What the origin of life had been afraid of the whole time was that ancient tree.

If Nie Tian continued to fight against it, he would become a great threat to it as well.

However, that wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.

After all, the Divinespirits hadn’t developed into a force yet. Before that, Nie Tian wouldn’t be able to threaten its existence.

However, the Tree of Life was different.

Since it could assimilate and dissolve its awareness and change its way of thinking, it was the greater threat at hand!

Originally, as long as the Tree of Life couldn’t enter the chaos, it wouldn’t be able to affect or assimilate it.

This had been its source of confidence.

However, who would have thought that after his transcendence, Nie Tian would be able to sense the existence of the Tree of Life with Life Detection, defy numerous spatial barriers to establish a connection to it, and summon it with his elevated true soul and the help of the River of Souls.

As soon as the soul bond came to form, both Nie Tian and the Tree of Life exerted themselves and magically broke the shackles of the chaos, allowing it to overcome the restrictions and manifest out of nothing.

The moment it emerged in the chaos, the origin of life had a presentiment of disaster... and it was right.

FIZZ! FIZZ! PUFF! PUFF!

Wrapped in multiple layers of green power, Nie Tian’s Life-origin Form was pierced by one tree branch after another.

They cut through his flesh into the gaps between his meridians and bones.

It pained him to the point where he wanted to die.

Every branch and every bit of wood power was branded with the will of the Tree of Life, or the will of the new origin of life...

However, the awareness of the origin of life, the one that had devised many schemes against him, was driven into a corner of the blood sea, where it continued to be nibbled at and assimilated by the awareness of the Tree of Life.

It seemed to be staring Nie Tian with rage, hatred, and ridicule, and saying, “Did you think that you’d win by bringing it in to replace me?

“Did you think that it’d see you as its ally after it replaced me?

“You’re so laughable and foolish! You’ve not only brought calamity upon me, but you’ve brought calamity upon yourself too!”

The awareness of the origin of life that came through to him grew weaker and weaker, as if it was going to perish soon.

It seemed extremely begrudging and furious.

All Void Spirits that were sent outside the chaos would develop their own awareness and become independent souls.

However, none of them could go through myriad tribulations and still stand unwavering at the top of the Spirit World like the Tree of Life.

Therefore, its wisdom was unmatched, as its awareness was incredibly strong.

Now that it had made its way back to the chaos, it was like a flood dragon that had returned to the sea.

Even its origin couldn’t suppress it anymore!

The origin of life had never been afraid of the Blood Father of the Spirit World because it knew that he had spent a long time in dormancy. Without experiencing eras of turbulence and surviving countless tribulations, it couldn’t grow into an independent soul that was as strong as the Tree of Life.

It was confident that he would follow its orders and pose no threat to it forever.

After all, it had created him as a mere weapon of war in the first place.

The Tree of Life, on the other hand, hadn’t been built for battle. However, its countless experiences had greatly tempered its awareness and improved its wisdom, and had given it the ability to change and even replace the origin of life.

It had always been aware of this, and had been doing everything it could to prevent this from happening.

However, it had failed.

Its awareness was slowly vanishing.

Soon, Nie Tian, who was wrapped around by the Tree of Life, could no longer sense the fury, hatred, and ridicule of the origin of life.

Instead, another awareness seemed to fix him with a cold, completely motionless gaze from the Sea of Life, as if it was looking at an object rather than a living being with flesh and blood.

Nie Tian knew that was the Tree of Life.

The Tree of Life finally absorbed it completely and became the new master of this boundless blood sea.

Since it came from this blood sea, it was familiar with everything about it. It had even raised him from the blood sea to have a full view of the chaos once.

“Thank you for helping me get what I wanted.” Its awareness came from every emerald branch that had pierced into his body, with unprecedented clarity.

Bound by it, Nie Tian couldn’t move a hair. His flesh power rapidly flowed into the branches that impaled him, allowing more and more tiny branches to grow from them.

This was the ultimate version of Heavenly Wood Thorns.

PUFF!

Within moments, sharp branches split Nie Tian’s skin and stuck out from underneath it.

Meanwhile...

The dark land continued to fall apart. Lands shook and mountains rocked. Numerous spatial rifts filled the sky, along with brilliant spatial blades that flashed across from time to time.

However, the Blood Father of the Spirit World still stood towering like an ancient god, looking lost.

Originally, he had been brandishing his huge golden axe to fight Nie Tian and the Tree of Life.

When the Tree of Life had vanished, he had intended to charge into the chaos to slay it and Nie Tian.

However, before he could do that, he froze.

A confused look filled his eyes as he sensed great changes in the origin of life that had been giving him orders, guiding him, and infusing him with life power.

As its aura gradually faded, he lost his purpose.

He felt numb glancing around at the collapsing heaven and earth, the fleeing lives from the three worlds, the Ancientspirits that were fixing him with worshipping gazes, and the few experts like Zhao Shanling and Qin Yao, who had chosen to stay and were clearly harboring ill intentions towards him.

He had long since grown used to receiving orders and doing its bidding.

Now that it was gone, he seemed to lose his meaning and will to fight.

After a while, the Blood Father of the Spirit World could sense its soul will again.

However, he instinctively knew that it wasn’t itself anymore.

He looked up and around, feeling more lost than ever. “Now what should I do?”

For the first time in his life, he started to think about the meaning of his existence, and ponder whether he should accept this new origin of life or be himself now that the origin of life he knew was gone.

All those who had chosen to stay in the dark land spontaneously gathered by Zhao Shanling and Wu Ji’s side.

In a soft voice, Nie Jin asked Wu Ji, “What happened?”

All of them saw the strange behavior of the Blood Father of the Spirit World. However, they didn’t know what heaven-shaking changes had happened in the chaos.

“The Tree of Life imprisoned Nie Tian and filled that blood sea with its own awareness,” Wu Ji said with his head down.

No one could see that he was bleeding from the corners of his eyes now.

He had overburdened himself by wielding time power repeatedly to peek into the chaos.

Keeping his head low, Wu Ji said in a low voice, “Now, the Blood Father of the Spirit World has sensed that something is off, and learned that his old master is gone. He’s pondering the meaning of his existence. If he decides to be himself from now on, he’ll be the mightiest Star Behemoth and rebel this universe has ever seen.

“Technically, he can’t be called a rebel, because his loyalty hasn’t changed. It’s just that the origin he was loyal to no longer exists.”

After giving such an obscure speech to the crowd, he told everyone to pay close attention to the changes of the Blood Father of the Spirit World, and then decide what to do next.