Chapter 726: The Source (I)
Translator: Transn Editor: Transn
The ginseng fruit tree! The legendary ginseng fruit tree!
Zhou Bao frowned at the sight of the withered, fifteen meter wide tree.
“Is it really the ginseng fruit tree? The legendary ginseng fruit tree? Why does it look like that?” Zhou Bao wondered in his heart.
“This is the ginseng fruit tree, Fifth Manor’s most precious treasure. It’s a Spiritual Root that dates back from the beginning of chaos. The Heaven Realm World is not what it used to be. Without the essence of the world, even this Spiritual Root has withered!”
Zhou Bao was a bit disappointed, but Qing Feng did not appear to be bothered. On the contrary, he smiled broadly, “It doesn’t matter. It is withered from a lack of the essence of the world. Once it is moved to a place of abundant essence, it will grow again and it will grow fast!”
“Really?” Qing Feng’s words reminded Zhou Bao of hisAzure Big World, which had a greater density of the essence of the world than the Heaven Realm World had in antiquity times. The ginseng fruit tree would surely survive in the Azure Big World. But he quickly dismissed the idea. First of all, the tree was Fifth Manor’s treasure. Second, even if Fifth Manor allowed him to move it to his Azure Big World, the tree would drive him mad. It only bloomed and bore fruit once every 3,000 years, which would then take another 3,000 years to ripen. Zhou Bao was not a man of patience.
Besides, the tree was bound to consume a lot of the essence of the world. What if it sucked all the essence out of his Azure Big World?
“Oh, King Wuyang, you’re interested in the ginseng fruit tree?”
“No, no, I’m just curious!” Zhou Bao smiled faintly. Now that he had given up on moving the tree into the Azure Big World, and since the ginseng tree had not produced fruit in exactly 810,000 years, he told Qing Feng what he was thinking. “You’re a senior, Taoist Qing Feng. To tell you the truth, I really am interested in this Innate Spiritual Root, but you know, I don’t have the ability to raise such a big tree!”
“Hmm, that makes sense. It absorbs a good deal of essence. It can only survive here, in our Fifth Manor. If it’s moved to another macro world, it might exhaust the essence of the world there.”
The muscles in Zhou Bao’s face twitched. He had only said it mainly to be polite, but he did not expect that Qing Feng would have taken the opportunity to abort his attempt. He was a monster that had lived for countless years!
Now that Zhou Bao had gathered his Three Flowers and seen the ginseng fruit tree, it was time for him to do what he had to do. So he didn’t, and Qing Feng did not urge him either. Instead, they returned to a quiet room in the meditation abode in the front yard and sat down to chat.
They chatted for hours. For the most part, Zhou Bao asked questions and Qing Feng answered. Thus, Zhou Bao learned many secrets about things that had happened in antiquity times, even ancient deities times and primitive times. He wondered if Qing Feng was telling him on purpose. It was obvious that Qing Feng knew more about antiquity times than the other two eras. After all, he had been born in antiquity times, and thus had not experienced the ancient deities times and primitive times.
“By the way, I have one more question.”
“Please don’t hesitate to ask. I’ll tell you what I know,” Qing Feng replied. It sounded as if he was being generous, but Zhou Bao knew he was just being polite. None of the ancient secrets he had just revealed were of any value. Most of them were old anecdotes. Zhou Bao did not know whether these secrets were true or not, so he took them as stories. However, a strange idea suddenly struck him. “Have you ever heard of the Fierce Owl?”
“Fierce Owl?” Qing Feng paused for a moment before answering, “It’s a type of creature in the Devil Realm, a very disgusting and annoying creature. It’s one of the most basic and terrifying creatures in the Devil Realm!” He threw Zhou Bao a glance and asked, “You’ve seen it in the Infinite Star Sea, haven’t you?”
“You know a lot, Taoist Qing Feng! Do you know that there’s a guy in the Infinite Star Sea saying he’s not the Fierce Owl?”
“What!?” Qing Feng was visibly stunned. His face became distinctly strange. “What? A guy saying he’s not the Fierce Owl!?”
“Yes, in a ruined Self-world. I thought there was Hidden Treasure, and went in. Unexpectedly, there was only a piece of remnant thought that kept saying, ‘I’m not the Fierce Owl. I’m not the Fierce Owl.’ It was unusual!”
