Chapter 42-Game Descent: I Am the Sole Player
Chapter 42
Golden fallen leaves blanketed the tiled, upturned eaves and the flagstone path. The small, exquisite Ancient Temple sheltered beneath a thousand-year-old ginkgo, nestled among the hills, steeped in tranquil Zen.
In February, a ginkgo tree should have been stripped to bare, grey branches. Yet this ancient specimen blazed as if in the golden heart of autumn, its yellow leaves seemingly inexhaustible.
Rustle, rustle, rustle —
Wind swept through like a blade made solid, slashing at the trunk and branches again and again. Golden leaves shook loose in a frenzy, layer upon layer piling on the ground. The young people standing beneath the tree brushed off their clothes and patted their hair in frustration, glaring up at the towering tree — but the millennium-old giant stood utterly unmoved.
A gust spiralled back. Xu Da leapt lightly down from the high trunk, the cutting airstream tossing her slightly damp hair before dissipating at her side.
The moment she touched down, the branch overhead shuddered violently, showering her head with leaves.
"...This tree really does have a mind of its own. Back in the day, my grandpa would've enshrined it at home."
Xu Da quipped, scratching her hair and swatting away leaves and a bug. She crushed the bug underfoot.
Having spent a great deal of energy, stray hairs plastered to her forehead, Xu Da looked somewhat dishevelled. Yet no one around dared laugh. Another girl of similar age spoke up: "I heard some bird that looks almost like a dinosaur showed up at the Wetlands. Sounds fun — how about we head over there—"
"Idiot — if you want to get showered in bird shit, leave us out of it!"
The bandaged young man snapped without a shred of courtesy.
The girl fired back: "Go lie on your operating table — that's the warmest, safest place for you!"
The two were at each other's throats. Huo Yi was clearly the more furious one. A full day had passed. He had tried healing items, sought out people with healing Talents, but the implant inside his nose could not be restored. He needed someone with telekinetic ability to save his drooping nasal tip.
Three others grabbed the pair, trying to break up the pointless quarrel — only for punches and kicks to fly all around until everyone was brawling. Xu Da, standing beneath the tree, did not so much as glance behind her. She fished a lighter from her pocket.
Click. A small flame sputtered to life.
She muttered, "A tree is a tree. It should be afraid of fire no matter what."
Xu Da tossed the lighter into the pile of fallen leaves at the base of the trunk. A well-timed gust blew through, and the fire leapt higher. The golden carpet of leaves blackened and was devoured by flames in an instant.
The scuffling group froze in unison. One of them ventured hesitantly: "This temple's pretty popular as a historic site. My grandma used to love coming here... Ah, forget it — at a time like this, what does a temple matter, hahaha."
The hollow laugh drew a smile from Xu Da. She said matter-of-factly: "Of course. This tree hasn't shown any real threat yet, but by the time it does, it'll be too late, won't it?"
"Besides, how many people have snuck past the organisation to come here the last few days? We've had to waste manpower dealing with them..."
Xu Da grumbled, and her companions chimed in with agreement — some genuine, some perfunctory.
"These past two days, clueless outsiders keep ignoring the rules. If we don't teach them a lesson, who knows what Nanzhou City will turn into!"
"Cheng Yue said this tree's level is extremely high. If your trick actually works, Xu Da, you'd probably jump three or four levels — a Jade Badge for sure!"
"Leave it to you, Xu-jie. The simplest approach is the best — if the tree's impervious to everything, just burn it. There's a whole mountain of firewood to feed the flames."
Laughing and chattering, they filed out of the burning Ancient Temple.
This ginkgo was truly extraordinary — it absorbed any and all damage like a sponge. The organisation had already dispatched several teams, Cheng Yue included, and none had been able to do a thing. It had been designated a Special-Class Mission.
Only those with organisational approval were permitted to attempt Special-Class Missions. But because the tree had so far displayed no aggression, some people desperate to level up sneaked in to try their luck. Breaking the organisation's rules, of course, carried a lethal price.
The group ducked beneath the temple's ancient signboard. Xu Da walked at the front. As the direct-line grandchild of the Xu Group's chairman, the only people in Nanzhou City she bothered putting on a pleasant face for — aside from her elders and her older brother — were Cheng Yue.
Black smoke billowed from the temple behind her. Xu Da started down the mountain path when a blast of searing wind hit her from behind. She turned to look —
When she had left, the fire was still modest, just creeping across the leaf-covered ground, its tongues of flame barely licking the ancient vermilion walls.
