Break Through Life and Death to See the Great Way; Nine-Turn Divine Art Forges the Future (Continued)

The long river surged and roiled. After piercing through Luohu's body, it vanished into the void.

The entire area returned to calm.

"Cough, cough!"

After a long while, Luohu slowly rose to his feet. Amid a series of crackling sounds, the limbs from the other half of his body scattered across the ground!

At that moment, only half of Luohu's body remained!

But as the Ancestral Demon, his vitality was terrifyingly strong. He struggled to pick up the limbs lying on the ground, then flew unsteadily toward his lair.

He said nothing, but the murderous glint in his eyes only grew fiercer.

It didn't matter how badly his physical body was injured, even if all that remained was his head. But the mark left by the Heaven-Opening Divine Axe had already severely damaged his origin.

An injury like this couldn't be healed overnight.

For now, he could only return to his lair and recuperate in seclusion. As for when he would emerge again, that would likely have to be pushed back.

An island in the East Sea.

"Boom!"

Yun Xiao's eyes snapped open. The Pure World White Lotus, Kongtong Seal, and Primordial Measure Heaven Ruler appeared at once, as she pushed the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Technique and the Great Dao of Strength to their limits!

What had happened just now? Why had she suddenly lost consciousness?

She warily scanned her surroundings. Only after some time, when she sensed no danger nearby, did she relax.

Anyone would feel shaken after inexplicably losing a stretch of time.

Then she calmed herself and formed hand seals, repeatedly trying to divine what had happened, but she found nothing.

"That's strange."

Yun Xiao furrowed her brow. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't figure out the reason, so she could only rise and fly toward Yingzhou.

No matter what, securing the opportunity was the most important thing right now.

Before long, she reached the depths of the East Sea. After breaking the restriction around Yingzhou Island, she stepped inside.

"Whoosh!"

As soon as she set foot on the immortal island, rich Innate Spiritual Energy washed over her. Yun Xiao's spirits lifted, and her earlier confusion swept away.

As expected, Yingzhou Island had undergone a tremendous transformation too!

The Chaos Qi Stream here had now turned into Innate Spiritual Energy. Numerous Spiritual Roots had sprouted all around, swaying gently and scattering countless points of light, as if beckoning to Yun Xiao.

Among them, dozens of Low-grade Innate Spiritual Roots swayed with a radiant glow, giving off an invigorating fragrance. Dense Innate Spiritual Energy swirled around them in streams!

And this was only the entrance!

It was hard to imagine how much the island's core region had transformed!

Yun Xiao waved her hand, collecting dozens of Low-grade Innate Spiritual Roots along with all the spiritual soil nourishing them. Then, unable to wait any longer, she hurried deeper into the island.

"Three Mid-grade Innate Spiritual Roots? Mine!"

"An Innate Jia Mu Vein? Mine!"

"Is this... an Innate Egg?"

Yun Xiao stopped and stared at the egg before her, lost in thought.

It seemed she had just solved a mystery that had puzzled countless people in her previous life...

Before long, Yun Xiao had unknowingly reached the outskirts of the core region. At last, she stopped before a tea tree.

"A High-grade Innate Spiritual Root, the Enlightenment Tea Tree!"

Yun Xiao's face brightened as she looked at the little tree before her.

This was a real treasure!

During cultivation, simply holding a tea leaf in one's mouth could instantly sharpen the mind and invigorate the spirit. It nearly rivaled a Grand Unity Golden Immortal's method of imparting enlightenment!

And if she boiled it together with that Innate Egg to make tea eggs...

Yun Xiao wiped the corner of her mouth and continued forward. Before long, she reached the deepest part of Yingzhou Island.

"This is!"

The sight before her gave her a start.

Some of the Chaos Qi Stream that had yet to transform into Innate Spiritual Energy had gathered here. Not a wisp could escape and affect the island's environment.

The reason was a pale-yellow fruit tree beside Sky-Piercing Jianmu. Its sturdy roots coiled around Jianmu like a dragon!

As its branches swayed, strands of condensed Innate Spiritual Energy streamed down, forming a curtain of spiritual energy that firmly sealed the Chaos Qi Stream away in the deepest part of the immortal island!

Nine lotus-shaped buds grew in its canopy. Mysterious veins intertwined across them, and the characters "Huang Zhong" flickered faintly!

It was Huang Zhong Plum!

Yun Xiao's eyes lit up. She had expected Yingzhou Island to undergo a transformation, and assumed there would be a great Spiritual Root in its deepest reaches.

