With this agreement, Chu Bai felt an invisible fetter materialize in the void, binding the two of them together.
"Good."
Chu Bai’s eyes narrowed slightly. He abruptly raised the index finger of his right hand, its tip tracing an arcane trajectory in the air.
Fate Chart: Golden Seal Decree, Jade Scroll of Heaven—
BOOM!
An incandescent golden light erupted from Chu Bai’s fingertip, instantly illuminating the entire dark alley.
This golden light wasn’t harsh on the eyes. Instead, it exuded an aura of solemnity, divinity, and immensity.
In the void, a faint, translucent golden jade scroll slowly unfurled. Countless ancient patterns flowed across its surface.
In that instant, Chu Bai’s consciousness was elevated.
He felt his Divine Thought, guided by the golden light, instantly pierce through the hard flagstones and plunge several dozen feet into the earth.
He merged with the old locust tree’s root system. It was an incredibly wondrous experience—he could feel the weight of the earth, the dampness of the soil, and the currents of Earth Vein Spiritual Mechanism slowly flowing along the roots.
At the same time, a series of images flashed wildly through Chu Bai’s mind like a revolving lantern.
It was the hundred-year life of the old locust tree.
The investiture ceremony had officially begun.
As the Investor, Chu Bai had to, under the witness of the Celestial Dao, review and bear witness to the recipient’s past.
A hundred years ago, this place was not yet a bustling downtown area.
In the vision of Chu Bai’s consciousness, he saw a stretch of desolate, wild land.
Back then, this old locust tree was just an ordinary sapling, teetering on the verge of collapse amidst furious winds and rain. Born of nature itself, it had by chance absorbed a wisp of Spiritual Mechanism that had escaped from the Earth Vein, which allowed it to take root in the barren soil.
Time flew by, and the images flickered past at high speed.
A few families fleeing famine arrived. They built simple thatched huts next to the locust tree and reclaimed the wasteland. The tree watched them work from sunrise to sunset, and it watched the barefoot children play and frolic in its shade.
With the migration and growth of the population, the wilderness became a village, and the village was gradually absorbed into the expanding Anping County, becoming the intricate "Dahuai Lane" of today.
The old locust tree grew up without even realizing it.
Every day, it listened to the prayers of the people, smelled the incense from their ancestral worship, and felt the vibrant, worldly Qi of human life.
It was this peaceful yet tenacious power that caused it to suddenly awaken a sliver of nascent intelligence one morning.
It began to actively provide shade for the elderly in the lane and shelter pedestrians from the wind and rain. It loved this lane, just as an old farmer loves his fields.
However, crisis always lurked in the shadows of this prosperity.
One night, about eighty years ago, came the coldest and darkest scene in the locust tree’s memory.
Several Demons, reeking of a nauseating, foul stench, crept in from the Chaotic Burial Mound outside the town.
They avoided the crude patrol guards of that time, and, sniffing the scent of the living, they snuck into the then-quiet alley.
The Demons intended to carry out a blood sacrifice.
At that desperate moment, all the residents of the alley were fast asleep, unaware that death had arrived.
It was the old locust tree.
For the first time, it revealed its true form.
Chu Bai saw countless iron-hard roots erupt from the ground like an earth dragon turning over, instantly entangling the Demons in a death grip.
The old locust tree’s dense foliage transformed into a rain of the sharpest arrows, initiating an incredibly brutal battle in the dead of the deserted night.
In that battle, the old locust tree was victorious. It had protected every living being in the alley.
But it also paid a terrible price.
Before dying, one of the Demons spat a mouthful of concentrated corpse poison onto the old locust tree’s core.
From then on, the old locust tree’s interior began to wither and blacken. To the townspeople, the tree no longer seemed as lush as before; it even began to shed its leaves.
No one knew that in the century that followed, the tree endured the heart-piercing agony of that poison every single moment.
It grew frail and became exceedingly cautious.
It once had a few Spirit Monster friends.
There was a Swallow Spirit that liked to live under the eaves, and a small snake that lurked at the bottom of a well.
But as the years passed, those friends either died in the chaos of war or fled to the deep mountains, unable to bear the increasingly thin Spiritual Mechanism.
Only it remained. Unwilling to part with the vibrant mortal world and severely wounded from that battle, it could only rely on its masterful Concealing Breath Divine Technique to barely cling to life, half-dead, like a lonely old man in the depths of the bustling city.
This continued until a month ago, when that Spirit Fox stumbled into its territory.
The shared scent of Spirit Monsters in similar plights led them to band together for warmth.
The old locust tree used the last of its life force to shield the Spirit Fox’s Demon Qi, which was potent enough to be sensed by a Demon Slaying Officer.
The images came to an abrupt halt here.
Chu Bai slowly opened his eyes, a flicker of emotion, not easily noticed, within them.
"For a century you have stood a lonely watch, your service benefiting the people. Your sins are nil; your Merit is of the highest order."
Chu Bai spoke, his voice resounding in the Divine Soul.
"Let the investiture begin!"
With a gesture from Chu Bai, all the Incense Fire Will Power accumulated within his Golden Seal Decree Fate Chart surged forth.
This was the purest Divine Power, which he had been accumulating for a long time after slaying the Pseudo-God at the Sanmu River.
This energy, originally a brilliant Golden Liquid, now transformed into a fine, drizzling rain that scattered down upon the old locust tree’s canopy.
This Wish Power was originally chaotic and heavy with Cause and Effect, but after being filtered by the Golden Seal Decree, it transformed into a sweet dew, perfect for nourishing Spirituality.

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