A lucky person might narrowly avoid death.
A lucky army might win a battle that should have been impossible.
Anything was possible with enough luck.
Isaac crouched down and placed the golden seed carefully on the ground.
Then he activated his Seed of Providence skill.
Mana immediately began pouring out of his body.
The drain was far stronger than anything he had experienced before.
Isaac frowned slightly.
None of his previous skills had required this much mana. Not even when he grew the Qlippoth tree. Yet the mana continued flowing out of him.
Seconds passed.
Then the ground began to shift slightly.
A small sprout emerged from the soil.
It grew rapidly.
The sprout thickened into a trunk. Branches stretched outward. Leaves formed almost instantly.
Within moments, a tree stood in front of Isaac.
Its trunk was thick and sturdy.
Three branches extended outward from the main trunk.
Each branch held three golden leaves.
Isaac studied the tree quietly.
Even though the tree had reached maturity, he could instinctively tell that it was not at its limit.
It could still grow further.
Each leaf represented something special.
[Divine Luck].
Every leaf could potentially save someone blessed by the tree from a deadly situation.
Three branches.
Three leaves each.
Nine chances of survival.
And that was only the current state. At full growth, the tree could develop nine branches. Three leaves on each branch, meant twenty-seven leaves, which equaled twenty-seven instances of Divine Luck.
A notification appeared in front of Isaac.
Seed of Providence has reached Level 5 → Level 6
Isaac smiled slightly.
Leveling up this skill was extremely difficult. The fact that it had advanced again was a very good sign.
He walked closer to the tree and placed his hand against the trunk.
The bark felt warm.
More importantly, he could feel something else.
A connection.
It was faint, but clearly there.
The tree recognized him.
Almost immediately, a new screen appeared in front of him.
[Your luck has been greatly increased under the blessing of Tree of Harmony.]
[The oncoming difficulties will become easier to handle.]
[Shattered God Domain !@@#%@ has been partially repaired.]
Isaac’s eyes narrowed slightly when he read the last line.
Then the entire Cradle shook.
The ground trembled beneath his feet, and the air around him shifted as if something deep within the space had changed.
Isaac looked around slowly.
The first thing he noticed was the mana.
It had become denser.
The air felt richer and more alive than before. Breathing felt easier, and even his body seemed to respond to the change.
"...I didn’t expect this," Isaac muttered.
He closed his eyes for a moment and focused on the Cradle.
Through his connection with the Soulbind Pendant, he could sense the entire space.
The forest had changed.
New plants had appeared among the older trees. Some of them were small sprouts while others had already grown enough to be noticeable.
There were also new animals.
Isaac could feel their presence moving through the forest. Small creatures mostly, but there were several species he was certain hadn’t existed here before.
The entire space had improved simply because the Tree of Harmony had grown.
Isaac looked back at the golden tree standing in front of him.
The leaves shimmered faintly, each one carrying a quiet but powerful presence.
"Luck, huh," he said quietly.
He had expected the tree to be useful.
But this...
This was better than he had imagined.
A faint smile appeared on Isaac’s face as he looked at his hand.
Another golden seed rested in his palm.
The second Seed of Harmony.
He had intentionally kept this one unused.
His plan had never been to grow two identical trees.
Instead, he wanted to combine this seed with the ones he would obtain from Hell and the Divine Realm.
A hybrid seed.
Something entirely new.
"If just the individual trees can be this powerful, then how strong will the hybrid be?"
The thought alone made him excited.
A tree that combined powers from the Mortal Realm, Hell, and the Divine Realm.
Even Isaac couldn’t fully predict what kind of result that would produce.
For a moment he simply stood there, imagining the possibilities. Then he slowly exhaled.
He needed to calm down. Getting excited too early rarely helped.
After a while, Isaac placed the second seed back into storage and left the Soulbind Pendant.
The world outside the pendant returned around him.
Another month passed.
During that time, something surprising happened.
The Sword Empress actually listened to Isaac.
She had not attacked the Ladder of Heavens.
Instead, her army remained stationed in the distance, holding position without advancing further.
Meanwhile, the War God had begun negotiations.
He was contacting both the Devils and the Gods who might be willing to help.
When Isaac heard about it from Avery, even she sounded surprised.
"This is unusual. War God normally doesn’t like working with others. He prefers to handle things himself," Avery said during one of their conversations.
Isaac simply nodded when he heard that.
Meanwhile, he continued working on his own plans.
He spent the next month quietly building relationships with nearby kingdoms.
If something unexpected happened and the Sword Empress decided to attack the Ladder of Heavens, he needed those kingdoms to help stall the war.
At the same time, Isaac began weakening the morale of the Sword Empress’ army.
On the surface, it looked unnecessary.
But Isaac knew it was important.
If the Sword Empress and the War God suddenly decided to attack the Heavens, the Ladder of Heavens would inevitably try to stop them.
And that would lead to a massive battle.
A battle that could easily destroy the Ladder of Heavens.
Isaac couldn’t allow that to happen.
So he delayed things.
First, he encouraged negotiations with the devils.
Then he slowly weakened the morale of the army waiting outside.
There were still no deserters.
But the pressure was building.
The soldiers had been stationed there for months. Many of them had families back home who were struggling because of the market prices and incidents Selene manipulated from behind the scenes.
They wanted to return.
But the army remained stuck there.
As morale continued to drop, the Sword Empress herself began facing more pressure from her officers.
Everything was moving exactly as Isaac had planned.
Or at least...
It had been.
Inside the main command hall of the Ladder of Heavens, a tall man stood in front of a large map.
Golden light faintly radiated from his body.
He was a Sun Dragon.
And the current commander of the Ladder of Heavens.
He had returned only four days ago and immediately taken control from Selene, Avery, and the other two deans.
Several officers stood around the table as he spoke.
"We will attack the Sword Maiden’s army. They have been sitting there for too long. That alone is suspicious," the Sun Dragon said calmly.
One of the officers frowned slightly. "You believe something has happened to the Sword Maiden, commander?"
"Possibly," the Sun Dragon replied. "Or perhaps they are simply waiting for something. Either way, we cannot remain passive. We will use this opportunity, and we will finish them."
The officers around the table exchanged uneasy glances.