The Dog's Advance

The Winged Human Holy Wood was located right behind the temple, heavily guarded. Almost the entire priestly order surrounded the sacred tree, both as a form of protection and as part of a ritual, creating a very solemn atmosphere.

Upon seeing Qin Yi and Yu Shang approach, the priests all bowed gracefully, saying, "Greetings, Divine Envoy."

Very devout.

Qin Yi has almost gotten used to their kneeling ceremony. At first, he would tell Yu Shang and the others not to kneel back and forth, but now he truly treats it as a normal thing, just as Yu Shang said back then.

That's just how they are; there's no need to be pretentious. Besides, you only get to come to Sacred Tree because of your distinguished status; otherwise, you wouldn't even be able to come.

The closer you get to Jianmu, the more you can feel its surging vitality. This is the foundation upon which the Feathered People are able to survive and reproduce. It's definitely not something you can just come in and mess around with just because you married a Feathered Person.

Standing beneath the sacred tree, Qin Yi looked up in awe.

Only when you look at it up close do you realize how big it is.

This isn't a tree at all; it's a skyscraper, far beyond what can be described as "enough for many people to hug." Fortunately, modern cities are full of skyscrapers, and the feeling of standing outside one is pretty much the same here. At least you won't feel as insignificant as an uncultured ancient person upon seeing such a massive tree and be moved to kneel down.

What's most striking is that it's not even a complete tree.

It's just a branch...

If one were to unleash their Divine Sense, they could see from a macroscopic perspective: a terrifyingly gigantic tree, a thousand miles in diameter and of unknown height, rooted in the deep sea, its canopy blotting out the sun and sky. Countless branches had already sprouted from its trunk, many extending from beneath the sea, their tips reaching the surface. Mud and sand gathered around the parts that extended above the sea, gradually forming islands.

This is the origin of the numerous islands in this Sea Forbidden Ground.

Winged Human Island is one of them.

This branch of the Winged Human Holy Wood is just one of them, but it's only slightly larger than the others, and its nature is no different.

Just this one branch extending out of the island is like a skyscraper.

Qin Yi wasn't moved to kneel down, but he was so shocked that he couldn't speak.

This is the World Tree...

He reached out and stroked the tree trunk, knowing full well that even if he scraped a little bit of sap back, Li Qinglin's Curse would be nothing, and even Xie Yuan, who later died of old age, could have his life extended for a long time.

What's past is past, there's no point in dwelling on it.

Vitality is also what most cultivators have always pursued—immortality.

This tree embodies almost eternal life.

Its leaves, or even just the juice from the leaves, can absolutely give Qing Cha a completely new vitality, transforming it from a tea leaf that cannot cultivate itself into a naturally formed body.

Its fruit can, of course, evolve into the most important parts of the human body—flesh and skin—and give birth to every cell.

There's no fruit on this branch. I already asked Yu Shang; the Jian Mu Fruit must be on the main trunk. But that's alright. Let Bangbang study this; maybe he'll find a substitute. The tree is right in front of us; for an expert like Bangbang, it doesn't necessarily have to be the fruit.

Qin Yi stood up and went up to the lush canopy of the tree.

The incredibly rich Spiritual Qi and vitality permeated his heart and soul, and Qin Yi almost felt like he was intoxicated by the oxygen. He was quite certain that if he could cultivate here properly for a period of time, breaking through one or two levels would be a piece of cake. If he could cultivate here for a long time, reaching the Qian Yuan realm would be a piece of cake.

Liusu and Gouzi sat on either side of her, both with extremely comfortable expressions. It seemed that even absorbing life force here for a while would be as beneficial to them as cultivating in Spiritual Qi pool elsewhere.

Because it is particularly effective for treating the symptoms.

"Don't get too carried away, Bangbang." Qin Yi asked, "Cultivation will take a long time. What we ultimately need is the Jian Mu Fruit. Now that we're already on the Jianmu tree, do you have any ideas?"

"Let me take a look," Liusu said, her body turning into a thin mist, seemingly disappearing into the tree.

The dog looked up at the lush foliage without saying a word.

Qin Yi asked curiously, "What are you thinking about?"

Dog said calmly, "If I stay here, I can recover to my peak in a few years. I don't even need Blood-Chilling Nether Marrow to condense my blood vessels. Almost anything here can become my body, so I don't have as many troublesome things as Liusu."

"An easy dog to raise..." Qin Yi blurted out, but quickly realized that the dog meant it could leave.

Thinking of this, Qin Yi felt a little reluctant and asked, "You... don't want the Other Shore Flower anymore?"

The dog glanced at him and said, "I've told you before, I've eaten Other Shore Flower before, they might not be effective... I just really crave them."

