Chapter 143: Mutation

  First update! Collected 1650, seeking help to break through 2000!

  ——

  This small sapling is only the size of a palm, slender and young, with only three leaves growing on it. Each leaf is like a vibrant emerald, exuding a rich and dense woody fragrance. On the three leaves, there are also three green cloud-like patterns floating on them, lively and lovely, radiating a thick and pure vitality.

  Chen Chuan had already determined that the bare, towering tree was just a protective shell, and this small sapling was the source of the wood energy.

  "This sapling is so young, yet it can emit such a rich and dense aura of wood energy. If it grows up, it will be unimaginable! Treasure, this sapling is absolutely a rare treasure in the world!" Chen Yu took a deep breath, suppressing the excitement in his heart, his gaze fell on the roots of the sapling.

  This glance also made him discover a shocking thing, Chaos Primordial!

  Chaos Breath is a rare treasure not found in the Five Elements. Legend has it that during the Primordial Chaos Era, many Chaos Gods and Demons were born from the Chaos Breath. Until the Heavens and Earth opened up, the Three Realms took shape, and the Chaos Breath disappeared into the endless ages, never to appear again in the world.

  At the time in the Nanman Mingyu Jianxian Dongfu, Chen Tang had once discovered a wisp of Hun Dun Xi Ran's aura on the gate of the Treasure Hall, unfortunately, it was just a wisp of aura and could not be collected.

  In front of this small tree sapling, its root system has a piece of soil the size of a palm, with a dull black-gray color, from which a thread of ancient and desolate air is emitted, although weak, it makes one's heart tremble, and thoughts seem to have returned to the dawn of time, the chaotic era before the opening of the universe.

  "Legend has it that many gods and demons were born in the primordial chaos before the opening of the universe, and this small sapling was actually absorbing the power of the primordial chaos. No wonder it's so extraordinary." Chen Tai couldn't help but feel an uncontrollable excitement surging through his entire body, despite his calm nature.

  A small tree sprout bursting with the energy of a single wood element, a piece of chaotic soil the size of a palm, two rare treasures between heaven and earth are right in front of you, within reach, who can remain calm?

  "Take advantage of the situation and dig up the tree saplings first." Chen Tai took a deep breath, suddenly becoming vigilant. This was inside the Floating Pagoda's trial tower, with countless eyes watching this place. If someone detected their aura and came to take advantage of the situation, it would be troublesome.

  Chen Yu took out a jade box, then squatted down and carefully dug towards the Hun Dun Xi Ran with his hands. The roots of the small sapling were as weak as hair and easily broken, so he had to be careful.

  But what Chen Yu didn't expect was that the moment his hand touched the Chaos Soil, the witch power in his body suddenly sensed the bloody smell of sharks and burst out of his body, wrapping around the Chaos Soil, and even the small sapling was rolled into his body, disappearing without a trace!

  Chen Xuan was startled, and immediately realized that on his back, in the center of the mysterious and profound戍土巫纹 (Earth Soil Talisman), a faint, dark gray shadow had quietly appeared, seeming to hide and seek, vaguely visible, with a patch of soil about the size of a palm suspended within it. On the other side, in the乙木巫纹 (Wood Talisman), a small tree sapling's shadow also floated into view.

  "How could Chaos and Sapling have entered my tattoos?" Chen Xiao was both astonished and perplexed.

  He noticed that with the appearance of Chaos Soil and small tree sprouts, a connection had emerged between his own Jīn Tǔ Wū Fú (戍土巫纹) and Yǐ Mù Wū Fú (乙木巫纹), as if a bridge had been built between them. The ancient aura flowing from the Chaos Soil poured into the Yǐ Mù Wū Fú, was absorbed by the small tree sprouts, and then transformed into extremely pure Yǐ Mù Qi (乙木之气), which surged into his own flesh and skin.

  In an instant, Chen Xiao felt that his entire body's blood and flesh, skin membrane, tendons and bones, even the five internal organs and six external orifices, as well as all the large and small meridian acupoints throughout his body, were radiating a powerful life energy. His vitality was flourishing, his vital energy was thriving to the extreme, and in a daze, Chen Xiao even had an illusion that his own body was becoming infinitely stronger, more robust, and would one day be able to stand tall on the earth, with his hands supporting the heavens, standing upright between heaven and earth!

