Huan’s expression was grim, but he knew he was powerless. He wasn’t afraid to fight Lan Xiaobu again, but capturing him was nearly impossible. Lan Xiaobu could even face him without needing to flee.
Huizhi, watching from the side, felt a surge of satisfaction. He knew the star-core planet meant as much to Huan as the Wuxu Arrow did to him. He had worried that losing his Wuxu Arrow would leave him at Huan’s mercy, but now Huan had lost his star-core planet too. They were back on equal footing.
The star-core planet was unique. Huan had destroyed countless planets and civilisations to create it, perfectly suiting his Great Cosmos Art. Each annihilated planet advanced his Great Cosmos Dao and yielded a star core. The star-core planet, forged over eons from myriad cores, was worth more than a post-chaos supreme treasure.
Its rarity made Huan certain he’d never acquire another, which is why he had humbled himself before Lan Xiaobu, only to be rebuffed.
Huan didn’t press further, stepping aside to wait for the Cosmic Tree’s division, hoping to discuss matters with Huizhi. Though Huizhi’s Wuxu Arrow was taken, Huan needed his help to defeat Lan Xiaobu.
Initially puzzled why the Wuxu Arrow was with Lan Xiaobu, Huan realised, after losing his star-core planet, that Lan Xiaobu simply took what he wanted.
After mocking Huan, Lan Xiaobu ignored him and approached Yang Tian.
“You stole my ten-striped Cosmic Dao Fruit back then. Didn’t expect to meet again so soon,” Lan Xiaobu chuckled, his gaze fixed on Yang Tian.
In other circumstances, Yang Tian would have fled, but with the Cosmic Tree at stake, he couldn’t. Taking a deep breath, he clasped his fists and said, “Daoist Lan, I returned the ten-striped Dao Fruit. There’s no bad blood between us, and we shouldn’t clash here.”
Yang Tian knew Lan Xiaobu’s strength and cunning. During his fight with Mo Wuji, Lan Xiaobu had lurked silently, striking when Yang Tian left. Despite his strength, Lan Xiaobu resorted to ambushes. Unless necessary, Yang Tian wanted no dealings with him. From Huan’s tone, it seemed Lan Xiaobu had bested him too. Yang Tian considered himself unmatched among peers, except for two whose realms were slightly below his: Mo Wuji and Lan Xiaobu.
“Answer three questions first,” Lan Xiaobu said. “One, why are you the Dao Ancestor of the Great Desolate World? Two, where did the original Dao Ancestor Hongjun go? Three, what’s your relationship with Yang Mei?”
Yang Tian’s face shifted, unwilling to answer any.
At that moment, Huan spoke, “We have enough people now. If we don’t act, the Cosmic Tree will escape. Let’s discuss how to secure it.”
Yang Tian quickly agreed, “I support the Great Cosmos Dao Ancestor. Securing the Cosmic Tree is urgent.” Ignoring Lan Xiaobu, he moved toward Huan.
As Yang Tian took his first step, Lan Xiaobu’s Longevity Halberd unleashed billions of halberd rays, transforming into reincarnation Dao patterns that surged toward him.
Though Lan Xiaobu used reincarnation Dao patterns against Huan, he didn’t always need the Six Paths Reincarnation Bridge to wield them.
As the halberd’s reincarnation rules enveloped Yang Tian, he felt dragged into a chilling space, his Dao rules eroded by waves of reincarnation aura.
Yang Tian seemed frozen, glimpsing his three lives, each breath cycling through reincarnation.
One breath, one reincarnation; one halberd crosses three lives!
Yang Tian didn’t dare let the halberd’s attack fully manifest. He summoned the Yang Tian Tree Root.
Boom! The ferocious reincarnation rules locked onto the tree root, frosting its surface with pale, chilling reincarnation Dao beads.
“Stop!” Yang Tian roared, burning his Dao charm to break free from the reincarnation rules.
Lan Xiaobu was far stronger than when he ambushed Yang Tian before.
Huan watched but didn’t act, knowing Lan Xiaobu was splitting his focus between Yang Tian and him.
Lan Xiaobu didn’t stop, his reincarnation rules pressing harder. He said calmly, “Show me that disgusting net of yours, let Lord Bu have a look.”
Realising he was no match, Yang Tian resisted the halberd’s attack while urgently saying, “I became the Great Desolate Dao Ancestor because my master, Yang Mei, was an old friend of Dao Ancestor Hongjun. As for where Hongjun went, I truly don’t know. I only know the Tianmeng Clan ambushed him, using the Cosmic Tree to set up a Forgetting Dao rule…”
Lan Xiaobu withdrew his Longevity Halberd. Yang Tian exhaled, sweat beading on his forehead.
“Daoist Lan, shall we bind the Cosmic Tree now?” a cultivator Lan Xiaobu didn’t know asked, clasping his fists.
Everyone was waiting for Lan Xiaobu. Dividing the Cosmic Tree without him was unthinkable; they knew discussing it without his involvement was futile.
“I’ll take a look first,” Lan Xiaobu said, though his cosmic dimension model already told him the Cosmic Tree was about to escape.
With the Great Cosmos’s rules in tatters, the Cosmic Tree had no reason to stay.
“Daoist Lan, the Cosmic Tree may escape,” Huizhi said. “We should act together, using arrays to trap it before we can claim it.”
Lan Xiaobu chuckled, shaking his head. “It’s too late. If I’m not mistaken, the Cosmic Tree will vanish in the time it takes an incense stick to burn. If you want to act, do it now and take what you can.”
With that, Lan Xiaobu charged forward, unleashing his Longevity Halberd. Claiming it was too late was a lie; with so many powerhouses, trapping the Cosmic Tree was feasible. But Lan Xiaobu didn’t want it divided—he wanted it for himself.
Even if they united, dividing the Cosmic Tree after trapping it would be problematic. So, he’d take it himself.
Seeing Lan Xiaobu actસ
System: act, the others stopped holding back. No one bothered with array flags to bind the Cosmic Tree anymore; they unleashed their treasures, grabbing what they could.
The Cosmic Tree was vast, and the dozen cultivators each claimed a section without interference.
But the tree, akin to a chaos supreme treasure, was so tough that even eighth-step Great Dao cultivators struggled to carve off even a small piece.
Lan Xiaobu knew his Longevity Halberd could only chip off a palm-sized piece in the time of an incense stick. He didn’t want a fragment—he wanted the entire Cosmic Tree.
Unlike the others, his cosmic dimension model had revealed a weak point in the tree’s structure.
While others frantically carved, Lan Xiaobu’s Longevity Halberd drilled a small, one-centimetre-wide, seven-to-eight-centimetre-deep hole. He then embedded array patterns to form a barrier.
As the incense stick’s time neared its end, Lan Xiaobu sent his cosmic dimension model into the hole and entered it himself.
With the barrier securing the model, he wasn’t worried the Cosmic Tree would leave him behind.
Crack! The void erupted with the sound of shattering rules. A massive cavity appeared, and the Cosmic Tree vanished into it.
Of the dozen cultivators vying for the tree, most didn’t even get a piece of bark.
Despite his injuries, Huizhi, with his many treasures, secured an egg-sized piece of the tree’s trunk. Huan got a fist-sized piece.
“Look, Daoist Lan is gone!” someone exclaimed, noticing Lan Xiaobu had vanished with the Cosmic Tree.
The sharper ones realised instantly: while they were carving the tree, Lan Xiaobu had hidden himself within it using a top-tier world treasure and left with the tree. A personal world would have been ejected by the Cosmic Tree.
