Chapter 657: The Strongest Spiritual Root

As the exquisite pagoda came crashing down, vines across the sky shattered and burned. Mud oozed from the breaks in the vines, cascading down from above like waterfalls of sludge.

King Li floated behind the pagoda, his robes whipping in the wind as he stared at the spot where it had fallen.

He had led a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers and generals on a campaign against the great Ni Li World for several years. His achievements during that time had been few, all for the sake of this moment.

To uncover the external Dao powerhouse behind the great Ni Li World.

“Boom!”

The exquisite pagoda collided with the surging radiant light of the external Dao. That light had been locked in a contest of strength with the avatars of the Celestial Court’s great figures. The pagoda had arrived without warning, and under its immense pressure, the radiant light of the external Dao collapsed with a crash.

The twenty-eight avatars of the Celestial Court’s great figures, including the Jade Emperor and the Great Celestial Venerable, remained composed in the face of this scene.

They were avatars summoned by Chen Shi through the Star-Gathering Platform. Their cultivation could not exceed Chen Shi’s, but as they stood between heaven and earth, they still exuded extraordinary presence.

Just moments ago, they had swept forward without resistance. Neither the demon soldiers, the great demons’ bones, nor the vine creatures in the forest of the sky had been any match for them.

They had seemed on the verge of flattening the great Ni Li World. That was why the external Dao powerhouse hidden within this great world had been forced to act, rousing the power of heaven and earth to resist these Celestial Court figures.

The exquisite golden pagoda struck at that moment, crushing the radiant light of the external Dao. Following the aura, it ground its way forward.

The land ahead shook violently, rippling like waves. Mountains, rivers, and streams crumbled into dust as though they were piles of sand, and the quaking flattened everything more and more.

Before Chen Shi and the others, as well as the avatars of the Celestial Court’s great figures, including the Jade Emperor and the Great Celestial Venerable, the boundless earth suddenly became as smooth as a mirror.

It was bright enough to reflect a face.

A nearly perfect plane.

A plane made of mud.

Like the surface of a pool of sludge that had settled after a slight disturbance.

This plane slowly rose upright. Though its smooth muddy surface stood vertically, it remained utterly level, without a single ripple or any water running down it.

“Boom!”

The exquisite golden pagoda struck this vast, boundless world of mud. Though it shattered the smooth mirrorlike surface and sent mud flying, the nearly perfect circle soon settled back into stillness.

“King Li struck the wrong place.”

Chen Shi, Xiahou Feng, and the others stopped. They heard the Great Southern Pole Longevity Emperor’s voice coming from ahead.

Ziwei Emperor nodded. “That external Dao powerhouse isn’t on the ground. He’s in the sky. King Li struck his Dao Realm.”

At those words, Chen Shi and the others immediately looked up. A Sacred Tree slowly appeared in the sky. Its canopy spread across hundreds, even thousands, of acres, but its roots were far more enormous.

Its roots were countless times larger than its canopy. Thick and thin, long and short, they covered the sky of the great Ni Li World, forming a vast network of roots!

Usually, the Sacred Tree was hidden among countless vines, its roots buried in the void, creating the illusion that it hung upside down.

Its canopy was not particularly large, and there had been nothing unusual about it. Only now did its true form emerge.

Beneath the Sacred Tree sat an eight-armed demon god. The tree had taken root in the sky, and he too sat upright, upside down, motionless, as if in seclusion.

The enormous mirror of muddy sludge rose slowly, transforming into a mud moon behind his head.

Strands of radiant light from the external Dao emanated from around him.

Chen Shi, Niu Jingjing, and the others gazed up, scrutinizing the eight-armed demon god. But he was too far away for them to make out clearly.

Empress of Earth’s voice rang out. “He takes the sky for earth and earth for sky, refining Dao techniques in reverse. It’s a novel approach.”

