novelraw Chapter 428: The Problem of Death
Chapter 428: The Problem of Death
"Teacher Fisher, that tree!"
Fisher, pulling the Fluid Sword, very swiftly rushed out of the room. But before fully halting, Asuka Karasawa, squinting due to the sweeping Gale Tornado, very swiftly noticed that the colossal tree behind the Uncle Chun Palace seemingly snapped from the intense earthquake. Amidst the boundless moonlight, the colossal tree towering hundreds of meters overturned toward the city, frightening Asuka Karasawa into frantically reminding Fisher thus.
"What's going on? Why is there an earthquake?!"
Just as Fisher stood within the courtyard gazing at the about-to-topple giant tree above, Gou Wen additionally dressed and hurriedly ran out. He first cast a glance at the tree above, then cast a bizarre glance at Asuka Karasawa remaining within Fisher's embrace, subsequently asking,
"Were you two... sleeping together just now?"
"No, no! Just that Mr. Fisher had some matters to attend to within my room!"
Asuka Karasawa yelled with a slightly red face, struggling to jump down from Fisher's embrace. Yet this pallid explanation failed to make Gou Wen believe it in the slightest. He swept a glance over Fisher's body, seemingly having discerned something, murmuring,
"Kidney water floating, essence and Qi restless, the heart moves first and the kidney gate fire moves... The Qi within his essence is like gunpowder, additionally having stored essence without releasing for a period. Currently, there is a tendency to explode at any minute, yet you still dare stay together with him, aren't you afraid of being eaten Completely Clean... Young people truly have huge guts."
"?"
Asuka Karasawa didn't hear clearly what Gou Wen said. Currently, the earth shook and mountains swayed, tremendously chaotic. She cast a puzzled look at Gou Wen, yet exclusively witnessed him pouting toward her, seemingly reminding her to pay attention to something.But the current situation was critical, not the time to consider Fisher's reproduction issues. In another room, Mikhail additionally walked out with a cold face, asking them,
"What's going on?"
"I don't know either, seemingly a sudden earthquake... Bizarre, the Tree Continent is entirely composed of Mythical Species yet surprisingly still experiences earthquakes. Could it be that some mishap occurred?"
Witnessing the giant tree developing increasingly more cracks upon its trunk, Fisher opened his mouth to remind,
"That tree is already about to collapse. Once it falls, I fear the entire capital will be razed to the ground."
"Ah, there's no need to worry about that. After all, there are three Mythical Species beings here. Even excluding that freeloader Helaire, Tsubaki Earl and Marquis Hiiragi will additionally handle it well. Currently, we merely need to take good care of the lower-tier people around us. Kuin is too advanced in age, and his adopted daughters are merely slightly stronger than humans... Ouch!"
As Gou Wen spoke, the back of his head was suddenly struck by a warm morning light, and his Fourteenth-Tier body surprisingly didn't react in the slightest.
He inhaled a breath of cold air, turning his head to look, solely to see Helaire sitting atop the roof beam remaining shaking from the earthquake, currently chewing a round fruit,
"What freeloader, such ugly scolding... This is called letting you fully unleash your subjective initiative. Having me an Angel leading you all is your blessing, alright."
"Where did you get the fruit?"
"Picked it up on the roadside, truly awful to eat."
Helaire twisted her head and spat out the fruit core. Akin to a fire dragon breathing fire, that warm morning light spat from her fragrant lips, instantaneously burning that fruit core Completely Clean, seemingly verifying her claim of it being awful to eat.
She clapped her hands, continuing to speak,
"But Gou Wen is correct, Tsubaki and Hiiragi will handle that giant tree. This earthquake isn't simple. The Tree Continent is merely a floating landmass growing upon the roots of the World Tree; everything here is her feedback, identically so for earthquakes... Similar to other Elves, after the Elf King dies, he additionally must undergo Reincarnation via a tree, but the tree he borrows for Reincarnation is his mother, namely the World Tree."
Fisher very swiftly comprehended the critical juncture within. He extrapolated following Helaire's meaning,
"Meaning, the Elf King has highly likely passed away?"
"Who knows. The Elf King is an existence of the Nineteenth-Tier, the first born Elf, identically the Elf closest to the World Tree among all Elves. Although his lifespan is nearing its end, he is extremely sensitive toward death; extending his life for a period of time is still highly possible."
During their conversation, uncountable densely packed purple spots abruptly grew upon the about-to-descend giant tree above, causing Asuka Karasawa, this ordinary human who didn't even have Trypophobia, to feel somewhat physiologically uncomfortable witnessing it. Yet very swiftly,朵朵 purple flowers fiercely sprang forth from within those purple spots.
Tsubaki Earl finally acted.
All those flower buds growing from the giant tree possessed four leaves. After blooming, they didn't linger upon the giant tree for a moment, instead very swiftly detaching from the rough bark and falling downwards, lightly rotating as they fell in mid-air like tiny parachutes, beautiful and dreamlike like a rain of flowers.
