Chapter 176 - 150: Obtaining the Treasure, Refining

Chapter 176: Chapter 150: Obtaining the Treasure, Refining

"Don’t stop!"

Just then, Xiao Mingyue flapped her wings and flew close to Ji Zhixing. Her Flame Wings flickered with red-gold light, complementing Ji Zhixing’s Purple Gold Thundercloud Wings. She hovered at the edge of the thundercloud, her eyes fixed tightly on the scorched giant tree below, and said, "I can feel that the giant tree isn’t dead yet. It’s hiding its aura, waiting for us to approach."

"Not dead yet?"

Ji Zhixing looked at the giant tree below in surprise. The tree had already been struck completely black. Its trunk was covered in cracks, and all its branches and leaves had fallen off. It looked like a scorched wooden stump, motionless and completely devoid of life. But he believed Xiao Mingyue’s judgment. Since she said so, she must have truly sensed something.

"Then let’s continue!" Ji Zhixing did not hesitate and continued to control the thundercloud, blasting it toward the incredibly scorched giant tree below.

"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"

This time, he directly condensed dozens of lightning bolts, dropping them all at once onto the giant tree. Purple-gold lightning poured down like a torrential rain, covering a radius of several meters around the giant tree. Every single bolt carried devastating power.

"BOOM!"

Just then, the giant tree moved. Its scorched trunk suddenly burst open, and the massive main trunk unexpectedly shot upward continuously, like a long spear thrusting from the earth toward the heavens, piercing straight toward the thundercloud where Ji Zhixing was! The speed of its thrust was astonishingly fast, and its momentum was incredibly fierce, carrying an indomitable resoluteness.

"It really didn’t die!"

Ji Zhixing’s pupils shrank, and he hastily controlled the thundercloud to dodge quickly. Amidst the rumbling sounds, the thundercloud drifted to the side, barely avoiding the strike. That main trunk brushed past him, stirring up a violent gale that caused even the thundercloud to shudder.

"CRACK!"

At the exact moment he avoided the attack, the lightning bolts he had just condensed simultaneously blasted onto the giant tree. Dozens of purple-gold lightning bolts exploded at once. The lightning was blinding, and the sound waves rolled outward. Under the bombardment of the lightning, the trunk of the giant tree let out a loud crack, splitting open a massive fissure right down the middle. Dark green sap spewed out from the fissure, immediately evaporating into the lightning with a SIZZLE.

Afterward, the giant tree went completely still. The main trunk that had just shot into the sky snapped with a crack and crashed onto the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. The entire tree thoroughly lost all its vitality.

"It’s dead. It should be truly dead this time," Xiao Mingyue said after sensing for a moment. Her perception abilities were much sharper than Ji Zhixing’s, allowing her to clearly capture the fading of its life aura. The last sliver of vitality radiating from that giant tree had thoroughly dissipated.

"That thing..."

Upon hearing Xiao Mingyue’s words, Ji Zhixing’s gaze swept over the giant tree. He immediately noticed a faint green light flickering within the fissure that had split open on the trunk. That light carried a vigorous vitality, reminiscent of the color of newly sprouted tender leaves. The moment he saw that light, he felt a strange movement in his Five-Colored Willow Mutant Tree genes, as if they were incredibly yearning for that treasure radiating green light.

"I’ll go down and take a look," Ji Zhixing said.

Then, with a thought, he flapped his Purple Gold Thundercloud Wings, rushing out from the thundercloud—which had already shrunk to a radius of less than ten meters—and headed straight for the spot where the giant tree on the ground had split open. The moment he landed, he smelled a rich, fresh scent of vegetation mixed with a burnt odor wafting out from the giant tree’s fissure. He reached out, grabbed forward, and pulled out the treasure radiating green light from within the giant tree.

It was a lustrous wooden heart, emerald green all over and crystal clear. Countless tiny specks of light could faintly be seen flowing inside it. It felt smooth and slightly cool to the touch, exuding a fresh aura as if containing infinite life energy inside.

