Elemental Demons’ Form
The tall tree that Mu Yu leaned on pleased him with its rich vitality, but the tree up ahead was void of life, covered in moss and top half nowhere in sight, mushrooms nearby lifelessly hanging their heads. As the ground was moist, the footprints half a metre long popped out to the eye. The fiend beast that trudged through the area strode disorderly, stopped, did circles and then continued on. That only made the inexplicable silence extra bizarre.
“Hang on… Aren’t we at Crouching Dragon Mountain?”
Mu Yu soared up and confirmed his speculation.
“Why are we back here?” Xiaoshuai questioned.
“I don’t know… It should’ve taken me at least two days to get here with my cultivation. It’s only been four hours…” Mu Yu parked on a tree branch to contemplate from somewhere comfortable and voiced, “I wonder if the jolt I felt was us diving into a teleportation formation.”
The dragon vine questioned, “How do you not notice when you’re Formation and Talisman Sect’s patriarch?”
“I didn’t pick up any traces of form-, the elemental demons’ Five Elements Formation! I wouldn’t have noticed if it’s their formation since human formations are different. That begs the question, was it an elemental demon that saved me back there?”
“Why don’t we just go check out the formation?” Xiaoshuai suggested.
“I was the one who teleported you.”
Mu Yu reacted as if he was electrocuted. “I know this voice… Tree Elder?”
Mu Yu couldn’t find anything with his naked eyes. Hence, he borrowed a tree to expand his search radius.
“I’m right here.”
Mu Yu looked below to see an elder standing on the tree branch beneath him. “You’re not Tree Elder. Who are you?”
Besides his clothing resembling Bodhi leaves’ colour, the wrinkles, white brows, beard and everything else about him was human.
“I am Tree Elder,” answered the elder, showing delight.
“You’re not fooling anybody. I’ve already met Tree Elder. I know what elemental demons look like, you know? Which sect are you from?”
“It appears that you cultivators have forgotten our true appearance after our prolonged period of hibernation.” The elder changed his appearance to the appearance Mu Yu was familiar with and queried, “Believe me now?”
“Now that’s what I’m t-, say what? You learnt how to disguise your appearance?” Mu Yu asked, eyes searching for other enemies lying in ambush.
“Disguise? This is our original appearance to begin with,” replied Tree Elder, edging closer.
“Aren’t you supposed to be some odd-shaped fire, rock, tree or water humanoid?”
“Our appearance has always resembled humans exactly. The only difference is our modus operandi. We only resemble trees when controlling trees. Otherwise, this is our natural appearance.”
“You were all trees the last time I met you, though.”
“That was due to Celestial Prison’s restrictions on our spiritual qi, making it impossible for us to revert back to our true forms. When you met us elsewhere, we were still recovering from the extended period of spiritual qi deprivation. This is our true and natural appearance.”
“You swear? Wait, why are you telling me this?”
“For the record, all elemental demons have two forms. We only use our tree form when combating cultivators. I would surmise every other cultivator makes the same presumption you did. You don’t know this other side of us as we fight every time we encounter each other.”
Mu Yu accepted the explanation for the meantime since he was positive he didn’t mistake Tree Elder’s aura and, in a sincere tone, expressed, “Thank you for rescuing me back there.”
“You sure are the odd one out. Cultivators never thank us.”
Long ago, Mu Yu would’ve thanked them and then likely attacked. After learning more about elemental demons, nevertheless, he no longer adopted an extreme stance. He brushed it off with a smile and then moved on, inquiring, “Why did you rescue me? Did you not leave Moyun Mountains long ago?”
“I came for you.”
“You’re not here to offer amnesty again, are you?”
“No. I followed Wood Spirit’s aura to locate you. Care to explain why it reeks of death now?”
“It was an accident. I swear it.”
Tree Elder relaxed his smiles and affably stated, “I’m not lecturing you as I was the one who gave it to you of his own volition. It’s changed, but it still does its job. I came to inform of you the situation at Third Continent this past year that you’ve lived in seclusion here.”
“Somehow, I feel as though I don’t like what you’re about to tell me.”
Previous Chapter l Next Chapter
