The tree spirit

Fu Jie was inspired by the other fierce guard who seemed to have a very colorful vocabulary. He felt like he should also step it up a notch and learn how to curse people in a more creative manner.

The guard scrambled back as he heard the angry voice coming from a tree.

"Y-You're a t-tree?"

It wasn't uncommon for trees to develop a spirit. If a tree lived long enough and collected enough spiritual energy, it would be possible for a tree to develop a spirit, but it was the first time that this man had ever met a tree spirit so he was naturally a bit frightened.

Fu Jie looked at the man's expressions and was sure that the man was scared enough to pee his pants and this brought great satisfaction to him.

"What the hell are you doing in my turf?!" Fu Jie shouted again as he tried to sound as strict and scary as possible. He was trying his best to sound like that demonic Xiao Jingyi. "How dare you pee on my land?!"

The guard moved back even more as he stuttered in shock, "H-How did you know?"

"..."

Fu Jie had only said it because this man looked scared enough to pee his pants. He didn't actually expect him to have done so.

He didn't know if he was supposed to laugh or cry at this situation. This guard was a lot simpler to fool than he thought.

"Why are your people running all over my land?! What the hell do you pig heads want?"

"We a-are searching for someone," The man spoke up. He was still afraid, but his eyes seemed to glimmer with hope as he asked, "If you can sense my people, do you also know where the two prisoners went?"

Just like Fu Jie had thought, this man was a bit foolish and gullible but he was smart. He was able to put his fear aside and ask for help from the tree spirit he was so afraid of.

Fu Jie, "And why do you think I should tell you?"

The guard muttered to himself and Fu Jie couldn't hear him so he shouted once again, "Speak louder or I'll have you buried at this very spot! Do you want to be buried along with your piss?"

The guard immediately shook his head as he spoke, "They were prisoners. If we don't catch them, we'll get in trouble."

"Do you think I care about that?! You can go die for all I care! Stop causing a ruckus in my land!"

The guard frowned as he heard this. He had never met a tree spirit before this but he was sure that tree spirits weren't this fierce when they just developed their consciousness. Weren't tree spirits supposed to be helpful and good? It was his first time meeting a tree spirit and it wasn't going that great.

"B-but..." The guard couldn't agree with the tree spirit and he seemed reluctant to argue with him too so he simply formed words and gulped them back down. All that could be heard was his stuttering and muttering which was clearly inaudible to Fu Jie.

"Didn't I tell you to speak clearly?!"

The guard shivered slightly as he spoke, "We have to catch them. Please help us!"

"Why are you so stubborn? Do you not value your life?!"

The guard shook his head, "I don't want to die. Isn't that why I'm asking you to help us?"

Fu Jie was purposely silent for a minute. At moments like this, he needed to stay silent and let the suspense build up so that he can break it naturally. This was going as he planned... At least everything except for the peeing part.

The tree spirit finally spoke up after a minute or two of pause which the guard thought was the time it took for the tree spirit to think it over.

Fu Jie, "What did they do?"

It was now the guard's turn to be silent as he looked around. Fu Jie could see the hesitation in the man's face so he decided to question him further. This was the real reason why he was playing around with this foolish guard. If this guard wasn't ready to give him any information, Fu Jie felt like he was making a fool out of himself as he tried to fool this foolish guard.

"If you don't tell me, I might as well bury you. You look like good nutrition for my umm... Roots!"

The guard shivered again as he spoke up with hesitation and fear, "You mustn't tell anyone."

Fu Jie pursed his lips as he looked at the man from in between the leaves.

"I'm a tree! Who do you think I'll gossip to? Other trees?"

"Ah... You're right!" The guard suddenly looked to be eager as he spoke up, "You can't do anything even if you wanted to!"

"..." Fu Jie didn't know why but he felt somewhat offended as he heard this.

"The prisoners are really important," The guard picked himself off of the ground as he looked at the bark of the tree and spoke to it, "You might not have heard about it, but there was a big commotion a few months back."

Fu Jie wanted to listen to the man's answer but when he looked at the man intently watching the bark of the tree and speaking to it in a serious tone, he couldn't help but want to break out laughing at this madman.

"A man joined the sect and in the blink of an eye, he was rising ranks as if he were climbing mere stairs. Everyone thought that he was oddly talented. Too talented to be a human but no one could prove anything. He looked completely normal and even passed all the tests he was made to go through. He was definitely a human but his power was nothing like a human's." The guard continued, "The sect leader and elders were all impressed by him and decided to give him the title of the fifth elder. Two months later, news spread like wildfire."

