Wood of Fusang

'Where did it all go so wrong?'

Da Hai stood before the Fusang tree alone. He had no other company with him at this moment, merely him and the all powerful life giving tree that acted as the heart of Yingzhou. However, he preferred it this way.

Yi Fei'e was for a lack of better terms, upset. She'd entered secluded cultivation to make her frustrations known. She told Da Hai that she'd be attempting to form the primal unity.

Da Hai did not doubt her. Though he also knew she was partly using cultivation as a distraction.

"Why do I keep fucking up?" Da Hai asked no one in particular. He gazed up at the mystical Fusang tree in anxiety. "Zulong is too set in his way, Qinglong and Yinglong follow him out of love and loyalty but will never deter him."

"I failed as a master," he murmured. "I desecrated all over the duties of a master and disciple and committed the taboo of betrayal. How do I make things right?" He touched the bark of the titanic tree.

"How do I save Zulong if he would not turn away from this path?" Da Hai asked out loud.

The Fusang tree rustled in the wind. It was almost as if it wanted to bend down and comfort its master. The supernatural fruits hanging from its branches, immature yet mystically powerful, glistened beneath the light of the Solar Star.

Da Hai stood there for an uncertain amount of time. He did nothing except reminisce about the past. It was in these moments that years of regret would pile up once again.

"What can I do?" Da Hai whispered. He'd long stopped cultivating. In truth, all of his 'cultivation' time was spent merely on divination. Peering into the stream of time for beings as strong as Zulong, Wangshu, Hongjun, and Luohu was nigh impossible. Even after so many years, Da Hai had gained nothing.

After so many years, he couldn't make any breakthroughs in his cultivation path. His power had not improved one bit since his fight against Hongjun thousands of years ago.

Da Hai sat down on the meadow and leaned back resting upon the Fusang tree. He closed his eyes and felt the warmth of the celestial tree's pulsing power. Even after so many years, it still surprised him to feel first hand just how much potential energy the Fusang tree has.

"Too bad you can't leave Yingzhou, and Yingzhou can't leave the east sea," he mused disappointingly. "I sometimes wonder, am I only delaying the inevitable? Is the world truly set on a path?"

"Or is it that I unknowingly set the world on the path it'll follow," Da Hai sighed. He rested beside the Fusang tree quietly letting the day pass by.

"Zulong was right about one thing. His karmic luck is extremely high. All these deeds from helping the north sea, the west sea, the south sea, and the east sea. His accomplishments as leader and creator of an entire race. All this contributed to his merit," Da Hai contemplated.

"According to the original timeline, the ancestral dragon never did any of these things. He appeared in the east sea and conquered the four seas with the dragon clan through strength and war. By announcing himself as sovereign, the ancestral dragon gained enormous merit as an investment from the Heavenly Dao."

"However, the dragon, phoenix, and qilin alike squandered this merit. They bathed the primitive world in blood in their three way war invigorated by nothing except a desire for more. Their luck ran dry before they noticed and they were punished."

"The dragon dived back to his place of birth and became the sea eye. His clan forever dutiful in maintaining the sea eye, the greatest source of sin concentrated into a whirlpool that if unleashed will send forth a flood that brings about the apocalypse."

"The phoenix's body and consciousness were all but destroyed. Trapped within the undead volcano in the south sea forbidden an eruption that'll bring about the apocalypse. Phoenixes as a race became scarcely limited to only a few remaining members. They'd all get arrested over time and the phoenix clan itself becomes defunct."

"The qilin disappeared from the world entirely. Reduced to nothing but servants of heaven appearing only when they're commanded. Of the three, the dragons at least were the most well off and maintained a powerbase no matter how depleted they were."

"But they remained miserable, unable to ever rise again, and remained as minor figures pushed around by everyone. Their one solace was that their image was immortalized as the imperial symbol."

Da Hai broke out of his musing and gazed eastwards. "In the end, it all comes down to karmic luck," he rubbed his chin in contemplation.

"Zulong has plenty of luck, much more than he should've. This quantity would magnify when he announces himself. Is it enough for him to avoid the tribulation?" He wondered out loud.

"Thinking back, the Supreme Pure One's lineage, Jie school fell due to a similar reason to the dragons. Their negative karma overcame their positive causing them to fall one after the other. But grandmaster Tongtian never mishandled the sect."

Da Hai rubbed his forehead in thought. "Jie school lacked a solid treasure to suppress their luck allowing for their good fortune to escape overtime. But Zulong has the twenty four sea calming pearls and the dragon pearl. He isn't lacking in treasures."

"The sea suppression pearls can suppress luck in the dragon pearl's place," he calmed down after that. He brought his finger up and drew some images in the air. His experiments helped him calculate the amount of karma and the effectiveness of suppression.

Da Hai was intimately familiar with the twenty four sea calming pearls. These little jewels Zulong owned were top tier xiantian spiritual treasures specialising in a variety of abilities from defence, to support, to trapping. It was just that Zulong always preferred to fight in physical combat using his powerful body.

"Wait a second," Da Hai frowned looking at the models in front of him. He took a look eastward towards the East Sea Dragon Palace and changed the numbers slightly. Then he observed the Heavenly Dao, then towards the other two sovereign's auras of karmic luck.

