Ox Ridge.
With the autumn harvest season just around the corner, this small settlement built around New Moon Blessed Land was not filled with joy in the least. Instead, it was shrouded in anxiety.
That, however, did nothing to affect Yu An, who was "standing" in the courtyard, basking in the sun.
What could you say? Human joys and sorrows simply didn't align.
Besides, right now he was just a tree that couldn't speak.
He stood in the corner of the courtyard, looking over the waist-high, crude stone wall at Old Man Yu, his face lined with worry, returning from the fields with his three sons.
As soon as they stepped into the courtyard, Old Man Yu's twelve-year-old youngest son, Yu Xiaoshan, dropped his hoe, dashed to the stone vat, scooped up a ladle of water, and gulped it down.
Yu Dashan closed the gate and looked at his father anxiously. "Dad, Uncle Zhao just said the price hike for Blessed Land quotas is official. What are we going to do?"
"What can we do? Just stop paying because the price went up?"
At fifty, Old Man Yu was a burly man, nearly a meter and ninety tall. He just had a lot of wrinkles on his face, and always seemed as if the weight on his shoulders was making it hard for him to breathe.
He sat down on a stone stool not far from the tree, pounding his legs as he sank into thought.
He'd seen the price of Blessed Land quotas rise before, but this year it had doubled outright. That hadn't happened in a hundred years.
There were four people in his family, and they rented ten mu of Spirit Fields. It wasn't that they didn't want to rent more, but tending Spirit Fields was delicate work. They couldn't manage any more, and one mishap would only make things worse.
On top of that, the weather had been unusually good this year, and the Spirit Fields were yielding twenty percent more than usual.
By his reckoning, each mu's harvest could be exchanged for about seven Spirit Stones. After deducting the rent of two Spirit Stones per mu, they'd have a full fifty Spirit Stones left over.
In previous years, a Blessed Land quota cost only five Spirit Stones per person. For his family of four, that came to twenty Spirit Stones, leaving thirty. Their lives would be a little easier next year, too.
But who could have guessed that, just when the harvest was almost here, disaster would strike out of a clear blue sky?
The price of a Blessed Land quota had soared to fifteen Spirit Stones per person.
In other words, if the whole family entered the Blessed Land, they'd have to pay sixty Spirit Stones. They were still ten short.
How could they make up the difference?
And what about next year? Were they supposed to go hungry?
This was enough to drive a person to their death.
He couldn't understand what the big shots living in the Blessed Land were thinking. If they drove everyone to their deaths, who would farm their Spirit Fields next year?
Could that rumor really be true?
"But where are we supposed to get that many Spirit Stones?"
Yu Dashan couldn't help saying.
"The Zhou Family's Insect Hunter Team is recruiting. Maybe..."
Yu Ershan spoke calmly.
Unlike his big brother, who took after their father's burly, honest appearance, Yu Ershan was tall and thin, and better-looking, too. His face was just tinged with a sickly pallor.
Before he could finish, Old Man Yu cut him off sharply.
"Don't be ridiculous. You think the Zhou Family's Spirit Stones are that easy to earn?
"That's blood money!
"During the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, doesn't their Insect Hunter Team lose seven or eight out of every ten members every year?
"Someone like you, who's only just reached Fetal Movement Minor Accomplishment, would just be bait for the bugs."
"Dad, why don't I go? I've reached Fetal Movement Major Accomplishment and completed one Blood Change. I should be able to handle ordinary bugs."
Yu Dashan spoke with determination.
"You shut up, too. Even if someone has to risk their life, it won't be you."
Old Man Yu glared at his eldest son.
Seeing the mood in the courtyard grow oppressive, Old Man Yu continued, "We've saved five Spirit Stones. Add the fifty we'll have left over after harvesting the Spirit Fields, and there'll be enough for you three brothers to enter the Blessed Land.
"Of the remaining ten Spirit Stones, we'll set aside three for your second brother's medicine and exchange the rest for Spirit Rice.
"The youngest is still growing, and the eldest still needs to keep up with his Blood Changes. Ordinary grain won't cut it."
"Dad, what about you?"
Yu Dashan panicked at once.
"I'm already fifty. I've had a good run. When the time comes, we'll dig our cellar a little deeper, and I'll hide in there. The Black Annihilation Wind Disaster will only take a dozen years off my life or so. I should still have some left.
"If I come across any straggling bugs, I can even save up a little for you."
Old Man Yu spoke through gritted teeth.
