As vast as the Realm of Middle Continent was, Nie Tian’s aura seemed to be everywhere.

It was as if his flesh aura and soul awareness had filled every single area of the realm.

More shockingly, as many as ten sub-souls of Nie Tian were scattered in different areas of the Realm of Middle Continent.

Each and every one of them had their own awareness. They were roaming the sky of the Realm of Middle Continent like ten Nie Tians, and attempting to infiltrate the earth with the soul power they released.

Dong Li was flabbergasted by the scene she saw upon arriving.

Ji Yuanquan was thrilled by their arrival. With a fizzing sound, he manifested in front of the newcomers and said, “You’re here! Don’t be alarmed. Nie Tian has decided to probe into the miraculous changes the Realm of Middle Continent is experiencing after his private conversation with the Floragrims’ creator, the Tree of Life.”

Astonished, Dong Li said, “The Tree of Life! Is it in the Realm of Middle Continent as well?”

She still remembered the time when she had gone on a trip to find Fruits of Life in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation with Nie Tian, which was shortly after they had become friends.

They had picked Fruits of Life from the Tree of Life.

Now, she had realized that Nie Tian had only been able to find and pick those Fruits of Life because the Tree of Life had allowed him to. Otherwise, considering their cultivation bases and strength back then, they wouldn’t even have been able to find the magical place where the Tree of Life had hidden itself.

For this reason, she had harbored gratitude towards the Tree of Life.

“It only moved over here recently,” Ji Yuanquan said, pointing at what looked like a green sea in the distance. “Grand Monarch Primal Wood is in charge of protecting the area where it took root. As soon as it got here, it started transforming the area with its power. Grand Monarch Primal Wood told me that the third-generation Tree of Life chose the Realm of Middle Continent as its new base because it wants to grow stronger as quickly as possible with the help of its wonders.”

Dong Li was taken aback. “What? With the Spirit World withering away, wasn’t the Silent Star Sea its first choice?”

“I don’t know,” Ji Yuanquan said.

WHOOSH!

At this moment, Nie Tian’s true soul flew over, wielding the Spirit Scepter.

“Where’s your true form?” Dong Li asked, looking surprised.

“With the third-generation Tree of Life,” Nie Tian answered. “How’s the situation in the Mortal World?”

“The turmoil in the Mortal World is practically over...” Dong Li quickly explained the situation in the Mortal World to him. Then, she asked, “What’s going on in the Realm of Middle Continent? And you, why are your sub-souls attempting to infiltrate the earth with their soul power?”

“I want to find the reason for the strange changes in the Realm of Middle Continent,” Nie Tian said.

From his communication with the Tree of Life, he had learned that it had explored the Realm of Middle Continent, the birthplace of humanity, very long ago.

The Tree of Life had been its first-generation back then, and the Floragrims hadn’t been created yet.

The Realm of Middle Continent had been in a remote corner of the Spirit World.

It had only caught the Tree of Life’s eyes and made it examine it with its power because it had spawned humanity all of a sudden.

The birth of humanity had happened very early, which had given humanity a very long history, one that was only shorter than that of the Ancientspirits.

According to the Tree of Life, humanity had been born far earlier than local species like the Floragrims, Blackscales, Birdmen, and Stonemen, not to mention the Demons, Phantasms, and Bonebrutes, which hadn’t been born until much later.

It had created the Floragrims itself.

Even though it hadn’t created the Blackscales, Birdmen, and Stonemen, it had a good guess regarding their origins.

Obviously, it was even more familiar with the origins of the Demons, Phantasms, and Bonebrutes.

It had even derived the origins of the Ancientspirits from the features of their bloodlines and appearances.

Humanity, however, was an exception.

Humans seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, and started procreating in the Realm of Middle Continent.

The first-generation Tree of Life had scanned the Realm of Middle Continent with its power, but had failed to identify the reason why it had spawned humanity. It had appeared to be an ordinary realm with nothing noteworthy.

