In the forest of sky-reaching trees, Nie Tian held Dong Li in an awkward position as they slowly moved forward.

At first, Dong Li buried her head in Nie Tian’s chest, fearing that the enormous trees would attack her again.

However, as Nie Tian walked deeper into the forest, she found that the trees were not attacking her anymore, and thus gradually relaxed.

Even still, she silently clenched her jaw as she stuck close to Nie Tian’s chest and listened to his vigorous heartbeat.

The position made her very bashful and uncomfortable. She was constantly guarding against Nie Tian, fearing that he would take the opportunity to do unspeakable things to her.

She couldn’t help but recall their close contact in the dense forest in the Realm of Split Void and over the lake in the Realm of Dark Underworld. Images flashed in front of her eyes.

Gradually, she realized that she actually didn’t oppose close contact with Nie Tian, which deeply shocked and abashed her.

She even blamed herself for it inwardly.

Being so close to Nie Tian, not only was she able to hear his heartbeat, but she was also able to smell his aura, which only strong males would have.

Listening to his heartbeat and smelling his aura, Dong Li couldn’t help but feel unprecedentedly secure, as if as long as they remained in this position, nothing would ever happen to her.

As for Nie Tian, who was marching forward, he quickly adjusted himself after being carried away briefly.

As he pondered what had just happened, he gradually realized that the reason why the ancient trees had stopped attacking Dong Li was probably because she had been submerged in the special aura he emanated.

The aura he released into his surroundings originated from his flesh and blood, which carried a bit of the aura of his bloodline.

It was none other than this special aura that had allowed him to be free from the trees’ attacks, which had the same effect for Dong Li when she stayed close enough to him.

“Life Bloodline and the Fruit of Life...”

 Nie Tian was increasingly convinced that there were certain profound connections between the two.

His bloodline was the reason why he had successfully found this place and not been attacked by the enormous trees.

Looking up at the hundred-meter-tall trees, he felt very secure and relaxed. As he walked deeper into the forest, the light-green wood power aura in the air grew increasingly pure and rich.

Wisps of pure wood power continued to pour into his spiritual sea, forming more liquidized wood power at the bottom of his vortex of wood power.

He started to have a feeling that as long as he stayed in this magical place, even if he didn’t do anything, the level of development of his vortex of wood power and the level of refinement of his wood power would rise to the point where he would be ready for his next breakthrough.

It wasn’t an intangible rumor that the wood power here was as thick as water. It was solid truth.

Just like that, Nie Tian carried Dong Li closer and closer towards the heart of the forest, neither of them saying a word.

From time to time, Nie Tian would glance around, and discover that long, thin roots stretched from the bottoms of the trees towards the heart of the forest.

After marching for a few hours, Nie Tian arrived at the heart of the forest with Dong Li clinging to him, where he discovered that the roots of the ancient trees were actually stretching into a shallow pond, which was filled with murky, green water.

In the middle of the pond grew a short tree that was about a man’s height with green leaves.

The small tree had only the girth of a grown man’s arm. Its trunk was covered in complicated and mysterious patterns, which glittered with faint, green light.

In its fresh, green foliage hung four fist-sized fruits.

The fruits were translucent and sparkling like emeralds, with green light rippling in them, as if they were filled with the most profound power in heaven and earth — life power.

Arriving by the edge of the shallow pond, Nie Tian finally came to a stop, his eyes seized by the small tree and the four fruits on it.

At this moment, he sensed with great clarity that the green aura in his heart wanted to rush out of his body, each and every crystal-like chain within it shining with dazzling light.

The green aura followed his meridians straight into his right palm.

As it did, his right palm began to change. The palm prints on his right palm began to flicker with faint, green light, just like the patterns on the trunk of the short tree.

The green aura rushed about within his palm, though it didn’t seem to be able to fly out through his fingertips.

However, a strong, mysterious yearning stemmed from the green aura and seemed to be urging Nie Tian to collect those four emerald-like fruits.

Nie Tian took deep breaths to calm himself as he said to Dong Li, “I-I think this is the place.”

Upon hearing his words, Dong Li, whose head was still buried in Nie Tian’s chest, lifted her head and started to glance around cautiously.

She soon turned around and discovered the mysterious, short tree Nie Tian was facing.

