Immortal Druid

The forest was too quiet.

That was the first thing I noticed when we reached its edge, and the silence only grew more oppressive the deeper I looked into it. No birdcalls. No insects singing in the underbrush. No distant roars of beasts marking their territory. Even the wind seemed reluctant to pass between the trees, as though something unseen had pressed a hand over the whole forest and ordered it to hold its breath.

I glanced back at Chen Lin and Xing Mei, then said, “Stay here. I’ll scout ahead.”

Chen Lin’s brows drew together immediately. “Be careful,” she said.

I nodded once and did not waste any more time. My body blurred as I invoked Wild Shape: Tiger, muscles and sinew shifting beneath my skin until my senses sharpened and my form grew low, powerful, and silent. The forest floor gave way under my paws without a sound as I slipped into the shadows between the trunks. Once I had put enough distance between myself and the others, I reached out through sound transmission to the crows that followed me.

“Be careful,” I warned them. “Prioritize stealth while looking around. The forest is too quiet. Moreover, make clear of the area where the smoke is coming from and carefully comb the area around you.”

Their replies came in quick, crackling impressions of obedience and alertness, and I moved on with them watching from above. In tiger form, my nose worked better than ever, and I used it carefully as I threaded through the trees. The air carried almost nothing useful. There was the faint scent of damp bark, old leaves, and moss clinging to stone, along with the occasional trace of insects and the rustle of plant life moving in the breeze. But there was no smell I could associate with beasts. No musk. No fur. No blood. No territory-marking stench from predators that should have long since claimed a forest this deep.

That only made the silence feel stranger.

What kind of forest had no beasts in it at all?

I kept moving, then shifted again and used Wild Shape on a smaller creature, a crow, so I could glide from tree to tree without disturbing the ground below. The branches flexed gently under my talons as I landed on one trunk after another, each hop bringing me closer to the column of smoke I had spotted earlier. When I was near enough to the source, I sent another pulse through the link.

“What do you see?” I asked.

The answer came from the crows circling ahead. “Nothing strange,” one of them reported. “Only that the forest is quiet.”

That was hardly comforting, but it confirmed what my instincts had already been telling me. I tucked my wings close and crept farther along the branch until I could look down through a gap in the leaves. Just beneath the tree I had perched on stood a lone cultivator, and the moment I recognized him, my eyes narrowed.

Kang Wen.

After his betrayal of his sect, he had been exiled, and Li Qing had told me enough to understand that he had been folded into the Dark Order as a spy. If he was here, then he had to be the contact Chen Lin had mentioned. I did not hesitate. Through sound transmission, I sent the message back at once.

“I found the contact, Kang Wen.”

For a moment, there was only silence.

Then Kang Wen’s head lifted slightly, and though his gaze did not fully meet mine, I felt the sharp awareness in it all the same. “You’ve been cut off,” he said, his voice low and certain. “This is a trap.”

I clicked my tongue and sprang from the branch, wings vanishing as I canceled Wild Shape in mid-motion and returned to my true form just before I landed lightly on the ground. “You are awfully confident to give up the initiative just like that to me.”

The figure before me laughed softly and waved a hand.

Kang Wen vanished.

In his place stood a pale man in dark robes, with thick eye bags shadowing a face that looked perpetually deprived of rest. There was a weariness in his expression that made him seem almost sickly, yet the calm in his eyes told me he was anything but weak. I stared at him for a moment, then asked, “Who are you supposed to be?”

His lips curved faintly. “Hao Lei.”

“I am Wo Li,” I replied, keeping my tone even.

The illusion spell he had used was powerful. So powerful, in fact, that even with my Druidic Insight, I had been unable to see through it until he chose to reveal himself. That alone was enough to make me wary. The world was truly vast, and there were always new techniques, new experts, and new monsters hiding behind ordinary appearances.

Even so, my connection with my crows remained active. Ever since the crows had started worshipping me thanks to Old Crow’s shenanigans, I could feel a faint thread of faith linking me to the murder of crows moving through the forest. It was subtle, but unmistakable. The cultivators I had brought with me also seemed to be fine, which meant Hao Lei had not made a move against them. Yet.

I looked at him and asked directly, “What is this about?”

Hao Lei’s gaze held mine without flinching. “I plan to betray the Dark Order,” he said. “And I wish to help you.”

I did not bother hiding my skepticism. “Why should I believe you?”

“As a show of goodwill,” he said, “I shall give you my spy back.”

He held out a hand, and with a casual flick of his wrist, he tossed a corpse from his storage ring as though he were discarding a dead animal.

The body struck the ground with a dull, final sound.

It was Kang Wen.

I looked at the corpse before me, my thoughts running cold and sharp.

