Since the Gathering Spirit Tree was transplanted into the Stealing Heaven Tripod, Yuan Ming also prepared to cultivate within it, after all, though he had lured Yuan Wuji and others to other places, one couldn't guarantee that someone wouldn't get any ideas, which would lead to troublesome matters later.

Thus, Yuan Ming took the Stealing Heaven Tripod and quietly left the valley, arriving at a fairly large lake.

He hid the Stealing Heaven Tripod at the bottom of the lake and captured a low-level fish demon beast from the lake, transformed and planted a Soul Descent Rune in it, ordering it to guard near the tripod, before entering the tripod himself.

At this time, Xi Ying had begun the preparations for cultivating the Ju Mang Spirit Technique, clearing a piece of land within the Stealing Heaven Tripod, covering it with various spirit soils, and irrigating it with specially made spirit water - clearly, she had done much homework for the cultivation of this technique and was now at ease.

Xi Ying seemed to have quite the knack for nurturing spirit plants, employing several profound secret techniques one after the other, and quickly cultivated a spirit field nearly identical to the one in the Shura Palace's Medicine Garden.

She took out a five-colored seed, indeed the Spiritual Seed of the Five Elements Creation Tree, buried it in the spirit field, and nurtured it with the Ju Mang Spirit Technique.

Meanwhile, Yuan Ming was not idle either. He sat cross-legged on the other side of the altar, closed his eyes and began to cultivate, when he suddenly became aware of some movement in the Storage Ring. His Divine Sense delved into it, and his face showed a look of surprise.

The source of the disturbance was the half of the Black Demon Tree he had previously put away. It seemed to have life once again, wildly waving its branches and causing a ruckus inside the Storage Bag.

Yuan Ming hastily took out the Black Demon Tree, and upon contacting the rich Spiritual Energy inside the Stealing Heaven Tripod, every branch of the Black Demon Tree showed numerous pores, greedily devouring nature's spiritual energy and making hissing sounds as they moved more intensely.

He couldn't help but sigh inwardly; this Black Demon Tree was truly terrifying, that it could still do this even after being cut from its roots.

Though the tree was magical, it was related to the Undead Tree Demon and couldn't be kept at all costs.

Yuan Ming threw the Black Demon Tree into the Spiritual Beast Bag where Hua Zhi was, and its vines immediately wrapped around it, rooting into the Black Demon Tree.

It seemed the Black Demon Tree sensed danger and immediately counterattacked. However, it had been previously heavily injured by the Golden Crow Divine Arrow, and what little strength it had just recovered was no match for Hua Zhi. After a brief struggle, it was quickly bound up by countless vines.

Vines pierced into the demon tree, and the once full trunk quickly shriveled up, transforming into decayed wood, and in the end, it turned to dust and smoke.

After absorbing the Black Demon Tree, Hua Zhi's presence grew even more vibrant, and it seemed that its breakthrough was just around the corner.

Yuan Ming was quite pleased with this, ready to withdraw his Divine Sense, but then he suddenly stopped and performed a hand gesture to beckon something forth.

A fist-sized black object flew out from the dust where the demon tree disintegrated, appearing to be a seed.

"Could this be the seed of the Black Demon Tree? It wasn't drained by Hua Zhi, how odd," Yuan Ming caught the seed and observed it closely.

He could sense that this black seed still contained a fair amount of vitality.

At that moment, the black seed suddenly burst forth with a cloud of black gas, and within the mist, an old and ferocious face appeared, clearly the face of the Black Demon Tree.

"What is this?" Yuan Ming exclaimed, opened his mouth and spat out a blast of Soul Destroying Sword Energy, without any hesitation, he slashed at the ferocious face within the black gas.

However, as the sword struck, the face within the black gas split into two, and then it blinked into Yuan Ming's body, and the seed also vanished, reappearing within his Dantian.

Several black roots sprouted from the seed and took root there.

Only then did Yuan Ming react, but it was already a step too late. The Mana in his Dantian was flowing uncontrollably, quickly being absorbed by the black seed.

Not just Mana, the abundant Qi-Blood within Yuan Ming's body was also being rapidly drained.

With the nourishment of Yuan Ming's Mana and Qi-Blood, the black gas around the seed became several times more concentrated. The ferocious face that had just appeared showed a bloodthirsty and ecstatic expression.

Countless roots continued to sprout from the seed, taking root in other parts of Yuan Ming's body, devouring his Qi-Blood even more aggressively.

Yuan Ming was a mix of shock and anger in his heart. The Soul Sword in his Dantian fired out with a roar, fiercely striking the black seed.

With a "clang," the black seed remained unscathed, while the Soul Sword was knocked back.

His Dantian ached sharply, and he spurted out a mouthful of fresh blood.

"What's going on? It's so hard!" Yuan Ming frowned deeply, not daring to swing his sword at the black seed again, instead he activated the Curse Rune of the Soul Sword.

An invisible curse seeped into the black seed. The spirit light on the seed dimmed instantly, and the ferocious face showed a pained expression, slowing down the rate at which it was devouring Yuan Ming's Mana and Qi-Blood significantly.

A glimmer appeared in Yuan Ming's eyes; the black seed contained some sort of consciousness, and the Curse Rune had proven to be effective.

He didn't dare to relax, continuing to activate the Curse Rune of the Soul Sword. All the Soul Crows in his Sea of Consciousness flew out, arriving at the Dantian.

The twelve Soul Crows opened their mouths and emitted waves of Crow's Call Waves, engulfing the black seed. The devouring force of the black seed weakened once more, yet it still did not stop draining his Mana and Qi-Blood.

