Chapter 1245: Subduing Ruomu with Reason
"In heaven and earth, the Ruomu grows, consuming life and years as it goes."
"No cycle turns for death or birth, only Longevity walks the earth..."
Li Ping was not in the least startled by the sudden appearance of the ancient tree. Instead, he calmly recited the verse, turning to face the oldest living thing in the Xuanhuang Heaven.
Ruomu, in turn, studied the Faceless Sage Emperor, a flicker of confusion in its ancient eyes.
But Li Ping's next words caused the bark-like wrinkles on its face to deepen into a frown.
"Your very existence is a gift from heaven and earth. Without the favor of the Xuanhuang Heaven, your so-called eternal nature would be nothing more than that of a common tree."
"When the Heavenly Dao faced peril, you did not rise to its defense. You cowered, clinging to a wretched existence..."
"You were the first to betray the Xuanhuang Heaven, not the other way around," Li Ping declared, his voice devoid of sympathy, laced with undisguised contempt.
In the distance, the colossal trunk of the tree itself stirred, its branches and leaves rustling faintly. The countless cultivator fruits hanging from them swayed in unison.
"Rise to its defense? The Xuanhuang Heaven itself was suppressed! What could I have done? And you, a mere cultivator in flesh, devouring the Heavenly Dao to fuel your cultivation... Don't you find your own words laughable?" Ruomu stared at Li Ping for a long moment, unable to discern his true nature.
Still, all cultivators in the world were more or less the same.
Coupled with the faint, yet familiar, aura of the Xuanhuang Heaven emanating from Li Ping, Ruomu made its judgment and shot back a retort.
Yet, it only countered with words, making no move to attack.
It wasn't that Ruomu had suddenly mellowed with age or improved its temper, but rather...
It knew it couldn't win.
Though it showed no outward signs, Ruomu's spiritual sense was screaming warnings. As the most ancient spiritual entity in existence, its intuition had reached a mystical level, capable of glimpsing visions of possible futures.
Ruomu was absolutely certain that if a battle broke out with this uninvited guest, it would be the one to fall.
The pressure emanating from the stranger, even more formidable than that of any Longevity realm cultivator it had encountered before, only reinforced its conviction.
True, the current Ruomu was withered and ailing, a shadow of its former self. But it was, after all, still alive.
It had no intention of seeking its own demise.
"I am merely taking back what is mine. What crime is there in that?" Li Ping ceased suppressing his aura, unleashing the full power of the devoured Xuanhuang Malice.
"This is...?!" Ruomu's mind trembled violently.
It could naturally distinguish between the fragmented laws absorbed by cultivators and the complete, whole essence of the Xuanhuang Heaven.
But... how was this possible?
"The Xuanhuang Great Heavenly Venerate?" The thought flashed through Ruomu's mind, but it was just as quickly dismissed.
Even though most of its power was lost, its deep connection to the Xuanhuang Heaven remained. If a new Great Heavenly Venerate had taken the throne, it would have been impossible for it not to sense anything.
"'Taking back what is mine'... Could it be the Heavenly Dao itself?" Ruomu considered the idea, finding it hard to believe.
The speculation was truly incredible, yet it was the one that best fit the current reality.
Though it couldn't be certain, that was no reason not to let its attitude shift dramatically.
"Why have you come here, Your Excellency?"
Li Ping, seeing the change, naturally stated his intention to reclaim Ruomu's power.
Before Ruomu could react, however, Li Ping changed the subject. "When the Heavenly Dao was in peril, ancient entities of Xuanhuang like you stood by and did nothing. Therefore, the Heavenly Dao instinctively began to reclaim your powers."
"Although an external force has aided in the Heavenly Dao's recovery, this process of reclamation has not ceased. Cause and effect are intertwined. There is no need for resentment."
"I am here to bring this to its final conclusion."
Li Ping's gaze shifted back to the towering, decaying ancient tree.
And to the countless Golden Core cultivators languishing upon it.
"However, it seems you have not been entirely idle. Though a drop in the ocean, you have indeed made some small effort."
A majestic golden power interrupted from Li Ping's body.
A colossal golden hand materialized in an instant near Ruomu's main trunk, gently plucking one of the cultivator fruits from its branches.
With a light squeeze, the cultivator's body disintegrated into ash, leaving only a flawed, incomplete Golden Core hovering in the air.
This act of plucking one of his "own" fruits did not cause the slightest ripple in Ruomu's emotions.
Only a flicker of vindictive satisfaction instinctively crossed its eyes.
"Tell me, do you believe the cultivators of the Xuanhuang Realm today are in the wrong?"
The space where lifespan was rendered fell silent for a moment before Li Ping suddenly posed the question.
