Di Huai stayed in the mountain cave.
There was a shallow scar on Di Huai’s neck, which he would unconsciously touch.
The little bone, probably afraid of frightening him, maintained his human form. The young man had clean and handsome features, and spent most of his time quietly basking in the moonlight.
After several days, Di Huai watched the green spiritual power scattered around him and suddenly said, “Someone slit my throat and threw me off a cliff.”
The young man sitting on the banyan tree branch lowered his eyes to look at him.
Di Huai touched the scar on his neck and asked, “Am I already dead?”
The young man nodded and a pale green spiritual power appeared in his palm, floating toward Di Huai, “But I brought you back to life.”
The pale green spiritual power covered Di Huai’s neck, and soon even the shallow scar became invisible.
A flash of surprise passed through Di Huai’s eyes, “You saved me, how can I repay you?”
The little bone thought seriously for a while, “Give me a name.”
Every day, apart from basking in the moonlight and sleeping, he occasionally chatted with the little banyan tree. He didn’t care much about things concerning humans below the mountain, and had never thought about having a name.
Di Huai asked, “What’s your surname?”
The little bone shook his head, “I don’t have one.”
“Don’t you have parents?” Di Huai asked.
The young man sitting in the tree carefully thought for a long time, then continued shaking his head, “I’ve been here since my earliest memory.”
Di Huai said, “If you don’t mind, why not call you Di Bai?”
The little bone nodded, “Alright.”
“I want one too,” the large banyan tree behind him suddenly spoke.
Di Huai was startled, but quickly regained his composure, “Then… how about Di Rong?”
Both the banyan tree and the bone were happy with their names. Di Bai even gave him a small orb of pale green spiritual power.
“Keep it in your sea of consciousness. If someone slits your throat again, you won’t die,” Di Bai said.
Di Huai shook his head, “You saving me once already leaves me unable to repay you. Don’t give this to others so casually next time.”
Di Bai smiled, his eyes curving, “I don’t know anyone else anyway.”
Sometimes Di Bai would sit in the banyan tree and listen to Di Huai tell stories about humans.
“The demon race ran rampant, and many cultivators died,” Di Huai said. “The Rakshasa clan and demon clan united to enter the mortal realm. The various sects and family clans had no choice but to use many formations to stop them… I was killed by a demon cultivator, while my senior brother just watched.”
Di Rong asked in confusion, “Why didn’t your senior brother save you?”
Di Huai lowered his eyes, “I don’t know.”
“Humans are complicated,” Di Bai tugged at Di Rong’s branch. “Sister Fox even had her core dug out by her dao companion, and that human nearly died for her earlier.”
Recalling the unpleasant memory, the banyan tree asked Di Huai very directly, “Will you betray our kindness like those humans?”
Di Huai shook his head and raised his hand to swear to the Heavenly Dao, “Absolutely not, or may I die a horrible death.”
Di Bai rested his chin on his hand and threatened, “You can’t beat me. If you betray us, I’ll kill you.”
Di Huai nodded.
While basking in the moonlight at midnight, Di Bai quietly asked the banyan tree, “Was I very fierce during the day?”
The banyan tree shook its leaves in agreement, “Super fierce.”
“That’s good,” Di Bai frowned and said, “The spiritual beings in the mountain all say humans are fickle. I don’t want to have my core dug out, and I don’t want you to be burned.”
The banyan tree reminded him, “You don’t have a core.”
“Oh right, I’m just bones,” Di Bai smiled, his eyes curving.
Di Huai was a clever and hardworking human who often practiced cultivation day and night, and unknowingly his cultivation level progressed significantly.
Di Bai didn’t understand. “Why are you working so hard?”
Di Huai said, “I want revenge, to kill that demon cultivator and my senior brother.”
Di Bai still didn’t understand. “But you can’t even beat me.”
Di Huai, who had grown into a young man, looked at him helplessly, “You’re an innate spiritual being, favored by the Heavenly Dao, different from other races in the cultivation world.”
Di Bai asked, “Do you want my help?”
“No,” Di Huai looked at him seriously, “You just focus on basking in the moonlight.”
So Di Bai climbed back onto the banyan tree to bask in the moonlight.
After a long time, one evening, Di Huai shook the still-sleeping young man, “Di Bai, I’m going down the mountain.”
Di Bai yawned and sat up drowsily, “Oh, go ahead.”
Di Huai frowned, “Do you want me to leave?”
Di Bai nodded, “You’re not happy on the mountain, and you don’t belong here. Besides, once you leave, Di Rong and I can go into seclusion.”
Hearing this, Di Huai was silent for a moment, “Don’t let your spiritual power show carelessly, and don’t let others see you.”
Di Bai said, “They won’t. Only you know about this place.”
The large banyan tree behind him shook its leaves, “Will you come back?”
Di Huai glanced at the banyan tree and gripped Di Bai’s wrist, “Di Bai, I will come back.”
Di Bai yawned drowsily, “Alright, take care.”
When he woke up, the vast cave only had him, a piece of bone, left.
“It’s a bit boring,” Di Bai turned back into bones and rolled around on the stone surface, then was scooped up by the banyan tree and wrapped in its leaves.
Di Bai sprawled out as a pile of bones, “Will Di Huai die?”
