Chapter 9 : Emptiness
Chapter 9: Emptiness
At this very moment.
Beneath Tao Shu’s enormous head dangled only a palm-sized body, half a youth and half resembling an embryo, a sight that made one’s heart shudder.
No matter who saw it, they would no longer consider him human. Yet in some sense, he still retained a fragment of humanity—at least he had not, like the Wood Guests, completely lost everything that defined a person and become a puppet of this place.
Li Jun gazed at the face on the Divine Tree, while that face on the Divine Tree gazed at Tao Shu.
“Good grandson!”
“My good grandson!”
“Don’t be afraid!”
“Don’t be afraid, Grandpa has come to save you, Grandpa will save you right now.”
Such a mythical being, at this moment, for the sake of such a monster, actually spoke humbly to Li Jun.
“Let him go!”
“He is still just a child!”
From his tone, Li Jun and Lu Gang also realized the man’s identity.
Tao Yougen.
Li Jun asked him: “It was you who sent the Wood Guests to attack me. Why?”
Tao Yougen gave a strange answer, his voice calm yet full of age.
“You know why, because you are very special.”
“You possess the most powerful strength. Though you have already displayed the abilities of Double Pupils and the Great Shaman, that is far from the true power you possess.”
His words seemed to carry hidden meaning, but Li Jun felt as though he understood something.
Li Jun asked: “How do you know this?”
Tao Yougen: “I saw it.”
Li Jun frowned: “No, you are not Tao Yougen.”
If he were truly Tao Yougen, he could not have known so much—he would not know of matters of the ancient age, nor be able to speak of the Great Shaman and the Double Pupils.
Yet when Li Jun continued questioning, Tao Yougen could not answer any further.
It seemed that Tao Yougen did not know everything, but could only glimpse fragmented scenes, as if in the unseen depths he was being controlled or influenced by some being or existence.
Li Jun looked toward that Divine Wood—perhaps it was the source.
It was the origin of all of this.
And also the monstrous force behind all these abnormalities.
Li Jun: “Why do you want to kill me? How do you know where I am?”
At this moment Tao Yougen’s tone suddenly changed, becoming that of an ordinary old man.
“As long as your Double Pupils are taken, Tao Shu will gain your strength. Tao Shu will definitely have great promise.”
As for the latter question, Tao Yougen avoided it, as though scrupling over something.
Li Jun seemed to sneer: “Does possessing strength make one complete, make one a person of promise?”
This Tao Yougen was truly strange. On one hand he displayed himself like some inhuman ancient existence, and on the other hand, like a truly ordinary old man, Tao Yougen.
When provoked by Li Jun, that latter side of him fully revealed itself.
“If your eyes can be dug out and given to him, they surely will.”
“Our Tao Shu, once he has your eyes, will certainly become truly accomplished.”
“He will become a god, he will become an immortal.”
“He will be all-powerful.”
“Our Tao family will finally produce someone outstanding.”
“My good grandson, my good grandson will accomplish great things, will have great promise.”
At this time Tao Yougen seemed also to have gone mad, laughing wildly, then roaring angrily at Li Jun.
“Release our Tao Shu, release him!”
Li Jun saw he could not extract further answers, and gradually discerned Tao Yougen’s condition. At this point, Tao Shu was no longer of use.
Li Jun, in fact, was obedient. He tossed Tao Shu away.
By now, Tao Shu had lost almost all of his strength, and could no longer suppress the other monstrous beings.
At once, they saw the aberrant humans, once enslaved and controlled by Tao Shu, rushing at him on the street, plundering him clean.
In the end—
Tao Shu also turned into a shadow on the wall, becoming one of this place’s puppets, a “Wood Guest.”
Tao Shu did not die. In the end he merged into this place, becoming one among them, indistinguishable from the rest.
He could no longer escape the control of this eerie land and its hidden source, and could never again be human.
Upon seeing this, Tao Yougen let out a shrill scream.
“No!”
The enormous face upon the Divine Tree cried out in anguish, bellowing at Li Jun with utmost hatred.
“I want you dead!”
Li Jun said: “Isn’t he alive and well, staying here with you?”
Tao Yougen cursed bitterly: “Die, die! My good grandson, he could have achieved greatness! You ruined him, it was you who ruined him.”
“I have nothing left. Our old Tao family has been destroyed by you.”
“You will never escape again.”
Tao Shu did not die, but Tao Shu lost the potential to become another “Li Jun.”
To Tao Yougen, Tao Shu’s very meaning of existence had died. That was no different from true death.
In Tao Yougen’s frenzied state, a force immediately spread outward along the shadow of that Divine Tree at the island’s center.
“Dong, dong, dong, dong, dong…”
Li Jun and Lu Gang both looked down beneath their feet, and saw the road below begin to twist.
