Chapter 311: Man in the Tree
Translator: Ninetales Editor: DarkGem
"I can't believe a word that Qin brat says!"
Pangong Tso's fury couldn't be contained. He entered a random room while shouting sternly, "Where's the working together? What about being friends on the ship and enemies after disembarking? Liar! Running away when you meet something good and even hogging it for yourself! Stuff yourself to death, you bastard!"
When he was behind Qin Mu, he had clearly seen Qin Mu close the door as he was entering the mysterious room!
It wasn't the door that had shut automatically, but Qin Mu who closed the door to use the spell of space integration on the ship to block him!
The brat had clearly decided to hog everything for himself!
Pangong Tso quickly calmed down and calculated the second layer of spell of space integration. He said coldly, "Since I already know that there's a second layer of space, I can easily calculate where that long corridor is, so you can forget about hogging it by yourself!"
He started calculating as he opened room after room to search for his subordinates; however, there were too many rooms in this ship and his subordinates had long lost their way, going from one room to another. They tried to find a way out only to go in deeper and deeper.
Pangong Tso had already found the method of solving the outer layer of the spell of integration, but he still spent quite some time to find his people. He even met the two bats and the dragon qilin on the way. The dragon qilin was actually trying to calculate the method for the spell of integration and had almost found the location of the bridge.
The two sides fought a fierce battle. Pangong Tso and the rest suffered a massive defeat, but luckily a shaman king barged into the room at that moment and managed to save Pangong Tso and the rest.
When they found the other shaman kings, Pangong Tso still couldn't find the location of the long corridor, making him feel even a stronger sense of defeat.
'It's fine even if I can't find that place, since that Qin brat will definitely come back. I'll just take him down then and force him to hand over the silver helmet and spit out all the secrets!"
In the room at the end of the long corridor, Qin Mu blinked his eyes innocently. He had deliberately shut Pangong Tso out. The whole journey, the old man had led him to discover the secret of this ship, and since he was about to find the secret, there was no need for Pangong Tso to stay behind him to be a nuisance.
His aim in agreeing to ally with Pangong Tso was to push Pangong Tso out to tank damage for him in times of danger. Once there was no longer any danger, it was natural that he should kick Pangong Tso out.
'Grandmaster, you must have thought about this as well, right? But I'm still a little superior.'
He turned around and examined his surroundings. He was in an unimaginable room. It was similar to Bent Mountain Shrine that he had seen underwater, which was outrageously vast. It was close to ten miles wide, so it was like a small world hidden in the ship that was a little smaller than Bent Mountain Shrine.
However, this room was much bigger than the treasured ship, so to hide such a large space within it was truly inconceivable.
Qin Mu raised his head to take a look and the sky which was constructed from long sticks of wood. The one in Bent Mountain Shrine was constructed from the bones of a taotie divine beast, so the two were different.
The inner body of a taotie divine beast naturally had a vast space, so the shrine only needed to be constructed outside the bones. The space inside it would then naturally become vast.
However, the space in this room was forged by using great magic power and divine arts to warp space. This method was much more difficult.
In the center of this vast and spectacular room was an incomparably huge tree that reached the sky. The roots on the ground coiled and snaked around like dragons, giving off an ancient feeling.
Glowing lights flowed through the body of the huge tree from the roots to the sky. The glow shone continuously and lighted up the entire room.
The glowing lights seemed to have rune markings flowing inside them as they flowed below the bark of the tree toward the sky and the surroundings of the room. They entered the body of the ship.
The sound of a heartbeat came from the body of the tree after some time, giving off a deafening boom.
Qin Mu examined the tree with a look of doubt. The ship was constructed around an unimaginably huge and ancient tree. The long pieces of wood in the sky had to be its branches.
Furthermore, from the flowing light and the heartbeat that came from the tree trunk, the ancient tree was still alive and acting as the core of the treasured ship. It could even be said to be the source of its power!
However, how many years must it have taken for such a huge tree to grow?
Why did this ancient tree have such tremendous power which could be used to move the treasured ship and sustain it for a long journey?
'As expected, the bridge and the silver-colored helmet aren't really used to control the treasured ship, this is."
Qin Mu's gaze landed on the ground, and it was bright and clean as a mirror. The elder from the painting was sticking to the floor and waved at him before running forward.
Qin Mu hurriedly caught up with him with endless curiosity. 'Was this old man from the painting painted out? This kind of path of painting seems to be slightly superior to Grandpa Deaf's. Even though Grandpa Deaf's paintings can bestow a divine soul to a dot using mutual sensitivity, his paintings that come to life don't last long before turning back into ink. On the other hand, this old man from the painting looks like a living and breathing being. Besides him only being able to travel through the walls, there's little difference between him and normal life forms. In the world, is there really a person whose painting path is superior to that of Grandpa Deaf? Impossible!"
He instantly thought of the key point. The person who had drawn the old man from the painting might not have surpassed Deaf in the painting path. Instead, they surpassed him in the path of creation.
This person had drawn the old man and bestowed life to him using the path of creation, bringing the old man from the painting to life so he would become a secret guardian and guide!
