Chapter 2189.2: Old Tree

Fallen Leaf City had long disseminated Lu Yun’s physical appearance and aura to the cities and towns close to Fallen Leaf Mountain. Three million paramount rank stones was no small sum. Countless cultivators had assembled into teams to hunt for Lu Yun in the surrounding region.

Although he looked different now, when was physical appearance ever a consideration when it came to bounty? Any art of illusion could change one’s form, not to mention treasures like Transformation Jade and Talismans.

The bounties of the worlds of cultivations were based off jade slips that contained the target’s aura. Cultivators could familiarize themselves through the jade slip and use the aura to find the target.

Physical form could be changed, but one’s core essence and aura could not. Generally held within the body, aura seeped out whenever true origin operated and during the course of battle. It lingered briefly in the outside world.

Auras could be collected through jade slips fashioned from Destined Origin Stone and replicated. Any cultivator that wished to become a citizen of empires fourth rank and above had to register themselves at the various cities, leaving their aura behind on one such jade slip. This would serve as their form of identification in the world.

Although a wanted order did not utilize this kind of jade slip, it functioned essentially the same as one. It might even be more useful than the jade slip since all cultivators needed to do was to infuse the order with their consciousness to gain a sense of the target’s aura. If the target was in the vicinity, the cultivator would know through the aura that they were already familiar with.

This was similar to the arrest warrants in the world of mortals. One could first take a look at a drawing of the suspect to immediately identify the right person when the opportunity arose. Therefore, Lu Yun was corralled the moment he walked out of Fallen Leaf Mountain.

“That’s right, it’s him! That’s the walking three million paramount stones!” Some cultivators greeted him enthusiastically and flung themselves at him.

“What the.. they don’t need to do things this way, do they? The Black Tortoise leader can crush me to death with a single hand, what’s with the bounty?” Lu Yun frowned as sword light flashed beneath his feet. He flew to the northeast.

They were still within Fallen Leaf City jurisdiction and he didn’t want to fight anyone here. No place would be safe once those heavyweights in the city realized where he was and gave chase. They were eccentric folks with unpredictable tempers and Lu Yun didn’t want to risk it.

Nearly one thousand cultivators followed him, so he summoned more power from Immortals Forbidden. It blurred into crimson light nine meters long and raced across the sky.

“Tsk tsk tsk! An upper spirit rank weapon in the hands of a mere golden core junior. Is it me who’s too lucky or you being too unlucky?” A cultivator less than thirty years old wearing long green robes suddenly came to a stop in front of Lu Yun. “I don’t care about the spirit stones, but I want that flying sword!”

He sent out a flash of sword radiance aimed at Lu Yun’s forehead.

“Hmph!” Lu Yun snorted. The man was latter nascent soul, hardly worth anything in his eyes. He wouldn’t fear a nascent soul cultivator from Great Xia, to say nothing of the ones from a world of cultivation.

He dodged with a twist of his body and tapped the green radiance.

Bam!

Silver light sparkled at his fingertips and disassembled the mid fine rank flying sword.

“You! Damn you for destroying my True Origin Sword!” The man paled and spat out a mouthful of fresh blood. “Die!”

The man summoned a black flag into his hand and waved it ferociously, dissipating a cloud of black fog that churned toward Lu Yun.

“Poison fog!” While he didn’t know what the black fog was, he could sense the enormous amount of poison inside. Highly cautious, he bade Immortals Forbidden to flare with light and turn into a miniature sun.

With a red sun beneath his feet, Lu Yun seemed as if a god descending from the skies. He barrelled toward the man in long green robes, exorcizing the poison fog without difficulty.

“You can’t do this!” The man was as pale as a sheet. “You can’t kill me! I am the city lord of Boulder Rise, grandson of Prince Sui of Dark Orchid. You—”

He vaporized into the void.

“Grandson of Prince Sui of Dark Orchid? Yeah, I’m your daddy alright.”

Prince Sui of Dark Orchid was a notable powerhouse of the empire. Since Lu Yun had come to this land, he was going to turn the nation upside down. He circled past Fallen Leaf Mountain after killing Prince Sui’s grandson and headed north.

The cultivators following stopped with shock when they saw Lu Yun killed a latter nascent soul heavyweight with one move.

“He.. he killed the city lord of Boulder Rise! All of Dark Orchid will want his head now!” murmured a latter golden core.

“Not just Dark Orchid, Prince Sui is said to be the disciple of an immortal—the war god of Dark Orchid! He’ll be out for blood with the death of his grandson and I suspect that all of the neighboring countries will issue wanted orders!”

“THat’s right, Dark Orchid is the only independent nation of this world because of Prince Sui. That young man is dead without a doubt!”

....

Lu Yun didn’t care about a Prince Sui or a Prince Hey. Whenever one wanted to kill another for their treasure, one had to be prepared to be killed in return.

“So I have Starnet Stone now, but I need a few more items before I can refine Proxima Metal.” Lu Yun slowed down when he saw his pursuers drop off and debated how to locate the last of his ingredients. “They’re not rare or precious things, I should be able to find them in Dark Orchid.”

He suddenly paused. It was mid summer and the sun was beginning to set in the west. It was the hottest moment of the day, but he didn’t feel any hot air. The temperature around him was on par with Jade Ice Lake.

Whoosh!

A thick vine burrowed out from the ground and wrapped around one of his calves.

“This thing again!” Lu Yun stared, urging another flare of light out from Immortals Forbidden. It decimated the vine before the latter had a chance to tighten.

“I know I circled past Fallen Leaf Mountain, so what’s this vine doing here?” Lu Yun stood in the air with his sword emanating scintillating radiance. More views reached out of the void and surrounded him.

He refrained from making a move. There were too many vines and they were unusually durable. The one he’d destroyed seemed to have been bait. They didn’t do anything after they encircled him, just wove a spherical cage that kept him inside.

“Teleportation! These vines can teleport!” His Eye of Nullification immediately sensed that the vines shifted location after they confined him. “Has the owner of the herb garden discovered the theft and is bringing me back for an explanation?”

Various possibilities ran through his mind.

The scene brightened in front of him and his jaw dropped when he could see clearly. There was a wall in front of him, a brown wall so tall that its peak could not be seen. Various ancient patterns interlaced with each other on the wall and a dense sense of bleakness exuded from it.

“Little guy, you took my things without even asking beforehand. You’re a thief!” A wizened voice rang by Lu Yun’s ear.

His Eye of Nullification scanned the premises and found no one. There weren't even spirit beasts within fifty kilometers, to say nothing of people. There was only the tree.

Lu Yun lifted his head and gaped when he thought of something.

“This.. this is a tree??” The wall in front of him was the trunk of an enormous tree that towered to the heavens!

“I am but a tree. Am I supposed to have arms and legs like you?”

“The junior greets the senior!” Lu Yun took a few steps back and bowed respectfully. A tree like this was at least one million years old! “This junior didn’t know that the herbs belonged to the senior. I will return them promptly.”

Lu Yun immediately took out several dozen storage rings.

“You can have the spirit herbs since you’ve harvested them,” the old tree responded. “But I desire something else from you.”

“Something else?” Lu Yun blinked.

“An unknown sacred wood treasure!” the old tree clarified eagerly. “There is an unknown wood attribute treasure on you as you bear wood energy even purer than mine. If I obtain it, I will be able to take human form!”

“Eh?” Lu Yun started, knowing that the old tree spoke of the leaf from the Builder Tree. It’d become one with him, however, and could not be separated. He would have to die before it could be bought out.