The Falling Willow Tree

The rain in the Great Wilderness grew heavier and heavier, as though the celestial river were pouring down, as though a river mouth had burst its banks and flooded every mountain.

Heavy rain like this was hardly uncommon in the Great Wilderness. Even worse weather occurred from time to time, but to Shi Yunfeng, tonight's rain was anything but ordinary.

Considering the movements of those enormous creatures in the Great Wilderness over the past few days, this downpour, this storm, might have an astonishing origin. It was certainly no ordinary mountain rain.

Boom!

Deep into the night, the tempest grew fiercer still, its spectacle terrifying beyond measure. Not only did Shi Yunfeng watch with his heart pounding in fear, but even some of the elders, kept awake by the disturbance, were trembling.

They had never seen rain like this!

"That's..." Amid a succession of lightning flashes and thunderclaps, Shi Yunfeng's eyes suddenly widened. He stared at the clouds in astonishment, shaken beyond words.

There, within the clouds that gave birth to the torrential rain, an immense Willow Tree appeared, reaching into the heavens. Countless willow branches danced like human hair, piercing and filling the entire night sky.

Beyond them were enormous bolts of lightning unlike anything Shi Yunfeng had ever seen. Boundless and unmatched, they resembled an ocean of thunder and lightning, where even a casually rising "wave" was as vast as a mountain.

The great Willow Tree seemed to be battling the lightning!

"What is that? A god?" Shi Yunfeng swallowed. He had never seen such a terrifying, colossal being. Before her, even the enormous creatures of the Great Wilderness were no more than ants.

He could scarcely believe it, yet the truth stood before his eyes. That was unquestionably a realm beyond human power. To his knowledge, no beings other than the gods handed down in ancient legends could accomplish such a thing.

Were there truly gods in this world?

It was not that Shi Yunfeng had never heard legends of gods. He had simply believed they were inventions, beings deified by people, just as powerful sacrificial spirits were reverently called gods.

In other words, the true origins of these so-called gods were nothing more than supremely powerful primordial beasts, or powerful and ancient sacrificial spirits.

Now, however, that understanding had been overturned. He truly felt the faith of the ancient forebears. Gods were not inventions, nor were they merely the supremely powerful creatures that later generations believed them to be.

Boom!

Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and rain poured down. The great Willow Tree moved through the clouds, immense bolts of lightning coiling around her branches, blazing with unsurpassable intensity.

Clearly, the source of tonight's downpour and storm was that great Willow Tree, and the target of those flashes and thunderbolts was also that great Willow Tree.

The lightning striking the earth was merely a stray thread from the exploding sea of lightning within the clouds.

Yet even such a stray thread was enough to bring countless mountains crashing down. The true extent of its power was simply unimaginable.

"Earth, water, wind, fire, yin, and yang-the six tribulations..." Di Yi stood in the rain without a single drop touching him. Even the raging wind had to detour around him.

From his memories of "common knowledge," he recognized what those clouds were.

They were an interrogation by heaven and earth, a gift bestowed upon one undergoing nirvana. Passing through would bring flourishing renewal to all; failing would reduce the vast seas to dust, with every endeavor lost in the rush of time.

He could tell that the great Willow Tree already had a chance of succeeding and was about to take that step.

Unfortunately, the great Willow Tree faced more than the interrogation of heaven and earth. There was something else: flashes of blades and shadows of swords, a surging ocean of power, seeking to sever her foundations as though felling a tree.

Thud!

The great Willow Tree's countless branches became blazing divine chains, piercing the entire firmament. The battle had clearly reached a fever pitch. Bathed in a sea of lightning, she endured the interrogation of heaven and earth, fighting with the utmost valor.

Yet there was nothing she could do. She had been interrupted at the critical moment of nirvana. Through the flashes of blades and shadows of swords, it was possible to glimpse two or three people attacking her. The outcome was already decided.

"Hmm, there's a familiar presence..." As the lightning grew more and more intense,

As though some barrier had been broken, a corner of the sky seemed to have truly opened, and through that corner, Di Yi sensed a trace of a familiar presence. "She's gravely wounded, and her nirvana has gone awry. At death's door, she opened the cage. Should we pursue her?"

"That place... she's spun a cocoon to bind herself. There's no need to pursue her. That's a prison built for beings like us. She won't live much longer. There's no need to waste any more effort."

"Even so... let's give her one final blow. Every source of instability must be erased."

Beyond the firmament, in that fathomless place, people whispered.

Normally, no one could have heard their words, for there was not only a sturdy barrier but also mysterious laws that disrupted space-time and the flow of time.

For Di Yi, however, there was no obstacle at all. Unfortunately, it was yet another unfamiliar language. Though he could hear its sounds, he could not understand its meaning.

Boom!

Brilliant colors bloomed across the firmament. The flashes of blades, shadows of swords, and light of thunderbolts struck the great Willow Tree squarely.

She snapped.

Her trunk was charred black.

Like a kite with its string severed, she seemed to fall from beyond the thirty-three layers of heaven, shrinking little by little and shedding countless willow branches. At last, she plunged, truly and tangibly, into the entrance of Stone Village, taking root where the village's original sacrificial spirit had dwelled.

The old Willow Tree seemed to have died completely. Her entire body was charred black, without the slightest trace of life.

At the same time, the thunder and lightning vanished, the torrential rain receded, and the mountain winds ceased. Everything fell quiet.

"You can't-"

Stone Village's sacrificial spirit, that strange stone, reacted as though facing a formidable enemy, for it knew very well what lay buried beneath it: a god, an ancestor of Stone Village.

That was a supreme being who had retained a body full of essence even after death.

It was also this god who, using his own body as the formation's core, kept the great formation protecting Stone Village running.

"I understand."

Stone Village's sacrificial spirit, that strange stone, seemed to reach some understanding with the old Willow Tree. In the next instant, it flew straight up, intending to vanish into the boundless night.

But Di Yi's eyes were sharp and his hands swift. He caught the strange stone in one grab, holding it in his palm.

This was Stone Village's sacrificial spirit. From the villagers' attitude toward it earlier that day, he knew it was an extremely important presence to them.

If the villagers awoke after this night to find their sacrificial spirit missing, it would probably be difficult to explain.

"Strange. Was there an invisible wall here before? The formation's defenses shouldn't target me." The strange stone was bewildered. It charged left and right but could not break free.

It was as though someone were holding it in their palm.

Yet wherever it "looked," there was no sign of anyone-not even a hair.

"You're Stone Village's sacrificial spirit. Why are you leaving?" Unaware of the strange stone's thoughts, Di Yi set it back on the altar and asked.

"Who's speaking?!" The strange stone was terrified. Powerful as the old Willow Tree was, she was not impossible to "see." Yet it could not detect the source of this voice at all. It could not even move itself off the altar.

"You can't see me? I'm right in front of you." Di Yi explained, making clear that he was standing directly before it.

"Impossible!" The strange stone rejected that outright. It began to suspect that some powerful expert was playing a joke on it, for its divine perception could detect no figure at all.

"There's nothing impossible about it. I'm right here." As Di Yi spoke, he picked up the strange stone. "Can you see me now?"

"No..." The strange stone found its body "flying up" beyond its control, and once again felt as though someone were holding it in their palm. This forced it to believe that perhaps someone really was standing before it.