Chapter 102 “Immortal Tree”

Chapter 102 “Immortal Tree”
“Squeak~Squeak ” Using both his paws and eyes, Little Squeak gestures ahead repeatedly.
“You mean to go ahead?” Ling Yue asks.
Apart from the occasionally mischief, Little Squeak had always remained well behaved, making his act very abnormal right now.
A bit skeptical, Ling Yue did as instructed and walked into the depths of the misty fog.
Its unsure how long she had walked for, but very soon even the swampy soil that had made up her journey thus far was gone from under her feet.
In its stead, a lake that’s as round and shiny as a pearl appeared before this pair. And at the very center of this strange lake was a towering tree that reached into the very sky.
Gasping, Ling Yue marvels at the sight.
In her own defense, she’s not totally ignorant to the strange and miraculous things of this world, but to find a tree with leaves that gave off the luster similar to that of a pearl? That had to be a first for most.
Moreover, there weren’t any soil under this colossal tree, in fact, it didn’t even touch the ground and just floated there in midair!
“You’re saying you know this tree?”
Little Squeak calls out again at this moment.
Originating from within the dimensional space Red Mist Sky, Little Squeak was surprisingly knowledgeable despite being trapped inside that place for a thousand years. Likely thanks to his previous owner for showing him so many things.
Immortal Tree, also known as Nirvana Tree, was said to be a legendary plant that’s derived from a phoenix after they self-incinerate when reaching the end of their lifespan. Aside from its fast germination and growing speed, this tree was more commonly known as the ‘Phoenix Tree’ by the populous because of its ideal conditions for a phoenix to roost in.
“You’re telling me to climb up this thing?” Following Little Squeak’s guidance, Ling Yue jumps into the lake and swims up to the bottom of the tree where the roots interjected with the lake water. Then resorting to her Jade Flower Hand technique, she begins her climb like a gecko up this massive tree. Unbelievably, it took her well over an hour before Ling Yue manages to reach the very top, something most people couldn’t even imagine.
As she made her way around the top in search of the source of the strange rainbow light, she eventually came across a huge nest hidden behind a thick wrapping of shiny canopy leaves.
Bunched up together were three eggs at the center of the nest, but unlike regular bird eggs, these were bigger than anything she ever saw. Looking closely, Ling Yue was shocked to find that the rainbow aurora effect in the sky was caused entirely by these eggs!
Differing in their colors, the egg on the left was an ocean blue like the sky while the right was a precious ruby red. Oddly enough, the only one that didn’t stand out very much was the plain and ordinary looking one in the middle.
Beating hard in her heart, “Can it be these are the phoenix eggs like the legend says?”
Making a heavy gulping sound, Ling Yue unscrupulously reaches out her hand and pinched Little Squeak in the stomach.
“Squeak!” Making a pitiful scream, his big blue eyes became teary red like he’s about to cry.
“It hurts? Then this is not a dream, we really came across some phoenix egg!”
Profusely nodding in agreement, Little Squeak mused for a second before pulling out a handkerchief to cover his foxy face. Then creeping up slowly to the eggs, he rubs his paws like a bandit thief ready to carry out his act.
“What? You mean for me steal a phoenix egg?” Ling Yue makes an incredulous face.
And why not? Its such a rare encounter to find the old-fashioned parents away from the nest!
“Now that’s just wrong. Stealing one is not enough… If we are going to steal then we steal all three. One for hatching, one for sale, and the last for eating.” Ling Yue’s statement instantly petrified her little companion.
How shameless is this?!
Mistress actually wants to cook the phoenix egg and eat it!
Not hesitating with her mind made, Ling Yue got straight to it. Though the eggs are somewhat big for their size, but all she needs to do was transfer them into her dimensional space and its done.
After Little Squeak’s brief explanation, Ling Yue now understands why the marsh was suddenly enshrouded by this thick fog. In order to prevent any predators from stealing their eggs, the pair of adult phoenix roosting here deliberately raised this magical fog as a barrier to confuse any intruders from drawing close.
