The Heaven-equal Vine’s awareness sent clear-cut soul messages to Nie Tian.
Nie Tian received and read them using his soul.
Soon, he learned that the Heaven-equal Vine wasn’t a Heaven Nourished grade treasure that had been born in this heaven and earth.
Instead, it had been born in a Floragrim realm in the heaven and earth beyond the Dead Star Sea, which was also where humanity had originated.
Many years ago, the Floragrims and other powerful outsider races had discovered and occupied the Domain of Forbidden Heaven.
They had gained dominion over several of its realms.
However, none of the realms that had been distributed to them had been wreathed in rich wood power. Therefore, the Floragrims could only bring over one of their Heaven-equal Vines from their home realms.
Their unique features allowed them to channel scattered wood power from the starry river on their own.
The Floragrims’ plan had been to use a Heaven-equal Vine to transform one of the newly-acquired realms into a blessed land, where they could rapidly upgrade their bloodlines, similar to what the Five Elements Sect had done to the Realm of Wood Spirit.
As a result, the Heaven-equal Vine they had brought had done a great job. It had quietly channeled wood power from the starry river and slowly transformed the structure of a realm.
What it had done was similar to what the Divine Flame had done to the realms in the Domain of Flame’s End.
However, good times don’t last long. A Son of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace had also discovered the Domain of Forbidden Heaven.
He and his friend from the Five Elements Sect had marched their powerful subordinates into the Domain of Forbidden Heaven, where they had engaged in a fierce battle against the Floragrims and occupants of other races.
The battle had reduced almost all of the realms in the Domain of Forbidden Heaven to dead realms.
The outsider occupants, who had first discovered the domain, had either been killed or driven from the Domain of Forbidden Heaven.
Even though that Son of the Stars had taken the Domain of Forbidden Heaven, with most of its realms shattered or reduced to dead realms, it had lost its value.
After the Floragrims had fled, the Heaven-equal Vine had fallen into the hands of a Son of the Stars named Ji Cang.
Seeing the war-broken Domain of Forbidden Heaven, Ji Cang had decided to restore life force to it. He had figured that he would start with the least damaged realm.
That realm was none other than the Realm of Shattered Earth, where Nie Tian now was.
Ji Cang had built a palace here and reached an agreement with the Heaven-equal Vine, which specified that the Heaven-equal Vine would help the Realm of Shattered Earth recover its life force and turn it into a trial location.
Since then, the Heaven-equal Vine had established its foothold in the Realm of Shattered Earth and made unrelenting efforts to help it regather power, mainly wood power.
However, shortly after that, Ji Cang had risen to prominence. He had discovered or taken more and more domains across the human heaven and earth.
Eventually, he had become the Lord of the Stars of his generation.
He gradually overlooked the Domain of Forbidden Heaven, which he had taken in his early years and had been in poor condition.
After he had broken through into the God domain, his desire for a better understanding of star power had driven him to explore the boundless starry river.
He had naturally forgotten about the Domain of Forbidden Heaven, and his agreement with the Heaven-equal Vine.
Now, many years had passed, and the agreement between him and the Heaven-equal Vine was soon going to expire.
Not only had he not shown up, but he hadn’t even sent people over to deliver a message. It was as if he had gone missing.
When Nie Tian had set foot in the palace, the fragmentary star marks inside of him had triggered the restrictive spell in this place, which had allowed him to replace Ji Cang as the new master of the Realm of Shattered Earth.
The reason why the Heaven-equal Vine wanted to leave was because, as wondrous as it was, it would also grow old and die.
It hoped to find a way back to the Floragrims’ world, its birthplace, before it died.
When it died, the wood power it had gathered over hundreds of thousands of years would be returned to heaven and earth.
Therefore, whenever it sensed the existence of a being whose aura was similar to its own, it would generously grant it a strand of its refined power.
Mu Biqiong’s coexisting flowers, Hua Mu’s Heavenly Demonsbane, and Nie Tian’s Godspirit Tree were all intelligent wood-attributed beings that were similar to it.
All three of them had received gifts from it.
