Chapter 23

"Big brother, Xiao Zi is still injured and hasn’t recovered yet." The little one looked pitiful, its branch-like arms extended, showing some knife wounds and traces of poison that left a faint stench of decay.

Seeing the pitiful little one, Xiao Yun couldn’t help but feel a pang of sympathy.

The wisteria vine was now rootless, deprived of its source of essence and energy. If this continued, it would truly die.

"It’s fine, big brother can ensure you won’t die!" Xiao Yun’s eyes narrowed as he immediately thought of a solution and said.

"Really?" Xiao Zi blinked its gem-like eyes, staring at Xiao Yun with a fluttering gaze.

Xiao Yun didn’t speak but focused his mind to communicate with his martial soul.

Buzz!

Suddenly, a green light shone from between Xiao Yun’s brows, and a green branch extended out.

This branch was radiant with green light, enveloped in mist, resembling a divine flower.

"Such a fragrant grandma, it’s full of life essence!" When the green light shone, the little one’s eyes lit up, purple saliva dripped from the corner of its mouth, and it hugged Xiao Yun’s legs, saying in a childish voice, "I want to eat, I want to eat."

A foodie!

Xiao Yun rolled his eyes and said, "Don’t worry, big brother will take you to a good place."

After speaking, the green branch extended and wrapped around the wisteria vine’s body to prevent the little one from acting rashly.

The little one, bound by the branch, seemed to feel nothing. Its small mouth sucked hard, drawing the brilliant green essence into its mouth. The essence contained a large amount of life energy, causing its aura to rise continuously, like a child growing robustly.

The green light flashed and entered the sea of consciousness, bringing the wisteria vine’s soul with it.

Being a soul-like existence, it could reside in a person’s sea of consciousness.

In Xiao Yun’s sea of consciousness, the wisteria vine continued to suck the green essence, its arms tightly hugging the branch, like a baby holding a bottle. Its purple eyes flickered and then narrowed, appearing quite intoxicated.

It seemed that the essence emanating from Xiao Yun’s martial soul was extremely beneficial to the wisteria vine’s soul.

Xiao Yun’s mind also sank into the sea of consciousness, marveling at the wisteria vine.

Under the nourishment of the martial soul’s essence, the little one’s aura was restored, emitting a purple glow, looking vibrant and full of life.

The martial soul moved, placing the little one down.

"Ah, I’m not full yet." The little one looked dissatisfied, its long eyelashes raised high.

It was becoming more and more human-like, its eyes and eyelashes as lively as a porcelain doll.

"The little one only knows how to eat." Xiao Yun’s divine sense transmitted, and he glanced at the wisteria vine’s body, still feeling a bit of pity.

Although the wisteria vine’s essence had recovered significantly, the wounds were still there, and some toxins remained.

"I wonder if this mist water will work?" Xiao Yun had a sudden idea. Glancing at the mist on the tender leaves of his martial soul, he used his mind to control it, making it fall on the wisteria vine’s wounds to see if it could heal them.

When the mist water fell on the wisteria vine’s wounds, the knife wounds began to heal at a visible speed.

Even the toxins started to dissolve under the mist water.

"Big brother, you’re so amazing, my injuries are all healed." Xiao Zi blinked its eyes, its purple gaze shining with a fiery light as it stared at the martial soul, drooling. Then it directly hugged the branch of the martial soul and began to suck the essence.

"Delicious, so delicious, big brother, I’ll stay with you." The little one said with its eyes closed.

Curing the wisteria vine’s injuries, Xiao Yun felt relieved.

This way, the wisteria vine’s soul could last until they reached Purple Cloud City, where he could then hand it over to Sister Shi Fei.

However, seeing the little one’s foodie appearance, Xiao Yun couldn’t help but frown.

"Wow, the life aura is even more intense over there." In the sea of consciousness, the wisteria vine’s soul climbed up the branch of the martial soul, heading for the mist on the two tender leaves, which were the essence of the martial soul, recently formed.

"I can’t afford to keep it like this." Xiao Yun grumbled inwardly.

The little one had changed its attitude because of the essence emanating from his martial soul.

Now it was completely exposed.

The seemingly innocent little one was incredibly smart.

Bang!

Before Xiao Yun could act, a branch of the martial soul flicked, directly knocking the climbing Xiao Zi down.

"Ouch, big brother, it’s bullying Xiao Zi." The little one fell into the sea of consciousness, quickly getting up and looking around, crying.

"You eat too much. If you continue like this, big brother will throw you out." Xiao Yun said, feeling that he couldn’t let the little one continue eating. The essence of his martial soul also needed to absorb the elemental energy of heaven and earth!

"Sniff, big brother, don’t abandon Xiao Zi. Xiao Zi will be very obedient in the future." The little one was charming, its purple eyes blinking as it looked up at the sky of the sea of consciousness, where a soul fluctuation was present, the gradually condensed soul power of Xiao Yun.

Although the little one said this, saliva still dripped from the corner of its mouth.

Xiao Yun felt helpless, not expecting to be stuck with a foodie.

"Big brother, keep Xiao Zi, okay?" The little one seemed to know it was disliked and stared at Xiao Yun with pleading eyes, saying, "I can help you find spiritual herbs, and I know the location of an ancient cultivator’s legacy."

