Chapter 154: Xu Fu Mistaking Someone, Consort Yu: Then who am I!?
By now, Rowe could confirm the girl's identity.
A natural spirit of China who claimed she had seen the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. A being whose very name was tied to the moon. In this land, there was only one candidate that fit so cleanly it was almost irritating.
Consort Yu.
In later ages, she would be counted among China's famed beauties. Some even speculated her true name was Yu Miaoyi. Whether that was truth or rumor did not matter.
In the Moonlit World Rowe understood, Consort Yu was exactly this sort of existence.
Her face, her aura, her temperament. Even the way she stood as if the world owed her an apology, while looking like she might bite someone out of sheer annoyance. Everything matched.
"Cough, cough, cough… What is that!?" Consort Yu finally recovered. Her chest rose and fell sharply, the motion making her look almost violently alive. "Is that blood? How can blood taste like this?"
She glared up at Rowe, resentment almost dripping from her lashes.
"It smells like black stone dug out of the earth. You did that on purpose, didn't you?"
"I told you," Rowe said, smiling even more brightly, "this is the first time I've heard such a strange request. I never said I was an ordinary lifeform."
Then, as if adding salt purely for personal entertainment, he continued.
"Besides, didn't you still swallow it?"
Consort Yu bared her teeth.
If she did not understand the gap between them, she would have already tried to discipline this obnoxious giant with her own hands.
Unfortunately, reality did not care about pride.
And reality also included an inconvenient truth. Even though the taste had been atrocious, the power contained in that single drop was a genuinely absurd tonic for her.
Strictly speaking, a land born elemental did not need to drink blood to survive. She could extract energy from the atmosphere itself.
But even in the height of the Age of Gods, the aether in the air was only a thin drizzle compared to what her body truly craved.
She had gone far too long without replenishing anything of substance.
So despite her irritation, despite the way her pride screamed at her to spit it out, her exquisite face still carried a faint, undeniable radiance.
The girl took a deep breath and forced herself to calm down.
"Hmph. Since you still offered your blood, I'll forgive you."
As if she were doing him a favor.
Perhaps this strange Supreme tier existence simply behaved like this. Strange rules. Strange tastes. Strange sense of humor.
In that case, he had still kept his word.
He should not be trying to trick her.
"Ah," Rowe said, as if remembering something trivial, "I almost forgot to switch back."
The colossal machina god spoke a single casual sentence, then his form rapidly contracted.
Before Consort Yu's widened eyes, the towering body shrank, condensed, and stabilized. In the space of a few breaths, Rowe became an ordinary sized youth standing in front of her.
Robes fell neatly. Black hair fluttered. His presence did not weaken. If anything, it became sharper, like a blade she could finally see clearly.
"My name is Rowe," he said calmly.
It was a straightforward introduction.
It was also completely wasted.
Consort Yu's expression collapsed in real time.
"You really were messing with me!"
She could tell. This was not a disguise, not a temporary shell. This youth form was real.
Which meant his earlier answer had been technically correct, and morally disgusting.
If he was human shaped, then of course he had human blood.
He had absolutely been messing with her.
Calm down. Calm down. Calm down.
She could not defeat him.
As an elemental born from the planet itself, her existence was bound to the world beneath her feet. As long as the planet did not perish, she could regenerate endlessly.
That was why she dared to glare at him.
That was also why she looked so fearless.
Planetary class did not mean one could destroy the planet. It meant one's existence could shake the surface, disturb laws close to humanity, and be acknowledged by the world as a living phenomenon.
Scale was not the same as combat power.
It was merely a category, a crude equivalence.
But regeneration did not mean there was no cost.
If she were forced into rebirth, she would return to that empty state again. The long term losses she had accumulated over time had only just been patched by that single drop.
Not worth it.
Not worth it at all.
Her chest heaved as she suppressed the surge of anger. The smile she produced looked distorted, as if it had been carved into place by sheer will.
"Heh… heh heh… heh heh heh…"
Rowe stared at her.
Beautiful, yes.
But her mind, at least in this moment, felt slightly off.
He decided not to provoke her further. Instead, he walked aside and lifted his gaze to the divine tree towering beside them.
From a human perspective, its enormity became even more oppressive.
