Plunder
“Ah, man, really? A tree is going to eat me? Talk about ironic,” Mu Yu mumbled as he shut his eyes. He started crooning, “The cold winds by Yi River send off the hero who is never to return. Everyone eventually returns to the Earth. Either you die or I die, but I prefer it if you die…”
Mu Yu felt a scorching sensation from his rear end, and then the pain stopped. “The hell? Did they start fighting each other for me?”
Mu Yu opened his eyes to see the fruits froze in mid-air along with the branches. Once he ensured they weren’t going to move, he tried futilely to pull his arm out. He discovered he was in control of the tree by some magic.
“Is my peach too supple for them?” Mu Yu touched his peach, then checked his hand to see it stained with blood. “Great, now I need to eat a tonne of red dates to replenish my blood.”
As Mu Yu kicked the branch, he wondered, Wait, did my blood allow me to take control of it? Didn’t this also happen when I encountered the wood demon at Mist City? When the leaves caught me, I took over, as well. Is my blood the key to controlling plants? Whatever, I need to get inside and find Xiaoshuai.
“You bloody glutton,” Mu Yu chided with a chortle upon seeing Xiaoshuai trying to bite his way out.
Xiaoshuai spat out what he had in his mouth and complained, “This tastes horrible.”
“The tree let me know the fruits are only defence weapons; they aren’t authentic celestial fiend fruits,” relayed Mu Yu.
“Where are the real ones, then?” Xiaoshuai whinged. “I figured fruit couldn’t be this horrendous.”
“Come with me.”
Xiaoshuai leapt onto Mu Yu’s shoulder, and into the tree they went according to the tree’s guidelines. The scenery on the other side consisted of a floor of leaves and two golden fruits growing on the branches. The guardian tree told him the leaves they were looking at moved according to the sun’s direction to allow sunlight to reach the fruits for growth. Only two celestial fiend fruits would ripen a year, and only one grew a year. As for the fruits’ usages, the tree wasn’t a consumer to tell.
“Hmm, now that smells refreshing. Will it bite me if I eat those ones?”
“Hehe, ever heard of poison?” Mu Yu responded.
“Let’s have one each. I want this one. Actually, no. I’ll take the bigger one,” effused Xiaoshuai, cheerfully racing over to the big celestial fiend fruit and digging in before taking it down. He shut his eyes as he relished the taste.
Mu Yu plucked a celestial fiend fruit. He didn’t know where to start with something so big. He had the fruit fetch his flying sword so that he could slice the fruit. The duo enjoyed their first meal in days and replenished some of their original qi, alleviating their clunky flow of spiritual qi and healing wounds almost instantaneously. The refreshing feeling also felt empowering.
“Luckily, we didn’t come here for nothing,” cheered Xiaobai, wiping his mouth.
“What happened to Ageless Ku Mu? I thought we satisfied his request when we plucked the fruits,” said Mu Yu, burping first.
“Who gives a toss? Shouldn’t we be thinking about how to escape now that we’re done eating?” disputed Xiaoshuai, returning to Mu Yu’s shoulder and rubbing his still-flat belly.
“Calm your horses. There’s one place we still haven’t visited,” replied Mu Yu, smirking. “Shouldn’t we return the favour?”
“Are you serious?!” exclaimed Xiaoshuai, burping after.
Mu Yu dove into the celestial fiend tree together with Xiaoshuai. As predicted, it was hollow; or rather, it was a room – the enigmatic Ageless Ku Mu’s room. A neatly folded blanket was set on the unadorned bed. A chair and desk accompanied the bed as its neighbour. Living necessities, even pots and pans were available. The ceiling was decorated to mimic a starry sky.
Xiaoshuai picked up a vial among the colourful set on the desk and opened one without a care in the world. The purple mist that whisked out induced a drowsy sensation. “What are all these for?”
“For a start, that’s a poison,” answered Mu Yu, plugging the lid back on hastily. “Ageless Ku Mu’s poisons have troubled us enough times that it should be common knowledge.”
Mu Yu found formation grains used in formation casting as a substitute for spiritual energy on the cupboard next to the bed. Rows of colourful books packed the entire bookshelf in the room. The book “Poison Scripture” caught Mu Yu’s attention. Interestingly, “Profound Formations” was one of the books Ageless Ku Mu authored himself. Ageless Ku Mu explored formations in depth, so Mu Yu didn’t hesitate to take it for himself. He, in fact, migrated the entire collection of books to his Cosmic Sleeve.
The tags on the vials read something about fifteen minutes dissolve, two hours breaking down, seven days dispersion, end in twenty-four seconds… The names didn’t explicate anything, but putting Ageless Ku Mu’s character and their names together suggested they weren’t healing concoctions…
Mu Yu, deciding to try his luck, flipped open “Poison Scripture” and found the functions of the aforementioned vials. “’Instansolve’ is concocted using the venom extracted from pythons’ fangs. If the venom makes contact with one’s finger, expect only the bone to remain within a second. Once infected with seven days dispersion will feel exhausted upon churning spiritual energy. Their spiritual energy will be completely depleted within seven days. Should they not take the antidote, they may never be able to utilise spiritual energy again. Now this is what I call quality. Finders keepers.”
Mu Yu then turned his attention to the rest of the room. “I’ll be helping myself to these formation grains, pots and pans. These pots and pans with inlaid gold could probably fetch a hefty sum. I’ll take it as interest for trapping me for the last few days.”
Mu Yu scanned the rest of the almost-empty room. “Hmm, I have to sleep in the cold, so I guess the blanket will be handy. Mine now, too. Actually, I’ll take this luminous pearl, too.”
The duo climbed to the top of the tree and found it connected to the two neighbouring mountains of the valley. There were barriers prohibiting entry form the two mountains, but it was fine to exit via the two mountains since Ageless Ku Mu already installed an anti-flight rule in his formation. Furthermore, only Mu Yu could enter the tree.
“We’re finally out!” effused Mu Yu, flying off on his sword.
Two days later, an elder sporting a green beard descended into the valley. Ageless Ku Mu checked on the celestial fiend tree with a frown. He would never allow there to be red leaves on his precious tree. When he saw the red streaks on the leaves were red, he flew up. Eyes wide, he exclaimed, “Who took the two celestial fiend fruits, the brat who tried to flee before finishing the task? Wait, where is he now?”
Ageless Ku Mu was dismayed to find his room in pitch black. He summoned his flying sword to illuminate his room in a green light. Books, scriptures, poisons… everything was gone. Seething blood engorged his forehead veins. His overconfidence was his own undoing. He sped off to the cliff.
Ageless Ku Mu retrieved his fiend spirit beast reflector, an item that recorded anything and everything that took place within the fiend spirit’s surroundings. He watched the replay of Mu Yu tricking the tree’s defence system and witnessed ability to enter the tree. The corners of Ageless Ku Mu’s lips curled up into a disturbing smile.
Glossary
The cold winds by Yi River sends off the hero who is never to return,” comes from the poem Yi River Poem composed by Jing Wei before Qin Shihuang (First Emperor of Qin) burnt the books. The rest of it is something Mu Yu made up.
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