. He said the world was about to be destroyed, and only your believers could live forever in the Holy Sanctuary."
"They must have known something and verified that information was correct. That's why their conviction was so strong.
And you're going to tell me about it, right, Yara?"
"That's right. I will tell you everything, the whole truth."
The Snake Spirit spoke with equal calm. "The answer is simple, Su Zhou. Based on the tempo of the Spiritual Qi Revival that I can foresee, the Sealing Gates will open one after another."
"In the not-so-distant future, the worlds behind them, whether fractured or whole, will collide and merge with your world. While this will trigger an even more violent Spiritual Qi Revival, it will also brew a devastating consequence—it will cause all the merging worlds to be annihilated together."
"And the countdown to the chain destruction of All Realms, if we start counting from this very day, is a mere 15 years, 9 months, 22 days, 18 hours, and 31 seconds."
"Ah, and now it's 29 seconds."