Chapter Seventy-two: Death and Rebirth

  The top leaves of the Tree of Destiny began to wither, and it was still spreading downwards. At this speed, it wouldn't take a few minutes for the Tree of Destiny to become a rotten tree.

  The old man was anxious and shouted non-stop: "Stop hitting, do you know what the source of life means? Ah?! Do you know that it's a rare good fortune that can't be encountered in ten thousand years... You... are you still hitting?"

  "Girl, we had no grudges in the past and no hatred recently, just some misunderstandings. Why must it end in life or death?!"

  Xiǎo Rú's eyes were as black as coal, staring fixedly at the old man, her knife strikes growing more ferocious with each passing moment, her breathing becoming increasingly heavy.

  The tree of fate withered severely, and after the fall of those dozens of giant leaves, it seemed that time had reversed, the bare branches began to collapse inward, and the thick trunk also became slender.

  "No...no..." Seeing that there was little time left on the Tree of Fate, the old man was almost driven mad: "Stop hitting...don't hit anymore ah..."

  Xiǎo Rú however leapt up again and struck down with another knife.

  The old man manipulated the sword light to block Xiǎo Rú's knife, and then turned around to shoot at the Tree of Destiny without caring about the flying sword light. He was right, finding the Tree of Destiny was indeed a rare good fortune that could be encountered in thousands of years. If he missed this opportunity, he wouldn't even want to live on his own, let alone others taking action.

  At this time, the Tree of Fate suddenly danced its roots again, pulling out the three flying swords that pierced Su Tang's body, and then dancing with sword light, towards the old man. It didn't want to let that annoying guy get close.

  The old man let out a tiger's roar and stretched out his hand to grab the sword light, but Xiǎo Rú had already quickly approached from behind, facing the enemy head-on. Although Xiǎo Rú's speed may not have been enough to pose a mortal threat to him, this short-distance charge would make Xiǎo Rú's speed advantage play a crucial role.

  The old man's hand was just a little short of grasping the sword light, and if he could grasp it, with his strength, he could easily take the sword away. After all, it was his flying sword. Unfortunately, Xi Xiao Ru's knife light had already swept over, cutting down from top to bottom, striking him in the back.

  Blood splattered everywhere, and countless metal fragments shot out in all directions like sparks. It turned out that the old man was wearing an unknown suit of armor under his clothes, which was extremely tough; otherwise, with Xi Xiao's knife momentum that could cut through everything, it would have been enough to split his body in two.

  The old man let out a pained screech, his body suddenly sinking down and heavily smashing onto the ground. The Tree of Fate would not miss this opportunity, countless roots wrapping around from all sides to form a huge cocoon that tightly wrapped the old man inside.

  The old man's strength was extremely powerful, and with just his own physical body, he could easily break free from the roots that bound him. However, there were too many roots, and the tens of thousands of roots had formed a huge prison, trapping him inside.

  Xiǎo Rú's knife light flashed again, and within the range of the knife's momentum, all the roots were severed. The huge cocoon burst open, and at the same time, the old man's body also split open.

  But for Xiǎo Rú, it didn't end there. She sprang up and shot towards Sū Táng like a flash of lightning with her knife shining brightly.

  "Big brother......" Su Tang shouted as he raised the Da Zheng sword.

  The sword's momentum suddenly stopped, but it wasn't because of Su Tang's shout, rather it was because of that great Taizong sword.

  The Taizhong sword quivered slightly, emitting a dazzling light. Su Tang didn't know that the broken meridians inside the Taizhong sword were healing just like his body. If he sank his mind into the Taizhong sword at this moment, he would experience a feeling of blood connection, which was a sign that the Taizhong sword had recognized its master.

  Xiǎo Rú tilted her head, quietly admiring the Dàzhèng sword. She was extremely familiar with the aura emitted by the Dàzhèng sword, but couldn't recall anything.

  At this time, the sound of stones falling came from the rear. Xi Xiao Ru immediately turned her head and found that the young man and two warriors were trying to escape, while one of the warriors had already drilled into the crack in the mountain wall.

  Xi Xiao Ru plunged towards the rock embedded in the middle of the mountain wall, while Su Tang saw Xi Xiao Ru leave and couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

  The golden liquid that flowed from the Tree of Destiny had dried up, and without the nourishment of the source of life, Su Tang's excitement began to dissipate, replaced by an irresistible fatigue. His body slowly slid down along the trunk, his eyelids closing bit by bit, until he lay down in the grass.

  The tree of fate has shrunk into a small tree with a thickness of only about the size of a bowl, and its height is only three or four meters, and this process is still ongoing.

  Finally, the Tree of Destiny turned into a small sprout about an inch long, slowly shrinking back into the mud, completely disappearing, as if it had never appeared at all, and everything was just an illusion.

  Su Tang was in a deep sleep, after Xiǎo Rú killed those people, she walked along the crack to the outside of the mountain wall, wandering aimlessly like a zombie.