“That is the demonic path to begin with,” the Jade Emperor and Great Celestial Venerable said. “Back when the Three Purities swept through the Earth Immortal Realm, they encountered beings like this.”

Chen Shi quietly edged closer to Empress of Earth until he was beside her, then said in a low voice, “Godmother.”

Empress of Earth glanced at him with a smile that was almost a smirk. “Didn’t I tell you to come visit me often? Why haven’t you gone to the mysterious yellow sea, and instead run all over the place? You’ve let people scheme against you now, haven’t you?”

Chen Shi immediately remembered that when he had asked Houtu Huangdiqi for advice about the destruction of the Celestial Way magic treasure, she had told him to visit the mysterious yellow sea often so the two of them could chat. Only then did he realize that she had probably known the Celestial Court was plotting against immortals who had received the Celestial Way’s mark. Unable to say so outright, she could only hint that he should go to the mysterious yellow sea to avoid trouble.

“I had no idea the court’s intentions were so sinister,” Chen Shi murmured.

Warning coughs immediately sounded from around him. Even the Jade Emperor and Great Celestial Venerable coughed twice.

Chen Shi pretended not to hear.

In the sky, King Li’s first attack had missed. He immediately recalled the exquisite pagoda, then raised it aloft and shot into the sky.

The pagoda floated above and slightly behind him. It had thirty-three tiers, each concealing a Dao Realm. With all thirty-three Dao Realms stacked together, King Li seemed like an immortal-path Sage on the level of the Three Purities, his presence vast and weighty as he attacked the eight-armed demon god beneath the Sacred Tree!

“Thirty-three layers of Dao Realms?” Chen Shi exclaimed in astonishment.

Empress of Earth smiled. “The Dao Realms inside this pagoda aren’t ordinary Dao Realms. They are worlds that Fellow Daoist Burning Lamp of Western Heaven opened in the void with tremendous power. They seem real, yet return to emptiness; they aren’t truly real. He’s merely using a magic treasure to imitate the supreme realm of the Three Purities. He hasn’t truly reached that level.”

Chen Shi asked, puzzled, “Why can the Ancient Buddha Burning Lamp of the Buddhist Sect imitate the realm of the Three Purities?”

“Before he became the Ancient Buddha Burning Lamp, he was a Daoist and studied under Jade Purity. So he understands the Daoist cultivation methods very well,” Empress of Earth replied.

As they spoke, the eight-armed demon god beneath the Sacred Tree rose and met King Li head-on.

Though King Li’s supreme realm was only an imitation created through a magic treasure, it was still formidable. For a moment, Chen Shi felt as if King Li were a Sage towering between heaven and earth, wielding thirty-three layers of Dao Realms to unleash peerless Dao techniques!

The gap between them was simply too vast. Chen Shi had no idea how far King Li was from the abilities of an immortal-path Sage. He only knew that King Li seemed impossible to defeat.

“The Dao Realms inside that pagoda really are Buddhist realms.”

He studied them closely. Unlike the Great Dao Phenomena of ordinary Dao Realms, the realms within the pagoda displayed scenes of Buddhist kingdoms: Mount Sumeru, the Pure Land, reliquary pagodas, auspicious elephants, and Bodhi trees. The treasure must have been refined using Buddhist Dao techniques.

“The Buddhist Sect’s Dao techniques differ from the immortal path. They’re worth studying,” he thought.

Beneath the tree, King Li fought the eight-armed demon god. He brought the exquisite pagoda’s power to its limit and, in just a few moves, broke two of the demon god’s arms.

King Li was a deity who followed the divine path, becoming a god and attaining the Dao through incense offerings and faith. The exquisite pagoda, meanwhile, followed the immortal path. Though he did not cultivate both the immortal and divine paths, he could wield the power of both at the same time!

Combining immortal and divine power made him no weaker than a Great Luo Gold Immortal!

“King Li truly deserves his position as the Celestial Court’s supreme military commander, second only to one person,” Ziwei Emperor praised from nearby.

