“Do you believe what she said?”
“Whether I believe it or not, I have to look at the method inside this first, and besides… right now, I can’t afford not to believe.” Holding the small wooden block, Hua Jian glanced back at Xia Hui.
This was essentially an unsolvable, overt scheme, equivalent to threatening Hua Jian with the lives of her friends to force her to play the hero.
Who made the Saint Sect send Linglong, Caidie, and the others into the secret realm, giving Hua Jian a weakness?
If these people weren’t here, Hua Jian… well, it seems she’d still have no choice but to be the hero.
If she didn’t go, and in the end, everyone in the entire secret realm died except her, she wouldn’t be able to explain it clearly even with a hundred mouths.
“To achieve this current situation, Wanhuagu must have expended tremendous effort, but I still don’t understand the meaning behind their actions.”
What’s the use of boosting her reputation? Could it be that she would feel grateful to Wanhuagu for forcing her to be a hero?
Her reputation is already quite good; a bit more fame doesn’t seem very useful.
“Could it be that I actually have a second personality, and that personality is from Wanhuagu?” Hua Jian was already letting her imagination run wild.
She was actually an experiment of Wanhuagu. As long as Wanhuagu used some specific method, they could awaken another personality hidden in her mind…
“Miss Hua Jian, please don’t imagine us to be that mysterious. We do not possess that kind of ability.” Xia Hui, not far away, couldn’t help but speak up to remind her.
That kind of ability to forcibly change someone’s personality with a single knock on the head only exists in fantasies, thank you.
And once that kind of setting appears, it would absolutely be cursed to death, okay!
Hua Jian certainly didn’t believe Xia Hui’s denial, but she also had no way to confirm her own thoughts. For now, she could only light the wood first to see the information contained within.
“Use this to light it. It’s powerful.”
Just as she was about to start a fire, Xia Hui threw another item over.
This time, it wasn’t a Wanhuagu tool, but the Li-Huo Pearl used to set up the Li-Huo Grand Formation.
Using this treasure to burn the wood was indeed powerful, but Hua Jian was afraid it would burn the wood directly to ashes before the information could be transmitted.
However, since Xia Hui dared to give her the Li-Huo Pearl, she must have considered this problem, right?
Using her spiritual power to draw out a wisp of Li-Huo flame from the pearl, Hua Jian guided it onto the wood.
As the flame spread across the surface of the wooden block, a strange fragrance invaded Hua Jian’s nostrils.
This clear, woody burning scent seemed to have the effect of stirring the soul, though its effect on Hua Jian wasn’t strong.
Only by actively cooperating did her soul force become stirred by this wisp of strange fragrance.
In a daze, she seemed to arrive in a pitch-black space. There was no distinction between up, down, left, or right here.
The only thing that could be used to determine direction was a large ball of light not far away.
“This… is the secret realm you are in.”
A voice came from behind Hua Jian.
Hua Jian turned her head to look back, but could only see a dark silhouette, completely unable to discern any information about the other party.
As this person’s voice fell, dark shadows gradually appeared on the surface of the light ball.
These shadows coiled on the light ball, shattering its boundaries, dismembering and absorbing it bit by bit.
It seemed like in just an instant, the light ball was completely shattered by the shadows, turning into dim fragments scattered throughout the dark space.
And it was at this moment that Hua Jian finally saw the true form of those shadows: they were countless pitch-black branches.
What crushed and absorbed the light ball was a plant of unknown origin. It was so enormous that an entire secret realm was barely enough to fill the gaps between its teeth.
“This is the enemy I have to deal with? Are you joking?!” Hua Jian pointed at the already shattered light ball and loudly questioned.
Can’t you bring something from the world of the living? Is this something one person can handle?
“There’s no need to worry. Your ability is sufficient to deal with these little things. Remember how you absorbed other plants? You can use the same method.”
“These are completely not on the same level!”
“This object is called the World Tree. It ranks eighteenth on the Spiritual Object Ranking, three places lower than the Illusory Dream Flower. Since you have already absorbed the Illusory Dream Flower, absorbing this World Tree should naturally be within your capabilities.”
What is this Spiritual Object Ranking? According to this shadow’s words, her Illusory Dream Flower is three ranks higher than eighteenth, meaning it ranks fifteenth?
But the Illusory Dream Flower Hua Jian absorbed was just a dead seed. It couldn’t possibly compare to this thriving World Tree, right?
