By now, however, Rovi could confirm the girl's identity.
An Elemental from Huaxia, a "person" who claimed to have seen the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. In this world named for the Moon, there was only one being like that—
One of the famous beauties of Huaxia in later generations: Yu Ji, Yu Mei-ren. Some textual studies also claimed her name was "Yu Miaoyi," though whether those studies were true remained unclear.
Still, Rovi knew that in this world named for the Moon, Yu Mei-ren truly was that sort of existence.
Her appearance and bearing also matched the figure before him perfectly.
"Cough, cough, cough... What in the world was that!? Was that supposed to be blood? How could it taste like that..." Yu Mei-ren finally recovered, her heaving chest rising and falling violently enough to send ripples through her curves. She was somewhat indignant. "It was practically like the stink of black stone buried underground... You didn't do that on purpose to mess with me, did you!?"
[I TOLD YOU, IT'S THE FIRST TIME I'VE EVER HEARD SUCH A STRANGE REQUEST. AND I NEVER SAID I WAS AN ORDINARY LIFE-FORM.]
Rovi laughed even harder.
[BESIDES, YOU SWALLOWED IT, DIDN'T YOU?]
Yu Mei-ren bared her teeth. If she had not measured the gap between them and known she could not win, she probably would have taught this "big guy" before her a very harsh lesson.
But just as Rovi said, she had indeed swallowed it. Though the taste was terrible, there was no denying that the power contained within it was truly nourishing for Yu Mei-ren, who had hardly replenished any "blood" since her birth—even if, strictly speaking, a planetary Elemental had the urge to drink blood but could survive without doing so, and Yu Mei-ren could directly draw energy from the atmosphere. Even the atmospheric ether of the Age of Gods at its peak, however, was nothing more than a drop in the bucket for her.
So although she was dissatisfied and irritable, her delicate face still began to glow with vitality.
The "girl" took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down. "Hmph. Since you did offer up your 'blood' after all, I'll forgive you..."
Perhaps this bizarre "supreme god"-class life-form before her was simply like this?
That was right. In that case, he had still fulfilled his promise.
He probably had not done it just to mess with her...
[AH, I ALMOST FORGOT TO CHANGE BACK TO HUMAN FORM.]
The enormous Machine God spoke those words, and under Yu Mei-ren's slightly widened, blank, stunned gaze, he rapidly transformed and shrank.
In the end, what stood before her was a "young man" the size of an ordinary human, not much different from her.
His long robe fell around him and his black hair lifted in the air. Rovi looked at Yu Mei-ren before him. "My name is Rovi. I am a Huaxia person who came from beyond Huaxia."
He stated his identity plainly.
Clearly, however, the other party had not heard a word.
"So you really were messing with me!!!" Yu Mei-ren's expression broke down in an instant.
Of course she could tell that the "young man" before her was not some transformed shape, but a genuine human. And like the enormous supreme god-class life-form from before, he was also an existence manifested at the highest scale.
Since he was human, there was naturally human blood inside his body.
He really had been messing with her—
Calm down, calm down, calm down!
She could not beat him.
So she had to stay calm.
As an Elemental born from the planet itself, Yu Mei-ren's life was all but tied to the planet beneath her feet.
As long as the planet was not destroyed, she could regenerate endlessly.
That immortality was why she dared to face a supreme existence like Rovi head-on, and even why she acted so unconcerned.
After all, "planetary-class" meant that a being's existence could affect the entire planet and use its power to disturb the planet's surface. It did not mean they could destroy the planet.
Scale did not equal combat power.
It was only "equivalent."
But being able to regenerate did not mean there would be no loss. The depletion she had suffered over those long years had only just been restored by that "blood." If she underwent rebirth even once, she would return to that empty state from before.
Not worth it. Not worth it...
Her chest heaved violently. Yu Mei-ren forced down the burst of irritation in her heart, but the smile that surfaced on her face still looked extremely eerie and sinister. "Heh. Hehehe. Hehehehe..."
"..."
This woman is very beautiful, but there seems to be something wrong with her head.
Rovi thought for a moment and decided not to provoke her. Instead, he paced to one side and looked up at the towering giant tree beside them.
Viewed from a human perspective, its height and vastness could be felt even more clearly.
Rovi's Machine God state was already a thousand meters tall, yet this giant tree reached ten thousand meters, already touching the atmospheric barrier that enveloped the planet itself.
From bottom to top, it was clear and crystalline, like emerald-green ice, and even the smallest details held a fine, even grain.
