Immortal Druid

The forest was quiet.

Not the peaceful sort of quiet that came with nature, but the heavy silence that followed loss. The great trees stood unmoving beneath gray skies as countless people gathered around a massive stone monument erected at the heart of my forest. Names had been carved into its surface.

A mass grave rested beneath it.

Members of the Willow Order stood in orderly rows. Cultivators from the Serenity Cliff Sect offered incense before bowing deeply. Disciples of the Steel Sky Sect placed flowers and memorial tablets near the monument. One after another, people stepped forward to offer their respects to the dead.

It had been ten years since the operation against the Dark Order began. Ten years of searching, hunting, cleansing, and hoping. Ten years spent trying to find a miracle that never came.

I sat beneath a tree overlooking the ceremony.

Li Ming occupied the space beside me while the mourners continued to arrive.

"So, Sage, how are you holding up?" she asked quietly.

I shrugged lightly. "So-so."

Her expression immediately became troubled.

I glanced sideways at her. "What?"

Li Ming lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry. I couldn't do anything. We tried everything, and in the end, I still couldn't help them. My Shén powers were useless. If I had been stronger, maybe things would've turned out differently."

My eyes drifted toward the stone monument.

Ten years of effort, all of them ultimately meaningless.

Jia Ping had spent an entire decade studying the corrupted corpses recovered from the Dark Order. Only recently had she finally concluded with complete certainty that purification was impossible. I had refused to give up until the very end.

If the corruption could be removed, I could resurrect them. That had been my hope. We had brought Li Ming, consulted every expert available, and attempted methods both conventional and absurd, yet nothing worked; the corruption had consumed everything. Deep down, Druidic Insight had already told me the answer long ago: the dead were gone.

Even so, I needed to try.

I looked at Li Ming. "None of this was your fault. We did everything in our power to make it right. Every possibility was explored. Every avenue was exhausted. Nobody can ask more than that."

Li Ming smiled weakly. "You're terrible at comforting people."

"Maybe."

"You definitely are."

"Fair."

A snort sounded from across from us.

Xing Ning sat with his legs crossed atop a large root. Despite ten years passing, he looked exactly the same as before. His short dark hair remained unchanged. His youthful appearance had not aged even a single day.

Meanwhile, Li Ming had grown noticeably taller. The childish girl from years ago had become a mature young woman.

Xing Ning glanced at her. "Speaking of suspicious things, Li Ming, is it true you've been sucking the souls out of everyone around you?"

Li Ming's eye twitched. "What?"

"I've heard rumors."

"They're lies."

"You haven't become some ancient soul-devouring monster?"

Li Ming folded her arms. "And I've heard rumors that you're actually a hungry ghost haunting the living."

Xing Ning grinned. "That's slander."

"Maybe you should pass on to the afterlife and stop bothering the rest of us."

"Harsh."

"Merciful."

I resisted the urge to laugh as the rumors surrounding both of them had grown increasingly ridiculous over the years. Li Ming terrified cultivators with her bizarre experiments, while Xing Ning managed it simply by existing. Neither reputation was entirely undeserved.

A familiar voice interrupted their argument.

"What's this about?"

We turned.

A handsome young man approached while brushing long dark hair over one shoulder. He carried himself with confidence and wore a warm smile that would probably make half the continent fall in love with him.

It was Guo Yimu.

The transformation from his younger days was astonishing. If someone told me this was an entirely different person, I might have believed them.

Xing Ning immediately pointed. "There he is."

Li Ming nodded. "The groom himself."

"Congratulations on the wedding."

"Congratulations."

Guo Yimu froze, his smile vanishing in an instant as the color drained from his face. I couldn’t resist teasing him a little. “Come on, you had a whole wedding and didn’t even invite us? That actually hurt my feelings, you know.” He winced at my words.

The reaction was so dramatic that I immediately frowned, my playful mood evaporating. “What’s the problem?” I asked, concern creeping into my voice.

