Chu Jun held Ning Xiu while standing beside Ning Buwei, his gaze moving away from the forcefully written character “散”. (TL: scatter)
Ning Xiu was happily playing with the little blue bird. In the eyes of a child who knew nothing of the world, having parents nearby meant nothing could go wrong, even if the sky were to fall.
The other children also looked at the great door with curiosity and nervousness, yet showed no signs of fear.
Ning Buwei recalled the assessment given by Sang Yun, which also contained the character “scatter” – separation, dispersion, falling apart… No matter how one interpreted it, it wasn’t an auspicious character.
Let alone this blatantly obvious message.
For some reason, Ning Buwei didn’t want to go in.
“Ah~” Ning Xiu giggled non-stop as the little bird gently pecked his palm, making the small silver lock and bell tied to his wrist with a red string chime clearly.
Chu Jun reached out and gently pinched his palm.
Ning Buwei turned his head to look at him, and Chu Jun said, “Ning Xiu’s soul is barely stable now. This character might not refer to the future, but could point to the root cause.”
Ning Buwei nodded and pushed open the great door.
The ancient yet excessively luxurious door creaked open, finally revealing the scene inside completely. Everyone at the entrance was stunned.
Compared to the luxurious and ostentatious door decorations outside, the interior was extremely plain to the point of severity.
Inside, it was like a perfectly carved stone block. The smooth, cold floor had only a few scattered tables and chairs. At the far end stood a dead banyan tree so tall its top couldn’t be seen, its gnarled roots modestly occupying a small corner. Sparse rays of sunlight fell through gaps from above, landing perfectly on a small couch.
The sealed space was filled with the smell of dust and decay.
Ning Xiu first looked around curiously, but upon seeing the dead banyan tree, his brows furrowed unhappily, and he whimpered for Ning Buwei to hold him.
Ning Buwei had no choice but to take him, and asked while looking down. “Did you remember something?”
Ning Xiu pushed his little head into his neck, whimpering in his baby voice. “Da~”
Not happy~
Although Ning Xiu usually clung to Chu Jun, perhaps because Ning Buwei was the first person he saw, he still instinctively sought Ning Buwei when feeling uncomfortable or unhappy, trying to burrow into his clothes.
Seeing him whimpering with a hint of tears in his voice, trying to burrow into his clothes, but since he was no longer just a one or two-month-old baby and clearly couldn’t fit in the front of his clothes anymore, Ning Buwei could only cover him completely with his wide sleeve.
With the uncomfortable atmosphere blocked outside, surrounded by his father’s reassuring scent, Ning Xiu finally sniffled and lay quietly on Ning Buwei.
The lively and active little baby suddenly became so quiet—clearly very happy, yet even a little sad. Ning Buwei patted his back and took the opportunity to pull the small wooden puppet from his little bell and threw it to Chu Jun.
Ning Buwei had disliked this wooden puppet for a long time and decided to turn it into wood chips after using it today.
Chu Jun understood and took the small puppet to the dead banyan tree’s base, placing it on the roots before wiping away the cinnabar mark on its forehead.
The wooden puppet, which could previously only move slightly, suddenly became animated. Its carved eyes rolled slightly, warily observing Ning Buwei and Chu Jun.
“Mother, it’s moving!” Jiang Yizheng pulled Yang Lingzhu and hid behind Feng Zizhang.
Feng Zizhang swallowed and raised his arm to shield them behind him, “Don’t- don’t worry, I’ll protect you.”
Cui Yuanbai was eager to spit purple flame, while Little Black, not wanting to be outdone, tried to spit fire but only coughed up smoke. Both person and dragon were firmly tied in place by Big Yellow’s tail.
Ning Xiu seemed to sense something and tried to peek out, but was pushed back by Ning Buwei.
“Ah?” Ning Xiu hugged his father’s hand in confusion and called out softly, “Ya~”
Father? I’m not hungry~ I have porridge~ Don’t want blood~
Though saying this, he honestly hugged Ning Buwei’s hand and secretly took a bite, “Yi da~”
I’ll take a secret bite! Father won’t notice~
As Ning Xiu gnawed on his fingers and ground his teeth, Ning Buwei casually pinched his soft little chin before looking at the wooden puppet under the banyan tree.
Chu Jun said, “This puppet was made from a branch of this banyan tree, which should have been the companion object of the Linglong Bone.”
Ning Buwei looked at the dead banyan tree, frowning, “Companion objects usually live and die with their masters, so this means the Linglong Bone also—”
Due to concern for Ning Xiu, Ning Buwei didn’t finish.
However, Ning Xiu, being held by him, seemed to understand and whimpered glumly.
Chu Jun said, “At that time, Ning Xingyuan found it in this banyan tree’s heart, which seemed to contain infinite vitality, but was indeed a dead object.”
Chu Jun spoke circuitously, and since Ning Xiu didn’t hear the subject “Linglong Bone,” he finally curiously poked his little head out from Ning Buwei’s sleeve, looking closely at the large banyan tree before him, sadly sniffling and grabbing Ning Buwei’s sleeve to indicate he wanted to move forward.
Ning Buwei and Chu Jun exchanged glances before he carried him forward a few steps to the banyan tree.