"Wrong? It's far worse than that! I wish I could turn every last one of these ungrateful wretches into a fruit and torment them for all eternity!" Ruomu finally replied, its voice seething with clenched-teeth fury.
"The cultivators of this world are not without fault, certainly. But the true source of the conflict between them and heaven and earth is the core of the issue," Li Ping stated with perfect calm.
"Why must cultivators devour heaven and earth? It is because that is the only path left to them. The root of it all lies with that Dharma Spreader Heavenly Venerate."
As Li Ping's voice echoed, Ruomu fell into a somber silence.
It was a truth everyone understood.
But what could be done?
After reversing the logic of heaven and earth, the Dharma Spreader had become too powerful. Even the Xuanhuang Heaven itself was helpless against him, let alone the living beings within the Xuanhuang Realm.
"I intend to right this wrong, to slay the Dharma Spreader and return the Dao to Heaven."
"Are you willing to aid me?"
Li Ping's cold voice reached Ruomu's ears.
If anyone else had said such a thing, Ruomu would have laughed, then turned them into a fruit to hang on its highest branch, a subject of eternal mockery.
However, the one making this grand pronouncement now was a being that was quite possibly an incarnation of the Xuanhuang Heaven itself...
This left Ruomu, for a moment, at a loss for how to respond.
Ruomu knew that if it chose to refuse, a great battle between them would be inevitable.
Setting aside the question of who was stronger, the fact remained that this was the location of its true body. If a war were to break out here...
Even if it managed to win, it would undoubtedly suffer grievous injuries, bringing it that much closer to complete decay.
But to be subdued with a few words... Ruomu's heart was filled with a thousand resentments.
"Your decay is due not only to your own injuries but also to the severing of the Heavenly Dao's flow."
"If you were to pledge your allegiance to me..."
Li Ping took a step forward, and his form shattered with a boom. Cloaked in the golden light that enveloped him, his body, once over thirty feet tall, expanded tens of thousands of times in an instant, growing to a size that nearly matched Ruomu's own colossal trunk.
He placed one hand upon the ancient wood.
"Boom!"
Within Ruomu's domain, a vortex suddenly appeared in the dim, deathly sky.
A reflection of the Xuanhuang Realm materialized within it.
A verdant, green aura was drawn from the vortex, slowly drifting down toward the withered Ruomu.
"This..."
Ruomu straightened its once-stooped back, its eyes filled with a mixture of elation and disbelief.
It felt it! For the first time in millennia, the favor of the Heavenly Dao, which had slowly seeped away, was returning to it!
Li Ping was right. Its entire existence was a gift from the Xuanhuang Heaven's grace.
Without the nourishment of the Heavenly Dao, it was like a tree without roots, a river without a source, slowly withering away, locked in a chronic state of death.
But at this very moment, the Xuanhuang Heaven, against all odds, was infusing it with a sliver of power once more.
Even though it wasn't the familiar power of life and death, it was still enough to fill it with excitement, to reignite the spark of life within it.
The withered trunk of Ruomu began to tremble violently, from its highest branches to its deepest roots.
Several cultivator fruits were shaken loose, falling to the ground and shattering into pieces. Only their broken Golden Cores, glowing with different lights, remained silently on the earth.
Traces of green began to appear on Ruomu's body.
A few tender green shoots miraculously sprouted from its branches, and the entire ancient tree's aura transformed.
Just as Ruomu was lost in a rapturous trance, savoring the vibrant life force it had not felt for so long...
The golden giant that was Li Ping suddenly removed its hand from the trunk.
The vortex above Ruomu vanished in an instant.
The descending verdant energy simultaneously dissolved like a soap bubble, scattering into points of green light that drifted away on the wind, refusing to land on Ruomu's form.
"No!"
Amidst Ruomu's agonized cry, the newly sprouted shoots instantly withered and died.
They detached from the branches, slowly drifting down.
"I want more!"
"Give it to me!"
The elder incarnation of Ruomu erupted with a terrifyingly malevolent aura.
It glared ferociously at Li Ping.
But then, its eyes met the blank, featureless face and the utterly frigid aura of its opponent, and Ruomu's rage cooled instantly.
The vicious expression froze on its face, and it dared not make another move.
Li Ping merely watched it in silence.
The scene became unnervingly quiet.
The silence was only broken when one of the withered yellow leaves drifted down directly above Li Ping, and he casually reached out and caught it.
He continued the sentence he had left unfinished: "Just as you have seen, and personally experienced."
"If you renounce your wayward path and stand with me once more, it may not be impossible to return to the peak of your ancient power."
The indecision on Ruomu's face was palpable.
After struggling on the brink of death, enduring millennia of torment, to have finally tasted a moment of youthful vigor, only to be asked to give it up again...
How could it possibly do so?
