Eventually, the divine light slowly faded, and Chu Yao reopened her eyes.

The mark on her forehead faded as well, however, now a three-petal flower appeared in her eyes.

Only once that flower image faded did Chu Yao’s eyes focus once more. Seeing Meng Qi and Tang Wan-er, she hugged them, her voice lost in her tears.

After parting last time, it had been many years. They had all experienced much suffering and misery. Seeing each other now, they had a thousand things they wanted to say, but were unable to say a single word. Their tears said everything.

The three of them were crying, yet they were also laughing. In this cruel and merciless world, a safe reunion was a rare luxury.

After a long while, they finally calmed down. They held hands and began to chat, seeming like they had an infinite amount of things to tell each other.

Chu Yao’s return raised the entire atmosphere of the Dragonblood Legion. If it weren’t for the current situation, they would probably have started a huge celebration. There was also no way to eat meat here, as life was sacred to the Forest of Life. They wouldn’t kill any lifeforms just for food.

During the past few days, the Spirit race warriors had been treating them to fruit and fresh water, and everyone else could only survive on those. However, the Spirit World’s fruit were priceless treasures in the outside world. They were all exceptionally delicious.

However, in the end, they were still fruit, and to the Dragonblood Legion that was accustomed to stuffing their faces with meat, it was getting hard to endure. Of course, they all had rations on them, but they felt like eating meat in the Forest of Life would be disrespectful. So despite accompanying beautiful women every day, it was getting hard to endure.

“Boss, don’t you think we should have a celebration today?” Gu Yang rubbed his head awkwardly.

Gu Yang was forced to ask this. Everyone else had already expressed their feelings to Gu Yang, and had made him their voice.

Just from their expressions, Long Chen knew what they wanted. “It really is a day worth celebrating. But we’re in a very dense situation right now, and we need to be careful. It’s not the right time for a celebration…”

Hearing this, all the Dragonblood warriors were filled with disappointment. But they didn’t dare to complain.

“So, the situation outside is already progressing. We have to prepare ourselves to defend the Forest of Life, so everyone can go to the front lines. I’ve prepared medicinal pills for all of you. Your mental realms have risen greatly, so you increase your cultivation bases rapidly without worry.” Long Chen tossed Gu Yang a spatial ring packed with medicinal pills.

The Dragonblood warriors’ mental realms had far surpassed their cultivation realms now. They could increase their cultivation bases without worry.

The Dragonblood warriors were happy to hear that, and immediately rushed off to the front lines. The front lines weren’t part of the Forest of Life, and they could eat meat happily there.

Guo Ran was about to leave too when Long Chen grabbed him. “Don’t get too excited.”

Long Chen took out a small bucket of silver liquid. Guo Ran almost cried out when he saw it. Despite Long Chen’s warning, he almost started dancing from excitement. “How do you have this much mithril essence?!”

“Can you use the mithril essence immediately?” asked Long Chen. After all, Guo Ran’s armor and weapons had already been forged. There was no way for him to completely recreate them at this time. A huge battle was on the verge of erupting.

“Of course! Back when I first forged my armor, I left myself a way to upgrade it. I put an expansion rune on every piece so that if I could get mithril, all I would have to do is drip it onto the rune, and it will automatically spread it throughout the item to increase its flexibility,” said Guo Ran confidently.

Guo Ran might be unreliable in other aspects, but when it came to forging, he was extremely trustworthy.

Although the Divine Flame Crystals had been forged into Ancestral items, without mithril essence, those Ancestral weapons were all crude. They possessed the necessary hardness, but lacked the flexibility. A powerful impact wouldn’t be cushioned at all and would lead to the items cracking and breaking apart.

Without the right material, it had been impossible to make up for this deficit. So Guo Ran, after considering this problem from every angle, had finally decided on a trick to remedy this. He had inlaid an expansion rune on every Ancestral item he had forged.

That was a mysterious rune from the Ethereal Crafting Secret Record. It could be likened to a person’s arteries. It formed a network throughout the item with an opening exposed. Once he dropped some mithril inside it and activated the rune, the item would automatically absorb the mithril, increasing its flexibility. This was a completely secret technique that was unavailable to the rest of the world.

“Then that’s good. I suppose you can store the mithril essence yourself, right?” asked Long Chen.

“It’s no problem. My forging table has its own space for storing material.” Guo Ran directly took the mithril essence.

