Things Done, I Leave Without a Care

"Clang, clang, clang, clang!"

A helicopter circled the mountain in the sky, and the sound of its rotors could be heard clearly even on the roads outside the park below the mountain.

By then, all of East Gate Park had been sealed off, and no one was allowed in or out. However, on the highway outside East Gate Park and atop the distant high-rises, quite a few people were pointing telescopes and phones in this direction.

The crowd's curiosity simply could not be restrained. Quite a few people had even come from distant streets and other districts, all to catch a glimpse of the so-called immortals and monsters. That was only in the real world; online, the news had spread and stirred up a tremendous commotion.

However, many of those who had come because of the rumors failed to see the scene they had hoped for. They could only listen as those who had experienced it earlier gave increasingly exaggerated accounts of what had happened. Even without seeing any immortals or monsters, though, quite a few people were satisfied just to see an armed helicopter.

"That's a Z-10! I'm really seeing the real thing this time!" A young man who looked like a university student leaned out from a distant building with a telescope, shouting excitedly with his neck craned so far forward that it was frightening to watch.

"This is way too dramatic! They even deployed an armed helicopter!" An uncle holding up a DSLR camera stood on the street outside the park.

"Who are they going to attack? A little monster?"

"They're attacking a monster! Didn't you hear? There's a monster on the mountain!"

More gawkers who had come because of the rumors had already heard about the incident the previous night. Countless videos of the monsters and immortals on Yellow Goat Mountain had spread everywhere online. They could be seen all over Weibo, Tieba, WeChat groups, and QQ groups. In particular, the scene of the immortal drawing lightning down from the heavens had already spawned a flood of animated images.

"Where's the immortal? I want to see the immortal!" Many people had come specifically to see Fang Xiu. Even Fang Xiu himself had no idea that he had somehow begun to acquire fans.

After daybreak, perhaps because Fang Xiu had entered the Death World, the dense fog began to contract instead of continuing to spread. Large numbers of police officers and firefighters began entering the mountain, but the moment they stepped into the fog, they immediately lost contact with the outside world.

Once the helicopters sent over arrived, the armed forces decided to land on the summit of the main peak.

However, as soon as they approached the mountaintop of the main peak, they were viciously attacked by Eramon's Tree of the Undead waiting there.

The enormous tree trunk emerged from the mist: a terrifying, savage black demonic tree exposing its horrifying form. It raised its vines and lashed out at the sky, trying to drag the helicopter down to the ground.

"Target sighted! Target sighted! Requesting permission to attack! Requesting permission to attack!"

"Requesting permission to attack, request—"

Panic also erupted inside the armed helicopter. Although they had been prepared beforehand, the moment they truly saw such a monster, anyone would have felt a jolt of alarm surge through their heart.

"Granted!"

At once, the sound of machine-gun fire rang out, shredding the clusters of vines that Necro Tree had swung over. More vines whipped up into the air, and the helicopter immediately gained altitude, firing two rockets down from the sky.

"Damn! Damn! There really is a monster!" The sight instantly ignited the crowd below. Everyone gathered together, clustering around to stare up the mountain.

"Rockets! An armed helicopter battling a tree demon!" The rooftop of the building was packed with people, and quite a few were fighting over the telescopes.

"Does this mean my Weibo post is going to make the headlines? Hurry up and repost it and like it!"

The rockets struck the mountaintop. The violent bombardment made Necro Tree writhe fiercely, but this time was different from the last. In the Death World, Fang Xiu was simultaneously launching a fierce assault on its main body.

Necro Tree had no way to recover its body. At that moment, it truly sensed the crisis between life and death. Yet the armed helicopter in the sky still did not stop, its machine guns continuously firing at it.

"Roar!" The violent roar sounded like metal scraping against metal. Its humming, piercing pitch stretched out, shaking everyone nearby until they covered their ears and felt dizzy and disoriented.

Quite a few of those who were not physically strong enough fainted and collapsed directly to the ground. Groups of people rolled their eyes back and lost consciousness.

