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The woman was speaking in a tongue that Bai li yue couldn't decipher. Her voice carried in the wind. It was a commanding voice tinged with frustration. The gibberish became more and more familiar to Bai li yue's ears. Little by little she started comprehending the words as if she had heard them before in a past time that she'd forgotten.

'Are you willing to yield and give me what I came for?'

The leaves of the tree rustled softly.

'Have you forgotten how I aided you when you were but a sapling? I now ask for nothing but your gratitude and payment of a past favour.'

Bai li yue didn't know how the two were communicating, but the tree was definitely saying something to the woman who frowned at whatever it was the tree said.

'You would guard it even in death? Shall I then lay this land to waste and take it from your grasp? You test my patience, sapling. I shall give you one last chance. Be wise and yield.'

With the ultimatum, their conversation ended. The woman in red stood in front of the tree waiting. Her breath came in short bursts throughout the night, but the answer she was looking for never came. 

'Do you have an answer for me?' 

She asked one final time as the sun peeked over the horizon. 

'I am weak as I approach my end, but you forgot that I am immortal. If your decision is made, then it means my last hope is gone. I shall depart to witness my last sunrise.' 

She stepped into the air, gliding upward supported by a gentle breeze until she was standing high above the city. She watched as the newborn sun shyly stepped out from behind the lightening robes of the sky. It shed it's gentle yellow light upon the land and all it surveyed. Soon the child will grow into a tyrant, casting a cruel eye from its red orb upon the land. Fields and streams will run dry beneath its unforgiving gaze and those who smiled at the birth of the child will weep and seek shelter from its torturous stare. Later, like all tyrants, it will grow old and mellow with age before dying. Those who lived under it reign will mourn its passing. They'll celebrate the birth of another tyrant as they had done the day for. Man was born from lost memory. So people were made to forget. That's how they lived and survived and thrived, until they returned to being memories. 

However she won't be alive to witness the coming tyrant. Her death was at hand and she wondered where it had all gone wrong.

'This is my fate. I never could escape it, could i?' 

She cried for herself in that moment. Bai li yue's heart twinged at the sorrowful sight.

'Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it heartbreaking?' 

The woman asks no one in particular.

'Why? Why must the heavens foil me at every turn? The heavens erased my destiny and forced this heavy fate upon my shoulders. So i cultivated karma to open the door of destiny. I did everything only to be foiled again and again.'

Her tears flowed until the wetness dried in the wind.

Bai li yue couldn't see the woman's eyes from where she stood, but she felt it inside her. If she found herself in a similar situation, she would lash out at the world. A spark of insanity appeared in the woman's eyes. It promised to burn the world around her.

'Sapling, you chose oblivion over peace so i shall grant it to you.' 

Her vengeful words resounded over the land. The people below in the city raised their heads to witness the spectacle in the skies. But their peaceful existence was destined to be shattered.

'Watch as all the lives you watch over are destroyed. Know it was because of your stubbornness.' 

She laughed wildly as the red bow materialised in her hand along with an arrow. 

Creeeak! Crack!

The tree shook, its branches and leaves expanded, shooting in all directions to form a canopy over the city, but it was sorely lacking in the confrontation. 

The woman released a red arrow that flew like a falling sun. Bai li yue shut her eyes to blinding light.

Before its branches cover half of the city, the arrow arrived. It was a flaming sun that burned everything in its path. Nothing was spared in the wake of its passage. Entire districts of the city turned to dust and the agonising screams of escaping people were cut short. They were wiped from existence in the space of a second. 

The screams of survivors under the tree canopy continued. Multitudes wailed mourning the sudden passing of their friends and family. They uttered prayers to their tree deity to save them from impending doom, but the tree guardian itself was facing imminent destruction. 

The arrow's destruction reached the tree branches. It withered and burned branches as quickly as they were being replaced. 

The tree creaked and groaned. It was speaking.

'My offer expired with the rising sun. Now I simply wish for you to suffer.' 

She cackled. 

The arrow thrummed with power. Its destructive force breached the barrier, burning all the vegetation that stood in its path. It was too powerful.

Bai li yue felt the heat from where she stood. She could feel her skin burning, her bones right into her soul. The heat threatened to wipe her out of existence. She collapsed to the ground on weakened limbs and closed her eyes to the horrific scene below. The screams from the dying could be heard from within the barrier.

'Enough… stop it. Please, make it stop.'

Bai li yue whimpered and pleaded but all she got in response was more maddened laughter and dying screams. It came from all around her and pierced her mind until she began to lose consciousness.

The arrow lost its momentum at last and a grave silence settled upon the land. The moment passed though it felt like years. 

Very few branches now remained on the charred tree. It had expended its life force to protect its people, but it had failed them all. A lifetime of joy had been severed in an instant. It creaked in mourning, shrinking down to a blackened shell. It was exhausted and dying. 

The spark of madness died in the woman's eyes as she surveyed the destruction wrought by her hand.

'And thus my cruel fate is sealed.' 

Nothing mattered now. She left the dying tree to its woeful end and walked away to meet her fate.

Bai li yue didn't know how long she stayed on the outcropping watching the dying tree. Day after day, it shrunk down even more as its life force dwindled. 

The devastated land was overrun by new life over after countless years as she stayed beside the dead tree. And then one day, Bai li yue fell asleep and woke up in her room. She was glad to be back. The things she had seen in her dream left her rattled.

'Why did I dream of her? What does it all mean?' 

She couldn't find an answer to her questions no matter how hard she pondered on the meaning of the dream.

The day of her departure drew closer. Lu dou had yet to address her. He avoided her most of the time, seeking the company of his new sect brothers and sisters. Each of the students admitted into the three or four star sect was given a number of admissions tokens. Each of them gave some of their token to the sect and left a few for their personal use. Lu dou had used his tokens in to benefit his friends. He decided to wait in chenyang city until Zhengqing, Wang do and Fang shi joined him. They would then all journey to their new sect. Knowing that the sect wouldn't accept him recommending juniors to a four star sect when seniors had priority, all of Huang rong's tokens went to the sect. Apparently, he gave them up in order to get them to agree to sending his friends to Lu dou's new sect. It was a deal the sect had eagerly accepted. Huang rong took the situation in stride to her surprise.

'Aren't you disappointed going to a new place without your friends around you?'

'I already made peace with it. All relationships evolve with distance and time. If ours doesn't last as a result, then I'll have to accept it and move on.'

She drank her tea, rolling the liquid over her tongue.

'Lu dou is still in a bad mood.'

'It can't be avoided. He'll get over it eventually.' 

'You leave tomorrow. Do you wish me to tell him?' 

Bai li yue didn't answer the question. She was actually leaving that night. Slipping away during the night worked better for her. 

That night, she joined a night caravan leaving the city. From the window, she said goodbye to the chenyang. It had been her home for the better part of a year. She didn't know when next she'd return, but she was looking forward to the next stage of her journey. 

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