"Something left behind from the flourishing Age of Gods, is it..."
"Hmph. You've definitely never seen a divine object from the lands of Huaxia, have you!?" Yu Mei-ren took a deep breath, reined in that broken expression, and tightened her brows and eyes, her vermilion lips pressing slightly together.
Once serious, she did possess the ethereal quality of nature.
She walked to Rovi's side and faced the giant tree. It was as though she wanted to regain face, and also as though she had relaxed somewhat after sensing that Rovi's arrival held little hostility.
She began to explain at an unhurried pace. "Fusang of the East Sea. The sun deity drives the chariot upward from here, and the moon deity descends here. It brings the cycles of sun and moon, the changes of yin and yang, to heaven and earth. Together with the Jianmu of Penglai and the Dragon-Blood Tree of Kunlun, it is called one of the three great divine trees, the three great pillars that anchored the Age of Myth."
Pillars that anchored the Age of Myth... Similar to the Norse World Tree, yet also very different.
Rovi placed his palm upon it and sensed it carefully.
The Fusang before him had evolved from nature, not from something beyond the stars. If he had to draw a comparison... it was actually closer to Rovi's Holy Lance Rhongomyniad, which had been formed by drawing out the "wind" from the star's original face, then gathering the Authority of a planetary god and the prayer-power of the people.
It came from the star itself, supporting the continuation and existence of the Age of Gods.
Was this the thing that could plunge him into the danger of death?
It did not seem like it!
"It's only a pity that the Age of Myth still passed." Rovi withdrew his hand and made that judgment, though in truth, he was only trying to guide Yu Mei-ren into revealing more information.
The planetary Elemental who had just woken had no intention of hiding anything either. "So what?"
The corner of Yu Mei-ren's mouth lifted in disdain. "Besides, only after those immortals and gods left could this place belong to me."
"Isn't that good too?"
To her, it truly did not matter. She was a "planetary Elemental." No matter the era, as long as it was still the planet beneath her feet, she could move freely and without restraint.
"Is that so? I don't believe you." Rovi glanced sideways at her. "Then go take a few steps into the future right now and let me see."
"..."
Go? Go your head!
If I could cross into the future, I'd scatter your ashes right now!
Yu Mei-ren's thoughts started growing irritable again. Unfortunately, on her face, it only made her expression twist even more... Rovi felt a little regretful.
It seemed his exploration of Fusang would still need to proceed from several angles...
With the "sight" displayed by Rovi's current scale of power, combined with the computational power of his Machine God state, this enormous Fusang Tree, though divine and extraordinary, could have all of its information taken into his eyes in only an instant.
Then, combined with the information revealed in Yu Mei-ren's words, Rovi guessed that the Fusang Tree before him might only be a lead.
The three great pillars of Huaxia's Age of Gods: Fusang, Jianmu, and Dragon's Blood.
He would need to investigate each of them properly.
"This really is exhausting..."
"All for the sake of dying." Rovi let out a breath.
But even if there was only the slightest chance, he did not want to give up.
After all, though his current manifested scale of existence was already incomparably vast compared to an ordinary human's, the power he had left on the Throne of Heroes was even stronger—after meeting the Spirit of the Void earlier, he had become even more determined to take back his own power.
"Mm? Are you leaving?" Noticing Rovi turn away, Yu Mei-ren's eyes widened slightly, somewhat puzzled and irritated.
"That's right!" Rovi glanced at her. "You can keep sleeping. I won't bother you anymore!"
"How am I supposed to sleep now!?" Yu Mei-ren glared. "And you think you can just run off like that?"
Rovi found this baffling. "What else? You want me to take responsibility?"
"You... You tore down my door!"
Rovi followed the direction indicated by the planetary Elemental's raised finger and fell silent.
Layer upon layer of clouds and mist drifted to either side, but the middle had opened up as if hollowed out, exposing the vast sea and blue sky beyond.
That mist was the "door" leading to the divine tree Fusang.
Under normal circumstances, one only had to follow an extremely hidden ocean current within the mist to pass through that door and arrive here.
But without question, that was not how Rovi had entered.
He had directly torn the door down.
He had smashed someone else's door, and even landed on her the moment she had just woken up. Although he had given a certain amount of "compensation," it was still somewhat unreasonable.
"I'll help you repair it." Rovi thought for a moment, then slowly raised his hand.
A storm manifested from primordial rotational force appeared in his palm, gathering countless invisible elements from the air. His eyes shone with flowing light, and amid vast, intricate calculation, he guided the elements forward...
