Fragrant Dust Locks the Spirit, Tree Shadow Source

Before the World Extinguisher rain of flowers had ceased, the ancient tree suddenly trembled once more.

"Boom--!"

As if some ancient will had been awakened within the massive tree trunk, a deep rumble emanated from the depths of the root system, causing the entire Shi Lin ground to tremble slightly.

Then, to everyone's horror, the branches of the ancient tree began to move, not just swaying, but slowly stretching outwards.

One, ten, a hundred, a thousand... countless thick branches, as thick as mountains, stretched rapidly through the air, like a giant canopy spreading out from all directions.

The branches were covered with dense, ancient runes, which intertwined with each other and in the blink of an eye formed a huge dome that covered the sky.

The ten-mile area was completely sealed off; the void was sealed off, and the laws of space were suppressed. Some people tried to tear space apart in fear.

"Sizzle--!" The moment a spatial rift tore open, the runes on the ancient tree branches suddenly lit up.

The crack was instantly smoothed out as if it had never existed. "Spatial teleportation has been sealed!!!" someone cried out, and the entire open space was plunged into complete panic.

At the same time, the rain of flowers in the sky began to become even more frenzied; the conceptual flowers that had been slowly drifting down now fell like a blizzard.

The Flower of Time spun in the air and touched a cultivator, whose body suddenly froze for a moment.

His entire being seemed to rewind time, as if his body was rapidly aging and then rapidly becoming younger.

Finally, as if his entire being had been erased for a period of time, he completely disappeared, and a Flower of Dimensions fell to the ground.

A cultivator was touched, and his body suddenly twisted and collapsed from three dimensions into two dimensions. Then the two-dimensional image was compressed into a line.

The next instant, the line was smoothed out and disappeared completely, followed by screams of agony. "Help!!!" "Ah--!!!"

"Stop them!!!" Some people frantically used their supernatural powers, some used their protective magic treasures, and some desperately rushed into the sky.

No matter how much he struggled, the rain of flowers remained merciless. Suddenly, a cultivator at the Realm Breaking Realm · Supreme summoned an ancient mirror.

"Buzz--!" The mirror unfolded, forming a huge light screen, and dozens of flowers collided with the light screen, causing it to vibrate violently.

The mirror surface was instantly covered with cracks. The next moment, "Bang!" the ancient mirror shattered, and flowers pierced through the light barrier.

The cultivator didn't even have time to scream before his entire body vanished like ink being wiped away.

On the other side, dozens of cultivators jointly unleashed a supreme treasure—a massive bronze cauldron—which hovered in the air.

Thick, spiritual light rained down from the cauldron's mouth, falling onto its walls and emitting a continuous, muffled rumble.

The cauldron shook violently but managed to hold on. "Quickly, get inside the cauldron!!!" someone shouted, and dozens of cultivators immediately hid inside.

Others used a secret technique, "Open--!" Space suddenly folded, and they forcibly entered the crevice of the Transcendent Five-Dimensional Space.

That place is a dimensional rift outside of reality, accessible only to a very few cultivators, and Qin Yu and Shen Qingchen are among them.

Qin Yu stood in the high-dimensional interlayer, and the real space unfolded beneath his feet like a giant scroll.

The rain of petals continued to fall, with dozens of cultivators struggling within it. Shen Qingchen's expression had completely changed.

He watched as a cultivator below leaped into the air, and a flower gently landed on his head.

There was no explosion, no screams; the cultivator vanished instantly, like ashes scattered by the wind.

In another location, three cultivators joined forces to unleash a magic array. Just as the array took shape, a rain of flowers fell, and the array patterns gradually extinguished.

The three cultivators were successively devoured by the flower, leaving not even a trace of their Fate Soul, even though they were protected by the supreme treasure.

The cultivators in the higher dimensions could clearly see those who hadn't had time to enter the protective treasure or the Transcendent Five-Dimensional Space.

They are being devoured by the flowers, like weeds and dust, without any right to resist.

Shen Qingchen's throat tightened. "This... this isn't an opportunity at all..." His voice trembled slightly. "This is endless slaughter..."

The rain of petals continued to fall, but as time passed, the screams gradually diminished.

At first, groups of cultivators were running, resisting, and struggling, followed by sporadic explosions.

After that, only extremely short screams remained until finally, the entire core area of Shi Lin...

Only the sound of falling flowers remained. Those cultivators who didn't have time to enter the protective treasure or the Transcendent Five-Dimensional Space had all been devoured.

It completely devoured everything, leaving no corpse, no Fate Soul, not even a trace of its aura behind.

Everything about them—cultivation, origin, Fate Soul, karma, time, and memories.