Purple spots continuously appeared upon the descending tree, until transforming that tree towering hundreds of meters and tens of meters wide completely into the initially witnessed flowers, lightly drifting toward the capital.
"..."
Fisher witnessed the methods of the Elves for the first time. Yet identical to Tsubaki Earl's gentle personality, even when attacking, it was like gentle breezes and light rain, both romantic and elegant.
"So beautiful... Right, that Helaire Angel, previously I invariably heard you guys talking about what 'caught up by death', is there a problem with the translation?" Asuka Karasawa blankly watched the sky-filling flower rain, involuntarily sighing in admiration. Yet suddenly realizing something, she asked Helaire thus.
"No oh, little cutie..."
Helaire jumped down from the roof beam, explaining to Asuka Karasawa regarding this world's death liquidation method for high-tier species. Upon hearing that inflexible mechanism resembling a program, Asuka Karasawa stared blankly for quite a while before comprehending; Helaire additionally conveniently explained to Fisher regarding the liquidation process for the natural death of Long-Lived Species.
When a Long-Lived Species's lifespan is about to deplete entirely, death will slowly lock onto them, solely entering a liquidation process identical to Fisher's when the lifespan is thoroughly depleted. The higher the tier, the more one can experience this feeling of pursuit. They will employ all methods to decelerate the drain of lifespan, making the arrival of death come later.
"Ah, why is there an earthquake?!"
Right as the several people conversed within the courtyard, the people within the Upper Minister's Estate identically consecutively ran out. Kuin lacked anyone to serve him, seemingly resting alone. Hearing the commotion outside, he frantically ran out, witnessing the multitude within the courtyard and speaking thus.
Upon this single glance, Fisher's pupils shrank slightly. Uniquely him, even Mikhail and Gou Wen vigilantly retreated a step, let alone that inherently timid Asuka Karasawa,
"Kuin, what happened to you?"
"Me? What happened to me..."
Witnessing the slightly blank state of the guests before his eyes, Kuin himself seemingly remained unaware of what transpired. Until he lowered his head to look, solely perceiving his hands completely lacked flesh and blood, solely remaining with osteoporotic bones. Yet his face still had skin and flesh attached, looking like a skeleton possessing exclusively a face.
"Ah! How did I... am I dead?"
"Father, are you alright... ahhh!!"
Within other rooms, Kuin's adopted daughters identically ran out. Witnessing Kuin's stick-figure appearance currently, they consecutively jumped in massive fright, staring blankly in place in terror.
Helaire characteristically laughed inappropriately while clutching her stomach, yet Gou Wen and Fisher's expressions grew increasingly grave. Fisher perceived the dense aura of death upon the other party's body, while Gou Wen proceeded entirely from the perspective of a doctor,
"Your body no longer possesses the aura of life. Your original body was poor. Although death had already noticed you, living for another few years ought to still be unproblematic, but now..."
Gou Wen abruptly extended his hand. Accompanying a thread flashing with fluorescence gently wrapping around the other party's arm which singularly composed of bone, the expression upon his face grew increasingly bizarre. He spoke to him,
"You are a person of the Tree Continent, I will speak to you in words you can comprehend... Elves view the foundations of biology as three, respectively Essence, Qi, and Spirit, these three are identically called the 【Three Treasures】. Essence is the mother of Qi, transformation and generation rely upon Qi, this is the foundation for your soul to attach to your physical body. But currently, your Essence and Qi are entirely empty, originally you ought to directly die, yet currently the Spirit surprisingly still exists transcending common sense, truly miraculous..."
Fisher, quite knowledgeable regarding soul theory, seemingly roughly comprehended the medical theory of the Elves. Soul and body depend upon each other yet remain respectively independent, but irrespective of whatsoever, the physical form is the carrier the soul depends upon. Currently Kuin's physical body had already died, yet the soul remained un-reclaimed by death to return to the Spirit World, transforming into this currently bizarre appearance.
"How could this be... is it solely me like this, or... wait, I must go confirm if others within the capital suffered disaster."
Kuin was a native of the Tree Continent, naturally comprehending Gou Wen's meaning. Before he fully recovered his wits, outside within the night curtain of the Tsubaki Fiefdom, quite a few clamoring sounds transmitted following the earthquake's aftershocks. He additionally cared not for his current state. As the Upper Minister of the Tsubaki Fiefdom, he frantically dragged his skeleton-like body, running towards the outside.
He barely broke out of the Upper Minister's Estate's main gate, uniquely to witness the outside of the Tsubaki Fiefdom in a complete mess amidst the earthquake. Not a few individuals who perished in the earthquake dragged skeleton-like bodies, blankly climbing out from the architectural ruins, sluggishly gazing towards the surroundings, seemingly yet unaware of what transpired, still unclear that they had already died...
