Chapter 979: A Dead Godspirit Tree

Jing Feiyang had been aware of Nie Tian’s uniqueness for a long time.

He also knew that outsiders were usually exceptionally heavy because of their vigorous flesh power and well-refined bodies.

He had fought outsiders on various occasions, and killed quite a number of them in battle.

However, even sixth grade outsiders hadn’t felt as heavy as Nie Tian.

Outsiders emphasized body refinement, which resulted in increased body density and increased weight.

When it came to outsiders at the same grade, the heavier one was, the more refined his or her body must be.

As Jing Feiyang had slight difficulty in supporting Nie Tian with his divine seals, he realized that the level of refinement of Nie Tian’s body had probably exceeded that of most sixth grade spirit beasts and outsiders.

That was to say, by relying on nothing but his bloodline power, Nie Tian would be at an overwhelming advantage in a battle against a sixth grade outsider or spirit beast.

A very impressed look appeared in Jing Feiyang’s eyes. “Adding in the three types of power from the spiritual cores in his spiritual sea and the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s profound incantations, I’m afraid no one at his level would be able to defeat him in battle, human, outsider, or spirit beast.”

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

As he swung his sleeve, a dozen more magical symbols flew out to wreath Nie Tian. Nie Tian felt unprecedentedly light as he was carried through the forest of ancient trees at a high speed.

A few seconds later, Jing Feiyang let out a soft exclamation as he suddenly jerked his head towards Nie Tian. “Hmm?!”

Nie Tian had just activated his Life Stealth bloodline talent, concealing his fleshly fluctuations completely, as if even his heart had stopped beating.

All living beings with flesh and blood would emanate subtle fleshly fluctuations with every beat of their hearts, the flow of their blood, and even changes in their mood.

Powerful outsiders had the ability to perceive such fleshly fluctuations just as human experts had the ability to capture soul fluctuations while living beings thought.

Fleshly fluctuations and soul fluctuations were the outsiders’ and humans’ respective means to detect lives.

Jing Feiyang wasn’t an outsider, but since Nie Tian was flying right beside him, he could vaguely sense his vigorous flesh aura.

However, all of a sudden, he couldn’t capture even a shred of the flesh aura that he exuded anymore.

He then realized that Nie Tian hadn’t been bragging just now. He actually could hide himself from outsiders that relied solely on flesh aura detection to scan their surroundings.

Even if Nie Tian was buried right underneath their feet, they wouldn’t be able to sense his existence.

“Now that he’s masked his flesh aura, let me mask his soul aura for him.” As this thought entered Jing Feiyang’s mind, half of the magical symbols that wreathed Nie Tian instantly lit up.

The soul fluctuations he emanated as he thought about things were completely sealed off.

Now that neither his fleshly fluctuations nor his soul fluctuations would leave Nie Tian’s side, as long as he stayed out of the outsiders’ sight, he would be completely undetectable, not even by the Phantasms.

A quarter hour later...

The three Godspirit Tree leaves in his wood power core shone even more dazzlingly, filling his spiritual sea with emerald light.

He could even sense their delight and excitement.

It was as if something not far ahead had an irresistible appeal to them.

“What could it be?” Nie Tian wondered as he grew increasingly careful.

“A group of Demons is garrisoned ahead, but they’re all at the sixth and seventh grade, nothing more.” With a disdainful snort, Jing Feiyang suddenly accelerated.

Seconds later, a swarm of gorgeous, multicolored divine seals flew out of him.

But immediately afterwards, they grew transparent as they plunged into the ground, as if to fly forward underground.

Jing Feiyang came to a stop in midair. Thousands of magical symbols could be seen flying in the depths of his eyes as he wove his hands in the air like frolicking butterflies flitting among flowers.

“It’s done.” With a faint smile, Jing Feiyang accelerated again. 

Moments later, the two of them arrived at the target area.

A huge withered tree had been broken into three pieces, with the bottom piece rooted in a piece of dried-up land, and the other two lying next to it.

That piece of land was clearly not a part of this dense forest. Instead, it seemed to have fallen out of the heavens and crashed into it.

The crash had created a deep hole in the ground, around which more than a dozen Demons were now lying, dead. All of them had been soundlessly killed by Jing Feiyang’s magical symbols. They hadn’t even known what had hit them.

Pointing at the piece of land that didn’t blend in, Jing Feiyang said, “These Demons were gathered here and talking about taking this withered tree that had broken into three pieces away. Apparently, they hoped to sell it to the Floragrims.”