Everything was stripped away the moment the flower touched the body, and then absorbed by those conceptual flowers.

At this moment, the flowers in the sky were no longer just flowers; they resembled countless beings feeding on a food source.

Each time it devours a cultivator, the flower's light dims, and some petals become even more dazzling.

New runes appeared in the stamens of some flowers, and some even faintly sprouted new branches.

It's like an ancient life form absorbing nutrients, and those nutrients are the very source that a cultivator has cultivated throughout their life.

The moment a cultivator at the Realm Breaking Realm · Supreme was swallowed by the flower, the flower suddenly emitted an extremely intense golden light.

Then the golden light flowed slowly down the flower stem, like a drop of golden blood returning to the ancient tree along the branch.

This scene was clearly seen by all the survivors; the flowers weren't killing people, they were harvesting them.

Harvesting the cultivator's life's cultivation and essence, and then transferring all this power back to the ancient tree, gradually...

The rain of flowers in the sky began to decrease. After the last flower devoured a cultivator, it slowly came to a stop in mid-air.

Then, gently spinning, they slowly flew back to the branches, one by one, ten by one, a hundred by one, thousands upon thousands of flowers returning to the ancient branches like flocks of birds returning to their nests.

As the last flower fell back onto the branch, the entire ancient tree suddenly trembled slightly, and then faint streaks of light appeared between the branches.

The newly absorbed Source Power began to flow inside the tree trunk. If you looked closely, you could even see countless tiny streams of light slowly flowing through the trunk.

Like rivers, within those rivers, the fragments of a cultivator's former Fate Soul faintly emerge, but these fragments only exist for a moment.

The surviving cultivators, who then completely merged into the ancient tree, all witnessed this scene while standing within the protective barrier of the treasure.

Standing silently in the interlayer of higher dimensions, watching the ancient tree and the countless sources that were being devoured.

Everything flowed within the ancient tree, as if being absorbed and refined, and time passed little by little.

After half an incense stick's time, the ancient tree returned to its quiet state, its branches no longer trembled, and the flowers bloomed again.

The open space where a horrific massacre had just taken place was now eerily calm, devoid of blood.

There were no corpses, no broken weapons, and not even the ground was damaged, as if—none of what had just happened had ever occurred.

If it weren't for the survivors still around and if they hadn't witnessed hundreds being devoured, this place would have been like a tranquil secret realm.

The remaining cultivators looked at each other; their numbers had dwindled to a pitifully small fraction, down from a group of several hundred.

Now only a few dozen people remained, and the air was eerily silent. Finally, someone couldn't help but speak up.

He was a gray-robed cultivator. He looked at the ancient tree, then at his surroundings, his voice somewhat hoarse.

"It's over..." He pointed to the ancient tree's branches. "Those branches... have returned to the tree."

Another cultivator frowned. "Shall we go out?" "Or wait a little longer?" A young cultivator asked, his face pale.

He almost pleaded, "I don't want to die. I'm just here to find a treasure."

"I didn't even want to win a prize..." After saying this, he took a deep look at the ancient tree.

Then he said in a low voice, "Let's go. Staying here won't get us anywhere."

After he finished speaking, he slowly removed his protective treasure, a bronze shield that had been floating in the air.

The shield's light gradually faded as he slowly stepped out of the protective barrier. No flowers fell, and there was no danger. Seeing this, the other cultivators began to waver.

Some people removed their treasures, while others slowly emerged from the Transcendent Five-Dimensional Space, and the air began to flow again.

As if everything had truly ended, Shen Qingchen watched as the cultivators below emerged one by one from the higher-dimensional interlayer.

He turned to look at Qin Yu. "Brother Qin." "Let's go." "Let's go out too." But Qin Yu didn't move.

His gaze remained fixed on the ancient tree, his brows furrowed slightly. After a moment, he slowly shook his head.

"Wait." Shen Qingchen was taken aback. Qin Yu's voice was deep. "I think..." "It's not that simple." Shen Qingchen was silent for a moment, then nodded.

"Okay." "Then let's observe for a while longer." The two remained in the Transcendent Five-Dimensional Space, quietly watching the ancient tree below.

At that very moment, a branch deep within the ancient tree seemed to stir slightly.

Just as the surviving cultivators gradually removed their treasures, defensive formations, and high-dimensional escape routes, the atmosphere in the open space seemed to truly return to calm.

Some people had already begun to slowly walk towards the outer perimeter, while others remained standing and observing. Some even let out a long breath, as if they had just escaped from the brink of death.

However—just as the first group of cultivators had taken a few steps, a muffled tremor suddenly resounded from the earth.