“Can you indeed resurrect the dead?” asked Hao Lei after a pause. There was something intent in his voice now, something far more focused than before. “Show me. If you can satisfy me, then you will have my loyalty.”

I studied him carefully. “Why are you doing this?”

The exhaustion in Hao Lei’s face deepened into something quieter and more dangerous, a sadness buried so long it had nearly become part of him. “There is someone precious to me whom I wish to be alive,” he said. “If you can show me proof of your powers, then I will have your loyalty. If I can see that such a thing is possible, then I will give you mine loyalty.”

I tightened my grip on the staff and stared at Hao Lei with open suspicion. “I need more than that,” I said coldly. “Why should I believe you a second time? Why are you doing this?”

My eyes flicked down to Kang Wen’s corpse again, and the state of it only deepened my distrust. The body was covered in severe bruising around the throat, as though he had been strangled or throttled repeatedly. There were gashes across the flesh, dried blood clinging to torn robes, and patches of rotten meat that made the whole thing look as though it had been left to fester for far too long. Even in death, Kang Wen appeared to have suffered. That alone made it impossible for me to take Hao Lei’s words at face value.

Still, I could not ignore the possibility that he was telling the truth. If he truly intended to betray the Dark Order, then that meant one less immortal I would need to face later, and in a battle where every advantage mattered, that was not something I could afford to dismiss outright.

Hao Lei’s expression remained composed, but his eyes sharpened as he spoke. “Two more immortals have joined their ranks,” he said. “One is a blademaster by the name of Lai Kun. The other is a renowned assassin from two hundred thousand years ago, Li Chao. Right now, two of their members should already be attacking your base of operations. They likely intend to take hostages or make an example of them, so you do not have much time. Retreat now, and fight another day. Even with my help, we would still be outnumbered.”

For a moment, I said nothing. I let his words settle in my mind, measured them against the corpse at my feet, against the silence of the forest, against everything I had already learned about the Dark Order. Then I lifted my gaze and said, “No. I will fight.”

Disbelief flashed across Hao Lei’s face. It was brief, but unmistakable, as though he had not expected me to be so stubborn when confronted with the truth of the situation.

I raised my staff and cast, “Control Weather.”

The sky above us responded at once. Clouds gathered rapidly overhead, dragging themselves across the heavens like a thick curtain, and the pressure in the air shifted as I obscured the Heavenly Tribulation that would follow the act of restoring someone to life. The moment the clouds deepened into a dense, storm-heavy canopy, I thumped my staff against the ground and spoke the next spell.

“Revive Life.”

Kang Wen’s body was swallowed by the earth itself, as though the ground had opened its mouth wide enough to devour him. A heartbeat later, it spat him back out whole, his injuries gone, his flesh restored, and the signs of death erased as if they had never existed. The transformation was immediate, violent, and deeply unnatural, and Kang Wen himself reacted exactly as expected. He jolted upright with a strangled gasp, terror flooding his face as he clawed at the ground beneath him.

His eyes landed on me, and his expression twisted into fear and hysteria all at once. “I—I’m alive?” he choked out, his voice cracking. “You—Sage Wo Li, I—” He scrambled toward me in a panic. “I’m sorry! I failed you! I failed to protect—” His words broke apart into frantic apologies, his body shaking as though his mind could not accept what had just happened.

I stepped forward, patted him once on the shoulder, and said firmly, “It is going to be okay.”

Then I stepped back and invoked Wild Shape: Primal Nature Elemental.

My body became a conduit for raw natural power, and just in time. Heavenly Tribulation descended with brutal force, lightning and destructive intent crashing down from above like the heavens themselves had decided to punish my defiance. The impact was overwhelming. Even though my transformed form negated the damage, the pain was real, sharp enough to make my breath hitch and my muscles tense beneath the pressure. I endured it in silence, teeth clenched, until at last the storm spent itself and the sky quieted once more.

When it was over, I exhaled in relief and undid my Wild Shape. The pressure left my body all at once, and I felt the tension drain from my bones like water spilling through cracked stone. Only then did I turn back to Hao Lei.

“What was your reason for consorting with the Dark Order?” I asked.

Hao Lei looked at me for a moment before answering. “I’ve been searching for true immortality. I believed I could find the answer in the Dark Ages. If not there, then perhaps in the Age of Supremacy. All in hopes of uncovering the Art of Resurrection.”

I studied him carefully, then said, “Your precious person must be really special.”

Something unreadable passed through his eyes at that, but he said nothing.

I did not know whether Hao Lei was a good person or not. I also did not know whether he was hiding some deeper scheme behind that tired face and those exhausted eyes. What I did know was that I had not sensed any Dark Seed within him, and that was enough for me to consider one thing. I might have to trust my judgment of character this time, even if only a little. That thought alone did not sit comfortably with me, but I had learned long ago that hesitation could be more dangerous than misjudgment.

