Chapter 76 “him!”
To the Treant tribe, “the fountain of life” also has another ancient name, “the fountain of youth”.
This spring is said to be the Treants everlasting foundation. From a long time ago, ancient legends of the Treants told a tale of when there were still no Treants in this world. Beside this spring, a gigantic tree grew next to it, over time, its roots absorbed the magical waters and came alive. This being became the first ever Treant and the ancestor of every living Treant in this world.
Later on, the only ancestor of the Treants felt very lonely in this world without any peers. With heaven’s mercy, they gave the ancestor the “natural trumpet” as a solution. With the sound of the horn, the ancestor was able to awaken other trees.
From then on, the Treant specie came into the world.
As for the Fountain of youth, the biggest use of it is to extend the life span of the Treant race. You need to understand, the process of awakening a tree into a Treant is a very long time. From the initial awakening call from the horn, each “Companion” still had no sense of self awareness. At this point, they are no different then a bunch of walking and moving woods without a will. In order to form self awareness, a long time is required….. Not just years or decades, but hundreds of years or even more.
The problem is that most life span of trees generally only lasts a century or so, from a small seedling, growing into a tree, takes a few decades, what’s left of its life span after being awakened into a “Companion” is only a few decades.
From “Companion” classes, to becoming a real “Treant”, would at a minimum require at least hundreds of years. Most trees would never have this kind of long lifespan. Wouldn’t they be dead from age before forming self consciousness?
Therefore, the fountain of youth, is especially important to the Treants. All the Treants tribesman would only need to use their roots to absorb a little bit of the spring water, then they can live forever. Living a life span of 2000 afterwards would not be a problem.
Hearing this, Du-Wei can’t help but once again raise some questions. “If you only need to absorb a little bit of the spring’s water in order to live a very long time….. Then why did the Treants only have 3 to 5 members left before the Evil Eye Tyrant appeared? In theory, all the “Companion” class Treants could have a long life span by absorbing the spring water, then they just need to await the slow formation of its self awareness.
The last Treant in this world “Geenwood” let out a long sigh as he spoke in a low and helpless tone. “Because…… Spring… Water… Very…… Scarce……”
After some explanation, Du-Wei finally got it.
This fountain is just very small when compared to the large body of the Treants. Such a spring is simply not enough water for the Treants to enjoy.
According Greenwood’s words, this spring is only as big as a tree branch. No one knows where the spring water flows from and during the spring season, it would sometimes dry up. Once dried, it would be a few years before it started flowing again.
Sometimes full, sometimes dry, such an unstable state….. And adding on to that, a single drink for a Treant requires a large amount water. Such a state has effected the Treant species’ ability to produce the next generation and kept the population of this race really low.
According to Greenwood’s depiction, Du-Wei stumbled a little on one point…… Maybe they are simply too kind hearted, or too simple mind. Before the Evil Eye Tyrant appeared, the Canyon was completely under the control of the Treants, but they never once thought of hogging the fountain all to themselves.
They naively thought it was the gift of the Gods, so they happily shared the already scarce spring water with the magical beasts of the forest, making the scarce spring water to become even scarcer!
But it is a pity, the longevity granted by this fountain of youth seems to only effect the Treants. As for the magical beasts that drank the spring water, there doesn’t seem to be any significant effects on its life….. Yet, there is another miraculous effect.
First of all, no matter how many injuries, even if it is in the dying state, as long as it is able to drink the spring water, then they would immediately be revived! This fact was enough to cause Du-Wei’s eye to sparkle with delight!
Secondly, this spring water seemed to be able to increase the magical level in the magical beasts. Once a magical beast takes even a sip, it would go through some sort of change. Simply put, it will go through “advancement”. This concept was somewhat vague so Du-Wei pressed on with his inquiries. Unfortunately, Old Greenwood’s words were not clear, but he did refer to an example that raised Du-Wei’s interest.
When Old Greenwood was younger (God knows how old he was when referring to the word “young”), the kind and gentle Treants had no problems with the surrounding magical beasts at all. It used to have a friend that was a fully grown adult magical ice wolf. After drinking the spring water, this demon wolf immediately went through a advancement event. From a lower middle class demon wolf, the creature incredibly advanced into a higher “Storm King of wolves”.
