Chapter 591: The Divine Tree Coalesces Longevity

This was already the sixth cup of spirit tea Li Fan had downed in a row.

The tea was called Sunny Spring Day, and it cost eight hundred contribution points per cup. The tea tree, so it was said, had to be cultivated in a grotto-heaven untouched by rain, planted to face the sun directly. It budded only once every three years, which made it scarce. A single cup sent a warm current surging through the body, like bathing in sunlight, and its effects lingered for days.

Yet even this widely beloved tea, excellent as it was, could not dispel the chill in Li Fan's heart.

This was the third time his true self had come face to face with a genuine powerhouse since entering the Xuanhuang World.

The first had been when his avatar was seen through by the Heavenly Physician, who traced the connection and barged directly into his private Tianxuan Mirror space.

The second had been during his secluded contemplation on the Great Five Elements Annihilation Sword in Tianyu Province, when Heaven-Scorning's aura drew Old Man Fisher to him without warning.

Compared to those two, this latest encounter had been more startling, sudden, and far more perilous.

Old Man Fisher had been mad and incoherent, harboring no ill will toward Li Fan. He had even bestowed an opportunity upon him.

The incident with the Heavenly Physician had been Li Fan's own doing—he had greedily pursued a hundred-thousand contribution point mission reward and provoked the trouble himself.

Back then, he hadn't yet understood the principle of restraining his mind in the presence of a powerhouse, and his ulterior motives had been detected. But at the very least, his core consciousness had remained clear. Coupled with the protection of Return to Truth, it had been frightening, yet ultimately without real danger.

This time was different. Daoist Rottenwood's arrival had been utterly abrupt, impossible to guard against.

His methods were terrifying. Even now, recalling them, Li Fan felt a genuine and deep-seated dread.

Unlike the Heavenly Physician's mind-reading ability, Daoist Rottenwood—or rather, the Ruomu Tree—can directly distort and alter a cultivator's thoughts and perceptions. And the cultivator would feel nothing amiss.

No wonder Daoist Rottenwood had said that the cultivators whose Golden Cores were extracted had all been "willing."

As Li Fan recalled his own thoughts and reactions from that time, another chill rose in him. He drank another cup of Sunny Spring Day to steady himself.

To grieve for one's own kind is only natural. But when I followed him and witnessed the Simmering of Lifespans, I felt no danger, no sorrow. I found it entirely reasonable. I even wished I could take their place.

Li Fan narrowed his eyes. Within his mind, the Dao Transformation Stone continuously replayed the scenes surrounding the Ruomu Tree.

Now, the Ruomu Tree's influence had faded. Even though Li Fan viewed all living beings as tools, seeing cultivators hanging from its branches like fruit still stirred instinctive waves of unease in him. That was the normal, proper reaction.

In Daoist Rottenwood's presence, my perspective was distorted and steered toward an extreme. One could say it was unhinged.

Li Fan would not deny that similar thoughts might lurk within him. But a person was inherently a complex tangle of consciousness, sometimes self-contradictory. A fleeting thought that crossed the mind could not be taken as representative of one's core worldview.

There is something deeply off about Daoist Rottenwood. He seems to harbor extreme hatred toward the cultivator community.

Li Fan did not believe for a moment that an entity of the Ruomu Tree's cultivation level was selling Golden Cores simply to acquire contribution points. Luring cultivators into the Simmering of Lifespans to serve as part of its production line was likely secondary as well. Its primary purpose was probably to spread its ideology—that cultivators, too, could be like fruit.

Such heresy would never be tolerated by the cultivator community. The Myriad Immortals Alliance surely had oversight and restrictions in place for exactly this, which was why Daoist Rottenwood couldn't act openly.

Revenge, then. Li Fan's eyes gleamed.

When heaven and earth gives birth to spirit, the Ruomu Tree pares its lifespan. Drawing life, it yields longevity fruit; consuming them grants longevity.

During the time his mind had been under the Ruomu Tree's sway, countless images had flashed through his consciousness.

He had seen the tree as it once was: towering, sky-piercing, utterly unlike the withered thing before him now. It had been lush and bursting with verdant life, and no cultivators hung from its branches.

At the very top of its canopy grew a handful of crystalline, translucent fruits. They looked strange and wondrous, shimmering with hues of purple and gold. On the surface of each fruit, faint patterns could be discerned—trees, mountains and rivers, exotic beasts—and no two were the same.

Then humans had arrived, seemingly by chance. At first they appeared to have no cultivation, dressed as ordinary mortals. Only a very few fortunate individuals could arduously climb to the treetop and successfully pluck a purple-gold fruit.

But humans came with increasing frequency, and their strength grew ever more formidable. Some could scale the colossal tree as though walking on level ground. Naturally, the number of fruits taken increased.

The Ruomu Tree, which had once passively allowed outsiders to take what they wished, began to change. It evolved and spawned spirits and monsters, forming a defensive system to block those who sought its fruit. For a long while, this brought it relative peace.

But it didn't last.

When humans returned again, their power had undergone a world-shaking transformation. They came in groups, wearing distinctive attire, capable of flying through the skies, burrowing into the earth, and wielding the energies of the air in combat. The spirits and monsters the Ruomu Tree had spawned were no match for them at all. They occupied the tree and claimed it as their own, posting specialized guards and returning at regular intervals to harvest a fixed number of fruits.

The Xuantian Sect?

The clothing style of those humans was very distinctive and easy to recognize. It was extremely similar to what Li Fan had seen on the remains of the Xuantian Sect's Dharma King in Senior Sister Zhao's illusion.

The Xuantian Sect ruled this place for a long, long age.

When the visions shifted again, the figures appearing upon the Ruomu Tree were cultivators from the Ten Immortal Dao Sects.

The Fruit of Eternal Life?

Li Fan's gaze swept over the piece of withered wood on the table, his heart stirring. He lingered on the thought for a long moment, then continued recalling.

During the Ten Immortal Dao Sects' occupation of the Ruomu Tree, the yield of the purple-gold fruits at its crown gradually dwindled for some reason. Each time cultivators came to harvest, they seemed to hail from different sects.

An unknown span of time passed after that.

Then one day, several dozen cultivators radiating formidable auras forced their way in without warning. After slaughtering the guards with contemptuous ease, they did not immediately plunder the purple-gold fruits. Instead, they stood before the Ruomu Tree and engaged in a fierce debate.

In the end, they reached an agreement.

What followed made Li Fan's pupils contract sharply.

They laid down a massive array, trapping the Ruomu Tree within it. Chains of black energy, like long needles, pierced into every part of the tree. Then an endless stream of vital aura was drawn out, converging into a single green sphere of light suspended in the air.

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