Chapter 229
This small strange beast looks like a fox with a white body, a pig-like tail with a long mane, eyes like an ox with red pupils, and ears like an elephant with white hairs.
It's a Qilin.
A translucent little unicorn.
The golden spots of light circling around them were all poured into the Qilin's body. Yu Tu saw the eyes again, the eyes that appeared on the metal creature that looked like a musk deer before.
The pair of eyes stared at him quietly. Different from Diwu's doubt and Xun Ruowang's scrutiny, there was no "human" emotion in its eyes. Rather, it was more like the embodiment of a grand will.
It appears in the form of a Qilin, but it is more than just a Qilin.
During the time when Yu Tu was in the Grass Tribe, Elder Di Xiu told him many ancient secrets, such as the four most famous ancient beasts - the Phoenix, the Qilin, the Canglong, and the Bai Ze.
The Phoenix was reborn from the ashes under certain conditions, from ancient times to the present, until its last rebirth failed; Canglong used an unknown secret method to awaken hundreds of years ago and caused trouble in the inner world; Bai Ze was reincarnated as a human when he was in decline, and has existed only as a human since then.
The Phoenix, Canglong, and Bai Ze all have their own traces, but the Qilin disappeared at the height of its fame ten thousand years ago, and no one has been able to find its trace since then.
At that time, Elder Di Xiu rarely mentioned something that Yu Tu urgently needed to know. He acted coquettishly and wanted to know more, but Di Xiu only gave him a slight headache: "The more you know, the greater the possibility of bearing the consequences. You are still a child."
At that time, Yu Tu touched his forehead and decided to be as shameless as possible. During those few days of summer vacation, he took his books and became Di Xiu's little tail. Wherever Di Xiu went, he would study there, being clingy and persistent.
Emperor Xiu was stuck with him for more than ten days, and finally surrendered. He told Yu Tu some details, but Emperor Xiu didn't know the most critical turning points of the events that happened in ancient times.
What happened ten thousand years ago has been passed down for thousands of years, and many things have been exaggerated, distorted, absurd and deformed. After being passed down through rumors, I wonder how much truth is left.
Di Xiu told Yu Tu everything he knew, and finally touched his head, sighed with a smile: "The past is too far away from us, Tu Tu, just think of it as listening to some interesting stories."
Now, one of the protagonists in the "distant past" appeared in front of Yu Tu unexpectedly.
In the self-created world of Jianmu, "there is no direction when calling", the words "Are you the senior Qilin?" that Yu Tu asked were forced to disappear into the air.
The golden light stabilized the Qilin's translucent body, and a part of it sank into Xun Ruowang's body. The phantom belonging to the Emperor's House that shrouded Xun Ruowang finally separated from him completely at this moment.
The shadow of the Emperor's house smiled cheerfully and comfortably: [Finally I don't have to share my sight with Old Xun anymore.]
Xun Ruowang held his forehead with his hand, a hint of helplessness in his elegant expression.
The Qilin squatting on his shoulder shook its fur, dropping more fragmented golden spots of light. These golden spots of light did not sink but rose instead, stretching from points to threads in the air. The thin threads crisscrossed and formed a net - if Yu Tu had not fallen unconscious in the mechanical maze, he would have found that this net was exactly the same as the previous one.
The golden dots formed a silk mesh, and the mesh was covered by the same color light. It seemed that some wonderful rhythm was resounding at this moment. The smiles on Xun Ruowang and Diwu's phantom faces disappeared at this moment, and they climbed up solemnly.
They have been bound here for fifty years, and the situation of Qilin constructing the "Dao Network" has only appeared once. That time, with the help of the [Mirror], it temporarily broke away from the rules of Jianmu's world and asked them whether they were willing to use themselves to slow down the speed of the disaster.
The last attack on the Taoist network caused great damage to [Mirror], and Qilin has not appeared for ten years. This time, without the assistance of [Mirror], Qilin has to rely solely on his own strength... Diwu and Xun Ruowang both sensed that something was wrong.
"Has the Plant Tribe become extinct?" As soon as the Dao Network was closed, Diwu asked impatiently, "Why did they choose a young cub like you as the candidate? Where is Dixiu?"
Yu Xilihutu Tu: "Everyone in the Grass and Tree Tribe is very nice, and Elder Dixiu is also very nice."
Yu Tu, who still hadn't figured out the whole story, sounded very confused: "Chief, I think you're not doing well."
Emperor House: "..."
He choked. “Isn’t this obvious?”
A corner of his soul, carrying all his memories, was trapped in this "graveyard" of the vegetation clan for fifty years. For a freedom-loving Emperor's House tree, this was more painful than killing him directly.
In the Dao network built by Qilin, most of the restrictions were temporarily lifted. Diwu reached out and grabbed Yu Tu by the back of his collar, pulling him to his side to check: "How can you be so courageous as a young plant? Are you not hurt?"
Yu Tu, who was screaming as a hand pressed on his head, resisted with all his might: "Chief, let go of my hair!"
Even though the patriarch's temper had improved a lot, his bad nature hadn't changed at all. His head really wouldn't allow him to grow taller. His original form was only two meters tall! Two meters!
Xun Ruowang stood aside and watched the cub, who was originally a little shy and timid, showing off his teeth and claws. It was as if he had returned to the scene more than 50 years ago when Diwu showed off the pot of gardenia he raised to him.
What did the emperor say at that time?
Xun Ruowang's memory went beyond the pain of not seeing the light of day for fifty years and slowly recalled the distant past.