  After a while, the soil near Sutang's head began to move, and in an instant, a green, thumb-sized light ball drilled out of the ground. It stretched out several tentacle-like things, grabbed Sutang's hair, and climbed up with great effort.

  After much difficulty, it climbed onto Su Tang's forehead, stood under Su Tang's eyelids, looked seriously for a moment, and then used its antennae-like things to pry open Su Tang's eyelids. When Su Tang's eyelids were forcibly pried open, it cried out in a trembling voice: "Mom... mom..."

  Su Tang slept very soundly and couldn't be woken up at all. The light ball jumped and shouted, probably making Su Tang's subconscious feel annoyed. With a casual wipe of his hand, it was thrown out several meters away and fell into the grass thicket.

  For Su Tang, a few meters were nothing, and he arrived in two steps, while the little thing was a good walk back, and then climbed up again, grabbing Su Tang's hair.

  A white butterfly with golden stripes landed on Su Tang's chest, and the little thing saw the butterfly, as if something had been touched, staring blankly at the butterfly, for a moment, it used its antennae to pull out a seam on its own light wall, and a pair of white and golden striped wings suddenly emerged from the seam.

  The butterfly was startled and flew away, flapping its wings. The little thing pulled out another slit on its own light wall and then tried to fly again.

  At first, its movements seemed very clumsy, crooked and staggering, but soon it mastered the flying skills, speeding up faster and faster, with more and more agile flight postures, and it felt very happy, making a "giggle" sound.

  Then, the little thing finally remembered what it should do and flew to Su Tang's ear, shouting loudly: "Mommy mommy......"

  Su Tang unconsciously waved his arm, but that little thing had become extremely agile, he couldn't hit it at all. In the end, his eyebrows were deeply furrowed, obviously annoyed to no end.

  However, that little thing didn't have much patience and soon gave up, falling on Su Tang's forehead, murmuring in a wronged tone: "Mommy is ignoring me..."

  Su Tang's eyebrows slowly unfolded, and he finally felt a bit more at ease. The little thing swayed back and forth, emitting a beam of golden light that shone directly onto Su Tang's brow.

  Su Tang was dreaming, he dreamed that he had returned to Xiaolinbao, in the garden pushing a swing, and on the swing sat a girl, who was the one with great respect. Su Tang had never seen a girl with such pure and innocent temperament, nor could he forget the feeling of his heart racing, but he knew he was only a few pounds and ounces, so he could only bury his feelings deep in his heart. However, in dreams, there were no worries, so his subconscious often returned to that place.

  That little thing's shape was slowly changing, first appearing with a head of black long hair, then growing out a girl's face, exactly the same as that great respected one. Next appeared were two hands and a white gauze skirt, finally followed by two feet. That little thing was finally satisfied, re-starting its giggles, afterwards it spread its wings and flew up, circling around to find something, flying in front of a small tree with a trunk as thick as a bowl, dancing with joy and shouting: "I want to eat! I want to eat..."

  A golden ripple flashed by, and the small tree grew at a speed visible to the naked eye. In the blink of an eye, it bloomed with flowers, in another blink, it bore fruit, and finally, more than a hundred bright red fruits hung from the tree.

  "It's so tiring..." The little thing shouted while flying by, an apple automatically fell down, the little thing made a great effort to catch the apple, then flew back and threw the apple onto Su Tang's body.

  This repeated for five or six times, and Su Tang was also smashed five or six times. His eyelids were rapidly twitching, which was a sign that he was about to wake up.

  That little thing didn't notice, it fell onto a fruit, bit open the skin, and started savoring the sweet pulp. It ate very quickly, at least not matching its body size, soon making a hole in the pulp with half of its body inside.

  Su Tang slowly opened his eyes, where was this? Memories quickly resurfaced, and the events that had transpired flashed through his mind. Su Tang suddenly sat up, looking back, where was the Tree of Destiny?

  The Tree of Fate has disappeared, leaving only a dozen or so withered yellow leaves. Su Tang sat in stunned silence, his heart filled with inexplicable sorrow. Has the Tree of Fate really disappeared like this? Is that thing called Mom already dead?

  At that time, he only felt excited, now fully understood, if it wasn't for the Destiny Tree saving him, under such a heavy injury, he wouldn't have been able to hold on for much longer.

  Su Tang sat stupidly for a long time, her gaze shifted to the few fruits beside her. Fortunately, Xi Xiao Ru was fine, she still knew how to prepare food for herself, and she must have recovered already.

  His stomach was indeed hungry, Su Tang picked up a fruit and put it in his mouth while looking around, where is Xi Xiao Ru?

  "Mom... mom..." a voice was coming out of his mouth.

  Su Tang was so frightened that he shuddered, hastily taking out the fruit, but there was nothing. Then a faint sensation came from his palm, and he turned the fruit over, suddenly seeing a small head poking out of the pulp, smiling at him affectionately: "Mom..."

  Su Tang's hair stood on end, and his instincts made him fling the fruit away. You couldn't blame him for being heartless - anyone who saw a small head growing out of the pulp of the fruit, speaking and laughing, would feel terrified.