"A primordial wind god?" Yu Mei-ren froze when she saw this scene.
Then what had that enormous form earlier been?
Yu Mei-ren had originally thought Rovi was some kind of primordial giant deity, similar to Pangu, one of the creator gods of Huaxia, which was why he could maintain both that massive shell and a human-shaped body.
But now, it seemed that was not the case.
He possessed the form of a "giant god," had a human appearance, and also held the primordial Authority of "wind"...
In all the long years she had lived, she had rarely seen an existence like this. "An interesting fellow."
Still, that had nothing to do with her.
With that sort of power, repairing Fusang's door ought to be easy.
She would sleep again afterward... It was still far too early to go outside.
But Rovi suddenly stopped moving. "Someone is coming."
"And they're already close."
They had taken advantage of the instant he tore open the "door."
Someone had broken into this place.
Above the vast sea where the mist had scattered, several sailboats rode the ocean current at high speed under the sweep of violent winds.
At this distance, Fusang had already come into their view.
Rovi's ears moved slightly.
He heard voices.
"Lady Xu Fu, is that it up ahead? The divine tree Fusang—"
"So the legend was true. It is said that although the immortals have left, beneath the Fusang Tree, there is still an immortal named 'Yu' who remains there."
"Hahaha, wonderful! Can we become immortals too!?"
The ship pitched and rocked, but that could not restrain the delight of the people aboard. Even the leader standing at the bow was full of excitement.
Her body swayed, her wide sleeves swinging, while her delicate face somehow carried a trace of timidity.
Xu Fu, the "seeker of immortals" widely known throughout the lands of Huaxia, looked from her appearance like nothing more than a petite girl dressed in overly large robes.
The enormous square cap on her head covered her black hair, and the strands falling over her forehead still hid her slightly weak expression. Her lowered hands revealed only five slender, jade-white fingers.
Her collar was slightly open, exposing pale shoulders. Black fabric wrapped around the faint rise of her chest, while her waist showed indistinctly beneath the loose garment. Under the broad hem were slender calves wrapped in black silk.
Her whole person looked petite and frail, but not a single person on the ship dared underestimate her.
"We... we're here..." Even the girl's words and expression carried an extremely easy-to-bully sort of weakness.
But Xu Fu had led countless people again and again, more than ten times, riding the wind and waves across the sea. Her skill was beyond doubt.
"Everyone, be careful," Xu Fu said softly. "Next, I'll use talismans to protect you all. Don't get separated... Eh? Where is everyone? Where did everyone go!?"
Before Xu Fu could finish speaking, clouds of smoke abruptly rose before her eyes. The people vanished, the ship disappeared, and even the sea was instantly hidden away. The pitching and rocking ceased.
Only a deeply displeased voice echoed. "Who told you to disturb my rest!? A group of overconfident mortals, and you want to become immortals?"
Is that... an immortal?
Xu Fu shrank back, but she still could not help widening her eyes to look.
Smoke and mist curled around her. Two figures appeared from nothing.
"After sleeping so long, isn't it nice to move around a little?" a clear male voice echoed.
"What's it to you? You're the first one who woke me up, all right!? And are we even that close!?" That displeased voice rang out again. "Hurry up and send them away!"
"You could have sent them away in an instant, though..."
"There's no harm in meeting them."
"..."
What appeared in Xu Fu's sight was a man and a woman.
The man's figure was slender, his robes swaying and drifting lightly through the hazy mist.
The beautiful young woman had long black hair loose around her, and a broad-shouldered fur coat draped over her. Though her face was exquisite, her expression was fierce.
Yu Mei-ren was very dissatisfied.
Rovi, however, was somewhat interested in the name "Xu Fu," which had left its mark in history.
So he took the initiative to bring her before them.
"Are... are you the immortal 'Yu'!?" Xu Fu's eyes shone. As a seeker of immortals, she had naturally come to find traces of an immortal. "I've been searching for you for so long..."
"There are plenty of people looking for me..." Yu Mei-ren began, only for her words to stop abruptly.
Because at that moment, Xu Fu ran straight up to Rovi, bowed respectfully, and blushed all over her delicate face. "I-I'm Xu Fu. I've always heard your legend..."
Rovi froze.
Yu Mei-ren's expression went blank.
He is "Yu," then who am I?
No, wait—I'm the one who's "Yu"!
The spirit born from the planet bared her teeth, two fangs showing between her moist red lips.
She was very angry.
Super fierce!
---
T/N: XU FU-CHAN!!!!!!!!!
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