Chapter 100: Ecological Balance

……

The summit of Fire Pillar Mountain.

Having learned the general direction from Chen Ying, Lv Cheng arrived very quickly.

Amidst the fire-red leaves covering the ground, Lv Cheng was communicating with the Fire Witch.

"No!"

Upon learning that Lv Cheng intended to contract Yan Ji, the Fire Witch refused very resolutely.

"There will be no more Heavenly Tribulation Fire in the Zhuoyuan North Corner in the future. The current Yan Ji is already the last Yan Ji. If you take her away, the Yan Ji clan will truly vanish."

"Why?" Lv Cheng asked.

"How could the Heavenly Tribulation Fire suddenly disappear?"

The Fire Witch shook her head. "I don't know. The Fire Energy in the Zhuoyuan North Corner has been fading for years. If the old Yan Ji hadn't burned herself to nourish the Xingyu Tianshu, the Yan Ji clan would have disappeared many years ago."

"The old Yan Ji told me that this Heavenly Tribulation Fire was the last one. We must protect the last Yan Ji well; perhaps the Xingyu Tianshu will have a chance to be revived in the future."

"Can you take me to see that tree?" Lv Cheng asked.

"Mm." The Fire Witch stood up and led Lv Cheng toward the direction of the Fire Cloud Forest.

Passing through the dense Fire Cloud Forest, they arrived at a small hillside on the edge.

At the top of the hillside, a bare, giant tree stood there.

Lv Cheng walked closer and reached out to touch the bare trunk of the Xingyu Tianshu.

Its life force was withered; it would be completely dead before long.

"Don't be nervous, I'll call someone who knows the trade to come and take a look."

As he spoke, a Dimension Gate opened in front of Lv Cheng, and on the other side of the gate was Daolong, who was buried in his experiments.

Seeing the Dimension Gate before him, Daolong put down the potion in his hand and walked over.

"What is it now..."

"Master!"

Before Daolong could finish his sentence, Liu Ru and Liu Xian rushed past him at high speed and dashed in front of Lv Cheng.

"Master, is there anything you need us to do?" Liu Xian looked eager.

"I have already learned how to control my power."

The corner of Lv Cheng's eye twitched slightly as he pacified the two sisters to the side. "Don't get excited; I will call you when there is a need."

"Brother Dao, take a look at this tree. Do you have a way to save it?"

Daolong looked at the two infatuated women beside Lv Cheng with some speechlessness, then turned and walked under the Starry Sky Book to observe it.

"Fire attribute... Fire of Heaven and Earth?"

Daolong revealed a look of slight interest.

"How is it? Any leads?" Lv Cheng asked.

"Reviving it is very simple; you are capable of reviving this thing," Daolong said.

"Me?" Lv Cheng was stunned.

Daolong looked speechless. "Shendu is senile, and you are about the same."

"You know nothing about your own power!"

Every one of Shendu's Magic Spells is incomparably powerful!

The Magic Spells of the Twelve Talismans were extremely complex even in the distant Demon era, yet Shendu mastered all those spells alone and successfully turned them into a part of himself.

The strongest Demon Wizard—this description is no exaggeration when applied to Shendu!

If that old thing hadn't been locked in Hell until he became a fool, Luo Pei would never have been able to turn him into stone back then.

"The Dog Talisman is actually the Eternal Life Spell, and it is an Eternal Life Spell that has been improved and strengthened by Shendu. As long as there is enough Magic Power, this spell can protect even things without life," Daolong said.

"Although your power is not enough right now, the Dog Talisman can already provide you with powerful life force. This tree is not dead yet; you only need to infuse the Magic Power of the Dog Talisman into the tree to extend its life."

"Only extend its life? Can't you make this tree younger?" Lv Cheng asked.

"I can, but it is very complicated," Daolong said.

"This thing is not a simple tree. Its life energy comes from the Fire of Heaven and Earth, but it is too old, and the Fire of Heaven and Earth energy it can absorb is too little to maintain its own energy balance, so it is aging and even dying."

"To make it younger, one must first infuse it with enough Fire Energy, and not just ordinary Fire Energy. Even for you, that kind of fire is very difficult to trigger."

"This?" Lv Cheng raised his hand and released the Heavenly Tribulation Fire he had previously absorbed and stored.

Daolong was stunned, his expression somewhat strange.

It seemed he had still underestimated the power of Yang Li; to think he could even control this kind of Tianjie Huohuo.

"Not enough. This bit of Fire Energy is not enough to make this tree rejuvenate," Daolong said.

"Unless you can trigger a Tianjie Huohuo and concentrate the energy of the tribulation fire to irrigate this tree, otherwise, even with my Magic Spells, I can only delay its death."

