I am the sacred tree, evergreen for eternity.

The old man's cloudy eyes were clouded with dust, and his lips moved as he struggled to utter a few broken words:

"Ah...uh...help..."

Xuan's hands were trembling.

He gripped the old man's shoulders tightly, trying to let the emaciated man feel the warmth of his palm.

"Yes, to save you."

"I'm here to save you."

"Listen to me, we have more people outside, and more will be coming soon. We'll take you all out—"

Xuan suddenly stopped halfway through his sentence.

The old man's eyes were almost unfocused; he just stared blankly ahead, as if he couldn't see the pavilion that was so close at hand.

Xuan felt as if something had squeezed his heart tightly.

The suffocating conditions and lack of sunlight had already driven these tribesmen to the brink of insanity.

However, if even basic communication is difficult to achieve...

How can he save them?

Just then.

Suddenly, a warm sensation came from my arms.

Xuan looked down and saw that the emerald green branch that Yu Su had given him was glowing.

Its light is warm and smooth like jade, like a star guiding the way in the darkness.

A ray of light emerged from that branch, carrying an indescribable vitality and gentleness, spreading slowly like ripples on water.

The spiritual energy brushed across Xuan's hand, across the old man's face, and across the frail figures huddled in the dark corners.

The old man's body suddenly stiffened.

His cloudy eyes seemed to have been washed with clear water, and his dark brown, human-like pupils gradually brightened.

The old man saw Xuan's face clearly.

That young human face.

"You...you really are..."

The old man reached out and tremblingly touched Xuan's shoulder.

The moment his fingers touched Xuan, tears streamed down his face.

"It's not...it's not a hallucination."

"He's a person... he really is a person..."

The old man's voice was hoarse and indistinct, as if he hadn't spoken in a long time and his vocal cords had forgotten how to vibrate.

"Sixty years...sixty years have passed..."

"I thought... that... only we... domesticated livestock... were left in this world..."

Xuan's nose tingled, and his eyes instantly reddened.

He took the glowing branch out of his pocket and carefully placed it in the old man's hand.

The light shone even brighter the moment the branch touched the old man's palm.

Abundant life force surged from the branches and flowed into the old man's heart, which had been soaked in darkness and despair for too long.

The old man's breathing became rapid, and his chest heaved violently.

In a daze.

He seemed to see the shadow of a magnificent tree reaching for the sky—

His eyes finally lit up, a light that rekindled from the depths of his heart.

"Child...where did you come from?"

The old man's voice was still hoarse, but he could now barely speak in complete sentences.

"Xia family."

Xuan knelt on one knee before the old man, placed his hands on the old man's shoulders, and said, word by word:

"The Xia Clan under the protection of the Tree God."

"Our ancestors were from the same lineage as you sixty years ago."

"When our tribe was scattered, our leader led his people to a distant valley, where they encountered the great tree god and established a home under his protection."

"Today, I'm here to take you home."

The old man froze after hearing this.

The sheer volume of information made him feel a little dizzy.

"Tree God...Xia...going home?"

"Can we still go home?"

"go home……"

The old man murmured the two words repeatedly, his voice as soft as a wisp of smoke.

Xuan nodded vigorously and gripped the old man's hand tightly:

"able!"

"By the Tree God!"

"I swear in the name of the Xia family that I will bring you all out of here, leaving not a single one behind!"

The old man remained silent for a long time.

He looked at the glowing emerald green branch in his hand, its mysterious patterns slowly flowing in the light.

"By the Tree God..."

The old man repeated the prayer in a low voice, as if a real power was welling up from his heart.

He looked at Xuan and Yan.

Their young and determined faces were like torches in the darkness.

Then he smiled.

That was the first time Xuan had ever seen a smile in the cave.

"Okay...okay..."

The old man tremblingly stretched out his hand, pointing to the darkest corner deeper inside the cave.

"Over there... there are many more people... they are all our people..."

"More than ten years ago, our group was wandering near the mountains when we were captured by those beasts and imprisoned in this dark and gloomy place..."