Chen Shi turned and asked, “Your Majesty, if King Li’s status isn’t that high, why is he still second only to one person in the Celestial Court?”

Ziwei Emperor had no ill will toward him. Smiling, he replied, “The others who are stronger than him aren’t in the Celestial Court. They each have their own Heavenly Palace outside it. So within the Celestial Court, King Li is naturally second only to one person.”

Chen Shi suddenly understood. “So that’s how it is!”

Ziwei Emperor’s answer resolved a puzzle that had troubled him for many years.

Seeing that Ziwei Emperor was easy to talk to, Chen Shi asked, “King Li is the Celestial Court’s supreme commander. Why does he have a Buddhist magic treasure? And the pagoda seems far more powerful than he is. Could he be betraying the Celestial Court, colluding with Western Heaven, and plotting against us?”

Ziwei Emperor couldn’t help laughing. “King Li is the Great Celestial Venerable’s trusted aide. He isn’t a traitor.”

Chen Shi said regretfully, “I’ve always thought he seemed like a spy Western Heaven planted in the Celestial Court. I think the Celestial Court should investigate him. I’m sure they’d find something.”

The Heavenly Official Great Emperor couldn’t help saying, “Young Daoist, you’re up to no good. Who in this world could withstand an investigation? If no one investigates, everyone’s a Sage. Once they do, they’re all scoundrels. You’re trying to harm King Li!”

Chen Shi was about to speak again, but Empress of Earth quietly tugged at his sleeve. He said no more.

He did hold a grudge against King Li. The incident involving the thirty-three Celestial Way Divine Beings had begun with a transfer order from King Li.

It might not have been King Li’s idea, but it had been his order that sent Chen Shi and the others to Siyuan Mountain Pass.

At that moment, the eight-armed demon god was being driven back step by step. Suddenly, the exquisite golden pagoda behind King Li’s head shot forward and struck the demon god in the forehead.

The eight-armed demon god’s skull burst, and he toppled backward, landing beneath the tree without moving.

King Li gave a surprised cry, put away the exquisite golden pagoda, and went forward to investigate.

“Let’s go take a look,” the Jade Emperor and Great Celestial Venerable said.

Everyone walked over to the Sacred Tree.

King Li held the pagoda in his hand and saluted the various Emperors and Celestial Venerables.

“There’s no need for formalities, Fellow Daoist Li,” they said in turn.

Chen Shi took a few steps toward the eight-armed demon god, but felt his cultivation suppressed and didn’t dare approach any closer.

He examined the demon god carefully and cried out in shock, “It’s a corpse!”

“Correct,” King Li said. “This external Dao demon god has been dead for a very long time. The demon soldiers, the great demons, and the forest of vines were merely manifestations of his Dao techniques. In truth, there isn’t a single living creature in this world. Only this Sacred Tree is still alive.”

Chen Shi was bewildered.

Empress of Earth said, “The external Dao demon god’s divine consciousness was too powerful. After he died, it spread out and unknowingly influenced the great Ni Li World. The Great Dao of this place combined with his consciousness, manifesting all kinds of phenomena and creating the illusion that the world was full of people.”

Chu Xiangxiu was nearby too. At this, he exclaimed, “I lived here for decades and achieved Dao Unification here. Does that mean...”

He couldn’t bring himself to continue.

When he first arrived here, he had experienced a tangled tale of love and resentment with the native demons.

It had been a legendary adventure: a native youth from the Earth Immortal Realm had risked crossing the mysterious yellow sea, wandered into the Dark Sea, and reached an unfamiliar continent. There, humanoid beings had developed a demonic civilization. As an outsider, he had faced exclusion and even pursuit, treated as an aberration.

He had struggled to survive there, living for decades. Along the way, he had gained friendship and even experienced the dawning of love with someone of the opposite sex.