Guo Yimu looked as though he had been sentenced to death. "I'm scared for my life. Also, there was no wedding. They were false rumors, created for the sake of my protection."

"...What?"

"I'm serious."

Xing Ning blinked.

Li Ming looked equally confused.

Guo Yimu rubbed his face. "Princesses from every nation seem determined to marry me."

"You are that popular?" asked the befuddled Li Ming.

Her tone carried unmistakable frustration, and I understood why. The Willow Order had attempted matchmaking countless times over the years, with every candidate arriving excited only to flee shortly after meeting her, usually while looking utterly terrified.

Guo Yimu groaned. “You don’t understand.”

“Then explain,” I said.

“Foreign nations keep offering their daughters to me,” he replied. Li Ming stared at him in disbelief as he continued. “And the Four Sovereign Flags aren’t making requests.”

Xing Ning slowly leaned forward, his eyes narrowing. “They aren’t?”

“They’re issuing threats.”

“…Threats?”

“Threats,” Guo Yimu repeated grimly.

Even Xing Ning looked visibly disturbed.

Guo Yimu buried his face in his hands. "One nation says rejecting their princess would damage diplomatic relations. Another claims their princess has already chosen me, and therefore I have a responsibility to accept. A third nation sent an official letter saying refusal would be interpreted as disrespect toward their royal family."

I winced. "That's bad."

"That's not the worst one."

"There is worse?"

"The last nation sent six ministers."

The three of us stared.

Guo Yimu nodded weakly. "Six."

"What did they want?" I asked.

"They politely informed me that declining their princess would be strategically unwise."

Guo Yimu looked as though he was about to cry.

"I'm not joking. They smiled the entire time while saying it, too. Do you know how terrifying that is? When powerful officials smile at you while implying your future depends on your answer?"

Xing Ning nodded solemnly. "That does sound horrifying."

"It is horrifying!" Guo Yimu exclaimed. "I survived battles. I survived political schemes. I survived cultivation training. Yet somehow my greatest threat ended up being marriage proposals."

Li Ming covered her mouth, clearly trying not to laugh.

Guo Yimu pointed accusingly at her. "Don't laugh. This is a tragedy."

"It doesn't sound like a tragedy."

"It is for me."

I raised an eyebrow. "Most men would consider this a blessing."

"Most men aren't being hunted across the continent by princesses."

"Hunted?"

"Hunted."

His expression became increasingly aggrieved. "I can't attend a diplomatic banquet without someone introducing me to a royal daughter. I can't visit another nation without receiving invitations. Last month I received three portraits in a single week."

Li Ming finally failed to suppress her laughter. "Three?"

"Three."

Xing Ning shook his head. "Your suffering is difficult to sympathize with."

"That's because none of you understand."

Guo Yimu slumped dramatically. "I miss the days when people ignored me."

"Nobody ignored you," Li Ming said.

"They did, compared to now."

He stared mournfully into the distance.

"Sometimes I look into a mirror and wonder where everything went wrong."

I blinked.

"What?"

Guo Yimu pointed at his own face.

"This."

Silence followed.

"This face is the problem."

Li Ming immediately burst out laughing.

Xing Ning nearly fell off the root he was sitting on.

Guo Yimu looked genuinely resentful.

"I'm serious."

"You are blaming your own appearance?" I asked.

"What else am I supposed to blame?"

Li Ming wiped tears from her eyes.

"Your personality?"

"No."

"Your achievements?"

"No."

"Your status?"

"No."

Guo Yimu sighed heavily.

"The evidence is obvious. If I were uglier, none of this would've happened."

"That's not how that works," Xing Ning said.

"It absolutely is."

"It isn't."

"It is."

He folded his arms stubbornly.

"I've become a victim of my own handsomeness."

Li Ming laughed even harder.

Xing Ning stared at him.

"You sound ridiculous."

"Easy for you to say. Nobody is trying to force four sovereign princesses onto you."

Xing Ning immediately looked relieved.

