After learning why the Lunar Laurel's spirit had been so shaken,
Yellow Dragon stopped keeping her in suspense. "I came here to take you away from the Moon Star," he said bluntly.
The Lunar Laurel's true spirit fluctuated noticeably, but soon settled again.
Then a soft chuckle sounded in Yellow Dragon's mind, carrying a faint note of teasing. "Leave the Moon Star? Surely you jest, Your Majesty?"
She paused, her branches and leaves swaying gently as moonlight flowed through them. "I am an innate supreme-grade spiritual root. I have been rooted here since heaven and earth first formed, connected to the very essence of the Moon Star."
"If I left the Moon Star, I would no longer be the Lunar Laurel."
Her tone was firm, brimming with disdain for his words.
"Even if you wield the Purple Tenuity Scepter and your cultivation has reached the Quasi-Saint realm, you cannot forcibly move me. Never mind you—even a Saint might not manage it."
Yellow Dragon listened quietly until she finished, neither interrupting nor arguing.
Only then did he speak slowly. "You are right. I will not, and cannot, move the entire Lunar Laurel off the Moon Star."
The Lunar Laurel's true spirit relaxed slightly. This Purple Tenuity Emperor seemed reasonably sensible.
But Yellow Dragon's next words made her entire tree stiffen.
"Though you are an innate supreme-grade spiritual root and command the great way of yin, you will never take human form. You will remain bound by this Lunar Laurel for your entire existence, unable to break free."
The truth hurt most!
Silence.
A long silence.
The Lunar Laurel's branches and leaves stopped swaying, and their clear, jade-chime notes faded away. She stood motionless amid the palace ruins.
Only the moonlight still flowed over her trunk, though even its movement slowed, as