Mysterious Lady

Let's wind back the clock a little bit.

A few minutes after our boy found the intoxicating fruits, a beautiful lady appeared at a distance from the alluring tree observing everything around her near or far. It seemed like her eyes could see far beyond the capacity of normal animals and beings.

She was wearing a loose robe made up of white silk-like threads which flowed freely around her. The robe was not intricate in design but had a touch of elegance in its simplicity. Her hair, a cascade of midnight black, fell like a smooth unbroken stream behind her back contrasting sharply with her pristine white attire. It was adorned with a single wooden hairpin which was exquisitely carved with some strange symbol-like design on it. The hairpin held most of her tresses in place with effortless elegance though some stray strands framed her face which brought softness to her sharp, delicate, and exquisite face. Her dark eyes appeared deep like an ancient well that held thousands of untold stories framed by long and dark eyelashes while her lips were naturally full and softly curved hinting at an inviting smile. She had high cheekbones which gave her an air of grace and the subtle arch of her brows added a touch of quiet confidence, making her a captivating beauty.

She was observing the alluring tree from a great distance as if she were very afraid of this tree. She easily noticed our boy who was making noises with his activity around the tree.

She noticed his muscular build and his peculiar characteristics especially his face with contrasting complexion on them and the uncountable number of scars on his body. The strange thing she noticed was that he was wearing an intricate hat made up of leaves, and carrying a bag made up of skin on his back yet, he did not have any clothes on his body.

'This pervert!' She almost spoke out loud as she crushed a twig of a branch that was in her hand into powder.

Yes, he was butt naked carrying on with his activity as if he had no sense of shame.

She was furious about having to see a pervert on this ancient continent.

'And this pervert is planning to collect the yin-yang fruit.

This is like the evil serpent claiming the forbidden fruit of knowledge.

I must prevent this. Otherwise, with the power of yin-yang fruit, this devil can wreak havoc on all of us who have only gained so much cultivation with our young bodies.'

She was apprehensive of the unknown strength of the boy as well as the dangers of the yin-yang tree so she decided to watch until he got the fruit.

She saw how he observed the tree. He even went near the tree and came back as if afraid of touching the tree. She was amazed to see this because she thought going a certain distance near the tree was dangerous in itself as the influence of the tree could reach there. But this boy was easily moving near the tree as if he was familiar with it. She saw him hitting the tree with the stones and became alarmed that the tree might retaliate but amazingly there was no reaction from the tree.

She saw he decided to leave the tree and go somewhere. Then, she decided to follow the boy as she had no way to retrieve the fruits. He seemed to be moving along the forest trying to conceal himself as if he did not want to alert other animals of his presence. Sometimes, he was jumping nimbly from tree to tree like a monkey, sometimes he was moving on the ground like a deer on four limbs, sometimes he was moving on two limbs at a very slow speed. He displayed the movement techniques and styles of various animals.

'This seems like skills learned from years of training in the forest full of dangerous animals observing each of the animals and their pattern of living in detail, not from some sophisticated training. Though he was using many different movement techniques each with their own different qualities, he could easily switch between them without any after-effect. Even if he had mastery over all those techniques like the back of his hand in his previous life, he would still have to familiarize those techniques by practicing with his new body which cannot be achieved in one or two years otherwise the conflicting movement of energy in different pathways would bring immediate or great future trouble even if one had the most powerful of bodies.'

'But how can this be? All of us have been in the cocoon for the first 14 years. It has only been about a year since we came out.'

'Did he break his cocoon early? But that will be even more foolish as he will receive less of the primordial energy which would be against the purpose of coming here.'

She then saw him focusing on a large tree, punching the ground beneath the tree.

'What is this 'pervert' doing with this tree? This just looks like a normal tree with no special characteristics.'

She then saw him shouting and uprooting the whole tree from the ground.

This scene made her open her mouth wide enough as if her jaw was falling. The next scene further frightened her as she saw him dragging the tree as if he wanted to carry it somewhere. If he had done so with a magical technique or a mystical artifact or boosting his strength with some energy, she would not have been so shocked but using bare hands with the body of a teenager was some sort of miraculous feat in her mind.

'Is he a reincarnation of a Primordial Ape or something like that?'

'But even if such beings somehow reincarnated, can they awaken their physique and powers so early in here?'

'It might be possible in the outside world who knows what sort of strange methods are there in the world. Even we as a family bearing responsibility to gather information since ancient times cannot claim we know everything. Also, in this ancient land won't they be in danger if they awakened the power beyond the limit here?'

'Or is he not in a teenage body and this is all a pre-planned façade? But then, how would he be able to enter this place?'

She then saw him moving very slowly huffling and puffing, taking several breaks in between which brought a little relief in her mind as she thought, 'Only now does he look a bit human.'