"Thank the heavens."

"Exactly."

Guo Yimu buried his face in his hands.

"I can't even complain publicly. Every time I tell someone about my situation, they congratulate me."

"Because it sounds like you're bragging."

"I'm not bragging!"

"You kind of are."

"I'm suffering!" His voice cracked with such genuine despair that even I felt a little sympathy. A little. Not much. But a little. Guo Yimu groaned. "I swear, if another royal delegation arrives at my doorstep, I'm moving into Sage's forest and becoming a hermit."

I stared at Guo Yimu for several seconds before shaking my head.

"Just why do these princesses want you so much?"

I genuinely could not understand it.

If someone asked me to describe Guo Yimu, "piece of trash" would have ranked surprisingly high on the list. Granted, he had improved tremendously over the years. He was responsible, respected, and had matured into a capable young master.

Even then, I found it difficult to believe he had become desirable enough that foreign nations were competing for the opportunity to marry their daughters to him.

Guo Yimu rubbed the back of his neck.

"It started with the aquatic beasts."

"The aquatic beasts?"

He nodded.

"The information network your sect accidentally created gave us opportunities nobody else had."

That immediately caught my attention.

"The fish?"

"The fish."

"The whales?"

"The whales too."

"The turtles?"

"The turtles were surprisingly useful."

Li Ming blinked.

"How are turtles useful?"

"They listen."

"..."

"They spend decades drifting around the ocean while hearing everything."

I stared at him.

That was somehow reasonable.

Guo Yimu leaned forward. "The aquatic beasts provided intelligence on shipping routes, hidden reefs, beast migrations, weather patterns, and coastal trade activity. We started small at first. I established trade routes between domains. Then some aquatic beasts joined the trade group directly. A few avians joined later."

Xing Ning frowned. "Birds?"

"Messenger birds."

"Oh."

"They could cross dangerous territories much faster than cultivators. Eventually, we established connections beyond the continent."

Li Ming nearly choked. "What?"

"Another continent."

The three of us stared.

Guo Yimu smiled proudly. "Not long ago, we discovered a unique sea route connected through ancient teleportation arrays. Very old ones at that. Most are partially damaged, but enough remain functional to create a route beyond our continental waters. We even had help from the Willow Order to fix them, in exchange for a low price. Business exploded afterward."

I finally understood. The problem wasn’t Guo Yimu himself, but the fact that he had become absurdly valuable. Trade between domains was already incredibly lucrative, but trade between continents? That was enough to keep kings up at night. No wonder every nation wanted him. I recalled how he had started his maritime venture only fifty years ago, when no one had taken it seriously.

Now, half a century later, he had grown so important that sovereign nations were fighting over marriage contracts with him. The world truly was strange.

The funeral eventually came to an end as people offered their final prayers and departed in small groups, the solemn atmosphere gradually giving way to quiet conversations among old friends.

For the rest of the gathering, we listened to Guo Yimu’s stories of distant archipelagos hidden beyond endless oceans, islands inhabited solely by spirit beasts, fierce encounters with pirates, tense negotiations with merchant guilds, storms that could swallow entire fleets, cultivators riding giant sea serpents, and strange cultures from faraway shores.

Most of it was genuinely fascinating, but when he reached the romantic portions of his adventures, Xing Ning, Li Ming, and I collectively realized he was still the same old Guo Yimu. The details had changed, but his personality had not. A shared sigh of relief escaped all three of us; some things never changed.

After the funeral concluded and everyone gradually departed, I remained behind, the heavy atmosphere around the mass grave lingering in my thoughts as I walked deeper into the forest. Eventually, I arrived before the largest tree in my territory, its enormous trunk stretching toward the heavens.

The moment I approached, voices immediately flooded my mind.

"Father is here!"

"Good sunlight today."

"I enjoyed the rain yesterday."

"Wo Li, you look handsome."

"Marry me."

"Ignore her, marry me instead."

"You're both weeds."

"Fight me."