At the same time, Xiao Mingyue also flew down and landed beside him. Looking at the treasure he was holding, she said in slight surprise, "This is a Demon Wood Heart. Generally, only certain trees that have gained sentience can birth one. The giant tree we killed was probably on the verge of gaining sentience."

"On the verge of gaining sentience?" Ji Zhixing asked. "With strength like that, it still hadn’t fully gained sentience?"

"It was still a bit lacking," Xiao Mingyue shook her head and said. "Plant-type lifeforms that have gained sentience are essentially all Morning Star-level lifeforms.

"If it had truly gained sentience, given our strength, even with you controlling this patch of thundercloud, you wouldn’t necessarily be its match."

"Morning Star-level..." Ji Zhixing nodded slightly. The Tier Four Morning Star level represented a leap in life forms. For human Cultivators, it meant being able to rely on their own power to fly through the air, breaking free from the earth’s restraints. If this giant tree had truly reached that level, its strength would have been absolutely far more terrifying.

"I can feel that this Demon Wood Heart has a huge attraction to my Five-Colored Willow Mutant Tree genes," Ji Zhixing said.

"That’s completely normal," Xiao Mingyue nodded. "Your Five-Colored Willow Mutant Tree genes are, after all, plant-type genes. It’s very normal for them to desire a Demon Wood Heart birthed by this kind of lifeform on the verge of gaining sentience."

She paused, then continued, "I reckon that once we get back and you refine this Demon Wood Heart—you might not even need to refine it completely, just a part of it—your Five-Colored Willow Mutant Tree genes will be able to evolve into Thunder-Silent Willow Tree genes."

Ji Zhixing’s eyes lit up upon hearing this. He had only just developed a lightning-attribute genetic ability. Under normal circumstances, it would probably take a few days for the Five-Colored Willow Mutant Tree genes to finish evolving. Now that he had this Demon Wood Heart, being able to evolve earlier was naturally a good thing.

"Is the treasure nurtured in this Twisted Forest just this Demon Wood Heart?"

Ji Zhixing put the Demon Wood Heart away and looked around, feeling that something wasn’t quite right. This Demon Wood Heart was indeed precious, and he could feel its immense effect on the Five-Colored Willow Mutant Tree genes. However, compared to this extremely troublesome Twisted Forest, it felt a bit lacking. Since the entire Twisted Forest was so difficult to deal with, the treasure nurtured in the core area shouldn’t be just a single Demon Wood Heart.

"There seems to be something under this tree." Xiao Mingyue motioned to him when she heard him say that.

"Under this tree?"

Ji Zhixing’s eyes lit up. Without any hesitation, he immediately took out the Nine-Tiered Tide Rod and thrust it toward the roots of the dead giant tree in front of him. As the long rod pierced into the dirt, he could feel that something seemed unusual down below.

"Rise!"

After thrusting the Nine-Tiered Tide Rod into the giant tree’s roots, Ji Zhixing willed it and activated his gigantification, causing his body to shoot up to over four meters tall. At the same time, he gigantified the Nine-Tiered Tide Rod as well. The five-meter-long giant rod was inserted underground, acting as a massive lever. He gripped the body of the rod with both hands and pushed hard.

"RUMBLE!"

The ground shook, and the dirt churned. The giant tree was uprooted bit by bit from the earth, its roots dragging up large chunks of dirt and emitting a dull, heavy sound.

"This is..."

When he uprooted the giant tree entirely, he immediately saw that a portion of the soil underneath the giant tree was pitch-black. That black was very pure. It wasn’t ordinary black soil, but rather a profound darkness that seemed to devour light. As he looked at this soil, a feeling of violent rage instantly surged in his mind, as if something was issuing a silent roar at him, full of anger and malice. That emotion was intense, washing over him like a tide, attempting to overwhelm his mind. But in an instant, it was suppressed by his Hundred Generations Stone Heart. The mental strength tempered through a hundred generations of reincarnation was like a stubborn boulder, blocking that malice on the outside and calming his enraged mind.