Deaf's painting didn't rely on cultivation, but on his attainments in his painting path!
Qin Mu caught up to the old man from the painting that was sprinting to the ancient tree in the center. As he was about to get near, he frowned slightly. He saw that the bright and clean floor was once again covered in a pile of green sticky liquid as if something had crawled past the floor.
The closer Qin Mu got to the ancient tree, the more of the green sticky liquid he saw.
The old man from the painting had also become more careful, avoiding the sticky liquid as he closed in on the ancient tree.
Qin Mu sized up the surroundings with alertness. This place was very vast, but after looking around, he saw nothing that was terrifying. However, the sticky liquid gave unnerved him. He had seen it on the deck of the ship, and that was when he had encountered the devil qi invasion which had flooded towards them. There had been a terrifying entity hidden in that devil qi.
The room before entering the long corridor had also been covered in this kind of liquid.
Now that it was all over the place, it meant that the ancient tree was of extreme importance to the owner of the sticky liquid.
Qin Mu looked around, and his uneasiness grew. The more he looked, the more he felt like this was a nest, the nest of the sticky liquid's owner!
Finally, Qin Mu reached the bottom of the tree following the old man. When he got there, he was slightly stunned. He saw the man in white that he had seen in the illusion.
To be exact, he only saw his face.
The owner of the treasured ship, the man in white that had the surname Qin and had come from Carefree Village had merged with the ancient tree, becoming one with it. Only his face was shown on the outside, and even it was not fully revealed.
It had nearly completely merged with the ancient tree, and his eyes were lifeless. The heartbeat that rang out before had to be his heart beating very slowly.
Qin Mu was stunned. The man in white had to have used some unique method to extend his life by merging himself with the tree and linking their lives. However, the disadvantage of this method was extremely huge, as it would make one become part of the tree, unable to move and even slowly turn into a tree!
The person's injury had to have been extremely severe, so severe that he couldn't endure it any longer!
He had gotten chased by his enemies all the way to this place. He got rid of all of them, but he had no choice but to execute a forbidden skill to transform himself into a part of the ancient tree to live on!
Qin Mu looked at him, and the eyes of the man in white began to open with difficulty. They were like two eyeballs sculpted into the wood, barely able to see an unclear image ahead of them.
"Was it you who had this old man from the painting guide me here?"
Qin Mu felt that this man was indescribably familiar, and there seemed to be a connection between them. This made his heart stir uncontrollably, and he asked, "Are you called Qin Fengqing? Are you from Carefree Village?"
The man in the tree seemed to slowly get a clearer view of his face and become slightly excited. He opened his mouth with difficulty, but the tongue had already turned into wood, so he couldn't make a sound.
Qin Mu was stunned. The drawback of this kind of forbidden skill was too strong. Even though the life of the man in white was extended, his senses and his body functions were all mostly lost.
"Do you recognize this jade pendant?"
Qin Mu hurriedly plucked the jade pendant from his neck and pushed it in front of the man while suppressing the excitement in his heart. "Do you recognize it? This was inside my swaddle and I've always kept it with me. Is this Qin word the Qin word of Carefree Village?"
The man in white became even more excited, and the ancient tree trembled. It seemed like the man in the tree was struggling to break free from the restraints and grab the jade pendant with his hand!
Rings and rings of light flowed down the trunk of the tree and suppressed his struggle.
He opened his mouth, seeming to have a lot of things he wanted to tell Qin Mu, but he couldn't say a word.
Qin Mu's expression turned dull. He seemed to be talking to the man in the tree and also to himself as he muttered, "I've heard from granny that there was the corpse of a woman who'd carried the basket and sent me into Disabled Elderly Village in Great Ruins. I met her under the river, but no matter what, I couldn't see her clearly. I only have this jade pendant which I've been wearing ever since I was young, and I always keep hoping to find where I've come from, if my family is still there…"
He sat down under the tree with his arms hugging his knees. On his fingertip hung the jade pendant which swung to and fro.
"I feel like my parents could still be alive and waiting for me to find them. I've never met them before…
"A little girl who had become the sun guardian told me that I may be from Carefree Village, so I tried my best to go there. I scouted out news of Carefree Village and tried to find the path there, but I've failed over and over again. I even implicated Village Chief and the rest, which almost resulted in all of them dying because of me…
"I didn't tell them about this place this time because I was afraid of implicating them again. Qing Fengqing, you're called Qing Fengqing, right? I've found you, but I didn't expect that you wouldn't be able to tell me anything. Is it really that hard to go home and learn about one's birth…"
He buried his face in his arms and didn't say another word.
Drip, drop.
There were tears falling down, and Qin Mu raised his head while wiping his own eyes to look up. Tears were rolling down the cheeks of the man in the tree.
Suddenly, something seemed to squirm in the tree above and slither down while coiling around the trunk like a huge snake. A queer and cryptic voice came out from its mouth. "Qin Hanzhen, now that you met Qin Fengqing, your wish should be fulfilled, right?"