frightfiction Chapter 660 Let me tell you about what happened back then
Chapter 660 Let me tell you about what happened back then
Xu Ning watched as the giant tree grew beneath his feet, wrapping and sealing the entire crack. He wanted to rush up and say something to the masked swordsman, but suddenly his vision blurred.
"Time's up, it seems we're too late."
"Brother Xu, wake up!"
"Slusa, wake up!"
The calls made Xu Ning slowly open his eyes.
"It's okay, I'm fine, stop shaking me."
Sluza also woke up at the same time.
Paimon exclaimed anxiously, "That was terrifying! The hole up there suddenly opened, and just as we were falling, you two inexplicably passed out. Luckily, Sora caught you, and I was just able to pull Sluza away..."
Xu Ning smiled and ruffled Paimon's hair. "Thank you so much."
Paimon brushed Xu Ning's hand away with a look of disgust, but he took the praise to heart and smiled so hard his eyes almost disappeared.
"In our dream just now, we saw the memories of the myriad mother trees, and we also saw the process by which the myriad mother trees transformed countless wills into sweet rain falling from the sky to eliminate filth."
Sluza, unusually serious, said, "Next is to find the giant lotus Gaugana that Zulwan mentioned, and then..."
"Then, after walking a short distance, you'll find yourself having gone in circles and ending up back where you started."
Paimon looked at Xu Ning and Slusa with amusement.
It was only at this moment that Xu Ning and Slusa realized that they had been in the giant lotus's embrace the whole time.
"We didn't take a single wrong turn. So this is the giant lotus we've been searching for all along."
The floral crown on Silsa's head began to shimmer again.
Xu Ning knew that it had started communicating with the Ten Thousand Mother Trees again.
As for Xu Ning, while waiting, he looked around idly and confirmed that it was indeed a giant lotus.
However, this large body had several black burn marks on it.
"I might as well give you a thorough cleaning."
As Xu Ning walked, he slowly cleaned the filth off the giant lotus.
Meanwhile, Slusa slowly sensed the lotus's body and then said to Xu Ning, "I feel that the Mother Tree of Ten Thousand Kinds has heard our wishes. Its power is gathering towards the lotus's heart with the help of the surrounding spiritual light and the power of the final song, to praise the Lord. This may be the final step."
As the giant lotus suddenly unfolded, white light gathered, and everything looked exactly the same as what he remembered.
However, since they are all trapped in the heart of the tree, they cannot see how the filth outside has disappeared.
However, Xu Ning kept drinking from the gourd while also watching the fantastical scenery in the sky, its colors changing.
The stalemate between green and blue-purple colors has turned into a special event where blue-purple disappears.
After Slusa helped the giant lotus release its spiritual power, she found a place that looked like a pipe, and Xu Ning and Kong followed her down.
"This was originally a conduit used by the Ten Thousand Mother Trees to draw spiritual dew. From here, we can reach a hollow in the roots of the tree and come out from there."
Xu Ning and the others followed the pipe back to the sea of flowers and met Zurwan again.
"I never expected that you would actually complete the 'Water Offering Ritual'. This merit is comparable to that of the heroes who saved the world in ancient times."
Despite saying he hadn't expected it, Xu Ning could tell from Zuerwan's expression that he hadn't expected it at all.
"The celestial phenomenon of burning truth has been extinguished once again, and the earth has been purified once more. There have been no casualties, which makes me very happy. Once things are over here, I will close the sea of flowers again and enter a period of slumber to nourish my power and await the next calamity."
"I'm sure you'll all continue on new paths. If you have any questions, feel free to ask now, and I'll be happy to answer them."
Xu Ning was just waiting for this sentence.
“When Sluza and I entered the Mother Tree of Ten Thousand Species, we had some hallucinations and saw the two humans who fought alongside you. I would like to know about the masked swordsman.”
"That was a very, very long time ago."
Zurwan's face lit up with a look of reminiscence.