It wasn't that he hadn't thought of borrowing, but the price hike for Blessed Land quotas hadn't targeted his family alone. No one had extra grain to spare; everyone was scrambling to get through this crisis.
As for not entering the Blessed Land?
That was no different from waiting to die.
Ever since the world had undergone a great upheaval three thousand years ago, the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, a harbinger of death, had swept across the world every winter.
Outside the Blessed Land, take an ordinary person who'd never cultivated: a single day would cost them a year of life. And the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster lasted a hundred days at a time, enough to strip away a century.
But how many ordinary people lived to be a hundred?
Hiding in a deep cellar was a decent idea, and one some people resorted to when they had no other choice.
But if it were that easy to hide from the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, people wouldn't blanch at the mere mention of it.
The Black Annihilation Wind Disaster was just a catch-all term. Its horror lay not in winds strong enough to lift an adult, nor in temperatures of forty or fifty below zero, but in its terrifying ability to strip away a person's life directly, invisible and intangible as a rule of nature.
Even if you hid underground, those invisible waves would descend out of thin air, leaving you nowhere to run.
Only cultivation could defend against the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster at its source.
Someone like Old Man Yu, though over fifty and of only average aptitude, had barely crossed the threshold of Fetal Movement Major Accomplishment. His age and depleted qi and blood, however, had left him unable to complete a Blood Change.
With his strength, he could already withstand much of the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster's life-draining power. Just as he'd said, one disaster could take at most a dozen or twenty years from him.
After reaching Fetal Movement Major Accomplishment and completing a certain number of Blood Changes came Fetal Movement Perfection.
If one could "seek" an Immortal Destiny, there was a chance to return to the innate state, begin Qi Refining, and become a true cultivator.
Qi Refining cultivators were even more resistant to the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster.
Put simply, the higher one's realm, the more firmly rooted one's life force, and the less damage the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster could do.
Only by turning the false into the true and forging a genuine immortal foundation could one completely ignore the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster. That was the Foundation Establishment Realm.
It was the tireless pursuit of countless people.
But even a powerful Foundation Establishment cultivator could only ignore the disaster's ability to strip away life. That didn't make them absolutely safe, nor did it mean they could treat the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster as nothing.
Because along with the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster came endless swarms of the Insect Race. These strange insects seemed naturally immune to the disaster, thriving in the midst of it.
Some powerful members of the Insect Race could even prey on Golden Core True Persons.
Compared to a Golden Core True Person, what did a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator amount to?
And these insects had keen senses. Even hiding in a deep cellar didn't mean you couldn't be discovered.
Once found, you'd be gnawed down to nothing.
In the world after the upheaval, only Blessed Lands could shelter the people.
As the saying went, every sip and every peck was fated.
Though the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster brought death to all living things, creation was hidden within that death.
To ordinary living creatures, the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster was poison. But to the world itself, it was the finest nourishment.
The Black Annihilation Wind Disaster reaped lives, yet nourished the world. Thus, some fertile lands slowly evolved into Spirit Fields, which humans reclaimed to grow all kinds of crops.
And through one cycle after another, certain special plants stubbornly survived and evolved into Spiritual Roots, gaining the ability to withstand the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster.
Relying on these Heaven and Earth Spiritual Roots, humanity had established one Blessed Land after another. Like towering beacons amid the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, they sheltered humankind.
It could be said that in the first few years after the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster descended three thousand years ago, scarcely any ordinary people remained in the world. Only those who had reached Fetal Movement Major Accomplishment or Perfection had managed to cling to life.
Even cultivators had suffered heavy losses while fighting the Insect Race.
There was no doubt about it: it had been a calamity.
Only the arrival of the Blessed Lands had given humanity a chance to catch its breath. As time passed, people had slowly developed and grown stronger.
But the Blessed Lands had limited space and couldn't accommodate everyone in their daily lives.
What's more, outside the Blessed Lands lay countless mineral deposits and fertile Spirit Fields. Well managed, they represented enormous wealth.
Thus, settlements sprang up around the Blessed Lands. People only bought Blessed Land quotas and entered to take shelter when the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster arrived.
In the past, Blessed Land quotas generally cost around five Spirit Stones, and even at their priciest they were only seven or eight. Nobody had expected them to reach fifteen Spirit Stones this year.
It was no wonder the whole settlement was lamenting.
Hearing them talk about the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster, Yu An gave a start. His little tree body, a little over two meters tall, trembled, and his branches and leaves swayed gently.
His change didn't affect Old Man Yu's family at all.