“Even if you cannot absorb it, you can delay its speed of absorbing the secret realm, forcing it to relax its restrictions on the spatial passages and allowing the other cultivators in the secret realm to evacuate as soon as possible,” the shadow continued.
“Complete this task, and you will become the publicly recognized great hero of the Right Path. All the cultivators who escape with their lives from this secret realm will owe you their lives. Your status within the Right Path will be unrivaled.”
Make all the cultivators in the secret realm owe me their lives?
Alarm bells rang loudly in Hua Jian’s heart. This absolutely cannot be considered a good thing, right?
But before she could reply, the shadow raised its hand and pressed a finger heavily against the center of her brow.
“You don’t have much time to hesitate.”
Accompanied by a sharp pain in her brow, everything before her eyes shattered like a mirror.
Consciousness returned to reality. Hua Jian’s eyes suddenly became clear, followed by a wave of dizziness that made her quite uncomfortable, causing her body to sway a couple of times and nearly fall to the ground.
Linglong quickly reached out to steady Hua Jian. “Are you alright?”
“A bit dizzy… and I learned some very bad news. The thing we have to deal with this time is the World Tree.”
Even Linglong was somewhat unfamiliar with this name. After thinking for a good while, she finally managed to dig out a few fragmentary mentions about the World Tree from the corners of her mind.
It was a rather mysterious spiritual object. Rumors said it lived in the cracks of space, feeding on broken worlds.
This kind of spiritual object could be used to craft the highest grade of spatial spirit tools, but throughout the tens of thousands of years of human history, there were only a few such items.
“How could Wanhuagu possibly have a World Tree?” Linglong’s first thought was that it was impossible.
The World Tree was so precious. Even if Wanhuagu really had one hidden away, they wouldn’t use it in a place like this just to serve as Hua Jian’s stepping stone.
There’s definitely something wrong!
“That’s what they said. For now, we can only believe it.” Hua Jian sighed and looked up at the sky.
The shadow above the silver light pillar was growing thicker and heavier. The space at the very top even showed slight signs of cracking, meaning this secret realm space was no longer safe.
“By the way, Miss Hua Jian, you have another method you can use.” At this moment, Xia Hui seemed to remember something and reminded Hua Jian, “Currently, the teleportation ability of the tokens can still be barely used. You could try to knock out everyone in the secret realm. Perhaps half of them might survive.”
“I think you really don’t need to use this kind of reverse psychology.” Hua Jian rolled her eyes. Only a lunatic would choose this method.
She would kill everyone in the secret realm and then bet that half could teleport out completely?
If she did something like that, she would truly have no place left in the Right Path. After all, she would have killed them with her own hands; there would be no way to deny it.
She couldn’t possibly use the excuse ‘I killed people to save people’ to stubbornly argue, could she? No one would believe it!
So now she only had one choice: to walk the path Wanhuagu had arranged for her.
It could be said that once Wanhuagu’s plan was set in motion, only one road remained before Hua Jian: to become the hero Wanhuagu wanted her to be.
“Let’s go! We’re heading to the center of the secret realm!” Hua Jian straightened up and made her decision.
They didn’t have much time left. Staying here guarding the formation wasn’t very meaningful either.
If the black-clothed men want to dismantle it, let them come. By the time they finish dismantling these formations, Hua Jian’s task over there should be done.
And the current situation was somewhat easier than Hua Jian imagined.
The black-clothed cultivators currently didn’t have the time to dismantle the grand formation they had set up in the central part of the secret realm.
These cultivators were helplessly trying to resist the erosion of the secret realm by those colorful branches in the outer regions.
Now, anyone could see that these colorful branches were the greatest threat to the secret realm.
Even though the orders they received were still to intercept Hua Jian, they wouldn’t listen to such commands now.
When the general is in the field, even the emperor’s orders may not be obeyed.
Moreover, they were the ones on the front lines of the secret realm; only they knew how critical the situation had become.
After all, they weren’t from the Magic Path. Now that such a huge crisis had erupted, they had to prioritize dealing with it.
They weren’t the only ones with this thought.
The Ling Emperors from various sects, who had been hiding in the shadows, had also appeared, using every means possible throughout the secret realm to stop the mysterious plant from destroying it.
