Seeing the grim look on Yang Kai's face, the Elder and Mu Na exchanged a glance, bowed in unison, and pleaded, "Please, honored guest, lend our two tribes a helping hand!"
Yang Kai stepped aside and said coolly, "You two are rather insistent, aren't you."
The Elder shook his head. "Not at all. We are merely following the will of Heaven."
"The will of Heaven?" Yang Kai let out a cold laugh. "What will of Heaven!"
The Elder smiled faintly, stepped to the side, and pointed at the cave wall. "Please look, honored guest."
Mu Na waved her hand as well, and a stream of radiant, multicolored light shot forth, illuminating the entire cave wall as bright as daylight. The light clung to a certain section of the wall, slowly swirling around it, and as its glow intensified, Yang Kai suddenly noticed that several extremely ancient paintings had emerged on the cave wall's surface.
The first painting showed a person sitting cross-legged with a stone resting on their knees. The person extended one finger, from which blood dripped onto the stone. Strangely, the blood flowing from the fingertip was not crimson but an eerie gold.
Yang Kai stared, stunned, but before he could take it in fully, his gaze was drawn involuntarily along with the moving light to the second painting.
In the second painting, the person still sat cross-legged, but a small, hunched figure had now appeared nearby — stooped at the waist, on all fours, hopping about like a monkey chasing fluttering butterflies.
Both paintings were rendered in the simplest of lines, clearly very crude, yet they vividly conveyed the meaning they intended to express.
Was that... Little? And himself? Yang Kai's mind went blank. He could hardly believe his eyes. That small figure was unmistakably Little, and who else could the figure dripping golden blood be but himself?
But... these paintings were clearly weathered by time, extremely ancient — at least several hundred, perhaps a thousand years old. How could they possibly depict him?
Yang Kai couldn't shake the overwhelming sense of unreality.
When he looked at the third painting, his eyes involuntarily narrowed. It depicted him and Little fighting side by side. Little, wielding the Heaven Shaking Pillar, was shown unleashing devastating power — the portrayal so vivid and lifelike it was as if the scene were carved into the wall itself.
The fourth painting appeared to be set within some kind of passage, starlight swirling all around. Space was shattered, and Little was being pulled into a spatial rift, with only one hand still visible outside, reaching desperately for something.
That was what had happened when they'd first entered the Star Boundary — the encounter within the Starlight Passage!
The fifth painting showed nine more stone figures like Little gathered around him, resting and recuperating in a primeval, densely forested jungle, with many smaller Wood Spirits flitting about.
The sixth painting showed the figure who had appeared first in the paintings reuniting with the small figure — a joyful reunion after a long separation, bonfires blazing bright, with numerous Stone Spirits and Wood Spirits singing and dancing alongside them, perfectly mirroring what had unfolded tonight.
The seventh painting depicted a blood-red, oval-shaped gate, with countless bizarre creatures battling near it, casualties strewn everywhere.
The eighth painting showed the small figure soaring across the sky, charging into the blood-red gate with the help of that human, then vanishing from sight.
The ninth painting showed nothing at all — only the blood-red gate remained, with nothing else in sight, leaving an immense sense of suspense.
A total of nine paintings, branded into the tree wall — crude though the lines were, they were strikingly lifelike.
After finishing, Yang Kai's mind churned with a hundred thoughts. It took a long while before he looked up and asked, "What does this mean?"
The Elder said, "Though the Wood Spirit tribe is not skilled in combat, we possess many peculiar abilities. The previous Wood Spirit Matriarch was masterful in the art of divination. Before her death, she foresaw that our two tribes would face a catastrophe of annihilation at some point in the future. At the cost of her final life force, she cast a divination to find a path forward for both our tribes. What she left behind was these nine paintings."
Mu Na sighed. "For over a thousand years, the Elder and I have been trying to decipher the meaning behind these nine paintings, but we could never find the answer — until Shi Jiu suddenly arrived from the outside world. He confirmed the contents of the fifth painting for us, and only then did we realize that the hope of our two tribes does not lie within the tribes themselves, but with Shi Jiu — and with you, honored guest."
Yang Kai's mouth twitched. "Based on these nine paintings alone? You're willing to stake the lives of everyone in both tribes on this?"
The Elder shook his head gravely. "This is the will of Heaven. This is a revelation, not a gamble! Honored guest — we have been waiting for you for a very long time!"
Yang Kai paused. He had heard the Elder say something similar when they'd first met today, and he'd assumed it was because of Little — but it turned out the Elder had meant something else entirely.
Inside the tree hollow, the Elder and Mu Na gazed at Yang Kai with blazing eyes, their faces full of hope.
Yang Kai sighed. "Even if this is a revelation left behind by the previous Wood Spirit Matriarch at the cost of her final life, it doesn't guarantee that things will succeed." Pointing at the ninth painting, he added, "There's nothing here at all."
Mu Na said solemnly, "I believe the previous Matriarch would not have made empty pronouncements. If this were a dead end, she would never have left behind a revelation. Since she did, the path she pointed us toward must be the right one."
"Honored guest..." the Elder began again.
Before he could finish, Yang Kai waved his hand to cut him off. "This matter is far too important. I need time to think. You two don't need to say anything more."
With that, regardless of what the two had to say, Yang Kai turned and walked out of the tree hollow. Outside, the revelry continued unabated. Wood Spirits and Stone Spirits, members of both tribes, filled the air with song and laughter. Ruo Xi had been pulled into the fray by a group of Wood Spirits and was dancing gracefully, her elegant movements drawing applause and admiration from the crowd. A few Stone Spirits watched with their eyes practically bulging from their heads.
Little, too, was wriggling and flailing about with wild enthusiasm — though the sight was frankly nothing to write home about.