Chương 843: Liu Shu's Drifting Thoughts and Ideas.

Liu Shu began sorting out most of the inactive starships in her territory. By now, there were quite a few merchant caravans ready to expand outward. While she had sent small groups in order to get information, she had not begun expanding seriously. Between the stars, there were plenty of space stations circling around space dungeons and many more environments. Areas full of <Astraelis>, places with large amounts of minerals, and other space environments such as Space Structure Forests and similar places.

Due to the conflict between powers at the interstellar level, ruin-hunting, visiting old battlefields, and exploring destroyed civilizations and worlds were common. To ease such explorations, you could find large, almost moon-sized, self-sustaining space stations. These were the locations where most neutral powers converged, such as the Explorer Association, Skill Merchants, and many more Liu Shu had yet to encounter.

Liu Shu's Golden Sap Empire trained and set off a rather large group of merchants in modified Moon-Type starships. It was the most numerous group of starships thanks to Rhazor's battle spoils. Many of them were modified to carry one of each <Temple Seed> and several Lignified Structures. While these structures were somewhat crammed into them, they would help the merchants plenty while being away, while also giving them a stable source of low-tier berries.

They also carried a few of the S Rank berries in order to build initial capital. Selling a few hundred of them in auctions and such wouldn't cause any problem. The same was for <Eternal Tea>. Using good tea to welcome guests could lead to better deals. If the effects were to trigger during the deal, her Golden Sap Empire merchants would gain quite a terrifying advantage. Other than that, a few other specialties from the Golden Sap Empire, like biological mini-computers and other local products, were shipped away.

Her people were good at creating wealth upon wealth, so with the solid advantage and a few <Second Ascension> powerhouses following them, creating a stable base outside was a matter of time.

'I am not expecting all of them to be successful. However, even if just ten percent of them succeed, it will be a successful operation.' Moreover, Liu Shu had also sent a few <Eternal Saintesses> and other clergymen. If they were lucky, her religion might spread outside her domain. It was more like a shot in the dark, hoping it would hit.

"Things are developing nicely~." Her skills were also advancing; her experience points racking up rapidly. The reason for her growth in Experience Points was a surprise side effect, though. Since she needed many more Experience Points to Level Up, her <Delicious Berries> had become an incredible source of experience. She was gaining around 20, 000 Experience Points daily just from them! Together with the rest of her Experience Sources, Liu Shu earned over 30, 000 Experience Points daily.

During the last few years, she had earned over 300, 000, 000 Experience Points passively! Truly a source of great joy. Such numbers were enough to gain her a few levels. But since she was Ranking Up her skills, she had not spent anything on Level Ups.

"Hm… Deadly Petal is slower than I thought.' It had been several years outside, and almost two decades in her domain. However, she had yet to see Deadly Petal's shadow. Just in case, as she explained previously, Liu Shu had not stretched out her roots. Instead, she was making sure to tighten her domain around the nearby nine stars, except the two the Nexus governed.

'Slow and steady wins the race. I need the surrounding stars around the Ceperet Solar System to be somewhat sturdy and able to hold frontlines. Once they reach that point, I can become much more aggressive. With her <Soulseeds>, which each had 70% of her raw stats, defending important worlds that could be called the center of each Solar System was not a big problem. Liu Shu's number of <Soulseeds>, since she had yet to use many, had accumulated to 135 of them. She had 135 clones she could plant and grow!

"Etheria is also doing great." With the strength Liu Shu gave her and the berries she consumed, Etheria managed to reach Level 100 a long time ago. Using her overwhelming strength, Etheria swept most top powers without destroying the structure.

'I heard that Seraphina and the others wanted to try and replicate the environment in this world, but in the end, I declined that offer.' It was true that there were many top-tier talents in a world like Etheria's. The only problem was that the mid-ranks and culture were too contradictory to the Golden Sap Empire's core values. War was incredibly vilified, even to defend oneself. In that world, if one country attacked another and "went overboard," the political environment would become incredibly harsh.

Even top-tier heroes needed to walk on eggshells. Or, better put, precisely because they were top-tier heroes, all of them walked on brittle glass. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Speaking of war…" Liu Shu glanced at the Golden Sap Empire's environment and noticed that most initial conflicts had… disappeared. As long as citizens were not affected, Liu Shu never prohibited cities from attacking each other. The only conditions were two: One, as previously mentioned, no civilians or city damage could be caused. Wars were meant to happen outside cities and in "battlefield areas."

Naturally, Liu Shu made sure that these battlefield areas were complicated terrains with large empty expanses and many more environmental hazards like wild beasts. It would not be appropriate for wars to just happen frontally without tactics. That was not a war; that was a slugging fest. The second condition was that when the Golden Sap Empire called them, all soldiers would need to put their grudges aside and fight. This was not easy to do. Someone who killed your friend fighting by your side?