'What is this 'pervert' exactly planning? Daring to walk naked and trying to get his hands on the yin-yang fruit. Is he planning to use some forbidden means to spread the effect of yin-yang fruit into the whole of this land and enjoy himself in the effects? It might be possible as this land is just the size of a small continent which is even shrinking moment by moment.'

'In this short period of 15 years, nobody would have reached cultivation high enough to resist the effect of the fruit. Damn, even the powerful matriarch of that dastardly clan in her prime seemed to have succumbed to the effect of the fruit in the past so it's not safe even if I reached the cultivation as high as my previous life. She seemed to have even dared to eat the fruit, causing all her descendent to be born with a minor effect of yin-yang fruit which itself was like a curse.

Because of this, her clan now has to control all the descendants in a cage-like situation until they are able to control that effect. But those witches somehow found a way to make use of that effect allowing them to hook onto many powerful beings, marrying them which allowed them to create powerful descendents and allies. The bloodline that was supposed to be a curse indirectly allowed them to get more and more powerful.'

'So hateful!', she thought with gritted teeth.

Her eyes sparkled with an evil light.

'But this is also your weak spot, witch. He..he. All of your descendants, even the matriarch, no matter how strong you become will always be played with by those with the yin-yang fruit. There were records that at your strongest when your matriarch seduced a powerful being in the cosmos and your clan was in a powerful state, you ordered many powerful beings to search for every trace of yin-yang fruit and destroyed it.

In this cosmos, there can only be one yin-yang tree but you people just had to go ahead and destroy all other offspring of this tree. Those offspring trees were the actual great treasures more useful than the real yin-yang tree. Despite not being as overwhelmingly powerful, they greatly improved the cultivation especially useful in breaking difficult bottlenecks which could be used by any couples practicing dual cultivation. It acted just as a mild aphrodisiac and even had no severe side effects like the yin-yang fruit and could be used by all. The only problem was a brief period of weakness which can be easily overcome by pre-planning.'

'I came to search for those milder fruits after finding the smaller yin-yang tree whose fruits had been plucked away by someone. Who would have thought that I would find the real yin-yang tree? This was like the opportunity falling from heaven. I could have just lured that witch near the tree with another male figure nearby and the rest part of the job would be done by the witch herself. I could just record the adventure and easily clear the aftermath in their weakened state.'

'But, with this pervert acting, how do I go with my plan? (Sigh) Whether my plan succeeds or not I cannot let your plan succeed.'

'Damn, the eyes with which that pervert looked at the fruits were definitely like that of an addict, a sex maniac. His eyes proved that he definitely knew about the fruit and its effects beforehand. Heck, I bet he had already tasted the effect once and wanted to try it again on another victim. Did he experience some deviation in his cultivation resulting in this perversion or was he bewitched by the tree?'

'Many ancient records claim of the yin-yang tree enslaving various powerful beings to protect itself. Most of the women historians even consider this tree as the most evil tree in the world.'

'But this pervert definitely showed lust towards the fruit as well as fear against the tree. So, it's very unlikely for him to be bewitched.'

She continued maintaining her focus on this young boy who was finally nearing the yin-yang tree despite various thoughts running through her mind. She saw him go near the tree and place it on the ground not understanding his intentions. She then saw him climbing to the height of the fruits and started throwing those sharp stones of his onto the fruits. She almost laughed out watching his primitive methods.

But, it still amazed her that despite throwing stones at the tree, the tree was not retaliating in any way. She thought, 'Could it be that the spirit of the tree is dead? But then how could it bear the fruits without the spirit? Maybe, the spirit is in some kind of sealed or hibernating state so it was not retaliating unless something that threatens its life appears.'

She saw that he could not get the fruits so he carried the tree forwards which resulted in the tree withering and weakening in front of his eyes. But, the most astonishing thing for her was that he was standing there carrying the tree when the tree was affected but the boy who was holding the tree was clearly unscathed with not a bit of his hair affected by it.

She followed him out of the area to the place with the spider web where he cut some threads and carried them with him and then again carried another large tree with him back to the alluring tree as if the previous lesson was not enough.

But she saw things end differently this time as this pervert was trying to approach the tree with a rope to swing over. Seeing the clumsy way with which he was tying the knot had her almost laughing to tears. But the strange thing was after hours of random knots he somehow created a knot strong enough to hold his weight and started his plan. Initially, she thought this was clear suicide as he would be affected once he touched the tree. But, she planned to carefully watch this whole ordeal as this kid had something strange going on with him.

Seeing this kid bursting with strength to increase his swinging distance that caused the knot to be unstable, she quietly used her powers to strengthen them in place. Eventually, the kid cut through the branch with fruits with sharp stones and grabbed the branch with fruits using a rope tied with a stone.

She felt amazed by this and felt something strange as she could not point out how things could go so easily especially how the kid was not affected near the tree but that other tree was.

She eventually followed the boy to his hiding place. At his greatest moment, he was enjoying watching the fruits in his hand.