Chapter 500: Flowers Bloom Without Stamens, Exploring the Outside

"A twist of fate, predestined, a push behind the waves..."

Du En, who had failed to stop the formation of the contract, could not understand the reason behind it now. He glanced back at the Azure Sky Divine Tree; this miraculous tree had just seemed to exhaust its entire life force and was now completely dead.

Looking back at the young girl covered and protected by the leaves, her heart began to beat slowly, and accompanied by the fluttering of her eyelashes, she slowly opened her eyes.

"..."

Her gaze revealed confusion as she stared blankly at the small ball of white light above, only the size of her own fist.

The ball of light drifted to the side, and she followed it with her eyes, subconsciously sitting up.

A rustling sound rang out as the leaves slid away, revealing a white dress that looked as if it were woven from pure white flowing clouds in the azure sky, accentuating the petite and fragile nature of her body.

The girl was unexpectedly young, looking to be about thirteen or fourteen years old.

Blinking her eyes, the blankness gradually fading, she looked toward where the ball of light had drifted.

Quietly stretching and recovering, Du En revealed his somewhat translucent human form.

After signing the contract in such a muddled state, miraculously, his condition had stabilized. Even the Phoenix remnants, which had been unwilling to give up, seemed to be touched by something; they no longer clamored to rise, but obediently sank downward, suppressed by the principles of the Sun Divine Fire.

Zhu Jun had not gained its recognition, yet had the divine tree girl before him obtained it?

Du En could not help but feel a bit curious, his voice flowing with the stillness of calm water: "Nice to meet you, my name is Du En."

"Ni, nice to, meet..."

The girl appeared to be stammering, learning to speak, blinking her eyes, and then suddenly stood up, causing a pile of fallen leaves to scatter. She seemed to want to express something, then suddenly became puzzled: "I, Du, En, what is this?"

"Du En is a name, surname Du, given name En."

"Hmm... sounds strange."

Although she expressed this sentiment, she quickly understood the meaning of a name.

Her whole being seemed to be acquiring various kinds of knowledge; the patterns on her forehead radiated light, then slowly faded away.

She understood the basics of everything and revealed a dejected expression.

"I don't have a name, I have forgotten everything, I think."

"... Since that's the case, let me give you one."

"Okay, what is my name?"

"Seeing you in all white, let's use White as your surname. As for your given name, how about Wurei?"

"Bai Wurei... that doesn't sound good. I don't want White, just the latter part, two characters like yours."

"Does that sound better? I am quite self-aware of my naming ability."

"Hmm, Wurei, I like it!"

The girl revealed a faint smile, somewhat ethereal and appearing illusory.

"..."

Du En fell into silence, then transformed back into a small ball of light, drifting as he said gloomily: "A flower that blooms without a stamen implies there is no future, destined to wither."

"Hmm?"

The girl appeared puzzled and tilted her head slightly.

Seeing this, Du En did not say anything more on the topic, only saying: "That said, your sense of vigilance is truly thin, even though you and I have only just met."

"Because you make me feel very familiar, just like the sun, not too far and not too near, only a warm feeling, and you are equally gentle to everything..."

"Even with the remnants of Zhu Yi, your filter for me is far too kind."

Du En commented bluntly, and Wurei only shook her head slightly.

She then looked outside the building, appearing somewhat puzzled and fearful, but in the end, she still raised her finger to point.

"The world outside, I want to go see it."

"That is not a beautiful world; the sun has long dimmed, dark clouds cover the stars, and endless resentment mixed with demonic energy has turned into rain, leaving only faint, weeping light."

"... I still want to go see it. I just feel that I must do something, though I have forgotten everything."

"Whether it is an innate mission or you have truly forgotten, in any case, since we are now bound by a contract, I will accompany you on this trip."

Du En made his choice calmly.

"Yay, thank you!"

Wurei was immediately quite happy, and at the end, she pursed her lips; at a glance, she really looked like Zhu Yi.

So, she, they, what exactly is going on?

Is the Supreme's scheme still continuing?

Or perhaps...

Although he had fallen to this state, Du En still did not change his true colors.

So, let me see what kind of trap this is.

Or perhaps, it is just the curtain call for this dying star.

"Wait a moment."

After his thoughts finished flowing, he spoke to Wurei, who had seen the exit and was about to approach. He channeled a wisp of Three Truths Divine Fire to dig out the part of the Azure Sky Divine Tree that still retained a cyan hue.

