Chapter 268 - 294: Venerable Bai You, The Death of the Wood Demon, The World’s Great Tribulation, Waiting for Someone

In mid-air, Su Bai slowly withdrew his hand.

RUMBLE!

Just then, the thousand-zhang-tall Wood Demon completely disintegrated. Countless massive tree roots and verdant vines crashed down like a torrential rain, CRASHING and THUDDING as they kicked up vast clouds of dust.

After it completely fell apart, the Wood Demon’s original form was revealed.

An old woman with graying hair.

However, this Wood Demon had no inherent gender, so its specific appearance was meaningless.

"Cough, cough!"

The Elder Wood Demon coughed a few times, blood trickling from the corner of her mouth. Her entire body was so broken she couldn’t even move.

Wood Demons subsist on Wood Spirit Qi. At this moment, the Wood Spirit Qi in the mountains had dissipated, almost entirely gone.

That she had managed to survive the pressure from that Buddha-faced visage was already a stroke of luck.

"Granny Mu!"

The Fox Daoist rushed over and supported the Elder Wood Demon, sighing internally.

This Elder Wood Demon had fought to her last breath. Her years of cultivation had completely crumbled. Even if no one came to take her life, she probably wouldn’t live much longer.

"Help me... Help me see that senior..."

Granny Mu forced herself to speak in a low voice, holding on by a thread.

The Fox Daoist’s expression was complicated, but he could only nod. He supported the trembling Elder Wood Demon and walked toward the nearby mountain peak.

The Wood Demon was gravely injured and on the verge of death, but the Fox Daoist’s injuries were light. It wasn’t long before they reached the summit.

When he saw the young man in white robes standing silently on the peak, his face still indistinct even at this distance...

The Fox Daoist’s Heart Spirit trembled inexplicably.

"Thank you for saving me, Senior..."

Granny Mu’s expression was complicated as she knelt down, trembling.

"Don’t thank me. Your sins are heavy; you deserve to die. I saved you this time only so I could kill you myself."

Su Bai glanced at her and stated bluntly.

This Elder Wood Demon’s Sin Value, just like Elder Hui De whom he had just killed, was Seven-Star.

Over the years, quite a few ordinary people and Martial Arts Strongmen had died at her hands.

"There’s no need for you to act, Senior. I’m not going to live anyway."

Granny Mu coughed repeatedly, unsurprised by her fate.

The Fox Daoist at her side, fighting his fear, spoke with a tremor in his voice:

"Senior, even if Granny Mu doesn’t die this time, she’ll be crippled. She no longer has the power to do evil. Please, I beg you to spare her..."

"You came from the Netherworld. What exactly is your purpose?"

Su Bai ignored the Fox Daoist and looked at the white-haired old woman before him.

"The Divine Technique you used tonight was of a high Level. It’s not something you could have comprehended on your own. I imagine you learned it from the Netherworld?"

This Wood Demon could roam the mountains and rivers, controlling thousands of trees, but gathering all the essence of the surrounding grass and wood was beyond her capabilities.

"Your Dharma Eye is like a torch, Senior. This Divine Technique does indeed come from the Netherworld. However, while this Little Demon is from the Netherworld, I became a demon in this very forest..."

Granny Mu swayed and managed to speak:

"As for the lord behind me, and that lord’s objective... please forgive this Little Demon, but I cannot speak of it..."

There was a world of difference between "won’t say" and "cannot say."

The former was likely a matter of loyalty. The latter, however, suggested a profound fear. To be too scared to speak even with an entire realm separating them showed the extent of the Wood Demon’s terror of the person behind her.

"Senior! This Little Demon seems to have remembered some urgent business, so I will take my leave now..."

Hearing this, the Fox Daoist’s heart pounded. He quickly cupped his hands and made his excuses to leave.

’How have I survived for so long?’

’By cherishing my life and being cautious.’

This time, he had nearly thrown his life away for this Wood Demon. How could he dare to stay any longer?

’Some things are not for me to hear.’

’If I keep listening, it’ll cost me my life.’

Sure enough, the moment after the Fox Daoist left...

Su Bai frowned slightly. A white light flashed in his eyes, and Granny Mu’s mind went into a trance. She began to speak involuntarily:

"That lord... wanted me to come to Desolate Province... and wait for someone..."

’Wait for someone?’

Su Bai’s heart stirred.

Granny Mu continued to mutter, "It’s been over a thousand years. When... when will I finally meet the person I’m waiting for?"

"This Little Demon’s time is up... I can no longer fulfill your request..."

Guided by a mysterious aura, past events began to surface one by one in Granny Mu’s mind.

Fierce battles in the mountains... snatching souls to extend her life... slaughtering Martial Arts Strongmen...

The memories of a lifetime flowed through her mind, reaching back to many, many years ago...

「Many years ago」 She had been nothing but a common weed growing in the Netherworld, her consciousness hazy and chaotic.

One day, a figure like an Immortal God descended from the sky. The resulting shockwave flattened a large patch of Netherworld weeds.

The Divine Being’s form was blurry and flickered in and out of existence. His body pulsed with a terrifying, surging aura, as if he had just been through a great battle.

After landing, he bent down, picked up the scattered weeds, and stroked them gently.

"It has always been difficult for Grass and Wood Spirits to gain sentience. This time, the fault is mine."

"No matter. Our meeting must be fate. The Netherworld is about to fall into great chaos. I will send you to the mortal realm to wait for someone for me. If you succeed, I promise you a Yin Department Divine Position."

"If you do not succeed..."

After a long silence, the person sighed slowly.

"If you do not succeed, this decaying world will likely face a calamity the likes of which it has never seen."

