Chapter 1221

Han Wuxian

Mysterious Ice Lizard Dragon

Soul-breaking Cliff

The gray domain and the ice dragon's extreme cold domain collided with a boom! No earth-shattering explosion, only a chilling silence that withered all things. The ice dragon's breath, capable of freezing mountains and rivers, vanished silently upon touching the Return to the Void force field; its thick ice armor lost its luster at visible speed, turning ashen, as if eroded by countless ages.

Nine Heavens Gale Wind Layer

Return to the Void Power

Return to the Void Field

Return to the Void Grand Dao

Silent Extinction

Origin Star Core

Soul-killing Qi

The Nine Heavens Gale Wind layer lies at the edge of the world's barrier, where Chaos and violence reign, filled with the Nine Heavens Gale Wind capable of tearing apart magical treasures, as well as violent energy streams of various attributes. Solar Essence Gold is the crystal formed when the utmost yang and rigid solar true fire, the Nine Heavens Gale Wind, and metal-type energy occasionally fuse and temper under extreme conditions.

Ten-thousand-year Ice Soul

Solar Essence Gold

After searching for several hours, just as he was about to pass through the entire Gale Wind layer, a point of blinding golden light caught his attention. That golden gleam floated amidst the violent gale winds yet remained unmoving, emanating pure and fierce yang energy—it was precisely the Solar Essence Gold!

Soul-nourishing Tree

Divine Sense

Purple Heavenly Thunder

Thunder Dragon

Han Wuxian shouted low, no longer merely annihilating but slightly altering the nature of the Return to the Void force field into a huge gray vortex. The splitting lightning and cutting gale winds, upon contacting the vortex, had their power drastically weakened and decomposed, ultimately turning into pure energy that was slowly absorbed by the vortex, instead replenishing Han Wuxian's consumption!

Ghost Domain

Silence

Existence

It was scorching hot to the touch, as if holding a miniature sun.

Having secured the two main medicinal herbs, Han Wuxian felt somewhat relieved, his eyes turning to the final and most elusive target—the Soul-Nurturing Tree.

According to the jade slip's records, the Soul-Nurturing Tree's last confirmed appearance was in a perilous place called the Fallen Soul Gully during antiquity. That place was an ancient battlefield ruin, with shattered space and laws in Chaos, where countless mighty beings had fallen; their remnants souls, obsessions, and resentful qi intertwined, forming a forbidden ghost domain where no living thing should tread. Yet precisely because of this, it could possibly nurture the wondrous tree that nourishes souls.

Han Wuxian tore through space, performing successive ultra-long-distance teleportations; even with his Harmony Dao cultivation, he felt a wave of fatigue. As he stepped out of the void once more, the sight before him made his brows furrow tightly.

It was a vast ravine, as if forcibly torn apart, the sky an eternal dark red, riddled with spatial rifts. Within the ravine, gray-black mist swirled, faintly revealing shattered armor and colossal desiccated bones; the air seemed filled with countless wailing and howling resentful spirits, various negative emotions surging like tides against the mind. Here the laws of heaven and earth were deficient and twisted.

"Fallen Soul Gully… indeed lives up to its name." Han Wuxian could sense that the danger here surpassed even that of the Xuan Bing Abyss and the Nine Heavens Gale Layer. The omnipresent soul-killing qi and Chaos laws inflicted terrifying erosion upon the soul.

He unfolded the Return to the Void field and slowly stepped into the gray mist. Where the field's edge met the soul-killing qi, a "hiss-hiss" sound arose as they mutually annihilated. But here the soul-killing qi seemed endless, moreover containing myriad fragments of Chaos will, constantly attempting to bore into his sea of consciousness.

Han Wuxian firmly guarded his mind, the Core of the Origin Star showering clear radiance within his sea of consciousness, protecting the lucidity of his spirit platform. He carefully sensed, seeking that faint trace possibly existing—a warm, moist, vital breath, the quality of the Soul-Nurturing Tree.

After arduously trekking through the Fallen Soul Gully for a long time and defeating several waves of strange creatures formed from condensed remnant souls and resentments, Han Wuxian finally spotted a distinct patch of verdant green at the bottom of a relatively "tranquil" broken valley.

It was a small tree barely three feet tall, its whole body like jade, with sparse branches and leaves, yet it emitted a soft, warm radiance that dispersed the gray mist and resentful qi within several zhang around it. Faint natural soul-power runes flowed across its trunk.

"Soul-Nurturing Tree!" Han Wuxian felt a surge of joy.

However, just as he prepared to approach, a terrifying will, far stronger and more substantial than any of the remnant souls before, erupted from the depths of the valley!

A colossal black shadow, formed entirely from condensed pure soul-killing qi, slowly rose; it had no fixed form, seeming composed of countless anguished, distorted faces, exuding a dreadful pressure comparable to that of a late-stage Harmony Dao cultivator!

"Intruder…… leave…… your soul behind!"

A vague, malice-filled mental surge struck Han Wuxian's sea of consciousness directly. This was the "Soul-King of the Fallen Soul Gully" nurtured within the gully; it had long coveted the Soul-Nurturing Tree but could not approach due to opposing attributes, and upon seeing Han Wuxian, it instantly regarded him as both prey and obstacle.

Han Wuxian's gaze grew grave; the Soul-King's strength was immense, its methods strange, specializing in attacking the soul—exactly the type of opponent he most wished to avoid, especially with his soul still wounded from an old injury.

"I only need a branch; I do not wish to be your enemy." Han Wuxian attempted to communicate.

"Die!" came the reply—a violent mental onslaught from the Soul-King, accompanied by countless black soul-spears condensed into substance, raining down like a storm!