Chapter 0954: The Spiritual Jade

“Only those who have achieved sainthood can pass through!” Huang Long was stunned and immediately dismissed the thought from his mind.
Hong Peng said, “That’s right. Even with the help of the Chaos Bell, I couldn’t get within a hundred miles of these Yuan Ci Spirit Trees! If I can’t get close, I certainly can’t take them!”
The gravitational field of this Yuan Ci Spirit Tree formation was 1,800 times that of normal, and each spirit tree reinforced the others, making the gravity above them ten times greater than that of the formation itself. Even twelve peak Half Saints from different eras would find it difficult to take any of them.
Days passed by. More than a month later, one day, the speed of the Sacred Cauldron suddenly increased. A flash of light appeared before Huang Long and the others, who finally broke through the Yuan Ci Spirit Tree formation.
It was as if they had escaped from a quagmire—Huang Long and the others felt a great relief.
“We’re finally out!” Emerging from the Sacred Cauldron, they saw the ancient trees, mountains, and rivers outside and were overjoyed. Hong Peng, in particular, was filled with emotion.
Huang Long turned around and saw that the exit of the Yuan Ci Spirit Tree formation behind him had disappeared, as if it had never existed. However, before leaving, Huang Long had set up a small array in the Heavy God Space to sense its location.
“I’ll come back someday!” A cold glint appeared in Huang Long’s eyes.
Ice Sea Palace, Leng Feng, wait for me!
“Junior brother, I have matters to attend to in the Xuan Huang Great World. What about you?!” Hong Peng asked after a while.
“You’re going to the Xuan Huang Great World?!” Huang Long was surprised.
Hong Peng smiled. “That’s right. I’ll take the chance to inquire about our teacher’s whereabouts as well!”
“In that case…” Huang Long pondered. “My strength is still too weak. Going there might only cause you trouble. I’ll postpone my trip for now.”
Hong Peng nodded. “That’s good.”
“This journey is dangerous. Eldest brother, be careful!”
“Don’t worry. Junior brother, take care too!”
Hong Peng patted Huang Long’s shoulder, then vanished in a flash.
“Second brother, what should we do now? Should we continue deeper into the Ruins Continent?” Huang Yi asked.
Huang Long thought for a moment. “Let’s first return to Magma and retrieve that World Tree fragment!” With his current strength, he could easily obtain the third World Tree fragment.
When he had broken through eight eras, the power of the Destruction Thunder Calamity made him even more eager to find and combine fragments of other World Trees. Only by continuously strengthening the World Tree’s power could he more easily break through to higher realms. Otherwise, when the ninth era arrived, even the terrifying power of the World Tree might not be enough to withstand it.
So, Huang Long led everyone back along the original path. After more than ten days, they returned to the divine plane where the World Tree fragments were located.

However, when the Yellow Dragon arrived at that mountain range, he suddenly frowned: “Huh?! There’s someone here?!” Using his spiritual sense, he detected continuous fluctuations of energy coming from beneath the molten rock tens of thousands of feet down. Pointing at his forehead, he opened his Heavenly Eyes and saw an silver-haired old man using a giant blue cauldron to slowly pull out the third fragment of the World Tree from the molten rock. This silver-haired old man was a peak warrior from the middle of the eighth era, and that giant blue cauldron was a mid-tier peak Great Dao artifact, nearly reaching the level of an upper-tier one. “How did this person find the fragment of the World Tree?!” The Yellow Dragon was astonished. He had set up many concealment arrays around the area, and the fragment was deep in the molten rock tens of thousands of feet down—logically, no one should be able to find it. But now wasn’t the time for the Yellow Dragon to speculate on the reasons. Seeing that the third fragment was about to be taken, he hesitated no longer, used the Art of Immortal Flight to break through the ground, and rushed in. Soon, he arrived above the molten rock. The silver-haired old man naturally noticed the Yellow Dragon’s arrival. He was shocked, clearly not expecting anyone to appear at such a critical moment when extracting the fragment! The Yellow Dragon’s arrival also took him by surprise. Yet instead of stopping, the silver-haired old man accelerated the extraction process. The blue light from the cauldron intensified, and the fragment was pulled out of the molten rock even faster. “Hmph!” The Yellow Dragon sneered and struck with a palm. A burst of golden light followed by thunderous noise shocked the silver-haired old man, who immediately countered with his own palm. Space exploded, and with a muffled cry, he was sent flying. The fragment of the World Tree fell back into the molten rock. “I am an elder from the Treasure Refining Tower. Who are you?!” the silver-haired old man demanded angrily. The Treasure Refining Tower, like the Nine Cauldron Pavilion back then, was one of the top ten merchant guilds in the Three Thousand Great Worlds. In terms of ranking, it even surpassed the Nine Cauldron Pavilion—ranked fifth among the ten guilds, while the Treasure Refining Tower was third. Hearing the other party’s identity, the Yellow Dragon was stunned. “My friend, I discovered this artifact fragment first. First come, first served. If you leave, I can offer you a hundred royal-grade spirit veins as compensation!” the silver-haired old man said, his eyes gleaming. “A hundred royal-grade spirit veins?” The Yellow Dragon sneered. “Heh heh, you’re quite generous!” A hundred royal-grade spirit veins were utterly worthless compared to the fragment of the World Tree.

Hearing the mockery in Huang Long’s voice, the silver-haired elder’s expression darkened as he sneered, “Although you’re at the peak of the later stage of eight eras, you still can’t do anything to me! This time, six elders from our Treasure Refining Tower have come to the Ruins Continent. Once I leave, I’ll inform the other five elders. You should know what will happen then!”
Huang Long remained calm. “Is that so? If it’s first come, first served, I found this artifact fragment first!”
The silver-haired elder was stunned upon hearing this and immediately realized that the restrictions he had encountered earlier were set by Huang Long.
“What do you want then?!” the silver-haired elder demanded sternly. “Three hundred royal-grade spirit veins, how about that?!”
Huang Long replied indifferently, “I don’t want anything in return. I want those spirit veins, and I also want this artifact fragment!” With that, he took off and threw a punch at his opponent.
He certainly wouldn’t give up this fragment of the World Tree.
Seeing this, the silver-haired elder’s eyes burned with anger, followed by a cold sneer.
Huang Long was puzzled by the sneer when, just as his punch reached the opponent, a brilliant light burst forth from within the opponent’s body.
Huang Long’s punch struck the light, and with a clang, the light retracted into the opponent’s body, sending Huang Long staggering back.
“What is this?!” Huang Long stabilized himself and saw a circular piece of jade appear on the opponent’s chest. The jade was crystal clear, about half the size of a palm, with an ancient character on it—the character for “treasure.”
“Could it be the Spirit-Communicating Jade?!” Huang Long thought of a legendary supreme artifact and blurted out the name.
The Spirit-Communicating Jade—a sacred supreme artifact!
Ranked 96th!
Although it was only ranked 96th, its functionality surpassed even that of the Heavenly Earth Sacred Cauldron. With this jade worn on one’s body, one could sense treasures within a billion miles!
It was nothing short of a treasure-collecting basin!
Now, Huang Long finally understood how the opponent had found the fragment of the World Tree!