Chapter 478 - 475: Rejuvenation

Chapter 478: Chapter 475: Rejuvenation

He averted his gaze with perfect composure, his pace unwavering. As if nothing had happened, he continued to follow Jiao Yuan with a steady gait, quickly disappearing around a bend in the path...

"What are you looking at?" Zhu Xiu happened to step out the door, draping a piece of beast hide over her shoulders. "Don’t catch a chill."

Bai Wanwan stood where she was, her fingertips curling unconsciously.

She turned her head to look at her Beast Husband. "I saw a male. You’ve seen him before, too."

Zhu Xiu glanced in the direction she had been looking before turning back to her. "Who?"

"Jinying. The Red Rank Male from the Tiger Clan, from when we were mated."

"Him?" Zhu Xiu’s brow furrowed. "He’s familiar with your scent. Try to avoid running into him for the time being."

The figures of Jiao Yuan and Jinying soon disappeared into the forbidden grounds of the Life Tree, an area sealed off by black reefs and ancient vines.

Seeing the Clan Leader and Jinying, the males guarding the entrance immediately bowed respectfully and stepped aside, their faces filled with hope and reverence.

They were all hoping that Lord Jinying could once again breathe new life into the Life Tree.

As Jinying followed Jiao Yuan into the heart of the forbidden grounds, he saw the gnarled, withered roots of the tree. And though his heart was as cold as ice, he could not help but feel a sense of dread for the Flood Dragon Tribe’s future.

The trunk, which once emitted a faint green glow in the darkness of night, was now so dim it was nearly extinguished, flickering like a candle in the wind.

The bark was a deathly gray-brown, covered in deep fissures that resembled the wizened arm of a dying man.

Its already sparse leaves and branches were now yellowed and curled in great patches, as if scorched by an invisible fire. They hung lifelessly, ready to fall at any moment.

The potent aura of life that once permeated the air was now so faint it was nearly imperceptible. In its place hung a heavy miasma of decay and decline.

The entire colossal tree was like a dying giant, letting out a silent, desperate lament.

"How could it... have deteriorated so quickly?"

A barely perceptible tremor ran through Jiao Yuan’s voice. He stepped forward, his large, calloused hand trembling as it caressed the cold, fissured bark. Feeling the faint, nearly depleted pulse within, he felt a sharp twist in his heart, as if from a knife.

It seemed the brief eruption of green light a few days ago had consumed the Life Tree’s final burst of energy, only accelerating its decay.

Jinying silently circled the Life Tree, his gaze carefully scanning every inch of its trunk and withered branches.

He reached out with his long, slender fingers, a wisp of Talent Power coiling around their tips, and gently touched the trunk.

Like a drop of water on scorching sand, the wisp of energy was instantly swallowed by the immense emptiness and deathly stillness deep within the trunk, failing to cause the slightest ripple.

"The situation... is worse than expected."

Jinying pulled back his hand. His crisp, cold voice was remarkably clear in the deathly silent forbidden grounds. "At this rate of decline... even if we combine our Talent Power to sustain it, we can last for half a year at most."

If it didn’t receive an infusion of power from a pure and strong new bloodline within half a year, the Life Tree would wither completely and turn to dust.

For the entire Flood Dragon Tribe, that would be a cataclysmic disaster.

Jiao Yuan closed his eyes. The last time, three Red Rank elders had exhausted themselves to barely sustain it for five years. And when Jinying had last intervened, he had only managed to buy it less than three years, even with the aid of a formation.

’And now, there’s only half a year left?’

Despair washed over Jiao Yuan like an icy tide, drowning him instantly.

He knew better than anyone what the complete withering of the Life Tree would mean.

The Flood Dragon Clan possessed powerful Talents and a noble bloodline, but they also bore heavy shackles.

Their reproductive rate was far lower than that of other Beastman races. Offspring were rare, making the birth of every single egg an incredibly precious event.

But what was even more fatal was their lifespan.

An ordinary Flood Dragon Beastman lived for only about a hundred years. Those who struggled with fertility might not even manage to produce two offspring in their lifetime.

Only the Seed of Life, borne by the Life Tree, could grant the clan’s Beastmen another hundred years of life, thereby preserving the tribe’s top-tier fighting strength and ensuring the continuation of their bloodline.

Once the Life Tree withered completely, not only would all hope of extending their lives be lost, but the very foundation of the Flood Dragon Tribe’s existence would crumble.

Their top-tier warriors would dwindle with the passage of time. New bloodlines, deprived of the nourishment of the Life Tree’s aura, would grow ever weaker, making reproduction even more difficult...

It was an irreversible, vicious cycle.

Within a few hundred years, the Super Tribe that once struck fear across the continent—the Flood Dragon Clan—would inevitably decline, wither, and face complete extinction, becoming nothing more than a speck of dust in the river of time.

This heavy responsibility weighed on Jiao Yuan’s heart like an invisible boulder, leaving him struggling to breathe.

"Right. First, we restore the Life Tree. As for the rest... I’ll figure something out."

Jinying fell silent for a moment, the withered Life Tree reflected in his pupils.

Finally, he spoke, his voice slow and measured. "Uncle Yuan, I will do everything in my power."

Jiao Yuan clapped a heavy hand on Jinying’s shoulder, the gesture conveying both gratitude and the immense weight of his trust. "Thank you, Jinying."

Soon, the Clan Witch was urgently summoned.

When the old man—his hair and beard completely white, his face a roadmap of time-worn gullies—saw the tragic state of the Life Tree, his cloudy eyes filled with desolation.

With trembling hands, he took out ancient bone shards and minerals inscribed with mysterious runes, arranging them into a complex and arcane formation beneath the Life Tree.

Jiao Yuan, Jinying, and another hoary-haired Red Rank Powerhouse with a grave aura took their positions at the three core nodes of the formation.

"Let us begin." The Clan Witch’s ancient voice held a solemnity that permitted no argument.

Jiao Yuan took a deep breath, his eyes filled with resolve.

With a low roar, he unleashed the immense Red Rank Talent Power within him. It surged out without reservation, transforming into a deep cyan torrent of energy that poured into the formation’s runes at his feet.

The other Red Rank elder unleashed his power at the same time, a dense wave of energy following suit.

Jinying stood at his node, his eyes briefly closing. When they opened again, they were filled with a pure, icy chill.

His display wasn’t as grand as Jiao Yuan’s. He simply extended a long, slender finger and pointed into the air.

A thread of ice-blue energy—seemingly delicate, yet condensed to its absolute limit—shot forward as if alive, precisely piercing the core node of the formation.

The energy was bone-chillingly cold, carrying an aura of annihilation. Yet, with control so exquisite it bordered on perfection, he converted it into the pure "motive force" required to run the formation.

HUM!

Forcibly activated by the power of the three Red Rank Powerhouses, the ancient formation erupted with a blinding light.

Countless runes lit up, swimming through the air as if they had come alive.

From the center of the formation, a vast yet gentle energy was extracted, converted, and painstakingly channeled toward the withered trunk of the Life Tree.

Under the forced infusion of immense energy, a faint hint of green began to reappear on the Life Tree’s deathly gray-brown bark, the change visible to the naked eye!