Soul Beasts Protected by Ancient Trees

The voice of the Life Ancient Tree echoed in Xiao Yun's mind, carrying a lightness that sounded like a burden had finally been set down.

After living for nine hundred and ninety thousand years, it had finally waited for this day.

"Children, come out."

The ancient tree's voice spread in every direction, passing through the thick fog, through the branches and leaves, through the crown, and into every corner of the valley rainforest.

The forest began to stir—leaves rustled, branches swayed gently, the ground trembled faintly, and countless Soul Beasts emerged from their hiding places.

From burrows beneath the roots, from hollows in the tree trunks, from nests among the branches and leaves, from the bushes, from cracks in the rocks, and from beside the streams.

They came in all sizes and shapes—some crawled on the ground, some flew through the sky, some leaped through the trees, and some swam in the water.

They gathered beneath the ancient tree, a dark, dense mass stretching as far as the eye could see.

Xiao Yun's pupils contracted slightly.

These Soul Beasts were all fairly high-level: thousand-year, ten-thousand-year, tens-of-thousands-year. Most had cultivation of over a thousand years.

Those with tens of thousands of years of cultivation were not uncommon either, and every now and then there were even a few hundred-thousand-year-level existences.

The Soul Beasts under the ancient tree's protection formed a complete, unique Soul Beast food chain.

From the lowest insects to the highest Soul Beasts, from herbivores to carnivores, from aquatic to terrestrial to flying creatures, everything was present.

Under the ancient tree's shelter, they coexisted in harmony, did not infringe on one another, and shared this valley rainforest.

The first to step out was Deer Maiden.

She had transformed into the form of a human woman, looking to be in