Chapter 6: Xiangxiang and Old Tree Bark (Part 1)

  Xiang Xiang was really annoyed by Cao Sen, she had never met a man who ignored her like this before. She would rather be raped by Cao Sen than be ignored by him. So the girl scolded this man who didn't know how to cherish and appreciate women again. Xiang Xiang's vocabulary for scolding people was rich and colorful, and this time she scolded for over ten minutes. After getting tired of scolding, the feeling of fear of being alone in the deep mountains spread across her heart again. She raised her head and carefully looked around.

  When Xiangxiang turned around to look behind her, a lewd and wrinkled face like old tree bark suddenly appeared in front of her eyes, so close that their noses were almost touching.

  Xiang Xiang was startled and her face turned pale, she quickly turned around, her elbow striking backwards with force.

  "Ouch!" an old man's painful cry, "Young lady, why did you hit me? You're killing me!"

  Xiangxiang hastily crawled forward a few steps, turned around and looked back, only to see an emaciated old man sitting in the withered grass, covering his face and shouting in pain. After hitting the old man, Xiangxiang felt somewhat apologetic in her heart, but she absolutely wouldn't apologize out loud, "You dirty old man, sneaking up behind a girl without making a sound, you deserved to be hit!"

  "Girl, I'm kind-hearted. I heard you crying and came to take a look. Before I even spoke, you hit me. I'm not some old pervert."

  "You're an old tree bark!" Someone appeared in the wilderness to accompany her, Xiang Xiang felt much safer, and it was an old man who couldn't be any older, posing no threat to herself. The girl had some affection for him and gave him a nickname.

  "Alas, as people age, this skin can't compare to you young ladies' tender complexion. The nickname 'old tree bark' is quite fitting. Maiden, are you the only one?" Old Tree Bark asked with great concern.

  "What's wrong with him? I like to play alone in the woods." Xiang Xiang's voice suddenly stopped, because she found that the old man's eyes were shining brightly, and when she looked closely at his eyes, she didn't see any white eyeballs. The size of the eye socket was equal to the size of the black eyeball, which was extremely bright and made her feel scared.

  "What's wrong with your eyes...?"

  "Heh heh, it's okay, little girl, don't be afraid. Grandpa is just like this. Come here, come to Grandpa." The old tree bark smiled, and the wrinkles on his face piled up together, like a crumpled leaf, with a pair of large black eyes shining brightly, looking up and down at Xiangxiang.

  Xiang Xiang was so frightened that she didn't know whether to stand up and run or sit on the ground with her hands and feet propping up her body as she backed away.

  The old tree bark smiled, its pair of eyes fixed on the girl's slender body, slowly following her as she moved forward.

  The fragrant fragrance couldn't stop retreating, and she even forgot that she still had her abilities on her body. She just kept retreating until she bumped into something that blocked her way. She turned around to take a look, and tears almost fell from her eyes. What she saw was actually Cao Sen.

  Cao Sen stepped forward and blocked Xiang Xiang behind him, narrowing his eyes to look at the old tree bark in front of him, "Where did you come from?"

  "Heh heh," Old Tree Bark said with a sly smile. "Young fellow, don't interfere in other people's business. Besides, you don't like this girl anyway, why not let me have her?"

  "Whether I like it or not is between me and him, none of your business!"

  Cao Sen's words startled Xiang Xiang, who had just felt safe. What did he mean by "things between us humans"? Wasn't this old man human?

  "Huh?" The old tree bark unexpectedly looked at Cao Sen and asked, "Can you see through me? Are you a Taoist or a Buddhist disciple?"

  Cao Sen didn't respond to Old Tree Bark's question, he was still staring at him intently, observing the peculiar energy composition on his body. Earlier when Cao Sen turned around and came back, he had already noticed something strange about the old man from a distance. Focusing his spirit into his eyes, he discovered that the energy threads on the old man's body were similar to those of ghosts, also green in color, whereas humans had five-colored energy threads. But now was daytime, ghosts shouldn't appear, so what was he? Although Cao Sen didn't like Xiang Xiang, they were both human, and Cao Sen didn't want anything unexpected to happen to the girl, so he quietly approached and blocked Old Tree Bark's menacing gaze towards Xiang Xiang.

