Chapter 428: A World that Supersedes (1/2)
Chapter 428: A World that Supersedes
“Or perhaps it will turn into the tree that emerged from within the Ninth Sea all those years ago and crossed the stars to Planet South Heaven… the supreme Greenwood Tree!” Meng Hao’s eyes glittered as the Qi continued to rush into him. Outside, the other six volcanoes were rumbling as white mist continued to shoot out toward Meng Hao.
The more Qi he absorbed, the brighter his eyes grew.
He looked up at the enormous Greenwood Tree floating in mid-air above him, which emanated a boundless green glow. It dyed the sky, covered the land, filling everything with the aura of the Greenwood Tree. Throughout the Crow Divinity Holy Land, all of the plants and vegetation were writhing.
The members of the Crow Scout Tribe panted as they stared at the scene. Meanwhile, outside of the Holy Land, back in the region of the Crow Scout Tribe, the enormous Treant looked over at the green glow rising up to the Heavens.
“Wood….” it said softly.
Even the members of the other four Tribes who were waiting outside of the golden doors were filled with shock. Although they couldn’t see clearly everything that was happening inside, they were filled with a sense of baffling wonderment. Each and every one had faces filled with shock.
At the same time, the various totemic Sacred Ancients atop the mountains of the other four Tribes appeared. They stared toward the Crow Divinity Holy Land, and one by one all uttered the same word.
“Wood….”
Even as this word filled the air, the plants and vegetation in the surrounding mountain ranges were whipping about wildly, despite the fact that there was no wind. They flickered, emitting rustling sounds that seemed to form voices of submission. It was as if they were offering obeisance to the sovereign of all Wood-type entities!
The four bizarre life forms from the other four Tribes slowly bowed as if in salute to the miracle which was occurring.
As they were saluting, the members of the Crow Scout Tribe back in the Crow Divinity Holy Land actually stopped breathing momentarily. They watched as the gigantic Greenwood Tree rapidly began to shrink in size. The smaller it got, the more intense was the green light it emitted.
By the time it shrank to three hundred meters in height, it was like a green sun, filling everything around it with intense green light. Meng Hao breathed deeply as he watched the Greenwood Tree shrinking. Three hundred meters, one hundred fifty, one hundred… until it was thirty meters!
Fifteen, ten, three… half a meter, one third… three inches, two inches….
It seemed to be shrinking in correlation to the reduction of water in the pool. Massive amounts of mist were absorbed by Meng Hao; in the blink of an eye, the Greenwood Tree was only one inch tall!
The light it emitted was so bright that it penetrated out of the Crow Divinity Holy Land. The plants and vegetation outside which were grovelling in reverence, the five saluting life forms, and all of the Cultivators who had Wood-type totems, felt a profound impulse to prostrate themselves in worship.
Back within the Crow Divinity Holy Land, the one inch tall, brightly glowing Greenwood Tree in front of Meng Hao shot toward him, branding onto his forehead. A massive roaring noise filled the air, and green light shot out in all directions. As soon as everyone was able to see again, they looked at Meng Hao’s forehead and saw… a type of totem that no one had ever seen before!
This totem tattoo was of a single ancient character!
Wood! [1. As you might be aware, Chinese characters go back for thousands of years. According to my research, the type of ”ancient character” mentioned to by Er Gen here refer to the most ancient of Chinese characters. The ancient character for wood looks like this:
It's quite a bit different from the modern version, which looks like this: 木]
There was no green tree, no picture, no resplendent glow. It was smooth and ordinary. A single ancient character. Wood!
However, this character Wood represented everything Wood-type under Heaven. Because of this, it didn’t need some picture representation of a plant or tree, because it… was the essence of Wood!
All Wood-types in Heaven and Earth!
Everything shook as all plants and vegetation bowed in worship. All such living things paid respect.
“Wood….” Meng Hao floated up out from within the Pool of Destiny, the Wood character on his forehead glittering with green light. He suddenly had the sensation that he could communicate with all plant forms in the world. He had the intense feeling that by merely exercising his will, he could magically manifest any type of wood.
He also felt a type of calling from the Pool of Destiny beneath him. The pool had always born the semblance of a pool, but when Meng Hao looked down at it, what he saw was a path.
The call originated from the end of the path, where Meng Hao had the strange sensation that there existed… a Heavenly Wood character.
His eyes flickered thoughtfully, and then his body flashed. The Crow Scout Tribe watched panting as he suddenly shot back down toward the Pool of Destiny, toward the path. Then, he completely disappeared.
It wasn’t until Meng Hao disappeared that the Crow Scout Tribe members finally reacted. In fact, it was the man-form Outlander Beast who did so first. Eyes wide, he looked at the scant amount of water left in the Pool of Destiny, and then let out a roar and charged toward the water.
The Greatfather’s face flickered. He waved his hand, indicating for the others to follow as he headed toward the Pool of Destiny. There was already very little water left, but even absorbing a bit would be very beneficial.
Almost at the same time that the Crow Scout Tribe members were charging toward the Pool of Destiny, the faces of the members of the four Tribes on the outside flickered. This was especially so when they noticed that the golden doors were growing dim. The four Greatfathers and the Priests looked shocked.
“How could it be happening so quickly?! Dammit! The Pool of Destiny is going to disappear!”