Yuan Ming's eyebrows furrowed slightly; after a moment of contemplation, he reached out with one hand and grasped the void.

The corpse of the green-black Tree Man disappeared in a flash, and in the next moment, it appeared within the Stealing Heaven Tripod Space.

Suddenly, from within an unknown black space on Three Immortals Island, came a curious and light "Eh?"

After what seemed like a moment of reflective musing, the voice spoke again, "Send a squad of Wood Emperor Guards to Evergreen Garden."

As his voice faded, there was a rustling noise, into which a few unclear acknowledgements of "Yes" were intermixed.

No long after the noises quieted down, another voice echoed in the darkness.

"These little things are more troublesome than the ones before. Send two more squads of Wood Emperor Guards to deal with the ants in the Gold-Plated Hall and Black Cloud Tower as well," the voice said again, with no sign of anger in the words, at most a hint of impatience.

The tone was like that of an owner, fed up with the antics of his pets, instructing the housekeeper to discipline them.

After a few more muffled acknowledgements of "Yes," the black space was once more plunged into dead silence.

...

Inside the Stealing Heaven Tripod Space, the Undying Black Tree that had nearly merged with Yuan Ming sent out roots on its own initiative. The roots thrust into the corpse of the green-black aged tree like sharp cones, starting to absorb the remaining Qi-Blood Power and the unique Primordial Qi of the Undying Tree.

Yuan Ming's expression changed, but he did not interfere.

The corpse of the balding elder rapidly shriveled and contracted, soon looking no different from a segment of a withered stump.

And with the branches and leaves of the black Undying Tree trembling, it grew another two to three Zhang taller.

Yuan Ming was both shocked and delighted; the Qi-Blood Power of the balding elder was so robust that it made the Undying Tree grow so much!

But he soon realized that this was not the case. The Undying Tree's growth was not due to the Qi-Blood Power of the elder, but rather the Original Spiritual Power of the Undying Tree contained within the green-black tree.

This Spiritual Power was of the same origin as Yuan Ming's black Undying Tree, greatly promoting the growth of the black Undying Tree.

As the black Undying Tree grew taller, the Ju Mang Spirit Technique advanced significantly.

"Fantastic, there should be more Undying Tree Puppets appearing on Penglai Immortal Island. Killing them all and allowing my Undying Tree to devour them might even propel the Ju Mang Spirit Technique to the Perfect Realm!" Yuan Ming thought to himself in delight.

Just at this moment, the black Undying Tree suddenly lit up with streaks of Blood Light, and a rich Qi-Blood Power transferred into Yuan Ming's body.

"Is this nurturing back?" Yuan Ming's face showed surprise.

In the past, the Undying Tree would absorb the Qi-Blood Power of demon beasts entirely for itself, but now it was nurturing him back. Could this be the effect of advancing in the Ju Mang Spirit Technique?

Although the Qi-Blood Power transmitted from the black Undying Tree was quite pure, Yuan Ming did not directly absorb it. Instead, he activated the Shura Blood Devouring Map to collect the incoming Qi-Blood Power, refining it thoroughly to ensure there were no hidden concerns before completely absorbing it using the Demon Image Prison Suppression Skill.

This Qi-Blood Power was abundant, half of the balding elder's Qi-Blood Power. After Yuan Ming absorbed it, he immediately found that his Body Cultivation Realm had increased significantly.

Meanwhile, after a short rest, Hua Zhi and Old Man Hei Zhu and the others started to break the Forbidden Array at the entrance to Evergreen Garden.

The Forbidden Array was quite profound but could not withstand several Nascent Soul Level existences, and it was soon broken.

The group set off once again, heading deeper into the garden.

Yuan Ming's Divine Sense swept over a grey tree within the woods behind the gate without making a move against it.

That grey tree was most likely arranged by the Undead Tree Demon as a trap. Since he had already seen through the ruse, there was no rush to destroy it, as doing so might startle the snake.

The deeper they went into the garden, the more astonished the group became. Spiritual Flowers and Strange Grasses were everywhere, and rare trees were abundant. It did not resemble a perilous place occupied by an old demon but seemed more like the garden of an Immortal.

Each member of the group hurriedly began to collect their finds, gaining substantial rewards.

"Master, I gave you all the spirit grass and spirit trees from before, so let me take the spirit grass here. Penglai Island is becoming ever more dangerous, and I need to strengthen myself as well," Hua Zhi communicated telepathically with Yuan Ming.

