Chapter 54, however, caused a misunderstanding and reminded him of the cause and effect of a tree.
54
Birds offer their feathers in quest for mating.
What's with this "seeking marriage" nonsense?
He was clearly courting a woman.
So straightforward, yet the ingenious secret is impossible to look away from.
He pinned the feather to the top bud of her crown, as if... standing on his own heart, adorning a tree with a flower.
The girl was stunned, her heart pounding with indescribable excitement.
This feather is definitely extraordinary. If it is the red mark from Chen Jinshi's fingertip, then it must be the most important and special feather of the Golden Crow.
So what did this bird, which drew out bones, spilled blood, and dissected the heart, give her?
Beyond the flutter in her heart, she also felt a lingering anxiety.
Does he really intend to use his own body and flesh to move forward like this?
Miaojue pursed her lips again.
Unbeknownst to him, just as she used the Heavenly Bone to probe beneath the tree, some memories related to that day were being released from her mind.
The memory was still not clear enough, but Miaojue remembered how she chose to become a tree.
She also recalled that from the very beginning... she didn't want him to get hurt.
But along the way, no one suffered a lot.
...
The burning feathers fell in layers like ashes, as if draping the marriage tree in a magnificent black robe.
Everyone around froze.
A mysterious light flickered, and a clear, solitary cry seemed to echo from the distant sky—was that the feathered robe of the Ten Golden Crows of the Underworld?! And so it was draped over the Tree of Love—
The feathers atop the tree burned like a calamity in hell, yet they carried a vibrant life force that was beyond human reach.
The wise ruler was right; this tree was indeed of great significance. However, Dongfang Yehai and the others suddenly realized something was wrong. Why was the Golden Crow with a hole in its heart completely unaffected, as if it were extremely excited?
The Xuan Bone level wind spirits gathered in large numbers, led by the Dongfang family, and wreaked havoc across the continent like a tornado. The buzzing locust mouthparts swirled like countless wind spikes, constantly attacking the tree trunks protected by the feather robe.
In the crowd, Dongfang Yaotian watched in shock as the marriage tree was protected and shrouded in ashes. It was their tree of love, yet it was being protected like this!
After a long while, his wicked gaze shifted.
He gazed intently at Chen Jinshi.
Brother Jinshi, you're actually protecting my marriage like this?!
So what if they are from the Underworld?! Such sincere intentions are a thousand times more genuine than those of false people and false immortals.
Dust settled as she looked away from the feathered crest atop the tree, a smile playing on her lips. "This isn't even the most beautiful color yet..."
The most beautiful colors... will be draped over her at the most opportune time.
At this time, the sapling was completely unaware of this.
Chen Jinshi smiled with some satisfaction, his fingertips gently tapping the jade compass. He watched as endless locusts, like raindrops, crashed into the tree's ash "raincoat," instantly turning into ashes, filling the air with a smoky aroma.
He came up with a safer way to protect the tree.
However, just as they were about to start, they suddenly met Dongfang Yaotian's expression of overflowing emotion.
Dust gathers up: "?"
The male protagonist stared in disbelief, then was deeply moved. His eyes turned bloodshot as he looked at the villain, his voice trembling with emotion:
"Brother Jinshi, I never imagined you would go to such lengths for the marriage between Qiu'er and me..."
Dust gathers up: "?"
Chen Jinshi: "You've misunderstood."
Dongfang Yaotian waved his hand and hissed, "No need to say anything more! I understand."
Looking back on the journey, he and Qiu'er had received a lot of help from Brother Jinshi.
Needless to say, the people in Tianyan Kingdom received countless reminders and favors from him, and even the abundance of spiritual energy and the prosperity of the people were brought about by him.
The Netherbone Blade he held in his hand was subtly resonating with the power of the feather at the top of the tree—it turned out that the material he was using to forge the blade was none other than his brother Jin Shi's bones!
It made sense, everything made sense. Later, when he and Qiu'er were in deep danger, Nether Blood suddenly appeared above their heads and entered their bodies. Although it was not what they wanted, it forcibly helped them improve their cultivation.