"I know that you were gravely wounded in ancient times, that the core of your power was stolen by cultivators."
"But the Xuanhuang Heaven of today is not what it once was either."
"If you can regain your complete authority, you will undoubtedly be stronger than you ever were before."
Li Ping continued his persuasion.
"I will give you one month to consider."
"I will return then."
Li Ping did not press Ruomu for an immediate decision.
Leaving only that final sentence hanging in the air, he vanished without a trace.
This was a space that Ruomu dominated, yet it hadn't even perceived how the visitor had departed.
Without the intruder, the space returned to the same deathly silence it had known for thousands of years.
Ruomu narrowed its eyes, replaying the taste of life force in its mind.
Comparing that sensation to its current state, a profound sense of loss and longing washed over it.
...
The Great Qi Sage Dynasty.
Within the Sage Emperor's throne room.
Upon his return, Li Ping immediately issued a sacred decree.
He assigned another contingent of the You Clan to the task of nurturing the Gloomy Sea of Darkness, all to appease the Xuanhuang Heaven.
"In its current state, forcing the Xuanhuang Heaven to channel power into Ruomu still caused some friction."
"Even if it was just a sliver..."
"Aside from the rift caused by devouring the Xuanhuang Malice, it also has something to do with Ruomu's status."
"After all, in the eyes of the Heavenly Dao, these ancient entities of Xuanhuang are no different from traitors."
Li Ping mused to himself.
This venture could not be considered a failure.
Having tasted the sweet nectar of revival, Ruomu would surely not refuse Li Ping's request.
It just needed a little time to make up its mind.
As for why he hadn't chosen to act by force, to devour it directly as he had with the Xuanhuang Malice...
Li Ping had his reasons.
"Unlike the Xuanhuang Malice, which was a separate entity that had been sealed for ages, Ruomu, despite its decay, is an ancient being that has existed since the dawn of Xuanhuang."
"The Xuanhuang Heaven created it, and it became an immutable part of the Xuanhuang Realm. If it withers and dies naturally after the Heavenly Dao reclaims its favor, perhaps the upheaval can be avoided."
"But if I were to rashly devour it, firstly, it would alert the other Longevity realm powerhouses in this world."
"And secondly, the anomaly in the Xuanhuang Realm might be detected by the Dharma Spreader Heavenly Venerate, far across the sea of stars."
Li Ping was not concerned about the five Heavenly Venerates of the Five Elders Council.
But he had to consider the existence of the Dharma Spreader and the Heavenly Doctor.
"The time for a true confrontation with them has not yet come."
"I can afford to wait a little longer."
Li Ping's patience was more than sufficient.
He was confident that in less than a month, Ruomu would contact him of its own accord.
Until then, he needed to do what he could to mend his relationship with the Xuanhuang Heaven.
Li Ping's mind conjured images of other existences that the Xuanhuang Heaven found abhorrent.
...
Nine Mountains Province.
At the border between the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance and the Five Elders Council.
Sun Erlang passed through the defensive line of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance with ease, entering the territory of the Five Elders Council.
"Master's treasures are truly mystical. The formations of the Ten Thousand Immortals Alliance can be broken almost instantly."
Sun Erlang carefully surveyed his surroundings.
"It doesn't seem much different from the Alliance's territory."
"But Master said that the power of a Heavenly Venerate who has reversed the world's principles blankets this entire domain. It's best to keep a low profile."
A simple map appeared in his mind. After getting his bearings, Sun Erlang concealed his presence and sped away.
Following the Faceless Sage Emperor's instructions, he headed straight for the Realm of Reality.
"I wonder how exactly I'm supposed to meet this 'Zhenshi Heavenly Venerate'?"
Sun Erlang pondered as he flew.
With the formations and secret arts given to him by Li Ping to conceal his aura, he traveled completely undetected.
Just as he was nearing the Realm of Reality, a strange phenomenon nearby caught his attention, forcing him to slow down.
A massive, somewhat unreal-looking flying boat materialized abruptly in the sky.
From the vessel, more than a dozen cultivators clad head-to-toe in armor flew out in unison.
They wielded strange-looking artifacts and were shouting amongst themselves.
"This is it! Hurry! We can't let another squad beat us to it!"
They flew to a spot above a jungle, and their artifacts simultaneously shot out beams of multicolored light.
The beams locked onto a target, and a massive, pure-white ape suddenly appeared in the jungle, letting out a heaven-shaking roar.
Sun Erlang's pupils contracted.
The demonic beast's concealment was so masterful that he hadn't sensed even a hint of its presence before.
And even now, as the great ape furiously battled the squad of cultivators...
Sun Erlang still couldn't detect any aura of a living being from the beast.
(End of Chapter)
Comments