Chapter 72: Death and Rebirth

The uppermost branches and leaves of the Tree of Destiny began to wither, and the decay spread downward. At this speed, the Tree of Destiny would become a piece of rotten wood in a few minutes.

The old man was anxious and kept shouting, “Stop fighting! Do you know what the Source of Life means? Huh?! Do you know? It is a blessing that happens once in ten thousand years… You… you’re still fighting?!”

“Girl, we had no grudges in the past and no hatred recently; there were only a few misunderstandings. Why must we fight to the death?!”

Xi Xiaoru acted as if she heard nothing. Her pitch-black pupils stared intently at the old man, and her blade strikes grew fiercer with every blow. Her aura also became stronger and stronger.

Meanwhile, the Tree of Destiny withered severely. After a dozen giant leaves fell, time seemed to reverse. The bare branches began to collapse inward, and the thick main trunk became slender.

“No… no…” Seeing that the Tree of Destiny had little time left, the old man nearly went mad. “Stop fighting… stop fighting, ahhh…”

Xi Xiaoru leapt up again and delivered another blow from above.

The old man controlled the sword light to block this strike. Then, ignoring the sword light that had been knocked away, he turned and shot toward the Tree of Destiny. He was right; finding the Tree of Destiny was indeed a blessing that happened once in ten thousand years. If he missed this chance, he wouldn’t even need someone else to kill him; he wouldn’t want to live anymore.

At that moment, the Tree of Destiny actually moved its roots again, pulling out the three Flying Swords that had pierced Su Tang’s body. Then, it moved the sword light to meet the old man; it did not want that annoying fellow to get close.

The old man let out a tiger-like roar and reached out to try and grab the sword light. But Xi Xiaoru was rapidly approaching from behind. In a head-on fight, Xi Xiaoru’s speed might not have posed a fatal threat to him, but in this short-distance sprint, her speed advantage played a crucial role.

The old man’s hand was just a bit away from grabbing the sword light. As long as he could grab it, he could easily take the sword with his strength, since it was his Flying Sword after all. Unfortunately, the blade light swung by Xi Xiaoru had already arrived, slashing down onto his back.

Blood splattered, and countless metal fragments like sparks flew in all directions. It turned out that the old man was wearing unknown armor under his tight clothing. The armor was extremely tough; otherwise, with Xi Xiaoru’s blade strike that could cut through anything, his body would have been split in two.

The old man let out a scream of pain, and his body suddenly sank, crashing heavily onto the ground. The Tree of Destiny naturally would not miss the opportunity. Countless roots wrapped around from all directions, forming a giant cocoon that bound the old man tightly inside.

The old man’s strength was immense. Using only his physical body, he could easily break the roots binding him. However, there were too many roots. Tens of thousands of roots had formed a giant prison, trapping him firmly inside.

Xi Xiaoru’s blade light bloomed again. Within the range of her strike, all the roots were cut. The giant cocoon split open, and at the same time, the old man’s body split open as well.

However, this was not the end for Xi Xiaoru. She leapt up, and her blade light swept toward Su Tang like lightning.

“Big brother…” Su Tang shouted while lifting the Sword of Taisho.

The blade strike stopped abruptly, but not because of Su Tang’s shout, but because of the Sword of Taisho.

The Sword of Taisho trembled slightly, emitting a brilliant light. Su Tang did not know that the fractures in the Spirit Vein within the Sword of Taisho were healing constantly, just like his own body. If he sank his mind into the Sword of Taisho at this moment, he would experience a feeling of shared bloodline; that was the symbol of the Sword of Taisho recognizing its master.

Xi Xiaoru tilted her head, quietly studying the Sword of Taisho. She was very familiar with the aura emitted by the Sword of Taisho, but she simply could not remember anything.

At that moment, the sound of falling stones came from behind. Xi Xiaoru immediately turned around and found that the young man and the two Martial Artists were trying to escape, and one of the Martial Artists had already slipped into a crack in the mountain wall.

Xi Xiaoru leapt toward the rocks embedded halfway up the mountain wall, and Su Tang breathed a sigh of relief seeing her leave.

The golden liquid flowing from the Tree of Destiny had dried up. Without the nourishment of the Source of Life, Su Tang’s excitement began to fade, replaced by an irresistible feeling of fatigue. His body slowly slid down the trunk, his eyelids closed bit by bit, and finally, he lay in the grass.

The Tree of Destiny had collapsed into a small tree only as thick as a bowl, with a height of only three or four meters, and this process was still continuing.

Finally, the Tree of Destiny became a small sprout about an inch long, slowly shrank back into the soil, and disappeared completely, as if it had never existed and everything was an illusion.

Su Tang was in a deep sleep. After Xi Xiaoru killed those people, she walked along the crack to the outside of the mountain wall, wandering blankly like a zombie.