At that time, the Emperor said...
"Old Xun! Look how well I take care of Zhibao!"
Diwu's ethereal face was full of pride, his right hand held a small flowerpot with a gardenia in it, and he was using leaves to wrap a small broad-backed machete, and a distinct sound of it breaking through the air could be heard as he moved - he actually gave the fragile young cub a sharpened knife!
Seeing the untransformed cubs and the Emperor's house being as arrogant as each other, Xun Ruowang, who was not from the Plant Clan, felt dizzy.
Diwu is always bold in raising cubs. No matter what cub falls into his hands, it will become tough—he is simply the best rough-raising person of our time.
If he was not trapped in this world, according to Diwu's personality, he would probably still be making friends in the inner world, and then when he missed his cubs, he would use a small cross-domain teleportation array to teleport himself back, tease the cubs and then run away.
The memories that were recalled were so vivid, yet in a blink of an eye, fifty years had passed.
"Stop teasing the cub," Xun Ruowang said, "it's time to get down to business."
"All right." Diwu put his arm on Yu Tu's shoulder, unable to hide the pain on his face. "I've been locked up with you for fifty years, and finally I get to see a child of our tribe, but you won't allow me to cherish him for a while?"
"Senior Qilin." Xun Ruowang ignored Diwu, who had regained some of his nature. He turned to look at the little Qilin on his shoulder, "Is there really no other way?"
Qilin turned his head and looked at him.
During these fifty years, Xun Ruo had seen Qilin only a few times, but every time he saw him, he would be shocked by Qilin's eyes - when he looked into Qilin's eyes, he felt that he was not looking into the eyes of an overly powerful predecessor, but the will of heaven and earth.
Qilin did not speak, but a voice resounded in the hearts of the three people present:
[It is unsustainable, disaster is imminent.]
Fifty years ago, there was a problem with Qilin's Daowen, and [Mirror] informed Xun Ruowang, the then director of the Department of Alien Affairs. Because the situation was urgent, Xun Ruowang immediately decided to enter the forbidden land of Kunlun to find out the truth after communicating with [Mirror]. However, to enter the forbidden land of Kunlun, a prerequisite must be met - the entrant must have the blood of the ancient alien tree.
Xun Ruowang chose to ask the Emperor for help.
Publicly, the Grass and Tree Tribe will not stand idly by when faced with major events concerning the inner world; privately, Diwu and Xun Ruowang are very good friends, and he will not sit idly by while watching his friend get into danger.
So Diwu rushed to the Yichu Bureau and joined forces with Xun Ruowang to enter the Kunlun Forbidden Land. In the forbidden land, they saw the dead Jianmu and the remains of plants and trees left on the branches of Jianmu.
———In the silent world, there are countless graves.
To this day, Xun Ruowang can still recall the inexplicable trembling in his heart at that time. Later he realized that it was the awe of death and the fear of disaster in the silence of heaven and earth.
He clearly remembered the sigh of Emperor Wu at that time: "No wonder the plant and tree tribe has withered to this point..."
The elves who were born and raised on earth are inherently more difficult than other races, and many ancient alien trees have no bloodline inheritance at all, because they have died out together with Jianmu.
Xun Ruowang was only thirty years old at that time, and his age was not even a fraction of that of the emperor. The emperor was so shocked, so Xun Ruowang would only feel more shocked than him.
He didn't even notice that his voice was trembling at the time: "Is this the vague catastrophe that happened ten thousand years ago..."
There are dead trees on the trees and white bones under the trees. People who have lived here for thousands of years can still vaguely glimpse the tragedy of the past.
The catastrophes of ten thousand years ago cannot be studied in detail, but the catastrophes of ten thousand years later have begun to show signs. The older the blood of the monsters is, the easier it is to degenerate. The plant tribe is sparsely populated, and the cubs cannot transform for a hundred years. After death, the souls of various tribes turn into ghosts, and there are often irrational ghosts who only know how to kill. Although the human race is thriving, there are more and more strange events in the surface world, the death rate of the alien bureau is rising, and the number of children who can awaken their spiritual power is decreasing...
Like a frog in boiling water, everything was slowly changing in a very bad direction. They tried desperately to stop it, but it was in vain.
Under the long-dead Jianmu, Xun Ruowang and Diwu both fell into silence, not knowing what to do.
Then... they saw golden spots of light.
Spots of light passed through the dead branches of Jianmu and circled over the remains of grass and trees, like a heavy downpour. The rain floated around them and condensed into a golden net, in which a translucent Qilin appeared.
[The power of Dao Wen is exhausted and the barrier cannot be maintained.]
[After a hundred days, the barrier disappears.]
Qilin's voice went straight into their hearts, and its content was chilling.
Xun Ruowang had read the top secret files of the Alien Bureau. He knew that the barrier between the inner and outer worlds was related to the legendary inability to reincarnate the Qilin. However, the files did not specify that the crucial barrier separating the worlds was actually powered by the Qilin Daowen.
The inner world is rich in spiritual energy, while the outer world is short of it. Once the barrier disappears, the spiritual power will instantly become unbalanced, bringing about a world-destroying disaster.
Xun Ruowang only had one thought in his mind, and he blurted out: "Is there no way to postpone it?!"
The translucent Qilin lowered its head and looked at him.
That was Xun Ruowang’s first contact with “Tao”, or… the will of heaven and earth carried by the Qilin.
[Paying enough price can delay it for fifty years.]
[Fifty years later, everything remains the same.]