Chapter 1756: Fate Taking Tree

“Will we find the evil suppressing spiritual treasure in one of these locations?” Old Man Turtle asked.

“Maybe.” Ye Qing did not give a sure answer. “Howevre, all evil suppressing spiritual treasures are ultimate treasures of the world. Therefore, their power will warp their surroundings and conjure all sorts of miracles and phenomena.”

Old Man Turtle looked around as if trying to recall an old memory. “If I remember correctly, there is a big, unusual tree not far away from here. We can check it out if you want to.”

“Of course. Please lead the way, elder.”

Ye Qing motioned for him to take charge, and Old Man Turtle nodded. He began leading the group down a certain direction.

“This is the place.”

After they passed through a strange land that was filled with mixing light and darkness and had extremely erratic lighting, a lake appeared before the group’s eyes.

The lake was suspended in the air and crimson in color. It wasn’t blood though. It was on fire.

Fire and water, heat and cold existed in harmony inside the lake. It was an unprecedented, wonderful sight.

At the center of the lake was a big tree.

The tree was hundreds of meters tall. Water made up its trunk and branches, and fire made up its flowers and leaves. Concealed between the flowers and leaves were many fruits.

The fruits were oddly-shaped. More accurately, they were heads.

There were heads of pigs, dogs, ox, goats, wolves, worms, tigers, leopards, hawks, birds, fishes, turtles... and even humans.

The faces of the human beings were quite varied. There were male and female, old and young. Their expressions were just as varied. There were joy, sorrow, anger, resentment, fear and more.

“Is... Is that my head I’m seeing?!”

Suddenly, Old Man Turtle’s expression turned astonished.

It was because he saw his own head and face among the sea of heads.

The face did not look like his current face though. It was a face from when he was seventeen or eighteen years old.

The face was wearing what looked like a stunned and horrified expression. Its eyes were wide open, and its mouth was agape as if he was seeing something absolutely horrifying.

For whatever reason, the second he set his sights on the face, Old Man Turtle felt both a surge of fear and desire.

He felt fear, because he was afraid of the tree.

He felt desire, because he wanted the fruit.

“We need to go! That’s the Fate Taking Tree!”

It was at this moment Lingyu cried out in shock and panic.

As if on cue, the tree started swaying even though there was no wind. Water and fire flickered as every fruit on the tree opened their eyes and mouths. Mysterious voices began calling out to them.

“Ye Qing...”

“Feng Qingyou...”

“Old Man Turtle...”

“Lingyu...”

The myriad voices overlapped with each other. It sounded like countless people were calling their names.

At the same time, everyone sensed some sort of mysterious and profound energy leaking out of their bodies.

They did not know what kind of power it was, but they all instinctively felt worried and troubled by the loss.

It was at this moment three flowers withered, and three fruits were slowly growing. They looked like babies in a cradle.

Although they were just babies, Ye Qing, Feng Qingyou and Lingyu instinctively realized that the three fruits were them.

At the same time, they had a strong feeling that something terrible would happen if the three fruits were allowed to mature.

A new fruit did not grow for Old Man Turtle, but the existing one was maturing. The fruit grew bigger, and the fruit looked more mature in just one breath.

“What are you waiting for? Go!”

Lingyu cried out again before breaking into a run.

However, the girl did not go far before she realized that she had returned to the original spot.

It wasn’t just the girl. Ye Qing, Feng Qingyou and Old Man Turtle all attempted to escape to no avail.

“The time and space of this place are distorted.”

Old Man Turtle looked around and frowned deeply. “It would not be easy to leave this place.”

Lingyu looked like she wanted to cry when she heard this. “What do we do then? We’re all going to die if we don’t leave soon!”

Ye Qing and Feng Qingyou said nothing. One of them was looking at the strange tree, while the other seemed to be searching for something.

The few breaths of delay was enough for the three fruits to undergo a change.

Before, the fruits were shaped like babies. Now, they looked like three or four-year-old children. Their facial features were becoming defined. Lingyu’s fruit in particular was growing at an accelerated rate. It looked three to five years older in just the blink of an eye.

“Big brother Ye, big sis Feng, think something quick! If the faces on the fruits match our current appearance, then we’re all going to die!”

Looking at the growing fruit, a panicking Lingyu clutched Ye Qing’s arm tightly and sobbed, “Uu... I’m still so young... I don’t want to die... uu...”

“Stop crying. You’re not going to die, at least not now!”

As Ye Qing said this, the Earthly Sovereign Bell appeared above their heads and shook slightly.

Thang...

The bell chimed softly, and profound light shone. As a strange warmth penetrated both her body and her mind, the inexplicable energy leaking out of her body abruptly stopped.

The fruit on the strange tree stopped growing as well.

“It’s not growing! I’m... I’m fine now?” Lingyu was overjoyed to escape death, of course.

Ye Qing looked at the strange tree curiously. “You seem to know what the tree is, girl.”

“It’s the Fate Taking Tree.” Lingyu explained, “I’ve seen it in a book before. An Ancient-class Stranger, the Fate Taking Tree grows in mysterious or profound lands. If a living creature sees it, their fate would be stolen by it to grow a corresponding Fruit of Fate.”

“The fruit would grow continuously as their fate was stolen. When the face on the fruit matches the victim’s perfectly, their fate has been completely stolen, and something terrible will happen.”

“fate, huh?”

Ye Qing wasn’t surprised by her answer. He had a feeling that it was something like that.

Old Man Turtle asked urgently, “What kind of terrible things are we talking about?”

Lingyu turned a little pale. “The victim would not die immediately after losing all of their fate, but they will suffer all sorts of unspeakable danger and horrors in the next nine days. They cannot be solved or stopped. In the end, the victim would perish in both body and mind, never to be reborn.”

Ye Qing nodded. Fate and fate had always been profound concepts. If one’s fate was influenced or robbed, the trajectory of their fate would change, and the victim’s lives would undergo an unfathomable, unknowable change.

And nothing was scarier than the unknown.

Old Man Turtle blanched a little. “If that’s true, what’s going to happen to us?”

Lingyu’s expression turned a little serious. “We’ve only lost a portion of our fate, so we won’t die in nine days. However, bad things are still going to happen to us. For example, our fortune may decrease dramatically, we may encounter a lot more accidents than normal, our journey may turn out to be a lot more tumultuous than expected, good things may turn into bad things, friends may turn into enemies, guaranteed successes would turn into strange failures, so on and so forth.”

“It is impossible to trace, predict, or defend ourselves against these accidents. We can only survive it.”