Yin-Yang Judgment

"Heaven and Earth Return" did not establish a new rule. It merely threw the existing rules into disorder.

This was far simpler than creating rules that led to conflict, yet its actual effect was not much weaker.

To explain with a simple example, an ordinary tree's roots, trunk, branches, and leaves each had their own functions. That was the fundamental rule. Heaven and Earth Return reversed that rule—the roots and trunk performed the role of branches and leaves, while the branches and leaves performed the role of roots and trunk. Everything was thrown into chaos.

Applied to Jian Mu, it was far more complex. The most obvious change was that Jian Mu's renowned vitality had been turned into barren Death Qi. There were many other changes besides, which need not be elaborated upon.

In short, Jian Mu's entire operating mechanism had become warped and reversed.

Jian Mu had a spirit. This spirit did not mean a sapient lifeform; it was roughly equivalent to the Plane Will of a realm. Its rules had been altered, so it instinctively generated resistance and struggle, forcibly suppressing the twisted rules and maintaining its own operational inertia. Thus, from outside, everyone still sensed that Jian Mu was perfectly normal.

Yet this fierce conflict had also caused the Spirit of Jian Mu to fall dormant, as though two sets of rules were wrestling within a dream, while in reality Jian Mu continued operating through its own inertia.

This had originally been a perfectly reasonable self-protective measure, a normal reaction for a Plane Will. So long as the Dragon Sons who depended on it for survival noticed something was wrong, they could apply external force to help resolve it.

At this point, it became a contest between the Heavenly Beings and the Dragon Sons.

Once the Spirit