Now, it was nearing the end of its life. It planned to return to and leave seeds in its birthplace after the agreement expired.
Nie Tian’s expression flickered. “Ji Cang! The current Lord of the Stars!”
He hadn’t expected that the one who had reached an agreement with the Heaven-equal Vine was actually the current sectmaster of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.
The Godspirit Tree, which had taken root in the ground in front of him, was wreathed in spectacular light as it continued to receive power from the Heaven-equal Vine.
Nie Tian’s face grew grim as he asked, “What would happen if you leave?”
The Heaven-equal Vine answered through soul messages.
According to it, it had already nourished the Realm of Shattered Earth for many years. Even if it left, the Realm of Shattered Earth would be able to hold on.
It was just that it wouldn’t be able to channel wood power from the starry river anymore.
However, if Nie Tian stayed in the Realm of Shattered Earth in the long-term, as the Godspirit Tree continued to grow, it would replace the Heaven-equal Vine in bringing in wood power for the Realm of Shattered Earth.
Not just that, but the existence of the flame spark and the Nine Stars Flower would help the Realm of Shattered Earth gather flame power and star power, which would breed new changes.
Nie Tian sighed. “But I can’t stay in the Realm of Shattered Earth for long.”
Since the agreement between Ji Cang and the Heaven-equal Vine was going to expire soon, Nie Tian couldn’t use force to keep it in the Realm of Shattered Earth.
For one thing, the Heaven-equal Vine was much stronger than him.
For another, it was the current sectmaster who had made the agreement with the Heaven-equal Vine.
Even if he somehow managed to keep the Heaven-equal Vine in the Realm of Shattered Earth, it would be against the sectmaster’s will. He didn’t want to risk angering the sectmaster over this.
After all, he already had three whole domains under his name. The Realm of Shattered Earth wasn’t indispensable.
If Ji Cang learned his unauthorized action someday, it would be hard to say whether he would punish him for it.
Furthermore, the Heaven-equal Vine had helped Mu Biqiong’s coexisting flowers, Hua Mu’s Heavenly Demonsbane, and now, his Godspirit Tree. It wouldn’t feel right to force it to stay.
Therefore, after their communication ended, he seized the time to practice Heavenly Wood Heal before the Heaven-equal Vine left.
As he did, the Godspirit Tree continued to gain power from it.
During this time, he would also communicate with it from time to time.
It confirmed that the Heavenly Wood Heal he now practiced was one of the Floragrims’ top secret incantations, which was only known to a handful of powerful Floragrims.
Even the tree branches he used to establish the Wood Thriving Formation carried the profound imprints of Trees of Life.
The Heaven-equal Vine also told him that the birth of the Floragrims had close connections with Trees of Life.
However, it couldn’t determine the origin of his unique bloodline either. It only suspected that his bloodline might have something to do with Trees of Life.
A few months passed.
With the help of his abundant outsider corpse stock and the rich wood power in the wood power region, he finally completed Flesh Tempering, the fourth stage of Heavenly Wood Heal.
After repeated damaging and refinement, each and every one of his muscles had become unprecedentedly tough.
The amount of flesh power his flesh could hold had also risen to a whole new level.
Now, he was confident that his body’s toughness already allowed him to contend against any Bonebrute or Demon at his level in their Indestructible Form, and he wouldn’t have to draw a single wisp of power from his spiritual sea.
As the Heaven-equal Vine was finally going to leave, he thanked it by pointing out a direction for it.
It was the direction of the Realm of Unbounded Desolation.
Somewhere in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation was a hidden spatial rift, through which Nie Tian had visited a magical land where a small Tree of Life had grown.
He shared this information with the Heaven-equal Vine, hoping it would be useful to it.
The unforeseen information greatly thrilled the Heaven-equal Vine, as it suspected that the magical land might have a secret connection to some Florigrim realm.
On the expiration day, deafening rumbles echoed throughout the Realm of Shattered Earth.
Vines that were the size of mountain ranges gradually uprooted and shrank down.
Eventually, the Heaven-equal Vine that used to hold the entire Realm of Shattered Earth together flew off into the starry river.
