Only then did Li Ling learn that ever since Lord Bashan perished at the end of the year before last, the World-Connecting Tree in Bashan had begun to show problems. The cause was a great earthquake that had struck the Gathering Grotto Continent several thousand years earlier.
It had been the earth dragon uprising, another of the ten omens of doomsday, which had shifted the entire continental plate.
It had changed the dragon veins of all Bashan, and even those of the Gathering Grotto Continent.
The World-Connecting Tree was a relic of the previous era and could wither at any moment. After that event, it had finally begun its steady decline, entering the dying stage.
Yet as an ancient species whose lifespan was measured in eras, the World-Connecting Tree could not show its decline immediately. Its roots and veins began to rot first, and only when the era changed and the climate underwent a vast upheaval would it truly fall.
By their reckoning, that would be around these very years, with no more than a century's difference either way.
Even after the World-Connecting Tree withered and died, it would not fall immediately. Its wood was a top-grade spirit material, even containing the power of dao connotation and origin.
"Outsiders find it difficult to learn of such things, but among the mighty and powerful, this is no secret...
"In as little as several hundred to a thousand years, or as long as three to five thousand, the World-Connecting Tree will surely flower and then attempt to bear fruit. But it will lack the strength to do so, because this age's climate, the foundations of its earth veins, and everything else can no longer sustain its existence. Only its trunk can remain and be put to use..."
Star Lord Sichen Yuan Guang