Front Line of the Beast Tide, Part 17

The memories Su Qing saw were still fragmented and chaotic.

She could only discern the passage of time by the leaves on the branches changing from green to orange-yellow, then to brown.

The forest’s vision was dominated by human figures, big and small, old people, children, girls, women.

Its perspective mostly showed women. It seemed to hide in a dark corner, quietly observing and imitating human behavior.

Sometimes, children would run back and forth, laughing and playing at the forest’s edge.

It would then subtly raise its deeply rooted root system, suddenly tripping these children, making them fall hard.

Then, the child would be dazed, pain bringing large tears to her eyes, making her sob with sharp cries, until her busy mother impatiently slapped her hard on the back.

She would feel even more wronged, her small face crumpled, almost like a hairless monkey, remarkably ugly, save for a black birthmark at the corner of her eye shaped like a leaf, which was somewhat pleasing.

No one knew that these tears silently fell into the ground, onto these annoying roots, and the tree roots suddenly trembled, as if scalded.

Su Qing stood by like an invisible ghost. The child’s wronged cries echoed in her ears. She suddenly understood the meaning of this scene: the forest, it could not comprehend human emotions.

The scene shifted. Shadows of human cultivators appeared in its memory again.

Some were weary rogue cultivators, others adept sect disciples, but to it, they were all without exception weak.

Even if the strong among them could kill Golden Core or Nascent Soul demon beasts with a single strike, so what? As the birthplace of all beasts, it was the habitat for all creatures.

And every century, it would ruthlessly trigger a beast tide turmoil to balance the overpopulation of beasts.

Moreover, heaven favored it.

More than three hundred years ago, a demonic bone actually fell into its embrace, strengthening its power again. It became increasingly omnipotent.

For the Myriad Beast Forest, manipulating tens of thousands of lives was an easy feat.

Even if human powerhouses were strong, they were still just one person.

How could the power of one person compare to an entire forest? It wanted to transform into human form, but it also looked down on humans.

Many more years passed. The forest spirit continued to observe.

It observed every human, strong or weak, cultivator or mortal, who entered its body. It watched their smiles, tears, toil, and numbness with annoyance and indifference.

This forest was rich in resources.

The advantage of beasts was that they were content with what they had. They would eat their fill when food was available, then curl up and sleep, not worrying about tomorrow.

But humans, poor humans, born with such weak physiques, yet had to bear such heavy destinies. With their frail and delicate destinies, they even dared to seek longevity and opportunities.

They carefully endured present hardships, yet their eyes shone with light when speaking of the future.

Five years passed.

The forest spirit saw that child again.

She had grown a little, from a dark, ugly seedling into a thin, sickly sapling.

After years of observation, it understood that this child was likely at the very bottom of humanity, born into poverty, with no talent, a truly weak human.

By this time, she was no longer accompanied by that irritable woman, but by dozens of children or adults with white ropes tied around their heads.

These people rummaged on the ground, occasionally kneeling, weeping bitterly, like soft, rotten lumps of flesh with all their bones removed.

They wept for their companions and relatives.

The forest spirit watched with disinterest.

It cast its bored gaze upon the familiar little girl.

Just like when she was a child, it maliciously tripped her. She was still clumsy, falling hard and bruising her forehead.

Then, she fell to the ground, curled up in its embrace, and suddenly burst into tears.

This time, her cries were almost nonexistent compared to when she was little. She no longer made that annoying sound.

Instead, many, many salty tears welled up. These tears fell on its roots, making it very, very scared, because it felt something shaking.

The cold, ruthless behemoth would never allow itself to grow a soft heart.

This meager emotion was quickly stifled. It would absolutely not allow itself to fall into such a pathetic state.

Echoing its thoughts, the beast tide surged again.

The garrison beat their gongs and drums, shouting hoarsely.

The forest spirit remained unmoved.

It watched the little girl and several children like her with a strange, cold gaze, as they frantically picked up a few rotten bones, dug a few handfuls of dirt, and swiftly turned to rush back to the human city.

Inexplicably, it somewhat wanted her to stay. Its roots surged and grew in response.

But at this point, the child, having learned her lesson, quickly leaped up, dodging the gnarled tree roots. She left like a small beast, without looking back.

This inconspicuous memory was pitifully small, like a drop of water in the ocean to the forest spirit that had lived for ten thousand years.

But for some reason, this drop of water was like a pearl in the deep sea, emitting an unremarkable yet warm light, so much so that when Su Qing devoured its memories, this scene was the first thing she saw.

Through her previous short journey in the back mountain, from Vine Demon A’Luo, she roughly understood the cultivation rules of flora, mountains, and rivers.

To advance further and reach the Great Dao, one almost certainly had to undergo the transformation into human form.

But the majesty of the forest made it disdain humans.

It wanted to become stronger, but it didn’t want to experience the emotions that would make it soft and thus vulnerable to harm.

And its small, fragile connection with this little girl, Bayin, should have been its opportunity to transform into human form.

But the forest refused. From beginning to end, all it wanted to be was a powerful, superior entity.