Di Rong said, “He’s a human cultivator. If he can’t ascend, he’ll die eventually.”
Di Bai frowned, “I could keep him alive forever.”
Di Rong patted his head with its leaves, “I don’t think that’s good, it goes against the Heavenly Dao.”
“You’re right,” Di Bai said, “I’m just bones, I won’t be sad if he dies.”
Di Rong asked, “Would you be sad if I died?”
Di Bai stroked its leaves, “No, bones don’t have hearts.”
Di Rong shook its leaves in agreement, “I don’t have a heart either, so I probably wouldn’t be sad either.”
The bones and tree sighed with relief. “That’s good.”
After Di Huai left, there was no news for several years. When he returned, he was in an even worse state than when Di Bai had found him.
Di Huai was severely injured, without a single undamaged spot on his body. His core had been shattered by someone, and he lay dying on the ground.
Di Rong poked his face with its leaves, “Were his bones crushed by someone?”
Di Bai’s whole body ached hearing this, and pale green spiritual power continuously flowed into Di Huai’s body.
“If he survives like this, he’ll only be able to lie there motionless,” Di Rong pulled at him with its branch. “This won’t do, you can’t keep saving him.”
Di Bai looked at the dying person on the ground, crouched in thought for a while, “Then I’ll give him half of my bones.”
Di Rong hesitated, “But he’s a human.”
“But he’s the human I raised,” Di Bai sighed. “Do you want him to die?”
Di Rong also sighed, “Then I’ll give him half of my wood too.”
Many days later, the unconscious Di Huai finally woke up.
“Awake?” Di Bai sat in front of him.
Di Huai seemed to have changed a lot. He looked at Di Bai with complex emotions, “I couldn’t get my revenge.”
Hearing this, Di Bai said, “Then give up on revenge.”
Di Huai clenched his fists, his gaze dark, “No, I must kill them. I’ll make everyone pay with their lives.”
Di Bai looked at him, “Then go, and don’t come back anymore.”
Di Huai panicked for a moment and grabbed Di Bai, “Di Bai, are you abandoning me too?”
Di Bai looked at him in confusion, “Why would I want you? You’re a human, not my companion banyan.”
Di Huai stared at him in shock.
“We’re going into seclusion, for a very long time,” Di Bai saw that he seemed a bit hurt, so patiently explained, “It would be dangerous if someone disturbs us.”
Di Rong added, “By the time we come out of seclusion, you might have already ascended, so don’t come back.”
Di Bai nodded, “Remember to ascend after you get your revenge.”
Di Huai released his grip on Di Bai, smiled at him, and said, “Alright.”
The scene no longer showed Di Huai, only the little bone and the banyan tree in seclusion.
“Why didn’t you tell him we gave him half our bones and trunk?” the tree asked.
The little bone sprawled on the treetop basking in moonlight, “I forgot.”
“Oh.”
“Well, I just started to dislike him a bit.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
The scene changed, and raging fire erupted in the mountain cave.
Countless humans surrounded the cave with formations and magic treasures.
The angry towering banyan tree tightly protected the palm-sized bone in its trunk, and through the firelight saw a familiar but dark pair of eyes.
The bone was forcibly torn from the tree.
“This is the innate spiritual Linglong Bone. Using its soul to consecrate the formation,” Di Huai’s gaze flickered in the firelight, “Its bones shall be split into nine parts for refinement, its soul scattered to the four corners of the formation, and the blood formation can be completed.”
“Di Huai—-” the banyan tree being consumed by fierce flames let out a tragic cry.
****
The smooth and flat ground returned to its original state, and the small withered branch that had been revived by Ning Xiu’s spiritual power withered again.
Ning Xiu bewilderedly pointed at the withered branch, then looked up at Ning Buwei, only to find his father’s face dark with anger, which was a bit frightening.
“Ah~” Ning Xiu patted his shoulder, “Aya?”
Father~ why are all the moving people on the ground gone?
Ning Buwei reached out to pinch his chubby cheeks, remembering the tiny broken bone piece no bigger than a thumb lying in the box when he first obtained the Linglong Bone, and felt like he had a mouthful of old blood stuck in his throat.
Although he knew that Di Bai and Ning Xiu weren’t the same person at all – Di Bai’s soul had long been refined by Di Huai for the formation, while Ning Xiu was accidentally created using the three hun and seven po souls formed from his and Chu Jun’s essence, soul, and flesh, borrowing that small piece of Linglong Bone left in the banyan tree – Ning Buwei still felt very frustrated.
How could there be such a brainless stupid bone in the world!?
“Da~” Seeing his father not responding, Ning Xiu forcefully stepped on Ning Buwei’s arm, but then caught sight of the small wooden puppet under the banyan tree and paused, “Ah da?”
Why does this little wooden puppet look exactly like my good friend?
Chu Jun controlled the Taiji Seal to trap that small wooden puppet in mid-air, looking at the puppet’s features that resembled Di Huai’s, his gaze turned cold.
“Di Huai?”
The small wooden puppet’s body stiffened for a moment, unconsciously nodded, then immediately shook its head vigorously.
Chu Jun broke off a branch from the banyan tree, infused it with spiritual power, then touched it to the puppet’s carved lips and intoned solemnly, “Let the dead object speak.”
The small wooden puppet suddenly gasped and opened its mouth, “I—”
