Hou Niao believed that Jing An's Wood Element Forest might not be his true capability; there were many inexplicable things within.

For instance, Jing An's Wood Element Forest was exquisitely crafted, yet awkward and less than fluid, giving him the impression of a novice at the Gate Realm.

How could this be? The Wood Element is Jing An's Innate Divine Ability, a skill born with him, so how could it be so unfamiliar?

At first, he thought Jing An was just playing dumb, but until the battle ended, Jing An never changed this awkward feeling, which led to more thoughts.

This demon's wood element skills had been altered, and the alteration was recent, so recent that it couldn't fully unleash its power.

What could change the Innate Divine Ability of an outer space demon? With their proud nature, how could they possibly accept the new system of the Jinxiu Continent?

Aside from the Wood Spirit Orb, there could be no other possibility, because the Wood Spirit Orb also came from outer space.

He knew well that the Wood Spirit Orb would not be carried by any living being, not humans, and certainly not demon clan; it could only remain in one place, deep within the Ten Thousand Great Mountains.

Usually, he couldn't just swagger into the Ten Thousand Great Mountains for a stroll; there were too many troubles, and even if he wasn't afraid, there wouldn't be the opportunity to search leisurely, but what if the powerful figures among the Mountain Demons had left? What if they had all gone to attend the Demon Gathering?

Now was the empty period for the Ten Thousand Great Mountains; if not to explore now, then when?

He raced northward, calculating in his mind that if he could find the Wood Spirit Orb, it would be equivalent to finding the Fire Spirit Pearl; by then, when the Water, Earth, Gold, and Wood Pearls were all gathered, locating or even directly summoning the Fire Spirit Pearl would be easy—this was the result of his century-long study of the Five Elements.

As for Tan Xiao and Luo Yewang, they had Aunty Nineteen accompanying them back to the mountain, with elders of the sect to take care of them; from a medical perspective, he was useless, whether present or absent didn't really matter.

Ten days later, he entered the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, which was a deeply vast mountain range, lush and abundantly green, using 'ten thousand' to describe it was not an exaggeration in the least, perhaps even an understatement.

Finding the trace of the Wood Spirit Orb was no longer a big problem for him; with a century's study of the Five Elements, his attainments were extraordinary; all he needed was to carefully discern the strength and direction of the wood energy in the mountains, and he wouldn't go astray, eventually finding the place where the wood energy was most abundant—the lurking place of the Wood Spirit Orb.

He had always thought the Wood Spirit Orb was in Sui Mo City, but hadn't expected it to end up in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains after all.

Occasionally, as he traveled, Mountain Demons would emerge for inspections—either to be killed or avoided; in the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, there never lacked adventurous human cultivators, just as the human world never lacked the rampaging Demon Clan, it wasn't a big deal.

The deeper he went, the more obvious the wood energy became; to those who didn't understand the Wood Element, it was a complete mystery, but Hou Niao could barely be considered a Five Elements expert, having immersed himself in them for centuries, recognizing such things was not difficult for him.

As he penetrated deeper into the mountains, the number of Mountain Demons changed; for the first several thousand miles, they were faintly discernible, becoming dense further on, but after flying over ten thousand miles, the frequency of demons' appearances lessened again; here, the wood elemental energy became denser and denser, dense to the point of being nearly inseparable, dense enough to let plants birth spirits.

Wood spirit creatures began to appear.

Hou Niao had read such historical records in sect archives, but this was the first time he had seen them with his own eyes. The phenomenon of wood spirits becoming spiritual was not unheard of in the cultivation world, but those were usually standalone cases, unable to form a continuous lineage, often scattered across various parts of the continent.

Yet, after penetrating twenty thousand miles into the Ten Thousand Great Mountains, demon beasts were nearly extinct, leaving only endless primordial forests, lush and verdant, full of vitality.

Truly a reborn land of spiritual renewal in the post-Epoch age, everywhere exuded bustling life.

Such a place, no wonder demon beasts were unwilling to come, being in such a forest, the wood spirit sprites held absolute dominion, even the wild Demon Clan did not dare to act rashly here; unable to endure strict self-control, it was better not to come.

Hou Niao lowered his altitude, feeling that flying above was somewhat disrespectful to these wood spirit sprites, not proper manners as a guest.

The temperament and personality of wood spirit sprites were rarely documented, because they never leave their territories, single-mindedly guarding their small domains, a quite conservative race.

Strange, stubborn, difficult to communicate with, and prone to getting stuck in a rut—these were the general descriptions of their character.

Just as west of the Lizhi Sea's Horizon Ocean lay the West Sea, north of the Ten Thousand Great Mountains was the Beimu Forest; when Hou Niao acquired such abilities, the world only gradually began to show its true face to him, and this was a process every cultivator hoping to advance must undergo.

Upon reaching this place, simply relying on the strength of wood elemental energy no longer sufficed in distinguishing the Wood Spirit Orb's whereabouts; what he could do was get as close to the forest as possible.

Flying slowly over the treetops, he could vaguely hear the forest below grumble in discontent as the wind passed through, it was a feeling, somewhat inexplicable, but he believed it true.

He sensed the forest's discontent with him as an outsider, contemplated, and decided to land and walk.

Walking might be dangerous because the surrounding trees were too dense, in case of malicious attacks, he may lack sufficient reaction time, but he still decided to land, because only by landing could he truly experience the subtleties of Wood Element Mystique.

For years, he had rarely walked on the ground; doing it sporadically now reminded him of the scene in the Poplar Forest when he first started cultivation, quite nostalgic.

The ground here was deeply carpeted with fallen leaves, accumulated over millennia, for forests have their own cycles and will not grow indefinitely; when the leaf litter reaches certain levels, it will ignite a forest fire, turning all to ash, becoming fertilizer, waiting for another cycle of lushness after thousands of years, this too was a cycle, unique to plants.

Upon reaching the ground, the wind still rustled the treetops, but it was already a normal sound, and he no longer sensed that discontent.

Landing and walking was the right choice.

The forest teemed with animals, they were a complementary part of the forest, but those becoming intelligent or monstrous were few, over several days of walking, he mostly saw mortal beasts, showing no signs of becoming spiritual.

This was perplexing to him; ordinarily, a place like Beimu Forest, where the spiritual energy condenses as densely as this, would be beneficial for mortal beast intelligence, but such norms didn't apply here at all.

He continued walking for several days through the forest, and was astonished to discover that he was lost?

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