Jianmu Heart

Under the silver-white sky, towering trees filled the mountains and valleys as far as the eye could see, a lush expanse of verdant green interspersed with clusters of giant trees bearing blossoms of red or yellow, like a breathtaking painting.

Beneath the giant trees lay a dozen or so corpses, and a young man was gathering them for burial.

After collecting storage rings and such, he casually rubbed out a wisp of flame and burned the piled bodies to ashes. Strangely, the moment the bodies were completely consumed, the flame faded and vanished without a trace.

Yin Congyang nodded. This was a small technique he had derived from the Law of Fire, used for the first time. It was quite handy for destroying evidence—the mountain forests were teeming with fierce beasts, and leaving behind the heavy scent of blood would easily attract a horde of them.

He went through all the storage spaces. The rings of the other nine Star Level nine-stage cultivators held nothing of value, but the young man's ring gave him a pleasant surprise. Its space was larger than the one Yin Congyang currently used, and inside was a spaceship, apparently of no low grade. Besides the ship, he immediately spotted two horns from a Jiaoshi Horse's head. Together with the one he had just obtained, that made three, meeting the mission's requirements.

That young man, while begging for mercy, had tried to release the spaceship to flee inside, but under Yin Congyang's domain suppression, he had no chance or time to use his mental power to activate the ring's space—after all, he was only at Star Level three-stage.

Focusing his spirit into the ring for a closer look, and drawing on the common cosmic knowledge he had learned, Yin Congyang recognized it as an E9-grade standard spaceship. Produced in various Universe Kingdoms, it had rapid acceleration, excellent defensive performance, and could reach up to eight times the speed of light in the Dark Universe. Though not the most expensive among E9-grade ships—since the priciest were custom-made or made of special materials—in terms of cost-effectiveness, this ship, named the "Forest Ranger," was undoubtedly the best.

Although his strength wasn't great, after twenty years in the Training Camp, Yin Congyang's eyesight was quite high. At the very least, he knew the appearance and uses of common cosmic treasures and equipment.

The other items in the young man's ring were decent but basically useless to Yin Congyang. He stowed them away as usual, planning to send them all to Thunder God for disposal later.

Since he now had all three horns needed for the mission, Yin Congyang didn't delay. He headed straight for the central area of the Jianmu World. With his current strength, at full burst he could match a Universe Level one or two-stage. Without a domain, he could even try his hand against a Universe Level three-stage. So, though cautious, he moved quickly, reaching the vicinity of the central area in less than a month.

In the distance stretched an unbroken chain of towering mountains. Every peak was covered in immensely tall trees, the shortest over ten kilometers high, the tallest reaching dozens or even nearly a hundred kilometers. The trunks ranged from one or two kilometers in diameter to a full ten or so.

This central area was covered entirely in Jianmu trees, with no other species in sight. Each Jianmu was extremely tall, with highly developed root systems, so the distance between two trees was at least a hundred kilometers. But frustratingly, not every Jianmu bore a Jianmu Heart. While taller trees were more likely to produce one, the taller they were, the older they grew, and the harder their trunks became, causing endless headaches for countless Star Level cultivators.

The central area of the Jianmu World was vast, spanning hundreds of thousands of kilometers in radius, home to tens of millions of Jianmu trees. Over the years, countless Star Level adventurers had come one after another to chop them down, hoping to obtain a Jianmu Heart and complete their mission. Yet miraculously, the Jianmu never ran out.

This was because the world had a special rule. These Jianmu trees represented the original World Lord's understanding of the Law of Wood. He had poured all his insights into this boundless forest of Jianmu. So when one tree was felled, another would grow back at an astonishing speed. The Jianmu grew rapidly, only slowing down once they reached about ten kilometers in height.

The diameter of a Jianmu was enormous. If a tree had a Jianmu Heart, it was usually located about a hundred meters above the ground. By opening a hole at that height and cutting straight toward the center in one direction, one could retrieve the heart without necessarily felling the tree. Once the heart was taken, the tree would slowly heal the hole on its own, recovering in time. Of course, whether it would grow another heart was uncertain.

Those who reached the central area, whether alone or in teams, were extremely cautious. Most had already obtained the Jiaoshi Horse horns needed for the mission. With so many Jianmu trees around, there was no need to resort to robbery—unless someone was unlucky enough to chop down dozens of trees without finding a single heart.

Yin Congyang found a secluded spot with no one nearby and picked a Jianmu about thirty kilometers tall with a trunk diameter of roughly three kilometers. He then returned to his old trade from his previous life—logging!

Flying to about a hundred meters above the ground, he opened a hole in the tree and began digging toward the center. As he swung his axe, he mused on how this axe technique differed from the chopping he had done in his past life.

