I am the sacred tree, evergreen for eternity.

The stench from deep within the fissure was like a layer of sticky grease, coating everyone's nasal cavity.

The plant tribe knelt below the rock wall, their dark yellow pupils filled with terror, their bodies trembling like withered leaves in the wind.

The older one was curled up at the front, its beak-like mouth opening and closing, uttering indistinct, rapid syllables.

"No...it's not like that..." its voice was sharp and broken, "We just...we just want to live..."

Xuan ignored its explanation.

He held a leaf in his palm, the purplish-black veins on its veins pulsating slowly.

That was the aura left behind when the Dharma form of "It" that attacked the Xia Kingdom collapsed.

The gazes of the plant tribe fell upon those patterns, their bodies seemingly frozen in place.

Xuan looked down at the three thin figures, his spiritual senses cutting into their consciousness like a blade.

"It's true that our homeland was invaded, it's true that our people were wiped out, and it's also true that we escaped to safety..."

"The only lie—"

"You are no longer 'refugees'!"

Xuan's gaze swept over the purplish-black patterns on the torso of the Grass and Wood Clan.

"Those scars are too superficial."

He reached out his hand, and a wisp of spiritual light condensed at his fingertips, reaching towards the chest of the plant tribe.

The plant creatures instinctively tried to retreat, but their bodies were firmly locked in place by the spiritual energy field, rendering them unable to move.

The moment the light touched its skin, the grayish-green outer layer shattered silently, revealing the truth beneath...

The roots are purplish-black.

Dense and numerous, extending outwards from the heart, like a spider web traversing every inch of the body.

Those roots were still wriggling, tightly intertwined with the life essence of the plant race, inseparable from each other.

At first glance, this body is no different from that of ordinary plant creatures.

That's how they can conceal the presence of hunters, blend into the wilderness, and lure prey for monsters.

The elder member of the plant race lowered his head, looking at the monstrous roots writhing on his chest.

silence.

Then he laughed.

The beak-like mouth parted, revealing a similarly eroded, dark red oral cavity.

"I've found it."

The fear in its dark yellow pupils had completely vanished.

Instead, there is a naked, undisguised anger.

"What can we do?"

"We have neither your blades, nor your brilliance, nor your totems."

"We are just a bunch of plants that can't even withstand the wind and sand."

The elder of the Grass and Tree Clan looked at these silent humans, a near-maniacal smile appearing on his distorted face.

"Survival is the most important meaning of civilization..."

"We just wanted to live, what did we do wrong?"

A deathly silence reigned within the fissure in the earth.

The wind whistled down from above the crack, making a howling sound, like weeping.

Qi stepped forward, the blade held horizontally in front of him.

He stared down at the distorted face, his eyes filled with a cold, indifferent gaze, as if scrutinizing an ant.

"Although it's a dog-eat-dog world, it has nothing to do with justice."

His voice was soft, but each word was like an iron nail hardened by ice, driving into the depths of everyone present's consciousness.

"But I have one more thing to say—"

The blade flashed.

"Your ugliness is unworthy of being called civilized."

Before the words were finished, the iron blade sliced ​​through the darkness, leaving a pale golden arc, and precisely struck the neck of the elder member of the Grass and Wood Clan.

The blade sliced ​​into the purplish-black roots, producing a dull tearing sound.

Dark green liquid splattered out, hissing and smoking as it hit the ground.

The head rolled to the ground, its dark yellow pupils still moving, and its beak-like mouth still opening and closing.

The other two members of the Grass and Wood Clan didn't even have time to react before Yu and another traveler's blades fell.

The three headless torsos stood upright for a moment, then collapsed limply to the ground like puppets whose support had been removed.

It eventually turned into a pile of ashes and was scattered by the wind.

Only the wooden compass—the palm-sized ancestral compass with a deep dent in the center—remains in its place.

Xuan picked up the wooden tray.

It has a warm, smooth texture and carries a unique vitality of vegetation that seems out of place in this desolate landscape.

A faint resonance emanated from the wooden disc, passing through the cracked rock wall and pointing towards the bottom of the cave.

The human team had already learned about this when they exchanged information with Xiao Xiao.

The Ancestral Compass is indeed a rare and precious guiding artifact in the wilderness.

The Grass and Tree Clan's usual tactic is to use this true treasure as bait to catch wave after wave of prey.

Xuan's gaze met Meng and Feng's; they were the final decision-makers for the team's actions.

The three exchanged glances without speaking, but they all understood the meaning in each other's eyes.

"Now that we've found it, there's no reason for us to let it go."

Xuan put the wooden tray into his pocket, stood up, and glanced at the line behind him.

Twenty totem walkers, twenty pairs of resolute eyes.

No one asked, no one questioned.

They are all waiting.

Waiting for that word.

"Down."

Xuan drew an iron knife from his waist, its blade gleaming with a cold, pale golden light in the dim cracks in the ground.

The team silently dispersed, groping their way deeper into the fissure.

The deeper you go, the stronger the fishy smell becomes.

A sweet, intoxicating aroma began to fill the air.

That was the scent of the Worry-Free Grass, much stronger and more pungent than the scent of the Forget-Worry Gentleman released in the royal city.

Yu took several pieces of specially made animal hide from his waist and distributed them to the team members behind him.

These animal hides were repeatedly soaked in herbs and had fine stitches sewn along the edges so they could be tightly bound around the mouth and nose.

This was specially prepared by the pharmacists of the Western Province after the Forget-Worry Lang incident.

It's better to be prepared.

The group continued downhill, the rock walls of the cracked ground became increasingly damp, and the sand underfoot began to feel sticky and soft, like stepping on the tongue of some giant creature.

Ahead, they saw the carcass of a sand fox.

That was one of the sentries who were eliminated at the entrance to the fissure in the earth. His internal organs were shattered by the spiritual energy, and he was already dead when he fell to the ground.

But now, a tender green seedling is peeking out from the edge of its fatal wound.

The carefree grass is growing.

Yu frowned, stepped forward, and slammed the blade down hard onto the seedling.

The stem broke, and dark green sap splattered all over the ground.

From the broken wound, purplish-black mist emerged, twisted a few times in the air, and then reluctantly dissipated.

"These monsters have probably been completely devoured."

Yu cursed under his breath and wiped the blade clean on the sand fox's fur.

Qi walked up from behind and glanced at the broken stems that were still smoking.

"A swift and decisive victory."

The team quickened their pace, traversing the depths of the fissure.

Along the way, they encountered more than a dozen sand fox corpses. The Worry-Free Grass had even begun to stitch their bodies back together, showing signs of renewed activity.

Yu led a group of criminals at the front, and with a swift stroke of his knife, he severed the carefree grasses by the roots.

Until, the passage ahead suddenly opened up.

A huge cave appeared before them.

The dome was immeasurably high, and the rock walls were covered with countless holes, from which a purplish-black viscous liquid flowed down.

And the ground—

Everyone stopped in their tracks at the same time...