Chapter 412: Decayed Shell

After watching for a while as Gou Meng was bullied by the penguin flock, seeing her flustered and wanting to hit those shameless penguins, but worried she couldn’t afford to pay if she hurt or killed one, feeling both aggrieved and embarrassed, and looking a bit clumsy and adorable, Lu Yibei finally couldn’t help but get up, ready to step forward and help.

“Let’s go. According to the plan, after we finish touring the aquarium, we still want to visit a few other places.” Lu Yibei said calmly.

Watching her back, Mao Sanyou hesitated several times. After Lu Yibei had walked a few steps, he finally called out softly, “Wait a minute!”

“What is it?” Lu Yibei turned her head, casting a questioning look at Mao Sanyou.

“I mean, since she doesn’t have much time left, you’d better not leave her with too many beautiful memories. When the time comes, if she doesn’t want to die but has to, it’ll only be more painful.” Mao Sanyou said, “Uh, just a personal opinion, for your reference.”

“…” Lu Yibei was silent for a few seconds, rolled her eyes, “Sorry, that’s not very helpful!”

With that, she picked up the wooden bucket of small fish at her feet and continued walking forward.

If she just left her alone like this, letting her leave with regrets, that would be truly cruel. Lu Yibei thought.

“Hey, wait up!”

Lu Yibei had just walked a few steps when Mao Sanyou seemed to remember something and called out again.

She frowned slightly, looked back again, and said impatiently, “What else is it?”

Mao Sanyou looked at Lu Yibei, then at the wooden bucket in her hand, his face flushing red, “Can I have two small fish?”

So he still wants to feed the little penguins!

“……”

Lu Yibei held her forehead, rubbed her brow, reached in and grabbed a handful of small fish, scattering them toward the penguin flock besieging Gou Meng. The silvery fish fell like rain, and the penguins scattered, scrambling everywhere. Amid their squawking, she set the bucket on the ground and gently pushed it toward Mao Sanyou.

“Here, the rest are all yours.”

As she spoke, she took advantage of the penguins fighting over the fish, strode forward in a few steps, scooped up Gou Meng, and set her on her shoulder.

“Huff-huff-!” Gou Meng lay on Lu Yibei’s shoulder, panting heavily, tugged at Lu Yibei’s cheek, and said angrily, “You slowpoke! You came to my rescue too late-what punishment do you deserve!”

“Your servant knows her guilt and awaits your punishment, my lady!” Lu Yibei played along with Gou Meng’s act.

“Hmph! At least you know your place. Your punishment is…” Gou Meng tilted her head, thinking, “Your punishment is to take me to the theme park next door and play with me until dark!”

“As you command!”

Watching Lu Yibei carry Gou Meng out of Penguin Park, Mao Sanyou withdrew his gaze, rubbed his hands together, and eagerly pulled the wooden bucket in front of him, ready to enjoy the fun of feeding the little penguins during this short break.

Then…

Looking at the two small fish left in the bucket, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly, “She said two, and she really only gave two? So stingy…”

Just as Mao Sanyou was muttering to himself, a relatively strong penguin rushed over, knocked over the bucket in front of Mao Sanyou with its round body, then, as quick as lightning, grabbed the only two small fish left in the bucket and ran off.

Mao Sanyou stared wide-eyed as the penguin ran away, clearly seeing a trace of shameless contempt and mockery in the penguin’s eyes.

Did I just get looked down on by a penguin?

Mao Sanyou thought, silently adding a third species-penguins-to his “annoying birds” list, after magpies and crows.

As he pondered, several strange psychic energy fluctuations suddenly entered the range of his psychic sense, weaving a net as if to surround and chase after Lu Yibei and Gou Meng, who had just left.

Have those clueless guys shown up again?

Mao Sanyou thought to himself, a flash of golden lightning in his eyes, as if venting his anger at the penguins onto those psychics and hauntings, silently clenching his fists and muttering coldly.

“Sons of bitches, always ruining other people’s good mood! Grandpa here is a man of his word-you’re dead today!”

–

Deep in Taoyuan, inside the cave where the Fusang divine tree stood.

Wrapped in alien, chamber-like vines, Grandpa Turtle silently spread out his psychic energy, condensing it into semi-illusory blue hands that quickly brushed over the incantations carved around the Fusang divine tree, carefully altering the incantations left by Crow Slave.

In a way, spell formations are like equations, and the psychic energy and incantations that make up a spell formation are like the numbers and symbols in an equation.

For large solidified spell formations needed to awaken Fuyang’s power, the number of incantations involved is terrifyingly high, requiring precision at every step. If even a few incantations are changed, the result could be drastically different.

Although Grandpa Turtle couldn’t modify such a massive spell formation, with his familiarity with various spell formations, he could barely manage to alter a few key incantations to change the outcome of the ritual.

Under the tug of those little hands, the incantations shining with sunlight began to crack inch by inch inside the already solidified incantations.

As one spell formation changed, a chain reaction was instantly triggered, like a runaway train, racing and transforming toward an unknown destination.

“Buzz-buzz-!”