"What kind of dirt is this?"

Ji Zhixing frowned as he looked at the black soil. He had never seen this kind of soil before, nor had he ever read about it in any materials. The aura it emitted was very bizarre, carrying a strong negative emotion that made one feel extremely uncomfortable.

Xiao Mingyue looked at the black soil beside him and also shook her head. "I’m not sure, but it feels like some sort of soil that contains dark attributes. It’s not of much use to us, but it should be worth quite a lot of points if we sell it."

Ji Zhixing nodded, not feeling disappointed. After all, he had already obtained the Demon Wood Heart, which was useful to him. Being able to collect this black soil and sell it for points was already quite good.

"You’ll have to refine that patch of thundercloud in a moment, so let me hold on to this soil for now," Xiao Mingyue said.

"Alright," Ji Zhixing nodded.

Then he used the Nine-Tiered Tide Rod to dig out all the soil below, which looked to weigh several hundred catties. The black soil was highly adhesive, acting like some sort of gelatinous substance. With just a slight exertion of force, he dug out the entire chunk of black soil.

"Store!"

After all the black soil had been dug out, Xiao Mingyue willed it, pulling all of it into her Genetic Melting Furnace.

"Zhixing, how exactly did you do it? That’s way too powerful!"

At this moment, Xu Cheng and Jiang Qingqian, who hadn’t dared to approach from a distance earlier, walked over. The two of them looked at Ji Zhixing, their eyes filled with shock. Even now, they still found it incredible. They had witnessed everything with their own eyes. They saw how Ji Zhixing had somehow taken control of that Thundercloud Treasure Land. Then he steered the thundercloud over here, drove Cao Zhenxing and the other two back to the Dead Wood Regeneration Forest, and then conquered this Twisted Forest. The whole process was simply like a myth.

"I was just lucky. I developed a genetic ability, and then somehow gained partial control over this thundercloud." Ji Zhixing smiled, not explaining much. Some things were too complicated to explain. Besides, even he himself hadn’t figured out yet how he had gained control of that thundercloud.

Lucky?

Upon hearing this, Xu Cheng didn’t know what to say. He had encountered that Thundercloud Treasure Land twice in a row, and both times he was struck and chased back. Yet, Ji Zhixing had only come over once and reaped such a massive harvest.

"Xu Cheng, Qingqian, we’ll have to trouble you to wait a little longer. Zhixing still needs to try and see if he can refine this patch of thundercloud next." At this moment, Xiao Mingyue spoke up from the side.

Xu Cheng and Jiang Qingqian naturally nodded, having no objections.

As soon as Xiao Mingyue finished speaking, Ji Zhixing willed it, attempting to communicate with the thundercloud high up in the sky, commanding it to descend. As his thoughts were transmitted, the thundercloud immediately descended slowly. With dark clouds rolling and lightning flashing, it stopped right above his head. By now, the thundercloud had shrunk to a radius of less than ten meters. It looked like an ordinary dark cloud, entirely lacking its previous sky-blotting aura. Only, there were still streaks of lightning swimming endlessly inside it.

"Store!"

Seeing the thundercloud descend, Ji Zhixing immediately activated his Genetic Melting Furnace, pulling this patch of thundercloud—which had shrunk to a ten-meter radius—into his Genetic Melting Furnace. Before he had broken through to become a Tier Three Genetic Cultivator, even if this thundercloud had shrunk to a ten-meter radius, it would have been impossible for him to pull it into his Genetic Melting Furnace to refine it. But now, things were different.

"Refine!"

After pulling the thundercloud into his Genetic Melting Furnace, Ji Zhixing mentally willed his Genetic Melting Furnace to activate, beginning to refine it.

(Today has a guaranteed baseline of 15,000 words.)