It was bound to cause awkwardness and uncomfortable feelings. Therefore, Liu Shu applied a system to separate soldiers in different regiments depending on their citizenship. That way, since armies were large enough, conflicting individuals would never meet. It looks idealistic, but once put into play, things developed quite orderly. Moreover, since leaders needed to participate in the battlefield if they wanted to do war, there were no higher-ups throwing away lives for nothing.

Capturing another city through war gave merit, resources, and other incredibly luxurious rewards like berries, her own leaves, and even slots to bathe in Apothea's lakes. But, as time passed, a strange balance came to the Golden Sap Empire. Those cities that were fighting had their victors, and those who once competed didn't dare provoke larger powers in fear of losing everything they've earned.

"Hm…" She pondered if this was good or bad. Liu Shu didn't want to forcibly cause war; the only reason she allowed it was for her people to never lose their edge. Yes, there were plenty of deaths, but that was the cycle of life and death. In the forest, beasts fought for territory, prey, and feeding locations. In society, people fought for territory, rewards, merit, and fortune. Everything formed a cycle within the Golden Sap Empire and only created some strain between people, which was very well needed.

There was no ideal society in which conflicts would never arise; the important thing was to guide these conflicts and make them worthwhile. In the end, Liu Shu shrugged and did nothing.

'People will eventually get greedy either way. Once someone pulls the trigger, everyone else will become alert again.' Greed was a necessary emotion. Without greed, people got stuck and rotted away. Of course, excessive greed would cause one's demise. But excessive anything could cause harm. The same was true for kindness, empathy, lust, pride, love, pleasure, pain, and any other emotion. Too little or excessive amounts would always be bad for oneself.

'Ah. Hehe. I know what to do~.' Liu Shu glanced at the structures between the stars and smiled.

'Isn't this a perfect, natural battlefield? There are even <Astraelis>, materials, and other resources that can be mined and used, not to mention the complicated layouts and hostile environment. I will tell Flor to open challenges between star systems and planets as well.' Of course, it couldn't be rushed. These worlds had not developed for even a fraction of the Golden Sap Empire. Therefore, throwing them inside the super-competitive environment would only cause them to drown and be destroyed.

Introducing them without extra rules would be like throwing a piece of meat in between hungry beasts.' So, drawing on her knowledge and experience in lawmaking, Liu Shu crafted suitable proposals for analysis by the central government. She could apply rules as they were, but receiving feedback was never bad! Liu Shu respected those who reached the very top because she knew they were talented and well-versed individuals. Moreover, their opinions would not sway her if they were nonsense or incorrect.

While that happened, Liu Shu's <Divine Tree Eye> caught something. Around three and a half light-years away from her furthest stretched root, a relatively large number of lifeforms could be sensed. Moreover, the reason she could sense them was…

'A very, very large lifeform is advancing with them.' Her lips arched with interest.

"Deadly Petal?" It had to be. Her sources told her that there was no other True World Tree nearby that had reached the <Second Ascension>. There were only seven True World Trees of that caliber "nearby," and from them, only Deadly Petal was close enough to be detected at her current distance. Her mind drifted again.

'Speaking of those other True World Trees… I wonder if we'll meet soon?' These True World Trees were expanding slowly, so even when they were at the <Second Ascension>, they only covered around ten to twenty Solar Systems each. Since there were so many stars and powers, the number of conflicts and powers was also too complicated. Only when a truly overwhelming force expanded in a zone would all these "skirmishes" be overshadowed and devoured. Balaya was a good example.

Her <Third Ascension> strength allowed her to swallow over 300 Solar Systems and also some True World Trees that swore forceful compliance. Of course, as she did with Liu Shu, Balaya would never allow any True World Tree that could threaten her to remain alive. The few True World Trees in the Covenant were just those who weren't in the way of Balaya's expansion. Liu Shu wondered what she would do if one of her big sisters managed to catch up to her or surpass her in strength. Probably nothing much, right?

After all, they were her dear Big Sisters. If one of them became stronger than her, she would protect her! This was something Liu Shu believed in deeply. Of course, this hypothetical was bound to be just that, a hypothetical. At least for now. Liu Shu had not seen any True World Tree with potential or strength to match her.

"... Right. I got distracted. Deadly Petal is arriving soon!... Well, soon is a bit of a euphemism. At her speed, it will take around 10 more years to reach my true domain? That's thirty more years for me, hehehe… Hm?" Liu Shu glanced at the Nexus, and her eyes glinted.

'Oho. Their armies have gathered nicely. So many high-level signals… slurp. Oh. I was salivating.'