In the middle of Mist Island, near the area where the willow tree king was, Ye Jianyuan, the head of the Myriad Phenomena Sect, stood quietly in the middle of a small lake with his hands behind his back.

His white hair fluttered in the wind, and an invisible aura spread out from his body, chasing away anyone who accidentally approached the lake.

The surroundings were silent. There were vertical cracks on the trunks of more than 10 willow trees by the shore. The willow tree cores were missing, and the cracks were gradually closing up.

Suddenly, the sounds of three streams of rushing wind could be heard.

The thick fog around the lake was dispersed by the wind. The calm surface of the lake rippled, and the three people who had rushed over had broken the silence.

These were the three court heads of the Myriad Phenomena Sect who had escaped from the valley.

On the way from the valley to the lake, Zhou Xuesheng released his black fog internal force to cover the other two court heads. They had moved at the speed of a turtle to prevent the masked man from spotting them.

Only when they were close to the lake did the three of them heave sighs of relief and continue at their full speed.

Zhou Xuesheng leaped from the shore to Ye Jianyuan’s side and said with a serious expression, “Sect Master, the masked man suddenly appeared in the valley. The three of us were forced to retreat.”

Ye Jianyuan still stood with his hands behind his back and said calmly, “I saw it.”

The 100-meter-long sword had pierced the sky, and the entire island was alarmed by it.

This was the power of someone at the third stage of the warrior realm. It actually appeared in an area other than the willow tree king on the island. It was inevitable that people would be concerned about it.

A large number of factions at the bottom of the warrior realm had already stopped searching for the willow trees and turned to the nearby factions to find out what had happened.

After all, although the willow tree cores were precious, it was not as precious as one’s own life.

If the power coming from the valley showed signs of spreading to the entire Mist Island, most people would immediately consider how to safely leave the island.

Zhou Xuesheng asked with a pained expression, “Sect Master, the Myriad Phenomena Sect didn’t get any of the spiritual spring in the valley this time. What should we do next?”

Ye Jianyuan glanced at the three court heads and said calmly, “There’s no need to be anxious. The spiritual spring is in the valley and won’t run away. The sect master of the Kunshan Sect has yet to appear. Our Myriad Phenomena Sect can just wait and see what happens.”

“Yes.”

When Zhou Xuesheng and the other two court heads heard the information about the sect master of the Kunshan Sect, they immediately felt relieved.

The spiritual spring covered an area of dozens of square meters. Unless it was transferred to special containers for transport, it was impossible to bring it out from the island.

No one, including Ye Jianyuan, thought that the masked man would be able to consume much of the willow tree cores and spiritual spring on the spot.

In addition, the masked man had always been a lone wolf, so it was impossible for him to transport the spiritual spring away.

Therefore, Ye Jianyuan was not in a hurry at all. He planned to let the sect master of the Kunshan Sect lead the front line, while he sat back and reaped the benefits.

…

In an unfamiliar area in the sea dozens of kilometers away from Mist Island, the sea breeze was blowing from time to time while waves crashed into each other.

A ship of about 30 meters long was stationed quietly on the surface of the sea.

An old man in his fifties sat cross-legged at the bow of the ship.

He had a head full of white hair and a long white beard. He was wearing a simple robe, and from the outside, he looked like an ordinary old man.

However, no one would think that he was an ordinary old man since he had come here alone.

This person was the sect master of the Kunshan Sect, Lu Zhenshan.

At this moment, three groups of disciples from the Kunshan Sect had arrived at the bow of the ship.

Lu Zhenshan stood up and frowned. “What happened? Didn’t I tell you to keep an eye on the four guardians of the Snake God Sect? Why did all three teams return at the same time?”

Some time back, the Kunshan Sect had lost four court heads in just one night. The sect’s middle-level forces had been severely depleted, and they urgently needed core disciples to fill the vacancies in the ranks of the court heads of the sect. Training a court head was not just a matter of teaching them the cultivation techniques, but also providing them with the corresponding cultivation resources.

Lu Zhenshan had not appeared for a long time because he wanted to avoid dealing with the rules of the outside world. He had sent his disciples to secretly keep an eye on the four guardians of the Snake God Sect, planning to secretly attack them later.

After all, the Snake God Sect was not a martial arts faction of the Daxia Kingdom. The overall strength of the country they belonged to was far weaker than the Daxia Kingdom, so Lu Zhenshan had targeted them.

A disciple walked out and reported, “Sect Master, something happened in the valley on Mist Island. The situation didn’t develop as we expected.”

Lu Zhenshan’s expression darkened as he urged, “Cut the crap and get to the point.”

Cold sweat broke out on the disciple’s forehead as he said with a trembling voice, “The masked man suddenly appeared and occupied the entire valley. Now, all the willow tree cores and the spiritual spring have fallen into the hands of the masked man.”

The moment he finished speaking, Lu Zhenshan’s white hair stood on end. With the ship as the center, an invisible force swept out in all directions, and a large amount of seawater became waves that were pushed aside.

The ship’s position dropped by a few meters.

Such a scene was as though a disaster was about to occur.

However, this was only caused by the angry aura released by someone at the third stage of the warrior realm.

If he really made a move, it would cause a man-made disaster.

The expressions of the three groups of disciples from the Kunshan Sect froze.

They were standing close to Lu Zhenshan and could feel a pressure like a tsunami coming at them. They were like small boats that could be overturned by the large waves at any moment.

This was the difference in the level of their internal forces. In front of Lu Zhenshan, the internal force of an ordinary warrior was no different from a piece of paper.

“Bang!”

A vacuum with a diameter of more than 100 meters suddenly exploded on the surface of the sea.

The sect master of the Kunshan Sect, Lu Zhenshan, became like a humanoid fighter jet and charged straight towards Mist Island.

The disciples of the Kunshan Sect behind him were buried by the seawater that rushed back to fill the gap left behind.

When the disciples surfaced again, they could only hear continuous explosions coming from the distance.

…

In the valley, Chen Yiming leaped out of the spiritual spring and landed on the ground.

Around him was a forest of willow tree roots that barely had any traces of life left. The willow tree cores beside the spiritual spring had already turned into a pile of powder, and the energy essence contained in them had been completely absorbed.

The spiritual spring behind him had completely become like ordinary spring water and had lost its previous vitality.

All the energy essence in the entire valley had been absorbed by Chen Yiming, leaving only a little trace of life in the willow tree roots for them to grow and be harvested again three years later.

“My body feels like it is a perpetual motion machine,” Chen Yiming said as he stretched out his hands.

This was a change given to his body by his Level-2 Undying Body talent. He could feel the vitality of his cells, and it was as though each cell had a life of its own.

Moreover, there were invisible circuits connecting the cells to each other.

As long as any damaged cells were not completely dead, the undamaged cells could transmit their vitality through the circuits so that the damaged cells could recover.

This was a form of hardiness that usually existed only in the embryonic phase.

He called out the martial arts talent panel in his mind.

Chen Yiming

Talent: Swordsmanship — Level 2; Undying Body — Level 2

Level: Second stage of the warrior realm

Physique: Basic Undying Sword Body

Skill Points: 15

Seeing that the 100 Skill Points he had painstakingly accumulated had become 15 points, Chen Yiming felt terrible. This meant that the Level-3 swordsmanship talent upgrade would be delayed again.

The improvement in his understanding of swordsmanship brought about by his Level-3 swordsmanship talent was what he needed to study the fusion of internal forces by himself.