The vines surged and rolled along with the clouds, like waves of green.
In a moment, the vine tree sphere was tightly wrapped by layers of vines.
The breathtaking celestial realm among the clouds was obscured by the lush leaves of the vines outside. Wen Shuangbai stood up, touched the vine strands pinned down by beast bones, and sincerely thanked them, "Thanks to you all for sending us on our way, thank you."
As soon as she finished speaking, Wen Shuangbai used her hand like a knife to cut off the crazily twitching vine strands, then swiftly stuffed the small round cover back in place and threw the severed vines into the trash heap in her storage ring, which contained all sorts of things.
Her actions were as fluid as flowing water, seamlessly executed.
And this was the third step in their celestial plan!
Following Wen Shuangbai's example, the other four teammates each performed their roles.
Xie Ziyin aimed for a smooth and neat cut, while Lu Jiayao focused on being gentle-hearted.
Yin Xuan adhered to the principle of cutting as short as possible, and if the vine strands were clever enough to slip away when he was about to cut, he simply wouldn't bother cutting.
Li Zhuohua, on the other hand, excelled in her performance, leaving no room for escape.
Indeed, when Zhuohua cut the vines, she first grabbed the vine, pulled it hard into the sphere, extending it to its maximum length before cutting it!
Thus, the vine strands she cut were longer than anyone else's!
[...Is this how disciples of Qingling Mountain express gratitude?]
[The vines worked hard to lift you all so high, and you just cut them off in an instant? Are you human or not?]
[Aiya, it's not cutting, they're just helping the vines trim their branches, mutual assistance, mutual assistance!]
After a round of mutual assistance, the five cleared away the vines that were placed into the vine tree sphere, then worked together to roll the vine tree sphere out of the vine heap.
Upon closer inspection, these vine strands were actually the crown of the celestial tree.
Once they rolled out of the vine heap, the five of them returned to the clouds, where the clouds and vines intertwined to form a road beneath them, making the path ahead broader.
Li Zhuohua ran with the vine tree sphere, leading her junior brothers and sisters through the clouds for a tour.
Wen Shuangbai held onto the safety handle, gazing intently at the moonstone in front.
Suddenly, she called out, "Senior sister, stop for a moment!"
Li Zhuohua immediately stopped, "What's wrong?"
Wen Shuangbai adjusted the position of the vine tree sphere, and only when the moonstone was aligned with the sky above did she stop, pointing and saying, "Look, what does that look like?"
It was daytime, and the sky was a deep blue.
Above the clouds where they were, soft white clouds floated.
Lu Jiayao pointed at one, "Looks like a chick!"
Yin Xuan focused on an oval-shaped one, "Looks like a pancake."
Li Zhuohua also paused to observe for a moment, looking at a rectangular cloud, "Looks like a sword!"
Wen Shuangbai: "..............."
Xie Ziyin watched the woman's face with its myriad expressions, laughed heartily, enjoyed the moment, and then asked, "Do you want to climb up there?"
"Mm." Wen Shuangbai glanced at him, finding Xie Ziyin particularly pleasing to the eye at this moment.
He understood what she was thinking.
Each cloud above indeed had a unique shape, but when viewed as a whole, despite the irregular distribution of clouds, if one connected the dots, a winding stairway of clouds leading upward could be drawn.
-
The group rolled the vine tree ball until they were beneath the nearest white cloud.
Before opening the door, Wen Shuangbai looked at Lu Jiayao, her eyes questioning: "San Tu, are you ready?"
The young man in pink, holding the spirit flute, was somewhat different from when he was in Zhuoguang City. Confidently, he said, "Ready!"
Wen Shuangbai: "Alright, I'll open it."
The tree door was opened, and the wind from the sky instantly rushed in, causing the clothes of the group to flutter noisily.
Along with the wind came countless vines, twisting like snakes and suddenly rising!
"Wo—wo—" Lu Jiayao played the spiritual tune he performed when he broke through, a melody that harmonized with the mountains and fields.
The sound gradually spread, calming the vines.
Seeing this, the group seized the opportunity to leap onto the first cloud.
Once up, Wen Shuangbai immediately used her fire feather whip to pull up the vine tree garment.
"Let's go." She put the vine tree garment into her storage ring and planned to continue climbing the cloud stairs with her teammates.
But at that moment, a sudden change occurred!
The previously calm sky was suddenly filled with lightning and thunder.
Boom, boom, a mighty purple lightning bolt descended directly upon the group!
The heavenly thunder came too quickly and unexpectedly. Wen Shuangbai couldn't dodge it, and she didn't even have time to crush the Holy Command, directly struck by it.
At that moment, Wen Shuangbai was stunned by the strike.
First, she smelled the scent of burnt flesh, followed by a wave of intense pain sweeping through her body.
Every part of her body hurt.
Without giving them time to react, one bolt of heavenly thunder after another followed, striking the cloud where the five stood!
In an instant, that cloud was surrounded by terrifying lightning, and in front of the Xuantian Mirror, the cultivators couldn't see the five individuals, only that they were engulfed in lightning, their fate uncertain.
One bolt of lightning fire, seemingly intentionally or unintentionally, struck the vines below, igniting a blaze. The heavenly thunder fire consumed everything, and soon, the entire Tongtian Mountain Range was engulfed in a sea of flames.
One by one, the towering trees were burned and fell in all directions.
