Chapter 113
The appearance and actions of the middle-aged man gave Xiao Tangqiu the creeps, but when he thought about how this man was actually less than thirty, he couldn’t help mentally sighing. The people who landed on this island had their time speed pass, knowing that they would not live past thirty and there was no way to escape. In such a hopeless situation, it’s no wonder they would gradually turn their anticipations of life into fanatic worship of the Sacred Tree.
But he still had many doubts. He glanced at Xue Junli, “Should we bring this guy to find the Sacred Tree?”
Xue Junli nodded and said, “He should still be hiding a lot of things.”
The middle-aged man immediately shakily argued, “No! Nothing! I have already said everything I know! I don’t know anything else! Let me go!”
Duan Hongzhen didn’t listen to this guy’s words and lifted his chin with a knife, threatening, “Then run. You can run but this tree can’t. If you dare to run, I’ll cut down this tree. There’s only a few roots left anyway, right?”
The middle-aged man immediately opened his arms to protect the tree behind him, his expression panicked, “Don’t hurt my wife! Please! I’ll go with you! I’ll go with you!”
Xiao Tangqiu didn’t know if he was seeing things, but it seemed that when the middle-aged man was begging for mercy, the tree behind him seemed to be trembling, as if it could understand what they were saying... But could trees understand words? Did this tree have sentience?
If this man’s wife still remained aware within this tree, it clearly realized that it had gradually changed from a human to a tree, how sad and hopeless could it be?
Xiao Tangqiu sighed, “As long as you take us to the Sacred Tree, we won’t hurt this tree... your wife.”
The middle-aged man nodded quickly, “I’ll take you there! I’ll take you there!”
Under Xiao Tangqiu’s eyes, the middle-aged man turned around and hugged the tree with his remaining hand, muttering, “Don’t be afraid, I’ll be back soon. I still need to personally see our baby born... I have even decided on their name.”
A night wind blew by, and the sparse branches and leaves of the strange tree waved, seeming to respond to the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man’s voice became more gentle, “Don’t worry, I’ll be back soon...”
After he said his farewell and stood, he changed from the image of a gentle husband and loving father back to the cowering middle-aged man, “Go, let’s go. I will take you to the Sacred Tree. Don’t hurt me...”
“Lead the way.” Xiao Tangqiu said lightly.
The middle-aged man looked at the strange tree longingly before turning to show Xiao Tangqiu’s group the way. Xiao Tangqiu observed their surroundings on the way and found that the trees in this forest were all the same as the strange tree just now. At first, he was suspicious that these trees would also attack them, but there was no movement from those trees. They were just like ordinary trees.
Duan Hongzhen played with the knife in his hand and couldn’t help but ask the middle-aged man, “Are you really sure that your wife has become a tree?”
The middle-aged man said tremblingly, “Of course! I love her so much, how can I not recognize her because she has changed!”
Duan Hongzhen raised an eyebrow, “But it ate one of your arms without hesitation.”
The middle-aged man trembled, “She is just hungry&#k2026; She is too hungry&#k2026; Because she is pregnant&#k2026; Pregnant people are always easily hungry&#k2026;”
Xiao Tangqiu suddenly thought of something, “Where is that piece of meat? What about the food you got from the Sacred Tree?”
The middle-aged man said with a look of guilt, “I wanted to leave it for my wife to eat, but I was also very hungry... so I couldn’t help but eat it.”
Xiao Tangqiu couldn’t understand why this guy “couldn’t help it”. After all, that piece of “meat” looked no different from the raw meat sold in a market. But he supposed, when people were madly hungry, they may salivate over raw meat.
“I endured several times before and saved the food, then secretly fed it to my wife,” the middle-aged man appeared very guilty and repeated nervously, “I wanted to leave the food for my wife tonight... But I was too hungry... and can’t hold back... that’s why she got angry and ate my arm... She is also hungry... She is pregnant...”
Xiao Tangqiu raised his eyebrows, “Have you fed your wife meat several times before?”
At this moment, Xue Junli suddenly said, “Why are you feeding secretly? Why can’t other people know about this? Where are they right now?”
“Yes!” Xiao Tangqiu suddenly remembered the most important point, “Where did the other people in the village go?”
The middle-aged man was silent for a long time before speaking quietly, “...I don’t know.”
“You don’t know? Are you kidding me!” Duan Hongzhen scoffed, “Haven’t you been on this island for two years? Would you not know?”
“I really don’t know!” The middle-aged man’s face flushed. “They never let me come out at night. To feed my wife, I ran out a few times before, but every time I sneak out, all I find... find...”
“Find what?” Xiao Tangqiu asked.