Fu Jie couldn't help but feel that this man should not have been a guard. If he had chosen to become a storyteller, his future would have been a lot brighter.

"The man was practicing demonic cultivation of the worst kind."

"What do you mean the worst kind?"

"You won't understand even if I tell you," The guard insulted the tree's comprehension as he ignored the question and continued, "When everyone found out, it was a huge scandal and the man instantly became an enemy but who would've thought that when he was supposed to be killed, he ran away."

"Ran away?"

"Someone from the inside helped him run away." The guard spoke as he tried his best to explain the situation.

"So you arrested them both?"

"Of course not," The guy shook his head as he spoke, "They both ran away."

"Then who did you arrest?" Fu Jie first thought that the man was talking about him and his jailmate. The middle-aged man did look like he could practice demonic magic so it wouldn't have been too shocking if he were the man mentioned in the story and Fu Jie was the one from the inside who helped him run away.

"We arrested the man's closest friend and that bastard's son!" The guard sounded a bit too enthusiastic as he told the story and it made Fu Jie wonder if this world was any different from his real world. The people there would also love to gossip like this.

"Bastard who?" Fu Jie asked curiously. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't having a great time while hearing this story be told like this. It was so juicy and filled with spices.

"The bastard who helped the other demonic bastard run away."

"Oh..." Fu Jie suddenly realized a lot of things.

He remembered his cellmate introducing him to Xiao Jingyi by saying something along the lines of 'saving your father'. If his words were true, then it meant Fu Jie was the arrested son of this supposed bastard who helped a demonic cultivator run away. If Fu Jie was his son, then it also meant that Xiao Jingyi was also the son of the demonic cultivator whom they were all after.

If all of this was to be considered, it should have been Xiao Jingyi who was put in jail. Why was innocent Fu Jie sent to jail for something he had no business in?

Xiao Jingyi didn't look innocent. In fact, he looked as if he knew everything so shouldn't he be the one on the run and suffering? How could he be in charge of all the guards?

"Let me ask you one more question. The man who came with you. The handsome one who has a grumpy face and a really scary aura, who is he?"

The guard blinked as he asked, "Do you mean Elder Dayu?"

Fu Jie nodded his head only to realize that the man couldn't see him so he coughed it off and spoke, "Yes, that's the name."

It seemed that handsome and grumpy face with a dangerous aura belonged to only one man in their group since this little guard didn't even need to think about it before he answered. When Fu Jie thought back to how Xiao Jingyi looked, he couldn't help but understand why this guard didn't even have to think twice before answering.

"He's our third Elder Dayu, son of the sect master."

"Son of the what now?" Fu Jie couldn't believe what he was hearing. It seemed that this story wasn't as simple as it seemed. It was a lot more complicated and he needed to dig in deeper about it if he were to truly understand it.

"You are probably a newly formed tree spirit so you don't know," The guard sighed as he spoke to the bark of the tree. He reached his hand to pat the bark as he spoke, "It's okay, I'll teach you."

"..."

"Sect master means the leader of the sect. She's the one who owns the sect and looks after it. She's at the highest authority figure and he is her only son."

"..."

Fu Jie didn't know why but at some point in time, this man's foolishness had stopped being funny. At this point he didn't even feel like cursing at him, he simply felt like walking away from the man. The further away he was, the better.

"Do you understand now?" The man asked. By this time around, his fear of the tree spirit had disappeared completely and Fu Jie didn't like that so he felt the urge to bring it back.

"How dare you touch me?! Step away before I chop you into mincemeat!!"

The guard stumbled back as he suddenly felt the fear coming back to him. Maybe he had gotten a little too into the storytelling that he had forgotten that this tree spirit was a fierce one.

"You should run away soon or this Laozi is going to show you what it looks like to be buried alive!"

The guard took a few more steps back as he asked, "B-but aren't you going to help us?"

Fu Jie laughed but it was filled with mockery as he asked, "With that sh*tty story, I wouldn't even want to help your dog!"

"But my dog is cute..."

"..." Fu Jie felt like a fool for tricking such a stupid person. He was wrong! This man clearly didn't have a brain!

"Get out of my sight you chewed-up piece of chewing gum!"

"W-what is chewing gum?"

"Want me to turn you into one and show you?!"

The guard shook his head with fear as he ran away, trying his best to not trip over and fall but he still did end up falling a few times as he ran for his life.

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