"You're not craving it anymore?"

"The problem is you won't feed me, you're stringing me along, you're despicable!"

Qin Yi: "..."

The dog said leisurely, "If I were here, I could quickly become a core member of the Dragon Son's lineage, and it wouldn't be surprising if the nine sons became ten."

Qin Yi said, "You said you're not Dragon Son."

"Does it matter?" the dog chuckled. "The important thing is that if I were without form, this whole place might belong to me."

"You don't care about calling someone else 'Dad'?"

"Everyone in the world is my father, including you."

Qin Yi: "... Forget it, Gouzi, don't be greedy. If you really want to come here and hang out with your childhood friends, at least wait until you've reached the Qian Yuan Perfection stage, or even the Wu Xiang stage. Then you can beat up anyone who disagrees. Right now, you'll just get bullied and manipulated, and it might not be as comfortable as you imagine."

The dog remained silent.

The reason it rambled on and on was actually to coax Qin Yi into giving it flowers to eat. But it hadn't expected Qin Yi's perspective to be like this...

You can go back to Jianmu, but I don't want you to be bullied. If you're going to go back, you should go back stronger.

Qin Yi took out the Other Shore Flower and said, "Actually, I'm not using this flower to entice you. This flower is of no use to me anymore, and there's no point in me being stingy. It's just that I know your greed is endless, and this flower can't satisfy it at all. Right now, you can still suppress your temper for the sake of this flower, but once the flower is gone, you might become a very irritable glutton... I don't want to see that kind of glutton."

The dog snapped, "So you'll never give it to me?"

Qin Yi said, "The Netherworld is reviving."

The dog was stunned for a moment.

Qin Yi continued, "When the time comes... we can find a place to cultivate this flower, and maybe we can grow a vast expanse. This one is just the starting point. If you eat it now, where will you find it later? Go fight with the Formless Jade True Person?"

The dog blinked its eyes. "You... considered these things?"

"This is simply inevitable. Anyone with a brain could figure it out," Qin Yi said disdainfully. "You only care about your immediate greed and never think about the future."

The dog hung its head dejectedly.

Qin Yi rubbed its head. "Anyway, you came from Jianmu, so of course I won't stop you from going home. If I ever really plant flowers in the Underworld, just come find me."

The dog replied in a muffled voice, "I'll come back when I'm stronger. If I can't beat them now, they'll bully me."

Qin Yi grinned.

Gouzi added, "If Liusu wants a body, she doesn't necessarily need the Jian Mu Fruit. For example, this branch, if we can extract the Wood Heart and refine it, the effect won't be worse than the Jian Mu Fruit."

Qin Yi was taken aback, his expression turning somewhat grim. "This seems even more difficult than picking fruit, doesn't it? This is someone else's sacred tree, the very essence of life. Are you going to steal it?"

The dog scoffed, "If you don't use the Feathered Ones', can't you use someone else's?"

Qin Yi's expression shifted between light and dark.

Using someone else's...

The dog added, "And all you think about Liusu, don't you ever think about yourself?"

Qin Yi asked curiously, "By myself? Why?"

The dog pointed irritably at the surrounding twigs. "Your Demon Slaying Sword is so low-grade it's unbearable. Just cut a branch from here and you can easily forge a brand new Law Treasure that will far surpass your Demon Slaying Sword. This is Jianmu; even a piece of bark here is a treasure. And you're only thinking about the Liusu?"

"Uh... this is the Winged Human Holy Wood..."

"Are you stupid? What do you mean you can't cut even a small twig of sacred wood? Do you think it'll kill you?" Gouzi scoffed. "What do you think those jewels on Yu Shang and her daughter's heads are?"

"What is it?"

"It's a gem formed from the resin secreted by the Jianmu tree," Gouzi said. "They themselves collect the sacred wood for their own use, so why are there so many reasons why they can't touch it?"

"Well... I'll ask Yu Shang later. If they think it's okay, then that's great."

"While you're at it, ask if you'll get beaten up for starting a fire and refining pills here."

Qin Yi: "?"

"Refining that Pill Embryo here should take about three to five days to complete the pill." Gouzi spread his arms, making a hugging gesture. "This is the source of life, echoing the previous Xun Wood Heart. If we can't cultivate the pill here, there's nowhere else we can!"

When Qin Yi discovered that Liusu was missing, Gouzi acted strangely more than anyone else.

One minute they want to dig up someone else's sacred tree, the next they want to cut off someone else's branches, and then they want to start a fire on someone else's tree.

A true demon king, Ancient Fierce Soul.

But why is it so well-behaved like a dog when Liusu are around?