The phantom form of the Soul-forgetting Tree stared at Ye Ling in terror, its body trembling slightly. "You, you..."
The Ye Ling it saw now was completely different from the one before!
Before, it had dared to shout at Ye Ling, even attempt to kill him!
But now, with Ye Ling releasing even a fraction of his aura, all thoughts of resisting him vanished!
Such pressure far surpassed its own!
The Soul-forgetting Tree now knew very clearly that it would be effortless for Ye Ling to kill it.
Ye Ling squinted and smiled, reaching out to grasp the void. Space twisted rapidly into a blade, surging with incredibly terrifying power.
The Soul-forgetting Tree glanced at the blade of twisted space in Ye Ling's hand, its body trembling even more violently. It couldn't help but say to Ye Ling, "Emperor... Emperor Lord... I, I concede..."
Under Ye Ling's immense pressure, the Soul-forgetting Tree had even changed its usual self-address.
Fear had rendered its brain incapable of thought.
Ye Ling squinted and smiled, "I have fully respected your will. Since you wanted a fight, then we shall have one!"
Hearing Ye Ling's words, the Soul-forgetting Tree's expression changed drastically, its mind exploding with a "boom"!
A fight?
Wasn't that suicidal?
Escape!
Without hesitation, the Soul-forgetting Tree rapidly dispersed its phantom form. The pool below began to tremble violently, as if something was about to emerge.
Soon, Ye Ling felt the surrounding space begin to vibrate, and then the scenery around him shifted. He was teleported outside the Soul-forgetting Tree!
Chu Yuan, who had been following Ye Ling's instructions to guide the surrounding Nether Qi, was momentarily stunned to see Ye Ling emerge. He quickly reacted and asked, "Emperor Lord, how is Xue'er?"
Ye Ling: "Wu Xue she..."
Rumble...
Before Ye Ling could finish his sentence, the entire valley began to shake violently. The dense spiritual energy around rapidly poured into the Soul-forgetting Tree, even condensing into a tornado above it, sweeping across the surroundings!
A large number of the Soul-forgetting Tree's leaves and fruits were caught by the spiritual energy tornado, flung to the sides of the valley.
Chu Yuan stared at the scene before him in horror, exclaiming, "What, what is happening?"
He had spent hundreds of thousands of years in the Ten Thousand Nether Mountains, living alongside the Soul-forgetting Tree, and had never witnessed such a spectacle!
Ye Ling also looked at the Soul-forgetting Tree before him with surprise, clearly not expecting things to escalate to this point.
Just as Ye Ling and Chu Yuan were both astonished, wanting to know what was happening to the Soul-forgetting Tree, the ground beneath it rapidly cracked open, and then two thick legs emerged!
"Two legs?"
Seeing the roots of the Soul-forgetting Tree transform into two giant human legs, Ye Ling's mouth twitched. He found the visually impactful scene somewhat hard to accept.
The Soul-forgetting Tree was already a towering ancient tree. After growing two legs, the top of the tree disappeared into the clouds, making it impossible to see its summit at a glance!
Just as Ye Ling thought the Soul-forgetting Tree was about to completely transform into a giant, the tree turned and ran, crashing out of the valley at an extremely fast speed, heading into the distance!
Thump, thump, thump!
In the blink of an eye, the Soul-forgetting Tree was almost out of Ye Ling's sight!
Seen from afar, the fleeing Soul-forgetting Tree resembled a giant cauliflower with legs, running at breakneck speed.
Seeing the Soul-forgetting Tree escape on its own, Chu Yuan was first stunned, then snapped back to reality, his eyes tearing up, "Xue'er! Come back quickly!!!"
Before his voice faded, Chu Yuan transformed into a black streak and chased after the Soul-forgetting Tree!
As Chu Yuan pursued the fleeing Soul-forgetting Tree, Ye Ling was left alone in the valley.
After the Soul-forgetting Tree uprooted itself and fled on its legs, a bottomless pit was left in the valley.