Now, the blaze roared higher than the temple's signboard, burning with ferocious intensity. The superheated air was nearly blinding. Xu Da instinctively tried to seize control of the wind, but she quickly realised something was wrong with the fire inside the temple.
The red flames spreading across the ground were being overtaken by a far brighter yellow-white fire. The yellow-white blaze surged upward with tremendous force, yet it did not greedily spread outward. It burned with a deep, concentrated intensity until the red flames were swallowed whole within the brilliant gold and vanished.
It was as if... fire had devoured fire!
What shocked Xu Da even more was that this brilliant fire clearly touched the golden leaves on the ground — yet not a single leaf showed the faintest scorch mark. Moments later, the flames receded like utterly harmless water, and disappeared.
It was absurd. She did not know how to describe what she had just witnessed... Fire had extinguished fire?
The wind carried the sound of footsteps crunching through fallen leaves. Xu Da's expression changed. She jerked her chin at her companions and ordered: "Go see what's going on."
The five young people exchanged uneasy glances. Today's target had been the Mutated Ginkgo — a tree with zero offensive capability — so none of them had brought high-level player escorts. Faced with this eerie situation, the five were even more rattled than Xu Da.
"Wasn't your dream to be a criminal detective? When did you switch to firefighter?"
A somewhat languid voice carried from the distance.
Xu Da stood at the junction of the mountain path, peering tensely past the signboard. Two figures emerged from behind the vermilion walls of the ancient temple.
Her pupils contracted slightly. She recognised them at once — especially the one with the slightly messy hair. Just yesterday, significant plans had been drawn up around that very person.
"Go—" She had barely begun to speak when someone shot past her, storming forward.
Huo Yi quickly recognised the girl from the stadium. If not for her reckless provocation of Cheng Yue, his nose would never have been damaged. Cheng Yue herself had complimented it as looking natural; his fans could not tell at all that he had had work done... And yet the culprit had the nerve to swagger right up in front of him!
"Hey — do you have the organisation's authorisation? Even if you're Level 17, breaking the rules means a death sentence!"
Watching Huo Yi charge forward, Xu Da stopped someone who tried to pull him back, then retreated several metres and hid behind the hillside.
Her ability was wind manipulation. She could easily pick up any movement carried on the breeze.
"What rules?"
Inside the temple grounds, Bai Shan turned her head, shifting her gaze from the ginkgo to the person who had burst in.
The moment Huo Yi met her indifferent stare, he felt a pang of regret. He remembered — this outsider was supposedly Level 17. Four whole levels above him.
His steps faltered.
But it was only four levels higher, Huo Yi told himself. A higher level did not necessarily mean superior combat ability. Even if she were Cheng Yue, a real fight would not necessarily go that badly for him. And who in Nanzhou City would dare touch him? He wanted to level up, and even Cheng Yue had to escort him—
"AAAARGH!"
A stab of agony cut his thoughts short. His feet left the ground. Something seemed to hook the tip of his nose and stretch it to its limit. The skin across his face pulled taut, like a balloon inflated to bursting.
Dark red seeped through the bandages wrapped around his nose. A small, hard object pressed visibly against the gauze.
Huo Yi clutched at his nose, struggling futilely against the irresistible force. His dangling feet flailed like a fish flopping on desert sand.
Behind the hillside, Xu Da covered her own nose. The sounds alone were enough to trigger phantom pain. The others, hearing Huo Yi's screams, wore expressions of naked terror.
Bai Shan flicked her right hand outward — as casually as tossing an empty can into a bin — and the young man, a full 170 centimetres tall, seemed to float before slamming heavily to the ground and tumbling down the mountain path with a series of thuds.
By a stroke of fate, he rolled to a stop right in front of the hiding Xu Da. The group held their breath, every trace of their earlier bravado gone.
"What rules? You won't tell me, so how am I supposed to know?"
Bai Shan looked toward the bend in the path. Her voice, neither loud nor soft, rang clearly through the wooded hills.
"All I know is — whoever kills the target gets the reward."
On the silent mountain path, even the wind seemed to pause. The young man lay motionless on the ground as he was slowly dragged away. None of his companions dared show their faces.
Bai Shan withdrew her bored gaze. So that was Level 13? By comparison, Lin Huijun might as well be Level 20.
Setting the minor interlude aside, Bai Shan lifted her eyes to the golden ginkgo. This tree genuinely interested her.