This sadness and precious emotion, which the forest could not comprehend, Su Qing could.

Her fragmented, almost dissipated spirit, supported by these few drops of tears filled with abundant emotion, actually stabilized.

She looked down at herself, vaguely seeing a faint burning white flame.

It wasn’t time to reach her limit yet. Su Qing’s gaze, heavy with intent, fell upon the entangled mist ahead. She chose to take another step forward.

The purplish-black tide surged again, pushing her forward.

She endured the hopeless coldness, once again immersing herself into the depths of the forest’s consciousness. Her sixth sense told her she might be very close to the answer.

Her consciousness drifted up and down in the waves.

This time, she saw the person she had been looking for: Ye Mingshi.

It was less that she was watching, and more that the forest spirit was watching.

Because the moment Ye Mingshi entered the Myriad Beast Forest, she was immediately targeted.

The forest spirit believed that its long-awaited opportunity for human transformation had finally arrived.

She had escaped into the forest at night, badly wounded, her blood flowing everywhere.

The demonic energy within it instantly piqued the Myriad Beast Forest’s interest.

It began to observe her, this descendant of a demon, as usual.

This female cultivator was weak. In the forest spirit’s view, she didn’t have to be this weak, but she chose weakness. She cultivated and healed in the forest.

After her wounds slightly healed, she joined a human camp.

But soon, her identity as a demon descendant was exposed, leading to a new round of expulsion and condemnation.

She fled into the depths of the forest and encountered an old enemy.

At a life-threatening moment, the forest spirit happily intervened.

It prepared to rewrite this female cultivator’s almost certain death and resolved to take over the rest of her life.

It devoured Ye Mingshi, taking over her physical body, but did not immediately kill her.

It locked her in its own spirit space, preparing to completely infiltrate her spirit with demonic energy, thereby activating her demonic bone and exchanging it for a stronger demonic bone.

So that was it. Su Qing remembered the character “Ye”  among the series of “kill” characters.

She was certain that Ye Mingshi must be in the center of this spirit space.

She must have maintained a sliver of clarity under extreme pain to be able to use the Myriad Beast Forest’s hand to transmit information to the outside world: she was still alive.

But that was three years ago. So much time had passed since then. She was highly likely to have been completely digested by the demonic energy by now.

After all, before the immortal bone could purify demonic energy, two thousand people in the camp relied on each other, yet still couldn’t resist the erosion of demonic energy.

And Ye Mingshi was alone. Her cultivation wasn’t high, her spirit had already been eroded by demonic energy, making it even less likely for her to have survived.

No matter how rationally she analyzed it, emotionally, Su Qing believed she was definitely still alive.

Not only because the Myriad Beast Forest’s demonic bone had not yet fully hatched, but also because that small memory belonging to the Myriad Beast Forest and Bayin, if it could support her, then perhaps it could also support Ye Mingshi.

She might be able to find a hiding place within the countless human memories recorded by the Myriad Beast Forest.

In the past, Su Qing wouldn’t have had the confidence to say such a thing.

But after round after round of cold, desperate purifications, and countless struggles between being human and falling into depravity, she truly experienced for the first time what it felt like to want to be human, or rather, not to give up being human.

She had only just experienced Ye Mingshi’s feelings, and Ye Mingshi, who had struggled with herself countless times since birth, must understand this better than her, and be more adept at coping.

She was willing to believe she was alive.

Since the Myriad Beast Forest chose to transform into human form by parasitizing Ye Mingshi, then could they also influence the Myriad Beast Forest in reverse through Ye Mingshi?

As Su Qing realized this, the dense, viscous seawater suddenly surged into a massive wave, violently crashing down on her, slamming her heavily beneath the sea as if pulverizing her.

Demonic energy fiercely eroded her heart-fire, making her already unstable heart-fire precarious. The destruction of her spirit seemed imminent.

It was also at this moment that wisps of fire suddenly swam rapidly from beneath the sea, bravely rushing forward, surrounding her, protecting her pitiful flame, escaping through the turbulent winds and torrential waves.

She couldn’t remember how long she had walked, only that everything before her was pitch black, yet as bright as if tearing through the sky. She seemed to have passed through the storm.

Su Qing gasped violently, then suddenly opened her eyes.

She saw everyone’s worried gazes.

Xiu Fu was transferring the rootless fire to every acupuncture point on her body.

This rootless fire had already been largely consumed.

The members of the life-and-death alliance were transferring their own heart-fire to quickly replenish it.

Rainbow’s expression was very grim.

She said, “How do you feel? From the beginning of this purification, your body temperature was rapidly dropping, and your heart-fire was extinguishing quickly. If the Healer hadn’t promptly used the rootless fire to sustain you, you would have been in grave danger this time.”

So that was where those faint streaks of fire that came to her aid came from.

Su Qing closed her eyes, took a deep breath, calming the icy itchiness within her.

When she reopened her eyes, her gaze had become resolute and calm. “I seem to have discovered some clues to break this stalemate.”