The weather took a sudden turn — it's freezing out there, everyone, stay warm.
…………
This was a peculiar race on the verge of extinction throughout the annals of history. Their people were born frail, possessing little in the way of combat ability, yet they held an extraordinary gift for cultivating plants.
Legend had it that in the most ancient of eras, mighty figures and extraordinary cultivators loved to take in one or two Wood Spirits to tend the spirit herbs and medicinal seedlings in their gardens. A hundred-thousand-acre herb garden, so long as even a single Wood Spirit lived within it, could see its harvest in both quantity and quality rise by thirty percent.
They were the favored children of nature — an exceedingly rare existence.
As the ages passed and the seas turned to mulberry fields, every corner of the Star Boundary had undergone changes throughout the endless river of time. The rise and fall of races was a common thing.
But the Ancient Wild Lands had remained unchanged from antiquity to the present day, which was why so many creatures rarely seen in the outside world could still be found here.
The Wood Spirits were one such race, and the Stone Puppets another. The two races had supported each other through the long ages, preserving their lineages together. The Stone Puppets could provide the Wood Spirits with powerful protection, and in return, the Wood Spirits could bestow the gift of flight upon the Stone Puppets in battle. They were truly ill-suited for combat, but they could make the clumsy, massive Stone Puppets take to the sky. Without the Wood Spirits' aid, Stone Puppets would forever be confined to fighting on the ground — a significant disadvantage.
A dozen or so delicate, exquisitely pretty Wood Spirits flew toward Yang Kai, gathering around him and dancing like butterflies.
"Hello there," Yang Kai said with a broad grin.
Both the Wood Spirits and the Stone Puppets were deeply xenophobic races. Under normal circumstances, they had no dealings whatsoever with the outside world. Many demonic cultivators living in the Ancient Wild Lands had never even seen their true forms — they'd only heard rumors.
But Yang Kai was different. Over a decade ago, he had visited the Stone Puppets' territory and been received as an honored guest by both the Stone Puppets and the Wood Spirits. With that bond already established, meeting again now naturally didn't feel like encountering strangers.
A female Wood Spirit landed on Yang Kai's shoulder and leaned close to his ear. "The Elder and the clansmen are waiting for you. Please, come."
Her voice was soft and gentle, and her cheeks seemed slightly flushed. Wood Spirits were easily embarrassed. Yang Kai vaguely thought she looked familiar — she might have been the one who'd poured him wine all those years ago — but he couldn't be sure. He smiled. "Of course."
The Wood Spirits' innate supernatural ability turned every plant and tree within a radius of several thousand li into their eyes and ears, so the moment Yang Kai had arrived, they'd sensed him. These Wood Spirits had come to welcome him.
The Wood Spirits led the way, and after only a short walk, they reached the Stone Puppets' dwelling. All around, ancient trees rose even taller than those elsewhere, their hollowed-out trunks serving as natural homes.
Nine enormous Stone Puppets stood in a line. The one in the center had a somewhat aged appearance, his frame slightly stooped, and a beard like an inverted stone pillar hung down to his chest, radiating an aura of weathered age. He was watching their approach with a genial smile.
Yang Kai walked up to him, placed a hand over his chest and bowed. "Elder!" He then looked at the half-foot-tall female Wood Spirit wearing a floral crown who sat atop the Elder's shoulder. "Clan Leader!"
"Honored guest, we meet again," the Stone Puppet Elder chuckled, his deep, resonant voice shaking heaven and earth.
"Keep it down," Mu Na, the Wood Spirit Clan Leader, said, plugging her ears with her fingers.
"I'm no honored guest — Elder, just call me by my name." Yang Kai wore a humble expression. The wisdom of the aged always deserved its due respect, and his ties with the Stone Puppet race ran deep — both Xiao Xiao and the Dharma Avatar had been Stone Puppets by origin. "I've come uninvited because I need to ask a favor of you, Elder."
The Elder burst into laughter, though he restrained himself somewhat, as if afraid Mu Na would complain again. "Whatever it is, we'll talk after we've eaten and drunk our fill. You haven't been here in over a decade — it's rare for us to have a bit of liveliness around here. We can't let this opportunity slip by!"
"Then... I'll follow the Elder's lead."
At his command, a banquet was laid out just as it had been over a decade before. Everyone sat on the ground gathered around a massive tree root that served as the table. The Wood Spirits bustled back and forth, quickly covering the surface with melons, fruits, and fine wine.
Night fell. Moonlight filtered through the leaves, and strange luminous fruits hung from the tree trunks all around, glowing in a kaleidoscope of colors that lit up the world as bright as day.
The Stone Puppets were normally taciturn creatures, but now they showed their wild side — shouting and whooping without cease, clutching wooden cups taller than a man, gulping down wine by the draught and savoring the spirit melons and exotic fruits the Wood Spirits had cultivated. The Wood Spirits, for their part, danced gracefully at the edges.
A bright moon overhead, a splendid feast and fine wine — it was the kind of night that made you forget you ever wanted to leave.
The Stone Puppets' names were simple: from Stone One to Stone Eight. Yang Kai couldn't keep track of who was who, since they all looked much the same. There had once been a Stone Nine — that was Xiao Xiao — but he had followed Zhang Ruoxi through the Blood Gate, and word of him had yet to reach them.
The Stone Puppet race was blessed with extraordinary talent — boundless strength that few people or demons could match. But the way of Heaven was to diminish the surplus and supplement the deficiency. The Stone Puppets, by their very nature, could never number more than ten. If they exceeded ten, disaster would strike.
In other words, the total number of Stone Puppets in all of heaven and earth would never surpass ten.
Right now, Yang Kai had nine Stone Puppets before him. Counting Xiao Xiao, that made exactly ten. The Dharma Avatar, though born of a Stone Puppet body, could no longer be considered a true Stone Puppet, and so did not factor into the count.
The eight Stone Puppets took turns raising toasts. The cups they used were twice the size of an ordinary household's wine barrels, and they were dead set on drinking Yang Kai under the table. Try as he might to decline, he had no choice but to match them cup for cup.
The spirit wine brewed by the Wood Spirits was brimming with spiritual energy and packed a tremendous punch — even the Stone Puppets couldn't drink too much of it.
Yang Kai might have a half-dragon body, but how could even that withstand a rolling barrage from these lunk-headed brutes?