The words spoken by Realmspirit this time were rather shocking, but. "Who knows if you're speaking the truth."
"I shall swear to the Heavenly Dao." Suddenly, a male voice reverberated in the surroundings. Zhu Yao, who was used to speaking to herself, was startled.
"The hell, so you actually know how to speak."
Realmspirit: Don't you think that typing is a lot classier? I'm an artistic youth.
"Classier, your sister!" Alright then, at the very least, she found out that he was a man. He had already put it that way, and had sworn to the Heavenly Dao as well, so she might as well believe him once more. Oaths made to the Heavenly Dao were supervised by the Heavenly Dao itself. If an oath was broken, as long as it's within the Three Realms, no one could escape from the penalty imposed by the Heavenly Dao. "What's the next mission?"
Realmspirit: It's a world that will soon collapse.
"…" It was very dangerous alright. Wait a minute. "So in other words, the bug is not in Divine Realm?" The hell, then what about my master?
Realmspirit: I have considered the difficulty of this mission, so I shall permit you to bring along family members.
Now that's better. But… How was she going to bring him?
Realmspirit: Seeing that we're old friends, let me gift you an Achievement then.
"Achievement?" What's that?
Realmspirit: Go on then, dear friend. A white hole, and a white tomorrow awaits you!
"Wait a minute, speak clearly, hey!"
Before Zhu Yao could even finish, her vision darkened. A loading bar appeared, and like a moving train, it filled up in a flash. She felt a very bad premonition.
When Zhu Yao once again regained her consciousness, she felt warm and comfortable all over her body. The fresh smell of nature was suffused in the air, and she could not help but take in a deep breath, before opening her eyes. The colour green was what filled her vision, however, all the trees and plants were strangely short. At first glance, not a single one of them could reach her height.
Though, when a white beast tunnelled out of the thicket, she realized that it wasn't the trees that were small, rather, she had gotten much taller. Could it be that her character this time was a giant which was even taller than a tree? Oh no, she had rather become a dwarf instead!
Zhu Yao was growing all kinds of mad, when suddenly, she saw that little white beast walking towards her. Without being the least bit afraid, it stopped right below her feet.
It looked around.
Turned its back towards her.
Raised one of its hind legs…
And a stream of warmth, carrying a unique smell, instantly sprayed all over her body.
The hell, this thing was actually peeing on her body! This old lady here is going to castrate it!
Zhu Yao trembled with anger, however, she realized that she couldn't move. Even after using all the strength in her body, she couldn't move an inch. Though in her surroundings, a large amount of leaves fluttered down, scattering onto the ground.
Only then did she understand her current predicament.
She had turned into a tree.
...
The little white beast was finally done with its business. With its hind legs, it dug the ground a few times, raising a large amount of dirt and soil. After burying its crime evidence, it walked away with a swagger. Zhu Yao couldn't even point her middle finger at it.
"There's a new large tree here." A sharp voice sounded. She simply heard a 'ptong', as a colourful bird landed on her head. And it was even excitedly jumping about between the branches, chirping out. "Such a large, beautiful tree. I like this tree."
Hoho. Thank you! Being praised by a bird really did not give her any sense of accomplishment.
"The branches are beautiful, and the leaves are beautiful as well. I have never seen such a beautiful, large tree before."
No matter how beautiful it is, it's still a tree.
"Only such a beautiful tree is worthy of my feathers. I'm going to build a nest here."
What?
"Mn, time to first drill a hole."
No!
Before she could even stop it, that strange bird had already begun its mad pecking spree on her body. Zhu Yao received +1000 damage!
"Eh, it can't be pierced through." That strange bird suddenly stopped, looked at the tree trunk that was as perfect as before, and tilted its head in confusion. Then, it began fiercely pecking again, yet not a single scar was left behind on the brown trunk. It once again tried a few more times to no avail, before it disappointingly flew away. As it flew, it turned its head back to look at her a few times.
Zhu Yao heaved a sigh of relief, as she felt that the warm stream of energy within her body had saved her. Earlier, when the bird was on a mad pecking spree, that warm energy stream gathered at the point which it was pecking at. It seemed like she was no ordinary tree. At the very least, she could be considered as a tree demon.
"Incredible." A youthful, tender voice suddenly sounded.
Zhu Yao was startled, as she anxiously looked at her surroundings. Another strange little animal couldn't have appeared, right?
"Over here, over here. I'm down here."
Lowering her head, she scanned her surroundings, and after staring for quite a long while, she realized the voice seemed to be coming from a small tree below.
This tree could talk?
When this little tree voiced out, it gave rise to several other responses as well.
"Big Tree That Suddenly Appeared, you're so incredible. That bird can't even bite through you."
"That's right, that's right. There's no other tree in this forest that's capable of that, you know?"
"You will definitely be able to cultivate into a tree demon."
"I'm so envious. No wonder you could suddenly appear out of nowhere."
"Big Tree That Suddenly Appeared, so incredible."
Zhu Yao was stunned, it was as though the surrounding trees and plants had suddenly activated their speech functions, as they begun to discuss about her. She could even faintly feel that these little trees were looking at her with admiration.
Has this world activated its fantasy mode again?
And this wasn't all. Zhu Yao suddenly felt something creeping upwards from her feet, startling her to the point where her entire body shook, and a large pile of leaves fluttered down once again.
"Big Tree That Suddenly Appeared… I… I just want to shake hands with you." The little tree that was closest to her said shyly.
