Chapter 228

Yu Tu woke up in pitch darkness. The ground behind him was hard and cold. Yu Tu touched it subconsciously and it felt a bit like rough bark.

He sat up with his head dizzy and tried to cast a spell of illumination, but there was no response. The spiritual power was still flowing through his body, but the spell seemed to have lost its effect.

【Is anyone there? 】

Yu Tu opened his mouth to speak, but found that he could not hear his own voice. He put his hand on his Adam's apple, and his vocal cords were still vibrating when he spoke, but the sound coming out of his mouth was erased.

Yu Tu thought, what a strange place.

He slowly got up from the ground. In such an unsettling environment, his first thought was to summon the vest to his side, but when he concentrated his attention to sense it, he found that the connection between him and the part of consciousness in the vest had become vague. He could sense the existence, but could not activate the transmission.

Unable to use spiritual power and unable to hear any sound, Yu Tu could only grope forward cautiously in the darkness.

After the usual vision failed, other senses became sensitive. Yu Tu slowly moved forward along the direction of the bark under his feet. The superficial experience brought by being a plant for more than a year told him that this tree was bigger than he had imagined, like a boundless city.

Yu Tu walked down along the texture of the bark. There was no concept of time in the darkness. He didn't know how long he had been walking. Finally, he saw a little light. This little light was as faint as a firefly in late summer, and it seemed that it would be extinguished if he exhaled.

Do you want to come over?

Yu Tu was a little hesitant.

Before he could make up his mind, he felt that the faint light seemed to move, or it might just be an illusion caused by his extreme nervousness.

Yu Tu stood in the darkness for a while, and finally chose to move forward in the direction of the faint light. He walked in that direction and finally saw the true face of Lushan behind that little light—

It was an extremely exquisite metal creation, silver-black in color, like a musk deer with its eyes closed. It was leaning against a tree, and the faint light that Yu Tu saw came from the dim colorful surface of it.

Perhaps sensing Yu Tu's presence, the musk deer opened its eyes. Its eyeballs were also made of metal, but they frightened Yu Tu and made him stand still.

———That was the expression that was closest to "Tao" that Yu Tu had ever seen.

These eyes just looked at him quietly, as if all the secrets were exposed.

Yu Tu took a step back.

The musk deer seemed to be shocked by his reaction. It limped to its feet, left the tree trunk it was leaning on, stepped out of the dried-up pool where it lived, and slowly walked towards Yu Tu.

After it left, Yu Tu saw clearly the tree it was blocking, which was a withered longevity tree.

Yu Tu had read a lot of ancient books, and many of them had records about longevity wood. Some said—

【The tree of longevity is a tree on Mount Kunlun. Hua means fruit. If you eat its fruit, you will not die, so it is called the tree of longevity.】

Some say——

[There is a forest of longevity trees, one tree is a thousand feet tall. The sun and the moon are hidden by them. If you rest under this tree, you will never die or get sick.]

The name of Shoumu may be unfamiliar to most people, but it has another well-known name, the "Immortal Tree". Legend has it that the Immortal Tree can make people immortal and even resurrect the dead.

When Yu Tu came across this passage in ancient books, he had a feeling of disbelief.

In the "Classic of Mountains and Seas", the immortal tree is called Ganmu, and eating it will make people immortal. Yu Tu believed that it has the ability to temporarily maintain people's youth and delay aging, but it is impossible to make people truly immortal.

Time is the fairest thing in this world. No matter strong or weak, no one can resist time.

But now, Yu Tu began to feel uncertain.

The metal creature that looked like a musk deer was clearly moving very slowly, but it appeared in front of Yu Tu in the blink of an eye.

The musk deer lowered its head and bit Yu Tu's arm. It raised its head vigorously and threw Yu Tu on its back. At the same moment, the colorful light on the musk deer's body grew stronger and stronger, spreading around it recklessly.

This dark space was finally illuminated.

Yu Tu saw a tree.

A tree so stunning that it was not enough to describe it as covering the sky and blocking out the sun. Yu Tu could not see the whole tree from where he was, but he still felt a deep sense of awe. Compared with the tree in front of him, the phantom of the tea tree he had created in the old courtyard was nothing more than a gnat in the universe and a drop in the ocean.

The colorful light on the musk deer seemed to be the introduction of this dazzling scene. Yu Tu held the musk deer's neck and raised his head. The place where they were seemed to be the fork of a tree, which was wider than any plain he had ever seen in his life.

Looking up, the tops of the nine curved branches are out of sight; looking down, the places where the light has not yet reached seem endlessly empty.

This gorgeous scene was reflected in Yu Tu's eyes. He seemed to see a distant dream. The trees were full of black flowers, and strange beasts were singing and dancing on the petals. Golden light was passing through and circling among the branches and leaves, bringing out a burst of sparkling spots of light... The shock that cannot be described in words was clearly presented before his eyes.

Perhaps this world will wither after reaching its peak, and the scenery will suddenly dissipate like smoke, leaving only the light that once flew through the branches and leaves, illuminating this vast world alone.

