The Chaos Green Lotus sprouts! Has all the spiritual energy in the West been drained?

In the back mountains of Mount Sumeru, by the super Merit Pool that Taiyuan had grandly remodeled, the atmosphere was so heavy it felt like it could drip water.

The prayer beads in Jieyin's hand, which he never parted with, were clenching with a creaking sound. His eyes, usually devoid of joy or sorrow, were fixed intently on the center of the pool, his breath held.

Zhunti was even more nervous, his hands unconsciously gripping the Sky-Turning Shovel, his knuckles turning white. One could even see fine beads of sweat forming on his forehead.

"Eldest Brother, are we... are we really going to plant it?"

Zhunti swallowed, his voice trembling slightly, "This thing is the seed of a Chaos Supreme Treasure. Can our small Western bodies withstand its turmoil?"

Taiyuan stood with his hands behind his back, his robes rustling in the gentle breeze stirred by the surging spiritual energy. His expression was solemn, but inwardly, he was also a little apprehensive.

That was the Chaos Green Lotus.

The supreme divine object that nurtured the great god Pangu. Even if it was just a seed, even if it was in this top-tier nursery built with Nine Heavens Breathing Soil, Three Lights Divine Water, and Chaos Airflow, whether it could sprout successfully was still an unknown.

"Plant it."

Taiyuan uttered a single word. It wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable decisiveness.

Fortune favors the bold.

If they wanted to truly establish themselves in the Great Desolation, where Saints were as common as dogs and Da Luo Immortals were practically worthless, if they wanted to stop looking at the face of that old riddle-maker Hongjun, this seed was the greatest backing for the future of the Western religion.

"Go ahead."

Taiyuan gently cupped his palm. The lotus seed, enveloped by thirty-six profound Great Dao restrictions and glowing with a verdant, dripping aura, slowly floated up.

It traced a beautiful arc through the air, carrying the hopeful gazes of the three, and with a "plop," it fell into the churning mud of the pool.

Silence.

A deathly silence.

Except for the faint ripples caused by the seed hitting the water, the entire Mount Sumeru seemed to have instantly hit the pause button.

One breath.

Two breaths.

Three breaths passed, with no reaction.

"Is... is it ruined?" Jieyin was about to ask.

BOOM--!!!

Without any warning, a muffled roar, as if from the deepest reaches of primordial chaos, exploded from the depths of the Mount Sumeru's earth veins.

Immediately after.

The pool water, which had been as calm as a mirror, instantly began to churn violently, as if it had boiled over.

A giant vortex, as black as ink and exuding a terrifying devouring power, materialized out of thin air at the spot where the seed had fallen.

The vortex was only palm-sized at first, but in the blink of an eye, it expanded to a hundred zhang, then a thousand zhang, eventually occupying the entire Merit Pool!

WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH--

A fierce wind raged.

This was no ordinary wind, but a torrent of materialized spiritual energy.

Above Mount Sumeru, the Innate Spiritual Qi clouds that had accumulated for ten thousand years, originally as thick as layers of clouds, collapsed in an instant. They were like a breached flood, finding an outlet, transforming into visible spiritual energy tornadoes that were madly devoured by the terrifying black vortex.

Not only that.

The exotic flowers and rare herbs covering the mountainside were also suffering.

The once lush green leaves began to wither and curl at a visible rate; the spiritual fruits hanging from the branches quickly shriveled, as if all their essence had been drained.

Even Zhunti's true form—the Innate Bodhi Tree, which had finally regained its vitality—trembled violently, its branches and leaves rustling, conveying an extremely terrified emotion.

"Eldest Brother! This is no spiritual root! This is clearly a world-ending devil!"

Zhunti looked at the earth-shattering scene before him, his heart aching as if it were bleeding. His voice was laced with tears, "It's draining our Western foundation! If it keeps sucking like this, all the fields we've painstakingly cultivated will be ruined!"

Jieyin's face turned even paler. The prayer beads in his hand shattered with a "snap," and he swayed precariously.

"Eldest Brother... stop... stop it quickly!"

Taiyuan stood in the center of the gale, his robes billowing wildly, his expression extremely grim.

He had calculated everything, but he hadn't anticipated the Chaos Green Lotus's appetite to be so enormous.

This wasn't sprouting; it was devouring!

In just a few breaths, half of the spiritual energy accumulated by Mount Sumeru over ten thousand years had been consumed. If it wasn't stopped, the Western region's recently repaired earth veins might even be sucked dry.

At that point, the West would truly become a wasteland that could never recover.

"It can't be stopped!"

Taiyuan gritted his teeth, a flicker of madness in his eyes, "Since you want to eat, then I'll let you eat your fill!"

"System! Exchange!"

"Exchange all the spiritual liquid, spiritual stones, and even those worthless broken magic treasures I have, as long as they have spiritual energy, into energy fluid!"

