Chapter 100: The Great Tree

Only now did I truly understand that Fatty’s talk of specialized expertise wasn't just an excuse for his inability to beat my brother or match Li Qing in combat. It was simply that everyone had their own area of expertise. The old woman, who had put on the grand airs of the Empress Dowager in front of my brother and me just moments ago, could not act smug at all in front of Fatty. After Fatty spoke, the weasel old woman looked at him and said, "Judging by age, this old one is of the same generation as your master, He Anxia. Is it appropriate for you to show such a lack of respect for your elders?"

"Lord Fatty here loves nothing more than punching the elderly at the South Mountain nursing home and kicking the toddlers at the North Sea kindergarten. Cut the nonsense. Since I'm here today, I never planned on talking nicely," Fatty said.

The old woman looked at Fatty with a conflicted expression. After a moment, she gestured to him. "Young man, come here. This old one will tell you a secret."

"Can't say it out loud?" Fatty asked, putting down his melon seeds.

"If it could be said out loud, would it still be a secret?" the old woman replied with a bitter smile.

"Don't you dare try to fool Lord Fatty with some random nonsense. You know exactly what I want to know," Fatty said, standing up.

Facing someone as unreasonable as Fatty, the weasel old woman was helpless. She stood up, sighed, and said, "You come with such aggressive intent. This secret is naturally worth saving the lives of my hundreds of kin."

"I knew you were a sensible one," Fatty said upon hearing this, walking toward the weasel old woman. I wanted to warn him to be careful, lest he get bitten the moment he leaned in close. These weasels were incredibly insidious and cunning, capable of any underhanded trick. But on second thought, Fatty surely didn't need my advice when it came to dealing with these kinds of spirits.

The two whispered together for a while. After listening, Fatty nodded and looked at the old woman with a smug, wicked grin. "This is indeed worth those hundreds of lives of yours. But as you know, Lord Fatty's appetite has always been quite large."

Upon hearing this, the old woman's face changed. She pointed at Fatty and said, "Do not be insatiable! This old one only showed you respect out of deference to your master! Now that you know the gravity of this matter, you should understand that the more you know, the easier it is to bring disaster upon yourself!"

For once, Fatty did not lose his temper. Instead, he chuckled. "You really are a boring one, unable to take a joke. Fine, since we're invoking my master's name, I'll give him some face. That girl is my brother's sweetheart. I promised him I'd bring her back. Hand her over, and we'll call it even. Lord Fatty will leave right now, not another word."

The weasel old woman glanced at me and smiled. "You certainly have good fortune with women."

Her words made me blush slightly. Fatty really had a big mouth, but I didn't try to defend myself. It was just an excuse for Fatty anyway—what was the phrase? A righteous cause.

"Cut the crap, is it a deal or not? You guys shouldn't get mixed up in this. Frankly, it's not that Lord Fatty looks down on you, but too many people are fighting over the things in the Twelve Ghost Caves. With your meager cultivation, you're better off just staying here as kings of the mountain. Don't go out and make fools of yourselves," Fatty said bluntly.

The old woman stared at Fatty, and finally, she sighed. "In the end, I was entrusted with this. Take her yourself."

As soon as she finished speaking, a violent wind suddenly rose from the ground. Sand and stones flew everywhere instantly, the dust almost blinding me. A thick mist gradually enveloped us. Just as I was losing my footing, my brother walked up to my side and grabbed my arm.

The sudden gale blew for about four or five minutes. When everything cleared and I opened my eyes, I found that everything had changed. There were no weasels, no opera stage, only a dead silence. In front of us stood an ancient tree—the largest I had ever seen in this dense forest. It was a towering giant, lush and gloomy, having survived for at least a thousand years.

The weasel old woman's last words were that we could take the girl ourselves, but she was nowhere to be seen. I switched on my flashlight and swept the beam around. What I saw made my heart leap in fright. Hanging from the massive tree were countless carcasses of weasels!