  "Listen up, young man! Hand over that girl to me and we'll let bygones be bygones..."

  "Cut the crap," Cao Sen pulled out a Colt pistol from under his armpit, cocked it with a click, and aimed at the old tree spirit's forehead. "No matter what you are, if you have a physical form, you'll be afraid of my bullets."

  The old tree bark still knelt on the ground, looking at Cao Sen's gun with a "hey, you think a toy gun can scare me?" expression.

  Bang! Cao Sen pulled the trigger, and the bullet hit less than a foot away from Lao Shu Pi's body. The scorching hot bullet left a deep small hole on the ground, causing Lao Shu Pi to shudder all over. "You... how did you get a real gun?"

  "I'll ask one question and you answer one, otherwise, I still have seventeen bullets left in this gun, not a single one will be spared for you!"

  The old tree bark nodded in terror, lowering its head and not daring to meet Cao Sen's cold and stern gaze.

  Xiang Xiang saw Cao Sen shoot and subdue the strange old man, overjoyed, got up to go kick him a few times to vent his anger, but was caught by Cao Sen's collar and thrown back again.

  Xiang Xiang was thrown a somersault, fortunately there were dense withered grasses to cushion her fall so she didn't get hurt, enraged, she got up and wanted to kick Cao Sen, but saw a scene that made her terrified.

  Innumerable rope-like objects suddenly extended from the back of the old tree bark and under its buttocks, like a dense large net covering Cao Sen, shouting "Be careful!"

  Cao Sen quickly retreated two steps, repeatedly pulling the trigger, bang! Two bullets accurately hit the center of the old tree's bark, opening two small holes in it, and then drilled out from behind the head. The places where the bullets passed through ignited a faint blue smoke.

  The old tree's body shuddered, the cord-like object on its back was pulled open by intense pain, and its face was almost scrunched up into a ball.

  Cao Sen took advantage of the person's illness to take his life, taking a few steps forward and lifting his right leg to heavily kick Old Tree Skin in the chest. With a loud thud, Old Tree Skin was kicked into the air like a log. Cao Sen landed on one foot, twisted his waist, and turned around, his left leg sweeping in an arc before heavily kicking Old Tree Skin's chest again. Old Tree Skin was sent flying by this lightning-fast kick and crashed violently into a large pine tree.

  The fragrance had not yet faded, Cao Sen had already rushed over, his hand somehow holding a gleaming combat knife. With a flash of cold light, the old tree bark was nailed to the pine tree by Cao Sen, the combat knife piercing through his shoulder and deeply embedding itself in the trunk of the pine tree.

  Cao Sen gazed coldly at the constantly twitching old tree skin, slowly pulling out a lighter and cigarette. "I hate sneak attacks the most, you're unlucky to have offended my taboo. Younger brother," Cao Sen looked no younger than the old tree skin from any angle, but he called him younger brother with ease and naturalness.

  "Little brother, you don't seem to be afraid of bullets. How about fire?" Cao Sen lit the lighter and slowly brought the flame closer to Lao Shu Pi's face.

  The old tree bark panicked, "Big brother, big boss, spare me, I have an 80-year-old mother at home..."

  Xiang Xiang was laughing uncontrollably beside him, "Ahh... Ahh... I'm dying from laughter! You still have an 80-year-old mother, look at your age, 80-year-old ladies are all younger than you!"

  "Yes, yes, I was wrong just now. It's my sister. My sister is 88 years old, paralyzed in the lower limbs and hemiplegic in the upper limbs. She has to rely on me for a living. Great hero, please spare her!"

