"Greetings to the Heluo Clan Leader." Bai Ruozhu and the other saluted.

Heluo waved his hand, "You don’t need to be so formal. The Gold-winged tribe is different from the outside world, there aren’t so many formalities."

"Alright." Bai Ruozhu agreed readily.

Heluo looked up, his gaze deep as he observed the Fertility Tree and said, "This is the Fertility Tree of the Gold-winged tribe. Every member of the Gold-winged tribe must be born on this tree so they can have a blessed bloodline and be born with wings to soar in the sky."

"But we’re unsure when it started to wilt. We’ve tried many ways, but we can’t save it. Your Jiuli tribe has many methods, could you take a look?" Heluo looked at Bai Ruozhu, eyes full of hope.

Bai Ruozhu thought that she didn’t know how to plant trees and wasn’t a gardener, so how could she tell?

But she couldn’t refuse directly, so she said with a forced smile, "I’ll take a look. I’m traveling with a Yin Yang Master from Fusang, perhaps he can also discern something."

"Alright, it’s in your hands then."

Seeing Heluo’s demeanor, he wasn’t pressuring Bai Ruozhu for immediate results.

"The Gold-winged tribe hasn’t had any offspring born in the last ten years." Heluo spoke as his gaze fell on Luan Xin, clearly having heard what Luan Xin just said, even though Luan Xin was under ten yet claimed to be born on the Fertility Tree.

Luan Xin looked up at him, with a frank and sincere gaze, "That was my previous life, Ruozhu, give it to him, there’s no issue here."

Bai Ruozhu understood Luan Xin’s meaning, and with a thought, produced Pu Deng’s golden body.

Heluo was aware of the golden body, but was amazed at the sight of it now.

Bai Ruozhu unfurled the cloth wrapped around the golden body, fully revealing Master Pudeng’s golden body.

"This, this really is a member of the Gold-winged tribe!" Heluo exclaimed in surprise. Realizing his loss of composure, he quickly calmed himself.

"He was my benefactor, also a renowned enlightened monk from Zhongyuan. Despite devoting himself to Buddha, he couldn’t become one due to his identity, but he didn’t know where he came from and asked me to return his remains to his hometown whenever I had the chance." Bai Ruozhu slowly recounted.

Having listened, Heluo looked at Luan Xin, "That’s your previous life?"

Luan Xin nodded, "I didn’t intend to speak more; past actions from past lives are unrelated to me now. I spoke recklessly, and you overheard."

Heluo immediately understood, "Don’t worry, I won’t speak of it further, not to mention you’re no longer a member of the Gold-winged tribe. I won’t make things difficult for you."

"Thank you." Luan Xin clasped his hands together and bowed slightly.

Heluo looked at the golden body again and at him, smiling wryly, "Your devotion to Buddha remains unwavering."

"Luan Xin has always been Buddha’s devotee." Luan Xin said.

"Members of the Gold-winged tribe who pass away are buried on Nian Mountain within the tribe; this body should be buried there too." Heluo said.

Luan Xin nodded, "Thank you, Clan Leader."

This utterance of "Clan Leader" was on behalf of his previous self.

Heluo was about to put away the golden body when Luan Xin suddenly called out to him.

"Wait a moment."

Heluo was a bit surprised, why not bury it?

Unexpectedly, Luan Xin walked over and suddenly raised his hand to break off a hand from the corpse, handing it to Bai Ruozhu.

"Keep it, it shields against evil and wards off filth." He said.

The golden body was incredibly sturdy, impervious to external invasions, but Luan Xin simply snapped it off easily, clearly it was his own golden body, and he could do as he pleased with it.

"I..." Bai Ruozhu was a bit embarrassed. Master Pudeng, in his previous life, had helped her by entering nirvana ahead of time.

In this life, he didn’t hesitate to damage his own remains to help her; she knew that people in ancient times placed great importance on the completeness of the corpse.

"I seek Buddha, that’s why I don’t value this." Luan Xin guessed her inner thoughts.

Bai Ruozhu’s eyes reddened as she accepted the golden hand, carefully storing it in her space.

"Thank you, Master."

"Call me Luan Xin; I’m just a young monk." Luan Xin smiled gently and spoke warmly.

Heluo looked at Luan Xin with a bit more admiration, raised his hand, and put away the golden body. Bai Ruozhu noticed his actions and wondered if he also had space powers, or if he possibly used a magic technique to send it somewhere else on the island.

She refrained from probing and let the matter rest.

"Actually, the decline of the Gold-winged tribe didn’t start ten years ago, but decades ago. Perhaps heaven wishes for our extinction." Heluo spoke mysteriously. "A former clan leader tried to have the tribe members intermarry with ordinary women, but none birthed Gold-winged tribe members, and most of those who left didn’t want to return." 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Later, some tribe members said perhaps it was because they weren’t born on the Fertility Tree, so ten years ago, we brought in a human woman to give birth on the Fertility Tree. The result..."

Heluo sighed heavily, "Still a human child, without wings, and afterwards, the Fertility Tree started to have withered leaves. Perhaps our actions angered the gods. In the following ten years, no tribe members were born, and there were pitifully few women of the right age in the tribe, unable to conceive in a decade."

Bai Ruozhu glanced at the Fertility Tree and said, "Merfolk wish to live like humans, maybe heaven wants you to become ordinary people too. Your tribe members and outsiders’ descendants still carry half the bloodline of the Gold-winged tribe. Why insist on having wings?"

"You don’t understand, flying is the lifelong passion of the Gold-winged tribe. We love the feeling of soaring in the sky. Without wings, our spirit dies." Heluo replied.

Bai Ruozhu faintly understood, just like one born to dance, unable to live if unable to dance.

Heluo looked at Luan Xin again, "You were born on the Fertility Tree with wings, why did you leave here, who ultimately took you away?"

Luan Xin shook his head, "I don’t know. From when I could remember, I was meditating and reciting scriptures in Xinchan Temple in Danliang Country’s Zhongyuan. It seems when I was young, I didn’t notice being different from others."

"Were you not born with golden wings?" Bai Ruozhu suddenly asked, recalling Achun hadn’t initially awakened his Merfolk bloodline, and in the beginning, the Merfolk came to take his mother but disdainfully tossed her aside.

As he seemed just an ordinary person, not one of their Merfolk tribe.

"Clan Leader, what happened to the babies born without wings in recent years?" Bai Ruozhu asked urgently.

"Sent away, they’re happier living as ordinary people." Heluo said.

"Didn’t you send anyone to investigate? Perhaps someone grows wings at a certain age, or after undergoing some kind of transformation. Without your protection, those with golden wings could be seen as demons and killed?" Bai Ruozhu exclaimed.

"How, how could that be possible?" Heluo was a little skeptical.

Bai Ruozhu then recounted Achun’s story, "My husband was born, his mother was taken by Merfolk, but they disdained him, thinking he had no Merfolk bloodline. Later, after undergoing various ordeals and being caught in the Barbarian Clan’s Thousand People Blood Sacrifice, his Merfolk bloodline awakened."