"Roar!"

With another agonized roar, the dense fog covering all of Yellow Goat Mountain suddenly contracted, condensing into a gigantic palm that seized the helicopter in the sky.

Everyone inside the armed helicopter was scared out of their wits. The enormous palm rose up through the earth like a pillar reaching the heavens and seized them, as though pinching a bug between its fingers.

"It's over! It's over!" The pilot covered his head with one hand. He had undergone all kinds of training, but he had never imagined that he would face a situation like this. He had imagined fighting every kind of formidable enemy, but never an enemy as godlike and demonic as this.

Just as the smoke palm began to close and was about to crush the helicopter, a beam of light pierced out from beneath Necro Tree's main body. Divine power blazed into the heavens, surging upward like a pillar of light that illuminated the sky and earth.

Many of those who had covered their ears and were watching this way widened their eyes in an instant. All they could see was that heaven-reaching radiance. Their eyes were like mirrors, reflecting its dazzling brilliance.

That power pierced through the two worlds and directly shattered Necro Tree's core.

Necro Tree's main body seemed to burn into an empty shell. With a gust of wind, it dissipated into the air.

Even the air seemed to freeze for an instant. Then all the smoke instantly lost its power to hold together and collapsed.

"Rumble!"

A violent shock wave spread outward with the summit of Yellow Goat Mountain at its center. All the gray smoke gradually vanished and faded away.

At that moment, beneath the earth of the mountaintop, a black door appeared. Through that black door, one could see a phantom world rapidly collapsing and shattering.

Fang Xiu emerged from the ashes and wreckage with a sapling that was trying to escape in his grasp. It was a shrunken version of Necro Tree, only as thick as an arm and a meter tall. Branches resembling devil's hands covered its trunk, while its vines had vanished.

The world collapsed at an unimaginable speed, crushing wildly toward Fang Xiu at its center. He leaped up through the earth and, in just a few steps, seemed to use Cloud-Stepping Vertical Leap, stamping on the air as he bounded into the sky.

By then, the armed helicopter had also broken free of its restraints and was wobbling away into the distance. Many of those who had covered their ears after being shaken by Necro Tree's desperate roars also rose to their feet one by one in a daze, looking toward Fang Xiu above the clouds.

As that beam of light shot out, slew the demonic tree, and dispersed the clouds, everyone noticed Fang Xiu. Only then did they see what the so-called immortal actually looked like.

He was a figure dressed in a moon-white Daoist robe. Only those holding telescopes could make out his silvery-white hair and indistinct features.

At that moment, the sun slowly rose in the east. Fang Xiu held the Necro Tree sapling in his hand, his gaze blazing as he looked down at the earth.

Beneath him, tens of thousands of people gazed up at the sky and stared at him. Their expressions were exaggerated to the extreme, as though they were looking at the Gods and Devils of legend, Buddha, or God.

"My heavens!" The reporter holding a camera actually forgot his job in an instant. He lowered the camera hanging around his neck, clutched his head, and gripped his hair tightly.

"Really... really... an immortal!"

"Three Pure Ones Dao Ancestor? Was that sword light just now? Is this Master of the Heavens?"

"Lü Dongbin has descended to the mortal world!"

Fang Xiu paid no attention to how the people below viewed him. Instead, he looked toward Yellow Goat Mountain. Raising the Necro Tree sapling high, he swung it forcefully. Countless specks of light like fireflies descended from the clouds, swirling as they fell from the cloud tops into Yellow Goat Mountain, then entered the bodies of those whose souls had previously been stolen.

In an instant, those who had earlier been unconscious and lost within the Death World began waking from their deep sleep one after another.

Fang Xiu turned around. His white Daoist robe fluttered, and his silvery-white hair streamed in the wind. He stepped upon the clouds and departed, vanishing above the cloud tops.

The clouds shifted and rolled, and a cool breeze stirred. The immortal's figure was nowhere to be seen. The monsters had vanished, the eerie fog had dispersed, and everything seemed like a dream.