Chapter 64 Wood Spirit (Part 2)
Gu Qing woke up the next day and found that the little wood spirit was missing. He was stunned for a while, and began to look for it in the whole house. He searched every corner and box. For some reason, he knew that the little wood spirit could not be in those places before he opened them, but he still searched every inch of the house.
Indeed not.
There was no trace of the little wood spirit in the whole house.
The little wood spirit limped outside. In order to break Gu Qing's restriction, it had to bite off its two claws to get out. Even though it was a wood spirit, it would bleed green blood like tree sap and it would hurt. The wound would take a long time to heal. The mountain road outside was rugged and difficult to walk on. The little wood spirit endured the pain.
It started raining.
The rain was more unbearable than the pain. Because there was no place to hide from the rain - there was no place to run back to when it rained. The little wood elf tried not to think about it, it just crawled forward slowly, at least in the rain, it could secretly let the hot things in its eyes flow down.
The little wood elf's fur was soaked through, never dry. It hated rainy days. It found a tree hole, but it was damp, not as dry as the nest it remembered. It looked for a cave, but it was freezing cold. It searched for wild vegetables and fruits in the forest, but the food it was familiar with now tasted sour and rough.
But the little wood elf ate it expressionlessly, fell asleep and woke up again, all wet.
It didn't expect the iron thorn to be so painful.
After spending some time in the forest in a daze, the little wood elf went out to look for wild vegetables to eat, and a pair of clean leather boots appeared in his sight. He raised his head and saw the human again.
Gu Qing breathed a sigh of relief. After the wood spirit left that day, Gu Qing went out to look for it, but he didn't expect that this little thing would cover up its aura so thoroughly. It seemed that its spiritual power was much stronger than before. However, after spending some time and effort, he finally found this little guy. After all, he was the most powerful weapon refiner in the world.
The little wood elf was not surprised. During the time it lived with Gu Qing, it had realized that he was the most powerful human it had ever seen.
Gu Qing hesitated and said, "Come back with me."
The little wood spirit said: "Besides refining me into a weapon spirit, what else do you want to do to me?"
"No more." Gu Qing said hurriedly.
The little wood spirit weighed it. This rainy season was exceptionally long, and it was too tired. It wanted to have a warm nest to rest. Even though it knew that it would be transformed into a weapon spirit if it followed this human back, it had no choice but to accept it. This was the price. If you want to enjoy the delicious bait, you have to endure the pain of the iron thorns.
It is a wood spirit, but its feelings are not much different from those of other humans. It will feel hungry if it does not eat, and it will feel pain if it bleeds or gets hurt. Therefore, it will make stupid mistakes like humans and pay a price that is completely not worth it for a little warmth.
Gu Qing took the little wood elf back.
The house was as comfortable as before. There was a comfortable little nest, delicious food, and everything was fine. The little wood elf lived the same life as before, but it became lazy and didn't like to move. It no longer ran around the house.
The little wood elf still lay in his nest every day to bask in the sun. He slowly figured out many things. He finally understood that he had willingly given up his freedom and chose to stay here. But now he stayed here and felt lonely.
It turns out that emotions are so complicated. Humans are really terrible creatures. They can actually live with such complicated emotions. The little wood elf realized it. Strangely enough, it was from that day that the little wood elf began to grow. Its body, which was only about a foot tall, began to grow longer.
Gu Qing also gradually realized the extraordinaryness of the little wood spirit. He found that wherever the little wood spirit was, the spiritual energy was extremely rich and continued to gather, and spiritual veins continued to grow underground. In this era when spiritual energy was dissipating, this was simply a miracle.
Gu Qing began to search ancient books and explore the life story of the little wood spirit. He finally determined that the little wood spirit was the world spirit born in this land. Unfortunately, because the spiritual energy of this land had dissipated, the world spirit could not get enough spiritual energy to nourish it, and finally it could only be born in the form of a wood spirit.
No wonder Jingyuejian calculated that only by integrating this little wood spirit could he refine a space magic tool that could grow. This was because it was originally a natural spiritual creature bred in this world!
Gu Qing continued his research. Refining top-level magic weapons requires long and arduous preparations. He continued to prepare materials and formations for refining.
There were more and more items belonging to the wood spirit left in his house. The magic tool that Gu Qing made that could automatically remove moss, the various wooden balls that the wood spirit usually used as toys, the nest that was eliminated because the wood spirit grew bigger, the small wooden basin that the wood spirit used to bathe, the small food bowl for eating, and the small cup for drinking juice. A small spiritual field was specially opened in the yard for the wood spirit to plant itself in from time to time - absorbing spiritual energy, which would make the little wood spirit grow faster.