For this kind of special fire tree, only by letting its internal energy achieve balance on its own can it survive; forced external intervention can only extend its life, treating the symptoms but not the root cause.

"Then do you know how to trigger the Heavenly Tribulation Fire?" Lv Cheng asked.

Daolong sensed the surrounding environment. "The Fire of Heaven and Earth is generally fire nurtured by a special environment."

"Every world also has its own internal cycle. This desert contains a massive amount of Fire Energy, and there is also a balance of Fire Energy between heaven and earth. After this Fire Energy reaches a critical point, it will undergo a concentrated eruption. The fire attribute is a fire tribulation, and the thunder attribute is a thunder tribulation; for this world, it is a form of feedback."

"And now, the balance of this world has been broken by external forces."

"Humans?" Lv Cheng said.

Daolong nodded. "Very likely."

"Humans are a greedy race that only knows how to take. They do not belong to this world, but after the tribulation fire erupts and feeds back into the world, they rush in to seize the resources of this land. Just like the ecological balance you know, once or twice might not have an impact, but over a long period, if a key link is disturbed, this massive ecological balance will be broken."

"This tree is the same. Most of the fruits born on it were originally meant to return as nutrients to feed the roots of this tree, but..."

Daolong looked at the Fire Witch. "I'm afraid almost all of this tree's fruits are snatched away by humans, right?"

The Flame Witch nodded, "The old Yan Ji passed the memories of the Yan Ji to me; every time the Fire Calamity erupts and a Fire Calamity Fruit is born, it attracts human Mages to snatch it. Even the Yan Ji cannot stop those human Mages, and many times, they cannot even protect a single fruit."

The original Yan Ji clan was a powerful tribe, but as the Fire Calamity Fruit was discovered and snatched by human Mages, the Yan Ji clan gradually weakened, especially in the last millennium, where the Yan Ji needed to burn herself periodically to provide energy for the Xingyu Tianshu to prevent the tree from dying.

The old Yan Ji did the same thing many years ago.

"The balance of this world has already been broken by humans. Even if you restore this thing now, it is useless. The death of this tree is not just its own affair; it is that this world is stepping toward extinction," Daolong said.

"External forces?" Lv Cheng was thoughtful.

"The Horse Talisman can eliminate damage caused by external forces; this thing can even restore inanimate objects, can it repair the balance of this world?"

The power of Shendu's Magic Spell is basically close to the nature of rules; theoretically speaking, the Horse Talisman can repair everything except the rules themselves.

Daolong paused, "It should be possible, but the consumption will be beyond your imagination."

"Moreover, the external forces will not stop intruding; even if you repair it, it won't take long before this place returns to its old state."

Human greed will not stop; repairing this world will only attract more people to exploit it without restraint, which is meaningless.

Unless...

"Eliminate external forces?" Lv Cheng's expression was unreadable.

The corner of Daolong's eye twitched slightly.

This is the danger of completely suppressing the Righteous Qi.

If it were Shengdoushi Lvcheng facing this kind of problem, he would only choose to ignore it and let humans suffer the consequences of their own actions; even if he had the ability to change it, he would not interfere.

Because the greatest characteristic of humans is that they never learn any lessons from past failures.

Even if the disaster before their eyes is stopped, it won't be long before humans ultimately walk the same path and bring about their own destruction.

Those Immortal God Descendants gave up interfering with humans and gave up reincarnation precisely because they saw the endless despair at the end.

Time and time again of futile effort, even a Saint would grow weary.

The reason Saint Warriors still exist is that they are closer to humans themselves; unlike the selfless Saints, Saints are without desire or self, and what they do and seek is only for that ethereal goal, but Saint Warriors have selfish desires and things they want to obtain; the purpose of their fighting is not only for others, but also for themselves.

Lv Cheng's other side is somewhat strange: the mind of a Saint, the personality of a Saint Warrior; perhaps some accident occurred during reincarnation; after all, Shendu said that guy seems to have memories of the past, memories from ancient times.

Therefore, he does not interfere with the life and death of external things, only concerning himself with the problems he causes, which is his side as a Demon.

Which is this side right now; as long as he is happy, he will do anything!

Willful and reckless!

Eliminate external forces; what are the external forces?

Humans!

"I advise you to abandon this thought," Daolong said.

"Why?" Lv Cheng asked in confusion.

"Could it be that you, this Black Qi Wizard, have developed a heart of pity for humans?"

"I have no interest in the life or death of others," Daolong said indifferently.

"However, if your actions interfere too much with the world's balance, you won't be able to suppress that Saint Warrior."

"Do you want to fight your other side right now?"

"Do you think you can beat him?"

"..."

(End of this chapter)