Nether Tree Realm

The sofa in the basement had become Fang Xiu's exclusive seat. Every day, Fang Xiu would spend some time here meditating through the Necro Tree. His meditation sessions were never too long; if they went on for too long, he could easily become lost in the Sea of Light within the Gaia Consciousness.

Fang Xiu lay within the Sea of Light—or, more precisely, atop a gigantic Necro Tree. The sturdy Necro Tree towered over ten meters high, spreading out a thin membrane like an oasis in the Sea of Light and shielding Fang Xiu from the wind and rain.

This was the Necro Tree's reflection within the Gaia Consciousness. In the real world, it was merely a small sapling barely a meter tall.

Fang Xiu sat cross-legged on the Necro Tree's thick branch, leaning against its trunk as he meditated. When he occasionally grew tired, he would open his eyes and admire the endless Sea of Spirit.

Today, however, Fang Xiu's attention was not on the Gaia Consciousness. Instead, he focused on the real world above his head.

It was a pitch-black sky, as though it had been flipped upside down from the real world. In this world, light lay beneath his feet, while darkness filled the sky.

He discovered that faint wisps of spirit light occasionally fell from the dark world overhead, slowly descending into the vast Sea of Light beneath his feet.

Some swayed like fireflies, while others fell like stars.

Fang Xiu suddenly understood. "That's the trace left behind when a life passes away!"

Every speck of light represented a soul. Some belonged to humans, some to cats, dogs, and other animals, and some to flowers, grass, and trees.

Sometimes, when he looked into the distance, it seemed as though a rain of light was falling from the dark sky—dreamlike and magnificent. Yet Fang Xiu, who knew the truth, sensed the sorrow of death and the flavor of reincarnation.

Occasionally, specks of light fell into the Nether Tree Realm where Fang Xiu was, floating around him. It seemed that once they entered the Nether Tree Realm, they were severed from the cycle of reincarnation within the Gaia Consciousness.

More and more specks of light gathered, though most were spirits belonging to plants. There were also the souls of rats, insects, and fish. The strongest was the soul of a dog. The next day, Fang Xiu heard that the golden retriever raised by the family next door had died.

The spirits of these plants and animals differed from the souls Fang Xiu had created using the Three Souls Seven Spirits structure. They possessed neither intelligence nor memories. Once they separated from their bodies, they completely transformed into pure spirits.

Fang Xiu could not devour these spirits, as doing so would pollute his soul. Only the power transformed by the Necro Tree could allow Fang Xiu to grow stronger without any side effects.

Thus, although these spirits had fallen into the Nether Tree Realm, Fang Xiu merely paid them a little attention. After discovering that they were of no use to him, he did not concern himself with them further.

Today, however, Fang Xiu had a sudden idea. "Perhaps I can use my Soul Domination talent to decorate this monotonous Nether Tree Realm with them."

"I'll create a Nether Tree Realm shaped entirely by spirits, rather than one as monotonous as this. I'll give this Nether Tree Realm a sky and earth, all living things, just like... just like the legendary immortal realm."

The soul of Fang Xiu, seated on the Necro Tree's branch, suddenly opened its eyes. With a wave of his hand, the dozens of large and small specks of light surrounding the Necro Tree began rotating simultaneously.

As Fang Xiu pressed his hand downward, the Nether Tree Realm, rooted in the Gaia Consciousness with the Necro Tree at its center, began to form an earth.

The illusory earth revealed a completely black surface, rapidly spreading until it covered the Nether Tree Realm, which was only a dozen meters long and wide.

"It really works—and it seems the territory has expanded a little!" Fang Xiu was somewhat delighted. He had originally only intended to embellish the Nether Tree Realm, but he had never expected it to have the added effect of expanding the realm.

"Tick!" However, at that moment, something even more unexpected happened.

The sound of clockwork turning emerged from within his soul. Then, a silver radiance shot skyward from his chest and merged into the Nether Tree Realm's sky.

The Necro Tree itself had already incorporated one of Fang Xiu's primary souls, making it equivalent to Fang Xiu's clone. Fang Xiu had never expected that the Silver Clock, which he had been unable to locate and had no idea where it was hidden deep within his soul, would now detach itself from his soul and merge into the Nether Tree Realm.

"Tick! Tick!"

Fang Xiu raised his head and saw a silver moon appear in the sky. The faint, indistinct markings upon it looked, no matter how he saw them, like the graduations on a clock.

However, a large black splotch covered the silver moon. Looking at it, the moon seemed to have become pitted and uneven.

"That's the place where the Silver Clock was polluted when I underwent the death reset before."

Fang Xiu felt his connection with this Nether Tree Realm deepen further. The information transmitted by the silver moon in the sky faintly told him that if he died again in the future, he would no longer merely be sent back fifteen minutes as before. Instead, he would be sent back one day, and his soul would revive here.

Regardless of how far away his body was from his soul, Fang Xiu himself could return to his body in an instant through the special connection between his body and soul.

"Does this mean the save point has been fixed?" Fang Xiu glanced at the silver moon in the sky. He found that his control over its power had advanced another step, and that it had grown even stronger as well.

He surveyed the Nether Tree Realm. In a place of barely a hundred square meters, there was actually a moon hanging in the sky. The sight looked truly bizarre.

Afterward, Fang Xiu closed his eyes and continued completing that day's meditation task. The pure soul power transformed by the Necro Tree slowly merged into Fang Xiu's soul, gradually raising his spirit value and making his illusory soul more solid.

After completing a day of meditation, Fang Xiu's soul gradually faded away and vanished from atop the Necro Tree, returning to his body in the real world.

He opened his eyes and stretched, preparing to go outside and do his morning exercises as usual. But at that moment, he suddenly discovered that the little female ghost, Chen Jin, was watching television.

"Up this early to watch—"

Before Fang Xiu could finish speaking, he suddenly noticed that the time displayed on the television was 11:40 p.m.

Fang Xiu froze for a moment, then opened the secret chamber's door and walked out through the storage room. Through the window, he could see that it was pitch-black outside.

Fang Xiu remembered entering the Nether Tree Realm sometime after ten. He had stayed inside for ten hours in total. By all rights, it should have been eight in the morning now.

"What's going on?"

Fang Xiu returned to the underground secret chamber. His repeated coming and going had provoked Chen Jin's displeasure. Sitting on the bed and facing the television, she twisted her little head around and glared fiercely at Fang Xiu, clearly annoyed that he was disturbing her viewing.

Yet Fang Xiu immediately lay down on the sofa and entered the Nether Tree Realm, going in and out again and again.

From the outside, Fang Xiu looked like a lunatic, repeatedly lying down and falling asleep, then opening his eyes to check the time before repeating the process.

When he opened his eyes for the final time, Fang Xiu finally confirmed it: time within the Nether Tree Realm had changed. Something had happened.

According to his calculations, one hour outside was roughly equivalent to ten hours within the Nether Tree Realm.

"It's because of the Silver Clock. It transformed into a silver moon and merged into the Nether Tree Realm. Not only did it fix the location of my save point, it also changed the flow of time within the Nether Tree Realm."