“Leave this place,” I said. “We will continue this conversation elsewhere another time.”

A look of confusion appeared on his face, as though he had not expected me to dismiss him so abruptly.

I met his gaze without wavering and added, “I still do not trust you.”

He gave a faint, humorless smile. “There are subordinates within the Dark Order who serve me and remain loyal to me,” he said. “I intend to pull them out. As for Yuan Tao, he is a madman. I do not want you to die. If a time comes when I must fight, then I will fight, regardless of what you think.”

That meant, he’d be keeping a close eye to my fight.

Before I could answer, Hao Lei vanished into an illusion, leaving no trace behind.

I turned to Kang Wen.

“How are you, Kang Wen?”

“I… I don’t know…”

Kang Wen calmed down shortly after I spoke to him, though the fear in his eyes had not fully gone away. His breathing steadied, and after a few shaky moments, he looked at me with a face full of shame.

“I’m sorry,” he said hoarsely. “The intel of your arrival had been made. This was a trap.”

I gave him a firm look and shook my head. “Do not give up all hope yet.”

Even before the words had fully settled, Chen Lin and Xing Mei arrived in time, their expressions sharp with alarm the moment they saw the scene. Kang Wen stiffened when his gaze landed on Xing Mei, and though exhaustion still clung to him, he bowed his head with urgency.

“Sect Leader Xing Mei,” he greeted quickly. “The enemy stronghold is not far from here. I failed my part on my spy work.”

Chen Lin ground her teeth, clearly frustrated by the situation, but she still forced the words out through clenched jaw. “Then we should move at once. We cannot waste another breath here.”

Before anyone could respond, crows appeared out of nowhere, their wings beating the air in a sudden flurry of dark motion. Their voices rang out with urgency.

“The encampment is under attack!”

My heart sank, and at once I turned and broke into a full sprint. Everyone followed without hesitation, and we made haste back toward the encampment as fast as our feet could carry us. The closer we got, the more I could feel the subtle distortions in the air, and when the encampment finally came into view, I understood immediately that the enemy had prepared this battlefield long before we arrived. Layer after layer of formation arrays had been masterfully interwoven together, each one hiding within the next like a trap inside a trap. One of them was clearly responsible for cutting sound transmission, which explained why our warnings had failed to travel properly.

When we entered the center of the encampment, the sight before us made my stomach tighten.

Every Core Formation cultivator we had brought with us was dead. Their bodies had been transformed into a single enormous blackened tree, and carved into its charred trunk were their faces, twisted and frozen in death. The Formation Masters we had assigned to the encampment were nowhere to be seen, as though they had vanished into thin air or been erased from the world entirely. Standing atop the tree was an old man with an air of calm that was almost infuriating.

He looked down at us with faint curiosity and said, “I wonder why you are here. You should have been trapped in an illusion barrier by now.”

My gaze swept the battlefield, and a bad feeling settled heavily in my chest. I spotted Guo Yupin nearby, one arm missing, blood still staining the torn ruin of his sleeve. In his remaining arm, he was carrying Sect Leader Ding Yahui, whose body was already still. The sight made my jaw tighten.

Guo Yimu’s face was twisted with fury and grief. “Sect Leader Ding Yahui is dead!” he shouted, the words spilling out like a wounded beast’s roar.

I took one look at the old man on top of the blackened tree and felt Druidic Insight stir inside me with cold certainty. Something was wrong. Deeply wrong. I could not resurrect Ding Yahui. That much was already clear, and the realization made my blood run cold. There was no room to waste time.

“Everyone, escape!” I said sharply. “If you are killed by this old man, I am not confident that I can bring you back to life.”

That was the truth of it. The operation had always been built around a simple division of labor: I would deal with the immortal-level practitioners of the enemy, while the rest handled the lesser cultivators of the Dark Order. Now that balance had already been destroyed, before we could even make a difference.

The old man’s eyes shifted, and a thin, knowing smile crossed his face. “So,” he said slowly, “Hao Lei must have betrayed me.” He sounded disappointed more than angry, which somehow made him even more unsettling. “What a pity.”

Then Chen Lin suddenly screamed in rage, her voice ripping through the ruined encampment like a blade. “YUAN TAO! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!”

I turned toward her, startled, because I had not expected her to know the old man. Her face had gone pale with fury, and yet there was disbelief in it too, as if she could not accept what her own eyes were telling her.

“No,” she said, shaking her head violently. “You should be dead. All of the immortals perished a long time ago.”

The old man’s expression did not change. He merely looked at her with that same calm, almost amused stare and said, “Not all of them.”

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