Everything about the trees turned into nothingness.
The endless silence and emptiness submerged the star again.
The huge red creature stared at everything in front of it.
Closed the golden candle.
The scales also flew away and spread like the tree dust, and a human figure fell straight from it. The withered giant tree stopped, revealing the broad and boundless gray growth rings on the ground.
Round after round, densely packed, one after another.
The immeasurable quantity symbolizes the immeasurable years it has spent.
Li Xi'an landed on the annual rings. He stood among them, and his figure was not even comparable to the annual ring lines on the soles of his feet.
Walking here is like walking on the thick and hard ground. Looking up at this moment, you can see the deep sea of stars, and behind you is his hometown.
The moonlight and the fluorescent radiance emitted by the big star, the regular runes built in the stars flicker and roar, like the thunder that flickers in the universe, or the morning star that stays. It feels like returning to the ancient times, that era, the Milky Way was
It flows through it and demarcates the boundaries of the Supreme of Kyushu.
The growth rings show the long years, which is confusing.
Every time Li Xi'an crossed an annual ring on this earth-like tree stump, countless scenes would appear before his eyes.
It's all in the past.
These past disillusionments quickly disappeared in his eyes, without stopping him for a moment.
The loose black robe swayed like soothing black clouds accompanying his footsteps.
He walked for a long time without using his magical power or speeding up his pace. He walked very slowly. He knew that he was pressed for time, but stepping on the rings of time, he acted solemnly and slowly. This was the basis for not losing sight of the past.
It is also a respect for the great thing that once existed.
Passing through one annual ring after another.
The further you go toward the center, the more obvious the curvature of the growth rings becomes.
In the initial stage, he couldn't feel the curvature of the annual rings at all. The huge area made them appear to be no different from straight lines. Now it was different. A more obvious arc appeared on the annual rings he walked through at this time, and followed him
The depths became more and more obvious. Li Xi'an knew that he was close to the secret buried in Taihang Palace.
There was only the sound of footsteps on the dead, empty land.
Quietly, the scales grew.
A long red tail is held behind its back, and two horns like dead wood grow out from its forehead.
When the pair of eyes opened again, the superficial sense of growth in this world receded, and the life characteristics of the coexistence of dragons and humans merged into the eternal life of this place, without any contradiction, as if he belonged here.
Suddenly, the footsteps disappeared.
Li Xi'an stopped where he was.
He looked quietly at the end of the annual ring, where all the circles turned into a perfect point.
This sacred tree has experienced death, and only the light is present there. The perfect point is like the moon carved in the center of the tree stump. You can feel its gentleness just by looking at it. The wind and sand that represent death have not eroded there at all.
At this moment, the tenderness that has been preserved for countless years lights up the figure sitting cross-legged in the center.
Withered figure.
She could no longer hold up the exquisite and luxurious sleeve robe she was wearing, exposing her withered shoulders and collarbones.
The hair curled up in the moonlight, as if soaked in water. From this, Li Xi'an saw the same withered and yellow face. There was no life, she had died long ago, and the only light left by the sacred tree was left as a corpse.
I can only imagine how stunning and unparalleled this woman was in the past.
The person who worships the sacred tree and laurel.
Li Xi'an remained silent, closed his eyes and lowered his head, mourning for this creature.
"Is this the answer I'm looking for?" He was rarely confused.
Perhaps it was because these powerful beings who knew the past all ended in death, or perhaps simply because the loneliness and desolation of the scene in front of him engulfed him as a viewer.
Viewed from the ground, this star is still bright, but standing here, there is only spreading deathly silence and desolation.
"Not yet." He said again.
"At least it's not the answer yet." Li Xi'an raised his head and stared at the dead body sitting cross-legged in the center of the annual rings.
Whether it is the lost supreme beings of the old Kyushu, the lost and fallen ancestors who survived in the present world, or the unknown creatures who were powerful and extraordinary but died one after another in the hidden era, he is still on the journey at this moment and has not yet reached the end.
She who was buried in the Taihang Palace was also a piece of the puzzle that formed the final outcome for Li Xi'an.
There are still many puzzles for him to pursue.
He was affected by this striking ancient desolation.
Close your eyes.
The golden flames loomed around him, and his thoughts gradually became clearer. He stretched out his hand, and his fingertips touched the rising moonlight.
The lotus petals in the body are trembling and will go back to the past.
But suddenly, a refreshing feeling spread from the center of his eyebrows, flowing through his limbs and bones. The trembling petals calmed down, and even the golden tide in Li Xi'an's eyes slowly subsided.
He opened his eyes.
In front of him were white fingers touching his eyebrows.
Looking back, he saw the woman looking at him with a smile.
…………
"Sit." The woman patted the ground.
Li Xian casually used his long tail to sweep the dusty tree stump surface clean.
The two sat down like this.
Silence lay between them, deadlier than the starry sky above their heads and the moon at their feet.
Li Xi'an stared at the woman in front of him.
The whole body was covered with a dreamlike white luster, and the pair of eyes that were looking at him were filled with a full moon.
"Has it been a long time?" she asked.
"A long, long time." Li Xi'an replied.
"How's the rabbit?"
"died."
Hearing the faint words "dead" from Li Xi'an's mouth, the woman's face showed a trace of disappointment.
"How did you die?"
"Too long time has passed in the Taihang Palace. As a living spirit, it has disappeared in the years."
To Li Xi'an's surprise, the woman giggled again.
"Guest, I didn't expect you to be able to lie to others. I built the rabbit's cage for it. Since you are here, you should know it."
"What I killed was just the body and the shadow that occupied that body," Li Xi'an said. "It will eventually disappear in the years."
The woman was stunned and smiled brightly.
"That's really nice to say."
"I thought that the ten types of dragons in Zhou Tian were all idiots who only had fighting in mind. Brother, smile?"
She looked at Li Xi'an, but Li Xi'an's eyes were not on her at all. He was looking at the gradually thinning light in the center of the annual rings.
"Why stop me?"
"If I guess correctly, your last will is hidden in that light. When the last light of the laurel disappears, you will leave forever, and there will no longer be a way to touch the world. You saw what I want to do,
The law of time is enough to present the past in my eyes that I need, and you don’t have to use up the last ray of light."
"The Law of Time..." The woman whose interest was interrupted was a little annoyed.
"Your Time Technique is incomplete, quite incomplete, and you can't see clearly. I know you should have seen Kukulkan, but he had already left a trance ritual for the "immortal". You guys in the past
It is destined to meet each other. In other words, you have met a long time ago. But we didn't. There is no immortal in my life, and you can't see it."
"Besides, what's the use of that light?"
"I died long ago, tens of millions of years ago."
"Ancestors in the True First Realm are difficult to kill and can be resurrected again. Can't living beings like you do that?" Li Xi'an asked the question that had been in his mind for a long time.
"Ancestor of the True First Realm..." the woman murmured.
"Of course it is difficult for you to kill, and the same is true between ancestors, but what if an unshakable person takes action against an ordinary Shinichi? Would you find it difficult to kill? If you die, you will die. So will we.
In this way, it is true that we are more powerful than the creatures in the True Realm, and even compared to some supreme beings in the depths of the star sea, but when we die, we are dead." She repeated again.
"What on earth are you?"
"What is it?"
The woman looked thoughtful.
After a long time, she seemed to remember.
"In the distant past, the world called us the Evolved Ones. But in the sea of stars, the spirits revered us as saints."
－－－－－－Digression－－－－－
We have a guest at home today, so I’ll leave you with a chapter and I’ll finish it tomorrow.