  Boom!

  In just an instant, Chen Tai felt that the wooden witch power in his blood and skin had reached perfection, and on his back, another dense and mysterious witch pattern appeared again!

  This hexagram does not have the thick and ancient simplicity of the earth trigram, nor the soft and gentle elegance of the wood trigram. Instead, it exudes a sharp and cold feeling, like a hard sword, ringing out clearly, which is exactly the metal trigram!

  Refining Body Purple Mansion Third Layer — Geng Metal Realm!

  Chen Yao was shocked and speechless, his physical cultivation had actually surged another boundary in this short period of time!

  "The Heavenly Star Refining Technique" The Purple Mansion Nine Heavens were divided into the territories of Jiutu, Yimutu, Gengjin, Binghuo, and Renshui... Chen Xuan had been in seclusion for a year and a half at the first trial grounds of the Tianfeng Cave Heaven, before finally cultivating the Yimutu Witch Mark, advancing to the second level of the Yimutu Territory. It has only been about a month since then. Chen Xuan originally thought that it would take another year and a half to fully cultivate the Yimutu Territory, but he never expected that in just this moment, within these few breaths of time, he would actually advance again!

  He clearly felt that in his own witchcraft, apart from the attributes of star jinxing, garrison earth and yin wood, there was also a thread of sharp and cold geng metal aura.

  Splash!

  The internal power surged like the Yangtze River, rumbling and roaring with a thunderous sound, stronger than before by more than one fold. Every pore on his body emitted a thread of solemn, mysterious, and vast aura, shaking the surrounding air to vibrate and retreat.

  Moreover, the small tree in the Yīn Mù Wén pattern is constantly emitting a surge of Yīn Mù energy, continuously flowing into his body, replenishing his magical power and enhancing the vitality of his blood, flesh, bones, skin, and internal organs. It can be said that with this small tree, Chen Tuan doesn't have to worry about running out of magical power when fighting against others!

  However, when the power inside the Chaos Cauldron is completely absorbed by the small tree, this effect will be lost, and this quasi-reversal of heaven's effect will also disappear. Moreover, according to Chen Tai's speculation, if he uses all his strength to cast the Star-Grabbing Great Hand Seal, the speed at which the small tree replenishes its magic power will far exceed the speed at which it is consumed. Of course, in battle, as long as he can get a chance to catch his breath, he can completely recover his magic power in an instant.

  However, what made Chen Ting regretful was that the small tree saplings could only replenish his spiritual power and not enhance his cultivation. To advance to a higher realm, he still had to use Starlight Stones to cultivate and transform them into Gengjin Spiritual Power in order to complete the third layer of the Purple Mansion's Gengjin Realm.

  "If only I could have a treasure that is like a small sapling, constantly overflowing with the energy of Geng Jin, Bing Huo and Ren Shui, how wonderful it would be."

  Chen Ting let out a sigh of emotion, and his body suddenly stiffened as if struck by lightning, because he suddenly realized a problem. This was the Azure Dragon's land within the Four Symbols realm, where there existed a small tree emitting the aura of Wood energy. Would such treasures also exist in the White Tiger's land, the Vermilion Bird's land, or the Black Tortoise's land?

  Chen Xiao's heart thumped excitedly, and he thought to himself: "Well, in this Four Symbols realm, let those two thousand cultivators kill each other, I'll take the opportunity to go collect some treasures."

  Thinking of this, Chen Xiao didn't stay any longer, identified the direction, and flew towards the giant golden mountain range in the White Tiger's territory.

  All the way, in this lush forest, fierce battles are taking place everywhere. The two thousand cultivators who can enter the second floor of the Treasure Pagoda, the Four Symbol Realm, are all top-notch cultivators of the same rank. Perhaps some people relied on the help of their fellow sect members to get here, but once they arrived, they had to rely solely on themselves.

