Alka, holding the metal box containing the divine essence, walked toward the base of the Sky Flower.
He had come here because he sensed the blessing guiding him in this direction.
Thinking that the divine essence in his hands originated from the ancient, original Sky Flower, it made sense.
Following Alka,
A priest dressed in a floral robe had been waiting for a long time.
"Lord Alka, follow me."
Alka nodded and followed him, carrying the metal box.
The area beneath the Sky Flower was a key area, patrolled by Flower Knights and soldiers.
They soon reached the base of the rhizome.
The large, gray-haired gardener had been waiting there for a long time.
He turned to look at Alka, still holding his enormous flower scepter.
He nodded to Alka.
Alka lifted the box and was about to hand it to him.
Who knew the head gardener would stop him?
"You do it yourself."
He made way for Alka. Alka nodded, not refusing, and carried the box to the base of the flower.
"How do I do it?"
"Just take it out."
Alka opened the box and took the last magically enshrouded divine essence.
As the divine essence was taken out, the gigantic flower of heaven swayed slightly, but Alka closed his eyes.
He had already sunk into a dream.
Entering the dream world, the giant dream flower appeared before him.
The flower fairy, her body faintly radiating light, lay reclining in the center of the flower.
"I didn't expect you to get it so quickly."
Alka nodded. "It's just a trip, not a big deal."
"How do I give it to you? Take it into my dream?"
Hearing Alka's words, the flower fairy shook her head slightly.
"You just need to place the divine essence into the Heavenly Flower."
Alka nodded.
Just as he was about to leave, he heard the flower say, "You should be able to make your real body move. Witness here."
"Huh?" Alka was confused.
He really didn't understand what that meant.
The flower fairy smiled. "Just wait and see. It won't be a bad thing."
Hearing this, Alka nodded, not refusing.
Then his eyes grew slightly dull.
Alka in reality opened his eyes, holding the divine essence in his hands, and approached the root. He gently pressed the divine essence in his hand into the flower.
The Heavenly Flower began to sway gently.
The priests and head gardeners waited nearby, a hint of nervousness on their faces.
It seemed this matter was of great importance to them all.
As the Heavenly Flower's divine essence completely sank into the flower's stem,
A blue magical pattern emerged from the emerald green stem, spreading upwards and reaching the base of the flower.
The petals glowed brighter, and a rich floral fragrance wafted around, engulfing the surroundings, completely enveloping the land of fragrance.
Other than that, there were no other unusual movements. It was much simpler than Alka had imagined.
However, within the dream,
the changes were exceptionally drastic.
In Alka's eyes, the flower fairy closed her eyes and lay completely within the flower. The enormous petals in her dream began to grow.
Each petal became as bright as crystal, and they began to close together,
completely enveloping the flower fairy.
It felt as if time had gone backwards.
Before Alka could see, the entire flower had completely transformed into a bud, waiting to bloom.
Dense, colorful patterns began to spread from the petals. The patterns Alka observed seemed to convey some power.
Alka felt a sense of understanding.
The dream energy around him also began to undergo a different transformation.
Alka could feel his body boiling.
However, he paid no attention to these things. His full attention was now focused on the petals.
He saw the mysterious patterns on the petals and the knowledge they conveyed.
The first thing he saw was a flower, representing all flowers in the world.
Blooming, fragrant, plant-like…
He knew a light of varying hues.
He seemed to understand something.
A piece of knowledge involuntarily surfaced in his mind.
It was the formula for godhood he once knew, and now he seemed to have a deeper understanding of it.
He knew something even more secret.
After an unknown amount of time, the light began to fade, and the patterns on the petals gradually faded.
However, the flower, now completely closed into a bud, showed no sign of blooming.
The flower fairy's voice rang out from within.
"Did you see it?"
"I saw it."
"Did you understand it?"
"I think I do," Alka said uncertainly.
The voice within the flower grew silent.
A voice, like a whisper, echoed: "As expected, you can see it. But why can you see it?"
The flower fairy's voice was filled with confusion and bewilderment.
Arka frowned slightly at this. Normally, the patterns on the petals should be invisible, or incomprehensible.
The fact that he could see them, that he could comprehend some of the consciousness conveyed therein, was abnormal.
"What do you mean?" Arka asked bluntly.
"Being able to see the divine patterns is already the limit of one's talent. If one can also perceive the meaning expressed by the patterns...
That's beyond the realm of so-called talent. Never mind. The world has been shattered for so long, and perhaps the knowledge in my head is already outdated."