The path that had originally stretched forward beneath them suddenly writhed like a serpent.
Countless roads tangled together—the road was beneath their feet, to their left, even above their heads.
The space of the entire Tao Mountain Island shifted.
All the roads wound together, like intertwined roots of a tree, connected at the base of that Divine Tree.
Everyone and every abnormal being was trapped within this labyrinth-like space, with no hope of leaving again.
“Turns out it was the power of space!”
At this moment.
Li Jun also saw through part of its essence—this was the monster’s true power.
This monster had parasitized these people, and little by little released its power through them and the whole Tao Mountain Island.
Now.
With Tao Yougen losing Tao Shu and falling into madness, this power erupted even further.
The outer layer of confusion was only a façade, the distortions and aberrations of people’s bodies in the middle layer were only a beginning, and when an existence like Tao Yougen appeared—
They lost their direction, their bodies and minds warped, even their will completely lost.
Everything abandoned was entrusted into emptiness.
Thus, a twisted space was born.
At another street corner, Lu Gang felt the world spinning.
He hurriedly looked at the streets above his head and to his sides—at this moment, he could not even tell up from down, left from right, spinning about like a headless fly.
Lu Gang could not see as clearly as Li Jun, but looking at the streets twisted like entangled roots of a tree—
He finally understood why earlier they would always return to the same place on the roads, or appear where they should not.
All the crisscrossing roads on Tao Mountain Island were misaligned in space. One never knew where these roads would lead, or what they connected to.
As the true power of the monster unfolded here—
Li Jun lifted his head, gazing at that Divine Tree.
“Chirp!”
The Double Pupils radiated light, the Blue Bird’s divine power was unleashed.
In a trance—
Countless scenes appeared before Li Jun’s eyes, as though many versions of him walked down different paths.
In most of the scenes, he was lost, even dying at the end of the road.
Finally, he looked toward one particular road.
“So that’s how it is!”
At its end, he saw a house, and behind the house grew a peach tree.
It was exactly Tao Yougen and Tao Shu’s home, seen earlier in the records.
Tao Yougen’s true body was merely that peach tree behind his old residence.
Li Jun looked at the Divine Wood that filled heaven and earth, and the face of Tao Yougen attached to it. Tao Yougen was nothing but its vessel, achieving all of this by borrowing its power—or rather, being driven by it.
Yet, its true form had not truly appeared in this world.
Having understood, Li Jun set foot on that road.
He transformed into a Feathered Person.
Hugging the twisted ground, he flew along the road that coiled upward into the heavens.
“Finished, finished.”
“Serves you right for showing off.”
“Now we’re all stuck here. Beat the small one and the elder comes, and the elder is even stronger. There are always people beyond people, skies beyond skies, don’t you know?”
Lu Gang hurriedly hid his belongings inside a building, among them the camera and various instruments he had brought, which recorded crucial information.
He guessed he might not leave here alive, but perhaps these things could remain for those who came later.
Before he could finish, he happened to see Li Jun, transformed into a Feathered Person, flying along the road, toward its end like a heavenly path.
From afar—
Li Jun looked like a moth, crashing toward that towering pillar of heaven.
The sight was both awe-inspiring and pitiful, even laughable, given the enormous difference in scale between the two.
“Is this guy crazy?”
In that instant.
Ants shaking a tree.
A mantis blocking a chariot.
Eggs striking stone.
Moths plunging into flame.
Such idioms arose in Lu Gang’s mind, one after another.
The string of events before had already made the name Li Jun surpass his expectations again and again.
Yet even if his expectations had risen to great heights, Lu Gang did not believe Li Jun could do anything against the Divine Wood that filled heaven and earth.
This was something beyond the limits of human strength.
That was an existence of myth, possessing power beyond imagination.
Even if Li Jun could destroy skyscrapers and slay monsters as terrifying as Tao Shu, what of it? Landing upon the Divine Wood would be no more than a droplet falling into the ocean.
“Sigh!”
Lu Gang could not understand his madness, but respected his courage.
Watching his figure disappear, he removed his glasses, lowered his head.
And began a silent mourning in respect.
No matter what, in Lu Gang’s view, Li Jun was doing this for the sake of others.
Otherwise, with his ability, escaping from here would not have been difficult.
However—
At this time, the enormous face on the Divine Tree panicked, shouting in disbelief.
“How did you know?”
“How did you see through, how did you know here?”
“Impossible.”
“Impossible!”
The face on the Divine Tree tried to salvage the situation, but it was already too late. The other had gone straight for its vital point.
Lu Gang suddenly raised his head, staring at the face on the Divine Tree, seemingly broken in defense, yet he had not even had time to react—
At that moment, he suddenly felt a massive shadow rising behind him.
Lu Gang tilted his head upward, the angle higher and higher, nearly falling backward.
At last, he saw clearly the colossal shadow behind him.