On this day, Gu Qing was going to go out. He needed to mine a spiritual stone material called moonstone to refine the magic world. Before leaving, he calculated the days and prepared food for the wood spirits in advance. To this end, he simply made a box-shaped container that continuously emits cold air to store the wood spirits' food to prevent it from rotting.
"The food is all here. Open this box every day and take out one portion. One portion is the daily amount. Got it?" Gu Qing instructed Mu Jing.
The little wood elf stood on tiptoe to look at the full, cold box: "Got it."
Gu Qing was still worried - what if something unexpected happened and he came back a few days late? While thinking, he quickly planted vegetables in the spiritual field next to his home.
"If you finish eating the food in the box, go to the fields and pick some vegetables to eat," Gu Qing reminded.
"Hmmmm." The little wood elf said perfunctorily. It was busy playing the board game which was very popular recently.
Gu Qing was always restless when he went out to mine moonstone. In the past, he was always focused when he went out to look for minerals, but this time it was different. He was always distracted by thinking about the little wood elf at home.
Such a heavy box should be able to be opened, right? Do you know how to get water from the pool when you are thirsty? The sharp weapons and dangerous goods in the house have been locked up, so it should be okay even if the little thing runs around in the house. The restrictions have also been upgraded, so the little thing should not be able to escape now. Of course, it doesn't matter if it runs away, after all, I have placed a tracking symbol on it, just to prevent it from encountering danger outside...
Gu Qing finally mined enough moonstone and hurried home. From a distance, he saw the roof of his own courtyard and he quickened his pace unconsciously.
He turned the door and, not surprisingly, saw the wood elf on the doormat.
"Why did you come back just now? If you don't come back soon, I will starve to death." The wood elf complained.
Gu Qing only then realized what it felt like to have another creature waiting for him when he returned home. He had lived alone for so long that he had gotten used to being alone, and therefore particularly hated to adapt to another creature entering his private domain, but it was not until now that he realized that he had accepted this wood spirit.
After being away for so long, the studio was already covered with dust. Gu Qing was cleaning while putting the moonstone he brought back into the studio.
"When I become a spirit of an artifact, will I still remember all this?" the little wood elf asked next to the door, but it did not come in.
Gu Qing was busy organizing things, and casually said, "No, you will forget." As soon as he said that, he thought that maybe the little wood elf wanted to keep its memory, just like humans, after all, it is an intelligent creature. He realized that what he just said would bring pain to the little wood elf, and hurriedly added, "But you will not die, you are still you, you just exist in a different form, and become a spirit of this magic weapon world."
The little wood spirit was slightly relieved, and then asked: "Have you collected all the materials? Are you ready to start refining?"
Gu Qing paused for a moment. "Don't worry, the formation for refining the weapon is not yet complete." He said.
"Then when can the formation be completed?" asked the little wood elf.
"Winter is too cold, let's wait for spring." said Gu Qing.
The little wood elf nodded, but until the spring of the second year, Gu Qing still hadn't designed the formation. Year after year, Gu Qing still hadn't figured out the formation.
"You can't do it?" the little wood elf asked suspiciously. How come this human locked himself in the room every day and still couldn't figure out the formation? I heard that there are some idiots among humans who can't learn numerology no matter what.
Gu Qing remained silent, and continued to dig the soil with a shovel, busy planting spiritual vegetables and fruits. He was now an expert in farming. "I think growing vegetables is also good." He answered irrelevant questions.
Year after year goes by.
Gu Qing's temples also had white hair. He picked a relatively smart person from the younger generation of the Gu family and took him in as his apprentice.
It was winter again, and Gu Qing fell ill. The little wood elf watched him become more and more haggard, and his entire body became thinner and thinner.
There were knocking sounds coming from the backyard, and the little wood elf knew that it was Gu Qing's disciples preparing a cemetery for Gu Qing. A cemetery is where people live after they die.
"Are you going to die?" the little wood elf said dully.
"I'm going to die." Gu Qing said. He was not surprised. His obsession with refining equipment had cost him a lot of effort, and his life span was destined to be shorter than that of ordinary people. "When I die, Gu Yu will come and take care of you." Gu Yu was Gu Qing's disciple.
That night, the little wood elf curled up in his nest and heard Gu Qing's suppressed cough from next door. He was very angry with Gu Qing, but when Gu Qing died, he was not happy. All the memories of living with Gu Qing made him understand the taste of heartbreak for the second time when Gu Qing was about to die.
The deterioration of his internal organs caused Gu Qing to fall asleep almost in the early morning, but he was woken up not long after.
“Master, Master!”