Dongfang Yaotian closed his eyes in remorse. They had shown such disgust back then; Brother Jinshi must have been deeply hurt!
He sacrificed himself so much for their friendship, and protected their love—
This is what brothers are all about!
The secret: "..."
Without a doubt, she could clearly guess his entire thought process just by looking at his expression.
This is utterly blatant treacherous behavior, typical male protagonist!
Dongfang Yaotian looked at Gong Yuqiu with bloodshot eyes and found that the other person's eyes were also full of tears. It turned out that even though their love was riddled with holes, there was still someone supporting them behind the scenes.
"Chen Daojun..."
They've weathered so many storms together, how can we abandon the past just because he's from the Underworld?!
Dust gathers up: "…………"
Dust settled, his face expressionless: "I did not do this for you."
With a face full of loyalty, Dongfang Yaotian finally made a decision that went against his ancestors' wishes, "I know you're held back by your identity! You know you're from the Underworld Clan and feel that I won't accept you, so you've been disguising your identity all this time, but you can't let go of this brotherhood between us!"
At this moment, when their love tree was so carefully protected, the male and female protagonists completely let go of their racial prejudices against humans and the underworld.
They are all living beings, and they all have feelings!
Under the blue sky, everyone is equal.
Dust settled, and his thin lips parted, but words seemed utterly powerless. He weakly said, "I'm protecting my own marriage..."
"I understand!" Dongfang Yaotian revealed a healthy and resolute male protagonist smile and uttered that classic line.
"We're good friends, that's friendship, that's a bond!"
Miao Jue turned around in astonishment to look at Chen Jinshi's expression.
For the first time in her life, she saw guilt on the face of the world-destroying villain.
Chen Jinshi flew into the air with a bewildered expression, meeting Dongfang Yehai's furious gaze, and thought that this person was a little more normal.
Dongfang Yehai glared at Dongfang Yaotian and Gong Yuqiu, who were gazing at each other with deep affection, and was almost driven to madness by the two of them.
"What are you talking about?!" The Langhuan Immortal Court chose them to undergo tribulations in the mortal realm, not to help them understand mortals or even the Netherworld Clan!
They are immortals, beings superior to humans, what on earth are they doing?!
The Dongfang family's immense wind spirit transformed into a swirling gale that swept across the heavens, its arrogant immortal aura nearly uprooting the entire Tianyan Kingdom, finally revealing its true immortal face to this mortal continent.
"Run! Run fast!"
Dongfang Yaotian flew into a rage: "What are you doing to the people!"
Gong Yuqiu quickly used water spirits to block the insect plague and prevent mortals from being affected, but in the eyes of the immortals, those people were no different from the insect plague.
Dongfang Yehai stared intently at the white-clad figure. Ming Shi had an innate advantage, but they were not without the power to fight. Suddenly, Dongfang Yehai's spiritual power surged, causing the insect plague to transform into a cone, like a huge maw, sharply rushing towards his heart.
The endless locusts overwhelmed him with sheer numbers, almost obscuring the ashes that filled the air.
"Ming Shi, give up. The wise ruler has already reached a height that none of you have ever reached—"
"He is the true god—"
Dust settled, and he tilted his head, his fingertips twitching slightly. "A dog barking?"
He's always been an expert at making people angry.
Dongfang Yehai's face turned liver-colored in the blink of an eye. He threw his immortal demeanor to the back of his mind and, together with his brothers from the Dongfang family, each summoned a swarm of insects, forming a blood-slaughtering array in mid-air.
"Your inner chambers were explored in broad daylight; are you still in pain?"
The eyelashes that had been working in the magic suddenly stopped.
The whole world is looking for his flaws, and then crushing him.
Dust settled, and he ignored it, as if he finally found it troublesome. A faint, sweet scent suddenly emanated from beneath his white robes.
"I'm very busy..."
Miao Jue suddenly looked up, but only had time to see a handful of blood mist precisely transform into countless drops of blood, which were then generously fed to each locust.
The Bloodbath Array in mid-air paused for a moment.