"Lin Huijun, could your flames burn it down?"
Lin Huijun shook her head honestly. They had come up by a different trail and she had spotted the wildfire on the hillside. Rushing to act, she had deployed [Scorching Sun Chariot] — a Talent capable of incinerating anything. If she willed it, she could even use fire to counter fire.
But against this harmless ancient tree, Lin Huijun was not sure whether her flames had failed to affect it because of the tree's own properties, or because she harboured no hostile intent toward it.
"Huang Yuci said this tree is immune to all damage," Lin Huijun reminded her. "Conventional attacks probably won't work."
Bai Shan marvelled: "Immune to all damage — what a fortunate ability."
As she spoke, a sudden gleam lit her eyes. She reached out and pressed her hand against the rough bark, tilting her head back to gaze up at the resplendent golden canopy.
The beautiful ancient tree stood tall, and among its dense foliage, it felt as though a pair of eyes gazed back at her.
The dark-green bracer brushed against the bark. Bai Shan seemed to feel a faint tremor, like breathing. A thousand years of life pulsed beneath the soft material, rising and falling against her palm.
Bai Shan had a powerful premonition: coming here was the right call.
Killing a powerful Mutated Creature held limited value for her — her level was currently locked, and at most she might get a random item drop.
The truly valuable Mutated Creatures were the highly intelligent ones — those with the capacity and wisdom to bow before her.
Inside the vermilion temple, gilded Buddha statues gazed downward in the dim light, serene and still. A wisp of sandalwood incense, faintly bitter, brought a hush to the mind.
Bai Shan had originally intended to deploy [Inextinguishable Sun Flame] — fire that could destroy even abstract Talents. A tree supposedly immune to all damage would likely be no match.
But she suddenly changed her mind, driven partly by a desire to test something, and partly by a small, sentimental impulse of appreciation.
The ginkgo was an extraordinarily lucky species. It had tenaciously survived the age of dinosaurs and the ice ages. By rights, a tree with no competitive advantage should have been displaced by hardier species long ago — yet its beauty as an ornamental plant earned it the careful protection of humankind, preserving it to the present day.
A life that had spanned a thousand years might understand existence more clearly than any human.
Bai Shan pressed her face close to the trunk and whispered: "Bow before me."
Her tone was one of rare patience and gentleness. The hand wearing the dark-green bracer stroked the bark with measured pressure — part reassurance, part warning.
If this tree had any awareness, it could surely sense that the dark-green bracer radiating an aura of nature came from another tree — a powerful tree, one that had not been willing to bow to the Tyrant of its own accord.
But the Tyrant was not one for blind conquest. She was willing to offer a chance — a chance to be part of something greater.
At some point, the golden leaves had stopped falling. A thousand years of time hung suspended on the branches, and what should have been a split second of deliberation felt as though it had been stretched to infinity.
Lin Huijun did not know what was happening. She only felt, all at once, a strange sense of peace.
She turned from the tree and looked back at the gilded Buddha inside the temple — its expression at once reproachful and joyful, sorrowful and furious.
She was not religious, but she respected and admired the artistry and wisdom contained within. The radiance of civilisation and the ancient, natural life outside the walls complemented each other, sharing a vision of all things existing in harmony.
Some unknowable span of time passed.
Bai Shan released her hand from the ginkgo.
[The Thousand-Longevity Ginkgo has bowed before you!]
[Your "Admonition" can now freely invoke the Talent "Constant Moment"!]
"Thanks."
Bai Shan stepped back a few paces, golden leaves crunching crisply underfoot, and gave the ginkgo a small nod.
Bai Shan had not harmed this ginkgo tree. Lin Huijun understood why — it was different from every Mutated Creature they had encountered before. She was about to turn and leave when she heard a sudden sound.
A cluster of ginkgo nuts dropped beside the charred lighter. Lin Huijun blinked in surprise and picked them up.
She did not know what use they might have, but she had an inexplicable feeling the ginkgo tree had given them to her — perhaps as thanks for putting out the fire.
Lin Huijun waved at the ginkgo tree, tucked the nuts away, and left.
At the foot of the mountain, news that Huo Yi had been carried out spread across all of Nanzhou City in no time.
On the descending trail, Bai Shan was already heading for the next Special-Class Mission site. She walked and opened her panel at the same time, eager to examine the new Talent.
Then she was so astonished she nearly tripped over her own feet.
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