Chapter 7
The day the golden root wall stood on the southern edge of the Light Domain, the entire power network of the plains was shaken.
This power to actively reshape the terrain has never been recorded in the plant world.
In the memory of most populations, terrain and waterways are unshakeable natural advantages.
Now, Seed237 has broken this rule himself.
Within three days, an emergency sub-conference of the Plains Conference was convened.
The Jianke Ridge dispatched an envoy with copper-colored shell patterns, the lotus platform of the Chaozhao Lotus Alliance floated in a corner of the conference pool, but the vine leader of the Yingteng Alliance did not appear for a long time, leaving only a vague probe wave in the roots.
Sprout 12 moved through the meetings, his pod trembling slightly as he caught the signals of multiple conversations.
He approached the vein of leaf 237 and whispered:
"The Northwest's Hardshell Ridge wants to sign a root pact of non-interference, but they demand to share your terrain rewriting method."
"The Southern Shadow Vine Alliance appears silent, but they have hidden thorns in the mud outside the venue to listen to your every move."
"The stance of the Shionuma Lotus Alliance is ambiguous—they want to cooperate with you, but the prerequisite for cooperation is that you extend the root wall westward to block out both the Kake Ridge and the Shadow Vine."
237 did not rush to respond; she simply said calmly at the meeting:
"The root wall of the Light Domain is not a weapon, but a form of self-protection."
No force that respects the established order can be blocked by it.
However, the real game only began after the meeting.
The Triple Wave of the Covert War
The first wave was a probe from Jianke Ridge.
They dispatched a "root drilling team" under the guise of helping to repair the northern rain veins, but secretly measured the thickness and growth direction of the root network in the optical domain.
Sprout 12 seemingly unintentionally laid a pollen fog trap in the damp sand they had to pass through—once inhaled, the roots of these hard-shelled plants would slightly contract, making it impossible for them to accurately sense direction in the soil.
While they circled around three times without finding their target, 237 had already completed the connection to the second hidden waterway in the northern rain veins.
The second wave was the Shadow Vine Alliance's "silent invasion".
At night, they sent out leafless vines to sneak along the edge of the tidal swamp into the lower layer of the light domain's root wall, attempting to spread in via the waterways.
However, the mother tree's senses trembled slightly deep within its root system, releasing low-frequency root pulses that caused all the invading vines to curl and shrink as if encountering flames the moment they came into contact with the soil in the light domain.
Shadow Vine's spying failed in silence, leaving not even a trace on the surface.
The third wave is a political gamble by the Shionuma Renmei.
They sent a floating vessel laden with pollen crystals as a public gift to the Light Realm, thus demonstrating their willingness to form an alliance.
However, Sprout 12 discovered that a water vein tracking spore was mixed into the batch of crystal powder. Once dissolved in the soil, it would allow the water vein sensors of the swamp to accurately track the distribution of underground moisture in the light field.
237 took the floating boat, smiled without saying a word, and then scattered all the crystal powder into the pool at the celebration banquet—it was a public pool that did not belong to any party, and the spores would forever lose their way.
As the meeting ended, the sky over the plain resembled a low-lying root system, with undercurrents churning beneath.
Sprout12 walked beside 237 and said half-jokingly:
"Today you are the law-abiding mother tree, but next time, perhaps you will use a wall to shut out their schemes."
237 simply raised the tip of its leaf to feel the glimmer of light in the wind.
She knew that this diplomatic maneuver was merely the prelude to a deeper, covert war—and she had already learned to wield the power of the Mother Tree between the battlefield and the parliament.
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