The middle-aged man hesitated before continuing to say, “I find the whole village empty, they all disappeared. I’m the only one in the whole village.”
Xiao Tangqiu’s mouth twitched. He said that he could not go out at night, and then when he went out, he found that everyone was gone... Xiao Tangqiu paused and asked, “Then when you didn’t go out the night before, everyone else stayed in the village just fine?”
The middle-aged man’s eyes were a little empty, “When I don’t sneak out to feed my wife at night, I sleep very early every day and fall asleep right after eating. I don’t know if the others are in the village or not.”
“You’re kidding?” Duan Hongzhen snorted, “You fall asleep after eating? Are you a pig? Sleeping right after eating? Haven’t you ever gotten up at night?”
The middle-aged man’s eyes became more and more empty, “Get up at night? No... Every time I eat, I sleep very deeply, all the way until the next day.”
Xiao Tangqiu frowned, “No matter how good the sleep is, it is impossible for someone to never get up at night in two years... Also, when you sneak out to feed your wife in the middle of the night, haven’t you ever wondered where other people went?”
The middle-aged man was silent for a few seconds before he replied, “Why should I be curious? I won’t be able to live long anyways.”
He made it sound so logical that Xiao Tangqiu was speechless. If he knew that his end was approaching, he probably also wouldn’t have too much curiosity. When so close to death, was there meaning in knowing more?
The middle-aged man suddenly said, “We’re here.”
“Here?” Xiao Tangqiu looked around and saw that the middle-aged man led them to a large circular valley densely surrounded by black thorny trees.
He took out a flashlight to reveal that it was not a valley before them, but a giant pit, just like the sinkhole they had seen before.
“What the hell? This is obviously a pit!” Duan Hongzhen sneered.
The middle-aged man said tremblingly, “I’ve said it before... The Sacred Tree is not here right now...”
Xiao Tangqiu originally thought it was because this man didn’t want to bring them to the Sacred Tree and thus lied to them. He didn’t expect that the Sacred Tree would actually grow legs and disappear by itself, leaving a huge pit behind!
No, wait! Even if the Sacred Tree was gone, where could it go? This island was only so big, could the Sacred Tree hide somewhere they couldn’t find?
Just as everyone looked at each other, a human figure suddenly appeared from the huge pit. Xiao Tangqiu instantly became vigilant, but soon he realized that the person who climbed out of the huge pit was Bai Yushan.
Bai Yushan apparently went down to investigate. Seeing Xiao Tangqiu and co arrive, she frowned and asked, “Why’d it take you so long? Did you find any important clues?”
Xue Junli said lightly, “No, how about you? Did you find anything after going down?”
Bai Yushan was silent for a few seconds before speaking reluctantly, “No... this is just a big pit. There is nothing at the bottom of the pit.”
“This guy said that the Sacred Tree was originally in this pit,” Tang Mianmian said, rubbing his chin, “Does the Sacred Tree really have legs? Only burying itself in a pit in the evening but running around at other times?”
“What’s impossible? People on this island can become trees, so it’s not weird that trees can become people.” Duan Hongzhen snorted.
Bai Yushan frowned, “People become trees?”
Xiao Tangqiu, “It’s a long story...”
After listening to his summary, Bai Yushan frowned and said, “No wonder I keep feeling that the trees around here are weird. They turn out to be people...”
Xiao Tangqiu hadn’t thought in this direction before. Hearing Bai Yushan saying this, he suddenly had a flash of inspiration, “You mean... the people in the village have become trees?!”
No wonder the people in the village vanished, no wonder the black thorned trees nearby were dense enough to cover the sky, needless of sunlight and space to grow... It turned out that these trees were all changed from the people on the island?!
Everyone collectively looked at the middle-aged man. Xiao Tangqiu raised his eyebrows, “So you have been lying to us all the time, are you also a tree?”
The middle-aged man looked blank, “I’m a tree? How could that be... I am obviously a human being!”
Xiao Tangqiu thought that the middle-aged man was just being bitterly stubborn and refused to admit it, but he saw that the middle-aged man’s eyes were very sincere. There was no falsehood as he retorted in agitation, “How can I be a tree? Me? Obviously, I’m a human! I am clearly a human!”
Suddenly, Bai Yushan said, “But your arm...”
Xiao Tangqiu looked down subconsciously and saw that the middle-aged man’s bloody torn arm no longer bled. It turned into an extremely clear-cut surface with tree-like grains.
Tang Mianmian also shouted, “Fuck! Your feet!”
“Ahhhhhhh!”
His facial features distorted and turned hideous, seeming to be suffering extreme pain. Then his skin slowly turned into rough and hard bark and his clothes tore apart. Just like this, he completely transformed before their eyes.
He had turned into a tree.
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