Chapter 616: Chapter 588: A Thousand Years Change in Longevity

The once lush trees, visibly aged as the green light continuously faded away.

During this time, [Ruo Mu] had thought about resisting.

The trees trembled, and countless strange manifestations emerged from within, attacking the cultivators fearlessly.

Even Ruo Mu itself had lashed out with its branches, striking like swords.

But the cultivators who came to this place had terrifying levels of cultivation.

All resistance was futile, all was suppressed in an instant.

Even Ruo Mu’s last desperate attack, which made the golden purple fruits at the top wither.

They were all turned around by this group of people.

Unable to resist, Ruo Mu could only watch as its life essence was wantonly extracted.

The leaves slowly turned yellow and fell like rain.

In the thunderous sounds, many tree trunks cracked and broke.

Cracks began to appear on Ruo Mu’s trunk.

However, this group showed no signs of stopping.

They acted as if they would not stop until they completely drained Ruo Mu.

Luckily, in the nick of time, another group of cultivators arrived.

A melee ensued between the two sides, and the extraction process was forced to halt.

The green light sphere accumulated in the sky was successfully extracted. When they retreated, they didn’t forget to launch a joint attack on the already ravaged [Ruo Mu].

The damage from this attack seemed to be greater than the forcible extraction of life energy just now.

Huge cracks extended upward from the base of the tree, branches fell in pieces, lost to unknown destinations.

The cultivators who came to the rescue, seeing this, gave up the pursuit and hurriedly began to heal Ruo Mu.

Through their efforts, they finally managed to prevent [Ruo Mu] from dying completely.

But the damage it suffered was too great, and it was hard to reverse.

From then on, withering and aging have always accompanied Ruo Mu.

Until many years later, a humanoid cultivator appeared in Ruo Mu.

…

The scenes observed from [People Boiling Life], although broken, contained a lot of information.

Li Fan went through the playback of the Huadao Stone again and again.

Combined with the information collected earlier, he began to slowly formulate a hypothesis.

“The cultivators who caused harm to Ruo Mu are probably those who proposed to abandon the Xuanhuang World and flee when The Great Calamity came.”

“From the power displayed by their strikes, among them, there is no lack of experts of the Immortal Realm.”

“Five hundred years ago, for some reason, this group of people wanted to return to the Xuanhuang World, leading to a great war.”

“Sima Changkong once said that for these cultivators, Heaven and Earth showed extreme hatred, even more than us who seize land.”

“The traitors, what did they steal…”

“Could it be this Ruo Mu, which can condense the [Fruit of Eternal Life]?”

“Hmm… considering the way these people act, there might be more to it.”

“Thousands of years have passed, have they finally failed to escape from the Immortal Ruins? Or was there another reason?”

Li Fan’s eyebrows furrowed slightly.

The existence of the Immortal Ruins is not a secret for the Immortal Dao’s Ten Clans.

These people acted ruthlessly and without remorse.

They were confident that they could successfully escape from the Xuanhuang World.

However, it is still unknown what unforeseen events led to their forced return.

With little known information, he set this issue aside for now.

For now, Li Fan finally understood why [Ruo Mu] harbored such hatred towards cultivators.

No matter if it was being seized by humans or nearly dying later.

The grudge between it and the cultivators could be described as irreconcilable.

If Li Fan were subjected to such treatment, his methods of revenge would likely be several times crueler.

“After Tianzun conferred the Dao, and established new laws, the Fruit of Eternal Life no longer had the ability of immortality.”

“From the perspective of Ruo Mu, this might actually be a good thing.”

“In some respects, the conferring of the new Dao could be considered its savior.”

“Otherwise, no matter how strong Ruo Mu was, it could not escape the fate of being seized.”

“Judging from its desire to reverse [Harm of its own kind], it has probably not yet reached the Immortal Realm. Given its unknowable age and extraordinary entity, its strength can’t be measured simply by the Unity-Path.”

“Another one above the Unity-Path, unverified immortality, huh…”

“The chasm between Unity-Path and the Immortal Realm is a bit too wide.”

Li Fan has met the Celestial Doctor, the Fisherman, and now this decayed wood. All three experts are in this realm.

Although this is merely a coincidence, it does demonstrate, in a way, the difficulty of “defying the Principle of Heaven and Earth and achieving immortality.”

There are many talents in the world, but only a few have achieved immortality under the new law.

Li Fan’s eyes were deep, he remained silent for a long while.

After summarizing the gains from this expedition, Li began to reflect.

“This time, almost losing my life by bumping into Ruo Mu, could be chalked up to bad luck.”

“If it was said that just after breaking through my realm, I was somewhat complacent…”

“That certainly wasn’t the case.”

“This is Heavenly Spirit City, really, and this is a rented villa at the Debating Tower. It’s definitely safe.”

“Who could have imagined that a cultivator who conducts low-end business and sells Gold Cores would actually be a powerful being full of malice towards humans?”

Thinking about this, Li Fan couldn’t help but feel a bit helpless.

I can’t always hide, relying solely on my avatar to act, right?

However powerful, the avatar is ultimately just an avatar. Many divine techniques can’t be fully utilized.

Also, it is a realm lower than my original self, to cultivate it to the Immortal Realm would be a pipe dream.

“It’s like being struck by lightning while walking in the street. An extremely unlikely event should not deter us from living our lives.”

“There are many things that I need to handle personally to leave no traces.”

“However, the ability of the Wood Taoist to distort and change ideas needs to be countered.”

“If it weren’t for its hatred towards cultivators, and its seeming ability to foresee my future actions, wanting me to seek revenge on the cultivators, it would have let me go.”

“I dread to think how long I would have been lost in the branches before waking up.”

“I thought my will was strong enough, but I didn’t have the power to resist it at all…”

“But the Immortal Cultivation World is filled with strange objects and techniques, I am sure there will be a solution.”

“Even if I can’t completely block it, as long as I can maintain a trace of clarity, it will be enough to make up for my inadequacy.”

Li Fan recorded this matter in his heart and placed it as a priority.

He planned to start focusing on gathering information on this area.

After a long while, when his thoughts had calmed down, Li Fan finally picked up the dried branch of Ruo Mu that had been placed on the table.

Gently stroking it, Li Fan suddenly felt a sense of familiarity.

Not because he had been in close contact with Ruo Mu’s body.

But because…

This tree branch seemed to have some similarities to the material Jiao Xiuyuan used to create an avatar.