After answering, the flower fairy spoke again, as if to comfort herself.
Then the flower fairy's voice rang out: "I can't leave here right now. I need to wait a while. When I'm able to emerge, I'll have them come find you, and then I'll give you the promised reward."
"No problem. I'll take my leave."
With this, Alka vanished from the spot, returning to his body.
He opened his eyes and glanced around; nothing seemed different.
The head gardener looked at him: "Is my god asleep?"
Alka nodded, then took his leave.
He walked alone and silently back to the flower forest, his thoughts already drifting far away.
The knowledge he had just seen in his dream, the mysterious floral patterns he had learned, still resonated in his mind.
What he had seen shocked him far more than he had just described. He was completely different from his earlier calm demeanor.
The so-called godhood was far more difficult than he had imagined. But this was actually normal. The formula given earlier was far too simple.
At least for something like godhood, it was indeed far too simple.
As he had previously thought, the formula he knew was only the most basic information.
Beyond this, there were other conditions.
The higher-level condition he had just understood was that these six artifacts of different levels must not be mutually exclusive.
Simply put, most people who possessed artifacts at the scepter level would likely not be compatible with the Holy Grail-level artifacts they once possessed.
Simply because the scepter was of a higher level, it could easily suppress the Holy Grail-level artifact, forcing the two to exist within a single person without conflict.
Reasoning from this information, it became clear that the same principle should apply to the Crown level.
However, if one wanted to achieve godhood, this was completely impossible.
They must be compatible, or at least not conflict.
Just trying to make artifacts compatible at the [Holy Grail] level is already incredibly difficult.
Not to mention, these artifacts must also be compatible across different levels, or at least not mutually exclusive.
Perhaps the first three [Holy Grails] and the two [Scepters] might be relatively easy.
Then, the difficulty of compatibility for the final [Crown] with the first five is unimaginable.
Now that I think about it, in the tens of thousands of years since the world was shattered after the War of Gods, very few people have achieved godhood.
It makes sense.
I just don't know if there are any specific strength requirements for godhood.
However, it's clear that one must be at least at the sixth level or higher.
Because only at the sixth level can one possess the strength to master a crown-level artifact.
But Alka had more in mind.
If the prerequisite for godhood is six treasures of three different levels, then these treasures, aside from being the essence of former divine beings after their death, are more likely to be the remains of the missing parts of the bodies of those gods after their complete death.
For example, the heart of the Heavenly Flower he had just obtained.
That too is a divine essence, only of the Holy Grail level.
However, previous information had clearly stated that it was secretly hidden by the Flower Fairy.
When the divine essence merged into the Heavenly Flower, Alka saw more through the patterns in his dream.
He simply didn't express it fully, because what he saw was so clear in his heart that he couldn't speak it out.
He was almost able to understand the meaning of the patterns.
The patterns also conveyed another meaning: return and perfection.
Based on what he saw and expressed, his understanding was this:
The divine essence should have originally belonged to the Flower Fairy.
It was almost certain that it was a part lost after the Flower Fairy's fall, and now it had simply returned to its former owner.
And Alka saw something even more profound.
He saw three different colored lights.
One red, two orange.
When the final divine essence completely merged into the flower bud, Alka also saw a golden one.
However, before he could fully see the golden flower, the pattern disappeared, and he could no longer see anything.
This was already very clear.
If the treasures required for the normal formula for becoming a god were represented by light,
then they would be one red, two orange, and three gold, six treasures that complement each other.
The resurrecting flower fairy had already obtained one red and two orange items—the three most important and powerful items.
Add to that the one gold item she now possessed.
This meant that now that she possessed the two golden divine powers that once belonged to her, she should be able to fully recover.
And the red one was the one flower Alka had initially sensed.
That must be her core.
I had seen more than the flower fairy had imagined.
I had almost seen through her completely.
The flower fairy probably hadn't expected to see so much. She was already surprised by the mere knowledge that Alka could see more, albeit vaguely.
She probably just wanted me to observe from the side, to see those divine patterns, to understand the higher powers early on.
I hadn't expected to see more, but that was also her good intentions.
In reality, what I had seen was even more exaggerated.
So why?
Just as the flower fairy had said, this completely defied the concept of so-called talent. Something else must have been influencing him.
Is it the peculiarities of a time traveler?
Or... the system?
These were the only two things he felt were extremely special. The next thing he considered was his experience entering the world's sea of emotions.
But he believed that being able to enter the sea of emotions wasn't some overly special ability.
