What the hell?
Ron was stunned.
The Phantom Willow's spiritual perception had actually developed the ability to communicate with people?
He tried sending messages to it, probing to see if it could respond with more information.
But after more than ten minutes of testing, Ron discovered that its spiritual perception could currently only convey very simple signals.
Things like "hello," "yes," and "no."
It felt like a newborn baby babbling—possessing a kind of special intelligence.
As if it had become sentient.
"This is basically artificial intelligence… If I nurture it, it could help manage the Illusory Spirit World," Ron thought.
He wasn't sure whether the Phantom Willow's intelligence was already fixed or if it still had room to grow.
If it were the latter, he could try cultivating it further.
After all, the authority over the Illusory Spirit World was already in his hands. The Phantom Willow's spiritual perception was essentially his steward.
As long as he held the highest authority, the smarter it became, the better.
Ron withdrew his spiritual perception from the Illusory Spirit World and began planning how to deploy the Phantom Willows.
There were already flower shops in the City of Chaos, the Royal Capital, and Tansen City. He could place one Phantom Willow in each.
That would be equivalent to three internet cafés.
If he wanted to expand coverage, he would need to plant Phantom Willows continuously, linking the City of Chaos with the Royal Capital and Tansen City.
By having countless Phantom Willows "hold hands," forming a unified Illusory Spirit World, the internet-like system he envisioned would take shape.
But the scale of that setup was enormous.
Although he had the cultivation space and didn't need to worry about quantity—
Expanding like that would mean opening flower shops even in the wilderness.
After all, even after the second evolution, a Phantom Willow could only cover a few hundred meters.
The distance between cities was far greater than that.
And since Phantom Willows required system-provided environments to survive, it wouldn't be easy to plant them across the entire empire.
Moreover, even if Ron were willing to invest that much effort, it would inevitably attract attention.
With so many forces along the way, it would become troublesome.
His choice of Tansen City as his territory had already caused dissatisfaction among some factions.
If given the chance to make things difficult for him, plenty of people would gladly do so.
Unless necessary, Ron didn't want to take on such a high-effort, low-return endeavor.
So he began thinking—was there a better way to avoid large-scale planting?
His first idea was to check whether any of his existing plants could help.
The Nether Orchid and Crimson-Gold Chrysanthemum were obviously irrelevant.
The others didn't seem to fit either…
As he thought, Ron's eyes suddenly lit up. He clenched his right fist into his palm, realization dawning.
After its second evolution, hadn't the Phantom Willow already developed intelligence?
Didn't that make it a form of conscious life?
If so, what would happen if it touched an untransformed Puppet Fruit?
He immediately put the idea into action.
Ron grabbed a willow branch, opened the system [Backpack], and dropped a standard Puppet Fruit onto it.
He caught the Puppet in his hand.
In the next moment, it underwent a strange transformation.
Its legs fused, gradually forming a trunk. Its arms and head stretched and reshaped into three main branches, which then split into countless willow strands.
Within seconds, a chibi version of the Phantom Willow was born!
Ron allowed the Phantom Willow's consciousness to descend into this chibi form, then carried it away from the original tree.
At this moment, he was no longer touching the original Phantom Willow—but only holding the transformed Puppet.
And yet, he could still freely enter the Illusory Spirit World!
Ron was overjoyed. Looking at the Puppet in his hand, a thought popped into his head—
Wasn't this basically a mobile smartphone?!
By combining the Puppet Tree and the Phantom Willow, he had essentially created a phone.
And not just a phone—but a fully functional device that could connect to the Illusory Spirit World anytime, entering a VR-like environment.
This was far more advanced than smartphones from his original world!
Calm down. Stay calm.
Excited as he was, Ron forced himself to settle down.
After confirming that the Puppet could transform into a Phantom Willow, he still needed to run a series of tests.
First, he had to determine its effective range.
In theory, based on the Puppet's properties, as long as it remained within the same plane and wasn't blocked by dimensional barriers, the Phantom Willow's consciousness should be able to descend into it regardless of distance.
But after descending, if it was too far from the original body, would that prevent the user's spiritual perception from entering the Illusory Spirit World?
With that in mind, Ron took the Puppet and used the storage room's spatial transfer channel to travel to the Royal Capital.
Then he discovered—
Forget entering the Illusory Spirit World.
Even the Phantom Willow's consciousness couldn't descend into the Puppet at all.
Whether this limitation came from the Phantom Willow's nature as a plant or from its still-weak intelligence, he couldn't tell.
In any case, the vast distance between the City of Chaos and the Royal Capital made direct connection impossible.
Ron returned to the City of Chaos, took the Puppet outside the flower shop, and boarded a carriage.
He instructed the driver to proceed slowly along Aikley Street toward the city gates.
Holding the Puppet, he repeatedly entered and exited the Illusory Spirit World, testing when the connection would fail.
Even after passing through the city gates, he could still access the Illusory Spirit World.
Patiently, he continued until the carriage reached the outskirts of the city.
Only when they were nearing the countryside did the Puppet finally lose its connection to the original body.
From this, Ron concluded that the combination of a second-evolved Phantom Willow and the Puppet allowed coverage of an entire city, with room to spare.
And since the City of Chaos was one of the largest cities on the continent, second only to the Human Empire's Royal Capital—
If it could cover the entire City of Chaos, it could certainly cover any other city as well.
With that realization, Ron felt reinvigorated, his confidence restored.
Of course, this still didn't solve the issue of connecting different cities.
But Ron had already thought of another possible solution.
After all—
Aside from the standard Puppet Tree, when combined with parasitic wood, it could undergo a second evolution and produce life-sized Puppet Fruits.
If those life-sized Puppets were used with the Phantom Willow…
What kind of result would that bring?
Ron could hardly wait to find out.