A large amount of spiritual energy and Nether Qi surged towards the pit, attempting to fill the void left by the Soul-forgetting Tree's escape.
"This tree can actually uproot itself and escape. It's truly a marvel of the world..."
Ye Ling glanced in the direction the Soul-forgetting Tree had fled, but he didn't immediately pursue. Instead, he set up a barrier at the edge of the Ten Thousand Nether Mountains to prevent the Soul-forgetting Tree from escaping and harming the Three Realms.
Although the Soul-forgetting Tree was massive and incredibly fast, the Ten Thousand Nether Mountains were vast, and with Chu Yuan in pursuit, the tree would likely cause trouble for a while before settling down.
During this time, Ye Ling wanted to inspect the deep pit left by the Soul-forgetting Tree!
Before the Soul-forgetting Tree had moved, Ye Ling hadn't sensed anything within the pit.
But the moment the Soul-forgetting Tree emerged, he detected a fleeting trace of spirit-devouring Qi from the pit.
Although the aura of the spirit-devouring Qi was extremely faint and quickly masked by the agitated spiritual energy and Nether Qi, Ye Ling had still keenly captured it.
It was clear that the Soul-forgetting Tree had dropped something in the pit while escaping.
"It seems the secret to the Soul-forgetting Tree controlling spirit-devouring Qi wasn't within its body, but in the soil where its roots were anchored," Ye Ling murmured. He then restored the twisted space in his hand to its original state and swept his divine sense down into the pit.
However, Ye Ling found nothing.
Before the Soul-forgetting Tree left, the bottom of the pit was occupied by its roots, leaving the soil devoid of any energy, a vacuum.
That place had neither spiritual energy nor Nether Qi. Once the Soul-forgetting Tree left, it exposed this vacuum, and the surrounding areas were filled with extremely dense spiritual energy and Nether Qi brought by Chu Yuan.
With the Soul-forgetting Tree, which maintained the balance of spiritual energy, and Chu Yuan, who maintained the balance of Nether Qi, both gone, the surrounding spiritual energy and Nether Qi became agitated, surging into the pit one after another.
The two types of energy clashed, making the energy within the pit incredibly chaotic, masking all traces from below, and even interfering with Ye Ling's divine sense.
"I didn't expect the spiritual energy and Nether Qi to clash like this in this place, even masking the aura of the Soul-forgetting Tree's life core..."
"If this continues, I won't be able to find that thing."
Ye Ling had never seen the Soul-forgetting Tree's life core. He had no idea if it was large or small, crystalline or stony.
Now, with the spiritual energy and Nether Qi clashing and creating chaotic forces that perfectly masked the life core's aura, Ye Ling's divine sense swept through, finding only a pile of rubble in the pit, making it impossible to determine which was the Soul-forgetting Tree's life core.
Ye Ling could, of course, wait for the spiritual energy and Nether Qi to re-establish balance in the pit before continuing his exploration, but that would take too long, and he couldn't wait.
"It's a pity I can't determine if the Soul-forgetting Tree's life core can withstand my power, otherwise, I could have acted to drive out the spiritual energy and Nether Qi within."
"Alas... I didn't expect things to turn out this way. In the end, I'll still have to capture those two fellows and have them stabilize the chaotic power here."
"But speaking of which... isn't the thing inside this pit the Soul-forgetting Tree's life core? Then how could the Soul-forgetting Tree abandon its life root and just run away?"
Ye Ling muttered, giving up on finding the life core. He shifted his attention to the fleeing Soul-forgetting Tree and Chu Yuan, who was in pursuit.
After locating the Soul-forgetting Tree and Chu Yuan in the Ten Thousand Nether Mountains with his divine sense, Ye Ling reached out and tore open a spatial rift in the air.
Soon, the rift in space grew larger and larger, as if splitting the sky in two!
"Come back..." Ye Ling whispered, and with a flash of his figure, he retreated outside the valley.
Rumble!
Soon, the enormous Soul-forgetting Tree and Chu Yuan both fell out of the spatial rift!