Through this thought, Alka had unknowingly returned to the inn.
He saw several puppet girls playing with a little girl in front of the greenhouse where they were staying.
He recognized the little girl; she seemed to be the daughter the new inn owner had mentioned, the one the puppet girls had rescued.
Seeing Alka approach, the little girl stopped and bowed slightly.
"Hello."
"Hello to you too, little girl. It was fun."
Alka smiled and pushed the door open, stepping inside. At this moment, only Sofia was left in the hall, sitting at the table, flipping through a book.
Lucille and Julia seemed to be talking on the other side.
Seeing Alka enter, Sofia looked up at him and asked, "Is it done? I saw the Heavenly Flower moving."
Alka nodded.
"But the reward will have to wait a while. It seems the flower fairy needs to wait a while for the treasure we've obtained before taking action."
Sofia nodded, unconcerned.
Mainly because they hadn't really put in much effort this time, and had acted too relaxed, so they didn't take it too seriously.
But the reward from the gods was certainly something worth looking forward to.
After all, they were gods.
"I really want to see what the flower fairy looks like," Lucillia said with a sigh, sitting at the table.
This statement successfully elicited nods of agreement from the other two women. They were genuinely curious about the beauty of the flower fairy, whose deity was flowers.
This had been highlighted during their previous viewing of the Flower Festival.
"Want to see it? Shall I take you after she revives?" Alcassade asked.
"Forget it, forget it. The flower fairy hasn't summoned us. It would be disrespectful to rush over," Sofia said, waving his hand.
They still had a deep reverence for so-called gods, unlike Alka.
Alka also had a deep reverence for real gods, but his reverence was far superior to theirs.
He sat down on the chair, leaning against the last petal and stretching his waist vigorously.
"Ah, finally, a problem has been solved."
Hearing Alka's words, Julia rolled her eyes helplessly. He might be the only one who would call a god's commission a hassle.
Countless people have rushed to do it, but perhaps none of them are even qualified enough.
"Huh? Alka's back." Jason walked in from outside.
"That celestial flower outside was swaying back and forth just now, and it had such a strong fragrance. Was it you who did it?"
"What do you mean I did it?" Alka rolled her eyes.
"Well, now that I'm done, what do I do next?" Jason sat down next to him and picked up a
Huaguo began to nibble.
Alka leaned back against the petal cushions, gazing at the pistil in the sky.
"Let's rest for a few days, strengthen ourselves, and look for clues about that cult."
Most of the work is done. Although there's still much to do, they all face a hurdle in terms of strength.
It suddenly felt like they couldn't make any progress until they reached the fourth stage.
They had to wait until Alka reached the fourth stage before considering further action.
Even if they found clues related to the cult, they were unlikely to take action; their main goal would be reconnaissance and search.
The final strike would also have to wait until their strength level was up.
From the previous chaos, it was clear that this cult was no pushover; they truly had connections to those chaotic, evil gods.
Furthermore, they had confirmed that the member of the Nafas family was at the fourth stage.
However, it's certain that this cult's primary target is the Flower Fairy.
And now that Alka has brought her something the Flower Fairy lacks, her strength will surely increase—no, it should be called recovery.
But the cult won't just give up. As long as they stay around the Land of Fragrance, they'll surely find an opportunity.
Besides, they really don't have much else to do right now.
"We can't just stay here forever, right? How about finding a permanent place to stay? After all, it looks like we'll be here for a while."
Hearing Sofia's suggestion, Alka thought for a moment and nodded, seemingly making sense.
Staying in the hotel all the time is certainly not a good or convenient option, especially when they need to meditate.
After a moment's thought, he asked, "Then why don't we rent a house?"
"Why don't we just find a place to stay outside?" Jason said after a moment's thought.
The main issue was that the Crystal Dragon was too inconvenient inside the city.
A dragon flying around in the sky was truly disruptive to the lives of the residents.
Furthermore, their group was too conspicuous in the city, whether it was the Crystal Dragon, Pororo, or the puppet girl.
Especially after the chaos, they attracted a lot of attention wherever they went.
This was quite unusual for them.
At Jason's suggestion, the others nodded.
"Let's discuss this after everyone returns. Setting up a camp outside isn't a big deal for me."
With the pocket ring and Simon's abilities, setting up a temporary shelter outside wasn't a problem for them.
It was also quite convenient for them.
Mainly, there wouldn't be too many distractions or eyes watching them outside.
Suddenly I miss the days when the Sound of Dawn stopped at the port.