I am the sacred tree, evergreen for eternity.

Yu Su felt like she was about to die.

He desperately burrowed his roots deep into the earth, drawing upon the immense energy to resist the raging flames.

The wood struggles between charring and revival, large patches of bark peeling off, only to be barely repaired by the life force surging from the earth's veins.

The power of the earth's veins and the Golden Crow True Fire clashed fiercely within his tree trunk, and with each clash he felt he would be reduced to ashes in the next moment.

"Fifty years..."

"It took me fifty years to go from the depths of the earth to glimpsing the light of day!"

"So that bird landed, drank some water, and all my fifty years of hard work just went up in smoke?!"

Yu Su roared silently amidst the raging flames, his roots still clinging tightly to the earth's veins, refusing to let go.

But the Golden Crow's true fire was too terrifying. He could feel his body charring, his consciousness was gradually dissipating, and the power supplied by the earth veins could not keep up with the speed of burning.

Just as he was about to completely decay, a thumping sound came from afar.

It is not the Golden Crow.

After drinking the water, the golden crow flapped its wings and flew away, transforming into a ball of light like the blazing sun and rising back into the clouds, leaving behind only scorched earth and devastation.

Approaching was a small, thin figure—a human child, wrapped in rough fur, carrying wet leaves and animal hides, stumbling and running towards them.

The child saw that the only remaining green shoot in the scorched earth was Yu Su, and without hesitation covered its charred trunk with animal hide and poured the collected water on its roots.

There wasn't much water, not even enough to quench her thirst, but the moment that coolness seeped into the scorched wood, Yu Su felt as if her consciousness had been pulled back from the brink of death.

The human child squatted down beside him, reached out and touched his only remaining scorched yellow leaf, whispered something, and then turned and left, disappearing into the vast scorched earth.

Yu Su came back to life.

The fallen trees lay scattered all around, and those once majestic and powerful 'kin' were now nothing but charred remains.

When the first ray of unobstructed sunlight fell on him, Yu Su couldn't help but relax.

He had never experienced this feeling before.

From the moment the soil broke, he never truly enjoyed the sunlight.

Those giant trees robbed him of all light and warmth, leaving him only with cold, damp shadows.

Now, they are all dead, turned into charcoal, into fertilizer, into part of the humus beneath his roots.

"This time, finally no one's going to take it from me!"

Yu Su absorbed the nutrients transformed from the remains of those giant trees and drew upon the warm power from the depths of the earth, causing its branches to grow rapidly in the sunlight.

This was the first time he had experienced such exhilarating growth.

During this process, he gradually discovered something amazing.

The power of the earth's veins is transmitted upwards along the roots, through the branches and to the leaves, where it reacts with the brilliant sunlight in some indescribable way.

A brand new, mysterious power was born from the branches and leaves, flowing back down along the tree veins, part of which flowed back into the earth's veins, and part of which settled within the body.

The earth's veins, branches, and the sun form a mystical cycle, within which a magical power sprouts, accumulates, condenses, and sublimates within Yu Su's body.

Spiritual energy arises naturally.

Yu Su carefully channeled that magical power into the massive roots and branches...

next moment.

The ground not far away suddenly cracked open, and a thick root extended out, swaying back and forth like a flexible arm.

"I think I can move again?"

Yu Su was stunned: "Am I really just an ordinary elm tree?"

He didn't know the answer.

But at this moment, the sun is warm, the earth is deep and fertile, its roots are deeply embedded in the earth, and its branches and leaves stretch out towards the sky.

In any case, he finally came back to life.

……

Thirty years have passed in the blink of an eye.

The desolate valley is no longer the scorched earth it once was.

Tender green shoots peeked out from the ashes, vines climbed upwards clinging to the fallen remains of giant trees, and wildflowers bloomed sporadically on both sides of the stream.

The resilience of mountains and seas far exceeds imagination. The scorch marks left by the golden sun of yesteryear have been largely erased by time, and this land is regaining its vitality with a wild and vigorous spirit.

Yu Su could see all these changes clearly.

No, it's not "seeing", it's perception.

As the spiritual energy within his body continued to grow stronger, his perception range was no longer limited to his increasingly robust physique.

Wherever his roots reached, from the depths of the earth to the surface soil, from the source of streams to the direction of the wind in the sky, the moisture of every inch of soil, the trajectory of every wisp of wind, and every insect that crawled over the tree roots were clearly reflected in his consciousness.

It felt as if the entire valley had become a part of his body.

Only at this moment did Yu Su finally have the real feeling of being reborn.

In his past life—his memories were quite hazy—fragmented, unpieced images would occasionally flash through the depths of his consciousness:

Steel behemoths raced along the flat road, towering buildings were densely packed together, and countless tiny lights twinkled in the night...

Those scenes were too absurd, too bizarre, like a dream that didn't belong to him.

Those things don't exist in this world.

This world is filled with boundless, desolate mountains and seas, ancient ferocious beasts that breathe out clouds and mist, and the most naked laws of survival found in every blade of grass and every tree.

Yu Su witnessed it with her own eyes.

On the east side of the valley where he took root, there was a low-lying red fruit tree.

The tree was no taller than a person, with a few bright red fruits hanging from its branches, gleaming strangely in the sunlight; it was clearly no ordinary tree.

Yu Su once tried to probe the root system of that Zhu Guo tree with her roots, but found that there was a hard rock shell between them, so she gave up the idea of ​​extending her roots there.

One day, a bird with brightly colored plumage descended from the sky and snatched away the reddest of the vermilion fruits.

Before the bird could swallow the fruit, a tiger with wings on its back pounced out of the dense forest.

The tiger was entirely black except for its wings, which were covered in crimson-gold feathers. With a flap of its wings, it soared into the air as fast as lightning.

The bird didn't even have time to let out a cry before it was swatted down by the tiger's claws, its blood and vermilion juice splattering on the ground.

With its prey in its mouth, the tiger gently sliced ​​through the entire Vermilion Fruit Tree with its paws, leaving only a few strange Vermilion Fruits clutched in its paws. Then, it let out a deep roar, spread its wings, and leaped into the air, creating a wave of scorching heat.

Yu Su watched the ball of flame disappear into the horizon.

Then he silently controlled the spiritual energy within his body, hiding it deep within the wood, not daring to leak even a trace of it.

This world is too dangerous.

He was just a tree, a tree that had just gained a foothold on the earth's veins.

He still vividly remembered the terror of the Golden Crow, and although the fiery tiger was far less powerful than the Golden Crow, it was still an existence he could not afford to provoke.

Not to mention that there are countless ferocious beasts and strange birds he has never seen before on this wild land, each of which could uproot him at any moment.

"Pretend to be an ordinary tree"

This is the ironclad rule that Yu Su set for herself.