The scene before the eyes was truly overly bizarre, to the point that even Kuin, who had contacted Mythical Species like the Elf-kin, was momentarily At A Loss.
"What is going on? I must go see Tsubaki Earl, he definitely..."
Whereas Fisher very swiftly realized something. That palpitations sensation had invariantly remained un-distanced, resultingly reminding him of the primary culprit causing all these terrifying transformations.
The rule of Death, seemingly encountered an issue.
"Tsubaki Earl! Tsubaki Earl! This is bad!"
I fear with Kuin's original body, he fundamentally lacked the ability to smoothly run from his Upper Minister's Estate to Tsubaki's palace. Yet ever since he transformed into a skeleton, he contrarily didn't feel exhausted. When he and Fisher's group arrived at Tsubaki Earl's palace, he surprisingly didn't feel tired in the slightest.
Tsubaki Earl's palace was half-collapsed. Occasionally, some skeletons could be seen extending their hands from between the shattered bricks and rubble, crying outwards for help. Fisher unfurled the Fluid Sword within his hand, rescuing them one by one. Witnessing them frightened by their currently terrifying postures before they even began celebrating their survival, Fisher didn't open his mouth to explain to them, exclusively following Kuin to the rear of the grand hall; that was where Tsubaki Earl resided.
The rear of the grand hall was spacious, yet currently completely paved entirely with those bizarre four-leaf purple flowers. By the time Kuin's group arrived, Tsubaki was sitting tranquilly upon the stairs in a daze, until hearing Kuin's shouts, he turned around "ding-a-ling" due to wearing quite a few metal earrings.
When witnessing Kuin whose entire body was a skeleton, his pupils shrank slightly imperceptibly, subsequently revealing visible apology,
"Kuin, did you identically perish due to the earthquake?"
Mythical Species naturally could perceive the aura of death encircling his body. Hearing this, Kuin conversely smiled uncaringly, cupping his hands in greeting,
"I didn't die because of the earthquake. I seemingly died of illness... However, I don't know why, currently I am still very clear-headed. Tsubaki Earl, none of this is important. Why did an earthquake occur? The Tree Continent is supported by Lord World Tree, currently we even transformed into this bizarre appearance. Also, Lord, the Tsubaki wood snapped, what about that 【Incarnation Branch】?"
As previously mentioned, after Elves die, they require planting a tree upon their body to undergo Reincarnation and incarnation, and the tree planted into the corpse of the previous incarnation is called the 【Incarnation Branch】, a branch dropped by the World Tree. After it is planted within the corpse, it invariantly remains within the corpse, and the corpse transforms into a colossal tree, until four years later a new Elf walks out from the tree.
The Incarnation Branch invariantly exists within the tree. If the Elf dies again later, the giant tree can identically be chopped down to extract the Incarnation Branch and plant it into the Elf corpse again, executing the next Reincarnation cycle. But currently, all Elves have undergone Reincarnation at most uniquely once.
"Like this... I don't know why there was an earthquake. When I cast the spell just now, I eliminated the entire tree, the Incarnation Branch ought to identically have disappeared. But no matter, I'll just go fetch it from the Royal Capital later."
Tsubaki Earl seemingly appeared somewhat absent-minded due to the sudden disaster before his eyes, exclusively barely recalling this matter when reminded by Kuin. Yet very swiftly he shook his head, instructing Kuin,
"Kuin, you go provide disaster relief first, I have matters to discuss with the Sanctuary emissaries."
"Yes, Tsubaki Earl."
Tsubaki watched Kuin, entirely a skeleton, slowly run far away, seemingly running much faster than when he was advanced in age, identically much more relaxed. Yet Tsubaki's expression seemingly bore no distinct fluctuation. He looked at Helaire and stated,
"The earthquake was definitely caused by Lord World Tree. Coinciding identically with the earthquake just now, all our Elves received a decree, forbidding leaving our own kingdoms. The method originally prepared for you to travel to the Royal Capital can exclusively be traversed by yourselves now. But fortunately, the destination isn't far from our Tsubaki Fiefdom."
Helaire "aba aba" un-speaking a single word. Fisher heaved a sigh, speaking to Tsubaki,
"You want us to find someone who can help us arrive at the Royal Capital?"
Tsubaki Earl cast a profound glance at Fisher, subsequently shaking his head, stating,
"Not an individual, but rather a group of people, a race. Their relationship with me is superb, they are my good friends who do not belong to the Tsubaki Fiefdom, identically the uniquely present existence capable of bringing you all to arrive at the Royal Capital amidst the blockade of laws."
"They are the Phoenix Race, a great race."
Fisher stared blankly slightly upon hearing this, instantaneously seemingly feeling the bone-piercing biting wind of the Northern Realm ten thousand years later.
(End of this chapter)