“His remnant thoughts still exist!” Qing Feng put on a look of pity, adding, “He is cursed. No one has confirmed his true ident.i.ty yet!”
“This event was well known in antiquity times. After all it implicated 10 Emperors. You know, there were 99 Emperors at that time, and the Jade Emperor ruled. Apart from the Jade Emperor, only the top 10 of the 99 Emperors held any real power in the Heaven Realm. The other Emperors held most of the power in other macro worlds. This is the reason that the Heaven Realm was able to rule heavens and realms. The fact that an event could implicate 10 Emperors speaks volumes!”
“What happened?”
“It concerned a spy from the Devil Realm. In primitive times, the three strongest tribes were the Primordial Fierce Beast, the Innate Deity and the Primordial Demon. They fought against each other for control between heaven and earth. In the end, all sides lost. The Innate Deities had a slight upper hand, but they too were badly weakened. The Primordial Fierce Beasts were exterminated because they lacked the organization and coordination of the other two tribes. Even the most powerful of the Six Royals were killed by the strongest of the Primordial Demons and the Innate Deities. In the last war, the Primordial Demons were defeated and sealed by the Innate Deities in an unknown place of oblivion in the hollow. Since then, most of the Innate Deities that survived have fallen into a deep or eternal sleep. Thus, the primitive times came to an end, followed by the ancient deities times. As descendants of the victors, these ancient deities had enormous power, which helped them to rule heaven and earth for hundreds of millions of years, just as humans do now. During this time, they multiplied and divided into numerous tribes. These tribes fought each other for hegemony. They took it for granted that they were the true masters of heaven and earth. No one could have imagined that the Primordial Demons, who had been sealed by their ancestors, the Innate Deities, were ready to move!”
It was an old story, and Qing Feng told it with emotion. “The Primordial Demons survived for many years in the place of oblivion. Like the Innate Deities, they began to multiply. They merged themselves with the strange creatures there, and, finally, evolved into a Devil Realm, a realm that was incredibly mighty. As their power matured, the Primordial Demons broke the seal and invaded heaven and earth on a large scale, which was the beginning of the end of the ancient deities time. The ancient deities had ruled for far too long. And like humans, they’d become greedy, arrogant and ignorant. They had no idea that their dominance might one day be threatened, much less that the invaders were Primordial Demons, who had long been legends. The vanguard of the invasion was the Fierce Owl. The unsuspecting Innate Deities were caught off guard by the Devil Realm. Soon half of this hollow had fallen, and countless macro worlds had been destroyed, or had fallen into the hands of the Devil Realm and been transformed into worlds to suit them. Some humans and the descendants of the Innate Deities were tempted by the Primordial Demons to join in their camp, which was the creation of the Dark Sect!”
“This is indeed a distant story!” After all this time, Qing Feng had not gotten to the point, and Zhou Bao did not urge him, for he was quite interested in the ancient tales.
“Of course, the ancient deities were not all c.r.a.p. In the hundreds of millions of years of struggle, each Divine Tribe and Lineage had acc.u.mulated rich war experience. After the initial panic, they united, held their ground, and launched a counterattack against the Devil Realm. It was a tangled fight that was said to have lasted a hundred million years, so it was called the ‘Hundred Million Years’ War’. In the end, the Primordial Demons were driven back into the Devil Realm and resealed. Like their ancestors, the ancient deities were weakened by too much loss. The more powerful the living beings, the more they were destroyed in the war. Finally, they had to fall into a deep or eternal sleep, which led to the rise of ancient ancestors and Demon tribes. Late in the ancient deities’ time, the ancient deities were hit hard and their fertility rates dropped. In order to reproduce, a great number of ancient deities consorted with both human ancestors and the demons, giving birth to numerous demi-G.o.ds. Most of these demi-G.o.ds were not recognized by the ancient deities, so they could only live as humans or demons. However, they were much more powerful than ordinary humans or monsters. Their bloodlines held the power and memory of the ancient deities, making human beings and the Demon tribe rapidly stronger. The two rulers of the humans and the Demon tribe, who had been in subordinate positions, were not willing to remain under the control of the ancient deities, so they allied with each other. This was the first alliance between humans and the demons!”