Rowe's machina god form had been a thousand meters tall. This tree was closer to ten thousand, extending up to the atmospheric barrier that wrapped the planet.
Its entire structure was crystalline, like emerald ice. Even the smallest details possessed an unnatural uniformity, as if the world itself had polished it with obsessive care.
"A relic from the flourishing Age of Gods," Rowe murmured.
"Hmph." Consort Yu stepped up beside him, still trying to salvage her dignity. Her brows tightened, lips pursed, and that ethereal temperament returned like a mask snapping back into place.
"You've definitely never seen the divine objects of Huaxia, have you?"
She faced the tree as if she owned it.
"The Fusang Tree of the Eastern Sea. The place where the sun rises, where Xihe drives the solar chariot from dawn to dusk. It also marks the descent of the moon, the shifting of yin and yang, the turning of day and night."
Her voice slowed, gaining weight as she recited.
"Together with the Jianmu of Penglai, and the Dragon Veins of Kunlun, also called Dragon Blood, they are known as the Three Great Divine Trees. The three pillars that suppressed the Age of Myths."
Pillars that suppressed the Age of Myths.
The phrase reminded Rowe of the World Tree of the north, yet the meaning was different. Where that tree was a structure, this felt like a seal driven into the era.
Rowe placed his palm against Fusang's crystalline bark and listened with more than hearing.
The tree had evolved naturally. It was not an alien intrusion.
If he had to compare it to anything, it resembled his Holy Spear, Rhongomyniad. Something condensed from the world's original phenomena, gathering Authority and the wishes of humanity into a stabilizing anchor.
A support for mystery.
A nail pinning an era in place.
Is this what could put me in mortal danger?
It did not look like it.
"It's a pity the Age of Myths still ended," Rowe said, withdrawing his hand.
He was not lamenting. He was prompting.
Consort Yu, freshly awakened and not in the mood to hide anything, snorted.
"So what?"
Her lips curled into a sneer.
"Those immortals are gone. That means this place can belong to me."
"Isn't that good?"
For her, the era did not matter. As long as the world beneath her feet still existed, she could walk it freely.
Rowe narrowed his eyes.
"Is that so? I don't believe it."
He tilted his chin slightly, voice sharpening into a casual challenge.
"Why don't you take two steps into the future and show me?"
Consort Yu froze.
Walking into the future was not a trick she could perform at will.
If she could, she would have scattered his ashes out of sheer spite.
Her internal agitation rose again, but all it produced on her face was a dangerously warped expression.
Rowe almost felt regret.
It seemed that uncovering Fusang's deeper secrets would require more angles.
With his current eyesight and calculation ability, he could capture every visible detail of Fusang in an instant. But information was not always stored in the visible. Combined with what Consort Yu had revealed, Rowe began to form a practical conclusion.
Fusang might only be a trigger.
The true structure was the set.
Fusang Tree.
Jianmu.
Dragon Blood.
The Three Great Divine Trees.
He would need to investigate all of them.
"It's exhausting," Rowe sighed softly, more to himself than to her. "All this effort, just for a death."
But even if there was only the slightest chance, he would not let it go.
Compared to his current form, the power still sitting on the Throne of Heroes was far more terrifying.
After seeing the Void Spirit, his desire to reclaim that power only became firmer.
"Hm?" Consort Yu noticed Rowe's movement as he turned away. Her ruby eyes widened, irritation and confusion mixing together. "You're leaving?"
"Yes." Rowe glanced back. "You can go back to sleep. I won't disturb you again."
"How can I sleep now!?" Consort Yu snapped. "You think you can just run away like that?"
Rowe frowned slightly.
"Otherwise? Do you want me to take responsibility?"
"You…" Consort Yu's voice rose, then she jabbed a finger outward. "You tore down my door!"
Rowe followed her gesture.
The mist and clouds had drifted aside, but the center had been torn open into a wide hollow, exposing blue sky and the endless sea.
That mist had been the gate to the Fusang Tree.
Normally, one could ride a hidden ocean current within the fog and arrive here.
Rowe had not done that.
He had simply grabbed the fog and ripped.
He had broken her door, then dropped the consequences on her head the moment she woke up. Even if he had offered compensation, it was still rude.
Rowe considered for a moment, then raised his hand.
"I'll fix it."
