Ascension of the Sylvan Cosmos.

Ceperet's development during the last eight years had been impressively quick. With the entire world unified under one banner and the leaders focused on honest and sincere work to strengthen everyone, there was no delay or deep corruption. Naturally, the hearts of many got greedy over time, but those bad apples didn't manage to rot the entire batch.

Once a person with crooked feelings was discovered, they were dealt with swiftly and ruthlessly. Almost all the organizations that thought they could rise during the Heavenly Willow's hibernation failed miserably.

Flor, sitting on her desk in her main office, looked at her secretary with a calm face. "Another small group?"

The secretary spoke lightly, not even flustered. "Yes. They have one talented <Fourth Energy Cycle> as a leader. Therefore, they have some confidence to at least take over partly."

Flor's ruby eyes showed tiredness. "Why are there so many stupid people? Are they not fearful even after the harsh punishments?"

The secretary chuckled. "Lady Flor, there is no perfect society. There will always be people trying to reach up with whatever methods due to their greed and lust for power. Now that all Lady World Trees at Level 99 are hibernating to Level Up, it is their best chance." The secretary giggled. "Although even if they managed to get ahold of some underground society, when the second Lady Heavenly Willow wakes up, they would all be done for."

Flor sighed again. She herself had reached Level 99, and she also had enough experience points to Level Up. The Experience she accumulated came from both the berries and her deep dives into the dungeons.

After she took a more hands-free approach to her ruling, she only had to spend a few hours daily working, leaving her free to do as she pleased for most of the day.

"I guess you are right. They are doing almost no damage, so there are no problems at all."

Looking out of her large office window, her gaze turned up. The previous giant World Tree was now so large that a layer of clouds obscured a significant portion of its canopy. "...What height has she already reached?"

The secretary looked up, her eyes filled with awe and reverence. "Lady Heavenly Willow has surpassed 8,000 meters in height, according to the Berry Harvesters."

"Eight thousand…" Flor muttered, her tone filled with strangeness. She couldn't help but chuckle lightly. "To think that the little tree that measured a little over two meters is now… this large. She has truly grown up."

The secretary's eyes flashed. 'Right… Lady Flor has known Lady Heavenly Willow since she was a sapling…' Looking at the colossal being that reached beyond the clouds, the woman blinked with disbelief. 'Still, a little over two meters? Did Lady Heavenly Willow really start so small?'

In her mind, it felt as if World Trees popped up into existence already measuring a hundred meters tall. She just couldn't imagine them smaller than that.

Flor shook her head and asked. "Any other news besides those insignificant ones?"

The secretary snapped out of her daze and smiled. "None, Lady Flor. The rest is working exactly as Lady Heavenly Willow planned out. The expansion of the city, as well as the planting of Lignified Species in other cities, is proceeding smoothly. According to Lady Liu Shu, each continent will have two major cities, each with <Lignified Trees> as the only structural building. Besides these two main cities, which would be giant metropolises for over 50 million inhabitants, the rest of the world is being developed independently by lower powers."

Flor smiled, satisfied. "Great. How is the progress on the city construction?"

The secretary looked at a few documents she had in a leafy binder and hummed. "Lady Fortuna's city is mostly done, having substituted the grand majority of the normal buildings for <Lignified Buildings>. The other four main World Trees are at a progress of 70%; infrastructure is the only thing left. Sadly, the other nine cities that didn't have an already built foundation are still below the thirty percent progress bar."

"Hm~?" Flor blinked. "Why the slow work? With the ants, things should've progressed quite quickly, right? Next year, it will be Liu Shu's 70th birthday, and according to initial plans, it should be mostly finished by that time."

The secretary nodded, showing a troubled look. "The main problem is that, with Lady Heavenly Willow's effect in the world, the number of monsters that managed to reach the Fourth Cycle is plenty. The <Lignified> species, being Lady Heavenly Willow's direct descendants, are plenty nutritious and attract problems. The number of beast tides those cities have experienced has slowed down the progress several times over."

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Flor was surprised by this information. "Are they that powerful? Not even our armies can deal with them?"

The secretary sighed. "The problem is that they are too spaced out. One day, the beast tide might appear on the <Azure Rose Continent>, and the next day, it will appear on the other side in the <Celestial Lotus Continent>. Our mobility can't keep up with the environmental changes. The last Beast Tide had over 3,000 <Fourth Energy Cycle> monsters. If it weren't because of the timely intervention of nearby World Trees, we could've suffered thousands of casualties."

"Wow."

Hearing the number truly placed it into perspective. Then, she came to a realization. "No wonder there are reports of so many dead <Fourth Energy Cycles> lately, but even more reports of new ones. We are currently at a small-scale war with the world's evolving environment…" As she thought that, a worry popped in her mind. "Speaking of which, there wouldn't be naturally occurring <Fifth Energy Cycles> soon, right?"

