Though Lan Xiaobu, Mo Wuji, and their allies ignored the others, with Dao Ancestor Emperor Lan gone, nearly everyone at the Eternal Life Gathering scattered like frightened birds and beasts. However, unaware of the exit’s location, they could only mimic Emperor Lan and Kong Xinjian, fleeing into the void.
Seventy to eighty percent of those present had supported Emperor Lan earlier. Would they stay now, waiting for Lan Xiaobu and Mo Wuji to deal with Lei Yunhan and then come for them?
Lei Yunhan felt his Dao rules dissolving and the space growing sluggish, knowing it was the Chaos Unicorn’s doing. He didn’t dare act.
He had no confidence in defeating either Mo Wuji or Lan Xiaobu alone, and with Seven Cosmos, Chang Yi, and Shi Changxing surrounding them, plus the Chaos Unicorn’s domain hindering him, his chances of escape were less than half a percent.
“We’ve had some grudges before, but I, Lei Yunhan, am willing to let them go and offer all the Cosmic Dao Fruits I obtained this time…”
Lei Yunhan knew begging was futile, but it was his only option. Reaching the eighth step of the Great Dao in the Great Cosmos was no easy feat. He was just one step from sensing the ninth step—how could he accept falling here?
Mo Wuji struck with a single finger, Seven Realms Finger: Human World.
With no fighting spirit, Lei Yunhan didn’t even summon his thunder spear. His body flickered several times, turning into a faint streak of thunderlight. Each flicker left a shadow that soon solidified, aging rapidly in the Human World, consuming a lifetime’s years and turning to dry bones.
The thunderlight, after shedding several skeletal puppets, broke through Tai Chuan’s Chaos Domain and Mo Wuji’s Mortal Domain. Lei Yunhan was thrilled—he’d sacrificed multiple body puppets, each a priceless substitute for a life, but survival came first.
Boom! A halberd light exploded in the void, striking the thunderlight. Lei Yunhan, having just escaped the Chaos Domain, tumbled back from the void.
He landed amid three puppet corpses, knowing it was Lan Xiaobu’s halberd that struck him. Lei Yunhan sighed. Without that blow, he’d have escaped. He regretted being swayed by Emperor Lan. Why not stay in the Great Cosmos, pursuing the ninth step, instead of coming here to die?
Another finger descended from the void, and Lei Yunhan felt as if he were seized and thrown into a massive furnace. Helpless, he couldn’t even self-destruct.
As expected, his domain was torn apart, his protective Dao rules brutally shattered, and several Dao rules breached his world.
“This guy actually got a ten-patterned fruit and twenty top-grade Dao veins. What a haul, Xiaobu, let’s split it,” Mo Wuji said with a sigh.
They divided everything in Lei Yunhan’s world equally.
“Brother Xiaobu, I didn’t get a ten-patterned fruit this time. Could you let me have this one?” Shi Changxing stepped forward, slightly embarrassed.
“I don’t need it,” Mo Wuji said immediately.
“Take it,” Lan Xiaobu tossed the ten-patterned fruit to Shi Changxing generously.
Chang Yi regretted not asking first. He, too, lacked a ten-patterned fruit, but with only one available, now given to Shi Changxing, he couldn’t ask Lan Xiaobu for another. He knew Lan Xiaobu had more, but as someone they’d swayed to their side, he felt a subtle restriction on himself—a sixth sense he couldn’t articulate. If true, it meant Lan Xiaobu and Mo Wuji were still wary of him. Without seeing another ten-patterned fruit, he didn’t dare ask.
Seven Cosmos also lacked a ten-patterned fruit but wasn’t worried. He trusted Lan Xiaobu’s character and believed he’d share some Chaos Rule Paste after leaving. With two nine-patterned fruits, he was content for now. Once his Great Dao stabilised, he was sixty percent confident in reaching the ninth step.
“Let’s go. After we leave, we’ll settle accounts with Emperor Lan, then head to the Great Desolation World,” Mo Wuji laughed. Splitting Lei Yunhan’s world had vastly increased their resources.
“Something’s off,” Seven Cosmos frowned suddenly.
“What’s wrong?” Lan Xiaobu asked.
Seven Cosmos said, “This is the Eternal Life Gathering’s venue, supposedly held in Central World’s Anluo Heavenly City, meaning Emperor Lan arranged it. But does Emperor Lan have the ability to create such a venue?”
Lan Xiaobu and Mo Wuji were stunned. As first-time attendees, they’d assumed the venue was pre-existing. Seven Cosmos’ words woke them up.
This void venue, where divine sense could barely extend, was something Emperor Lan could arrange?
If Emperor Lan couldn’t create it, where was the exit? How had Emperor Lan, Kong Xinjian, and Yang Tian escaped?
“Boss Bu, the space is compressing…” Tai Chuan called out, its Chaos Unicorn sensitivity detecting spatial changes.
Mo Wuji and Lan Xiaobu extended their divine sense, soon understanding Tai Chuan’s meaning. The space was indeed shrinking, and the range of their divine sense was contracting proportionally.
“The Cosmic Tree branch is fading…” Qi Manwei exclaimed.
“We need to leave. This isn’t a good place,” Fang Zhiqian said, trembling.
Mo Wuji and Lan Xiaobu didn’t move. Leave? Where to? There was no exit, or if there was, they didn’t know it.
“Xiaobu, let’s attack the void together, see if we can tear this spatial domain apart,” Mo Wuji said, summoning his Mortal Halberd.
Lan Xiaobu drew his Longevity Halberd, and their combined strike sent ripples through the void, shattering spatial rules. Yet, the dimensional plane remained intact, unaffected.
“The lotuses are shrinking too,” Qi Manwei called again, quickly stepping closer to Lan Xiaobu.
“Everyone, stand on this lotus pod,” Lan Xiaobu said, landing on the massive pod.
The others rushed onto it. Almost as they did, the lotuses in the void vanished, like the Cosmic Tree branch, now completely hidden in the void, invisible.
Lan Xiaobu suspected that without standing on the pod, it would have disappeared too.
The hundreds of remaining attendees fell into the void, vanishing from sight.
“Is the lotus pod sinking?” Qi Manwei felt as if it were dragging her downward.
Mo Wuji shook his head, “No, it’s moving through the void, but without a reference, it feels like sinking… Wait, it’s the Cosmic Tree’s aura. This is its space. The tree is pulling everyone here into it, turning them into nourishment…”
Mo Wuji’s tone grew urgent. If they couldn’t break the tree’s space, they’d never escape.
“That’s impossible. The Cosmic Tree is the foundation of the Great Cosmos’ survival. It wouldn’t be so malevolent, needing cultivators’ lives and essence to grow,” Shi Changxing said gravely, knowledgeable about the tree.
Mo Wuji replied, “To the Cosmic Tree, there’s no good or evil, only what aligns with the Great Dao. Lives may be precious to us, but to the Dao, they’re fleeting, like ephemeral flowers—blooming or not makes no difference.”
“Could it be that people plundering its fruits and leaves angered the tree?” Qi Manwei asked nervously.
Lan Xiaobu said, “Logically, no. But if someone tried to refine the tree, that’s another matter.”
At this, Lan Xiaobu and Mo Wuji realised the truth. Someone had attempted to refine the Cosmic Tree, and in self-preservation, it was collapsing this space, turning all life within into its Dao rules.
Who could, or would dare, refine the Cosmic Tree? Besides Emperor Lan, only Yang Tian, the mysterious escapee, or possibly Kong Xinjian.