Her gaze switched back and forth between the shallow pond, the small tree in it, and the four fruits hanging in the small trees.

In the next moment, Dong Li’s charming body, which was still curled up in Nie Tian’s arms, trembled violently with excitement. “Fruits of Life! There are four of them!”

Eyes on the short tree, Nie Tian said, “If those are the Fruits of Life, then that’s a Tree of Life! Do you know anything about Trees of Life?”

Song Li shook her head and said, with her eyes also on the short tree, “I don’t know. I just know that Fruits of Life grow on Trees of Life. I don’t know anything about what they are and why they exist.”

With these words, she started shouting, “Nie Tian! There are four Fruits of Life here!  I’ll just take one. After I take it back to the patriarch of my clan, my status in the Dong clan will become rock steady! From then on, no matter what our patriarch awards me, those people in my clan won’t ever dare to talk behind my back again!”

The fact was that the patriarch of the Dong Clan had adored her since she had been little. Her black phoenix had been captured by him and given to her as a gift.

However, every clan had their rules. Even as the patriarch, he couldn’t favor Dong Li too much and pour the Dong Clan’s resources in her direction just because he liked her.

Therefore, in order for Dong Li to rise above others in the Dong Clan, she would have to prove her strength and resourcefulness to her clansmen.

This was a rule set by the Dong Clan’s ancestors. Even the patriarch had to live by it.

However, it would be completely different if Dong Li could bring back a Fruit of Life and use it to extend their patriarch’s lifespan.

The Fruits of Life were legendary items throughout the entire Domain of the Falling Stars. By bringing back a Fruit of Life, Dong Li would prove her capability and make a great contribution to her clan. Her patriarch would be free to shower her with gifts, and the others wouldn’t have anything to say.

Nie Tian’s eyes lit up. “Four Fruits of Life!” 

Dong Li would take one, which meant that other than the two he planned to give Wu Ji and Hua Mu to solve their lifespan problem, he would still have one left.

With these thoughts in mind, he couldn’t wait anymore, and prepared to collect them right away.

Dong Li had calmed down after her moment of excitement, and said, “Be careful. Let’s see if there are any special deployments around here. The most amazing treasures usually come with the most deadly threats. You saw yourself how those huge trees turned into killing machines.”

She had heard so many stories regarding precious treasures that were the essence of heaven and earth. Every single one of them were closely related with deaths.

Places that produced rare treasures were either overseen by vicious creatures, sealed by mysterious spell formations, or in disorderly spatial regions.

She was worried that danger would appear and devour them as soon as Nie Tian went to collect those Fruits of Life.

Upon hearing her words, Nie Tian grew more meticulous and vigilant against danger that could appear at any moment.

Even though he was only one step away from entering the pond, he didn’t take that step forward.

After measuring the distance between him and the tree with his eyes, he pondered briefly and said, “I’ll jump over to the Tree of Life and collect the Fruits of Life while I’m in the air.”

With these words, he started to form a chaotic magnetic field around him for protection purposes.

However, as soon as he summoned his various types of power to form the chaotic magnetic field, he seemed to anger something in this mysterious place.

The moment his special aura was masked by his forming chaotic magnetic field, the ancient trees around the shallow pond started attacking him, as if they had gone mad.

Thousands of branches, which looked like sharp blades, and vines that looked like long whips started storming towards him.

The aura from those branches terrified Nie Tian. Looking at the incoming storm of branches, he felt that there was no way that he could defend against them, and that he would be killed in the next moment.

Dong Li saw the problem and thus hastily yelled, “Wrong move! Don’t do anything! Lose your defenses, just like you did before!”

Nie Tian was instantly enlightened.

Before the branches could reach him, he canceled the chaotic magnetic field around him.

The moment his chaotic magnetic field was lifted, the branches that were raining towards him froze in the air.

A dozen of them were only a few inches from his neck, while another one had almost pierced into Dong Li’s forehead.

Nie Tian and Dong Li were surrounded by countless frozen branches, as if they were trapped by thousands of floating wooden spears. With one wrong move, they would be impaled and killed.

The two of them stiffened in fear. Looking at the sharp branches that were only inches away from their skin, they didn’t dare to move a hair.

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