But that was only for a moment. Then, each insect suddenly burst out with amazing power, broke free from the magic power of the Dongfang family, and was immediately reversed and turned back as Chen Jinshi waved his fingertips.
Chen Jinshi smiled warmly, "I don't eat these kinds of insects. You can enjoy them slowly."
He retreated to the tree, but Miaojue grabbed him and pressed him down, asking, "What are you doing to your body now?"
Standing on his heart, growing trees from his veins, Miaojue found it increasingly difficult to accept his wounds.
My heart is broken, my feathers are plucked, and now I must shed blood.
The ingenious design is evident in the fact that almost everything in sight consists of parts that fell from this bird.
Is there an addiction to wearing tattered and worn-out clothes?
Fuji said that his wounds would never heal. Because the Ember Bones are constantly changing, and because they are infinite, they are also endless.
Miao Jue's almond-shaped eyes shone brightly. What she was really angry about was that she could have turned the situation around, and that he could have avoided cutting himself.
Chen Jinshi, oblivious to the seriousness in her gaze, smiled and said casually, "Of course there are other ways, but this is the fastest—"
He was really ruthless to himself.
Otherwise, he wouldn't have been so resolute in choosing to give his heart to her.
Dust gathers and commands billions of insects, gently biting and devouring the immortals. Once they are all gone, the insects can stay by the tree and guard it for him.
"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to this tree." He smiled smugly.
Miao Jue stared at his unusually pale face.
She was a little angry.
…
Dongfang Yehai and the others used the hurricane spirit stream to block the rampaging insect plague, and finally deliberately led it towards the direction of the marriage tree.
The incessant buzzing of insect wings interrupted the conversation between the two people under the tree.
Chen Jinshi clicked his tongue in disapproval. "Those Dongfang types are really troublesome."
An even stronger wind spirit of the same origin arrived at lightning speed.
The divine steed arrived with a message, and upon landing, it hurriedly grabbed Chen Jinshi: "The second ring can't be opened. Bu Er Cang San has tried from all directions, but that old bastard Dongfang Qianye is hiding inside! Where's Wei Yi? Where's Miao Miao? Is Miao Miao alright?"
Miao Jue quickly stepped forward: "Brother Xiao Qi, we're alright."
She and Wei Yi are both well.
The divine steed breathed a sigh of relief, but then he realized that the surrounding hurricane energy was very familiar—it was the Xuan Bone that had grown from his flesh and blood!
Who ate his tail? Spit it out!
Ling Qi was enraged. After delivering the letter, he immediately started fighting, perfectly in line with the swift style of the wind element. He almost got into a fight with Dongfang Yaotian, only to discover that this person was actually a friend, not an enemy.
Miaojue's eyes were filled with worry, and the huge black shadow she had seen in her dream reappeared before her eyes.
The Second Ring Road was built with the Ancestral Stone, a mysterious place that nurtured the Netherworld race and gathered the essence of heaven and earth.
The fact that Dongfang Qianye could replicate the Ash Bone is already extremely dangerous.
She looked anxiously in the direction of Langhuan: "If Dongfang Qianye has been lurking in the ancestral stone for a hundred years..."
What is the true face beneath the falling white ashes?
How do we open the ancestral stone?
Chen Jinshi crossed his arms, lowered his eyes, and looked down at the ground where the marriage tree was rooted, as if talking to himself, but he knew that the other person could hear him.
"Dongfang Qianye is hidden behind the ancestral stone. You must know what to do."
After all, she was the ancestor of the Underworld.
He was the first person born from the ancestral stone when the world was created.
Miaojue also reached out and touched the tree trunk covered in ash wings.
Is this the only step she's taken?
Chen Jinshi half-closed his eyes, pondered for a moment, and chuckled softly: "Actually, I know how to open it—soak it thoroughly in my blood, and I'm 90% confident I can master it."
After all, he was the last bird born from the ancestral stone, the final bird of the series.
Miao Jue pursed his lips, having no doubt that he could actually do it.
She didn't speak, her palm resting on the tree trunk covered in soft ashes, feeling the heartbeat flowing within it.
