1022 Night Fog

"Is that the divine tree?" Yi Yun had also heard of legends depicting the divine tree in the Azure Wood Great World but it was the first time he was seeing it today. "Successor, are you sure that's the divine tree? Why would its roots appear here? There are no records of it in canon." Granny Yin muttered. She found it hard to accept that the sect's canon would suddenly lose its importance. "It's the divine tree." As the successor to the Azure Wood Manor, Yue Yingsha's life had an ethereal connection with the divine tree's aura. It gave her confidence that her intuition wasn't wrong. "Let's go over and take a look." The legends spoke of a great woman—the one in the Azure Wood Manor's portraits—who had planted the Azure Wood Great World's divine tree. It determined the providence of the world it resided in, but tens of millions of years ago, the world had begun its decline. Although Yue Yingsha knew that it was impossible to halt the destruction of the Azure Wood Great World, she was determined to do something. She hoped that something fortuitous would come out of it if she approached the divine tree's root network which she had never encountered before. Yi Yun nodded. The divine tree that had lived for hundreds of millions of years was a miracle of life. It exceeded the Dao Tree with the three thousand Great Dao he encountered back in the Pure Yang Sword Palace in every possible way. The trio began approaching the tree's vast network of tree roots. The roots of the massive tree did not appear distant, but for some baffling reason, the trio was unable to close the gap despite their hike. Despite the seemingly harmless environment, the trio did not attempt to fly in the Door to the 33 Skies since it was filled with all kinds of oddities. They had been especially cautious as they proceeded. Unknowingly, the sky gradually darkened. Yi Yun looked up and saw twinkling stars hanging in the sky. A faint river of stars stretched across the sky in a splendid and resplendent manner. This left Yi Yun baffled. The Azure Wood Great World was a sealed off world, so how could they see the massive arm of a galaxy? Could it be that the sky they were looking at was not the Azure Wood Great World's? It was unknown when a night fog had slowly rolled in. However, the fog did not affect visibility because of its thinness. Granny Yin had subconsciously slowed down her footsteps as her intuition for possible danger had been honed from the years she had seen and lived through. "Kid, let's slow down. I find something amiss," said Granny Yin. In the night fog, they were still able to see the starry galactic arm, but they could no longer see the mountainous behemoth in the distance. The divine tree's roots had already been hidden amidst the thin fog. Yi Yun activated his energy vision but he failed to see anything strange. However, he had slowed down as well. Suddenly, Yi Yun heard the sound of flowing water. It was faint and imperceptible. Yi Yun was unsure about the source of the night fog that was enveloping them. It could have been a river or something else, but he found the fog extremely odd. Looking ahead, everything appeared indistinct due to the fog, but behind him, the fog was in no way thick. The path that they had taken was still crystal clear. "Why do I have this nagging feeling that we are lost…" said Yi Yun suddenly. Looking at the starry sky above them, they had been walking in one particular direction. The divine tree's roots should have been straight ahead of them, but the unrest in his heart was intensifying. Yet, he could not see anything through his energy vision. Not seeing things should have been a good thing, but it was abnormal for there to be nothing. Yue Yingsha was trying her best to recall the written canon of the Azure Wood Manor, but just as she wanted to say something, she suddenly felt a cold chill behind her back that made her hair stand. Yue Yingsha turned her head abruptly as her expression changed drastically. This gave Yi Yun a shock as he hurriedly turned his head. There was nothing in the vague and shadowy fog. "What's wrong?" From Yue Yingsha's pale expression, Yi Yun guessed that she had seen something a moment ago. "An eye…I saw a pink-colored eye. It was the size of a bowl, and the eye was following us like a ghost. It has been observing us all this while, and it disappeared the moment I turned back." Yue Yingsha secretly felt vexed. She too was a practitioner of martial arts. It was unbecoming of her to react in such a frightened manner. If it had been a dangerous attack, she might have been too frightened to even use half of her combat strength. "An eye?" Yi Yun felt his heart skip a beat. He did not believe that Yue Yingsha had been mistaken. It was likely possible that such a thing truly existed in the fog. What was most strange was that his energy vision was unable to see anything. The energy vision was not omnipotent. All it could do was give him a vision of energy. What if the object that was hiding in the dark did not have any energy fluctuations? Such an existence that could approach him so silently gave Yi Yun the chills. He had to be cautious regardless of the case. The dangers which awaited him in the Door to the 33 Skies was unimaginable. He had crossed the Blood Desert with verve, but it was only because he could see the killing mechanism of the Blood Desert through his energy vision. Due to Yue Yingsha's fear of being sneaked up from the back, she looked back after almost every step. As they proceeded forward, that faint sound of water turned clearer. As they emerged out of the fog, they finally saw the source of the water sounds. In front of the trio, there was a black river that extended itself into a col. There was a whirlpool in the col that seemed to flow deep underground. The black river's waters were sticky and heavy, resembling black ink. The river wasn't wide, but it gave off a peculiar vibe. And what absolutely terrified Yi Yun was the white bones he could vaguely see in the whirlpool. As the black river unloaded itself into the col, the bones bobbed up and down before succumbing to their fate of being swallowed by the whirlpool. By the banks of the river, the lush grassland had gone as far as it could, but the grass had already turned black. Beneath the grass, there was a layer of white powder. Yi Yun remembered everything that he had seen in the White Bone Ridge. It was bone ash that had been scattered along the banks of the lake, which had become fertilizer for the wormwood. "It's dangerous! Let's leave quickly!" Granny Yin suddenly yelled in a voice as jarring as a nightbird. Without giving it any thought, Yi Yun fled with Granny Yin, who had a high cultivation level! Granny Yin held Yi Yun with one hand, and Yue Yingsha in the other, while running as fast as possible with her movement technique. Yi Yun subconsciously looked back but saw the black wormwood by the lake dancing like snakes. The layer of soil had ruptured as bone ash stirred. Yi Yun did not know what would have happened if he had stayed behind. Granny Yin flew a distance of ten thousand feet in one breath. Suddenly, she saw a group of people in front. Granny Yin was alarmed, but just as she wanted to retreat, she realized that the group of people were the Azure Wood Manor separatists. It included Seven Plume and the purple-robed elder. These people had finally managed to leave the Blood Desert at a painful cost. "Oh? It's you!" A cold beam flashed in Seven Plume's eyes. He had suffered greatly in the Blood Desert and he was bent on getting his revenge.