After an unknown amount of time, the soil near Su Tang’s head began to wiggle. After a moment, a green, thumb-sized ball of light drilled out of the ground. It stretched out several antenna-like things, grabbed Su Tang’s hair, and climbed up with great effort.

After finally climbing onto Su Tang’s forehead and standing under his eyelid, it looked carefully for a moment, then used its antenna-like things to pry open Su Tang’s eyelid. Once the eyelid was forced open, it cried out repeatedly, “Mama, mama…”

But Su Tang slept very deeply and could not be woken up. Furthermore, the ball of light jumped and shouted, which probably annoyed Su Tang’s subconscious. With a casual swipe, it was thrown several meters away, falling into the grass.

To Su Tang, a few meters was nothing, and he could reach it in two steps, but the little thing had to trek for a while to come back, and then it grabbed Su Tang’s hair to climb up again.

A white butterfly with gold patterns landed on Su Tang’s chest. When the little thing saw the butterfly, something seemed to be triggered. It stared blankly at the butterfly. After a moment, it used its antenna to pull a slit in its own light-wall, and a white wing with gold patterns, just like the butterfly’s, suddenly popped out of the gap.

The butterfly was startled and flapped its wings to fly away. The little thing pulled another slit in its light-wall and then tried to fly.

At first, its movements were clumsy, tilting and staggering. But it soon mastered the flying technique. Its speed became faster and its flying posture more agile. Moreover, it felt happy and let out giggles.

Then, the little thing finally remembered what it should do. It flew to Su Tang’s ear and shouted loudly, “Mama, mama…”

Su Tang unconsciously waved his arm, but the little thing had become very clever, and he could not hit it at all. Finally, his brow furrowed deeply, clearly annoyed to the limit.

However, the little thing did not have much patience and soon gave up. It landed on Su Tang’s forehead and murmured in an extremely aggrieved voice, “Mama is ignoring me…”

Su Tang’s brow slowly relaxed, and he finally felt a bit more comfortable. The little thing shook itself, and its body emitted a beam of golden light, projecting it onto the center of Su Tang’s forehead.

Su Tang was dreaming. He dreamed that he had returned to Little Forest Castle, pushing a swing in the garden. A girl sat on the swing; she was that Grand Exalted. Su Tang had never seen a girl with such a pure and flawless temperament, and he could not forget the feeling of his heart racing. But he knew his own worth and could only bury the feeling deep in his heart. However, there were no inhibitions in a dream, so his subconscious often returned to that place.

The shape of the little thing began to change slowly. First, long black hair appeared, then a girl’s face grew, looking exactly like the Grand Exalted. Then came the hands and a white gauze dress, and finally the feet. The little thing was finally satisfied and started giggling again. Then it spread its wings and flew, searching the surroundings for half a circle. It flew to a small tree as thick as a bowl and shouted excitedly, “I want to eat, I want to eat…”

A golden ripple flashed, and the small tree grew at a speed visible to the naked eye. In an instant it bloomed, and in another instant it bore fruit. Finally, over a hundred bright red fruits hung from the tree.

“So tired…” the little thing complained while flying over. A fruit automatically fell, and the little thing struggled to catch it, then flew back and threw the fruit onto Su Tang.

This happened five or six times, which meant Su Tang was hit five or six times. His eyelids flickered rapidly, a signal that he was about to wake up.

The little thing did not notice this. It perched on a fruit, bit through the skin, and began to taste the sweet pulp. It ate very fast, at least not matching its size. It quickly ate a hole in the pulp and pushed half of its body inside.

Su Tang slowly opened his eyes. Where was he? His memories quickly recovered, and the events that had happened swept through his mind. Su Tang suddenly sat up and looked back. Where was the Tree of Destiny?

The Tree of Destiny had disappeared, leaving only a dozen giant, withered yellow leaves. Su Tang sat there speechless, feeling an inexplicable melancholy. Had the Tree of Destiny disappeared just like that? Had the creature that called him mama died?

At the time, he only felt excitement, but now he understood everything. If the Tree of Destiny had not saved him, he could not have lasted long with such heavy injuries.

Su Tang sat dazed for a long time, then turned his gaze to the fruits beside him. Fortunately, Xi Xiaoru was fine; she even knew to prepare food for herself, so she must have recovered.

He indeed felt hungry. Su Tang grabbed a fruit, and while putting it in his mouth, he looked left and right. Where was Xi Xiaoru?

“Mama, mama…” a voice was coming from inside the fruit.

Su Tang shuddered in fear and hurriedly took the fruit out. There was nothing. Then, a faint touch came to his palm. He turned the fruit over and suddenly saw a small head popping out of the pulp, smiling flatteringly at him: “Mama…”

Su Tang’s skin crawled, and he instinctively threw the fruit away. He could not be blamed for being heartless; anyone who saw a small head growing out of fruit pulp that could speak and smile would feel terror.