Five Palaces Mountain Secret Realm.
Cheng Xinzhan had not been here for many years.
Outside, heavy snow swirled through the air, but here, lush greenery still flourished. The paths once left for people to walk along had vanished, and verdant trees and fragrant grasses covered the ground.
Cheng Xinzhan traveled through the air, treading on the tips of the grass as he searched the wild woods in the direction he remembered. Before long, he spotted a familiar slope. He went forward and saw the thatched shelter where the tree's guardian stayed. Across all these hills and fields, only this shelter, built by the Tongxuan Patriarch himself, had not changed at all.
Patriarch Qu sat there, smiling at him.
Who knew how long Patriarch Qu had gone without moving? He sat cross-legged, his hands forming the midnight-noon seal before his abdomen. At some point, a little bird's nest had been built atop the Immortal's hands. Several emerald-green chicks chirped inside it, while a female bird stood on Patriarch Qu's knee, looking around.
Cheng Xinzhan approached and bowed.
"Greetings, Patriarch Qu."
The female bird on Patriarch Qu's knee looked curiously at the visitor.
"Sit."
Patriarch Qu smiled as he spoke.
And so Cheng Xinzhan sat down beside him.
The Ginseng Fruit Tree stood directly opposite the shelter. Seeing it again after twenty or thirty years, he found that this immortal tree had taken on an entirely different appearance:
This spiritual root was no longer a sprout or a seedling, neither young nor small. Looking at it now, it was truly a full-grown tree! It stood more than twenty zhang tall, its trunk at the base as thick as a woman's slender waist. Truly, its green branches were richly fragrant, its emerald leaves cast deep shade, and its flourishing growth delighted the eye.