The system's only response wasn't a direct answer, but those steady heartbeats were already conveying a definite message to them.
The two children who walked here hand in hand are the keys she left for her ancestral home.
Miaojue grabbed a handful of his cool ashes, pursed her lips, and asked, "Have you ever thought that I could do the same?"
I am now the Tree of Heavenly Bones.
You are such a... very bad bird.
Chen Jinshi lowered her eyes, not because she didn't believe her, but because her tone was blunt: "The Ancestral Stone has existed for tens of thousands of years. Touching it is like going back to the universe—"
He paused abruptly at this point.
But he's here.
The exact date of his birth is too long to be known, but he is... the last of the Ancestral Stones.
His time was hers.
She can rewind the ancestral stone to a time before everything happened.
As the dust settled, her long eyelashes fluttered slightly. The marriage tree was enveloped in ashes and feathers, its crown gleaming brightly.
It looked as if they were embracing.
Only when they all arrive here can they possibly open the ancestral stone and return to their homeland.
The marriage tree swayed gently beneath the feathered robe, and a red ribbon fell once more from the dust-free fingertips, like a silent answer.
This is the only road that has been laid out.
"We are truly... a match made in heaven."
After a long while of gathering up the dust, she instinctively clutched her chest, her peach-blossom eyes shimmering with surprise, and hot breath escaping from her thin lips.
...
He sped from here toward the endless sea, and in the wind, he lowered his head to search for her lips.
I'm in a hurry, I really want to kiss you.
Their warm cheeks rubbed together, and he anxiously followed the corner of her eye to the corner of her lips. Even without his heart in his chest, he felt a surge of excitement.
But Miaojue lay on his chest, pursing her lips, refusing to let him kiss her.
They had done everything they could, and they had narrowly made it to where they were today. But their hearts could only be left behind; there would always be an abyss of emptiness within them.
Miao Jue kept recalling fragments of that day. The ancestral land was completely invaded, and the Immortal Trapping Stone Array trapped every member of the Netherworld Clan without warning. That was the first and only time she saw the true form of the Golden Crow... And these howling memories finally settled on that freshly pulled-out heart that was still beating for her.
The separation of youth can be so devastating. And he never kept the promise they made.
She told me to take good care of myself when we said goodbye.
Do you now know why she became a tree?
He didn't know.
But then she remembered.
The reason she became a tree is also related to him.
...
Miaojue turned her head away, and the man's warm, thin lips brushed against her ear, trembled slightly, and then he lowered his eyes.
I saw that the girl's clear, almond-shaped eyes were filled with sadness.
As I finished picking up the dust and stopped, my back tightened slightly. Did I not like it?
“…a very bad bird,” she said.
Objectively speaking, it's a bird that's broken everywhere.
Chen Jinshi dared not kiss her anymore, and rolled her neck back to lean back.
The rejection of his kiss left him with a persistent and lingering sense of anxiety from his youth.
She still doesn't like birds...
To this day, she has never actually seen the Golden Crow in its true form... Even if she had, she would have forgotten it.
Would she like his feathered robe? Actually, she probably wouldn't.
Chen Jinshi tilted his head back, revealing a beautiful neck, but let out a short laugh.
Her voice lowered, and she used a slightly fierce tone to cover up her grievances, "Even if you don't like birds, you can't go back on your word now."
He deliberately and mischievously pecked her nose, which was chilled by the wind: "Our marriage is the destined solution, can't you see that yet—"
Miaojue raised her almond-shaped eyes amidst her wind-blown, disheveled hair: "Who said that?"
Who said she doesn't like birds?
Chen Jinshi assumed she was answering with the phrase "predestined marriage," and his smug eyebrows paused for a moment before drooping uncontrollably, like a bird with outstretched wings that had missed its mating season and began to fade.
He was unwilling to accept it, but he wouldn't allow himself to ask further questions.
He could only bite her nose hard in a fit of anger, then sadly shut his mouth.
Miao Jue sighed: "I mean—"
"Don't say it," he said fiercely and dejectedly, "or I'll kiss you."