I rubbed my forehead.

"Settle down."

"No."

"We're settling."

"This is settled."

"You're very pretty today."

"I am a tree."

"Even better."

I sighed.

The plants had completely ignored me, but recently, the Voice of the World had grown stronger and stronger. Strong enough now that I could hear them all: the trees, flowers, grass, roots, mushrooms, and occasionally even the elements themselves.

The experience was far less mystical than one might imagine, mostly consisting of constant nonsense. I placed a hand against the enormous trunk, then merged with the tree. My consciousness expanded as the forest welcomed me, and I sank into meditation. Lacking spiritual roots and a dantian had never stopped my cultivation; my path had always differed from that of traditional cultivators. Rather than drawing power inward, I immersed myself within the world itself. The forest became my body, the rivers my veins, and the wind my breath.

Countless voices drifted through my awareness.

"Fight me!"

That was Roo.

The kangaroo was currently chasing another beast while swinging his signboard like a weapon.

"Fight me, coward!"

The unfortunate victim fled in terror.

Elsewhere, another voice reached me.

"Mother!"

It was Tao Wolong.

"Mother! Teach me how to become a dragon!"

"You are a dragon."

"I mean a cooler dragon!"

"..."

"Please?"

His poor mother sounded exhausted.

Another voice emerged.

"Eighty-three percent chance of failure."

A pause.

"Interesting."

It was Jia Ping. I immediately recognized the tone of her voice and the excitement. Another experiment was underway. Something suddenly exploded.

"Seventy-nine percent chance of failure."

Apparently, the explosion was a success, and then I heard shouting.

"Get back here!"

"Make me!"

As I focused on the source, I saw Mab and Nyx rolling across a field, furiously punching each other. They weren’t sparring or training. They were actually brawling.

"What the hell is wrong with them?" I muttered.

I returned my attention to cultivation, and the forest expanded around me as I experienced predators hunting prey, roots drawing nutrients from the soil, flowers blooming, seeds spreading on the wind, and life thriving in all its forms. Everything became one, until I accidentally witnessed two squirrels mating.

Two squirrels perched on a sturdy oak branch, their bushy tails intertwining as the male mounted the female with urgent, primal need.

"Oh, yes! Ram that acorn deep!" she chittered breathlessly, claws digging into the bark as he thrust harder, their furry bodies slapping together in a frantic rhythm.

"Fuck, your tight little hole is driving me wild," he growled, nipping her ear while pounding away passionately, nuts swinging with every desperate hump. "Gonna flood you with my seed until it drips down your tail!"

She arched back, squealing in ecstasy as they fucked wildly under the moonlight, lost in raw, animalistic bliss.

"..."

I stopped.

The squirrels did not.

"You're amazing."

"No, you're amazing."

"You have the fluffiest tail."

"I love your tail."

"..."

For reasons beyond my understanding, the squirrels were passionately encouraging each other. I recognized one of them. It was the same spark-touched squirrel that once got its head stuck inside a hollow log while attempting to steal spiritually enriched nuts.

I immediately looked elsewhere, since some things were better left unwatched. My consciousness continued spreading through the forest until I heard something unusual. I heard voices that belonged neither to the living, the plants, nor the beasts, but to the dead. I followed the sound, my awareness drifting across the forest until it reached the mass grave, where the stone monument stood silently beneath the evening sky.

A dark, ancient, and mysterious rift had opened nearby, with countless souls gathered before it. Guiding them toward the opening was a solitary figure carrying a lantern. It was a reaper. One soul after another stepped forward, listening softly as the reaper spoke before crossing through the rift and disappearing into the Underworld.

I remained silent as I watched, reflecting on how, for ten years, I had searched for a way to bring them back and refused to accept their deaths. Yet now, witnessing them move onward, I finally understood that they had not been waiting for resurrection. Instead, they had been waiting for farewell.

After all, if I were to bring them back to life the way they were, they wouldn't come back as a human being, but something else.