"You know the location of an ancient cultivator’s legacy?" Hearing this, Xiao Yun became interested.

Xiao Zi nodded and then began to describe the situation of the mountain range to Xiao Yun.

After listening to the little one’s narration, Xiao Yun nodded from time to time, his frown easing.

The wisteria vine had grown in the Purple Cloud Mountains for a long time, developing consciousness and becoming very familiar with everything here. Through its narration, Xiao Yun also understood why the powerful beasts in the Purple Cloud Mountains had been startled away recently.

This was because a supreme being had emerged in the depths.

Not only that, but the aura of this being was very strong, spreading out and dispersing the clouds and mist in the mountains.

If not for this, the Purple Cloud Gorge would be extremely dangerous, not a place for ordinary cultivators to venture into.

Additionally, the wisteria vine knew the exact location of the ancient cultivator’s legacy.

"Alright, let’s go to the origin of the elemental vein first." A smile appeared on Xiao Yun’s face as he said.

"Big brother won’t throw Xiao Zi out now, right?" The little one blinked its eyes, its purple gaze adorable, making one want to pinch it, but unfortunately, its soul form was not yet fully human, and its face was not well-formed.

"You need to be good, okay?" Xiao Yun said.

"Okay." The little one nodded vigorously, although it really wanted to climb up the green branch and suck the ‘grandma’ but still held back, lying at the base of the green branch and continuously absorbing the life essence, which was enough for its evolution.

Seeing this, Xiao Yun did not stop it.

The martial soul shone with green light, its life essence vast like the sea, and it didn’t matter much to lose a little.

In the mountains, as Xiao Yun continued to move deeper, he could feel the elemental energy becoming more concentrated.

During this time, Xiao Yun found a place with more concentrated elemental energy and began to cultivate for a few days.

In the concentrated elemental energy, the martial soul also extended its branches, absorbing the external elemental energy.

The martial soul, after advancing, seemed to have gained many more abilities.

At the same time, Xiao Yun practiced the Heaven Devouring God Annihilation Technique, drawing in the elemental energy of heaven and earth.

In just five days, he advanced from the eighth level of the Body Tempering stage to the ninth level, and the martial soul also became more robust.

The two tender leaves not only grew larger but also had mist condensing into dewdrops, falling onto the center of the leaves.

These dewdrops were emerald green, crystal clear, like jade.

The wisteria vine’s soul had been lying under the green branch of the martial soul, and after absorbing the essence of the martial soul for several days, it underwent a surprising transformation. Its eyelashes, which were initially unnatural, had now become human-like, blinking cutely.

Its small face was also beginning to take shape.

However, the little one kept staring at the dewdrops on the tender leaves of the green branch, drooling.

The life essence in the dewdrops was too tempting, but it held back for fear of being thrown out by Xiao Yun.

One day, another dewdrop condensed on the green leaf, and Xiao Zi couldn’t hold back anymore.

"Big brother, with so many ‘grandmas,’ you shouldn’t be stingy with Xiao Zi, right?" The little one blinked its eyes, taking advantage of Xiao Yun’s focused cultivation, and climbed up the martial soul, its clumsy arms wiping away saliva, trying to steal the dewdrop.

Slap!

However, the green branch flicked, knocking it down.

"Xiao Zi isn’t being good again." Xiao Yun’s voice came.

"Xiao Zi is just hungry." The little one rubbed its stomach, looking aggrieved.

"Since you helped me find the elemental vein, I’ll let you have one." Xiao Yun used the martial soul to control a green bead and gave it to the little one, who blushed, feeling a bit embarrassed, "Thank you, big brother." Despite this, the little one quickly took it.

After swallowing the dewdrop, the little one’s body began to change, some branches retracting, becoming more human-like.

Of course, it was still in the form of a tree person.

Xiao Yun then continued forward, reaching the source of the elemental vein.

The elemental energy here was incredibly concentrated, standing in the middle made one feel like they were about to break through.

Xiao Yun found a cave and continued to cultivate.

After ten days, Xiao Yun had advanced to the Perfect Body Tempering stage.

Unfortunately, breaking through to the Innate stage was too difficult, always feeling like something was missing.

The martial soul and the Heaven Devouring God Annihilation Technique, however, continued to progress.

"The Innate stage not only requires a vast amount of elemental energy but also an understanding of heaven and earth." After ten days of cultivation, Xiao Yun did not continue to cultivate hard, as he had encountered a bottleneck, which could not be broken through by hard cultivation alone; it required enlightenment.

By then, he had been here for almost a month.

Shaking his head, Xiao Yun walked out of the cave.

However, just as he stepped out of the cave, a vast wave of energy swept over from a distance, like a surging tide.

"What a terrifying wave." Under the assault of this wave, Xiao Yun’s body couldn’t help but tremble, and he quickly retreated.

It was not hard to imagine what a general cultivator would look like under this wave. What surprised him the most was that the source of this wave seemed to be very far away, making it hard to imagine what kind of powerful being could release such an aura.

Curious, Xiao Yun couldn’t help but look towards the source of the wave.

The wisteria vine’s soul in the sea of consciousness was also startled.

"It’s that supreme being." Xiao Zi released its spiritual sense and exclaimed in surprise.

Although the exclamation was childish, it couldn’t hide the fear and reverence in its heart.