Although the Earth-Wood Sacred Refining was temporarily dormant and the benefits brought by his artifact-refining skills had vanished, this did not mean he could not refine artifacts. Thus, as the three-colored firelight flickered, the tree fragment rapidly changed its form, eventually becoming a long sword capable of storing divine fire, with a flame crystal embedded in the hilt, inside of which the raging divine fire burned incessantly.

"Alright, preparations complete."

Du En put away this Azure Sky Burning Sword, and his primordial spirit, in the form of a small ball of light, drifted onto Wurei's shoulder, just like the two gods of the past, only this time the positions were reversed.

Thinking about it, it is quite wondrous. Of course, I am much busier than they were.

Within his inner voice, Wurei smiled gently, seemingly having heard something, but she said nothing, merely stepping forward to explore outside the courtyard where the divine tree was planted.

The passage was dark and lightless, with only divine radiance illuminating the path ahead.

Under Du En's illumination, Wurei quickly finished running through this stretch of the path.

At the end of the passage was a door, broken, which she pushed open with difficulty to enter a fairly large quiet room.

Inside the quiet room stood a rather large stone statue, carved with exquisite detail, lifelike and restoring the image of a person.

"This is... so familiar."

Wu Rui walked closer and looked up at the stone statue; it was a figure dressed in very solemn attire, layered and overlapping, embroidered with various ornaments of implied significance, while the face was blocked by a wooden mask, though from details like the hair under the hood, it could be seen that it was likely a woman.

"It looks like someone of the priestess type; if you feel familiar with it, it is mostly likely because there is some connection, think carefully, perhaps you can recall something."

Du En floated around the stone statue to observe, eventually letting his gaze fall upon the mask covering the face.

Made from the body of the Azure Sky Divine Tree?

There was a feeling of such.

At this moment, under the prompting from this side, Wu Rui racked her brains, and finally, amidst some kind of trigger, a name emerged naturally.

"Divine Tree Witch Priest, Qing Lan."

Whether it was the title or the name, both made Du En raise his eyebrows in secret.

The former was fine; after all, the Azure Sky Divine Tree was planted with great solemnity in the deep courtyard, clearly having special significance, and looking at the stone statue's clothing and wooden mask, one knew she was certainly a similar type of professional.

But as for the latter, Qing Lan, Qing Xuan, they differed by only one character; was it truly a coincidence?

Thinking this, he only said calmly: "Try taking off the statue's mask and see."

"Oh."

Wu Rui immediately began to find the right position and climbed up nimbly; she was not as weak and powerless as her appearance suggested, though in reality, she was not strong either.

"Heave-ho!" With a forceful kick, she grabbed the mask, but unfortunately, she used too much strength and ended up hanging there; as it turned out, the mask could indeed be removed, and with a dangerous grating sound, it fell straight down.

However, it did not hit the ground, but was caught by Du En instead.

"Thank you."

"Be careful, I don't have much energy left, you have to do these small things yourself."

"I know, I will be careful!"

Wu Rui did not feel surprised by the words that should have been spoken long ago.

Du En was not surprised either, his gaze looking at the scene beneath the mask.

There was no specific face, but rather a small square hole, inside which something was placed, with light faintly flickering.

Without needing to be told, Wu Rui climbed up again, got it into her hands, and incidentally hung the mask back on.

The mask had already lost most of its divine properties, so there was no need to worry about anything.

What was obtained was a forehead chain, with a dull, round, sky-blue gemstone embedded in the center.

"It looks like a special magical artifact; by injecting specific power, it can allow it to release an invisible protection."

Du En wandered around observing, muttering that it was prepared quite thoroughly, and then spat out a spark of fire from his primordial spirit.

The ball of light immediately dimmed a little.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. After the Phoenix's lingering hatred was suppressed by the contract, relying on my strength, I have been slowly recovering; spitting out this spark of Pure Fire, I will be able to recover after half a day's time."

The Pure Fire among the Three True Divine Fires had the Southern Brightness Separation Fire as its prototype, but after it received help from Zhu Jun and was elevated to a small level of achievement, it had already declared its departure from the Southern Brightness Separation Fire; however, it was not Zhu Jun's Vermilion Fire either, but a colorless Pure Bright Clear Fire.

The destructive lethality of the Vermilion Fire was concentrated in the Red Fire of the Three True Fires, while the Gold Fire was a series of manifestations such as being yang, upright, and magnificent; it could be said that each had its own refined quality.

Now the Pure Fire was more suitable; after all, the Grudge Demon Yin Rain outside was very problematic, and even if Wu Rui had a special background, if she were drenched without cover, I fear the outcome would be very miserable.

