Though, MTL was a bit confusing in terms of the whole tree thing. I will come back to read the translation.

His immortality is ultimately connected to Shi Jingzhi in a complex way. I like to say that they are almost fated to be together. Yin Ci met Shi Jingzhi when he was a child. At the time, Yin Ci almost lost his sanity, and the child Shi Jingzhi saved him. Although they were parted, Yin Ci still remembers the little boy, and affectionately called him Little Mute.

Shi Jingzhi is called a 'Child of Desire'. They were experimental subjects that contained immense desire. This desire usually led to insanity or su*cide. Usually Children of Desire died at an early age. Shi Jingzhi's obsession was to live. But after meeting Yin Ci, his desire slowly shifted to him. ;) The leader of the Ling Sect was a Child of Desire, but he killed himself in his 20s. Shi Jingzhi's illness was because as a Child of Desire, his immense amount of internal energy couldn't be contained in his body. His secret identity was as a prince of the kingdom.

It's funny since their lives literally are connected at the end.

They were total opposites of eachother, absolute evil vs absolute good. Yet setting their differences aside, they had many interests together. Here's an excerpt:

“It’s useless for you to wait here, and it’s useless to pretend everything is fine. I haven’t had some bullsh*t enlightenment, don’t you understand? I won’t help you. I never intended to save you from the beginning.”

Kongshi remained unmoved, continuing to recite sutras as before.

“You will die here with your corpse exposed in the wilderness, unattended, cursed for a hundred years. You... ”

Yan Budu didn’t even blink his eyes. He released his grip on Kongshi’s face and l**ked his lips. His tone revealed a slight wavering.

“... You’re a monster. Are you truly an emotionless and heartless stone?”

Kongshi halted his silent recitation and casually replied, “I confess, this humble monk enjoys eating apricots. It can be considered a preference shared by some living beings.”

He slowly smiled again, revealing a hint of bitterness in his smile. “So that’s how it is. A whole month, with thoughts and emotions exchanged... It was all in vain. I was the one who went too far.”

He had exposed his true intentions and worked so hard, but in the end, it was all self-indulgence. In the presence of this person, there was no such thing as closeness or distance in human relationships.

“Kongshi, from the beginning, the ‘me’ in your eyes was never really ‘me’, was it?”

Whether Yan Budu was a three-year-old child or a hundred-year-old elder, whether he had hidden motives or was naturally wicked, he was nothing more than an ordinary stone in this person’s eyes.

From the moment Yan Budu stepped into the cave, Kongshi’s attitude had never changed even a bit, not one bit more or less.

Indeed, equality among all sentient beings!

“People all say that I am the most heartless one. But now it seems that you, Venerable, surpass me in that aspect.”

Hundreds of years ago, when Yin Ci was a mortal, the imperal preceptor at the time, He Chang'an was part of a 'Hanging Tree'. He Chang'an made Yin Ci drink immortal wine, which attached him to the tree. He Chang'an, figuring out that Yin Ci was an anomaly, as his consciousness didn't get absorbed into the tree, convinced the emperor at the time to sacrifice Yin Ci. The imperial preceptor beheaded Yin Ci thousands of times to collect his bodies for material. After that, he was buried in an unbreakable coffin. But a vital piece was stolen off the coffin, allowing Yin Ci the possibility to escape. After tearing off his arm constantly and scraping at the coffin for 80 years, he finally got out. The Imperial Preceptor's lineage passed down the secrets of immortals and the Hanging Tree. They started the Hundred-Year project, which included trying to develop a Child of Desire to be the physical vessel of the Hanging Tree.

I still don’t get why ML has the physical constitution to become a root, like where did he come from? Why did his body react the way it did to the immortal wine? Also, for MC, I still don’t get how Children of Desire are created. Like are they natural born ‘monster material’ imbued with desire from birth??