The Hexapath Sword Palace was empty today. Feiling was probably cultivating in the Soulburn Hall and hadn’t come there today, nor would anyone inform her of his arrival. They could only depend on luck to meet each other.
There were so many people watching, so they hadn’t had an opportunity to fix a time. Tianming only had one hour after coming out of Old Deepstar Path. But he could only comprehend the sword, since she wasn’t there. Using his black arm, he opened the seven Sword Barriers and appeared before the ‘Hexapath Sword God.’
“Senior, I’m here to comprehend the sword again,” Tianming said respectfully.
“Yeah, you can go now,” said the ‘Hexapath Sword God.’
“Can I remove your pants?”
“Yeah, you can go now.”
“Then I’ll be removing it now?”
“Yeah, you can go now.”
“You’re really lazy. Couldn’t you leave a few more replies before you went?”
“Yeah, you can go now.”
Tianming was bored, and he could only comprehend the Hexapath Samsara Sword. The Hexapath Sword God told him that he would give Tianming the second move after Tianming was fully proficient with the first. Time passed in the blink of an eye, and Tianming had to rush back to the Deepstar Battlefield.
“Ling’er didn’t come.…” He looked at the Hexapath Sword Palace’s entrance with disappointment.
“I wonder if she was touched by my love poem? I believe it should be fine, with my talent.” He had no idea that Feiling had cried. But she had only cried because of how cheesy it was.
……
It was the nineteenth day of the Deepstar Battle. Tianming laid on a downstream creek with Ying Huo swimming the backstroke. “I boasted to Senior Sister Xueyi, and this is already the third day.”
“Oh Fourth, we’ve come to the Deepstar Battlefield to suffer because of you, and we’ve even been humiliated by others. You have to treat us well when you hatch. Don’t be as heartless as your three big brothers.” Tianming caressed the fourth egg in his hand.
Ying Huo chuckled. Tianming couldn’t be bothered with it and jumped out of the creek. He found a hole in the mountain and sealed it off to cultivate.
“This powder is something. It can’t even be washed away,” said Tianming.
“That means Fang Chenyu will be here soon,” said Ying Huo.
Tianming didn’t say anything, just continued caressing the fourth egg while he recalled the Astral Will he had observed that day. He was swiftly growing by absorbing dozens of Astral Wills daily, and his efficiency in the Old Deepstar Path was faster than everyone else. He entered into a meditative state and closed his eyes.
“Dao might seem little, but there are trillions of them. Heavenly Wills are just the roots of Dao, the beginning of everything.” The thoughts of one or two seniors didn’t matter in the Old Deepstar Path, but after receiving enlightenment from tens of thousands of them, he could always come up with something. His was the Imperial Will, the strongest will since ancient times.
“I wonder what your Dao will be?” Tianming smiled as he looked at the fourth egg. With an amicable, fatherly smile, Tianming continued, “As the saying goes, the elder brother is like the father. I can be considered your half-father, and you can be considered my half-daughter.”
The egg in his hand spun, seemingly happy. As time passed, various insights appeared in Tianming’s heart. The egg might not have hatched yet, but Tianming could sense the connection he had with it. He could vaguely sense the little fellow’s mood. Although he couldn’t communicate with it, he could at least sense its emotion.
He could sense that it was different from Ying Huo, Meow Meow, and Lan Huang. It should be a little fellow with many emotions.
It’s really a girl, so unfathomable. Tianming pondered inwardly. Simultaneously, he was sensing what it was feeling. Suddenly, the world before him shook as he felt like he was being dragged into a dreamland.
“What the hell?” The scenery before his eyes began changing. Tianming couldn’t move, and he stood in the air. He only had his consciousness, but no body. Suddenly, the world began taking form. Countless worlds appeared before Tianming’s eyes, and every single one was larger than the Flameyellow continent. There were tens of thousands of them, which made for an impactful sight.