Thus, under the gaze of two pairs of eyes, the spark of Pure Fire fell into the forehead chain's gemstone, quietly soaking in, allowing the whole thing to revive; soon it took root and sprouted, making that touch of sky-blue become even more limpid and clear.

Wu Rui wore it on her forehead, and immediately her eyes were filled with constant surprise.

"It's warm, a very reassuring feeling."

"Mm, it's time to keep moving; I can sense some movement approaching, I imagine it was attracted by the actions just now."

"Okay."

Wu Rui took a deep breath and carefully pushed open another door that was still relatively intact.

Outside was an indoor space, abandoned and decaying, with nothing unusual.

Carefully closing the door, she came to the new door and pulled it open.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—the sound of pouring water accompanied by dampness rushed toward her face, bringing a sense of eeriness.

Wu Rui could not help but shiver, and only then did she step out.

Outside were normal pavilions and towers, the whole structure appearing half-embedded into the mountain; now it was gloomy, with holes and gaps everywhere, allowing the Grudge Demon Yin Rain to converge and pour down, emitting a dense sound of water.

"Ah..."

A long moan came from the side; looking back, one only saw a mass like soft mud, revealing a painful soft tumor, moving over on the corridor not far away.

"What is this?"

Wu Rui revealed a look of unbearable pity, and that mass of tumor-mud discovered this side and immediately accelerated its movement over.

"It should be the result of some person getting drenched in the rain and being eroded by the grudge and demonic energy."

Du En could be considered knowledgeable and experienced, and he was even more clear about the methods of those Supreme True Lords of his sect; even without the depth of investigation of eyes and divine sense, he could still easily judge that it could not be much different from that situation.

"How could it be?"

"What do you intend to do?"

"... Help him find release."

Wu Rui made a decision and decisively approached the tumor monster.

"Being so reckless, how are you going to help him find release?"

"I just feel like I can do it."

"... Is that so? Fine then."

Du En stopped questioning this; he had no intention of distorting someone else's path.

Of course, relying only on Wu Rui, a young girl with no strength to truss a monster, wanting to solve that tumor monster was still very problematic.

Thus, as she approached and the sarcoma monster erupted, the ball of light transformed into a human, brandishing the Azure Sky Burning Sword, and directly split it in two, dismantling its ability to attack.

Du En instantly turned back into a ball of light, prioritizing high efficiency and energy conservation.

Then, he watched what she would do.

He only saw Wurei crouch down, her eyes filled with a trace of confusion, which then turned into sudden realization.

Her outstretched hand emitted a green light; looking closely, one could see strands of light extending deep into the sarcoma monster's body, absorbing and containing the resentment and demonic Qi, then drawing them back.

A flash of pain appeared in Wurei's eyes.

Through the contract, he could feel the pain she was enduring.

"So it really is the Azure Sky Divine Tree..."

Du En sighed with emotion, his tone calm yet faintly fluctuating, then he drifted down onto her shoulder, radiating a golden light to stir the life source formed by the contract, sharing the pain of that transference and containment, which immediately made Wurei somewhat panicked.

"Why are you..."

"It's fine, I'm resistant to burning; this kind of pain is as good as non-existent. In fact, in my current state, it's about the same as tearing off my skin and soaking my nerves in concentrated acid."

"Amazing!"

Wurei's panic instantly turned into admiration.

Being so heartless made Du En feel a bit subtle.

Immediately, the ball of light dimmed.

The sarcoma monster quietly turned into a stone statue, finally murmuring, "God, God, ah..."

That was its lingering obsession.

"She has fallen and mutated too severely; I can only let a sliver of her true spirit be liberated."

Wurei revealed a faint look of melancholy, seemingly able to resonate with the emotions contained within that obsession.

Du En, however, could not do this; it was mainly because that sliver of obsession and emotion was too weak to be transmitted through the contract.

"But why would it be like this?"

Wurei couldn't help but ask again.

"That is something we must explore and understand."

So she stood up, looked left and right, and proceeded along the path she felt was correct.

Along the way, there were many sarcoma monsters, soft and limp, wriggling on the ground and moving toward the girl.

It wasn't just these non-threatening existences; as they moved outward, more and more rainwater overflowed, and some places were even soaked in water.

Dense resentment and demonic Qi accumulated within it, and here they encountered a monster that was much stronger.

Its form resembled a man-eating flower, yet it had two thick, sturdy arms, clutching a mace-like weapon used for punishing sinners, and its entire body was covered in black, deformed sarcomas.

A heavy aura of resentment and demonic Qi radiated from its body; it was an individual that even the current Du En needed to treat with caution!

(End of chapter)