In the end, he had achieved Dao Unification in the great Ni Li World, parted from it, and set out on the journey home.

Those decades of experience were carved into his heart, impossible to forget.

Now Chu Xiangxiu suddenly felt as though everything had vanished. Had the decades of unforgettable experiences in his life really been nothing more than a dream in a world formed when this Dark Sea demon god’s consciousness scattered after his death?

Like the flickering images that pass through a person’s mind before death, recalling the many experiences of a lifetime.

Chu Xiangxiu’s experience had been like breaking into that demon god’s final visions, living through decades there, and understanding the true essence of the external Dao of the great Ni Li World.

Then what was real, and what was illusory?

For a moment, he couldn’t tell the difference.

“This powerhouse from the Dark Sea must have been extremely powerful in life,” the Jade Emperor and Great Celestial Venerable said. “He may not have been any weaker than you or me. But why did he die here?”

He was perplexed. Who could have killed such a powerful being?

“Godmother, what is this Sacred Tree?”

Chen Shi studied the tree, his heart stirring. “It looks a little like those things on Qianyang Mountain.”

“Don’t call me Godmother in front of outsiders,” Empress of Earth whispered.

She studied the Sacred Tree closely. Her heart stirred as she realized what Chen Shi meant by those things on Qianyang Mountain. Suddenly, she said, “Great Celestial Venerable, do you think this Sacred Tree is an earthly treasure and spiritual root?”

Everyone froze, then hurriedly looked at the tree. Their expressions grew more solemn the longer they looked.

“It really is an earthly treasure and spiritual root!”

The Earth Official Emperor murmured, “But there’s never been an earthly treasure and spiritual root this enormous. Its roots cover an entire great world. And wasn’t it this spiritual root that controlled the demon god and made him fight King Li just now? How can an earthly treasure and spiritual root be this powerful?”

Six-Wave Emperor examined the Sacred Tree. “I’ve heard that some Great Luo Gold Immortals, worried that they won’t survive the Opening the Calamity, enter the Dark Sea to search for earthly treasures and spiritual roots that can help them survive the tribulation. But no one has ever found one. Could this Sacred Tree help a Great Luo Gold Immortal survive the Opening the Calamity?”

Everyone’s expressions grew grave.

The Dark Sea produced earthly treasures and spiritual roots, but no one had ever found one capable of helping a Great Luo Gold Immortal survive the tribulation.

This Sacred Tree might be the first earthly treasure and spiritual root of the Great Luo Gold Immortal level ever discovered!

“Take it away!” the Jade Emperor and Great Celestial Venerable declared. “King Li, you must secure this treasure and escort it back to the Celestial Court. You must not let it fall into the hands of a Great Luo Gold Immortal!”

King Li stiffened and hurriedly acknowledged the order.

He glanced at Chen Shi, Xiahou Feng, and the others, then hesitated. “Your Majesty, there are still six outsiders here. What do you think...”

He made a slicing gesture with his hand. “Your Majesty, once they become Celestial Way Divine Beings, they won’t be outsiders anymore.”

At this, Chen Shi cast a resentful glance at Ziwei Emperor.

Ziwei Emperor looked a little embarrassed and turned his head away.

Just then, Empress of Earth said, “Your Majesty, I suspect King Li is a spy from Western Heaven! The exquisite golden pagoda in his hands is clearly a Buddhist treasure! I suggest that King Li be investigated!”

King Li silently groaned, thinking, “I’ve heard Chen Shi is one of Empress of Earth’s people. Looks like the rumors were right!”

Ziwei Emperor coughed and said, “Your Majesty, Buddhism and the immortal path are branches of the same family. Both cultivate immortal arts, unlike our divine path. At this dangerous juncture, King Li is carrying a treasure refined by the Ancient Buddha Burning Lamp. I agree that he should be investigated.”

King Li gave a muffled snort, thinking, “How have I offended Ziwei Emperor too?”