The secretary smiled awkwardly. "The number of Level 99 monsters has been increasing quite a lot lately. So, we can't really discard such options. The ants are also tied down trying to manage the underground, while the seas are also plenty dangerous. If it weren't for Lady Lakeborn and a few other aquatic World Trees relocated around the continents, sea invasions would've been possible as well."

"... I didn't expect that the world was going through such a crazy transformation. I guess that, as we grow, Ceperet also grows with us." Worried, she asked. "Are there even low-level hunting zones left? And I mean below Level 25 hunting zones."

The secretary nodded. "There are always places where energy concentrations are really low. So, locations with average Level 10 creatures are plenty, and the monsters there have incredibly short reproductive cycles. So, there is no reason for our low-level population to have their initial advancement locked."

She added. "Moreover, Lady Skyflower has a Level 1 to 10 <Dungeon> under her domain. It seems that it is a dungeon she had protected dearly for a long time. Now, it is under Lady Heavenly Willow's administration, though."

"Aha."

After hearing everything, her tense feelings began to relax. "So… If we were to summarize. The higher-level cap of the world is increasing, but the lowest-level cap remains the same."

The secretary smiled. "That's an accurate summary, Lady Flor."

"Now, for the most important matter." Flor looked at her secretary seriously and asked. "How is the progress of our crafter group in developing interplanetary travel? Have we even managed to create a craft that can pierce Ceperet's atmosphere safely?"

The secretary flipped through a few documents as she stood by Flor's desk. After a bit, she started explaining what was recorded. "Lady Flor, the progress is steady. While the spatial-travel crafter section was only set up sixteen years ago, its progress is plenty fast due to its abundance of resources and governmental support. Around five years ago, they managed to create a wooden rune and an array craft that could fly to space."

"Oh?" Flor blinked, not expecting such fast progress. "Was it successful?"

"No." The secretary answered plainly. "The re-entry was too harsh. Ternary Essences became too violent as it crossed the atmosphere, and it ended up crumbling down. Thankfully, the testers abroad were all <Fourth Energy Cycles> and they could survive with a few superficial wounds."

Flor nodded, thoughtful. "Even then, that's a step in the right direction. Keep funneling funds towards them…" She added, her eyes sharp. "Of course, if they start getting indulgent because they feel untouchable, we must teach them a lesson and create two extra competing groups."

The secretary frowned. "Lady Flor, wouldn't that slow down our progress?"

"In the short term, it would," Flor admitted. "However, once the three groups are established and compete with each other for resources, their ingenuity and passion will increase. A stale environment is bound to halt progress. Only fierce competition can truly fuel the cogs of progress."

The secretary nodded, her mindset changing slightly. Flor smiled. "Moreover, with Liu Shu's buffs, aren't we all relatively long-lived? Even the Rose Fairies have lived for almost a century. What is a few decades compared with before?"

"I understand. Things will progress as Lady Flor pleases."

The Flower Fairy stretched her body. "Anything else?"

"No. That's all for now." The secretary smiled. "Thank you for your hard work, Lady Flor."

The Flower Fairy waved her hand and flapped her wings, flying out of the window. Her destination was Ignatia's room. Even though it had only been a few hours, she was missing the soft body of her seductive wife.

With faint blushes on her cheeks, Flor muttered to herself. 'I hope I don't ever grow bigger… Even being a bit smaller wouldn't be too bad. That way, I can become a real little carved doll in Ignatia's arms.'

As she flew over the city, which was constantly expanding as Liu Shu grew in size, she couldn't help but sigh in admiration. "Golden Sap City remains self-sufficient with the progress in farming and cattle management. We can't become reliant on others and lose our autonomy just because we rely on resources from other locations or people."

While Flor understood that with Liu Shu, any world resource was at the tip of her root, she wanted her darling to intervene as little as possible with politics and such. She had already created the mainframe to follow, and that was enough.

Her reasoning focused on a few things, mainly because she didn't want Liu Shu's presence to dictate every single thing. If the Golden Sap Arborarchy took that path, as Liu Shu took over other worlds, the piles of work that would fall on her beautiful daughter would increase exponentially. 'I just want her to only need to take part in the initial assimilation process and then be relatively hands-free.'

What she still didn't know was the method World Trees used to extend their roots into the cosmos. "A tree's roots go down so… How will she go up?"

Looking at her gigantic and gorgeous daughter, curiosity flared in her eyes. "Will she create pillars that go to space with roots? That would be quite funny, since the world would eventually look like a ball with spines."