Through layers of mist, a figure towering thousands of zhang strode forth, heading for the Divine Tree.
Looking at the face—it was Li Jun.
“?”
At this very moment, Li Jun transformed into a colossal figure thousands of zhang tall.
He raised his hand, layers of green feathers extending and transforming into a blade.
Like Wu Gang of myth, he severed that towering Divine Tree.
“Boom!”
Lu Gang stared wide-eyed as the Divine Wood that filled heaven and earth, sprawled across the entire Tao Mountain Island, collapsed with a thunderous crash, dissipating slowly amid mist and light.
Lu Gang could no longer hold back, shouting aloud.
“Damn!”
“He even knows Manifesting Heaven and Earth?”
Lu Gang had already lost count—
Of how many times he had cursed in shock at Li Jun’s outrageous displays.
From the outside, it seemed Li Jun had used a technique like Manifesting Heaven and Earth to sever the Divine Wood.
But in truth—
Li Jun had simply followed the correct road to its end, reaching the back of Tao Yougen’s old residence, and chopped down a peach tree just over ten meters tall.
Though the peach tree was large, compared to the shadow of the Divine Wood condensed within the mists above Tao Mountain Island, it was worlds apart.
The scene outside was only the projection here, a vast illusion.
But that did not mean the Divine Wood was fake.
Li Jun looked at Tao Yougen.
Tao Yougen had long since lost the shape of a human. He had lost everything, leaving only a face attached to that peach tree, being gradually devoured by it.
And at this very moment, as the peach tree fell, he also bit by bit sank into extinction.
But Tao Yougen no longer struggled, as though when Tao Shu lost the potential to become another “Li Jun,” his heart had already turned to ash, sinking into boundless emptiness.
In truth.
When Li Jun saw the peach tree Tao Yougen possessed, he felt a sense of familiarity.
“That tree!”
In Li Jun’s mind appeared once more the image of towering mountains, and beneath the sea of clouds, a primitive man stretching his hand toward him, before finally turning into a tree.
And as Tao Yougen neared the end, when this monster devoured him completely—
He seemed to recall something.
Or rather, more ancient scenes stored deep within the monster’s memory surged into his mind.
The old man’s face upon the tree no longer looked like dead ash. His eyeballs slowly moved, bit by bit turning toward Li Jun.
Then, his gaze seemed to burst forth with light.
“I saw it.”
“I know, I know who you are!”
“I remember now.”
The words of the old man began to change.
From modern Chinese, they turned into the language of the Ximu Clan of the primordial wilderness.
And coincidentally, Li Jun understood this language.
Using that ancient tone, the old man’s voice trembled with excitement, his eyes fixed upon Li Jun.
“I saw you.”
“On the peak of Kunlun.”
“At the dawn of myth, the Queen Mother of the West knelt at your feet.”
“Above the firmament, the myriad gods and immortals prostrated before you.”
Tao Yougen’s voice gradually changed, as though becoming someone else.
As though in that infinite emptiness, he had found something new to cling to.
Li Jun asked him: “Who are you?”
That aged face upon the trunk smiled: “You know who I am.”
“You know!”
“You know, I know you know everything.”
Tao Yougen shouted madly, roaring in an ancient tongue no one in this age could understand.
“Though I do not remember who I am, I know you know who I am, don’t you?”
The old man stared at Li Jun’s face, as though he had seen the answer upon it.
“Look, you recognize me.”
And Li Jun, staring at the old man’s face, saw that ancient visage gradually overlap with another face.
Ten thousand years ago.
That day.
Li Jun, within the Divine Stone, looked down from on high at him, as he reached his hand toward the falling star from beyond the heavens.
For an instant, even Li Jun’s eyes grew dazed.
At that moment, the old man spoke another name of Li Jun.
“Emperor!”
At this title, Li Jun came back to himself. He did not deny it, but only asked another question.
At this moment, Li Jun took from his backpack the head of the Wood Guest he had previously captured, tossing it beside the fallen tree.
He asked: “How did you know where I would appear?”
The other answered: “Someone told me.”
Li Jun asked: “Who?”
Tao Yougen: “I do not remember her name, but you know her.”
Li Jun: “What did she look like?”
Tao Yougen: “I cannot say, but… when she smiled, she was like a fox!”
As soon as the words fell, the face upon the peach tree stiffened little by little, until it completely ceased to move.
Yet, the aberration of the entire Tao Mountain Island did not end because of this.
The monstrous power bound to the peach tree continued spreading like a law, further twisting the island’s space.
Li Jun looked toward the center of Tao Mountain Island.
There, peach trees grew in profusion. In the deepest part of the Peach Grove shone a mass of light, within which seemed to be another space.
At this moment.
That mass of light began distorting everything around it, devouring the entire Tao Mountain Island.