Under the intense disturbance of psychic energy, the air erupted with a resonant hum. Azure electric light flickered in the murky air around the Fusang divine tree, on the verge of exploding, ready to unleash a brutal storm that would engulf everything!

At that moment, a deep, resonant whisper sounded, “The giant turtle spirit, bearing Penglai, knows well its weight…”

As Grandpa Turtle softly chanted the description of his own power, a massive surge of psychic energy fluctuations suddenly poured into the nearly-collapsing solidified spell formation, forcibly reversing its impending destruction. Without altering its external form, he completed a restructuring of the internal psychic energy structure.

After a long while, the humming gradually faded. Grandpa Turtle slowly exhaled a turbid breath, his face seeming to have aged several times over in just a few minutes.

Although he had already completed the initial tampering of the incantation on the very day he was imprisoned, to reverse such a massive solidified spell formation without being detected by the Crow Slave was no easy feat-it was a painstaking process.

He had spent several days, seizing every opportunity to work day and night on the modifications, only finally succeeding today.

“Caw, caw-caw, caw-!”

A burst of raucous cawing suddenly echoed within the cave. Grandpa Turtle glanced in the direction of the sound, a flash of contempt and annoyance passing through his clouded eyes.

The Crow Slave had come again, bringing with him the more than twelve hundred Fire Crows transformed from Fuyang’s familiars.

Praying, sacrificing, pouring out wishes to that deity who no longer existed… This was what the Crow Slave and those twelve hundred Fire Crows did every day, three times a day-at sunrise, noon, and sunset-seemingly tireless.

“Hmph, spouting a bunch of nonsense at an empty shell-if they could actually awaken it, that would be a miracle!”

As Grandpa Turtle spoke, a wave of heat suddenly swept over from ahead. He hurriedly composed himself, relying on the innate skill carried by his own power-Turtle Breath-to fall into a deep sleep where both his vital signs and psychic energy fluctuations dropped to freezing point.

In fact, aside from his mastery of the “Turtle Shell Book,” it was precisely because of this ability, which allowed him to gain the Crow Slave’s trust, that he had taken on the task of altering the solidified spell formation in this grand scheme of swapping heaven and earth.

Soon, amid the cacophony of cawing, the figure of the Crow Slave, draped in a pitch-black feathered robe, descended before the Fusang divine tree. He knelt on one knee and, with his strange voice, began to chant an obscure ballad.

As the eerie song continued, one Fire Crow after another flapped their wings, circling the Fusang divine tree in twisted postures, performing a sacrificial dance, screeching at the top of their lungs. They dipped their wings in sacrificial blood and flung it forcefully.

The mingled blood and fire splattered onto the ground, drawing out twisted, bizarre patterns that quickly set under the scorching heat, merging into the soil.

As time passed, the cries of the Fire Crows grew ever more frenzied. The faint light cast by the Fusang divine tree shone upon several of the most crazed crows, and in their glowing eyes, a bloodthirsty madness appeared.

This prayer ritual, reminiscent of a heretical cult’s ceremony, lasted for about an hour.

When the ritual ended, the Crow Slave solemnly bowed deeply to the Fusang divine tree, then quietly turned and left.

Long after the Crow Slave had departed, Grandpa Turtle slowly emerged from his Turtle Breath state. With a posture impossible for any human, he stretched out his neck, gazing in the direction the Crow Slave had gone.

“Hmph, fools, wasting their energy on pointless things all day long.”

He cursed coldly. Just then, a faint whisper drifted past his ear.

“Above Tang Valley stands Fusang, a tree ten thousand zhang tall(approximately 33,300 meters). The sun arrives in a day, departs in a day…”

Hearing that voice, as if it were an illusion, Grandpa Turtle froze for a moment. He lifted his head, staring for a long time at the withered, decaying branches of the giant tree overhead, his gaze sweeping back and forth, deep in thought.

But…

The giant tree seemed dead, just as it had for hundreds of years, without the slightest change.

“Maybe I’m overthinking it? These brats come here every day, squawking nonstop-I must be hearing things…” Grandpa Turtle muttered to himself.

He knew well that the Crow Slave’s wish to revive Fuyang was absolutely impossible. Fuyang’s power had long been suppressed by Gou Meng’s Ley Line Energy, leaving behind only a decayed shell filled with immense psychic energy.

As for Fuyang’s consciousness, whether it had perished or abandoned its power and left its entity, it had long since ceased to exist.

If praying to an empty shell like the Crow Slave did any good, I’d have gone to the village entrance and shouted “wife” at that bronze turtle statue every day by now!

Thinking this, Grandpa Turtle composed himself, shrinking his body back into the bizarre cavity woven from vines, once again using his Turtle Breath ability to fall into slumber.

The vast cave returned to silence. A faint breeze, carrying a murky scent, flowed quietly. On the towering giant tree, among the crisscrossing branches, a single leaf at the tip swayed gently in the wind.

It was a pitch-black leaf, very small, its texture like flesh, covered in pale golden, feather-like patterns. It looked as if it had already decayed, yet also like a newly sprouted bud…