Chapter 688: Calculating the Tree Root

"Huh, Lord Pu, you've already opened the world of Kaiyi Shenwang? Didn't you ask me for help?" Mo Changcan realized belatedly.

Pu Zhijian sighed helplessly: "If I waited for you to open Kaiyi Shenwang's world, it would've vanished long ago."

Once a World God or Shenwang in a world is killed, the world must be opened within an extremely short time.

Otherwise, the world will either collapse entirely or vanish completely.

If one has hidden their divine soul within their own world, the world will disappear and await its opportunity.

Such people are almost always Shenwang.

Most World God cultivators, upon being killed, have their worlds collapse.

Therefore, it's still quite difficult to completely kill a Shenwang-level cultivator.

Because you must tear open their world.

Pu Zhijian raised his hand and tossed out a divine vein and a blue crystal: "This is a mid-grade dark-element divine vein, and this crystal is likely a Wood Primordial Crystal."

"If I'm not mistaken, these two items were prepared by the Divine Clan for the Tree Ancestor. Ding friend, what should we do now?"

Ding Huan raised his hand and took in the dark-element divine vein and the Wood Primordial Crystal, then pulled out two array flags and handed them to Pu Zhijian and Mo Changcan:

"These flags may not be needed, but take them for now. I'm preparing to enter and meet the Tree Ancestor first."

"You two wait at the entrance of the stone gate. Once you receive my call for help, come in immediately and join me."

Pu Zhijian was greatly alarmed: "Ding friend, I know you're powerful, but entering alone to face the Tree Ancestor is far too dangerous. Why not go in with us?"

Mo Changcan said nothing—he knew Ding Huan's abilities; only Ding Huan could enter successfully; they couldn't.

"No. If we all go in together, it's like charging straight in—that works against us."

Ding Huan waved his hand.

He mastered the laws of all things and understood the Divine Clan's genes thoroughly—he could disguise his appearance and transform into a Divine Clan cultivator to enter.

But Pu Zhijian and Mo Changcan couldn't.

They'd be detected by the Tree Ancestor the moment they entered.

"Alright, we'll wait here for you. If there's any danger, send us a message immediately," Pu Zhijian now understood Ding Huan's plan.

As Ding Huan approached the stone courtyard, his divine sense continuously infused the mid-grade dark-element divine vein with Chen Dao Poison and laws that destroy Divine Clan genes.

As for the Wood Primordial Crystal, he likewise infused it with two poison-law principles and Divine Clan gene-destroying laws.

He wouldn't let this tree root think it was truly the Tree Ancestor.

This was human territory—a Divine Clan tree root dared to act so arrogantly here?

Stepping back into the stone courtyard, Ding Huan was immediately teleported away.

The first time, his cultivation was only at the Heavenly God realm; he'd been caught off guard.

Fortunately, he was a body-cultivator with a formidable physique, so he wasn't injured.

This time, Ding Huan kept his divine sense fully extended.

"Boom!" Ding Huan landed heavily on the ground—this time, he wasn't struck.

Ding Huan now had a general idea.

The stone gate was a teleportation array; it seemed he'd been teleported far away.

In truth, he was likely still inside the stone courtyard—the one who set up the courtyard wanted him to believe he'd been sent far.

Because he had drained away two upper-grade dark-element divine veins.

Not only that, he had also taken the dark-element law crystal.

Returning here again, though the space remained in a near-chaotic state, it was clearly much improved from last time.

Sound could now travel a certain distance, and the space's viscosity was far less than before.

Ding Huan guessed this was because the Tree Ancestor had awakened and absorbed vast amounts of heavenly and earthly qi, leaving this area depleted.

With insufficient heavenly and earthly qi, the great array's effectiveness naturally weakened.

At this moment, he could roughly sense the array's level—it had been a Level Nine Divine Array, but now, its rank had dropped, likely to Level Eight.

If he studied it longer, he might even be able to break this array.

"Since you've come, hurry over," a sudden voice rang out.

The voice was ancient and dry, like old bark scraping against sand.

Is this the Tree Ancestor?

If the Tree Ancestor's voice could propagate through this space, did that mean this array was set up by the Tree Ancestor?

That's very likely—after all, this thing could extend roots and vines to kill human cultivators.

Even if this array wasn't set by this root, the root now had some degree of control over it.

That won't do—he must strip this root of its control over the array to kill it.

Along the way, Ding Huan planted various Divine Clan gene-destroying laws and Chen Dao Poison laws, then returned to the spot where he had previously drained the dark divine vein.

The protective array here had long vanished.

As soon as Ding Huan arrived, he saw a thick root slanting within the former array's position.

Though he hadn't scanned with his divine sense, he felt this root was very likely the one he had severed by one slash—over a hundred thousand zhang long.

Not far from this root lay an unremarkable blue stone.

Precisely because it was unremarkable, Ding Huan noticed it.

"You didn't come here last time?" the root spoke.

Ding Huan bowed respectfully: "Yes, I was originally the head of the Yi Sect Sect in the human realm's Upper God lands..."

"You're a Divine Clan cultivator—how could you become a human sect leader? And why didn't any Divine Clan Shenwang come this time?"

