Chapter 997: Portrait

The sky of the world was not azure blue, but black, like black ink blots. It was perhaps because the Azure Wood Great World was on the brink of destruction. It was like the core of the world only had an eternal darkness. It felt extremely repressive.

However, amid this repressive pressure, there was a picturesque garden, where a divine tree stood in the middle. Although the world was losing its vitality, the divine tree remained lush and luxuriantly green with a proud crown that pierced the sky.

Even though the Azure Wood Great World was already beginning to collapse, the garden still possessed rich energy and was filled with Heaven and Earth essence. It gave a refreshing and pleasant feeling to people like they had ascended to become immortals in this plot of space.

“The divine tree remains undying, but the world is collapsing. Yet, I’m unable to redeem anything… ”

A girl dressed in a light-green dress was prostrated in front of the divine tree. Silver hair flowed down her back and onto the ground, like scattered silver that covered the ground.

From behind, one could see that the girl had a long, fair neck that reached her white and petite ears. It made her look like an elf hiding in a forest.

The girl prostrated for a long while before she slowly got up. She could sense that the divine tree and the Azure Wood Great World’s seismic network had fused together. It was like a dragon that stood atop this world, eternal and undying. The divine tree had been planted when the world was born, and it would live till the moment when the world faced destruction.

For hundreds of millions of years, the divine tree was the guardian of Azure Wood Manor by existing alongside it.

The Azure Wood Manor was a reclusive sect. In the Ten Thousand Fey Empyrean Heaven, there was no lack of reclusive sects. The Immortal Rain Sect and Azure Wood Manor were examples of reclusive sects. Back in the Azure Wood Manor’s golden age, its scale far exceeded the Immortal Rain Sect’s.

However, even at its peak, the Azure Wood Manor seldom made contact with the external world. For hundreds of millions of years, the sect members of the Azure Wood Manor remained hidden in the Azure Wood Great World and only focused on their cultivation.

In the historical records of the Azure Wood Manor, the Azure Wood Manor had suffered a calamity that had threatened to destroy them hundreds of millions of years ago. However, due to the existence of the divine tree, they were spared from utter destruction.

Because of that, the divine tree was deemed to be an ancestral totem of supreme importance to the Azure Wood Manor.

However, even though the Azure Wood Manor treated the divine tree as a guardian, the people of the Azure Wood Manor knew that the divine tree never belonged to them.

The divine tree belonged to the Azure Wood Great World, and it was even possible that the divine tree was the owner of the Azure Wood Great World. Hundreds of millions of years ago, the divine tree had bestowed grace upon the Azure Wood Manor when it protected them from the calamity. Legends said that the female Lord of the Manor prostrated before the divine tree for three days and three nights before the divine tree’s power was stirred, allowing Azure Wood Manor to survive the calamity.

The girl did not dare to imagine such a scene.

According to the historical records, the Azure Wood Manor’s Manor Lord position was mostly helmed by females from that moment on. The Elders of the Azure Wood Manor looked forward to the day when a young lady with outstanding talent was able to stir the divine tree’s power. However… that miracle never happened again.

Closer to present day, the Azure Wood Great World was approaching its end. The Heaven Earth Yuan Qi became more chaotic, making it unsuitable for cultivation. The Azure Wood Manor also began to wane and the number of experts that it had decreased in number. Slowly, their talents withered and eventually, there was a fracture in the Azure Wood Manor. A number of people left the Azure Wood Great World and set up an external establishment that was unfortunately destroyed due to unforeseen circumstances.

The people that stayed back guarded the Azure Wood Great World, but the number of people that they had shrunk. By the girl’s generation, there was only a handful of people.

And from the moment that the Azure Wood Manor began to wane, the divine tree never did a thing again.

The girl had once fantasized if she could emulate her ancestor by awakening the divine tree’s powers. However, none of her various and repeated attempts bore fruit.

For example, she had already been praying in front of the divine tree for several hours today. The divine tree was not moved as it stood aloof to the happenings of the world.

“Young Lord, those people are here again… ”

Behind the girl, an old servant with white hair walked over as she spoke with a hoarse voice.

The servant was an old woman that looked like an ailing candle in the wind and her eyes appeared somewhat glazed. She was an old servant of the Azure Wood Manor, and she usually tended to the day-to-day needs of the green-dressed girl.

“Master is no longer around. It’s probably insufficient for the Azure Wood Divine Residence’s array to stop them.”

The girl frowned slightly. The Azure Wood Great World was once completely hidden, but with the Azure Wood Great World’s gradual collapse, the spatial nodes had weakened. It was finally discovered by others and from then on, people would probe the world like it was an ancient ruin. And the Azure Wood Manor had indeed left behind what seemed to be endless treasures and inheritances since ancient times. If it was obtained by outsiders, it would definitely be a great opportunity for them.

The Azure Wood Manor was already deteriorating. Tens of thousands of years ago, the girl’s master was able to hold down the situation. With the arrays left behind by their ancestors, it prevented the outsiders from obtaining much. They managed to protect a large portion of the Azure Wood Manor’s inheritance.

But now… her master had passed away leaving behind the a young girl and her old servant, so how could they stop the outsiders? All the outsiders were extremely powerful and any one of them was not someone that the duo could beat.

“Sigh! How infuriating! If it were a hundred million years ago, when my Azure Wood Manor was at its peak, our Azure Wood Manor wouldn’t fear those people even if their numbers increase by several times! Unfortunately… ”

The old servant was loyal to the Azure Wood Manor. Although she had never seen the golden age as written in the historical records, she still thought fondly of their history. She was also very familiar with Lords of the Azure Wood Manor from past generations.

“They don’t even know that our Azure Wood Manor has survived to this day, and they probably think of the Azure Wood Great World as being a world without any owner.”

Searching the ruins of worlds without owners to gain opportunities was a perfectly justified act in the world of warriors. In their present situation, the girl did not dare to appear. If the old freaks were to know that the mysterious Azure Wood Manor still had a successor, who knew what terrifying acts would play out.

“If only the divine tree would awaken… ”

The girl looked up at the towering divine tree. As the wind blew, the leaves that were in the clouds gently swayed and rustled. A look of adamance flashed in the girl’s eyes.

She knew that it was unlikely that the divine tree would hear her pleas. It could even be completely ignoring her, but she still needed to do something. She was the only successor of the Azure Wood Manor. Therefore, she could not watch idly as everything in Azure Wood Manor was taken away by others.

She got up and walked out of the garden and arrived at an exquisite courtyard. On a table in the courtyard was a portrait with offerings placed in front of it.

The portrait exuded an unbelievable aura. The portrait depicted a black-dressed woman, who had a graceful figure. However, her face was blurred.

The girl bowed respectfully to the portrait. It might only be a portrait, but it was probably the last thing that Azure Wood Manor could rely on.

It might sound unbelievable that a portrait was the last thing that a sect could rely on, but the portrait had a stunning history according to the historical records of the Azure Wood Manor.

It existed for a period longer than the Azure Wood Great World. And the identity of the person in the portrait was even more unbelievable. The first Lord of the Azure Wood Great World had once said that the undying divine tree of the Azure Wood Great World was planted personally by the black-dressed woman.

The silver-haired girl found it unbelievable that a divine tree, which had existed longer than a Great World, was planted by a woman.

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