  Xiangxiang jumped over, looking around the old tree bark with a fresh expression. "Huh? How come you're not bleeding? You got shot twice in the head and still dare to talk nonsense, Old Tree Bark, you're pretty awesome!"

  The old tree bark saw Xiangxiang's lovely and cute appearance, his originally wrinkled face relaxed a bit, and the black eyes shone again.

  "My god, you're still like this, and your lustful heart is not dead yet. I'll kick you to death, you super pervert!" Xiang Xiang said as she lifted her leg and kicked Lao Shu Pi's groin area with a practiced and accurate motion, clearly showing that she hadn't used this move sparingly in the past.

  He only kicked the old tree bark, and the old tree bark didn't react at all, but Xiangxiang was hopping on one leg, hugging her foot and shouting in pain, "What are you doing? Kicking me is just like kicking a tree trunk!"

  "I have little patience." Cao Sen disregarded Xiang Xiang's playful antics and sternly asked, "Tell me about your origins!"

  "I... I am indeed not human, but a tree spirit." The old tree bark dared not to conceal itself in front of the flame, and spoke out its origin.

  The old tree bark is a thousand-year-old crooked-necked locust tree in Taifeng Mountain, which has long been cultivated into human form. He loves women the most and has taken advantage of many women with various means for hundreds of years. Today he saw Xiangxiang alone and wanted to come over to take a closer look, but was subdued by Cao Sen's quick moves.

  Cao Sen had suspected that the old man was a monster of the tree type, and the old tree skin proved his conjecture, while Xiang Xiang's nickname for him was also very insightful.

  "Monster!" Xiangxiang shouted, "Burn him to death quickly!"

  Cao Sen put away his lighter after lighting a cigarette, "What kind of energy are you relying on to sustain your actions?"

  "I don't know." The old tree bark replied honestly, "The human legend of cultivating and absorbing the essence of the sun and moon, I've never done that before, and I also don't know why I can move and think."

  Cao Sen puffed on his cigarette thoughtfully and after a moment asked: "Tell me, apart from the tree roots you released earlier, what other abilities do you have?"

  "I'm useless in other ways. In the past, I pretended to be a fortune teller and read women's fortunes, but it was all just cheating them - actually, I didn't understand anything."

  "I'll ask the next question," Xiangxiang stood in front of the old tree bark, imitating Cao Sen's tone and demeanor, "Tell me, can you perform the 72 transformations, ride the clouds and fog, and burrow into the earth?"

  The old tree bark replied with a worried and bitter face: "What you said, I won't know, just can change back to the appearance of an old locust tree."

  Xiang Xiang stole a glance at Cao Sen and sternly asked: "Then will you turn into a rose?"

  "Roses? Miss, do you think I'm possible?" The old tree bark wrinkled up a face full of folds and asked back.

  Xiang Xiang looked at him like that, indeed, had nothing to do with the rose that symbolized romance and love.

  "Are there other monsters in this mountain?" Cao Sen asked.

  "As far as I know, there isn't."

  "What about the ghost?" Cao Sen continued to ask.

  "No."

  "Can you communicate with other plants?"

  "No, grass and trees are just grass and trees, they have no thoughts."

  Cao Sen nodded and walked a few steps before suddenly asking: "Why did you decide to hit her today, why didn't you in the past?"

  Cao Sen asked, Xiang Xiang also felt strange, she often came here with her sister, and had also sneaked out alone to drive and buy snacks, why didn't the old tree skin take action against herself at that time?

  "Because there's trouble on the ancient path, those people are too busy to care about what's happening outside, so that's why I dared to come here."

  Xiang Xiang suddenly became anxious, grasping the hilt of his combat knife and shaking it vigorously as he asked: "Tell me, tell me quickly, what's going on with the ancient road?"

  "I'm not entirely sure, it seems... they've cultivated a problem, and apparently simultaneously gone mad, including your... sister." Old Tree's voice was trembling with pain, the combat knife still lodged in his shoulder.