"That's fine," Yuan Ming agreed with a nod.

"Thank you, Master," Hua Zhi showed a delighted expression, directly extending her roots into the ground and from underneath, she began to draw out the dense Spiritual Power contained within these spirit trees and grasses, causing various Spiritual Flowers and Strange Grasses to wilt and wither one after another.

The group continued to advance and soon arrived at the central area of the garden, which was surprisingly covered by a dirt-colored circular Great Array resembling an inverted bowl. Inside, the Spiritual Flowers and Strange Grasses appeared to be of much older age, and waves of incredibly dense Spiritual Energy and the fragrance were diffusing outwards, making Yuan Ming and the others covet it.

"Is that the Nine-leaf Hundred-Ginger Grass? It looks like it's at least two thousand years old, isn't it?" Old Man Hei Zhu stared intently at a purple spirit grass about half a person tall, his gaze ablaze, unable to look away.

"Next to the Nine-leaf Hundred-Ginger Grass, is that the Dragon Blood Earth Daisy? The quality is unexpectedly high; this place is truly a treasure trove," Aunt Wan Hua couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.

The others also wore expressions of pleasant surprise.

Yuan Ming's Divine Sense reached out, covering a tall, bluish-green tree within the enclosed Forbidden area.

The tree had a rounded canopy with dense, holly-like round leaves. The veins of the leaves emitted a faint golden sheen, making the entire tree appear to shimmer with hidden Golden Light, and four or five dark golden Spirit Fruits hung from the branches.

"There's no mistake, this is indeed a rare thousand-year-old Spirit Origin Tree," Yuan Ming acknowledged, unable to hide his excitement.

This tree was no ordinary species and was well-known. Although its actual name was Spirit Origin Tree, many Cultivators preferred to call it the Golden Core Tree, because the Spirit Fruit it bore could greatly enhance the chance of Core Formation for Cultivators.

Therefore, that Spirit Origin Fruit was also known as the Golden Core Fruit, a precious treasure coveted by many Cultivators.

Moreover, the fruit's medicinal properties were mild, and it could be consumed directly without needing to be refined into elixirs.

It was just a pity that Spirit Origin Trees had long been extinct on the Yunhuang Continent, and it was unexpected to find one here.

"There are indeed many Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures inside. We should quickly break the Forbidden Array and take what we need," Hua Zhi suggested on Yuan Ming's bidding.

"Indeed, delays could lead to complications. Let's hurry up," Shi Yanshi was the first to respond.

The rest had no objections, so they all started to work on breaking the Forbidden Array.

The yellow bowl-shaped array protecting this place glowed erratically with spirit light, while circles of earth-yellow Spiritual Charm Array Patterns lit up on the surrounding ground. The ceaseless power of the earth veins was drawn upwards, merging into the protective shield.

Long Chong took out his War Spear Magic Treasure first, channeled his mana, and with a rapid surge forward, he thrust at it.

The yellow bowl-shaped array did not wait for his attack to arrive; it seemed to have already sensed something. In the place that had been a yellow aura, the light suddenly condensed, revealing a hexagonal shield heavy with weight.

Long Chong's War Spear Magic Treasure struck squarely onto the massive shield, instantly emitting a muffled "clang" noise.

The spear tip sparked a series of sparks on the shield but failed to penetrate it. Instead, it was repelled by a sudden surge of tremendous force and was violently knocked back.

Seeing this, Long Chong did not pause. He accelerated and launched attacks from different directions.

But the array was like it had grown a heavenly eye, able to precisely predict his every move and mount targeted defenses each time.

After several unsuccessful attempts, the others also made their moves.

Shi Yanshi was seen waving his brush in the void. The character "Break" emerged mid-air, transforming into a sharp ray of light that struck the array.

Aunt Wan Hua waved her hand, and her basket Magic Treasure spun out, crashing into it.

Old Man Hei Zhu flicked his wrist, and the fishing line on his rod shone brightly, whipping out like a long spear for the thrust.

Hua Zhi also charged forward, her palms powerfully slamming down.

Wulu likewise concentrated his mana, fiercely smashing his fist toward the front.

"Boom boom boom"

Continuous thunderous explosions sounded, and patches of solid light lit up on the bowl-shaped yellow protective shield, with the spirit light trembling intensely.

But after all the noise subsided, the shield remained as stable as Mount Tai.