“The dream of the Primordial Chaos Beast?” Tianming already guessed what was going on. He knew he would soon see the ‘fourth,’ just like how he’d seen the Aeternal Infernal Phoenix, Genesis Chaos Thunderfiend, and Primordial Terraqua Dragon. Tianming couldn’t help feeling curious about what he would be seeing.
He opened his eyes wide, and the mist started disappearing. He saw a colossal tree. The tree seemed to be connected to the countless worlds that covered the skies of those worlds. The roots spread millions and millions of miles out.
This tree was so massive that even the sun was overshadowed. It was even larger than the Primordial Mountains and Seas World because it was the emperor of all plants. All the plants in the world were part of it, and it alone was comparable to trillions of lifeforms.
Tianming saw a terrifying scene: the tree’s roots were divided into finer hairs and pierced through countless lifeforms, including humans, demon beasts, and even insects!
The roots dissolved in their bodies like a second nervous system, absorbing the host’s life essence and turning every lifeform into dry corpses. There wasn’t a lifeform alive under its roots, and everything was used as nutrients for the tree. The scene made Tianming take a cold breath.
“This tree is a demon that destroys worlds and lifeforms?” Honestly speaking, it seemed like a flower instead, because the tree trunk wasn’t thick. Starting from the roots, the tree separated into nine forks that formed nine different flowers.
Every flower had a color—the one nearest to Tianming was pure white. The flower was enveloped in a white mist, and Tianming could feel his heart being purified when he took a deep breath. It seemed like a narcissus.
In Tianming’s eyes, it was a sacred flower that represented purity and vitality, but it was filled with blood. When the blood spread out, Tianming saw a crimson flower. It seemed as though it had grown out of a blood ocean that was as bewitching as a woman’s lips. But within the stamen were venomous crimson fangs.
The petals looked like blades, and Tianming could see countless aggrieved souls wandering in the petals. They were all souls that the tree’s roots had absorbed for this crimson flower to grow.
“This must be the legendary Red Spider Lily.” Tianming felt his scalp go numb.
“The Aeternal Infernal Phoenix devoured the sun, the Genesis Chaos Thunderfiend refined the world with lightning, and the Primordial Terraqua Dragon doesn’t seem to have anything. But this tree grows by absorbing lifeforms’ life essences and souls. So are the Primordial Chaos Beasts good or evil?” Li Muyang hadn’t told him the answer to that question, and it threw Tianming’s heart into chaos.
But the dream was still ongoing. The tree had nine flowers, and there were seven other flowers aside from the white and crimson ones. But Tianming was certain that every flower was a fearsome existence, and they were growing on this tree, which was the fourth egg in his hand.
“All along, I’d thought that the fourth would be small, but it’s actually bigger than Lan Huang. Perhaps it’s only small now because it’s an egg!” Who would’ve thought that a thumb-sized seed could grow into such a colossal being?
“Is it finally coming to an end?” Tianming realized that his vision was changing, and he sank into the world tree.
“What’s that?” Tianming saw a figure. As he continued descending, he finally caught a clearer view of the figure. It was a spiritual body, not a physical body, and it looked like a young girl of five or six years old.
She had a strange appearance. She had a humanoid figure, limbs, and face, but there were petal-like wings and vines wrapping around her body, with leaves forming her clothes. Tianming had to admit that she was adorable, like a spirit of flowers.
“Who’s that?” Tianming was dumbfounded. Right then, the little girl stretched her hand out, and a flower began revolving around the tree. Pollen drifted down like rain and took root in the world.
Tianming finally understood. This little girl was the world tree, or rather the world tree’s spirit. His gaze continued descending, passing through the girl. The girl was playing with the leaves and didn’t notice him. But right at that moment, a voice sounded out, “Xianxian, come back quickly.”
Tianming’s body froze and he felt like he was struck by a bolt of lightning. “Ling’er’s voice?”
How did he hear Feiling’s voice in Fourth’s dream?