After all, no one would ever think that a human soul lived inside this little tree.
Half a year ago, Yu An had still been living on Earth. During Tomb-Sweeping Day, he'd returned to his hometown to visit the family graves and, while he was there, tidied up the old house that had been unoccupied for years. Aside from the elm tree said to have been planted by his great-grandfather, everything else had faded with the passage of time.
By his reckoning, the elm tree was over a hundred years old. Its trunk was more than a meter in diameter, and it stood over twenty meters tall, lush and vigorous, with not a hint of age. It was quite a sight in the village.
The elm also carried many meanings, and was even known as a money tree.
And in Chinese, "elm" sounded like "surplus."
Elm seeds meant surplus money.
There were even many folk beliefs that elms could ward off evil and misfortune. One saying went, "An elm behind the house, and a hundred ghosts won't come near."
That elm carried many of Yu An's childhood memories and had witnessed four generations of his family growing up.
Years ago, someone had offered a hundred thousand yuan to buy the tree, but Yu An's father had refused. Later, when Yu An had taken charge of the family and wanted to sell it, the tree already had a plaque—an "ID card."
In name, the tree belonged to his family, but they only had the right to claim ownership. They couldn't sell it, let alone cut it down.
Tomb-Sweeping Day coincided with the elm's flowering season. The entire tree had been covered in yellowish-white elm seeds, making Yu An's mouth water and reminding him of the elm-seed buns he'd eaten as a child.
So he'd climbed the tree to pick some. Then, in one careless moment, he'd fallen.
When he came to again, he'd arrived in this world and become an elm sapling.
For the past six months, he hadn't been able to move or speak. It was as if he'd truly become a tree. All he could do each day was strain to absorb the sunlight above and draw nourishment from the earth, doing his best to grow.
At the same time, from the odd words Old Man Yu's family let slip, he'd pieced together a rough understanding of this world.
Its language and culture had some similarities to the Huaxia of Earth.
Especially the things that appeared only in myths and legends.
For instance, there were Blessed Lands and even Grotto-Heavens, as well as all kinds of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Roots.
More importantly, this was a world where people could cultivate immortality and live forever.
At first, Yu An had been truly excited. This was a world where you could roam the Northern Sea at dawn and Cangwu by dusk, where a golden core swallowed down gave you a life ruled by yourself and not the heavens, where you could step beyond the Three Realms and escape the Five Elements.
Even as a tree, he couldn't suppress his desire to cultivate immortality and live forever.
But after hearing Old Man Yu's family talking just now, he'd fallen silent.
Actually, for a while now, he'd occasionally sensed a faint stirring in the world around him.
If nothing unexpected happened, it was a sign that the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster was about to rise.
The Black Annihilation Wind Disaster threatened not only humans but plants, trees, and beasts as well.
The Ox Ridge might look lush and verdant, with flourishing plants and trees, but in truth most of them had grown this year.
The plants in this world had astonishing vitality.
Even though the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster and the Insect Race destroyed them every year, the seeds buried underground and the roots left behind could still burst forth in a race to grow the following spring.
There was a kind of bamboo on Earth that could grow a meter in a single day and night. But in this world, that was nothing special.
Here, even trees tens of meters tall were common after just one spring and autumn.
Planting a little ordinary grain was enough to feed an entire family.
What was truly precious were the medicinal herbs and spirit fruits that grew in Spirit Fields, and the Spirit Rice infused with spiritual energy.
And the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Roots that could withstand the Black Annihilation Wind Disaster and possessed all kinds of wondrous powers.
Of course, the humans in this world were all powerfully built, too, with stronger bodies.
Take Yu Xiaoshan. At just twelve years old, before he'd even begun Fetal Movement, he could lift a two-hundred-jin stone stool.
Even sickly Yu Ershan could punch a cow to death—one from Earth, that was.
Yu Dashan had reached Fetal Movement Major Accomplishment and completed one Blood Change. With one arm, he could lift twelve hundred jin.
But compared with cultivators who had truly embarked on the path of immortality and begun Qi Refining, that was nothing.
And it meant just as little against a tide of the Insect Race.
Now, reborn as a tree, Yu An had no choice but to start thinking about what to do next.
The three Yu brothers could enter the Blessed Land. What about him?
Was he supposed to stay here with Old Man Yu and wait to die?
Sure, they all had the surname Yu, but they weren't close enough for that.
Just then, Yu Xiaoshan walked straight up in front of him and stared at him without blinking.
Yu An nearly jumped out of his bark.
Had he been discovered?
Before you continue