Even with everyone launching their attacks at once, the forbidden array could still split off hexagonal shields, one for each attacker, blocking all of their assaults. And it was a case of one-to-one defense, where the defense was precisely where the attack was aimed, never wasting the slightest force elsewhere.

Seeing that a prolonged assault was ineffectual, Yuan Ming, in his identity as Nether Moon God, signaled for the others to pause and started to ponder closely.

"Xi Ying, have you ever seen such an array?" Inside the Stealing Heaven Tripod, Yuan Ming couldn't help asking.

"It somewhat resembles the Eight-direction Returning Origin Array, but the mechanism seems quite different. It's a bit strange," Xi Ying replied after thinking for a while.

"Oh? What kind of strangeness?" Yuan Ming asked persistently upon hearing this.

"The Eight-direction Returning Origin Array is an Earth Attribute Defense Magic Array combined with the Eight Diagrams Directions. For anyone attacking the array while standing on the ground, the array can sense them, determining their position and the direction of the attack. Thus, the characteristic emerges of the enemy attacking a certain spot and the array focusing its defenses there. However, such an array usually requires eight spiritual eyes to be buried in advance—with magic treasures containing dense spiritual energy for support—otherwise, it would not be able to operate for long," Xi Ying explained with a frown.

"But the array we're facing now doesn't seem to have this problem. Clearly, we can't detect any spiritual eyes, yet the spiritual power is abundant, nowhere close to being exhausted, right?" Yuan Ming grasped the point immediately and spoke.

"Exactly. So this must be a variant of the Eight-direction Returning Origin Array, but as to how it varies, I need to observe it further," Xi Ying noted.

"I've heard of layered arrays, which connect two types of arrays to each other, inside and out. Do you think this could be one of those?" Yuan Ming suddenly recalled something and hurriedly spoke up.

"You mean, beneath this great array, there's another array dedicated to powering it? They complement each other and provide mutual support?" Xi Ying's eyes sparkled as she asked.

"Hua Zhi, go check underground," Yuan Ming ordered without answering directly but instead instructed Hua Zhi.

"You got it!" Hua Zhi agreed and began to take root, burrowing towards the depths of the earth.

Shortly after, the ground started to shake violently, and a series of muffled roars came from below.

The enveloping Eight-direction Returning Origin Array above also trembled mightily, with the spirit light flaring unstably.

Not much later, Hua Zhi resurfaced, having returned to her human form.

"Master, indeed there was an array connected below that seemed rather simple. It was continuously drawing Earth Vein Spiritual Power to supply the array above, and it has now been destroyed by me," Hua Zhi, brushing the dirt off herself, reported telepathically.

"Well done," Yuan Ming praised.

Then he ordered Old Man Hei Zhu and the others to once again employ their methods to attack the array.

Old Man Hei Zhu and the others, unaware that Hua Zhi had already sabotaged the underlying array, distinctly felt the great array's shield change following Hua Zhi's sudden disappearance and reappearance.

In a short while, as the array's spiritual energy was depleted, it could no longer withstand their attacks and finally erupted into a loud explosion, dissipating into specks of light that vanished into the void.

The moment the forbidden array collapsed, a rich fragrance and spiritual energy suddenly flooded towards them.

The group immediately surged in, beginning their search for Spiritual Flowers and Strange Grasses inside.

Yuan Ming, with a clear target in mind, directed Hua Zhi straight to the Spirit Origin Tree. They dug it out roots and all and transported it into the Stealing Heaven Tripod Space, where it was replanted.

As they were occupied, a powerful surge of mana began to emanate from the surroundings.

"Watch out, we are under attack," Hua Zhi suddenly spoke up, warning everyone.

Aunt Wan Hua, Shi Yanshi, and Old Man Hei Zhu swiftly retreated back, regrouping together.

Then, the trees around them began to sway as thirty-six Core Formation Stage Tree People emerged from all directions, encircling everyone in the center.

Immediately afterward, a grey light shone on the ground in front of the thirty-six Core Formation Stage Tree People, and five figures emerged from it.

These five people varied in age and appearance, but they all had greenish skin tones and wooden expressions on their faces, with little light in their eyes.

Yet, when Long Chong and the others saw them, they couldn't help but stiffen.

The aura emanating from these few individuals was all at the Nascent Soul Level. Although somewhat weaker than Zhao Gui, it was clear they were no ordinary opponents.

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