According to the current knowledge of the magician’s trade union and their rough grading of magical beasts, the “Storm King of wolves” is one of the ultimate advanced state of the ice demon wolf. This creature is a truly high class magical creature, not only does it have all the powers of the ordinary ice demon wolf, it is stronger, more intellectual, and its wisdom is even higher….. At the same time, it also has another ability called “Summoning”.
A summoning call from the Storm King wolf can be strong or weak based according to the amount of magic it used and the geographical area covered. From that, it could call forth all the creatures within this area….. Noting “everything within it”, without any distinction of its kind or race. As long as the creature is of lower rank than the Storm King wolf, the creature would become its subordinate and obey any commands given! In other words, this is an “ultimate summon spell”. In the case of an adult Storm King Wolf using the summoning spell, all lower ranked creatures within the scope of its influence would become its subordinate.
“This is practically an army regiment of magical beasts……” Du-Wei sighed.
However, this example did show the miraculous effect of the fountain of youth. Du-Wei’s eye was sparkling even brighter then before!
What’s even more surprising to Du-Wei, there is also a case that the spring has a miraculous effect on humans. In his explanation of why he was able to speak the human language of the Roland empire, Old Greenwood said something very shocking.
When Old Greenwood was born, he was not naturally capable of speaking the human language. Du-Wei did not ask whether the Treants have their own language, but at least a one thing is clear, a new born tree is not capable of speech at birth. Even humans need to start from an infant age when learning a language.
It was a human that taught Old Greenwood the human language.
A Long time ago…… Du-Wei is completely perplexed at Old Greenwood’s age, but anyways, what it said of being a long time ago should be at least a few hundred years ago. At that time, a strong and powerful human must have stayed in the forest for a long period of time and made the gentle and kind Treants into his friends. Old Greenwood’s ability to speak the human language should have been from this human. As a token of their friendship, Old Greenwood must have taken this person to the fountain of youth and let him have a taste of the springs magic.
Du-Wei believed that a human capable of coming this deep into the frozen forest has to be an expert found only one in a million. Without sufficient strength, one will definitely not be able to get here. “Then what?” Du-Wei’s heart was moving, “This human, is a friend of yours? Who is he and do you know his name?”
“…… Let me…… Think…… “Old Greenwood thought about it for a long time, and then answered with a sense regret in his reply, “Time… Is… Too long…… I…… Already…… Forgot…… His…… Name…… But…… I…… Know…… He…… Is…… A…… Emperor of mankind, Hmmm…… That’s right… He… Is…… ‘The Emperor’, this…… Word….. I…… Remember……”
Don’t even bother mentioning the joy that Old Greenwood felt for not forgetting the term because words cannot be used to describe the inner shock Du-Wei felt at this moment.
Once upon a time, an Emperor of mankind with the ability to go this deep into the frozen forests.
During the thousand years of history of the Roland continent, the only one that can be considered extremely powerful, and has the identity of the Emperor, thinking it over and over……. The only person that comes up was Aragon Roland!
Du-Wei couldn’t help but sigh. Why….. It seems whatever quirky or legendary event that he encountered has a relationship with this expert of his generation? Deliberating for a second, whatever news that he could get is already out….. At this thought, Du-Wei’s heart felt guilty.
The Treant tribe was truly gentle and kind. Old Greenwood was simple-minded and his temperament was also docile. Du-Wei didn’t even need to lead him on much and the Treant already spilled out everything he wanted to know. A part of Du-Wei wanted to sigh at the extremely simple minded nature of the Treants. The existence of the fountain of youth will definitely cause anyone that knows of such a thing to get involved, but at the same time, Du-Wei couldn’t help but have a peculiar and pure emotion towards Old Greenwood.
“Dear Greenwood….. Treant friend,” Du-Wei bowed his body slightly, then smiled.” I’m sorry for hurting your “Companions”, of course, we are also willing to make compensation. Well then, me and my partners also have some nice skills and abilities. I’m sympathetic towards the Treants misfortune, I’d like to help you fight against the Evil Eye Tyrant inside the Canyon. In such a way, we can make amends for the conflict from earlier, how do you like my proposal?”
Now it was Old Greenwood that was not assured and the thing that he said afterwards made Du-Wei feel worried….