"It came suddenly, bringing a storm with it. Its form is a tree towering towards the heavens, taller than anything imaginable. Its roots were as thick as a palace, and its majesty was unimaginably vast."
"All five of our Grandmasters attacked it at the same time. In ten minutes, two were killed, and the other three were injured. Yet the Treant itself remained relatively unharmed, only a few branches and roots being severed. We were sent retreating, not even having time to take everything with us."
"We hastily made our way back to the command center, the island we had discovered, only to find nothing but skeletons remaining. We took some bodies with us, hoping to give them a good burial, and left as fast as we could. We only left a few bodies behind, hoping to warn anyone who stumbled upon them of the dangers of the Wilds. Presumably, you found those bodies."
Skymender nodded. However, his mind was not on the last sentence, but everything before it.
If his guess was correct, then the Treant was most likely in the depths of the Western Desert, where those giant roots had been found.
He also remembered one of the words on the paper he had found in the ruins on the island. It had been the word Treant.
The figure spoke again. "The only accomplishment we made on those wilds was killing the Wolf Emperor. However, we failed to even bring back its body. The Treant had come too soon. We even had to leave a bunch of our people behind on the island, though their fates are unknown. My ancestors left few things behind that remain to this day, but the warning to never venture into the wilds is one of them."
Skymender took it all in. He did not have an outward reaction, but his thoughts were moving rapidly on the inside.
"What does this have to do with why the Scholar Region can stand among the others?" Skymender asked.
The figure responded. "Oh yes. Back to my ancestors, they were intelligent. Perhaps not quite at my level, but still very intelligent. They observed and recorded all of the events, and to put it simply, they have passed down the ability to anger the Treant and bring its wrath upon us."
"How is that possible?" Skymender asked.
"Why would I tell you? Just know that there is a reason nobody has dared to doubt our ability to do so."
Skymender remained silent for a moment. "Why tell me all of this?"
"Why tell you this? Because I am human and you are human. Although we are currently opposing each other, it may not always be so. You are on the side of the Emperor right now, but it may not always be that way. I have a feeling that whoever you decide to stand beside will win. Regardless, I have my trump card, and if you dare test it, I am more than willing to show you the meaning of terror."
Skymender did not stay in the room for much longer. He had a lot to think about after meeting the Ruler of the Scholar Region.
To simply call him an interesting individual would be completely inaccurate. Although they had only met briefly, Skymender felt as though he was just as interesting as the Emperor.
After thinking about it for a while, Skymender decided that he needed to change things. Right now, he was simply following the currents, but if he wanted to control his fate, he needed to begin making his own plans.
Skymender stayed at his house, and continued to teach Mora every day. Mora progressed fast. It was not only because of Skymender's teachings, but because he studied even after Skymender was gone. His entire life was dedicated to learning, as expected of the son of the Ruler of the Scholar Region.
Although some would consider this a fate forced from birth, he took this in stride. It was not a forced fate to him, but a legacy he had chosen to inherit.
Skymender did not forget the mission given to him by the Emperor. He learned everything he could about the Mainland. Most of the information was focused on the Scholar Region, but he found bits and pieces of information related to the other regions. One region stood out among the rest as the most mysterious. That was naturally the Temple Region. There was very little information on it, and what information there was mostly consisted of speculation.
What he knew for a fact was that the Temple Region is the smallest region by a lot, but by choice. They all believed in their god, and being closer together only made worship easier.
While researching, Skymender stumbled upon information of the earliest known rulers of the Scholar Region.
He flipped through them, trying to align them with the timeline he had understood from the Ruler of the Scholar Region's story. Eventually, he narrowed it down to a certain ruler, but when he laid eyes on the ruler, he was shocked.
There should be no reason to see a familiar face on the Mainland, especially not a face from thousands of years ago, but here he was. The ruler around the time of the exploration of the Wilds, or the Continent of Wu, looked extremely similar to the Late Imperial Scholar, Fei Luzi. Although this was shocking, it made a bit of sense when thinking about it. He had been told that some of the Mainlands forces had to be left behind in their escape, and whether it was the ruler himself or some other relative, the ancestors of Fei Luzi were almost assuredly related to the ancestors of the Scholar Region.
Although this was shocking, and led to further thoughts such as, how many people on the Continent of Wu are related to ancestors of the Mainland, it did not have much relevance to the current situation. At most, it was an interesting and surprising fact.
Had the Imperial Scholar been alive to see it, even he would have been shocked.