Escaping a city of five thousand angry beast tamers while riding a giant tortoise is not a matter of speed; it is a matter of momentum and blatant disregard for property damage.
The Obsidian Tortoise thundered across the plains outside the Bowl of Fangs, its massive legs churning the earth like pistons. On its back, the World Tree Shard pulsed with a verdant light, acting as a beacon that screamed, "HERE WE ARE! COME GET US!" to every predator in a fifty-mile radius.
Behind them, a cloud of dust rose into the night sky. It was the horde.
Tamers on raptors, wolves, and flying carpets were closing in. And leading the charge was the corrupted Beast King, riding his Three-Headed Hydra, which was now frothing black slime instead of venom.
"They're gaining on us!" Lin Fan shouted from the rear guard tower, aiming his magnetic gauntlets. "The Tortoise top speed is forty miles per hour! The Hydra does sixty!"
"We need to lose weight!" Su Ye yelled, steering the helm with one hand and holding a half-eaten sandwich with the other. "Throw the ballast!"
"What ballast?" Gao Ming shrieked. "We already threw the pirate gold!"
"Throw the souvenirs!" Su Ye pointed to the crates of 'Grilled Hydra Necks' and 'Beast King T-Shirts' they had bought at the market before the heist.
"But those are vintage!" Gao Ming protested.
"Throw them!"
Gao Ming wept as he tossed crates of merchandise off the back. The pursuing wolves stopped to eat the grilled meat, causing a minor pile-up. But the Beast King simply trampled over his own men.
"Warden!" The Beast King's voice boomed, distorted by the Void corruption consuming his throat. "You stole my spine! I will rip yours out!"
The Hydra opened all three mouths. A combined beam of Fire, Ice, and Poison shot toward the stable.
"Senior Tortoise! Drift!" Su Ye slammed the wheel hard to the left.
"I hate drifting," the Tortoise complained, but he obeyed. He locked his left legs and dug his claws in.
The massive, house-sized tortoise drifted sideways, spraying a wave of dirt and rocks into the air. The Hydra's beam missed the stable by inches, vaporizing a unfortunate cactus instead.
"We can't outrun them forever!" Luo Bing cried, holding onto the World Tree Shard to keep it from rolling off. "We need altitude! Where is the Sky-Eater?"
"Look up!" Su Ye pointed.
Above them, the cloud layer churned. The massive, dark silhouette of the Sky-Eater descended like a star destroyer. It couldn't land—its sheer mass would crush the stable—but it could lower a lifeline.
From the edge of the floating mountain, a rope ladder didn't drop. A Vine dropped.
Or rather, a chain made of linked Thunder-Clap Baboons.
The Baboon King hung from the mountain's ledge by his feet. Holding his hands was another baboon, then another, forming a living chain of monkeys stretching down two thousand feet.
At the bottom of the chain swung a massive iron hook.
"Operation Sky-Hook!" Su Ye shouted. "Senior Tortoise! Aim for the monkey!"
"This is undignified," the Tortoise grumbled, but he aligned his run with the dangling hook.
"Everyone, brace for rapid ascent!" Su Ye warned. "Zhu Zhu! Secure the tree!"
Zhu Zhu activated his Void Belt, creating a gravity well around the massive crystal log to glue it to the deck.
The Tortoise ran under the hook.
CLANG.
The hook caught the reinforced ring on the top of the Tortoise's shell
"PULL UP! PULL UP!" Su Ye screamed into his megaphone.
On the mountain above, the Baboon King roared. OOK!
The monkeys pulled. The Sky-Eater surged upward.
The Obsidian Tortoise was yanked off the ground.
One moment, they were galloping on dirt. The next, they were airborne, swinging wildly at the end of a monkey-chain.
Below them, the Beast King skidded to a halt. He watched his prey fly away. He roared in frustration, firing a final beam of corruption that grazed the bottom of the Tortoise's shell, leaving a scorch mark.
"You can fly?!" The Beast King howled. "Cheaters!"
"It's called air superiority!" Su Ye yelled back, waving his hat. "Thanks for the tree! We'll plant it in a nice pot!"
They ascended rapidly, breaking through the cloud layer and vanishing from the sight of the angry mob.
The Tortoise was hauled onto the deck of the Sky-Eater (the dorsal ridge). It landed with a heavy thud next to the barn.
"Safe," Lin Fan collapsed. "I never want to do that again."
"No time to rest," Su Ye jumped off. "The patient is waiting. And the donor organ is getting restless."
The World Tree Shard was pulsing violently. Its green light was clashing with the blue veins of the Sky-Eater. The mountain was groaning.
Zzzzt.
"GET IT OFF..." the Sky-Eater's consciousness whined in Su Ye's head. "IT FEELS PRICKLY. IT SMELLS LIKE SALAD."
"It's not salad, it's a spine," Su Ye patted the rocky floor. "Hold still. This is going to pinch."
Su Ye directed the team. They dragged the massive crystal log to the center of the dorsal ridge—right above the Sky-Eater's main spinal column. There was a jagged hole there, a wound from the ancient war that had grounded the beast in the first place.
"Okay," Su Ye put on a pair of rubber gloves (looted). "We are doing a transplant. We need to connect the World Tree to the Mountain's nervous system."
"How?" Gao Ming asked. "Do we have surgical tools?"
"We have a chicken," Su Ye pointed to Little Sun. "And we have a fox."