In just a few breaths, the Tongtian trees connecting heaven and earth were wiped out by the heavenly thunder fire.
Sensing the unusual aura, Di Qi and Di Yanran quickly arrived, avoiding several fallen Tongtian trees, and stopped a short distance away, gazing at the sky.
Di Qi's smile disappeared, his tone light yet dangerous: "It seems... we're a step too late."
-
In the pit of the Star Moon Divine Tree, Shen Hefeng tried several times to sense the heavenly aura but failed.
To sense the heavenly aura, according to Master Xu, one must first enter the Nether Path.
The Nether Path was a legend they heard when they first entered divination practice, and many believed it didn't exist, including Shen Hefeng.
Previously, in the Endless House, when Xu Jingshu was guiding him in cultivation, Shen Hefeng once shamelessly asked her how he could defeat her and become the next master of the Wenting Pavilion.
At that time, Xu Jingshu tapped his bald head, saying, "You little rascal, you're thinking of running before you've even grown your hair. It's too early. Wait until you can enter the Nether Path and understand what 'destiny works in mysterious ways' means before you talk about it."
Destiny works in mysterious ways?
What kind of destiny? He was so gifted, yet he couldn't even enter the Nether Path.
And does the Nether Path truly exist?
Among the many diviners on Xuantian Continent, only two or three claimed to have entered the Nether Path.
Shen Hefeng thought these charlatans were all talking nonsense. If it existed, why hadn't he been able to enter?
As a divine predictor, he hadn't been able to enter, which clearly showed that this thing simply didn't exist.
The baby-faced Taoist blamed the heavens and the earth, but never himself, as he sat in the dirt, pulling his hair and pondering for a long time.
Eventually, Shen Hefeng sneakily took out the Spirit Devouring Banner in Zhuoguang City, which had been useless after swallowing Lu Ying's Divine Wood Talisman, and planted it in the soil.
After all, this pit used to be where the Star-Moon Divine Tree grew, and now that the tree was gone, he figured planting the Spirit Devouring Banner that had eaten the Divine Wood Talisman here could somewhat count as a Star-Moon Divine Tree, right?
Legend has it that enlightenment under the Star-Moon Divine Tree is twice as effective, as if aided by heaven.
If it was truly that miraculous, then it should be no problem for him to enter the Nether Path.
After doing all this, Shen Hefeng sorrowfully buried his fallen hair in the soil, put on his Taoist hat, shifted his position until he was comfortable, and then, holding his tortoise shell, began to meditate, attempting to find that possibly non-existent Nether Path.
Whether it was psychological or not, once he planted the Spirit Devouring Banner that had eaten the Divine Wood Talisman and sat in the pit of the divine tree, he immediately felt his mind become clearer.
Shen Hefeng pondered.
The tortoise shell can form divinations because it relies on the surrounding heavenly energy field, and where the heavenly energy field is, there is the Nether Path.
If the tortoise shell can sense it, why can't he?
Is it because he's not a tortoise shell?
Thinking this, Shen Hefeng's spiritual consciousness relied on his life-bound tortoise shell, tracing the lines of the shell.
And then—
He actually found it!!
Hahaha, as expected of him, the foremost divine predictor of Xuantian, the next master of the Wenting Pavilion beneath Qingling Mountain, none other than Shen Hefeng!
Within the Nether Path, there was no one, no thing, no sound, no taste, only clusters of irregular gray airflow, forming a gray world, as if being inside a deep cloud.
He alone had color, a faint golden hue.
Shen Hefeng attempted to disperse a cluster of airflow, but his spiritual consciousness rushed forward, and the airflow had no reaction, neither becoming denser nor thinner, nor was it dispersed by him.
He seemed unable to affect anything within the Nether Path.
And the gray clusters had no pattern, making it difficult for Shen Hefeng to judge what they were by their shape.
Thus, Shen Hefeng's spiritual consciousness began to wander aimlessly within the Nether Path.
He hadn’t been wandering for long when he noticed two streams of energy slowly moving.
One stream was denser, while the other was lighter, and they seemed to be moving one after the other toward the pit of the Star-Moon Divine Tree where he was located.
If it could move, it was either a beast or a person.
Judging by the stop-and-go movements of these two streams of energy, Shen Hefeng suspected they were those two bald monks from the Divine Evolution Temple.
The bald-headed duo wasn’t far from his location.
Shen Hefeng didn’t want the people from the Divine Evolution Temple to discover him in his meditative state, so he planned to head back for now.
But suddenly, Shen Hefeng distinctly felt a peculiar energy in the distant horizon—a series of strikingly vivid purple-black streams flickering intermittently. They were so unique and eye-catching in the otherwise gray and hazy world that it was impossible for Shen Hefeng not to notice them.
Could it be that the disturbance in the Star-Moon Valley’s secret realm was caused by these streams of energy?
Even the two monks seemed to have noticed this anomaly. They halted, paused momentarily, and then swiftly turned around, heading toward the unusual streams of energy.
Shen Hefeng immediately followed them.
Within the meditative pathway, he was clearly faster than the two pesky monks. In no time, he had reached the destination.
There, he saw the breathtaking purple-black streams of energy, imbued with an awe-inspiring aura of heavenly law, converging toward a single location.
At the center of their convergence, five faint streams of energy appeared to be struggling against the purple-black streams, barely holding on and exuding an air of desperation.
Wait a moment—why did these five unimpressive things remind him so much of his treacherous, backstabbing teammates?
