Hoo-Hoo!
At last, Jiang Yi stopped just one kilometer from the divine tree’s trunk. He sat down cross-legged and panting. He was finding it difficult even to sit upright. After he caught his breath, he decided that he could not afford to be too careless. The Wintry Pearl in his hand lit up, and countless Sword Emanations Race beings flew out.
Unsurprisingly, the Sword Emanations Race beings were moving significantly slower than they normally would. However, he believed that if the Lunar Beasts came here, they would be even slower. What’s more, their battle skills would suffer immensely as well.
“The Lunar Beasts would not emerge from under the divine tree, would they?”
Jiang Yi looked down at the black soil, fear still lingering in his heart. There were no holes from which the Lunar Beasts could emerge around Jiang Yi. However, he could see some bones and remnants of Lunar Beasts. He guessed that these were left behind by formidable martial artists in the Purgatory Mystic Realm in the past.
He could not afford to think too much into it either. After all, he could not even sit upright. If the Lunar Beasts came out from underground, he would admit to his fate. He summoned a million Sword Emanations Race beings and got them to surround him. It was only then that Jiang Yi finally relaxed and entered the State of the Union of Heaven and Man, to study the divine tree more closely.
“Eh?”
The moment he looked closely, he stiffened. This was because he realized that the heaven-and-earth spirit energy underneath the divine tree was frightening. It was comparable to the levels inside the Primitive Mystic Realm. From every direction, spirit energy was absorbed into the divine tree. This was the reason why the heaven-and-earth spirit energy felt so rich.
“Oh, my goodness. If I lean against the divine tree’s trunk, how rich would the spirit energy there be?”
Jiang Yi opened his eyes and spent a lot of effort turning his head, in order to get a closer look at the tree trunk far away, which resembled a little hill. He watched as rich divine light swirled around. In his heart, he wondered if the divine tree would become a demon. Why was it absorbing so much heaven-and-earth spirit energy?
Jiang Yi recalled the Death God’s Dense Sea back at Stellarsky Domain. The Mystic Thearch left behind a huge array formation inside which caused the heaven-and-earth spirit energy to feel extremely intense. At last, many trees there became demons. This divine tree must have been around for at least tens of thousands of years. At this point, it was still absorbing crazy amounts of spirit energy. It would be strange if it did not end up becoming a demon.
At that thought, the hairs on the back of Jiang Yi’s neck stood up. He imagined a tree branch reaching out towards him, wrapping around him, and finally absorbing him into the tree. Naturally, he began to shiver.
“It doesn’t matter anymore!”
He turned back around, trying not to think about these things. This tree had been around in the Purgatory Mystic Realm for a long time. If it really had become a demon, even the Wintry Sovereign would not be its match. Since the Wintry Sovereign and company came here before and nothing happened to them, Jiang Yi guessed that there would not be a problem for him as well.
He closed his eyes and continued his inspection of the tree. A long while later—apart from the rich heaven-and-earth spirit energy and insane gravity, he found nothing else spectacular about the tree or the area around it.
Time passed by bit by bit. Five minutes later, a frustrated noise sounded from the ground once again. Jiang Yi suddenly felt like he had been stabbed in the chest. Yet, there was no hint of pain on his expression. Instead, his face was a mask of pure joy and excitement.
“This divine tree really can overcome the Demonic Repellent! There is no negative thought in my mind at all!”
Jiang Yi mumbled to himself. His hope of remaining alive increased exponentially. What’s more, after so long, not a single Lunar Beast had appeared. What did that mean? It meant that no Lunar Beasts could emerge from underground. He would be safe if he remained where he was. That was… until the red light appeared.
Two hours passed, and still no Lunar Beasts appeared. Every fifteen minutes, however, Jiang Yi would hear the frustrated noise. He was very sure that at least until the red light appeared, no Lunar Beast would attack him here.
The effect of the Demonic Repellent under the tree was incredibly weak. Given Jiang Yi’s determination and strong character—along with the power of his Xiaozhuan characters, the Demonic Repellent posed no challenge to him at all. The only problem was whether the Sword Emanations Race beings would be able to hold off the Lunar Beasts once the red light came back on.
“If you can reach the tree, the chances of you surviving would be increased to sixty percent!”