However, the humans’ outstanding reproductive capacity had caught its attention.

In fact, it had played an important role in humanity’s reproduction in the nearby realms.

Back in the day, humans hadn’t possessed the ability to soar through the starry river. It was the Tree of Life that had relocated a number of them to some of the realms near the Realm of Middle Continent.

It had picked those realms for the humans because it had wanted to see whether they could change somehow and quickly grow stronger as a species in different environments and realms.

Unfortunately, humans didn’t possess bloodline powers, nor could they strengthen their bodies and become stronger through feeding like spirit beasts could.

At that time, when humanity had been a weak race, they hadn’t shown much potential, even though they had remarkable intelligence.

The Tree of Life had nurtured the Ancientspirits, created the Floragrims, and secretly helped the Birdmen, Blackscales, and Stonemen for the purpose of having them ward off invaders from the Void World in the future.

Since the humans had failed to show their potential, it had soon given up on them.

Later, as wars had broken out between the races of the Spirit World and the Void World, there had been many turns of events, which had led to the births of the Demons, Phantasms, and Bonebrutes.

As the weakest intelligent race, humans had found themselves in increasingly worse situations, until they had become slaves to the other powerful races. There had appeared to be no hope for them to ever rise as a species.

Like in the jungle, only the fittest survived. The humans had turned out to be feeble and disappointing. Therefore, the Tree of Life had decided to let them fend for themselves.

It wasn’t until much later that the Ancientspirits and outsiders had discovered a brand new world, the Mortal World. When they had sent powerful members to explore it, they had decided to bring their numerous human slaves with them.

Only after that had some humans suddenly discovered methods to draw power from spirit stones and practice cultivation by channeling the spiritual Qi of heaven and earth, and had quickly risen to prominence.

After listening for a long while, Dong Li asked, “So you’re saying that the Realm of Middle Continent used to be a regular realm with nothing noteworthy? Humanity was just born on it somehow? And these strange changes that are taking place in the Realm of Middle Continent have never happened before?”

Nie Tian nodded slowly. “Even though the third-generation Tree of Life is still young, it has mighty power at its command. It’s very strange that even the power it releases can’t reach the heart of the earth in the Realm of Middle Continent. That frigid lake You Qimiao and Han Qing are exploring, that golden mountain, and that land of raging lightning. All of them seem to have appeared all of a sudden.”

Mo Qianfan’s eyes lit up. “A land of raging lightning? I’ve got to check it out.” 

Without saying another word, he flew off towards the area that was enveloped in violent lightning and thunder.

“Nie Tian, even you can’t reach the depths of the earth with your power?” Yin Xingtian asked with a grim expression.

Nie Tian shook his head and said, “I’ve made attempts with my flesh aura and spiritual powers of three different attributes, but all have failed. Various kinds of energy keep rising from the earth in the Realm of Middle Continent. It appears that even the structure of the realm is going through changes, subtle and weird changes. I’ve tried every type of power at my command before you came. Soul power was my last hope...”

Yu Suying, Yin Xingtian, Master Blood Spirit, and even Dong Li immediately had their interest sparked.

“Let us give it a shot then!”

“Come on.”

Dark power, sword lights from the Heavenbreaker and the Godspan Sword Formation, Master Blood Spirit’s refined blood aura, and Yu Suying’s Heaven-purging Divine Light shot down towards the depths of the earth one after another.

With all of them, it was easy going down at first. However, it grew increasingly more difficult, and they started inching down.

It was as if the earth was strengthened more and more as they went deeper, until it was so solid that no divine weapon or power could go through.

They soon discovered that they couldn’t succeed with spiritual power of any attribute.

Then, inspired by Nie Tian, they started condensing and sending their soul awareness towards the depths of the earth.

Dong Li even brought out her Dark Aureole.

Amplified by it, her soul awareness seemed to experience fundamental changes, causing the speed at which it flew deeper to improve considerably. “Hmm?! My soul power has come into contact with a strange ward!”

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