The two of them set to work around the fruit tree right away. Old Fang even went so far as to deploy a secret technique. Power surged through his entire body, and from his fingertip drifted a soft orb of white, luminous light. Under his direction, that light crept inch by inch and corner by corner across every part of the tree.
After fussing over it for one or two hours, they still hadn't found anything wrong.
Old Fang was drenched in sweat, muttering incessantly, "This doesn't make sense—how can we not find anything? Brother, could it be that you did something wrong during your usual care of the tree?"
Yang Kai stood off to the side with his arms crossed, the Rooster General perched atop his head. He shook his head at that. "Impossible. If there had been a problem with my daily care, it wouldn't just be this one tree—it would be all thirty of my trees having issues."
"That's true enough." Old Fang realized his guess had been nothing more than wild speculation. Yang Kai might have been here a short time, but he'd learned everything there was to know about tending the fruit trees. And even if something had gone wrong on Yang Kai's end, could it really be that all three of his previous masters had also messed up?
"If the tree itself isn't the problem, then the problem must be in this plot of ground." Old Fang's brow furrowed tight. The moment that thought struck him, he spoke up. "Don't get discouraged—keep looking. We have to find it eventually."
They set to work again, nearly turning the entire plot of land inside out. If not for the fruit trees planted on top, which they were afraid of damaging, they might very well have done exactly that.
But no matter what, they couldn't find the root cause. The pressure on Old Fang was mountainous, and he stood off to one side rambling on without end, as though the one facing catastrophe were him rather than Yang Kai.
Someone came looking for Old Fang, hoping to sell Azure Fire Silkworms, but Old Fang was in no mood for it. Yang Kai was about to face a major crisis—without Yang Kai, no amount of Azure Fire Silkworms would ever become Opening Heaven Pills.
"Old Fang, go take care of your business. Let me think on my own for a bit." Yang Kai could hardly stand the man's incessant chatter, so he used the opportunity to send him off.
Old Fang nodded, but before leaving, he offered Yang Kai one last word of comfort. "Don't worry—when the cart hits the mountain, there'll be a road. I'll come back and fetch Miss Die You too. I refuse to believe we can't find it."
With that, he led his visitor off toward his own orchard.
Once Old Fang was gone, peace and quiet returned at last. Yang Kai fixed his gaze on the ailing fruit tree and carefully reviewed every detail of the past two months of care, confirming that he hadn't overlooked or neglected anything.
He glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then extended a palm and pressed it against the trunk of the fruit tree. Quietly, he circulated his Dao Seal to activate the power of Wood.
Ever since Die You had warned him that time, he'd been activating the power of Wood every so often to nourish the trees—though the three saplings were excluded from that, mainly because he was worried they'd grow too fast and draw suspicion. With the nourishment of his Wood power, the remaining trees had all been doing quite well.
Now that one of them was in trouble, he wanted to see whether his power of Wood could fix it. After all, this was the essence of Wood derived from the Tree of Life. It might not be able to bring anything back from the dead, but it should have some effect, right? At the very least, it could slow this tree's decline, buying him more time to track down the cause.
That had been the plan.
When Yang Kai infused the power of Wood into the fruit tree, it did improve slightly—the color of the leaves and the spirit fruit seemed to fade a touch—but at the same time, Yang Kai made another discovery.
From underground, an uncontrollable surge of searing power rushed upward and poured into the very tree before him. That scorching force spread out in all directions, and the tree, which had barely started to recover, reverted right back to its previous state.
"Oh?" Yang Kai's brow shot up, thoroughly surprised.
He recognized the searing power rising from below—it was the power of Fire. The entire orchard sat atop a massive Fire Spirit Ground, and when tending the trees, he'd used the token in his hand to channel the subterranean Fire power to nourish the Fire Spirit Fruit Trees. That said, the amount had to be controlled with great precision.
Under normal circumstances, without activating the token to trigger the formation, the Fire power shouldn't rise of its own accord.
And yet, just now, a blast of extremely scorching power had manifested—and he hadn't been the one to draw it out.
Yang Kai's spirits lifted. He had a vague feeling he'd found the root of the problem, though he still couldn't fathom why it was happening.
He tried again several more times with careful attention, and each time he channeled the power of Wood into the tree, a surge of Fire spirit power erupted from underground—and this Fire power was far more scorching and concentrated than what he normally drew out.
The Fire Spirit Fruit Trees needed this energy, of course, but anything in excess became a burden. If the tree absorbed too much of it, the strain would clearly take a toll.
The reason he hadn't detected it before was that he'd never actually touched the tree while activating his power of Wood. This time, in order to investigate the cause, he'd made direct contact—and the sensation was strikingly clear.
"Find anything?" Old Fang had finished up his business and, unable to rest easy, came back to check on things. Seeing Yang Kai frowning in deep thought, he hurried over and asked.
Yang Kai stroked his chin. "Hard to say. By the way—have you condensed the power of Wood?"