Jiang Yi recalled the words that the Wintry Sovereign had written inside his letter, and his eyes lit up. This divine tree had greatly increased his chances of survival. However, the Wintry Sovereign must have overestimated Jiang Yi to say that he had a sixty percent chance of survival. In three days, he had to endure more than three hundred rounds of Lunar Beast attacks. With the few Sword Emanations Race beings he had left, how many rounds would he be able to endure?
“No matter. I’ll continue cultivating first! The heaven-and-earth spirit energy here is so rich and intense; it’ll be a waste if I don’t cultivate here.”
Jiang Yi entered the State of the Union of Heaven and Man. As he cultivated his heavenly powers, he began to think of ways to improve his skills. Every bit of increase in his skills also improved his chances of survival.
Thud! Thud!
It was very annoying cultivating in this place. Every fifteen minutes, a frustrated noise would come from underground, which would jolt Jiang Yi back to reality. It felt very much like being shocked out of a slumber: painful and frustrating. The good thing was that even though he could hear that noise, he did not get affected by the Demonic Repellent. Jiang Yi had no choice but to bite down his frustration and try to focus on cultivating, as well as realizing the Divine Sound Heaven Skill.
Twenty hours passed by in a flash!
A light dot appeared in the pitch-black sky. The dot became a line, and soon, the evil, red light covered the entire Purgatory Mystic Realm. A layer of mystery fell upon the otherwise dead continent.
Bang, bang, bang!
Unsurprisingly, the ground around the tree began to break apart as countless Lunar Beasts shot out of it like Netherworld Race beings. One by one, they cried out in a strange noise that made the hairs on Jiang Yi’s neck stand. The silence in the wilderness was broken.
Jiang Yi, who was still seated underneath the tree, opened his eyes wide. His heart thudded on his chest as he realized that he was in trouble.
This was because… the moment the red stream of light appeared, the light around the divine tree darkened significantly. The pressure on his body also reduced by half. The Lunar Beasts charged towards them like a coursing river, in a dense group, covering every cross-section of the ground. Jiang Yi could not even count how many there were.
Buzz!
The guqin appeared in his hand. There was no time to get closer to the divine tree any longer. Immediately, he started playing in an effort to suppress the Lunar Beasts. If he did not, the Sword Emanations Race beings would be destroyed. If all of them got destroyed, Jiang Yi would have no choice but to sit around and wait to die.
Clang, clang!
The crazy, jarring noises sounded from the guqin, silencing the Lunar Beasts’ cries and wails. The crazed Lunar Beasts were moving much slower now. Jiang Yi did not give orders for the Sword Emanations Race beings to make their move. Instead, he sat there, waiting for the Lunar Beasts to come closer. The closer the Lunar Beasts were to him, the more affected they would become by Jiang Yi’s music. They would then be greatly suppressed and much easier to kill.
“Sword Emanations King, move!”
When the Lunar Beasts came within three kilometers of the Sword Emanations Race beings, Jiang Yi roared out instructions. The Sword Emanations King shot out like a sharp blade. The dense group of cold-blooded, ruthless Sword Emanations Race beings moved out at the same time. Only one thousand of them stayed behind to protect Jiang Yi.
“Very good!”
Jiang Yi quickly discovered a problem. The Lunar Beasts were attacking in the formation of a spread-out fan. Not a single Lunar Beast came close to him from behind. This meant that there was no way the Lunar Beasts could jump over the tree to attack Jiang Yi. On one hand, Jiang Yi was much less overwhelmed. On the other hand, the number of Sword Emanations Race beings he would lose in this battle would be reduced as well.
Even so…
The situation was still tragic. Five minutes later, Jiang Yi slumped down on his guqin. The red light disappeared, and the Lunar Beasts retreated like a receding wave. The divine light from the divine tree became brighter again. Six hundred to seven hundred thousand Sword Emanations Race beings charged out, but less than half returned.
With the divine tree’s protection, the Sword Emanations Race beings did not incur such huge losses this time. However, the Lunar Beasts this time were so aggressive that Jiang Yi still lost close to four hundred thousand Sword Emanations Race beings.
Only eight and a half million Sword Emanations Race beings remained inside the Wintry Pearl. In other words, after twenty more rounds of Lunar Beast attacks, Jiang Yi would have no more Sword Emanations Race beings to make use of. All he would be able to do would be to take over the battle on his own.
