Immortal Druid

[POV: Xing Ning]

Xing Ning quietly watched over the recovery efforts.

Cultivators moved throughout the devastated landscape while transporting bodies, stabilizing ruined terrain, and salvaging what little remained intact. The atmosphere remained grim, yet everyone continued working steadily without complaint.

At the center of it all stood Wo Li.

Senior Wo Li bore the heaviest burden personally.

Massive roots and vines emerged from the earth under his command, carefully shifting debris without damaging any corpses buried beneath. At times, Wo Li transformed into smaller animals capable of slipping through narrow crevices or diving deep into the lake below in search of missing bodies.

Xing Ning saw him become fish, birds, insects, and beasts repeatedly throughout the day. No one complained. No one questioned it.

Because everyone understood what he was trying to do.

He wanted to bring them home.

At the same time, Xing Ning occasionally kept an eye on Guo Yimu from afar. Baldy never left him with a particularly good impression before all this happened. The man had always been loud, shameless, and irritatingly carefree.

Now that same man looked hollow.

Xing Ning found himself wondering something uncomfortable.

If his own sect suffered such a fate someday… would he become like Guo Yimu?

Would he even remain sane?

Back when Senior Kang Wen betrayed him, Xing Ning already felt like his entire world had collapsed. That betrayal alone nearly shattered him completely.

So what about this?

What about witnessing one’s sect annihilated entirely?

Xing Ning unconsciously touched the dark sword resting at his waist. The weapon had saved his life once. It had also changed him thoroughly. To the point that he no longer truly qualified as human anymore. His fingers tightened slightly around the hilt.

Suddenly, cries of shock erupted nearby.

Xing Ning immediately looked up.

“What—?”

“He’s doing it!”

“The Sage is resurrecting someone!”

The gathered cultivators stared with disbelief toward the center of the ruined grounds. The earth itself began swallowing one of the corpses Wo Li had gathered earlier.

Moments later, the ground moved again.

A living cultivator emerged from the soil, made whole and alive again. The resurrected disciple coughed violently while staring around in confusion.

Silence descended for half a heartbeat.

Then the heavens roared.

Dark tribulation clouds instantly gathered overhead as Heavenly Tribulation descended with terrifying force.

BOOM!

Golden lightning crashed downward directly onto Wo Li.

The impact shook the ruined landscape violently.

Several cultivators cried out in alarm, but Wo Li remained standing despite spiritual lightning tearing across his body. More bolts descended one after another mercilessly, each strike carrying heavenly wrath powerful enough to kill ordinary cultivators outright.

Yet Wo Li endured it.

The surrounding cultivators erupted into cheers after realizing the resurrection had truly succeeded.

“He brought someone back!”

“A miracle!”

“The Sage truly defied heaven!”

But Xing Ning did not cheer.

Because unlike the others, he noticed something deeply unsettling.

Every time the lightning struck, Wo Li’s expression barely changed outwardly… yet Xing Ning could see the pain hidden beneath it.

Not physical pain.

Spiritual pain.

It was as though the heavens were not merely punishing Wo Li’s body, but lashing directly against his soul itself.

And still, Wo Li continued preparing the next corpse for resurrection.

…

..

.

It took over a month for me to resurrect everyone from the Serenity Cliff Sect.

A month of standing between life and death, forcing souls back into bodies that had already accepted the cold embrace of the grave. A month of shaping flesh, mending meridians, restoring shattered spirits, and rebuilding homes with roots and stone until the ruined cliff stood once more as though the disaster had never happened.

The forest answered my commands without hesitation. Trees bent to my will. Vines carried stone. Rivers changed course. Nature itself labored alongside me beneath the endless skies while I drowned deeper and deeper into exhaustion.

I hoped I did not miss anyone.

That thought haunted me more than anything else.

When the final spirit lamp reignited within the sect, I finally turned around. The disciples and elders stood silently behind me, staring with expressions I did not know how to handle anymore. Gratitude. Reverence. Fear.

“Senior!” Guo Yimu called out.

His voice sounded distant to me.

I looked over my shoulder. Guo Yimu bowed deeply, his hands trembling slightly. “Thank you.”

I stared at him for a moment before nodding once.

Beside him, Guo Yupin lowered his head as well. “We owe you everything.”

The words settled heavily inside my chest.

I wanted to tell them I was leaving. That I planned to enter seclusion and disappear from the world for a while. My body hurt. My soul hurt. Even breathing felt exhausting after repeatedly overturning the laws of life and death.

But looking at the rebuilt sect behind them and the tears in the disciples’ eyes, I could not bring myself to ruin the moment. If another disaster happened? If the Dark Order returned? I guessed I still wanted them to come to me.

That realization made me laugh bitterly inside.

Without another word, I left.

The journey back to my forest felt strangely unreal. Mountains passed by beneath drifting clouds while my mind wandered aimlessly through a haze of exhaustion. Every muscle in my body ached. My head throbbed with pain. Eventually, I arrived at the forest. The familiar scent of earth and leaves wrapped around me gently as I walked deeper between the ancient trees. My feet carried me unconsciously toward the place where everything had begun anew.