However, their efforts weren’t very effective. Those vines were completely unaffected by ordinary spirit techniques.
Even if they were shredded to pieces in an instant, they would grow back to their original form the next moment.
Flames, frost, even potent poisons were useless against these vines. Even the Ling Emperors from various sects felt a sense of powerlessness when facing these vines.
These vines simply didn’t regard these resisters as people. When attacked, they would symbolically counterattack. If they missed, they missed.
Probably because there were too many people attacking it, and the power of those attacks was pitifully small.
Rather than bothering with these little mosquitoes, it was better to hurry and complete its own task.
After all… the real threat it had to face was outside the secret realm.
“What is this thing? The World Tree?”
Fiery red maple leaves rained down like drops of rain onto the layer of shadow wrapped around the secret realm. Venerable Fenghua took a moment to shout towards the Master of Lingcai Peak.
The red leaves flying towards the shadow didn’t reach it; they were shattered mid-air by several pitch-black vines, turning into brilliant sparks in the cracks of space.
The other Venerables also displayed their skills, launching attacks against the mysterious object attached to the secret realm. Although their attacks could cause some damage, they couldn’t make the mass of shadow disperse.
“It’s absolutely not the World Tree. Although I know more about spiritual flowers, I know the World Tree definitely doesn’t look like this!”
The Master of Lingcai Peak replied while throwing petals from her hands towards the shadowy branches and leaves on the secret realm.
Lingcai Peak’s main business was spiritual flowers and herbs, but spiritual trees were also somewhat related to spiritual flowers and herbs.
Naturally, the Master of Lingcai Peak would have some understanding of these things.
And when it came to spiritual trees, the World Tree was an unavoidable topic.
She dared to stake her reputation on it: this black, sinister-smelling lump in front of her absolutely could not be the World Tree.
The World Tree is a tree. Does this lump look like a tree?
“It’s about to completely seal off the space around the secret realm. Is there really no way at all?”
The Venerable of Tiandao Sect asked loudly while unleashing spirit techniques.
Don’t be fooled by his seemingly strenuous performance; he was actually the laziest one, not even using his true abilities.
His thought was probably: since there are no seedlings from our Tiandao Sect in this secret realm anyway, why exert so much effort? Work for others for free?
As for the other four Venerables, they were all using their full strength.
“Everyone, move aside. I’ll strike with my sword again!” Among them, the Venerable of Sword Sect was unquestionably the core damage dealer.
He raised his spirit sword high and slashed towards the secret realm. A sharp sword energy instantly descended upon the mass of shadow, severing a large number of shadowy vines.
After severing the vines, the sword energy’s momentum didn’t diminish. It actually slammed hard onto the secret realm itself, tearing a large gash in it.
“Use less force! Don’t smash the secret realm to pieces!” The Master of Lingcai Peak hurriedly shouted.
There were still people inside the secret realm. If the secret realm shattered now, what would happen to the people inside?
Under normal circumstances, if the secret realm shattered, it would just shatter.
The tokens on those cultivators could keep them safe. But now, this shadowy creature enveloping the secret realm had the ability to seal space.
The tokens of the cultivators inside the secret realm had already lost their function.
If the secret realm shattered at this time, the cultivators inside would truly have no way to heaven and no door to earth.
It’s really something that Wanhuagu could produce such a bizarre thing.
Although it’s not the World Tree, if this thing is also an item on the Spiritual Object Ranking, its rank probably wouldn’t be much lower than the World Tree’s.
Once a spiritual object of this level is brought out, even if the Right Path is powerful, they would still be caught off guard.
These heaven-created, earth-nurtured spiritual objects have abilities that are far too bizarre and powerful, beyond what ordinary people can match.
Probably only a Saint arriving in person could deal with these things, but… how could a Saint act lightly?
The fact that the Yaochi Sect Leader has yet to appear only has one possibility: she has been delayed.
Only another Saint can delay a Saint. The Magic Path came prepared this time, even… they were fully aware that the Saint Sect would temporarily change the conference procedures.
All their preparations were made for the changed conference.
“No good. Relying on us alone, we can no longer handle the current situation. Call for a Saint!” Venerable Penglai took a deep breath and shouted to the others.
The power of Venerables was already insufficient to deal with this crisis. Then let a Saint come!
The Saint of Yaochi is currently delayed by the Saint of the Magic Path, but the people present came from different Saint Sects.