(MC POV)
Looking at the old man in front of me, who was slowly stirring from his unconsciousness, I could not help but wonder how these creatures even came to be.
I don't remember the mortal realm having that much elemental energy to create these creatures. Sure, creating some elemental monsters is okay, but these intelligent creatures are absurd. It was only in the heavenly realm that these things existed; now I am finding them here too.
As soon as his eyes snapped open, the leshy instantly turned into a swarm of leaves as he tried to escape. I just watched and did not bother to stop him.
After five seconds he came back to his original position like he never left, looking at me with fear. He did the same thing again as he turned into a swarm of leaves, separating that swarm to head in different directions.
Only one of those swarms came back, transforming back into him.
"How? Why can't I escape?" He asked, looking at me with fear.
"It's called rewind; no matter how fast you move or even if you teleport, as long as it hits five seconds, you would be brought back to this very same spot," I explained, creating an earthen chair that I coated with water bubbles, making a water chair.
I don't want to get skewered, or I would have used a wood chair.
"You can control time?" He asked again. "But that is impossible; mother said that only those that have seen heaven can do that!"
Wait... mother? It can't be that mother nature has gotten tired of us humans and wants to kill us all? ... Though since this guy is with the dark sect, then it's not mother nature then, and she knows about the elements of the heaven realm? Did she also come from the heavenly realm?.
Putting those questions aside.
"Who is your mother?" I asked.
"..."
"Okay then, what is your plan with the dark sect?" I asked again since the first one was ignored. maybe he does not know his own mother's real name. can't blame him; a lot of us only know our mothers names as mom.
"I want to see my sisters first," He said.
Sisters? Which sisters?
"Who are your sisters? I don't remember meeting any old women like you."
"The one that turned the forest into a poison forest, she is my little sister Fiora! Stop pretending that you don't know who I'm talking about." His eyes filled with rage as he looked at me. "I know Flora might be dead, or worse, but since Fiora is here, I want to at least talk to her before answering any of your questions."
He is talking about Linda and Lynda? That was surprising. I thought they were just made using the power of the treants and some elemental stones.
When he called mother at first, I thought the person who created him was a woman, but since he was calling Linda and Lynda sisters, that means they are somehow linked to the same mother in some way... You sure it's not mother nature?
"Chuyan, bring my daughters," I called out.
"Huh?"
"Papa! Linda did gowd?" Linda rushed over to me and jumped, knowing full well I would catch her as I placed her on my lap. Lynda, on the other hand, looked at the leshy kneeling on the ground as she came to me.
"Papa, why dows Lynda feel like she knows him?" After placing her on my lap, she pointed at the leshy and asked.
"No, Fiora? Flora? What happened to you? It's me, Pan." The leshy, or rather Pan, said as he got up, coming close to me and the girls, but after five seconds he returned back to the spot he was before.
"What have you done to them!?" He screamed with a face full of rage as he looked at the girls; Lynda hid her face in my chest.
"Man is scary," She said shaking.
"Bad man, you make Lynda scared." Linda got down from my lap as she pointed at the man, and what looked like an arrow of violet mist flew straight to him, hitting square on his chest as she screamed in agony, rolling on the ground.
"It hurts! make it stop!" When I felt he had screamed enough,.
"Linda," I called out, to which Linda looked at me and then back at the man before snapping her fingers, and the violet mist around him disappeared like it was never there, but the burnt mark on his chest said otherwise.
"If you make Lynda scared again... Hmm." After leaving that warning, she came back to me, and I used my air magic to lift her back onto my lap.
"..."
"Sorry about that; she is very protective of her kid sister," I explained.
"Huh? Lynda is owder than Linda." Lynda raised her head from my chest, looking up at me.
"Oh? how?"
"Lynda is lying Lynda is just owder than Linda by ten secownds!" Linda retorted from the side, looking at her sister. Lynda just stuck her tongue out at Linda.
"Still older," She said.
"Nuh uh."
Watching the girls' little exchange, I focused back on Pan, who had been oddly silent till now.
"Did they appear from a stone that has been nourished by life and wood elemental energy?" He suddenly asked right when I was about to ask him a question.
"Well, not a stone, but a pile of elemental stones that had been nourished by life energy from the treants—I did not see any stone like that." I answered, looking back at him.
"That is to be expected; when we are killed, we turn into a stone that heads towards a place that has a lot of elemental energy and slowly nourishes itself, and in that case that pile of elemental stones was the best place." He sat down on his bottom as he looked a bit dejected. "They said you killed them, but seeing that they had been revived and hold no grudge against you, it seems you helped them gain a soul too."
Okay, what is happening here? Why the sudden change of attitude?
He sighed and suddenly started talking.
"We came from the Ezza kingdom. due to the war that happened between the Ezza and Qidian kingdoms, our home was destroyed. Our mother sent me and my other siblings to come and speak with the king of Qidian to stop the war since it was destroying our home," He said.
"But we were not welcomed and almost killed by the practitioners guarding the palace. we then met the people of the dark sect; they called themselves the holy sect, but my siblings and I knew what they were really called. they offered to help us in our endeavor and gave us a plan..."
Basically, the unnatural tree growth was caused by him and his siblings after the dark sect gave them the idea of trapping the villagers of all the villages around Tang city in a form of protest.
According to him, since there were two villages here, he accompanied Linda and Lynda here with those dark sect men who turned into trees. I'm not calling them Fiora and Flora; my names are better.
He left them with those dark sect men and came to Humin village and started accelerating the growth rate of the trees around. he had spotted us and hid the first time we passed since it was not part of the plan to expose themselves yet, and then he waited for the group to arrive, only for them to send a messenger telling him about his group's demise at my hands. he did try to come and save his sisters, but the barrier and the illusion prevented him.
So he waited for us here, and that was basically what happened.
"Then what about the people from Guming village that we sent back?" Chuyan asked.
"They are inside; the messenger was part of them. I only want to keep the people prisoner; that was how I got the message." Pan answered, looking at me.
"This... From your story, you are not turning the people into dryads?" She followed up with another.
"No, we only want to trap them in... Wait, dryads? There are no dryads; only Fiora and Flora are the dryads here... No, the man that was leader in my group asked me to make him a dryad, and I told him to look for Fiora and Flora for that since they can make humans dryads, and I left them and came here... It seems I am the cause of their deaths." Pan looked at my daughters and sighed.
"You also said something about the messenger being with the group of villagers we sent back." Chuyan said as we both exchanged looks.