Thomas was not in a hurry to ask questions. He just stood by the side and waited. He knew that the old abbot would definitely elaborate.
Sure enough, after waiting for a minute, the old friar cleared his throat and said, “Master Mayo, although the rosary is right before us, I cannot lend it to you…”
Thomas then asked, “Why?”
The old abbot explained, “You see this tree, right? The reason is because of this tree…”
Speaking of this tree, it was old and was roughly the same age as Harmony Monastery itself. When the construction of Harmony Monastery was completed, the backyard was empty. The abbot of the time planted a sapling within the monastery. After hundreds of years, the sapling had grown into a big tree, and the monastery grew into a famous monastery.
It could be said that the tree and the temple were one.
The tree was respected by all of the monks at Harmony Monastery, and every time they saw it, it was like seeing the monks and abbots before them. But something unexpected happened.
The tree suffered a misfortune. For some unknown reason, the tree seemed to have reached the end of its lifespan, it started withering!
All the monks were terrified.
They had called in a slew of experts and attempted a variety of approaches to save the tree, but they had all failed in the end. Everyone could only watch as the tree continued to wither away.
It was withering away at a gradually accelerating rate as time passed.
Later, the then abbot, who was the current abbot’s master, could not stand it anymore and was willing to sacrifice himself in order to save the ancient tree. He stayed inside the tree cave. He prayed inside, relying on prayer to negate the curse surrounding the tree and help the tree’s survival.
To an outsider, this appeared to be an extremely foolish decision. But the former abbot went ahead and did it, and the result was unexpected.
The former abbot’s prayer really preserved the ancient tree, and its death slowed down. But that was just it, it merely slowed down. Later, when the former abbot passed away, the tree started withering even faster.
The current abbot then built a stone statue of the former abbot inside the tree cave and inlaid the rosary left behind after his death at the feet of the stone statue, as if the previous abbot was still alive.
This approach did produce some effect, and the ancient tree’s death slowed down once more.
The old abbot sighed and said, “So, Master Mayo, if we lend you the rosary, this hundred-year-old tree will wither very quickly. Harmony Monastery will also be destroyed if the tree is destroyed. As the abbot, I must not allow the monastery to be destroyed!”
‘I see… There’s such a story behind it…’
However, the rosary could only slow down the ancient tree’s death, allowing it to live a few more years, but they could not guarantee that the ancient tree. To put it nicely, they were prolonging its life, but to put it bluntly, they were making it struggle on its deathbed.
Thomas looked closely at the ancient tree and asked, ”Can I step inside the fence and take a closer look?”
”Yes…” The old abbot waved his hand, and immediately a novice monk took out a key and unlocked the fence’s lock He then pushed open the gate for Thomas to walk in.
Thomas walked around the ancient tree step by step, observing it carefully.
Halfway through, favonovel.com stood still.
Thomas had the vague feeling that his “breath” was resonating with the ancient tree in front of him, and favonovel.com could feel the ancient tree’s breathing, the tree had something to tell him!
This feeling was quite strange.
Thomas’ “breath” not only strengthened his body and allowed favonovel.com to use the silver needles, but it could also apparently help favonovel.com to communicate with the ancient tree.
He gently closed his eyes, allowng his “breath” to interact with the breath of the ancient tree.
Thomas could feel that the ancient tree’s “breathing” was very faint, like a sick old man or a waning candle in the wind, and it might pass away at any moment.