Yu Tu saw the dead tree.

Trees died one after another.

These trees cling quietly to the giant trees, and many of them can no longer maintain the beautiful posture they had when they were alive.

Yu Tu saw the three pearls that should have been as dazzling as pearls, but their leaves looked like randomly piled stones and soil; the yellow wood with green leaves and red flowers was covered with an ugly layer of black ash; the hibiscus tree where the golden crow lived was only half a weathered branch...

The huge tree beneath his feet that he had inexplicably revered and loved was also dead. The amazing glimpse he had seen was an illusion, and what really existed were just ancient ruins.

【Is He Jianmu? 】

Yu Tu opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

The metal creature shaped like a musk deer ignored his doubts. It just carried Yu Tu and slowly walked up along the center of the nine extended dead branches.

This seems like a very, very long way to go.

Yu Tu heard the sound of metal hitting the dead bark, bringing a mournful echo. The golden dots of light, which were already dim and not bright enough to illuminate much, were still swirling among the branches, like the afterglow of a grand event.

The metallic creature carried Yu Tu and walked until it left the golden spots far behind it, until the faint five-colored light on its body went out, and until the surroundings turned into darkness that was so dark that it could not be seen.

Yu Tu could no longer see anything. He could only hear the sound of the metal creature's hooves, like a series of sad knocks. Finally, there was nothing under him, the metal creature disappeared, and he was left in the darkness.

Yu Tu felt something touching his head, like a branch, and the branches and leaves wrapped around his waist, gently lifting him forward. Yu Tu saw a faint, reddish-brown light.

This light was reflected in Yu Tu's eyes, and he widened his eyes.

Because the main body and the vest share the same consciousness, the main body also possesses some of the vest's talents and the spiritual power cannot be externalized, so Yu Tu tries hard to mobilize them and concentrate the spiritual power into his eyes.

Perhaps his desire was too strong, and his [Talent] was passively triggered. Yu Tu saw the branch wrapped around his waist, extending towards the reddish-brown light.

There was a person in that light.

A man who looked haggard, as if he were seriously ill.

Perhaps he noticed something, he raised his eyes and met Yu Tu's shocked gaze.

What shocked Yu Tu was not his appearance or his condition, but the layer of phantom that shrouded the man when all his spiritual power was gathered in his eyes.

———That is the Emperor’s House.

Yu Tu's memory is almost never wrong. The phantom shrouding this man is none other than the clan leader Di Wu!

The branch had already rolled up the shocked Yu Tu and came in front of the man. Yu Tu felt no ill will. He opened his mouth and said blankly:

[…Patriarch? ]

Everything that was happening before his eyes was a little beyond his understanding.

There was a moment of doubt in the man's eyes. He closed his eyes slightly, and when he opened them again, the phantom disappeared, and the man's expression became the same as the phantom.

Jianmu is a world of its own, with many constraints and rules. Because of Jianmu's death, some rules have been gradually distorted over time. For example, the definition of "calling but without direction" has gradually become vague.

The man who seemed to be possessed by the Emperor's House was also speechless, but the doubt in his eyes was so thick that it was about to overflow:

【New...cub?】

He knew clearly all the cubs of the Plant Tribe in the past hundred years. Although the prototype of the cub in front of him could not be seen, it was obviously not any of them he was familiar with.

Yu Tu understood Di Wu's lip movements, and he also began to wonder in his heart. Judging from the breath of the soul, the person in front of him was undoubtedly the clan leader Di Wu, but how could the clan leader of their Grass Clan... be so peaceful? Most importantly, clan leader Di Wu was still in the Grass Clan, and had just given him pocket money a few days ago, and even sent him his emoticons to "threaten" him.

If the little seedling on Yu Tu's head was still there, it would have bent into a big question mark by now.

The branch wrapped around Yu Tu's waist did not fall down, but pulled him closer. The man reached out and poked Yu Tu's cheek, once on the left, then on the right, as if to confirm whether it was true or not. The confusion in his eyes became more and more serious with his actions.

Yu Tu patted the man's hand speechlessly.

OK, this move is quite patriarchal.

There's no mistake, it's me.

When Yu Tu slapped the hand on his cheek, the man swayed because of his strength, and the phantom shrouding his body appeared again at this moment. Even though Di Wu had turned into a phantom, there was still astonishment in his eyes.

The man opened his eyes again. His expression was unfamiliar to Yu Tu. It was gentle and elegant, yet also scrutinizing. He extended his hand to Yu Tu, which was the standard etiquette for human beings when meeting each other.

【Hello, I am Xun Ruowang. 】

At this moment, a certain sense of oppression reached its peak.

Yu Tu sat up straight subconsciously and shook hands with him in return:

[Hello, I am Yu Tu from the Plant Clan. ]

A dim golden light slowly floated over from afar, circling around them twice. The brown light on the phantom Emperor Wu's body fell off, and condensed into a small alien beast on Xun Ruowang's shoulder.