The tree where I resurrected.

I leaned against the massive trunk slowly. Its bark felt cool against my back. Above me, the leaves rustled softly beneath the wind, and for the first time in over a month, silence finally surrounded me.

My eyelids became heavy.

Then heavier still.

Exhaustion swallowed me whole.

…

When I opened my eyes again, my breath caught immediately.

The sky was gone.

A dark sun loomed above the forest.

It hung silently in the heavens like a massive black wound devouring the world itself. Darkness pulsed around it in slow waves, twisting the air with suffocating pressure. I recognized this place instantly. It resembled the mental space where I met the Monster.

Except now, it was my forest surrounding me.

And that dark sun…

The Monster once told me it represented my misfortune. My balance. My punishment. But compared to before, it had grown unimaginably larger. The sight of it made my chest tighten. So this was the price for saving all those people.

“I am the balance, huh?” I muttered bitterly.

What a joke.

“If you want to go home, you just have to tell me.”

I froze.

Someone sat beside me against the tree.

I had not sensed him at all.

The man wore dark robes speckled with starlight, as though pieces of the night sky had been woven directly into the fabric itself. A dark crown rested atop his black hair, while his golden-green eyes reflected the enormous dark sun above us without fear.

I immediately stood up.

“Who are you?” I asked warily.

The man looked at me calmly. “I’m the one who brought you to this world.”

My pupils shrank slightly.

“Why? What are you?”

“It depends.”

The moment he finished speaking, his appearance changed.

The crowned man suddenly became a dark-haired man wearing a red scarf. He looked completely ordinary now, almost like someone I could have passed by on Earth without a second glance.

“Seriously, though,” he said casually, “you work hard, huh?”

Before I could react, his form shifted again.

This time, he became a blond-haired woman with tired eyes.

“Now, I just feel bad.”

Then the woman disappeared entirely.

A rock dropped onto the grass.

I stared at it blankly.

“…What?”

The rock remained there motionlessly. Slowly, I crouched down and picked it up with both hands, staring at it closely with utter confusion.

“That’s cute,” I said sarcastically and thoughtlessly.

The rock instantly transformed.

A beautiful woman now stood before me, her long dark hair flowing behind her while the familiar crown rested upon her head. Golden-green eyes watched me with faint amusement.

“You’re weird,” I muttered.

“So are you,” she replied immediately.

“If I tell you to return me home back to Earth, you really would?”

“Yes.”

“Is there gonna be a catch?”

“No.”

“How can I believe you?”

“That’s all to your judgment.”

I fell silent afterward. There was a strange feeling coming from this being. It was completely different from the Monster. The Monster felt endless and hungry, like staring into an abyss that wanted to consume everything around it.

But this existence?

It felt lonely. That was the only word I could think of. Lonely and impossibly distant. Yet somehow, I felt like we understood each other.

“Why am I here?” I asked quietly.

The mysterious being stood up from the grass. Their form shifted once more, returning to the crowned man from before.

“To act as a cog within an imperfect machine I created,” he answered calmly. “I would like to present myself as a magnanimous and benevolent existence, but the truth is I’m a bad person.”

The honesty of his answer startled me more than anything else.

“I kidnap Earthlings and bring them to other worlds to fulfill certain destinies,” he continued. “There are many reasons why I do this. Some are less altruistic than the others. Reasons that would bore you, and reasons you will probably forget once this conversation ends.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“My existence is too huge and incomprehensible for your mind to properly retain,” he explained. “You will forget me. That is what I mean.”

A chill ran through me. Even now, as I stared directly at him, I already felt parts of my memory becoming blurry around the edges. I clenched my fists tightly.

My voice trembled slightly as I asked, “So the reason you came to me was… to ask me this question? If I want to go home?”

“Yes,” answered the mysterious being.

“Are you an Earthling too?” I asked. The question slipped out naturally. The Supreme Monster had been one. Or at least, he once was. So what were the chances this being before me had also originated from Earth?

“Hm. That’s a secret.”

I frowned. That non-answer somehow felt more suspicious than an outright lie. Slowly, memories surfaced inside my mind of the Supreme Monster’s claim about my past. I swallowed dryly. “Is it true? Did I really kill myself?”

My voice sounded distant even to myself.

“I don’t remember anything like that.” I clenched my fists. “Why?”

“It is true,” he said gently. “Most often, there are simply fears and painful experiences so overwhelming that they rob people of their memories. Trauma has a way of breaking the mind apart until certain truths become unreachable.”

His golden-green eyes rested on me calmly.

“You should know that better than anyone.”

A bitter feeling spread through my chest. I opened my mouth, but no words came out.

The mysterious being looked toward the dark sun above us and asked once more. “For the final time, Wo Li… do you wish to return home? You have reached a threshold. Because of what you accomplished, this world may prosper for another ten thousand years. But if that dark sun grows any larger? Your suffering will only worsen.”

I looked up at the enormous black star hanging above us.

It pulsed slowly, like a heart or maybe a curse.

“Why did it have to be me?” I asked.

“It did not have to be you. Ultimately, this was a choice you could make. Though admittedly, it was a choice I forced into your hands.”