"Also, refine those ten pieces of Solar Essence Gold and the hundreds of ten-thousand-year-old Fire Spirit Grass that I scammed from Di Jun earlier!"

Taiyuan had truly thrown caution to the wind.

Since he was already on this treacherous ship, he could only see it through to the end.

At his command, over half the System Space was instantly cleared.

Swish—

In the sky, the heavens, which had grown dim due to the depletion of spiritual energy, suddenly tore open with a massive rift.

Countless golden, red, and green spiritual liquids poured down like a waterfall, directly into the frantically spinning black vortex.

These were immense resources.

This was enough energy to cultivate ten Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals to completion.

It was all thrown in, as if it were free.

"Not enough! Still not enough!"

Taiyuan felt the vortex's suction only slightly diminish. His heart hardened, and he directly activated the Spiritual Power he had comprehended while sleeping in the Purple Firmament Palace.

"Words Follow Law!"

Taiyuan formed hand seals, and his voice boomed like thunder. An invisible force of law descended with his voice.

"Lock Spirit!"

"Gather Qi!"

Buzz—

The earth veins of the entire West seemed to obey the command of a king.

The escaping earth energy was forcibly locked down, and the spiritual energy within a radius of hundreds of millions of miles was forcefully gathered. It transformed into streams of pure spiritual energy dragons, rushing towards Mount Sumeru one after another.

This was draining Taiyuan's own merit and Magical Power.

His face instantly turned as pale as paper, and a trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth.

"Eldest Brother!" Jieyin and Zhunti exclaimed in alarm, about to rush forward to help.

"Don't come over! Hold the formation!"

Taiyuan roared, his eyes turning bloodshot as he stared intently at the center of the vortex.

Finally.

After absorbing an amount of energy equivalent to that of a middle-thousand world.

The terrifying black vortex slowly stopped spinning.

The previously violent, devouring force rapidly dissipated like a receding tide.

In its place was a...

Extremely faint, yet extremely pure, noble fluctuation, filled with boundless life.

Crack.

A subtle yet clear crackling sound echoed deep within the souls of the three.

It was the sound of a shell breaking.

In the center of the murky pool, which had become utterly turbid, a green light suddenly ignited.

This light was not dazzling, yet it instantly illuminated the entire dim Mount Sumeru.

Following that.

An extremely thin, extremely tender sprout, crystal clear like jade, trembled as it broke through the water.

It was only an inch tall.

It had only one leaf.

Yet, on this leaf, no larger than a fingernail, it seemed to cradle three thousand miniature great-thousand worlds. Each vein on the leaf flowed with the profound trajectory of the Great Dao.

The Chaos Green Lotus had sprouted.

"Hoo..."

Taiyuan let out a long breath, his body going limp, nearly collapsing to the ground.

It was done.

He had won the gamble.

Before he could even feel happy, a strange fluctuation spread from the sprout.

It was a feedback.

The immense spiritual energy that had been devoured earlier was transformed by the Chaos Green Lotus into a higher-level energy—Chaos Primordial Qi.

This Primordial Qi appeared as a faint purplish-gold, gently sprinkling across Mount Sumeru like spring rain.

The withered grass and trees instantly turned green, even becoming more robust than before, evolving directly into Spiritual Roots.

The previously somewhat dry spiritual springs surged again, their water becoming even clearer and sweeter.

The three standing by the pond were the first to bear the brunt.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Jieyin and Zhunti had no time to react, only feeling an unimaginably pure power forcefully drilling into their bodies.

The bottleneck that had held them back for so long seemed as fragile as a paper screen in front of this power.

Late-stage Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal!

Perfected Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal!

The auras of the two surged, Dao rhymes flowed, and phantom images of Golden Lotuses and Bodhi trees manifested behind them, appearing a hundred times more solid than before.

Even Taiyuan's Magical Power, which had been depleted from overexertion, was instantly replenished, becoming even purer and denser. His Glass Pure World Body shone brightly, showing signs of transforming to a deeper level.

"This... is this Chaos Primordial Qi?"

Zhunti felt the surging power within him, so excited he could barely speak, "Elder Brother! I broke through! I really broke through!"

Jieyin was also filled with shock. He clasped his hands together and bowed deeply to the tender sprout, "Elder Brother is truly a divine being! With this, how can the West not prosper?"

Taiyuan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Looking at the tender sprout gently swaying in the breeze, appearing harmless, a smile of relief finally spread across his face.

"We'll talk about prosperity later."

"But now, we truly have a foundation."

The spiritual energy concentration of Mount Sumeru had increased by more than a hundredfold.

This was no longer just a blessed land in a corner of the Great Desolation.

It was a true Minor Chaos Holy Land.

Taiyuan looked at the tender sprout, his heart finally at ease. However, he did not know that the fluctuation of Chaos Primordial Qi, though concealed by the great formation, had still leaked out a trace, which had been sensed by certain individuals with ulterior motives.