"Boom--!!" The sound seemed to come from the deepest part of the earth. In the next instant, the entire ten-mile area trembled violently.

The ground cracked, the Shi Lin shook, and someone suddenly looked up, their expression instantly changing drastically, "What's going on?!"

Before they could react, the ground suddenly exploded. "Boom!!!" Countless thick tree roots and branches surged out from underground.

They writh like giant snakes and grow rapidly like ancient tentacles, completely sealing off the surrounding ten-mile radius in just a few breaths.

The space between the sky and the ground was completely enclosed by branches, whose surfaces were covered with ancient runes that bound the space together like chains.

Someone's face turned deathly pale. "Oh no!!!" "Run!!!" Someone immediately tried to tear through space, but in the next instant...

The spatial patterns had barely appeared when they were instantly crushed by the runes on the branches. The cultivator's pupils constricted sharply. "The space is completely sealed off!!"

Just as everyone was filled with fear, the flowers of the ancient tree suddenly lit up at the same time. But this time, they did not fall, but instead slowly released a layer of fine dust.

The pollen is extremely fine, like a layer of pale golden mist, or like countless floating stardust, gently drifting out from the petals.

It slowly diffused in the air, starting as just a little bit, and then all the flowers of the ancient tree released their pollen at the same time, creating a golden sea of mist.

The sunlight was blocked, and the air became hazy. The pollen swirled, floated, and diffused in the air like countless tiny specks of light.

When the first wisp of pollen landed on the cultivator, someone frowned, "What is this...?" The next moment, his expression suddenly changed.

He had just tried to circulate his primordial divine power when he discovered that it was completely unusable. "What's going on?!" Another cultivator immediately activated his divine power.

The result was the same; his spiritual sea seemed frozen, his primordial divine power completely stagnant, as if locked by some force. "My divine power..." "I can't move!"

Someone hurriedly summoned their most precious treasure, but the treasure only lit up with a faint light before dimming instantly, as if it had lost its power source. The person's face turned deathly pale.

"I can no longer use my divine power to activate the treasure!!!" Some even tried to force their way into a higher dimension.

As soon as his divine sense spread, he felt dizzy and collapsed to his knees. The pollen continued to spread and became increasingly dense, and one by one, the cultivators became weak.

Their primordial divine power seemed to freeze, their spiritual seas became still, and their bodies gradually lost strength. Some struggled to stand up, but their legs went weak.

"Bang!" He collapsed to the ground. "This pollen... it's like the Fallen Soul Incense..." "It froze our primordial divine power..."

"Even their divine senses were suppressed..." In just a few dozen breaths, almost all of the dozens of cultivators who were originally alive collapsed to the ground. They were not dead.

Having lost all ability to resist, like a group of prey waiting to be slaughtered in the high-dimensional space, Shen Qingchen's expression became extremely solemn.

"Brother Qin..." "Fortunately, we didn't go out..." Qin Yu didn't answer, his gaze fixed on the ancient tree.

The next moment, the ancient tree moved, and a huge branch slowly rose up. "Boom--!" The branch swung violently like the arm of a giant beast.

After being slammed heavily to the ground, the three thickest trunks of the ancient tree suddenly began to twist violently, the bark cracked, and the wooden structure continued to deform.

It's as if some kind of creature is sprouting from the tree trunk, branches begin to twist, roots intertwine, the trunk bends, and the wooden skeleton is constantly reorganizing.

A few breaths later, the three enormous tree trunks slowly stood up, transforming into a bizarre creature, which was tens of feet tall.

Its body is entirely made of twisted ancient wood; the bark resembles cracked rocks; countless roots hang down like dry, long hair; its trunk is hunched over.

In the center of his chest cavity was a bottomless, dark rift, seemingly devoid of internal organs and life; the rift was like an empty abyss.

Most terrifying of all was the enormous wooden warhammer it held, made of ancient tree branches intertwined, with a massive, round wooden disc at its head.

The wooden disc was covered with ancient patterns, resembling some kind of ancient ritual implement or a sealing wheel. The monster slowly raised its head; it had no eyes and no face.

Only the dark abyss of its chest emitted a dull groan, like an old wooden door being pushed open and taking its first step.

"Boom!" The ground instantly cracked, and the faces of the dozens of cultivators who were slumped on the ground turned to despair. One of them said in a trembling voice, "What... what kind of monster is this...?"

Even in the higher dimension, Shen Qingchen gasped, "This ancient tree..." "It's actually creating guardians..."

Qin Yu's gaze grew increasingly somber as he vaguely sensed that this thing was no ordinary guard.

It is more like a harvester nurtured by the ancient tree using the essence of countless cultivators.