Chapter 757 - The Harvest Ceremony
Chapter 757: The Harvest Ceremony
“Yes, isn’t it?” Meng Chao’s voice was a little perfunctory.
“There’s no need for ‘isn’t it.’ Of course, it is!”
Lu Siya extended her arm, which was covered in feathers and flowers, and pressed on Meng Chao’s shoulder hard as she strengthened her tone. “Now that I think about it, the life we lived in Dragon City was too evil. We were scheming all day long. All we could think about was not how to cultivate and strengthen ourselves, but how to expand our forces and earn money that we could never spend.
“Even when we fought with the monsters, we had to ask ourselves, was it really for so-called human civilization? Was it not for our own ambitions!
“It was as if we were controlled by some mysterious force and unknowingly became its slaves. We were not ourselves at all.
“Unfortunately, at that time, I was deeply immersed in sin and did not know it. I was willing to endure such a life full of competition, deception, and fighting.
“Fortunately, what was the saying? ‘I could have endured the darkness as long as I never saw the light.’
“Peach Blossom Town was the light!
“After coming here, I realized that life could be completely different. It could be equal, peaceful, and carefree. It could be free from deceit and competition. It could be free from the invisible whips that were whipping me from behind. It could be free to stop and take a deep breath. It could be free from any sense of purpose or mission. It could just enjoy the scenery around it.
“It hasn’t been until this moment that I feel truly alive. The Lu Siya, who struggled in Dragon City in the past, was merely a corpse puppet in the hell of fame and ambition.
“Having realized this, of course, I have to tell my companions about my feelings and pull them out of the sea of suffering together.
“Meng Chao, you are my comrade-in-arms who shares the same ideals as me. I believe that my pain, anxiety, and annoyance caused by the fire of ambition in Dragon City are no less than yours. However, now that we have arrived in thia real bright heaven, the carefree paradise of peach blossoms, we should abandon everything in the past and usher in a brand-new life!”
She went forward again and gave Meng Chao a warm hug.
Perhaps it was because she had really been reborn and looked brand new, but Meng Chao felt that her body temperature was slightly higher than usual. Plus, her body had become softer.
Meng Chao originally thought that she would use the hug to give him some hints.
For example, she would secretly pinch his waist or something.
Yet, there was nothing. It was just a passionate, sincere, and pure hug.
“Forget it. I know that you’ve only just woken up, so it’s normal for you to not think straight for a while. Once you receive the Tree of Wisdom’ enlightenment at the Harvest Festival, you’ll understand what I’m saying. Now, you just need to trust me—trust me unconditionally,” Lu Siya said to Meng Chao with a smile.
Then, she turned to Gu Ling and said, “Sister Gu Ling, it’s getting late. Let’s go to the Harvest Festival together!”
“Great!”
Lu Siya was much more likable than when she was Queen Bee.
Gu Ling seemed to adore her very much. She held Lu Siya’s hand and skipped forward.
Order had been restored at the four forks. All the human and beast tides were surging in the same direction.
That place seemed to be the center of the satellite town, where tall buildings were the densest.
Meng Chao observed along the way, but found that the closer he got to the center of the town, the more serious the collapse and damage of the buildings became.
Most of the collapsed buildings were covered by the sea of flowers and the Green Tide. They looked like beautiful graves.
The cracks between the broken walls became the monsters’ nests.
A large number of Nightmarish Beasts and Hell Beasts came in and out. Jackals and wolves were in the way, while tigers and leopards were everywhere. Their eyes shone with a human-like light. They looked very high-spirited as if they were the owners of this town.
Meng Chao also saw some humans serving the monsters.
A Tyrant Mammoth was lying on the ground comfortably with its eyes half-closed.
Meanwhile, seven to eight humans were holding special tools that resembled extra-large wooden combs and back scratchers. They were combing the lice and fleas in its hair, helping it relax its flesh and bones.
Seeing it enjoy the experience as it swung its long trunk and trumpeted, Meng Chao instinctively vomited.
The scene in front of him was even more shameful and disgusting than seeing the Tyrant Mammoth trample seven or eight humans to death with its War Trample.
It took him a lot of effort to forcefully suppress the urge to pull out the Golden Tooth Blood Soul Saber.
Sensing his subtle killing intent, Lu Siya glanced at him out the corner of her eyes and quietly inserted herself between him and the Tyrant Mammoth, blocking his line of sight.
“What a beautiful scene. Humans scratch the fleas out and tickle the Tyrant Mammoth. In return, the Tyrant Mammoth also contributes to the human race by ploughing hard and making the etherealized plants bear more fruits.”
Lu Siya smiled and said, “Aren’t such mutually benefitting relationships much better than the life-and-death struggle we had in the past?