His eyes narrowed as he squinted hard. Crossing continents at this distance was hard even for Da Hai. He strained his eyesight yet only received blurry images. Yet these images did give him a semi-accurate diagram.

Da Hai sat there crosslegged drawing more models in the air. These hovering 3D diagrams depicted a pool of luck and twenty four spheres above them acting as a cage. Da Hai had no doubt Zulong would use the pearls for this, he just wasn't sure it was enough.

"Hmmm," Da Hai frowned deeply at his projections. "If only the twenty four were one. No, that won't help much either, if only they were in their mature forms."

The twenty four sea calming pearls were famous in Chinese mythology. This was because these pearls were nascent universes. At the end of the investiture of the gods, these twenty four pearls would join the nine heavens becoming the complete thirty three heavens.

Together with the three clear heavens, they become a total of thirty six heavens that make up the Heavenly Realm. It was said that each of these heavens were entire universes ruled by a ruling emperor. At the thirty third heaven, the Great Overreaching Heaven sat the Numinous Sky Palace and the Jade Emperor.

It was not until the Dipankara Ancient Buddha received these pearls did they fully mature. Da Hai despite the years he'd spent with Zulong never felt them react like legends described. He doubts they would be anywhere near as powerful.

"Luck is good, but too much luck becomes a burden," Da Hai gazed intently at the model. Zulong's future was practically overflowing with luck. So much luck in fact that nothing would be able to suppress it. It'll Leake out over time leaving much of it wasted on miscellaneous things.

"He'd need something specialised into suppressing his luck. Else he risks losing his fortune," Da Hai gripped his head thinking of how to approach this problem.

He'd held countless xiantian spiritual treasures over time but they were mostly low rank with some mid rank. None of them were anywhere near powerful enough to do what was needed.

Da Hai leaned back on the Fusang tree again. He contemplated what kind of treasure he'd need to find. Preferably it'll be a treasure hyper specialised into the workings of merit.

"The Jade fortune disc is in the hands of Hongjun. My 12 Petals White Lotus is a flower of defense and purification. If only the location of the 12 Petals Golden Lotus is known," he frowned in frustration.

The ancient treasure, the 36 Petals Chaos Green Lotus broke after Pangu opened the world. It split into five flags and five seeds. Da Hai holds two of those treasures while the rest were largely unknown.

White, black, red, green, and gold, these were all the lotuses in the world. White belonged to him, black to Luohu, red likely sits at the dormant underworld, green will not bloom for many yuanhui.

"But the golden lotus doesn't officially appear until Hongjun gifts it to Jieyin," Da Hai sighed. "It's very likely that old villain has it in storage incubating somewhere. The others are not suited for the workings of karmic luck."

He opened his eyes gazing at the massive branches and leaves above him. The sturdy wood of the Fusang tree rustled in the wind. Nevertheless, it gave excellent shade for the sea god.

"I wouldn't suppose you'd know what to do," he asked the Fusang tree. Naturally, he received no answer.

The sea god banged his head on the bark of the Fusang tree trying to jolt out some ideas. However, he could not think of any save for storming Mt Yujing and pray Hongjun is not there and that the golden lotus was in fact there.

The story wood withstood Da Hai's attack with no problem which was to be expected. The Fusan tree was almost supernaturally tough. It had never actually been damaged before.

"Wait a second," Da Hai suddenly stood up and looked back. Gazing at the Fusang tree then at his hand.

BOOM!

With a swift motion, Da Hai sliced at the Fusang tree. The very foundations of Yingzhou was shaking. Yet the Fusang tree took no damage.

In an instant, a massive snake head with a maw of razor like fangs bit at the Fusang tree. After eight consecutive strikes, Da Hai left a faint mark along the bark of the tree.

"The branches should be easier but still incredibly strong," Da Hai touched the bark and felt the tree healing itself. "Good thing you don't have a will. But you're too perfect for this."

The act of suppressing luck was to in reality regulate the amount of karmic luck. in essence, it was a way to restrict unregulated growth or losses. The way of suppressing karmic luck was to either have a treasure that can manipulate it such as the 12 Petals Golden Lotus. Or a treasure supernaturally tough enough to press it down like most other supreme treasures.

Da Hai smiled looking at the Fusang tree. "If I can't find a treasure to suppress Zulong's luck then I'll just make one," he declared.

Leaping up hundreds of thousands of kilometres. Da Hai reached a branching portion of the Fusang tree. He unleashed his teardrop sword and sliced down with full power at the branch.

CHOOM!

CRACK!

Da Hai landed on the branch which now sported a thin light mark. His arm was shaking from the power he just unleashed. "This won't do," Da Hai said in frustration.

"This sword is simply too weak to cut into the Fusang tree," he said looking down at the teardrop sword which now sported a noticeable crack on its blade.

"The only thing that could cut this is likely the sharpest force in the world. The chaotic sword Qi utilised by Pangu should fill this requirement," Da Hai mused. Then he frowned remembering just who possessed the item capable of producing chaotic sword Qi.

"No, there are two," Da Hai suddenly said looking eastward. The far off temple he still remembers having visited before this yuanhui began.

"It's been too long master," Da Hai said fading out of existence. He couldn't afford to waste time. He had to consult Pangu on the subject of chaotic sword Qi, there was no other way.