"They...they are not ordinary wild beasts..."

The old man lowered his voice as he spoke, and a deep fear flashed in his eyes.

"They intentionally keep us confined here, and every year... they eat more than a dozen people..."

"Just enough to maintain our numbers, so we don't all die out..."

"Normally, they'll throw us leftover bones and rotten flesh so we don't starve..."

"We...we are the livestock they raise..."

Xuan's fists clenched so tightly they cracked, his nails digging deep into his palms, and blood dripped from between his fingers.

ten years.

A dozen or so people each year.

These beasts owe humanity hundreds of lives!

Xuan recalled the stories his father had told him—

Those ancestors who were enslaved, exploited, and devoured by demons and monsters.

Those were years that could hardly be called "human".

He believed that under the protection of the tree god, the Xia family had completely bid farewell to that darkness.

But now.

He saw it with his own eyes, just a few hundred miles from the Valley of the Divine Tree—

Beneath the same mountains and seas, humanity continues to suffer.

Xuan took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed his surging emotions.

He stood up, his gaze sweeping over the figures huddled in the darkness, before turning to Yan.

"How many herbs are left?"

Yan opened the animal skin pouch at his waist, glanced at it, and his expression darkened slightly:

"Not much left, enough for at most five or six people."

He had anticipated this problem.

There were no fewer than a dozen demon rats patrolling the cave, each with an astonishingly keen sense of smell.

Without herbs to mask the smell, it would have been impossible for hundreds of humans to evacuate together...

Xuan's heart sank.

Everything had reached a dead end.

"You should take the children and go first."

Just then, the old man's voice rang out, so gentle it was unsettling.

child?

What about the others?!

Xuan suddenly realized—

The lost tribe consisted entirely of the elderly, women, and children; there wasn't a single able-bodied person among them!

"Every time those beasts come to drag people away, the able-bodied men will step forward and stand in front of them..."

"When all the men are eaten up, the women will take their place... and there's us old geezers too."

Ultimately... as long as the children are still alive, the roots of the community remain!

The old man calmly explained to Xuan, as if recounting some self-evident truths.

Xuan stared intently at the gaunt old man in front of him.

There was a burning light in those cloudy old eyes.

Xuan had seen that kind of light before.

I saw it in my father's eyes, and in the eyes of those tribesmen who were willing to die for their tribe.

Even when trapped in hell, they still do their utmost to protect the future and hope of their people, upholding the pride of being human.

The torch.

Never to be extinguished.

The old man tremblingly reached out and patted Xuan's shoulder:

"We old folks have lived enough for so many years."

"But the children are still young; they have never seen the sky and the sun, nor smelled the fragrance of flowers and grass..."

"They...they shouldn't have died here."

After the old man finished speaking, he turned and walked towards the center of the crowd.

He walked very slowly, each step shaky and precarious, as if he might collapse at any moment.

But as he walked by, the tribespeople huddled on the ground raised their heads and looked at him with their cloudy eyes.

Then, one by one, they began to move.

Those elderly people with white hair, those old women who were so thin they were just bones, those disabled people covered in scars—

They used all their strength to push the children out from the center of the crowd.

"Take them away."

"They are still young, and they have a future."

"Tell our people outside...we haven't forgotten...that we are human."

The children were pushed in front of Xuan; there were six of them in total.

They were all around ten years old, as thin as bamboo poles.

The midday sun pierced through the cracks in the cave ceiling, shining on their tender little faces.

They blinked, casting bright gazes at Xuan and Yan.

Xuan didn't have any unnecessary affectation.

He held a child in each arm, with another child on his back.

Yan also stepped forward, following suit.

The two of them, carrying the hopes of a lost tribe on their backs, departed under the moonlight.

"By the Tree God... I will definitely return with reinforcements and rescue all of you."

In the darkness, Xuan's voice was as firm as iron.

The elderly people repeatedly recited the prayer they had just learned—

"By the Tree God!"