But she hadn't expected it to be this extraordinary!

Huang Zhong Plum was a Top-grade Innate Spiritual Root—and the foremost of the Primordial Wilderness's Ten Great Top-grade Innate Spiritual Roots!

The other Top-grade Spiritual Roots were the Hollow Willow, Peach Tree, Fusang Tree, Moon Laurel Tree, Gourd Vine, Ginseng Fruit, Bitter Bamboo, Immortal Apricot, and the most mysterious of them all, the Innate Five-Needle Pine.

Every one of these Spiritual Roots was unimaginably precious, each possessing its own wondrous properties.

For example, one of the Three Thousand Chaos Demon Gods, the Space Demon God Yangliu, had transformed from the Top-grade Innate Spiritual Root Hollow Willow. He had been the terrifying third-ranked Chaos Demon God!

One could say that if Huang Zhong Plum had been given time to take form, it too might have become an unimaginable demon god!

As for the Gourd Vine, Nuwa had refined its stem into the Human Creation Whip. She mixed Three Lights Divine Water with Nine Heavens Breathing Soil, dipped the whip into the mixture, and scattered it to create the Innate Human Race.

Bitter Bamboo was the Spiritual Root whose leaves Yun Xiao had kept plucking from Daoist Zhunti.

The Fusang Tree and Moon Laurel Tree were rooted on the Sun Star and Taiyin Star respectively, nurturing terrifying divine beings like the Taiyin Goddess and Eastern Emperor Jun.

The remaining Peach Tree, Ginseng Fruit, and Immortal Apricot had all left behind countless legends and tales in the Primordial Wilderness.

Only the Innate Five-Needle Pine had no recorded tales in the Primordial Wilderness. There were merely rumors that such a Spiritual Root existed.

As the foremost of the Ten Great Top-grade Innate Spiritual Roots, Huang Zhong Plum was said to bloom once every ten thousand years, bear fruit after another ten thousand, and ripen only after yet another ten thousand.

In other words, it took thirty thousand years to eat a single Huang Zhong Plum fruit.

There was even a rumor that if an ordinary mortal ate one, they could directly attain the Grand Unity Golden Immortal realm!

Of course, that was an exaggeration. A mortal's innate potential still set their limits.

The claim came from the fact that the energy contained in a Huang Zhong Plum fruit was equivalent to the magical power of a Grand Unity Golden Immortal!

That was absolutely terrifying beyond description.

Yun Xiao had just seen a Grand Unity Golden Immortal for herself. Even a mere incarnation of Heavenly Consort Wumo had forced her to exhaust all her magical power and rely on a Top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure to slay it.

That was enough to show how terrifying a Grand Unity Golden Immortal was.

Still, the more extraordinary it was, the more Huang Zhong Plum's own incredible nature stood out.

Some Innate beings might cultivate for a million, or even ten million years, before attaining the Grand Unity Golden Immortal realm.

Yet Huang Zhong Plum could produce nine fruits in just three years. It truly deserved its place as the foremost of the Ten Great Top-grade Innate Spiritual Roots!

"If only these Huang Zhong Plums were ripe."

"That would save me a lot of time."

Looking at the Huang Zhong Plum, which had yet to bloom, Yun Xiao waved her hand and laid down a Time Flow Restriction. She began comprehending the laws of the Great Dao as she waited for the fruit to ripen.

With time flowing eighty times faster, she only needed to wait a little over three hundred and seventy years for the tree to bloom and bear fruit.

Moreover, as her understanding of the laws of the Great Dao deepened, that time would gradually shorten.

While Yun Xiao was cultivating in seclusion,

At the foot of Buzhou Mountain,

A graceful woman quietly alighted. With her bewitching smile, the flowers paled beside her.

"The Qilin Clan... I wonder what the blood of these four-legged beasts tastes like."

Heavenly Consort Wumo smiled seductively, but her limpid eyes held a demonic quality that didn't belong in such a beautiful face.

If Yun Xiao had been there, she would have recognized the woman at once.

That's right—it was Heavenly Consort Wumo!

"To infiltrate the Qilin Clan, I'll need to possess a Qilin with a respectable position first. And it can't be too clever."

Heavenly Consort Wumo murmured to herself.

If it was too clever, possessing it would likely take far more effort. That was something a lazy, dignified Heavenly Consort simply couldn't accept.

But where could she find a Qilin who had cultivated to the Grand Unity Golden Immortal realm and wasn't too clever?