Gu Qing opened his eyes and saw Gu Yu, who was kneeling beside the bed with a terrified look on his face. "What's wrong?"
Gu Yu swallowed his saliva and said carefully: "Master, the array plate you refined in your studio has lit up..."
Gu Qing's heart tightened, and almost immediately, he knew which array Gu Yu was talking about. Almost immediately, he forced himself to get up and get out of bed, ignoring the shouts of his disciples behind him, and used up his last bit of strength to rush to his studio.
Gu Qing had already completed the array plate for refining the spirit of the weapon, but he had locked it in the studio. But now, the little wood spirit opened the array plate by himself and was shrouded by the light of the array engraved on it.
Gu Qing said hoarsely: "Does it hurt?"
This is truly nonsense. As the creator of the formation, Gu Qing certainly knows that it will be painful. This formation will thoroughly refine the body and sea of consciousness of the little wood elf, turning it into an artifact spirit.
The little wood elf said honestly: "It hurts, but it hurts more when I think you are going to die."
It pointed to its heart and said, "It's so strange, there's nothing here, but it hurts so much."
Gu Qing, it hurts too. It's like being in the dark all the time and suddenly seeing the day, it's like being in the day all the time and seeing the night, it's like a room that has always been tidy is messed up, it's like being dead and suddenly alive again.
He said, "Come out now. You are free. I don't need you as a spirit anymore."
The little wood spirit opened its mouth and said foolishly, "I promised you that I would be a spirit." It had not come into contact with many humans, so it had not had time to learn the twists and turns of humans, and thought that the promises made must be fulfilled. Seeing that Gu Qing was on the verge of death, it sneaked into Gu Qing's room and opened the array disk. Even if Gu Qing did not completely calculate the array, it should give it a try to see if it could become the spirit he wanted.
But what the little wood elf didn't know was that the weapon refining formation had already been calculated, and the formation plate engraved with the formation had also been refined.
The formation was already fully operational. Gu Qing struggled to walk over and quickly operated it, trying to stop the formation.
The little wood spirit hurriedly reminded him: "Hey, didn't you say that if I don't become a spirit, humanity will be destroyed?" After so many years, the little wood spirit has figured out everything. It already knows why Gu Qing must refine this magic weapon world.
Gu Qing suddenly wanted to tell it that, in fact, I have always felt out of place among humans. Maybe I am just like you, a monster who is also lonely and difficult to integrate. But for some reason, he didn't want to say it, maybe because it was too embarrassing to say it, or maybe because the things that can be said are always too light. He finally opened his mouth and said, "In fact, humans are not something that cannot be destroyed."
Gu Qing forcibly removed the formation, and blood came out of his mouth. The formation began to backfire.
The little wood spirit became even more flustered, and quickly reached out to wipe the blood from Gu Qing, but the blood kept flowing. "It's nothing, didn't you say I won't die, I just forgot the past and became a weapon spirit. Hey, it's okay..."
"But I hope you remember it." Gu Qing said.
He thought of the messy rooms, the naughty footprints, the endless moss, the little bowl and nest of the little wood elf, and the place where he would take a nap beside him while reading. Sorry, humans are really selfish animals. They always take the initiative and want you to forget, but they don't want you to forget.
Gu Qing finally broke the formation, but the price was blood gushing out of his mouth and nose.
"You're going to die soon." said the little wood elf stupidly.
"Yes." Gu Qing said. "It doesn't matter. Everyone is going to die."
Tears fell on him. Gu Qing would occasionally think about how he would die, just like now. Someone from the tribe would come to handle his funeral, but there would be no one who knew him or was familiar with him, and naturally no one would shed tears for him. But now there was a little wood elf crying for him, so dying like this was not so bad after all.
Before he completely lost consciousness, Gu Qing reached out and touched the little wood elf's head for the last time: "I'm sorry."
That human was completely dead.
The little wood spirit's tears flowed more and more. Although it knew that Gu Qing took it in just to refine it into a weapon spirit, it was still young, so it always loved more than hated. Of course, maybe it was not because it was still young - but because it was not a human.
The little wood spirit suddenly felt tired. It looked around the room blankly, and only saw the huge furnace that Gu Qing often used. In that furnace, there was still his breath.
Gu Qing is dead and it has nowhere to go.
The little wood spirit walked into the cauldron. Ever since it could remember, it had been a little wood spirit. It knew that its life span would be as long as the land under its feet. As long as this piece of land was still there, it would be immortal.
But now it just wants to sleep forever.
It took root in the furnace.
The roots grew wildly along the cauldron, which contained the purest spiritual power. Finally, the cauldron was completely melted, leaving only a piece of lotus spirit jade in the center of the cauldron.
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