"Moonbell," Su Ye turned to the Divine Fox. "The World Tree is nature energy. You are a beast of the wild. I need you to act as the immunosuppressant. Convince the mountain not to reject the tree."
Moonbell sighed. "I am a Goddess of the Moon, not a nurse."
But she walked over. She wrapped her nine tails around the base of the Tree Shard and touched her nose to the mountain's rock. She began to hum a low, silver frequency.
"Little Sun," Su Ye commanded. "You are the welder. When I drop it in, seal the edges with solar fire."
Moooo. (Ready.)
"Lin Fan, Zhu Zhu. Lift."
Using a combination of Lin Fan's magnetic gauntlets and Zhu Zhu's gravity control, they hoisted the fifty-foot crystal shard into the air. They positioned it vertically over the spinal hole.
"On three," Su Ye guided it. "One... two... DROP!"
THUD.
The World Tree Shard slammed into the socket.
The mountain screamed.
"AAARGH! IT'S COLD! IT'S COLD!"
The ground shook violently. The baboons scattered, covering their heads.
"Seal it! Seal it!" Su Ye yelled.
Little Sun unleashed a torrent of solar flame around the base of the tree, melting the rock and fusing it with the crystal wood.
"Moonbell! Soothe it!"
The Fox flared her aura. [Divine Art: Tranquil Moon Field.]
A wave of silver light washed over the mountain. The shaking stopped. The screaming faded into a low, contented purr.
Then, something miraculous happened.
The green light of the World Tree didn't just stay in the shard. It flowed downward, into the blue veins of the mountain. The two energies mixed—Earth and Life.
RUMBLE.
On the rocky, barren surface of the Sky-Eater's back, cracks appeared. From the cracks, plants began to grow. Not normal plants. Crystal-Ferns, Iron-Bark Saplings, and Glowing Moss.
In seconds, the desolate dorsal ridge was transformed into a lush, bioluminescent forest. The air became sweet and oxygen-rich.
[System Notification:]
[Surgical Procedure: Success.]
[Integration Complete: World Tree Engine Installed.]
[Sky-Eater Status: Evolved.]
[New Ability Unlocked: Photosynthesis (Passive Qi Regeneration).]
[New Ability Unlocked: Root Anchor (Immovable Defense).]
Su Ye took a deep breath. The air tasted like mint and power.
"We did it," Su Ye smiled, leaning against the glowing tree. "We gave the mountain a garden."
"It is... acceptable," Moonbell admitted, looking at a silver flower blooming near her paw. "It feels less like a corpse now."
"Master!" Lin Fan called from the helm. "The energy readings! We aren't just stable. We are overflowing! The Sky-Eater is generating its own fuel!"
"Infinite range," Su Ye nodded. "We don't need to hunt whales anymore."
He walked to the edge of the newly grown forest, looking down through the clouds.
"We have a fortress," Su Ye said. "We have a garden. We have a crew."
"And we have a tail," Zhu Zhu said, waddling over with a mouth full of crystal moss.
"A tail?"
Zhu Zhu pointed down.
Far below them, on the ground, something was moving. It wasn't the Beast King. It wasn't the army.
It was a single shadow. It moved across the land with impossible speed, ignoring terrain. It looked like a puddle of ink, but every now and then, it formed a shape.
The shape of a boy with a shovel.
Su Ye stared at it. A chill went down his spine that had nothing to do with the wind.
"The Reflection," Su Ye whispered. "It followed us."
"What is that?" Moonbell stepped up beside him, her fur bristling. "It smells like... you. But wrong. It smells like the Void."
"It's what crawled out of the pit when we stole the tree," Su Ye said grimly. "My shadow."
The shadow on the ground stopped. It looked up. Even from miles away, Su Ye could feel its gaze. It waved.
Then, it dissolved into the ground, vanishing.
"It's hunting us," Su Ye realized. "It knows where we are going."
"Where are we going?" Gao Ming asked, trying to pluck a crystal flower for his lapel.
Su Ye turned away from the edge.
"The Heavenly Sword Sect," Su Ye said. "We mailed them a ring to start a war. Now we need to go make sure they win it."
"Why?"
"Because," Su Ye patted the World Tree. "The Sky-Eater is strong, but it's slow. If we want to kill a Shadow that moves instantly... we need something faster."
He looked at Little Sun.
"We need the Sun-God's Chariot."
"The what?" Lin Fan choked.
"It's a relic," Su Ye explained. "Hidden in the deepest vault of the Heavenly Sword Sect. Legend says it can outrun light itself."
"So..." Luo Bing rubbed her temples. "We just escaped a sect, stole a tree, and uncorked a demon. And now your plan is to rob the most powerful combat sect in the world?"
"Not rob," Su Ye corrected. "Borrow. Indefinitely."
He jumped onto the helm.
"Sky-Eater," Su Ye commanded. "Set course for the Eastern Mountains. And activate the stealth camouflage."
"CAMOUFLAGE?" the mountain rumbled happily. "I AM A CLOUD."
The mist generator kicked in. The massive flying mountain wrapped itself in a thick layer of white vapor, disappearing into the sky like a ghost.
As they drifted east, Su Ye sat under the glowing World Tree, sharpening his shovel.
"Little Shadow," Su Ye whispered to the darkness. "If you want to be me, you better be ready to dig."