The Fusang sacred tree was simply too massive to fell through brute force alone—cleverness was needed instead.
Jun Beiyue’s reasoning was sound. They didn’t need to dig out every root—they only needed to sever them. No matter how thick the roots were, they were bound to be thinner than the trunk itself!
At once, Jun Beiyue, Baili Weisheng, and Xuanyuan Lige began digging into the earth, with Ziqing pitching in wherever she could help, while Xinyun watched from the side, clearly displeased.
She seemed to already know something—she simply wasn’t saying it!
Soon enough, they reached the largest of the Fusang sacred tree’s roots, and just as they’d guessed, the roots weren’t nearly as terrifyingly massive as the trunk. And yet, when Jun Beiyue struck them with several wind blades, the roots remained just as motionless as the trunk had been!
Seeing this, Xinyun’s lips curled with a hint of disdain, still watching coldly from the side.
“This is truly bizarre!” Baili Weisheng murmured, immediately summoning a shimmering golden scale form and drawing out his golden-scaled weapon. Though they weren’t underwater, so the golden scales’ power was far weaker than it would have been beneath the sea, it was still among the sharpest things in the world.
And yet, helplessly, the root remained unmoved—it didn’t even show a scratch!
At this, Xuanyuan Lige and Ziqing didn’t bother wasting further effort.
“Strange, this is truly strange. It seems there’s simply no way to cut through it,” Ziqing said with certainty, turning to Xinyun. “How much do you actually know about this tree?”
To her surprise, Xinyun was at that moment gazing at Baili Weisheng with a besotted, faraway look, as though staring at a lover she’d pined for endlessly, utterly lost in it, and didn’t even notice Ziqing’s question.
Ziqing shot Baili Weisheng a suspicious glance. He, too, was about to look over, his expression utterly bewildered—he could say with absolute certainty that he genuinely did not know this woman!
“Xinyun!” Ziqing gave her a nudge, and Xinyun finally snapped back to herself, unable to fully hide the panic in her eyes. She offered an excuse. “Ah? Were you calling me? I haven’t slept all night, and my mind’s gone blank from exhaustion.”
Ziqing thought to herself that this woman might have fallen for Baili Weisheng at first sight, but didn’t dwell on it further, asking again, “How much do you know about this Fusang sacred tree?”
Know?
Of course Xinyun knew. She also knew exactly how to cut down this Fusang sacred tree. But she couldn’t say so.
The moment she’d first laid eyes on this group, she’d known none of them were simple people!
Especially the man beside Han Ziqing—he spoke the least, his face nearly always expressionless, yet he carried an aura of quiet menace that made others afraid to even meet his gaze, let alone try to figure him out.
And that man with the purple robes and silver hair, equally silent—she hadn’t even heard him speak a single word yet. He looked like an exiled immortal, yet carried a cold detachment that kept everyone at arm’s length, utterly unreadable.
As for Baili Weisheng, descendant of the golden shark clan—he was, without doubt, her most fatal weakness. The moment she looked at him, she lost all control of herself, unable to meet his eyes.
Even though she couldn’t fully read this group, she knew that every word she spoke, every step she took, had to be carefully calculated—otherwise, there was no way she could lead them by the nose!
“I don’t know much either. It was already here when I arrived,” Xinyun said helplessly, then paused before adding, “Why don’t we all try together? There’s strength in numbers, after all—one person’s strength alone has its limits.”
“I don’t think this tree can be felled through strength alone. There must be some particular trick to it,” Jun Beiyue said instead.
Anger flared in Xinyun at once—this irritating man kept interfering with her plans time and time again, truly infuriating. Still, no matter how furious she was, she suppressed it deep down. “I never really thought about what the trick might be. I don’t know.”
Xinyun wanted very much to urge everyone to try again together, but faced with Jun Beiyue’s scrutinizing gaze, she chose to hold her tongue.
If she aroused this group’s suspicion even once, all her efforts would be wasted!
She’d waited over twenty years, hadn’t she, precisely for this group to arrive?
“Why don’t we try together, all of us at once?” But at this moment, it was Ziqing who sided with Xinyun.
Xinyun brightened immediately, nodding at once. “It should be possible to cut down—it’s just that none of us alone has enough strength. This is a tree hundreds of years old, after all.”
Indeed, without trying, there was no other option available.
So everyone gathered around the massive trunk of the Fusang sacred tree. It was so enormous that even the five of them joining hands couldn’t fully encircle it.
Ziqing, Jun Beiyue, and the other two men stood together, while Xinyun once again found herself unconsciously excluded, standing some distance away from Baili Weisheng.
Yet she didn’t seem to mind the distance at all, smiling as she said, “I’ll count to three, and everyone give it everything you’ve got!”
None of the three grown men answered, showing no enthusiasm at all, let alone any sense of teamwork. Ziqing laughed helplessly and called out loudly, “All right!”
“Mm!” Xinyun looked excited and determined, though the smile never quite reached her eyes. “I’ll start counting now. One! Two! Three!”
The moment the words left her mouth, all five of them struck at once. Yet unexpectedly, before anyone could even land a second blow, a creaking, groaning sound immediately rang out beside their ears!
Everyone froze at once, unsure of what was happening—only to see countless deep gashes suddenly appear across the Fusang sacred tree’s massive trunk!
Some of these wounds clearly looked old and weathered, while others had obviously just been made moments ago—not only from their combined effort just now, but also from the earlier individual strikes by Jun Beiyue, Xuanyuan Lige, and Baili Weisheng!
“Could it be that this tree is simply so ancient it has a delayed reaction?” Baili Weisheng said, utterly astonished.
At that very moment, the Fusang sacred tree began slowly toppling, leaning toward the west.
No one had time to think of anything else, retreating and craning their necks upward. But even with the tree tilted this far already, they still couldn’t see its crown—who could say just how tall this tree truly was?
“How could this be?” Xinyun exclaimed in feigned shock. “So many of these wounds are ones I made ages ago—why would they only appear now!”
“You don’t know, and neither do we,” Baili Weisheng said. Seeing Jun Beiyue and Xuanyuan Lige leap up onto the trunk, he immediately followed suit.
The massive trunk, already tilting faster and faster, accelerated even more as Jun Beiyue and the other two landed on it, adding their weight.
Seeing this, Ziqing hurried to leap up as well. But the moment her feet touched the great trunk, the entire tree suddenly toppled all at once—in an instant, a deafening boom shook the earth as it crashed to the ground, leaving everyone momentarily too stunned to react, the tremor rippling through the entire landscape for a good while afterward.
Not just Ziqing herself, but even Jun Beiyue and the others hadn’t recovered from the shock. They’d assumed a tree this massive would take at least half an hour to fully fall!
Who would have guessed that the moment Ziqing stepped onto it, the entire tree simply crashed down instantly.
Ziqing exchanged bewildered glances with everyone else—she had no idea what had happened either.
“Could it be because of you?” Jun Beiyue asked, frowning. Ziqing could only shake her head—she genuinely didn’t understand.
At this point, Baili Weisheng spoke up quietly. “Speaking of which… did any of you see the top of the tree?”
Only then did everyone realize this problem. They followed the length of the trunk with their eyes, but still couldn’t find its end. Just how long was this tree, exactly?
Surely it hadn’t stretched all the way into the sea?