The root that stretched out from beneath the ground earlier, was its hand? That's clearly a leg, alright?
"Am I not allowed to?" The little tree trembled, her voice was filled with disappointment.
"Uhh…" The corner of Zhu Yao's lips twitched, and she felt as though she had shattered the heart of a youth. She had no choice but to bite the bullet, and replied. "You can."
"Yay!" The root beneath it once again stretched out, and thinly entangled her for a moment before releasing itself a while later. The little tree instantly turned bright green. "Big Tree That Suddenly Appeared, you're such a kind tree, we're neighbours from now on. I'm called Three-Inch-Tall Tree."
The hell was this Three-Inch-Tall Tree?
"Me, me too!" A tree not far from her shook as well. "I want to shake hands as well. I'm Five Inches Tall Tree." The moment it voiced out, the surrounding trees began to introduce themselves one after another as well.
"Me too. I'm Ten-Feet-Tall Tree."
"I'm White-White Tree."
"I'm Green-Green Tree."
"I'm Tree With Three Branches."
"I'm Tree At The Side."
"I'm…"
Zhu Yao: "…" Their names were given without much thoughts put into them, were their parents aware of this?
Countless thin roots began stretching out from beneath the soil, and Zhu Yao had no choice but to shake 'legs' with them one after another. Only then did the little trees retract them, satisfied.
"Big Tree That Suddenly Appeared, how did you cultivate into a demon?" The little tree asked.
"Uh…" It seemed like they had already helped gave her the name 'Big Tree That Suddenly Appeared'. "Just take in spiritual energy." She had sensed it earlier, and realized that this world did possess spiritual energy. In other words, she had once again returned to the Lower Realm.
"What's spiritual energy?" The little trees shook their leaves one after another, expressing that they did not understand.
"It's…" It's spiritual energy, and that's it! Just how was she going to explain this? "Once you sense it, you will understand."
The little trees shook their leaves, confused. After Zhu Yao briefly told them the methods to take in spiritual energy into their bodies, to prevent them from endlessly drowning her in questions, she found an excuse to sleep and no longer spoke up.
In the following n days, she lived while being submerged by thousands of strange and bizarre questions. She wondered if it was because she had turned into a tree, but presently, she could hear the voices of all animals and plants. Although the personality of each plant was different, every one of them, without a single exception, had blooming curiosity, and they would often ask her to the point where she would turn speechless.
Under the pressure of this place where it seemed the entire world would want to fuss her to no end, a never-before-seen determination to cultivate lit up in Zhu Yao's heart, as she constantly absorbed the wood spiritual energy in the air. She could feel the stream of warm energy within her body growing stronger and stronger.
She must definitely leave this place!
A month later, the warm energy stream gathered into a river, filling her entire body.
Two months later, her branches became even sturdier.
Three months later, she cultivated out her divine sense.
Four months later, all of the spiritual energy suddenly poured into her branches, and she faintly sensed that a breakthrough was approaching.
Finally, five months later…
She bore two fruits.
Why fruits!? -faints-
Shouldn't it supposed to allow her to take up a human form? Why did two fruits grow out after so much spiritual energy had been poured!?
And, why did the two fruits turn out different – one black, and one white? Did she bear the Eight Trigrams?
Zhu Yao suddenly had the impulse to drag Realmspirit out and beat him into a pulp.
Just what kind of useless character is this? Could she have been transferred into the world of Farmville?
"Yu… Yao?" A familiar voice suddenly resounded, carrying a hint of doubt.
"Master!" Zhu Yao was startled, as she began to look all around. However, she couldn't even locate his shadow.
"Raise your head."
Zhu Yao looked upwards, only to see a clear, blue sky.
"To the right."
Zhu Yao adjusted her line of vision. There's nothing on the right as well. When did her master start liking hide-and-seek?
She suddenly heard a light sigh. "Yu… Yao. I'm… on your body."
"Ah?" What did he mean? Zhu Yao glanced at her own tree body, confused. Her eyes swept past the two fruits that had just grown out, and that white one seemed to have just nudged a little.
Horse-shit filled her entire mind.
It… It can't be!?
"Master?"
"… Mn."
"Why did you turn into a fruit?" This was illogical.
"Do you still remember that bracelet which you shattered that day?" Yu Yan asked.
Naturally, she remembered that. That was the bracelet made of wood from the Parasol Tree.
"That bracelet contained a spatial mystic art, and it even carried a powerful binding ability." Yu Yan slowly explained. "After you broke it, space shattered, and your master was drawn into it. After that, I appeared here."
Spatial mystic art. She recalled back then the one Shao Bai gave her was used for storage…
The hell. So, shattering that bracelet would give rise to a disruption in time and space. Most probably due to her subconsciousness, her master was kept into her divine sense, and hence he managed to accompany her during this reincarnation of hers. This was what Realmspirit meant by being permitted to bring family members along! Realmspirit, come out here. I guarantee I won't beat you to death!
"Your divine sense is presently weak, I can't converse with you for too long, remember… to be careful…" His voice turned weaker, and not long after, nothing else could be heard.
Zhu Yao called out a few times, but she didn't receive any reply. Suddenly, she felt a little worried, as she was unsure if anything had happened to him.
She worriedly looked at her own branch…
Wait a minute.
If the white fruit was her master, then what was that black fruit?
"Big Sis Yao."
"…"