They were real weasel corpses. As I drew closer, I saw that these weasels had long since dried up. Small ropes were tied to the tree branches, and these weasels had actually all been hanged from the tree. On such a massive tree, there were countless weasel corpses. If one didn't look closely, it almost looked as though the tree was bearing fruit.

I looked back and saw that Fatty was also greatly shocked. He walked over, pulled down a weasel corpse, and said, "No wonder these weasels were so afraid of Lord Fatty. It turns out they're just ghosts, not even proper weasel spirits?"

I looked at my brother. Currently, he was the only one with a calm face. I didn't know whether he truly knew what was going on beneath that calm expression or if he was just pretending. Nonetheless, I asked, "Brother, what's going on here?"

"This place has always been called the Weasel Tomb," my brother said. "The weasel spirit that attained enlightenment in the ancient temple was the leader of these weasels. Back then, it submitted to the Ghost Dao. Originally, its only duty was to guard the Twelve Ghost Caves, but it dared to plot for the things inside. In the end, it ended up in that half-dead state, dragging all the weasels on the mountain down with it as funerary sacrifices. That's why the weasel spirits of Mount Funiu are merely a flock of ghosts unable to enter reincarnation. Fatty, were those melon seeds tasty just now?" My brother asked, looking at Fatty.

Actually, even without my brother's prompting, Fatty was already sticking his fingers down his throat, throwing up a bunch of small pebbles. In the end, he vomited so hard he almost brought up his bile. Gasping for air, Fatty sat on the ground and pointed at my brother. "Sun Zhongmou, you are too insidious! Since you knew, why didn't you tell Lord Fatty earlier?"

My brother shrugged. "I thought you, the Grand Master of Mount Zifu, knew everything."

After saying this, my brother approached the tree. With a light tap of his foot, using a few branches for leverage, he ascended the massive tree. However, his movements caused the entire tree to shake violently. Weasels kept falling from the branches, and quite a few shattered to pieces upon hitting the ground. After a moment, my brother leaped down, holding a sleeping young woman in his arms.

He handed the woman to me, giving me a knowing look. "Since she's the one you fancy, it's only natural to trouble you to carry her back on your back. Of course, carrying her in your arms works too."

It was a good thing Han Xue wasn't here. Otherwise, with the jokes my brother and Fatty were making, I would never be able to wash myself clean even if I jumped into the Yellow River. Then, with my brother leading the way, we began to head back. Although the girl wasn't heavy, carrying her on my back along such mountain paths soon had me sweating profusely and unable to go on. My brother didn't keep teasing me. He took the girl from my back, held her gently in his arms, and continued walking ahead. The girl must have weighed at least a hundred pounds, but as my brother carried her, it seemed as if she had no weight at all.

Watching my brother carry the woman from behind, I suddenly felt the scene was incredibly harmonious. A woman held by my brother like that would surely feel an unparalleled sense of security.

We walked for another two hours, bypassing the cliff before finally exiting the mountains under my brother's guidance. Outside, I saw Chen Dongfang and Li Qing waiting for us. Along the way, I hadn't asked Fatty or my brother about them. It wasn't that I didn't want to know, but rather that I was unwilling to face reality.

I had always suspected Chen Dongfang. But now that it was confirmed that this man—who repeatedly called my father "Brother Tianhua" and swore he didn't want to get involved in the Fudigou affair—was actually standing on the opposing side, my heart still ached terribly. It was the painful sting of deception and betrayal.

He had even wanted me dead!

If my brother hadn't shown up at the end in that underground ancient temple, and Li Qing had abandoned me there under those circumstances, I would have certainly died.

Chen Dongfang stood there watching us, and I watched him back. As we drew closer, he walked over without a word and reached out to take the woman from my brother. Without saying anything, my brother handed her over.

Afterward, Chen Dongfang walked up to me, gave me a bitter smile, and asked, "Will I still be your Uncle Dongfang in the future?"

When he said those words, his eyes were filled with sorrow.