Yuan Ming had finally caught his breath at this point, his hands formed a gesture, and two streams of gold and black spirit light shot out from his palms, entering the black seed.

This was the complete Golden Sunflower Beast Taming Technique he had just mastered; since the black seed possessed its own consciousness, the Beast Taming Technique should also have an effect.

Yuan Ming didn't stop; a crack pierced through the blood light of the Shura Blood Devouring Map in the spleen area.

A yellow light shot out from the crack, entered the Dantian, and coiled around the black seed.

The Sandman Poison entrenched in the spleen traveled along the yellow light, invading the black seed.

Yuan Ming, as if facing a formidable enemy, had exhausted all the means at his disposal.

Under such consecutive attacks, the black aura enveloping the black seed was almost dispersed.

However, this seed was incredibly resilient, firmly guarding the last wisp of black air; if Yuan Ming's assault even slightly faltered, the black seed would immediately counterattack.

Time passed by, and soon half an hour had passed.

Yuan Ming's forehead was covered in sweat, both his mana and Soul Power were running low, yet the black seed remained intact, its counterattacks growing fiercer, with more roots appearing, one of which had even taken root near the Sea of Consciousness.

Even the Soul Power in his Sea of Consciousness was drawn out, converging towards the black seed.

Yuan Ming's heart chilled, he dared not hold back any longer, took out a green lotus seed and swallowed it, then his body shot out and landed on the White Jade Lotus Platform at the altar, and sat down on it.

Boom!

Pure Will Power surged from within the White Jade Lotus Platform, Yuan Ming's Soul Power instantly recovered and surged to a level infinitely close to that of Sleeping Witch.

The twelve soul crows grew significantly in size, and the Crow's Call Waves they emitted thickened several-fold.

As the lotus seed dissolved, his mana quickly restored, and both the power of the Soul Destroying Sword's Curse Runes and the Golden Sunflower Beast Taming Technique increased greatly once again pushing down the black seed.

However, the black seed was too obstinate. No matter how fiercely it was assaulted by the Crow's Call Waves and Curse Runes, it held onto its last line of defense, unable to be completely destroyed, and kept draining Yuan Ming's Qi-Blood and mana, waiting for him to exhaust his strength.

"How could this black seed be so troublesome, what is its origin?" Yuan Ming's face looked ugly as he muttered to himself.

"What's wrong, what happened?" Xi Ying had already noticed something unusual on Yuan Ming's side, halted what she was doing, and flew towards Yuan Ming while asking.

Yuan Ming didn't conceal anything and while continuing to cast spells to suppress the black seed's draining, he quickly told Xi Ying about the origin of the black seed and the recent developments.

"A Black Demon Tree? Let me see…" Xi Ying's face showed a look of surprise, she reached out and pointed towards Yuan Ming.

A five-colored light flashed by and disappeared into Yuan Ming's Dantian, enveloping the black seed.

The black seed seemed to devour everything, and the five-colored light was rapidly consumed.

Xi Ying seemed to have anticipated this, her hands twirling like wheels, a continuous stream of five-colored light shot towards Yuan Ming ceaselessly for a quarter of an hour before stopping.

"This black seed is related to the Undying Tree you mentioned before, and it is even closer to the essence of the Undying Tree than those Green Black Demon Trees transformed by the tree men outside. That's why its vitality is so tenacious. No matter how frantically you attack, you cannot shake it," Xi Ying said, her chest heaving slightly, seemingly at great expenditure, as she spoke.

Yuan Ming's heart sank; he had long had a premonition about this. Indeed this Black Demon Tree was also an Undying Tree, no wonder it was so difficult to deal with.

"However, you shouldn't worry too much; I already have a solution in mind," Xi Ying suddenly said with a smile.

"What is it?" Yuan Ming asked, delighted.

At this point, he had exhausted all his techniques. If someone else had said this, he might have doubted them, but not with Xi Ying.

"You're already familiar with the technique, the Ju Mang Spirit Technique," Xi Ying continued.

"The Ju Mang Spirit Technique! You mean to let me use the Ju Mang Spirit Technique to refine the black seed into my Lifebound Spirit Plant? This indeed could be a solution, but refining a Lifebound Spirit Plant requires the Spirit Roots of both parties to be completely identical. Could it be that the black seed possesses the Four Spirit Roots lacking Earth of the Five Elements?" Yuan Ming, taken aback, asked.

"Actually, the Undying Tree is the spirit wood closest to the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Trees—the World Tree and, like the World Tree, the Undying Tree has Gold, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Yin, and Yang Seven Spirit Roots. The black seed is the same," Xi Ying revealed.

"Seven Spirit Roots! Then there's even less of a chance that I and the black seed could be a match," Yuan Ming shook his head.

"On the contrary, you match perfectly," Xi Ying said with a hint of a smile.

Yuan Ming stood still, slightly puzzled.

"You originally had Gold, Wood, Water, and Fire Four Spirit Roots. Because of the Taiyin Refining Spleen Technique, your spleen contains an abundance of dense Earth Attribute Spiritual Power, which is akin to having an Earth Spirit Root. Moreover, you practice Soul Cultivation and Body Cultivation. Soul Cultivation is a Pure Yin Attribute technique, and your Lifebound Magical Treasure, the Soul Destroying Sword, is a Pure Yin Magical Treasure. When it comes to sensing Yin Spiritual Power, you are even more sensitive than cultivators with the Yin Spiritual Root," Xi Ying explained with conviction.

"Then what about the Yang Spiritual Root? I've not cultivated any Yang Attribute techniques or Yang Attribute magical treasures," Yuan Ming nodded thoughtfully and replied.

"No, you have cultivated a Yang Attribute technique, and it's quite advanced," Xi Ying shook her head and said.

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