“Ah~” Ning Xiu made a muffled sound and placed his small hand on the tree trunk, pale golden spiritual power flowing from his palm into the trunk.
The small wooden puppet hiding in the tree root crevices tried to stop him but was preempted by Chu Jun, who quickly pulled Ning Xiu’s small hand away and held it tightly in his palm.
“Ah da?” Ning Xiu looked at Chu Jun in confusion.
Mother~ I want to save it~
Chu Jun’s expression remained calm, but he didn’t release his hand, patiently saying, “This banyan tree died at least ten thousand years ago. Even if you gave it all your vitality now, you couldn’t revive even one of its leaves.”
Ning Xiu tilted his head, clearly not understanding, and tried to reach with his other hand.
Ning Buwei glared at him, saying ominously, “If you dare reach out again, no more meat or porridge in the future.”
Ning Xiu’s eyes widened in shock, “Da! Porridge~ Lou Lou!” (TL: 肉 ròu=meat)
No~ I love meat and porridge the most!
Clearly, threats worked better than reasoning with the little one.
Ning Buwei tucked both of Ning Xiu’s small hands into his clothing pockets, while Ning Xiu whimpered pitifully a couple times, looking up at the large banyan tree, “Wa~”
So tall~
A small dead branch fell to the ground with a crisp “pata” sound, immediately drawing everyone’s attention.
Ning Xiu’s eyes immediately brightened, clearly triggered by his hobby of collecting dead branches, and he tried to pull his small hands out to pick it up.
The small wooden puppet standing in the crevice stiffened.
The small amount of spiritual power that Ning Xiu had infused into the banyan tree landed on the dead branch, which gradually began showing signs of life, sprouting a verdant small leaf.
The smooth, flat ground before everyone suddenly began displaying images and sounds.
****
In the scene, a palm-sized little bone was “sitting” on a rock basking in moonlight.
This little bone was round and chubby, looking endearing, translucent like fine jade, but with clear bone joints inside.
The little bone’s daily life was very simple. When the sun rose, he would dig a hole and bury himself to sleep. When the sun set and the moon rose, he would crawl out of the hole, shake off the dirt, find a pretty rock or leaf to sit on while basking in moonlight, and sometimes visit a tiny green sprout about the size of a fingernail in a large cave.
He often squatted in front of the small sprout, imitating mountain animals by forming a little bone paw to gently pat it.
The small tree sprout asked him, “Master, when will you be able to transform?”
The little bone rolled on the ground, tumbling and hitting rocks, touching his bones painfully, “I don’t know.”
The small tree sprout said, “The master of the cypress tree down the mountain is a little fox. After the little fox transformed, it became so beautiful and became the partner of a powerful cultivator, taking the cypress tree along!”
The little bone sat on the ground sighing, “I can’t learn to transform, I can only bask in moonlight.”
The small tree sprout quickly patted him with its leaves, “It’s okay, being able to bask in moonlight is great too!”
The dejected little bone immediately became happy again and continued contentedly basking in moonlight.
As the sun rose and set, moon waxed and waned, after the little bone had basked in moonlight for an unknown time, until the small tree sprout had grown into a sky-covering banyan tree, he finally transformed into human form.
The little bone became unexpectedly handsome after transforming into human form, with clean and handsome features like a mountain pine or the moon in the sky. He collected fallen cultivators’ clothes from the mountains to wear, and since digging holes to sleep would dirty the clothes, he slept in the banyan tree’s roots instead.
Every day he basked in moonlight, collected the banyan tree’s fallen leaves and dead branches, and would pick up various odd things to keep in the cave to look at.
The cave was mostly filled with dead branches and strange rocks.
“Little banyan tree, I picked up a human,” said the little bone.
The banyan tree nervously said, “Humans are dangerous, do you remember the fox sister down the mountain when we were little? She became a cultivator’s partner, but ended up having her core dug out and cultivation crippled, and even her companion cypress tree was cut down for firewood!”
The little bone shook his head, “The human I picked up is very small, not even as tall as me. Once his injuries heal, I’ll secretly send him back.”
At the cave entrance, a boy about ten years old watched him talking to a large banyan tree, yet surprisingly didn’t run away.
The little bone waved to him.
The boy hesitated for a while, then gathered his courage to walk into the cave, suddenly dropping to his knees before him, saying firmly, “Di Huai thanks the young master for saving my life!”
****
Outside the scene, Ning Buwei’s face immediately turned black as the bottom of a pot.
Chu Jun used a Taichi seal to trap the small wooden puppet trying to escape under the banyan tree.
Cui Yuanbai wondered aloud. “Who is Di Huai? I seem to have heard of him.”
Feng Zizhang swallowed and said, “Di- Di Huai was a super evil great demon from thirty thousand years ago, he was the junior brother of Sang Panfeng, the chief disciple of Wushi Sect… It’s said he almost blood sacrificed the entire cultivation world, and it was his senior brother Sang Panfeng and Elder Cui Sheng who joined forces to kill him, then set up the Eight Trigrams Formation dividing the seventeen states in the cultivation world, using spiritual objects to suppress him, bringing thirty thousand years of peace.”
Yang Lingzhu worriedly said, “Will the little bone be okay? Was he tricked?”
Ning Buwei looked at Ning Xiu who was contentedly gnawing on his hand: “…………”