  Only a hundred people can enter the third floor of the treasure tower, and these hundred people are the top 100 in the Dragon List competition. They can get a lot of elixirs, skills, and treasures, and their names will be known throughout the Southern Cultivation Realm. In this situation, even if they are from the same sect, brothers and sisters will fight to grab one spot, only those with the strongest strength can enter higher floors of the treasure tower.

  "Hmm? It seems lively over there......" Just as they were about to fly out of this lush forest, Chen Tai seemed to sense something and suddenly stopped in his tracks, a vast divine sense spreading out.

  About fifty miles away, a man and a woman were fighting in mid-air. The girl's eyebrows and eyes were like paintings, her skin was as smooth as condensed milk, and she held a pair of purple-green double blades. As the blades danced, countless sharp edges swirled around, filling the sky with a fierce and ruthless aura, cutting down everything in their path. It was none other than Fei Lengcui, the young leader of the Flowing Cloud Sword Sect.

  And her opponent was a majestic young man with a literary scarf on his head, thick eyebrows as black as ink, bright eyes like an eagle, three long swords slanting behind his back, and a sharp gaze that filled the air, who was none other than Qiu Leng, the outstanding disciple of Qingyang Gate known as "Void Sword".

  At this moment, the three swords on Qiu Leng's back had two swords out of their sheaths. One black and one white, the black sword was pitch-black and mysterious, while the white sword was dazzling and piercing to the eyes. In his hands, they seemed like two flying pythons, entwined with Fei Lengcui in a fierce battle that was hard to separate.

  Both of them were geniuses who grasped the essence of the Tao, and before participating in the Hidden Dragon Ranking competition, their names had already resounded throughout Longyuan City. Before entering the Floating Tower trial tower, they were even recognized as being able to impact the top ten of the Hidden Dragon Ranking. As soon as the battle began, the terrifying airflow that could tear everything apart filled the area within a radius of ten miles, and it was extremely tragic.

  Such an earth-shaking battle naturally attracted the attention of most eyes. Around the two, there were already many cultivators watching the battle at this moment. Those with weak strength hid in hidden places, while those with strong strength stood in positions with good visibility. Their eyes stared at the two people's fight without blinking, their expressions shocked, excited, thoughtful, or frowning and thinking deeply, varied and diverse.

  Chen Xiao stood silently for a moment, then turned and left. The two of them were evenly matched in strength, and both had held back, not using their full power. This kind of battle could go on indefinitely, but compared to that, finding the treasure that stirred his heart was more important.

  Just as Chen Xiao left, three figures suddenly appeared in a hidden place near the battlefield.

  "This time, thanks to Cangmu's clever plan, the battle between Feilong and Qiu Leng was triggered. After this battle, the two are likely to be seriously injured and have no hope of entering the top ten again." A young man with a thin face and a head of striking white hair said with a smile.

  "Lu Ping is overpraising me, it's just some minor tricks, not worth mentioning." said a young man in silver robe named Zhong Mu with a shake of his head and a smile.

  "Two of you, taking this opportunity, shouldn't we make a move? I didn't teach you the Shadow Escape Technique for you to just talk about it." The last one, an ordinary-looking young man in black clothes, frowned and said.

  "What Brother Zhang Kong said is absolutely right." A white-haired young man named Lu Ping and a silver-robed young man named Zhong Mu simultaneously changed their expressions, seemingly extremely wary of the black-clothed young man named Zhang Kong, and respectfully said.

  "Alright, let's act now!" Zhan Kong said indifferently with a nod.

  Whoosh!

  Three people tiptoed, and suddenly dispersed in all directions, their breaths faint, like ghosts wandering in the dark depths of night, ordinary people could hardly detect them.

  Crack!

  A monk who was watching the battle was caught off guard and had his neck pinched, dying instantly, without even getting a clear look at what the enemy looked like before he died.

  Hmph!

  Another monk was pierced through the heart by a sword, just as he was about to let out a cry of despair, but was silenced by a large hand that covered his mouth, and died quietly.

  Such a scene was unfolding rapidly around them, and the monks who were watching Florence and Qiu Leng fight had no idea that behind their backs, three ghostly figures were silently reaping lives.