Ding Huan silently thought: this old tree root is extremely suspicious.

"Respected Ancestor, this time it was Kaiyi Shenwang, Qianye Shenwang, and myself. The humans don't know I'm Divine Clan, so they sent me to accompany Kaiyi and Qianye..."

【61】 "Which sect are you the head of?" the old root interrupted Ding Huan.

Ding Huan's heart burned with rage: "Is this old dry stick even going to let Master Huan speak?"

Yet he could only answer carefully: "Disciple Wu Danzi, Master of the Red Cloud Alchemy Sect."

"So you're from the Red Cloud lineage—no wonder…"

The root muttered to itself, as if finally understanding Ding Huan's origins.

Ding Huan continued: "When Kai Yi and Qianye Shenwang and I were about to enter, we were ambushed by several human Shenwangs."

These human vermin broke their word. They had already agreed to peace, even pretended to let us enter the Dao Ruins—but then hid in the shadows to strike us down."

It was because of the ambush that I learned they had long suspected me. Kai Yi and Qianye were gravely wounded and escaped; I knew the Dao Ruins better, so I made it here."

In one look /p>

But the things I brought were relatively few—alas, Shenwang Kai Yi carried a complete superior-grade Wood Spirit Vein."

After speaking, Ding Huan pulled out a ring and offered it forward.

A surge of divine energy curled around it, and the ring vanished into the depths of the root.

"Good." The root's voice came at once.

Clearly, the root was extremely satisfied with the mid-grade Dark Spirit Vein and the Wood Elemental Origin Crystal Ding Huan had brought.

"Stay here and guard me. I have more questions for you soon." The root's hoarse voice echoed again.

"Yes." Ding Huan replied respectfully.

Even if the old root hadn't said this, Ding Huan wouldn't have left lightly.

Soon, the Dark divine energy around the root thickened, slowly engulfing it.

Ding Huan glanced at the root rapidly healing, and a strange thought suddenly rose in his mind.

This root is probably not purely the Tree Ancestor—the Tree Ancestor is a divine clan progenitor, and would never need only Dark Spirit Veins.

In fact, divine clan cultivators don't even possess Dark attributes.

Ding Huan recalled the Dark Spirit Vein he had drained, and the faint residual soul consciousness he had destroyed hidden within it.

Had he once helped this root?

A vague idea gradually sharpened.

The root is indeed the divine clan's Tree Ancestor—but for some reason, a residual soul practicing Dark cultivation sought to strip the Tree Ancestor of its Wood Origin, and became entangled with it.

The end result was mutual devastation.

Both sank into the Dao Ruins.

But over time, the Tree Ancestor gradually gained the upper hand.

This thing concealed the residual soul entangled with it, and turned its eyes toward the Immortal World.

The Tree Ancestor wanted to absorb all life and fortune from the Immortal World, secretly strengthening itself.

But it never expected that just halfway through its plan, he had severed it.

He cut off tens of thousands of zhang of the Tree Ancestor's roots in the Immortal World.

Because of his intervention, the Tree Ancestor weakened greatly, while the residual soul that had long battled it now overpowered the Tree Ancestor.

To grow stronger, the residual soul absorbed Dark Spirit Qi while constructing that stone gate.

The main purpose of building the stone gate was to lure numerous cultivators into the Dao Ruins, providing them as blood sources for its cultivation.

In this sense, he had helped the residual soul.

But he never expected he himself would be drawn into this.

As a result, he could walk through the Dark attribute space, all the way to the two Dark Spirit Veins, and drained them.

His actions deprived the Tree Ancestor of two Dark Spirit Veins—but again, indirectly helped the Tree Ancestor.

The Tree Ancestor slowly recovered, and began summoning divine clan cultivators more frequently.

Damn, if all his guesses were true…

Then today's situation was entirely his doing—he indirectly killed the Tree Ancestor's rival, turning it into Dao Crystals.

Feeling the Tree Ancestor still desperately fighting to restore its power, Ding Huan began arranging various Dao laws while studying how to prevent the Tree Ancestor from controlling the space's great array.

Poison Dao laws came one after another—besides Poison Dao laws, the Divine Clan Gene Assassination Dao law must not be missing, nor the Divine Clan Gene Destruction Dao law…

Ding Huan didn't know whether the residual soul battling the Tree Ancestor was still alive—perhaps he had only destroyed a small portion.

But today he had come; no matter what, he would not let the Tree Ancestor leave this place.

Once the Tree Ancestor left here and returned to the divine clan, its recovery would be instantaneous.

Time passed second by second; Ding Huan turned his gaze again to the green stone—he suspected it was the core of this space's great array.

At this moment, the Poison Dao laws and Divine Clan Gene Assassination Dao laws he had laid down could no longer be fully concealed; Ding Huan knew the moment to strike was near.

Indeed, before Ding Huan could act, the Tree Ancestor erupted into frenzy.

(I really wanted to update another chapter today, but my strength falls short of my will. I now post two chapters daily, which is harder than my previous three. Even at midnight, I still want to update one more chapter to beg for votes—I hope 2025 begins well.)

2024 has ended. Whether good or bad, I wish all my readers good health and smooth fortune in 2025! Good night!)

(End of Chapter)