Li Qinglian's Tribulation: So I Am the Death Divine Tree!

Boom, boom, boom!

The sky seemed to shatter, and tribulation lightning poured down like a waterfall.

Tens of thousands of purple-black lightning dragons descended with world-destroying might, illuminating the entire core region of the Star Dou Great Forest as brightly as day.

Yet the pitch-black giant tree merely stretched out its branches in silence. Every bolt of lightning that fell was silently swallowed, dissolved, and annihilated by the pale white radiance flowing through its trunk.

Effortless, as though it were lifting something light.

In the distance, the pupils of several great savage beasts constricted at once.

Xiong Jun's mountain-like body tensed involuntarily, his heavy breathing rumbling in his chest.

He was a king among savage beasts renowned for his formidable physical body, yet at that moment, he had to admit that if that tree fought him after surviving its tribulation, he likely would not gain the slightest advantage.

He might even suffer badly.

Within the Star Dou Great Forest, its strength might be second only to Di Tian's.

The power of high-level soul beasts was rooted in their bloodlines.

Di Tian, the Golden-Eyed Black Dragon King, was already one of the beings with the most supreme bloodline on this continent.

Yet at that moment, the aura emitted by the tree beneath the tribulation clouds clearly told everyone that its bloodline was far above Di Tian's.

It even far surpassed everything they knew.

"Perhaps... Myriad Demon King and Di Tian were right."

Xiong Jun spoke softly, his voice hoarse like grinding gravel.

That truly was a divine tree.

After the tribulation clouds churned for roughly the time it took an incense stick to burn, heaven and earth gradually returned to calm.

At the center of the core region, the pale white glow circulating around the pitch-black giant tree gradually receded into silence.

Amid Chaos, countless fragments of information flooded into Li Qinglian's soul.

From those images, he saw how the Law of Death condensed when heaven and earth first opened. He saw how the final breaths of countless living beings gathered into a tiny glimmer, and how that glimmer slumbered deep underground for who knew how many eras before finally breaking through the soil.

This was the birth of the Death Divine Tree.

"So that's how it is."

Li Qinglian murmured softly.

"My true body is the Death Divine Tree. Countless deathly auras between heaven and earth gathered together, and I was born in response."

"If there is a Life Divine Tree in heaven and earth, then there must be a corresponding Death Divine Tree. Life comes first and death comes after, so the Life Divine Tree was born before me, and I was born afterward."

First came life, then death.

Life and death were never meant to be born along the same timeline.

At first, he had thought being reincarnated as a tree was a painful thing.

Now that he understood his origins, all his confusion vanished like smoke.

Li Qinglian threw back his head and laughed. His laughter echoed through the empty core region, leaving the savage beasts in the distance looking at one another.

The God Realm still lacks a Death God King. Wasn't that position reserved for me?

After laughing enough, Li Qinglian's thoughts suddenly took a turn.

An absurd yet perfectly logical thought emerged in his mind.

"Wait... if that's the case, then the Destruction God King and the Goddess of Life shouldn't be lovers, should they?"

"How could lovers be born at the same time? Gods of laws born at the same time should clearly be siblings."

The more Li Qinglian thought about it, the more convinced he became.

"Tut."

If the God of Destruction learns of my existence...

"He'll probably want to kill me."

A meaningful curve rose at the corner of his lips.

The sort of story where lovers ended up as siblings—

No one would want that happening to them.

That also explained why the Goddess of Life and the Destruction God King could not even touch each other. The moment they drew close, the power of their laws repelled and sent them flying apart.

Destruction was a form of damage to life.

Destruction could cause death, but it was not death itself.

"I should take human form now. Only after transforming can I hide my identity to the greatest extent."

"Otherwise, if the gods of the God Realm really sense me, they will probably destroy me immediately."

Li Qinglian closed his eyes.

Crack!

A faint cracking sound came from the center of the black trunk.

Immediately afterward, cracks spread like a spiderweb, rapidly crawling over the entire body of the giant tree.

The light persisted for the full time it took an incense stick to burn.

When that dense black halo finally began to contract and disperse, the tremors in the core region gradually subsided.

The surface of Life Lake returned to calm, and the suffocating deathly pressure in the air retreated like the tide.

Everything was silent.

At the center where the halo had dissipated—

A human child who looked no older than six stood quietly on the scorched ground.

He was barefoot and small, with soft short black hair whose tips carried a faint pale white gleam.

His skin was as white as fine mutton-fat jade, and beneath the remaining daylight, an almost imperceptible dark pattern could vaguely be seen.

What drew the most attention were his eyes.

Those pupils were black as an abyss, yet a pale white glow flowed in their depths, as though the entire night sky and its stars had been hidden within them.

The little boy lowered his head and looked at his hands.

They were tiny and chubby. His five fingers curled, then stretched open again.

"A hundred-thousand-year Death Divine Tree rebuilding itself. Innate Soul Power at level twenty, with two purple Thousand-Year Spirit Rings."

"That is several tiers stronger than an ordinary hundred-thousand-year soul beast taking human form. Not bad at all."

Li Qinglian released his martial soul and felt the abundant soul power coursing through him, deeply satisfied.

Innate Soul Power at level twenty was a level only a divine-grade martial soul could attain. Li Qinglian's starting point after taking human form was level twenty.

Li Qinglian was very satisfied.

For a human soul master, this starting point was already the limit.

Just as Li Qinglian was feeling immensely excited, a slender, fair hand reached out from behind him and gently lifted him up.

Li Qinglian dangled in midair. He turned around and met a pair of emerald-green eyes.

She was a woman with green hair cascading to her waist, beautiful enough to take one's breath away.

As her hair drifted, specks of light flowed through it like a river of stars.

She stood there quietly, her entire presence so gentle it seemed as though water could drip from it, as if she could soothe all the hostility in the world.

This was the Goddess of Life!

"What pure deathly aura. It is even purer than the God of Death's."

The God of Death in the God Realm was a deity assigned his position when the God Realm was founded and its spoils divided. He could not compare with Li Qinglian, a Death Divine Tree nurtured by heaven and earth.

This was the fundamental reason the God of Death could only occupy the position of a First-Level God.

The Goddess of Life examined the little boy in her hand, a gentle smile so soft it was nearly melting appearing on her lovely face.

"The Death Divine Tree? I finally found you."

Before her words had even faded, she pulled Li Qinglian tightly into her embrace, as though she wanted to knead him into her body.

Warmth enveloped him from all directions, carrying an incredibly dense life aura.

That aura was completely opposed to his Death Origin, yet there was miraculously no rejection between them. Instead, they were like two puzzle pieces that fit together perfectly, finally finding each other.

Their eyes met, and they had found the right person.

Feeling the familiar and intimate aura coming from Li Qinglian, the Goddess of Life could no longer restrain her emotions.

Tears slid silently down her cheeks and dripped onto Li Qinglian's short black hair.

Death was life's destination.

The Death Divine Tree was the Life Divine Tree's destiny.

She had waited far, far too long.

The Goddess of Life lowered her head and repeatedly rubbed her cheek against Li Qinglian's soft little face, her movements intimate.

Li Qinglian was held so tightly that he could barely breathe, but he also felt the resonance and warmth rising from the depths of his soul.

"Ah, forget it."

"Being hugged for a while... isn't that big a deal."

He sighed inwardly.

He was not stupid. He knew that the woman before him was most likely the Goddess of Life.

In this world, only the Goddess of Life could possess such an incomparably pure life aura.