Crack! An earth-splitting roar wrenched through the very depths of his soul, and Mo Tianliao felt his divine soul being ripped apart and then forcibly embedded into something solid. The pain was so intense he wanted to scream, but without a body, he couldn’t make a sound.
The ancient divine tree instinctively rejected the invading soul. Despite the excruciating pain threatening to tear him apart, Mo Tianliao braced himself hard to maintain a semblance of clarity and did his best to integrate himself into the undying tree.
Time trickled by. Mo Tianliao’s divine soul was growing weaker, but the undying tree showed no sign of giving in. Was this the end? No! He hadn’t waited for a century just to be consumed by the divine tree!
The mysterious force protecting his divine soul seemed to sense his struggle and relaxed its grip, sending a warm stream of energy through his soul to merge into it and soothe him. Once the force and his soul were fused, the divine tree stopped repelling him.
The Mystic Thunderbolts of the Nine Heavens went on for seven days and seven nights. Whoever that unlucky cultivator undergoing his tribulation was, he had to be cinders by now.
The torrential rainstorm passed, and the skies cleared up. Coincidentally, this took place in the third month, when the mountaintop wasn’t on fire. The budding undying tree shrank, morphing into an impeccably handsome man with chiseled features and a tall, slender figure. This was Mo Tianliao, the man who had successfully made the undying tree his body.
Finally standing on solid ground after centuries of drifting, Mo Tianliao felt the impulse to howl at the sky. But first, he needed clothes. The divine tree had given him human form, but clothing hadn’t been included in the package.
Flexing his stiff limbs, he strode over to the massive crater halfway up the mountain. The lightning tribulation that had lasted seven days and seven nights had not only obliterated that unlucky cultivator but also wiped out everything in the vicinity.
Cautiously, he scanned the area with his divine soul, but he didn’t detect the divine soul of the cultivator. He heaved a sigh of relief. It would be a gross injustice if he were to be body-snatched right after coming back to life. A grin spread across his face. It was pretty rare for a divine soul to survive intact under these circumstances. He’d really lucked out big time.
Mo Tianliao scavenged around the crater. Most of the cultivator’s spiritual treasures had been destroyed, and after digging around for some time, all he managed to find was an inventory bracelet. The bracelet was black, with no discernible grade. Since its cultivator was dead, the soul imprint on it had vanished too, allowing Mo Tianliao easy access to the contents within.
The storage space within wasn’t very big. All it contained was a small collection of spiritual stones and a few sets of clothes. Mo Tianliao raised an eyebrow, his expression subtly shifting. This bracelet was a magical artifact he’d refined in his past life. The bracelet didn’t have a time-freeze function, so it couldn’t preserve spiritual herbs and elixirs, and its inventory space was limited. Its only use was its ability to resist lightning tribulations. This cultivator had probably bought the bracelet for that reason, but unluckily for him, this so-called lightning resistance feature applied only to the bracelet itself. Its owner could still get struck by lightning.
Mo Tianliao rubbed his nose and observed a moment of silence for this poor cultivator who’d gotten screwed over. Then, he took out a set of dark-colored clothes and examined it to make sure it didn’t have a sect identifier and that it wasn’t some high-level magical treasure. It didn’t, and it wasn’t, so he put it on.
With clothes and money, he was ready to leave the mountain. “Let’s go!” In high spirits, Mo Tianliao snapped his fingers—and his fingers burst into flames.
Mo Tianliao stared wide-eyed at the vividly colored flame at his fingertips. It had a green tint to it, and if he wasn’t mistaken, this was…woodfire!
Nature occasionally produced strange fires, like stonefire, icefire, and so on. These sorts of fires were created by other elemental entities, so the fire would also carry some of these other attributes. To his surprise, millennia of being burned by intense fire had allowed the undying tree to create woodfire. And since this fire was imbued with the regenerative power of the undying tree, it could preserve the spiritual energy of any materials he used to refine artifacts.
In his previous life, he’d never been able to get his hands on this woodfire—and now it had been delivered to him on a silver platter. Mo Tianliao was momentarily dumbstruck.
After spending a few more days getting used to this unexpected blessing, Mo Tianliao set off for the Annihilation Valley.
So many cultivators had perished here, and the air was so thick with lingering resentment that his fragile divine soul hadn’t even been able to approach it before. Now that he had a new body, he had to check it out.
The valley was a scene of utter devastation. The only thing remaining was that stunted tree, standing alone by itself. Mo Tianliao crouched beside it and touched the fist-sized hollow in its trunk. It had been a very long time, and his cat was long gone.
Mo Pawpaw had been a spirit beast with exceptional aptitude. When Mo Tianliao had found him, he’d considered making him his servant beast, but his affection for the little guy had won out. If Pawpaw didn’t want to sign a blood pact with him, he wouldn’t force him to. He wondered how that pampered little creature was doing without him there to care for him.
He wanted to look for him, but the world was vast, and without the bond of a blood pact, Mo Tianliao didn’t know where to start his search. Although he still had the full powers of his divine soul, his body had almost no cultivation. He was so weak he was practically incapable of exacting vengeance. Mo Tianliao sighed. There was nothing for it: He’d have to join a sect so he could regain his cultivation.
✦ ✦ ✦
MINI EXTRA
Woodworker: I’ve scored myself a golden ticket, wa ha ha!
Pawpaw: What?
Woodworker: An all-natural wood element!
Pawpaw: Perfect for sharpening my claws.
Woodworker: I also have super-duper amazing woodfire!
Pawpaw: Perfect for grilling a fish for me.
Woodworker: *speechless*