On Mount Fangzhang, the Hollow Willow

Minghe left the Blood Sea and headed straight for the East Sea, because Mount Fangzhang was located upon that sea.

To be precise, Mount Penglai, Mount Yingzhou, and Mount Fangzhang—these three islands—were all in the East Sea.

But this time, the system had only given him the coordinates of one of the three islands. Minghe was not greedy; obtaining even one would already be good fortune.

From the Blood Sea to Mount Fangzhang, the journey was long. Even a Golden Immortal of the Origin could not arrive in an instant.

Minghe was in no hurry. Along the way, he admired the scenery, stopping and going, watching the sun and moon, the stars, the heavens and earth, and all living beings. This stirred an indescribable feeling in his heart.

In this life, he was completely different from his previous one. In his past life, he had been but a mortal, with a mere few decades of life, and he had to toil for his livelihood.

Muddling through the mortal world, ignorant of the Great Dao, ignorant of ultimate truth—one could say he stumbled through his entire life in a daze.

But in this life, things were different. From the moment he was born, he stood at an extremely high starting point.

In this life, he had the most supreme pursuit: the pursuit of the Dao.

The Great Dao stretches far; one must search high and low for it.

Only the Dao was his supreme pursuit in this life, and also his ultimate pursuit.

Aside from the Dao, there was nothing to seek, nothing to linger over.

And so, traveling with stops and starts, spending several thousand years, Minghe finally arrived at the East Sea.

Upon arriving at the East Sea, he looked out and saw before him a vast expanse of ocean—a world of water.

Waves crashed and surged, turbulent and mighty. The sea seemed boundless, unfathomable, and immeasurably vast.

The East Sea was the territory of the Dragon Clan, but even the Dragon Clan did not fully control the East Sea.

After all, the Dragon Clan had long since declined, no longer holding the position of overlord they once had.

In fact, the Dragon Clan had split into many branches. The four largest branches each ruled one sea: the East Sea, the South Sea, the West Sea, and the North Sea.

Among them, the East Sea was the most honored, for it was the ancestral land of the Dragon Clan, where they had originated.

However, regardless of the Dragon Clan's state, Minghe had not come here to cause trouble. He would find Mount Fangzhang, explore the island, and then leave.

He would not disturb the Dragon Clan of the East Sea.

Following the system's guidance, he spent another hundred years before finally stopping on an open stretch of sea.

This was the location of Mount Fangzhang. But at this moment, Mount Fangzhang was hidden.

A Grand Array covered the island, concealing it and obscuring the heavenly secrets, making it impossible to deduce its location.

Minghe let out a long breath. With a grab of his hand, a sword appeared in his grasp.

This sword was one of Minghe's two great swords—the Yuantu Sword.

Gripping the Yuantu Sword, Minghe infused it with Magic Power and slashed out once. In an instant, one gave birth to two, two to three, and three to infinity.

Countless Sword Qis densely filled the air, blotting out the sky and covering the entire stretch of sea before him.

The void was cut open, revealing the immortal island.

Under Minghe's single sword strike, Mount Fangzhang could no longer remain hidden and emerged from the void.

This island was a square-shaped island, ordinarily concealed within the void.

With the Grand Array shrouding it, no one could see it.

But now, it had become Minghe's prize. Minghe smiled faintly and slashed again with the Yuantu Sword.

A sharp sword beam, unstoppable, tore a gap in the Grand Array covering Mount Fangzhang.

Minghe slipped through this gap and entered Mount Fangzhang.

As soon as he entered Mount Fangzhang, Minghe immediately sensed an incredibly dense Innate Spiritual Qi.

This island was practically a supreme sacred ground for cultivation.

Legend had it that this island was a Chaos Fragment that fell into the East Sea when the great god Pangu split heaven and earth, and thus it was formed.

Minghe also sensed that within the soil of this island, a massive Spirit Vein had condensed.

If placed in the Primordial World, such a location of a Spirit Vein would be a Cave Heaven and Blessed Land.

Mount Fangzhang was enormous, and all kinds of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures grew everywhere. Minghe couldn't help but click his tongue in admiration.

He naturally had no intention of leaving these Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures behind. He even planned to take the massive Spirit Vein deep underground.

After all, the island was in the East Sea, and he couldn't take it with him, so he might as well take everything on it that he could.

With a thought, Minghe sent out clone after clone from his body.

These clones were also Blood God Sons, formed from Minghe's own blood.

"Go!"

At Minghe's command, these Blood God Son clones scattered in all directions, searching for various Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures and taking them all away.

It was like scraping the ground three feet deep, raising the sky three feet higher—like a plague of locusts passing through, leaving not a blade of grass behind.

As for Minghe himself, he continued deeper into Mount Fangzhang.

He had already sensed that the island's greatest treasure lay in its deepest part.

It seemed to be the aura of some kind of spiritual root.

Minghe had been around spiritual roots for a long time, so he was somewhat sensitive to their presence.

"I wonder what spiritual root it could be," Minghe murmured to himself, quite expectant.

He lifted his foot and stepped forward. Though it appeared slow, it was as fleeting as a glimmer of light, moving very swiftly.

Before long, Minghe arrived deep within Mount Fangzhang, and there, within his line of sight, a spiritual root truly appeared.

Seeing this spiritual root, Minghe's first reaction was disbelief.

In his understanding, this spiritual root simply should not have been here.

Yet the scene before him fiercely contradicted that notion.

It truly was this spiritual root.

The Hollow Willow Tree.

As everyone knew, the Hollow Willow Tree was Yang Mei's original body.

But hadn't Yang Mei already left the Primordial World? How could he have left his original body behind?

Minghe was utterly baffled, but he had no choice but to accept this fact.

A towering willow tree grew before his eyes. Its branches swayed and rippled, seemingly radiating rings of light.

The light was silver-white, as if imbued with some profound mystery. Within the light, even ripples appeared.

Those ripples were the void itself. The formless void, which should have been intangible, now left visible traces with the swaying of the willow branches.

All of this testified to the extraordinary nature of this willow tree.

And indeed, the Hollow Willow Tree was one of the Ten Top Innate Spiritual Roots of the Primordial World.

Naturally, it was extraordinary.

Moreover, it contained the Way of Space.

No matter how he looked at it, this spiritual root was a tremendous stroke of fortune for Minghe.

"Oh!"

Suddenly, Minghe seemed to notice something else. He moved, appearing directly beneath the tree.

There, beside the Hollow Willow Tree, there was actually a pond.

This pond held a little less than half its capacity of water, and the water shimmered with a three-colored light.

Clearly, it was no ordinary thing.