With a single glance at the broken tree, Nie Tian immediately realized that this was a Godspirit Tree, which had been dead for who knew how long.

Godspirit Trees were Heaven Nourished grade spiritual materials, which could automatically channel wood power from the starry river and fuse it into the realm it was rooted in, vesting the land with vigorous life force and soon turning it into a blessed land for Floragrims or cultivators who practiced wood power.

According to the records in the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, Godspirit Trees could be easily found in the Desolate Antiquity Era. Because of them, many realms had been wreathed with rich wood power.

However, as time had passed, the Godspirit Trees had gradually died out for some reason. Today, they could only be found in Floragrim realms.

“Floragrim realms...” Nie Tian fixed his eyes on the piece of dried-up, cracked land that clearly didn’t belong to this continent, and then looked up at the grayish sky.

“If my speculation is correct, this piece of land must be a piece of the Floragrims’ homeland from the shattered top continent.

“The Godspirit Tree probably died, and was broken into three pieces when it crashed into this forest with this piece of land. The Godspirit Tree leaves in my spiritual sea must have sensed the existence of this Godspirit Tree, and grew excited. It’s just that it must have been dead for many years. Even though the Godspirit Tree leaves in my spiritual sea have led me to it, what can we do?”

With these thoughts, Nie Tian approached the withered Godspirit Tree that had broken into three pieces.

Two pieces were lying on the dried-up land, while the third piece was still rooted in the land. Its roots couldn’t be seen.

Nie Tian then walked to the two pieces on the ground. He activated wood power incantations as he placed his hand on them.

Nothing happened.

After pondering for a while, Nie Tian walked to the third piece of withered Godspirit Tree that was deeply rooted in the piece of dried-up land.

He lifted his hand once again before placing it on its shriveled, grayish-brown tree bark.

All of a sudden, the three Godspirit Tree leaves flew out of his wood power core. They followed his arm into his palm before entering the bottom piece of the Godspirit Tree.

Crisp cracking sounds then came from the grayish-brown tree trunk. Its shriveled bark started peeling off.

At the same time, Nie Tian’s wood power core was somehow stimulated. The concentrated wood power within it started to pour uncontrollably towards the Godspirit Tree’s roots.

Liquidized wood power rapidly vanished from his wood power core.

Nie Tian’s expression flickered.

If he continued to lose wood power at such a high speed, it wouldn’t be long before his wood power core was completely drained of its liquidized wood power.

“This won’t work.” Brows furrowed, he withdrew his hand decisively. 

He summoned the seventy-two tree branches from within his ring of holding and planted them in the dried-up ground to form the Wood Thriving Formation.

In the next moment, as the spell formation was activated, rich wood power that wreathed the depths of the dense forest started converging from all directions.

Wisps of rich wood power flew into the Wood Thriving Formation, condensing into a thick, emerald green mist that was pure wood power essence.

It didn’t even need Nie Tian to do anything to flow towards the Godspirit Tree’s withered roots on its own.

At this moment, Nie Tian was struck by a thrilling idea that the Wood Thriving Formation had existed to serve the purpose of protecting Godspirit Trees in the first place!

 He had gathered these tree branches from a floating land on the top continent, which was the Floragrims’ ancestral land. On that floating land, seventy-two incomparably huge ancient trees had formed a peculiar formation to gather wood power from their surroundings to protect that piece of land.

Later, as he had solved the mysteries of the Wood Thriving Formation, the floating land had shattered and fallen.

It was also at that time that the mysterious tree patterns that had carried the profound mysteries of the Wood Thriving Formation had fused into the seventy-two tree branches, which had ended up in his possession.

A bolt of lightning flashed across Nie Tian’s mind as he instantly figured out the whole thing.

“The seventy-two ancient trees in that ancestral land must have been protecting this Godspirit Tree. However, as that floating land fell apart and crashed into this forest, the withered Godspirit Tree broke into three pieces.

“Even though the three Godspirit Tree leaves in my wood power core didn’t come from this dead Godspirit Tree, they’ve somehow fused into its roots and reignited its life force, causing it to change.”

Due to the Wood Thriving Formation’s magical effects, rich wood power continued to gather from different parts of the dense forest.

The bottom part of the dead Godspirit Tree continued to shed piece after piece of its shriveled bark.

Watching this, Nie Tian’s eyes shone with the light of excitement.