Normally this would be effective against man or beast, but against a being like Little Squeak, it was totally useless.
With the explanation out of the way, Little Squeak made sure to remind Ling Yue to act fast; otherwise, when the phoenix couple returns and finds them here, they are screwed!
As much as Ling Yue wishes to simply snatch the eggs away, she didn’t dare get careless because of that intense rainbow light. Whether or not these eggs are hatched or not, they are still phoenix at their core, not something to be taken lightly.
Cautiously creeping forward, she takes it slowly one step at a time.
Just before Ling Yue manages to get close enough to crawl into the nest, a branch on the phoenix tree suddenly wiggled, causing the leaves to rattle loudly as a result.
Fixating her sight in that direction, Ling Yue nearly slipped and fell backwards from the shock of what she saw. What branch? That’s clearly a black striped python with a golden horn over its head!
Hurrying to invoke her Yuan energy to cover her presence, Ling Yue lowers her body to one side of the nest to hide herself from sight. Inwardly, she was cursing at the heavens for her horrible fortune.
The level of this golden horned python should be no less than a fifth rank spirit beast, if anything, it’s likely somewhere between a sixth or seventh rank based on that horn.
The Golden Horn Python was a type of spirit beast that inhabited the waterways of the Dream Cloud Marsh because their diet mainly consisted of consuming bird eggs in the reed area.
Back when Ice Phoenix and Fire Phoenix first planted this immortal tree in this lake for roosting, this golden horn python was already lurking nearby in anticipation of the soon to be born phoenix eggs.
Pity though, due to the high attentiveness of the phoenix couple during this period, this golden horn python never got the chance to draw near. That was until this evening anyways.
By slacking off and flying to some other unknown location, the phoenix couple had left their eggs vulnerable, giving this golden horn python the perfect chance to finally come out of his camouflage after all this time.
Based on that tipped horn on its triangular shaped head, this python should be somewhere between five to six hundred years old. If it can somehow consume even one of the phoenix eggs here, this snake will be reborn and instantly advance two levels in its evolution. No longer a mere python, he will become a snake dragon, a being truly worthy of being feared and awed by all.
(Note: snake dragon is like a lower tier of a real dragon that snakes can evolve into. 1 step above a snake and 1 step below a real dragon. This specie is usually considered evil and wicked in Chinese mythology)
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Seeing the long sought-after phoenix eggs are just sitting there in front of its eye, the golden horn python couldn’t wait anymore. Slithering over with great excitement, its hope was suddenly squashed by the appearance of a human standing in its way. As one can imagine, the anger felt by this golden horn python was inconceivable at this point.
Speculating the human was also here to steal the eggs like itself, the python curled its body to cover as much surface area around the nest as possible.
“Ahumph, mister snake, why don’t we make a deal. You see, there’s three eggs here and there’s only two of us, why not split them so we each have a share?” Ling Yue steels her courage and steps forward with this suggestion.
Raising its triangular head high into the air, the snake took on an imposing look in an attempt to intimidate the human before it.
Finding his efforts failing, the python promptly opened its slithering mouth and spewed a gush of green smoke as his opening move.
Not missing the danger coming her way, Ling Yue instantly rolled to one side and narrowingly escaped the acidic venom. Good thing she did too, because otherwise, she would’ve faced the same corroding fate as the wood under her feet.
What a dangerous venom! Ling Yue murmurs to herself as she pants heavily by how close she came to death.
Angered by this outcome, Ling Yue got into position and wind her body into a cat like position before leaping forward with the blood daggers in hand
Shooting them out, she’s betting on the blood daggers buying her enough time until she can reach the eggs before the snake does.
Hissing in rage over nuisance, the golden horn python sweeps his tail out like a whip in retaliation.
Peng~Peng~ Peng~
After three deflecting blows, the blood daggers were nailed hard into the tree branches from the recoiling force.
With that out of the way, the snake immediately turns around in preparation to deal with the human girl, but when it did, the snake was startled by the missing human.