Suddenly, an unusual tremor ran through his soul. He immediately stopped swinging, expanded his domain, and spread his Spiritual Consciousness like liquid mercury to probe the surroundings. But he found nothing.

Standing still for a moment, he examined himself. Then he reached into the ring that had once held the Mysterious Seed and pulled out a lump of clone about the size of a human head, resembling jelly.

Yes, after using a thousand Universe Crystals, the clone had only grown to the size of a head and hadn't taken shape, still like jelly.

The tremor in his soul had come from this clone.

Sensing carefully, he felt a faint urgency emanating from the clone, as if it wanted to merge into this Jianmu tree.

Yin Congyang frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and formed a hypothesis.

The clone's Soul Container was made from a third of his liver. In the Five Elements of the human body's organs, the liver belongs to Wood. So perhaps this clone had a stronger affinity for the Law of Wood. The World Lord who created the Jianmu World had also comprehended the Law of Wood and turned his insights into this boundless forest.

The clone needed energy to grow—Universe Crystals would do, or treasures, as long as they contained energy. So, was the Law of Wood itself a form of energy? Yin Congyang wasn't sure yet, but these Jianmu trees undoubtedly contained energy; otherwise, how could they grow so tall? But the energy within the trees was restrained, making it extremely difficult for the clone to absorb, hence the faint urgency. If it were a Jianmu Heart, the clone would probably have pounced on it already!

To test this guess, he needed to obtain a Jianmu Heart and see if the clone could absorb it.

Yin Congyang swung his Heaven-Opening Axe with renewed vigor, cutting straight toward the center of the trunk. With the domain and law enhancing its edge, the axe was incredibly sharp. After a few days, he was nearing the center when a very faint trace of the Law of Wood emanated from ahead.

His heart leaped with joy. Lucky—the first Jianmu he picked had a heart. Sure enough, after a few more meters of chopping, a faint green light appeared. A fist-sized, prismatic Jianmu Heart came into view. He reached out, pried it loose, and sent it directly into the ring containing the clone.

The moment the fist-sized Jianmu Heart entered the ring, the jelly-like clone rolled over and wrapped itself around it. The green heart, encased in the translucent clone, released strands of Wood Law energy that merged into the clone's semi-transparent body. The jelly-like clone began to show faint specks of pale green and slowly swelled.

Yin Congyang's mind stirred. He immediately sat cross-legged, and through the shared soul connection, the clone transmitted a sliver of insight into the Law of Wood gained from absorbing the heart.

When the fist-sized Jianmu Heart was fully absorbed, the clone's volume expanded from the size of a head to that of a basketball, equivalent to the effect of five or six hundred Universe Crystals.

He leaped out of the tree hole and saw that the opening he had made was already slowly, almost imperceptibly, healing. It would likely close up completely before long.

Turning to look at the endless sea of Jianmu, a gleam of heat flashed in Yin Congyang's eyes. He needed more Jianmu Hearts to accelerate the clone's growth.

The nearby Jianmu trees soon fell victim. In less than two months, Yin Congyang performed "piercing surgery" on over twenty trees. But perhaps his luck had run out after the first one; among those twenty-plus trees, he found only seven Jianmu Hearts. Absorbing them brought the clone to the size of a millstone.

He estimated that he needed at least another dozen or so Jianmu Hearts for the clone to reach the stage of transformation.

So he picked a new direction and tirelessly continued his "piercing surgeries" on the Jianmu. Every time he got a heart, he tossed it into the ring, digested the transmitted insights into the Law of Wood, and moved on to the next tree.

Finally, after over a year of relentless chopping, he had gathered sixteen Jianmu Hearts.

After absorbing fourteen more hearts, the clone was nearing its limit, now about a meter in diameter. He figured one more would be enough for it to transform, and he kept one heart aside for completing the mission.

Finding a remote area with few beasts nearby, Yin Congyang took out the "Forest Ranger" spaceship from his ring, flew into the air, activated stealth to block all detection, and then released the clone in the cabin. He tossed the fifteenth Jianmu Heart to it.

The clone split open like a mouth, swallowed the heart, and as it was absorbed, the clone's soul finally transmitted a feeling of satisfied fullness.

The most critical and simplest step of the Clone Secret Technique was to replicate one's Spiritual Consciousness. Through the mysterious connection between souls, the replicated consciousness was fused into the clone's soul. From then on, the two bodies were independent yet unified—soul, consciousness, and will all as one. If either body fell, it could be recondensed.

Following the technique's instructions, Yin Congyang's powerful soul easily completed this step. The spherical clone began to deform, slowly growing a head, limbs, and so on. Its translucent exterior became opaque, and inside, organs, bones, muscles, blood vessels, and blood began to form...

"Thump... thump..."