As he spoke, his gaze darkened.

At this point, the memory came to an abrupt halt.

"Hm?"

Su Bai was slightly surprised. He hadn’t been the one to cut off the vision; he had felt intense resistance.

The Wood Demon’s spiritual fluctuations instantly surged to their limit. As her body shook violently, she seemed to have activated some kind of technique, managing to forcefully break free from the influence of Su Bai’s Divine Thoughts and snap back to awareness.

"You! You..."

Granny Mu’s body trembled, her eyes bloodshot, and her face instantly became ferocious.

But just as quickly, she calmed down again, her expression turning dim and lost.

Her body continued to sway as an imperceptible trace of Spiritual Mechanism seeped out. The gloom in her eyes grew heavier, and her body became more and more aged.

She was like a dilapidated house, long in disrepair, exuding the scent of decay.

The violent turmoil of her emotions caused the aura around her to dissipate even faster.

But Su Bai had already captured the many images from her mind, and understanding dawned on him.

"Was that Bai You from the Netherworld?"

Granny Mu had kept her mouth shut, but upon hearing that name, her body trembled violently, and she couldn’t help but correct him, "It is Venerable Bai You..."

"Lord Venerable Bai You..."

Su Bai glanced at the Wood Demon, ripples appearing in his eyes. He spoke softly, "A pity. You’re about to die."

The Wood Demon’s reverence for this Venerable Bai You was beyond description, almost like a zealot’s faith in an Immortal God.

For over a thousand years, she had grown from a common weed into a Void Realm Great Demon, staying on Celestial Origin Mountain the entire time, never once leaving.

In fact, for most of that time, she had taken the form of an ordinary plant, hidden away in the forest.

Her reason for plundering the lives of other beings was, naturally, to extend her own lifespan so she could remain on Celestial Origin Mountain and fulfill Venerable Bai You’s request.

As for the Black Stone Demon, it was a scout she had released to gather blood-food for her and scout for information.

"Yes... I’m about to die..."

A trace of sorrow appeared on Granny Mu’s wrinkled, bark-like face. She couldn’t help but fall to her knees, slamming her head heavily against the ground as tears streamed down.

"Venerable Lord, this Little Demon is about to die."

"But I failed to wait for the person you asked this Little Demon to wait for. I cannot die in peace! I cannot die in peace..."

The memories that had surfaced agitated her Heart Spirit, making it difficult for her to find peace before death.

In this moment, she had forgotten everything around her.

The aura emanating from her body grew more and more decayed, her life force draining away faster and faster.

By the time she had kowtowed nine times, her entire body had decayed beyond human recognition.

Wherever her tears fell, lush green grass sprouted, spreading rapidly in all directions and draping the dark mountaintop in a layer of emerald.

Spirit monsters are born from heaven and earth; after death, they must naturally return to them.

At this point, her demon spirit had shattered, and her time was up.

There was no turning back.

Specks of crystalline green light drifted into the sky, then fell with the wind, showering the surrounding mountains like rain.

Wherever they landed, trees grew and greenery flourished in waves.

After a fierce battle, a dense Vitality had returned once more.

But to restore the mountain to its former state of shady trees and lush vegetation would likely take several decades.

CRACK!

After the nine kowtows were complete, the Elder Wood Demon’s body gradually began to turn transparent. Fine cracks spread across her withered, wood-like frame.

Her unrecognizable, aged face had lost its luster, turning gray, dark, and dim.

She stretched out her arm, which had already turned to dead wood, and plunged it into the earth. In her final moments, she only wanted to return to the past, to those carefree days of slowly growing in the Netherworld.

’If only I could see Lord Bai You one more time... that would be wonderful...’

But in the end, she had still failed to fulfill Lord Bai You’s request.

At this thought, her Divine Spirit also began to disintegrate.

On the verge of death, she saw a luminous white hand brush away her shattered Divine Spirit.

A sigh from the white-robed young man reached her ears:

"Actually, you did meet him."

’I did?’

’Could it be... him?’

The instant the Wood Demon trembled, her last shred of Vitality, along with a single murky teardrop, completely dissipated.

WHOOSH!

A light breeze swept past, lifting Su Bai’s robes and scattering the Elder Wood Demon’s body.

Beneath the specks of shattered light, a single, resilient green blade of grass could be seen breaking through the soil.

It swayed in the wind.

Su Bai looked down at the mountain forest, where green light now flickered under the night sky, and murmured to himself:

"Venerable Bai You... how interesting..."

The person this Venerable Bai You—whom he had heard of many times but never met—was waiting for... it had to be him.

There was no reason for this feeling, yet an understanding bloomed in Su Bai’s heart.

With the power of his Divine Thoughts, he could faintly perceive hidden truths from the good and evil intentions of others, from karmic cycles, from fortune, and from auras.

Su Bai slowly closed his eyes, and the sigh from a thousand years ago seemed to echo for real in his ears:

"If you do not succeed, this decaying world will likely face a calamity the likes of which it has never seen."

’What could this person want from me?’

’And what is this unprecedented calamity he spoke of?’

’The Demon Venerable’s rebirth? Or something else?’

Countless thoughts surged through his mind, only to be instantly cut down.

Su Bai gazed into the distance, then started down the barren mountain, the panting Silver-White Dog Demon now at his side.

Humans have a myriad of emotions, and curiosity is a part of human nature.

But even the greatest of distracting thoughts could not affect him in the slightest.

Whether it was Venerable Bai You, the Netherworld Venerable Master, or that mysterious Demon Venerable...

Or even the Dayu Immortal Dynasty itself, he held a great interest in them all.

However, he also understood.

Only by becoming strong will the mysteries be solved.