Silence followed afterward.

I sat there quietly beneath the tree, thinking. I thought about the people I met in this world. Willow’s endless energy. Zhen Ai’s quiet devotion and hardship. Tao Wolong calling me godfather with those bright innocent eyes. The Old Crow’s terrible jokes. Old Black pretending to be wise while constantly causing problems. The kangaroo picking fights with me. The life and death. The pain. The moments where I nearly or thought I died. And strangely enough? The peaceful moments too. Camping beneath the stars. Cooking random nonsense in the forest. Watching rain fall through the trees. Listening to the crows argue over absolutely nothing. Simple things. Small things.

Yet somehow, they became meaningful.

More meaningful than the endless routine I left behind on Earth.

I slowly looked toward the mysterious being.

“I’ll stay,” I said.

“It will be tough for you,” he warned.

I snorted softly.

“This is still way better than working nine to five,” I replied. “Besides, I still have camping stuff to do.”

I leaned back against the tree.

“And a lot more lazing around.”

The mysterious being laughed quietly at that. Maybe it was selfish. Actually, no. It definitely was selfish. But in this world… I mattered. Not in the superficial sense. Not fame. Not glory. Not being worshipped. Here, the things I did carried weight. People lived because of me. People smiled because of me.

My existence meant something.

I stared at the dark sun again.

“Is there any way for that misfortune thing to disappear?” I asked.

The mysterious being shook his head.

“It isn’t that simple.”

Of course, it wasn’t.

I sighed tiredly before asking another question.

“What was your intention in bringing me here?”

The crowned man looked toward the endless dark sky.

“To bring harmony,” he answered.

Then his eyes shifted back toward me.

“To three worlds.”

Before I could ask what he meant, everything faded.

…

I woke up slowly.

The familiar scent of my forest greeted me first. Leaves rustled overhead while soft sunlight filtered through the branches above. For a few moments, I simply sat there quietly, trying to gather my thoughts.

It felt like I had experienced a very long dream.

A dream I could already feel slipping away around the edges. But one realization remained clear within my mind. The thought that I was the balance was not wrong. But it was not entirely right either.

At the same time, I was also chaos.

Two opposing halves of the same existence. Creation and destruction. Salvation and misfortune. A contradiction walking in a world that wasn’t mine.

“…Huh,” I muttered weakly.

Only then did I realize I was surrounded.

“Master, how are you doing?” Zhen Ai asked worriedly beside me.

I stared at her blankly.

“Godfather!”

A small blur crashed directly into me. Tao Wolong wrapped his arms around my waist tightly while looking up at me with sparkling eyes. I sighed helplessly before patting his head gently.

“I’m fine,” I said.

Nearby, Willow and the Old Crow perched atop a tree branch.

“I’m telling you, Master Wo Li definitely likes elegant women,” Willow declared confidently.

The Old Crow immediately scoffed. “Nonsense! He clearly prefers dangerous women who can punch mountains apart!”

“That sounds oddly specific.”

“Experience speaks wisdom!”

“You got rejected by a pigeon spirit!”

“That was one time!”

“What got into those two…?” I muttered.

Beside me, Old Black slithered across the grass gracefully before lowering his head slightly.

“It is good to see you well, Master of the Forest.”

I rubbed my forehead tiredly.

“Sheesh…”

Suddenly someone called out.

“OUR BATTLE WILL BE LEGENDARY!” Roo landed in front of me dramatically before lowering his body into a battle stance. His tail wagged furiously. “I, ROO THE GREAT, ISSUE YOU A CHALLENGE! THE LOSER MUST SURRENDER TODAY’S SNACKS!”

“Ah, come on, Roo…” I sighed. “Maybe next time, buddy. I feel a bit tired.”

Roo gasped dramatically like I had mortally wounded him.

Tao Wolong suddenly brightened.

“Maybe Mom’s dance can cheer you up!”

Instantly, the murder of crows flocked onto nearby branches. Hundreds of black eyes turned toward me expectantly. Even Old Black seemed oddly interested. Zhen Ai especially looked very eager.

I looked around slowly at all of them, and sighed in defeat.

I could not say no to those eyes.

“Fine, fine…”

Zhen Ai’s face lit up immediately.

She grabbed my hand excitedly and pulled me upright.

“Let me teach it to you, Master Wo Li,” she said happily. “Someday, perhaps, you may even learn the ability to transform into a dragon!”

I stared at her.

Then at the excited crows.

Then at Roo somehow dancing already.

“…Why do I suddenly feel like I made a terrible mistake?”

Beneath the warm sunlight filtering through the leaves, surrounded by strange companions I once could never have imagined meeting, the exhaustion in my heart slowly faded away. Perhaps the road ahead would only become harsher. Perhaps the dark sun above my fate would continue to grow heavier with every life I saved.

But at this moment, standing within the forest I called home, I finally understood something simple and undeniable. Even amidst chaos, suffering, and endless change, life still moved forward through the bonds people created with one another.

And maybe, just maybe, that was the true meaning behind my existence.

Do you hear that?

The beating in my heart? The laughter and joys I shared with them?

That was my song of harmony, and I want to share them to the world.