My Awakening

The two hadn't been chatting for long when Liusu emerged, her face grumpy. "We don't have the Jian Mu Fruit, and it's hard to say what the substitute will be. Let's cultivate first. If we can perfect our Qian Yuan Soul Power here, then we can discuss it further."

As she spoke, she peeked into Qin Yi's ring, her ghostly little tail still twitching outside.

Qin Yi looked at it, speechless. "What are you flipping through now?"

"Ton!" Liusu pulled out the Nether Emperor Pill Furnace, looking completely matter-of-fact. "Refining pills, huh? If you don't refine the Life Pill in the place where wood energy is at its peak, are you waiting for the New Year?"

Okay, the dog just said, "You just started doing it yourself."

No wonder the dog was so well-behaved when you were around; the answer was right in front of me.

In truth, whether he's refining elixirs or pruning branches here, as long as it doesn't affect the sacred tree, the winged man will allow it. After all, everyone knows his needs can't be simply to get close to the Jianmu tree and gain some insight; there will definitely be some effort involved. By not sending anyone else up with him and letting him act alone, it's a clear indication that he's tacitly allowing him to use it however he wants, trusting that he won't actually cause any damage to the sacred tree.

This is trust.

Qin Yi, of course, couldn't betray the trust of the Feathered Man like a fool, so he carefully set up a circle of Array Flag around him to prevent the alchemical fire from overflowing before starting to refine the pills.

Liusu looked at her with disdain and said, "With your level of fire control, even if you left a piece of Jianmu here to burn for a year, it wouldn't even leave a trace of char. I don't know what you're afraid of."

Qin Yi smiled, not arguing with it about it, and simply asked, "Go in and investigate. What do you feel?"

Liusu sighed as she sat down beside him, "I don't know if there's something wrong with this branch or with the Jianmu tree itself. I crawled into the tree to examine its veins and found that it was showing signs of withering."

Qin Yi's hand controlling the flames trembled. "What's going on?"

Liusu said, "The fruit of the Jianmu tree is different from the flowering and fruiting of ordinary trees. It transforms the most essential part of its life force into the form of fruit. Basically, it flowers once every five thousand years and bears fruit once every ten thousand years, with a fixed number of nine fruits per harvest."

The dog nodded in agreement.

It blooms once every five thousand years and bears fruit once every ten thousand years... So the total amount of Jian Mu Fruit should be several dozen, maybe even hundreds, but we don't know how many have been used. Qin Yi didn't interrupt, quietly controlling the fire and listening to Liusu's explanation.

"I traced the origins of the Jianmu tree and discovered that their fruiting period has just passed ten thousand years ago. They should bear fruit again this year or next year..." Liusu said, "That's perfect. I can just intercept a portion of the life flow, let it ripen inside in advance, and take it away. When they see there are only eight, they won't know why. We won't need to ask anyone for help."

Qin Yi: "..."

Okay, so this is how you do things without asking for favors.

This is stealing...

That being said, this kind of theft is not something an ordinary person can do. To intercept the life force before the outcome, to take it away prematurely—is such a method even possible? This is the subtlety of the origin, something only those at the Taiqing level can comprehend, not limited by cultivation. If others were to truly investigate the root cause, they would be completely baffled, not knowing where a portion of the source force is missing.

"But when I tried to do that, I found the fruiting period this time to be very strange." Liusu finally got to the point. "The Jianmu tree, which has always been able to bear nine fruits, seems to only be able to bear three."

Qin Yi's heart skipped a beat. "Isn't this a problem with the Jianmu tree? Why did you say you didn't know if there was something wrong with this branch?"

Liusu said, "Because I can see the whole picture from a single spot, I'm analyzing the energy from the condition of this branch. The energy supplied to this branch from the roots is only one-third of what it used to be. I don't know if it's been deliberately blocked, causing a problem with the energy flowing to this branch... If that's the case, it's simpler; if the problem lies with the Jianmu tree itself, then it's troublesome."

Is that simpler? It is indeed simpler, but the problems with Jianmu itself are more complicated.

The problem is... this is the life tree of the winged people. What will happen to them if something goes wrong with it?

Liusu said, "Since there's only this much energy, I dare not take it casually. If it's nine parts less, that's fine, but if it's three parts less, there will be problems. Either someone will discover it, or it will cause the branches to wither. I dare not act rashly, so I retreated first."

Qin Yi's brows furrowed deeply.

Liusu said, "Whether it's the problem with the Jianmu tree or this branch, we are powerless to help. This is not something you can handle at this stage. Among the Dragon Son, there are those without form; they will hold up the sky if it collapses. Thinking too much is pointless and only adds to your troubles."

