Supreme Tamer
Chapter 1454 - Chapter 1454 Chapter 1315 The Withered Tree and the Girl

Chapter 1454: Chapter 1315: The Withered Tree and the Girl Chapter 1454: Chapter 1315: The Withered Tree and the Girl The Three-eyed Wind Hawk slowly drifted into the depths of the Silent Forest.

Originally, the plants in the depths of the Silent Forest should have been dense and towering, truly a forest world that extended into the sky.

However, after the battle of human invasion, the depths of the Silent Forest had become somewhat desolate. One could see many ancient trees, over ten thousand years old, that had been chopped halfway down, lying on a patch of blackened, scorched ground.

Many places in the depths of the Silent Forest were pitted and uneven. Much of the land had completely lost its natural nutrients due to the coverage of destructive skills such as darkness, flame, and thunder, to the point that not only the resource-dependent big trees couldn’t grow, but even the most resilient grass and plants couldn’t survive.

The Silent Forest had indeed existed for an exceedingly long time. In just five or six years, it was impossible for it to return to its original state; even with the World Monarch Tree’s withering, the Silent Forest could at most become an ordinary virgin forest in a hundred years, a thousand years, or ten thousand years; it could never again be like the fairyland jungle of the past.

Seeing these scenes of desolation, seeing the marks of destruction left behind by the battles of Immortal Level Creatures, Ning Man’er’s heart felt even more sour.

No wonder the surviving guardians had dispersed as well. This Silent Forest was no longer the Silent Forest it once was; gone were the tranquility and peace of the past. All that remained were the scorched traces left by war.

The deeper she flew, the more severe the damage appeared. Ning Man’er could hardly recognize any familiar faces.

Suddenly, a patch of bare ground, like a desert, appeared in front of Ning Man’er!

Ning Man’er was stunned. This completely exposed land without a single plant was once the holy soil of the World Monarch Tree. Those people had spared not a single plant in the holy soil, turning it into a barren land!

Behind her was a deep green forest, but ahead lay desolation. The fierce wind picked up some of the dry soil, turning it into dust in the air. Some grit got into Ning Man’er’s eyes, making her emotions even more indescribable.

The desolate area stretched far and wide, at the very center, Ning Man’er saw a tree silhouette that was both incredibly familiar yet strangely alien.

In the past, this tree silhouette in Ning Man’er’s heart was the most sacred and tallest great figure that supported the entire World. It wasn’t her family, but it was more protective and nurturing than family…

It wasn’t human, it was merely a tree, an old tree that had existed here for who knows how many tens of thousands of years.

Perhaps, her short less than ten years here were but a blink of an eye for the World Monarch Tree, but for Ning Man’er, who had grown up here, that time was nearly everything.

Yet, like the sacred soil, the greatness in her heart had decayed.

Its huge body that once supported the sky no longer seemed full of life, as if only the dry, old bark wrapped around it. Its tree crown, which once shielded and protected the depths of the Silent Forest, had become extremely sparse, and its branches kept falling off in the wind. Its roots exposed on the ground had also withered away like sun-dried mud, devoid of any vitality…

It was like seeing a lean and strong elder suddenly transformed into a corpse lying in a coffin.

The death of the World Monarch Tree was now a fact, and Ning Man’er had thoroughly prepared herself emotionally, but upon truly seeing the stooped remains of the World Monarch Tree, she felt her throat completely choked with acidity.

The Three-eyed Wind Hawk circled halfway around the decayed body of the World Monarch Tree, then gradually descended to the tree’s roots.

Ning Man’er jumped down from the back of the Three-eyed Wind Hawk, saying, “I want to stay here and accompany Grandpa Tree.”

The Three-eyed Wind Hawk nodded its head, spread its wings, and flew back up into the sky.

Although this place had become a barren land, a guardian was always a guardian. The Three-eyed Wind Hawk wouldn’t let humans set foot here again.

Ning Man’er watched the Three-eyed Wind Hawk fly away, and she carefully climbed up along the World Monarch Tree’s tangled and scattered old roots.

The body of the World Monarch Tree was immense, and so were its roots, with some of the larger ones resembling small hillside slopes to Ning Man’er.

After climbing one of the roots, it forked, creating a slender groove perfectly sized to lay down a multitude of soft, decay-resistant leaves and petals.

In fact, this small groove on the root of the World Monarch Tree was the little bed where Ning Man’er had spent over three thousand nights.

She slept there, with petals and leaves as her mattress, and a small new leaf from the World Monarch Tree could wrap around and cover her entire body with room to spare…

When the wind blew fiercely, there was no intrusion of air currents here. In the rain, it remained perpetually dry, as Ning Man’er would usually lean there, gazing at the endless curtain of rain. Even when heavy snowfall came, the cold could not penetrate this tiny space.

There was no place warmer than this.

Seeing this familiar place, the weary and wandering Ning Man’er felt a powerful sense of belonging as she took off her shoes and slowly lay down…

Back then, Ning Man’er was just a little maid, her frame delicate and petite; this wooden bed was just the right size for her.

However, now she had grown quite a bit, and the little bed seemed somewhat short when it accommodated her,

Ning Man’er first lay on her back, hands resting on her flat belly, her clear eyes devoid of any stray thoughts, staring at the sky.

In the past at this time, strands of light would spill from the tree crown of the World Monarch Tree, each band distinctly clear. The azure sky peeked through the gaps in the leaves. Occasionally, flocks of winged creatures would pass by, scattering clean and light feathers that, along with some falling leaves, gently danced and drifted in the sunlight – an entire afternoon could pass by like this, without a thought or worry…

Yet now, even lying in the same spot, the scene she saw was not the one from her memories, but just an empty blue sky and a few lonely branches.

“Tree Grandpa, Ning Man’er has come to visit you,” Ning Man’er said, smiling slightly as she murmured.

The dry old branches swayed gently in the sky, whether moved by the wind or answering Ning Man’er’s words as the long-dead tree might.

“Everyone is gone; you must be very lonely.”

“I have so much I want to tell Tree Grandpa, but I don’t know where to start, so many things have happened…”

“Mm-hmm, then I’ll start from when I left the Silent Forest.”

“Big Lion covered for me and everyone else as we escaped…”

“Ning Man’er misses Big Lion so much.”

“Demon Brother is nice to me, but he’s always so stern, not fun at all.”

“And Sister Ye is the best. When Brother ignores me, I go tell her, and she’s sure to set him straight.”

“And there’s White One, White Two, White Three, oh, they’re under Brother’s command, all White Nightmare Demons, always circling around me.”

Ning Man’er lay by herself under the tree, slowly recounting her experiences…

But in reality, she appeared more like someone talking to themselves.

(Chapter Two, still short on word count, couldn’t help it as I spent all three days outside and I don’t have that many drafts saved. May adjust a bit tomorrow or the next, will be back to normal soon~) (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (NovelFire.net) to cast your votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my biggest driving force.)