It hit him so hard that he said he was going to save his neighborhood one way or another, with or without the wishing tree.
He went back to Sakuna's place and asked her if any other mythic trees were still remaining. She told him there was only one left, in the Shugurai Mountain in Pankai. Then he remembered that Sakuna's grandma had told him that the tree and town had perished. He asked her about that, and she said nothing like that had ever happened to that town.
It was a little weird, but as soon as morning came, he said goodbye to Sakuna and promised her that he would save the city, and she blessed him.
He started his journey toward the sacred city of Pankai in search of answers.
The journey to Pankai wasn't easy, since it was also a town like theirs—covered by mountains and cut off from the outside world. After a tiring and dangerous journey, the boy finally reached Pankai. It was getting dark by then, but he had only one goal in his mind: to save his town and his grandpa.
He started asking the people in the city about the mythic tree, but to his surprise, no one knew anything about it. Some even thought the boy was going crazy. But he didn't give up. He kept asking every person he saw, yet nobody knew anything.
It was getting very dark, and a big storm came. He was soaked from the rain and starving, but he still didn't give up. He kept searching until midnight, but by then, no one was out on the streets. He was cold, hungry, and weak. He sat down near an old shop and felt himself about to pass out—and eventually, he did.
When he woke up, he was inside a room in a house he had never seen. The house seemed old but well-kept. As he sat up, an old man came in and said, "Ah, you woke up. Yesterday you passed out in front of my store, so I took you in."
The boy thanked the old man, and the old man told him to take a bath and come downstairs for breakfast.
The boy thanked him again and did as he was told. When he went downstairs after bathing, there was a young lady and the old man waiting for him at the table. The young lady looked a lot like his mother, so he couldn't stop staring at her. She noticed and said, "Your eyes will get stuck if you stare at me any longer." The boy got embarrassed and looked away.
After breakfast, the old man asked him, "Boy, you don't seem like you're from here. What were you looking for yesterday, even at midnight?"
The boy explained that he lived with his grandpa and that something had happened to him because of a wish, and he was searching for the mythic tree to fix it.
The old man nodded, thought for a while, and then said, "Go to the woods on the south side. There you'll find some old, worn-out stone steps leading up. Follow that path. But there's a catch, my boy. This tree is different from the others."