“Alright, then here’s some more.” Vat after vat of mithril essence appeared in front of Guo Ran. These huge vats almost made him faint from shock. He was unable to believe his own eyes.

He directly took it all away, feeling like he was dreaming.

“Work hard. The sooner you finish all the armor and weapons, the better. This relates to everyone’s lives, so don’t be sloppy,” said Long Chen.

He knew that neither Sha Guangyan nor Peng Wansheng would leave things as they were. Having slapped in the face so many times, they would definitely be coming for retribution. Furthermore, Evilmoon was in his hands. They would be coming to take it back. Things were calm now, but once they launched their attack, it would definitely be a thunderous blow.

Most importantly, the Dark Forest’s power was absolutely overwhelming. The Forest of Life was fundamentally unable to block them. If he wanted to resolve the Forest of Life’s crisis, they would have to rely on themselves.

Guo Ran nodded and told him not to worry. He parted with the rest of the Dragonblood Legion. Based on his excited expression, he probably wasn’t even interested in eating meat now.

In the blink of an eye, the Dragonblood warriors left valiantly, looking like they were marching out to battle. The Spirit Emperor even asked if Long Chen was planning on launching an attack.

Long Chen knew that these fellows were simply acting like this so they could eat meat, so he told the Spirit Emperor that it still wasn’t time for the battle, but they had to prepare for the battle.

When he asked how the Forest of Life’s power was developing, the Spirit Emperor told him that the Life God Tree had produced eight hundred thousand Spirit Generals in the past few days. That was equivalent to eight hundred thousand Soul Transformation experts.

But these Spirit Generals were no ordinary Soul Transformation experts. Their combat power was on the level of rank six to rank seven Celestials, which made it so that they were almost a match for ordinary Life Star experts.

At this moment, the Spirit Emperor waved his staff, and divine light shined. A mass of Spirit race warriors appeared in front of Long Chen. These eight hundred thousand warriors were born as a result of the help of the soil from Long Chen’s primal chaos space.

They immediately knelt on the ground, kowtowing to Long Chen.

“There’s no need for this!” Long Chen hastily waved his hands. He never kowtowed to others, and he didn’t want anyone to kowtow to him either. He didn’t like etiquette.

“This is their way of expressing their gratefulness. Without you, they wouldn’t exist. Please accept their thanks,” said the Spirit Emperor.

Long Chen had no way around it, and could only endure as they continued with this etiquette. After kowtowing, the Spirit Emperor ordered them away.

“Their spirits were only just born so they can’t communicate with you. This was the only way for them to expression themselves,” said the Spirit Emperor.

Long Chen nodded. This kind of detail wasn’t a big deal. At this time, Chu Yao, Meng Qi, and Tang Wan-er now came back over. It seemed they had finally calmed down.

“Spirit Emperor, there’s something important I need your help with. I have an elder who lost the majority of her longevity, causing her to lose her beauty. Do you have a method to replenish what she lost?” Seeing Chu Yao, Long Chen immediately thought of this matter. Chu Yao’s heart began to pound anxiously.

“Is she from the human race?” asked the Spirit Emperor.

“Yes, her cultivation base is…” Long Chen looked at Chu Yao.

“Her cultivation base is at the great circle of Life Star. If it weren’t for me, my master might already be attempting to break through the Netherpassage realm,” said Chu Yao.

“This is simple. The human race’s life energy is very limited, and making up for it isn’t difficult. There’s no need to disturb the Life God Tree for this. I can help you myself,” said the Spirit Emperor.

Her staff began to shine, and a small shoot grew out of its head. The small shoot was shining, and a holy and pure energy gathered in it. Its light felt like it could cleanse a person’s soul.

Three drops fell from the soft shoot and into a wooden bottle. The Spirit Emperor handed the bottle to Chu Yao. She could tell that Long Chen was asking this for Chu Yao.

“A single drop is enough to replenish her longevity. You can keep the other two drops,” said the Spirit Emperor.

“Many thanks, Spirit Emperor!” Chu Yao carefully received the bottle. Thinking of how her master’s lost longevity and beauty could be restored, she was incredibly emotional. Even her hands were trembling.

With Chu Yao’s problem resolved, Long Chen said, “Spirit Emperor, the battle’s about to start. How is the Forest of Life’s total power compared to the Dark Forest? Can you give me a full summary?”