The child widened his eyes and looked at Xiao Jinting with terror as if the latter was a vivacious man.
Flame roared ferociously at the ginseng, âBrat, answer my questions, or Iâll eat you. Do you get it?â
The child nodded earnestly and said in a sobbing voice, âGot it.â
Flame looked at Xiao Jinting complacently and boasted, âIâm capable of doing anything. Itâs a piece of cake to tame such an insignificant plant. Go ahead and ask it.â
Xiao Jinting was speechless.
He asked directly, âWhere is the Tree of Life?â
The child looked at Xiao Jinting and Xu Muan, blinking. âAre you looking for Mr. Tree of Life?â
Xiao Jinting paused. Mr. Tree of Life? Does the tree have intelligence?
He nodded. âYes, we are looking for him.â
The child lowered his head and said wistfully, âYou are late. He died.â
Xiao Jinting asked, âDied? What happened?â
The child said ruefully, âMr. Tree of Life said the spiritual Qi got too thin after the significant changes of the world for him to grow.â
He went on, âHe said he couldnât sense the presence of Heavenly Thunder Wood and Immortal Wood. He guessed they had died. Mr. Tree of Life thought he was approaching the end of his life. After a while, he died.â
âWhen did he die?â Xiao Jinting was shocked. He didnât expect the Tree of Life to have intelligence and sense its death.
The child sighed. âHe died more than ten thousand years ago.â
The ginseng grew next to the Tree of Life, whose juice nurtured it and brought him intelligence.
The immortal mountain was separated from the world. After the ginseng had the intelligence, it didnât develop further. Although it had lived a long time, its intelligence was like that of a five-year-old.
Xiao Jinting paused. The Tree of Life had died for ten thousand years and the ginseng had been there when the tree was alive. That meant the ginseng was at least ten thousand years old. He looked at the child in disbelief.
Xu Muan muttered, âThe Tree of Life had died for so many years. The image that we saw is the scene ten thousand years ago.â
Xiao Jinting nodded. âI think so.â
Xiao Jinting asked, âDid Mr. Tree of Life say anything else?â
The ginseng said cautiously, âCan you promise not to eat me if I tell you?â
Xiao Jinting nodded and said generously, âOkay, I wonât eat you.â
The ginseng said happily, âThatâs great.â
Xiao Jinting looked at the ginseng and thought, âThe child is gullible. I promise not to eat him, but that doesnât mean that the others wonât eat him.â
The ginseng said in depression, âWhen Mr. Tree of Life died, he said the spiritual world couldnât support him after the significant changes. He came here to look for the passage to the Immortal World. Unluckily, the passage was damaged, and he couldnât go to the Immortal World.â
Xiao Jinting frowned. âIs there a passage to the Immortal World on the island?â
The ginseng thought for a while and corrected him. âItâs a broken passage.â
Xiao Jinting asked, âCan you take me there and take a look?â
Flame said menacingly on Xiao Jintingâs shoulder, âLead the way. Iâll eat you if you waste our time.â
The ginseng whined and reluctantly led them to a deserted altar.
Xiao Jinting looked at the altar and felt it was trying to swallow all the creatures like a black hole.
âMr. Tree of Life said that there used to be an altar to the Immortal World, but the passage is damaged, so the altar could only bring one to the void, where even a Deity Transformation could hardly survive.â The ginseng didnât understand what the tree told him, so he mechanically narrated.
Xiao Jinting said, âTake me to the place where the tree died.â
The ginseng wriggled with reluctance.
Flame said ferociously, âHurry up. Donât dawdle. Iâll kill you.â
The ginseng cried. Flame said to Xiao Jinting, âHurry up. His tears are the juice of ginseng, which is valuable. Take a bowl and catch the tears. Donât waste them.â
Although Xiao Jinting didnât think it was a proper act, he quickly took out a bowl and caught the tears, not wishing to waste anything.
The ginseng looked up pitifully at Xiao Jinting, who felt ashamed by the innocent eyes.
The ginseng sniffed and stopped crying.
Looking at the ginseng, Xiao Jinting let out a sigh of relief in disappointment.
Xiao Jinting followed the ginseng to the place where the old tree died. It had been a long time, and the scent of the tree was thin.
Xiao Jinting sighed with disappointment.
Suddenly, the jade space alerted him that there was a seed of the Tree of Life. Xiao Jinting was surprised.
According to the instruction of the jade space, Xiao Jinting searched for a long time before he found the seed, which turned out to be like a stone. If it werenât for the jade space, he would not have thought that the stone was the seed of the Tree of Life.
Xu Muan said suspiciously, âIs it the seed? Is it a mistake?â
Xiao Jinting gave a confident nod. âIt is.â
Xu Muan was surprised.
He shook his head and said with delight, âWe are lucky to have the jade space. Otherwise, we will leave with no gains.â
Xiao Jinting nodded in agreement. Who would have cared such a plain stone? It was the seed of the Tree of Life. How strange.
Xiao Jinting learned quite some secrets from the ginseng.
The Tree of Life didnât grow up on the mountain. It came to the island in quest of the immortal passage after the significant changes tens of thousands of years ago.
After the ancient tree came to the island, it found the passage to the Immortal World was damaged. It was exhausted from the long journey, and it couldnât find a new place to stay, so it decided to settle down on the mountain.