Qin Yi pondered for a moment and said, "I have to tell Yu Shang. If it was deliberately obstructed, they need to investigate."

Liusu sighed, "It's no use talking to them, because on the surface, the life force here is as abundant as ever, and they can't see the problem. Are you going to tell them that you wanted to steal the life source of the Jianmu tree and only discovered it by going inside to trace its origin? Yu Feiling would throw you into the sea to feed the fish on the spot."

"..." Qin Yi was speechless.

"Anyway, whatever the problem, it won't erupt all at once," Liusu said. "For now, let's pretend we don't know anything, continue refining pills, and do whatever else we need to do. At the same time, keep a close eye on the situation here. Since we're here, if something goes wrong, we might be able to pinpoint the cause on the spot."

Qin Yi nodded without saying anything.

When Liusu is reliable, what she says always makes a lot of sense.

Liusu added, "The Feathered People had better pray that Gouzi and I recover smoothly. If we are no longer in the formless realm, then nothing will be a problem. Considering how comfortable they are kneeling, it's alright to lend them a hand."

Qin Yi rolled his eyes. I just said you were reliable, and here you go again...

The dog said calmly, "Nurturing our souls here is extremely beneficial for both of us. It will only take a few days to perfect our Qian Yuan Soul Power. The only problem is that if we make too big of a move, some fool might say that we drained it dry..."

Qin Yi said helplessly, "There's no such thing as a weirdo. Go refine your souls, I'll refine pills."

The Liusu dogs chorused, "You said it!"

Qin Yi suddenly had a bad feeling.

Immediately afterwards, I felt the surrounding Spiritual Qi surging wildly, and the life force desperately trying to penetrate the two black and white orbs, as if forming two huge black and white vortexes around me, and even the sky darkened...

Large beads of sweat dripped from Qin Yi's forehead as he silently refined pills, not daring to utter a sound.

I still don't understand the world of the big shots... Once these two start absorbing freely, there will definitely be a reaction from heaven and earth, unlike the subtle influence of my own cultivation of Huiyang.

In the distance, many winged people, wiping their sweat, looked at the Black and White Vortex on the sacred tree and asked Yu Feiling, "Clan Leader, this...?"

Yu Feiling and her daughter Yu Shang looked at each other for a while. They could understand what was happening up there, because they had also absorbed life energy up there. However, at most, there was a small vortex around them, and they could hardly see anything happening in the huge tree canopy.

For some reason, Qin Yi not only had such a terrifying cyclone, so large it was almost reaching the sky, but there were also two of them!

The black cloud blotted out the sun, its aura wild and unparalleled, concealing an extremely violent and ruthless sense of crisis that made people's hearts tremble at the sight of it. No one knew what kind of ferocious beast was manifesting in the world, and even the secrets of heaven were being drawn in, with extremely hideous ghost faces appearing in the dark clouds.

"Taotie." Yu Feiling muttered to herself, "Strengthen the island's defensive formations, otherwise, if word gets out about such a strange phenomenon, it will attract unwanted attention."

"Yes." Several winged people rushed out and activated the island protection formation at the highest alert level.

Then I couldn't help but look back at the summit of the sacred tree... If the black vortex was a Taotie, what was the white one?

This Black and White Vortex is not a tai chi symbol... because the white one is much, much larger than the black one!

The black clouds were already ridiculously dark and covered the sky, but the white clouds were even more ferocious. At the beginning of the outbreak, we didn't feel anything, but after a while, we found that the white mist had completely blocked out the black clouds. The hideous ghost faces on the dark clouds in the sky seemed to have been pushed aside by an invisible white hand, and they disappeared looking pitiful.

Instead, there was an extremely vast and ethereal will, an aura that stood high above heaven and earth, detached from the three realms and five elements, like an image of a palm encompassing the entire world, vast, boundless, and with no end in sight.

That is ancient and eternal...

The Heavenly Dao.

Yu Feiling was extremely shocked.

She felt that even the winged people's grand formation might not be able to withstand such a strange phenomenon!

Qin Yi was also drenched in sweat. "Take it easy, you guys. Are you trying to attract Heavenly Being?"

"It's not that exaggerated." Liusu closed her eyes. "Only those who rely on this tree can sense it. If you are outside the island, you can't see anything at all."

"What if it's Dragon Son's offspring from the main branch?"

"What's meant to happen will happen... My revival can't remain silent forever." Liusu whispered, "I hope you... are prepared."