"That was when I had just woken up in the sea of flowers and was immediately confronted by the Black Tide. Apart from the sea of flowers, which was a pure land, the rest of the world had become a kingdom of monsters."
"Guided by the last wish of the divine bird Seymour, I gathered the power of spiritual light and began to leave the sea of flowers to suppress the monsters in various places. Then I met that blond man in the wilderness."
Xu Ning's heart skipped a beat. Blonde hair? Perhaps it really is that guy.
"Half of his body had turned into a demon, but surprisingly, he didn't have the aura of a demon. When I found him, he was still tightly clutching a ring in his hand."
"Later I brought it to the sea of flowers. He said he was a swordsman of the Tuha. Due to the conflict between the curse he carried and the filth that corrupted him, he unexpectedly maintained a strange balance and thus barely survived."
As Zurwan finished speaking, seeing Xu Ning listening intently, he smiled and said, "What? Is this masked swordsman someone you know?"
Xu Ning clicked her tongue. "You said it yourself, he was always masked, so we don't know if it's true or not, but it does look quite like him."
"Really? If you see him again, please give him my regards!"
Zurwan continued, "Later on, a group of scholars came from the east of the desert, led by a one-armed sage."
"They said that they once fought alongside the Tuhar people, and even though those Tuhar people knew they would bear the stigma, they still followed their original intention to eliminate the calamity of the demons. So they traveled here along the path that the Tuhar warriors had fought."
"We formed a team together and entered the ruins of the Tuhar people. The one-armed sage found a way to cross the Black Abyss and enter the Mother Tree. Together we entered and purified the filth of heaven and earth with nectar."
“After that, flower spirits continued to be born from the dew, and the demons on the ground gradually disappeared.”
"The sage entered the underground ruins and never returned. Meanwhile, the masked swordsman and a girl with similar blonde hair left the sea of flowers..."
"Blonde girl?"
"Ying! It really was Dain!"
Zuerwan laughed again at Xu Ning and Kong's reactions.
"It seems you all know these people. No wonder seeing you all makes me feel like something is starting to slip away again."
"Alright, you should go back to where you belong. As for Silsa, leave with your Lord of Praise."
Sluza's expression brightened, but she immediately coughed lightly, "Why do you want me to leave? Senior sealed off the flower sea, are you trying to kick me out so I won't come back and disturb you?"
Zurwan shook her head. "You have a wild nature. You should go out and explore, see what the world is really like. Only then can you better understand your mission as a Flower Spirit Warrior."
Sluza touched the flower crown on her head. "I thought my mission was over when the celestial phenomenon disappeared."
"Is it over? Heh, it's just the beginning. A moment of brilliance may be dazzling, but a steady, persistent dedication like a gentle stream seems even more praiseworthy. There is still much filth in this world that needs to be cleansed, so go and purify it together with your Lord!"
After saying goodbye to Zuerwan, Xu Ning and the others left the sea of flowers together.
According to Paimon's plan, now that the mission here is over, the first priority is naturally to return to the Adventurers' Guild to find Catherine and collect the high bounty.
Xu Ning wanted to go home and share his trip to Sumeru with Ningguang.
Since they were going the same way, Xu Ning decided to go to Sumeru City with Kong first.
“I remember there was a teleportation anchor point on the ‘Purification Pilgrimage’ route that I escorted Mihir, but I didn’t dare leave Mihir to activate it because I was on duty as an escort.”
Since Xu Ning had not experienced the first half of the journey with Kong and the others, he could only be led by Kong to head north.
"Hmph, now that I think about how she struggled so ugly in the filth, she should have walked that path ten more times. No, she should have walked the length of the pilgrimage route of the Pure Water Fairy to completely purify the filth she had been tainted with."
When Xu Ning heard the name Pure Water Elf, he was somewhat surprised that Slusa, a simpleton who had almost never left the flower sea, would know about this ancient race.
"You also know about Pure Water Spirits? And what is the Pilgrimage Road?"