“The Harvest Festival ceremony is about to begin. The Tree of Wisdom is right in front of us. Let’s go!”
She grabbed Meng Chao’s wrist, which was holding onto the Golden Tooth Blood Soul Saber, and dragged him forward.
After turning at the next intersection, a… no, a hundred strong and unusual smells crashed into Meng Chao’s nostrils like a tide.
“This is…”
Looking at the sea of people in front of him, as well as the buildings that were a hundred times more magnificent than the crowd, Meng Chao was greatly surprised.
It should be the center of the high-tech industrial zone that Dragon City had vigorously developed during the Earth era.
Relying on two landmark buildings that were more than 300 meters tall and looked like dual stars, he noted that there were dozens of buildings that were one to two hundred meters tall around them. They formed a large square that was filled with stars.
Unfortunately, most of the buildings had broken down from the middle and collapsed into gravestones.
It became more and more obvious that the lonely “dual stars” were towering into the clouds.
However, upon careful observation, one could find that these “dual stars” were also golden on the outside but rotten on the inside.
Their internal structure had long been destroyed, leaving only their empty shells that were barely standing.
Rather than two skyscrapers, they were more like two crumbling chimneys.
The only thing that supported them and prevented them from collapsing like the buildings around them was the vines that were intertwined between the dual stars.
Countless creeping vines and branches that were covered in Green Tides and wriggling like internal organs had replaced the original reinforced concrete, filling the internal structure of the dual stars.
They extended their tentacles from every broken window of the dual star and entangled with each other like the thickest rope and steel bar. They bound, covered, wrapped, and swallowed the dual stars.
The vines were so dense that no gaps could be seen. It was like a towering tree with a diameter of 100 meters that supported the dual stars and soared into the sky.
Once they reached a height of 300 meters above the dual stars and no longer had the buildings’ support, the vines bloomed in all directions like the flowers of a fairy. They spread out like the crown of a giant banyan tree and landed on the roofs of the surrounding buildings, continuing to spread and intertwine in every trajectory. They formed a giant umbrella that blotted out the sky and the sun.
Meng Chao had heard that during the Earth era, some ancient banyan trees could cover an area of a few kilometers. Their branches and roots grew and twisted, forming a lush forest known as a “forest of lone trees.”
The “big tree” in front of him, if it could even be called a tree or a plant, was dozens of times taller and more lush than the largest banyan tree on Earth.
Moreover, it was not of a monotonous green color. Instead, like all the animals and plants in the peach blossom land, it was filled with too much pigment and was too saturated in color.
Its body was covered in a colorful carpet of fungi.
On the branches and vines that hung down, there were also colorful flowers and fruits.
As the many flower buds slowly bloomed, they even released a shiny powdery substance that was as brilliant as phosphor powder.
Accompanied by the gentle breeze, the pollen that was as fine as sand drew many gorgeous patterns in the air and slowly landed on the heads and shoulders of the humans as well as monsters.
It made every person, every monster, and the entire world look beautiful like a fairytale.
“This is the Tree of Wisdom?”
Meng Chao took a deep breath and gathered spirit energy to stimulate his cerebral cortex like an icicle, resisting the spiritual impact brought by the dreamlike scene in front of him.
He looked at the plant-like lifeform that gathered bacteria, spores, moss, lichen, vines, branches, flowers, and fruits before he questioned Gu Ling.
“That’s right.”
Gu Ling opened her arms and took a deep breath. Her face was covered with a lot of sweet pollen.
The little girl licked the pollen at the corner of her mouth and nodded heavily with an intoxicated expression. “This is the Tree of Wisdom that helps humans and spirit beasts coexist peacefully. It brings us happiness!”
The Tree of Wisdom was like an enhanced version of a UHV transmission tower covered in Green Tide.
Its shape was like a super giant plant, but it had the breathing of an animal and the rhythm of a heartbeat.
With the rhythm, it filled the air, while its colorful pollen also rose and fell like the tide.
People who bathed in the pollen tide were as intoxicated as fools.
There were even people who could not wait to pick colorful, crystal-clear fruits and parasol mushrooms from the hanging vines. They would swallow them without washing them.
Yet, the people who ate the fruits seemed fine.
The people who ate the colorful parasol mushrooms were like drunken monkeys. Their skin became colorful, and they all began to moan and dance.
The others were not surprised. They also surrounded them and joined in the singing as well as dancing. They moved into all kinds of weird postures as if they were mimicking monsters and worshipping the Tree of Wisdom.
There were also many monsters in the crowd.
They had swallowed the intoxicating fruit and the hallucinogenic mushrooms too.
However, they stood up and bowed like bears, twisting into all kinds of human movements in a slightly comical way.
It was as if through the Tree of Wisdom, humans had become monsters, while monsters had become humans!