A storm manifested in his palm, born from primordial rotational force. Invisible elements gathered, drawn from the air as if the world itself were being disassembled into parts.
His eyes glowed faintly. Dense calculations turned chaos into pattern.
Consort Yu stared, stunned.
"The Authority of wind…"
So that giant form earlier was not a primordial giant god like Pangu. It had been something else entirely.
He possessed a colossal machina body, a human form, and an Authority that resonated with the world's laws.
She had rarely seen anything like him in her long existence.
"…Interesting," she muttered.
Still, it was none of her business.
With his power, repairing the gate should be effortless.
She could sleep again later.
Then Rowe's hand stopped.
"Someone's coming," he said quietly. "They're already close."
He spoke as if the conclusion had been reached the instant he tore open the gate.
Indeed, on the mist covered sea, several sailboats were approaching rapidly, carried by a strong wind along the hidden current.
At this distance, Fusang was already visible.
Rowe's ears twitched.
He heard voices through the fog.
"Lady Xu Fu, is that it ahead? The Fusang Tree!"
"The legend is true. It's said that although the immortals have departed, an immortal named Yu still resides beneath Fusang."
"Hahaha, then can we become immortals too!?"
The boats rocked, but the excitement of the people aboard only grew.
At the prow stood their leader, sleeves fluttering, face both eager and faintly timid.
Xu Fu.
The immortal seeker whose name had spread across China.
She looked like a petite girl wearing robes far too loose, as if she had dressed in someone else's clothing. A large square hat concealed her black hair, strands falling over her brow and hiding her timid expression.
Her hands hung at her sides, pale fingers visible beneath the sleeves.
Her collar gaped slightly, revealing fair shoulders. Dark fabric outlined subtle curves at her chest and waist, while the robe's wide hem covered slender calves wrapped in black silk.
Small.
Fragile.
And yet not a single person aboard dared underestimate her.
"We… we're here…" Xu Fu whispered, voice soft, almost bullied by the wind itself.
But she had led countless journeys across these waves, again and again. Her competence was unquestionable.
"Everyone, be careful," she said. "Next, I will use talismans to protect everyone. Don't get separated…"
She did not finish.
Smoke billowed in front of her.
In the blink of an eye, the people were gone.
The boats vanished.
Even the sea disappeared, as if reality itself had been erased. The rocking stopped, and silence dropped like a curtain.
Only a displeased voice echoed through the emptiness.
"Who allowed you to disturb my rest? A bunch of mortals who overestimate themselves, thinking they can become immortals?"
An immortal?
Xu Fu shrank her head, but her eyes still widened as she looked.
The smoke swirled, and two figures appeared out of nothing.
"You've slept for so long," a clear male voice said. "Wouldn't it be good to move around a bit?"
"Mind your own business," the displeased voice snapped back. "You were the one who woke me up first, alright? We're not even familiar."
Then, sharper:
"Send them away."
"You could send them away in an instant," the man replied, calm and unhurried. "But it's fine to meet them."
Xu Fu stared.
A man and a woman stood before her.
The man was tall and slender, his robes moving gently in the mist as if the air itself made room for him.
The woman was exquisite, long black hair falling down her back, a wide fur collared coat framing her shoulders. Her beauty was undeniable.
Her expression was fierce.
Consort Yu looked like she wanted to bite someone.
Rowe, however, seemed genuinely interested in the name Xu Fu, the kind of interest reserved for something history had not yet decided how to record.
So he had brought her forward personally.
"You…" Xu Fu's eyes glimmered, bright with longing. A seeker of immortality did not come to the sea for scenery. "You are Immortal Yu?"
"I've been searching for you for so long…"
"Many people search for me," Consort Yu began coldly.
Then her words stopped.
Because at that moment, Xu Fu suddenly ran past her and straight to Rowe.
She bowed respectfully. Her delicate face flushed deep red, as if she were offering her entire fate on the spot.
"I… I am Xu Fu," she said, voice trembling with excitement. "I've always heard legends of you…"
Rowe stiffened.
Consort Yu went completely still.
Then who am I?
No.
I am Yu.
The planet born spirit bared her fangs. Two sharp tiger teeth gleamed between her moist red lips.
Her anger flared hot and immediate.
She looked very angry.
Extremely fierce.
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