Miaojue looked up at his sharp jawline and reached up, but he was too high and flying too fast.
In the blink of an eye, the land of Langhuan was at our feet.
Okay then, no kissing, Miao Jue thought slowly.
The entire Langhuan Immortal Court has been completely transformed. Outside the Second Ring, all the immortals have fled and disappeared, leaving only remnants of their former glory.
The four directions of the second ring were occupied by the Netherworld Clan. The Qilin Blazing Fire, the Azure Dragon Thunder, and the Metal, Wood, and Water Spirit Flow all rushed towards the second ring at the same time, but the entire ring wall remained completely unmoved.
Dust settled, carrying with it the secret technique, and then descended.
Neither of them spoke, and the atmosphere went from romantic to icy cold.
Dust settled down as if nothing had happened, and walked around the wall several times. He felt an emptiness in his heart and pressed his palms together to comfort himself.
He didn't even look at the magic formula.
He simply circulated his Heavenly Bone slowly, placing his palm on the white jade-like wall.
The warm touch traveled to her skin; her blood once flowed into the ancestral stone, and she was in serene communion with it.
A century together at this moment.
Seeing this, Chen Jinshi finally found a task for his hands and feet, swayed to her side, and lowered his eyes: "Look at me."
The tone was so aggrieved.
...Only by looking at me can you know how long the regression has lasted.
Miaojue finally raised her eyes and gently looked into his.
She can now discern an individual's time without touching them.
From the moment this golden crow was born until now, standing before him, its existence is clearly visible.
He is so important, so cherished by so many people, a unique little bird from the moment he was born.
The secret lies in the apical bud within the massive rings of a tree, which begins to reverse the passage of time.
...
The wall around the wall moved.
Time seems to regress on its surface, as if there were a traceable path.
Within the second ring, countless spiritual currents surged forth, and distant bells rang out, only to be precisely suppressed by the Netherworld Clan from all directions.
This time they will inevitably return to their ancestral land, just like exiles returning home.
Chen Jinshi stood behind the girl's slender shoulders, his thin lips pursed, with many words in his heart but unable to speak.
But just as Zu Shi retraced his timeline back to a hundred years ago, the red ribbon that had fallen from the marriage tree suddenly vanished into dust, and wisps of red dust clouded his vision.
That was the only thing left for him in front of the marriage tree, and it turned out to be a small fragment... of a memory?
That wasn't his memory, yet it connected to a link in the chain that he could never understand.
That day marked the extinction of the race and the separation.
He transformed into a golden crow, but was protected by his scattered clansmen who wanted him to hide the last vestige of the Netherworld Clan's true power. He eventually found a secret technique, gave his heart to her so she could protect herself, and was then sent out of the ancestral land by the remaining power of everyone.
A century later, he picked up each of them one by one, searching for his heart along the way.
So Chen Jinshi had no idea that Weiyi and Miaojue had once had that short conversation that... determined the future course of their relationship.
That day, the only thing that caught his eye was his black wings that he couldn't fold up, his heart that had been ripped open in his chest, and finally, the still-naive girl in front of him.
She was at her wit's end, unable to save everyone, with only one possible cause and effect... that could change everything.
Her eyes were filled with guilt, "The Time Bone is unique, its creation was extremely difficult, Miaomiao, you..."
"I can."
The girl carefully touched the scattered wings on the ground. She already knew then that everyone was no longer human, but unfortunately, it was in an extremely tragic way.
Then she looked up, her eyes bright, "—It's just me now."
The only one had already lost its tail and its true form was about to dissipate. "The Time Bone will change the future. I need to hide your soul. It may take a very long time, so long that you will no longer remember it... Therefore, we need the most suitable vessel."
With her last bit of strength, she asked the girl, "What do you want to become?"
Miao Jue touched the boy's ashes one last time, thinking of the true form this person had never let her discover, and that he was originally the Golden Crow Divine Bird. Then, in that young man's soft voice, she spoke:
"Then let me be a tree."
That way I can wait patiently.
And he always flies to my branch.
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