There were around 10 cultivators behind Princess Purplejade. Like Princess Purplejade, these fellows had been captured and their life force drained. Some were incapable of flying, needing the help of their companions to move.

After Princess Purplejade led them across a distance of over 5,000 kilometres, the Tree of Life stopped pursuing them. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief. Then, she saw the tied-up Chen Feng and her heart promptly lurched. However, she was quick to recollect herself. With the combat puppets on his side, Chen Feng will surely be fine.

That said, she did ask Chen Feng, “Are you alright?”

“Naturally. I just want to test out the other party’s offensive abilities.” Even as he replied, Chen Feng was already secretly utilizing the Heavengulping Absorption Technique. As expected, his life force stopped flowing out. On the contrary, he began devouring the life energy of the branches.

Quickly, though, another suction force emerged from the branches, causing the branches’ suction force to be on par with Chen Feng’s suction force. Gradually, the branches’ suction force grew stronger until it finally exceeded Chen Feng’s suction force and the life force within him began flowing out again.

“It’s decent,” Chen Feng said, adding the Demonic Heavengorging Art into the mix. With the two Heaven-defying techniques operating at the same time, the branches were once again incapable of handling Chen Feng and their life force surged into Chen Feng’s body again.

“What a formidable life energy!” Chen Feng released a sigh of comfort. The life energy that he devoured was simply too pure. Rather, he did not even need to refine it before directly absorbing it. It was but a few breaths’ worth of time, but Chen Feng felt it to be the equivalent of ten or so years’ worth of cultivation. In his opinion, if he could continue absorbing life force at this rate, he would have no issues advancing to the Gold Immortal stage.

However, the Tree of Life had something to say about that. Seemingly aware that it would lose to Chen Feng in a contest of their dao of devouring, it decided to resort to a different approach. The branches entangling Chen Feng attempted to retract, but the devouring technique that Chen Feng utilized made it so they no longer had the strength to do so. And so, two green beams of light emerged from a distance as two new branches elongated outwards. Making their way through over 500 kilometres, they attacked Chen Feng. These two branches were even thicker. They did not try to tie up Chen Feng. Instead, they stabbed at Chen Feng like spears.

Chen Feng swiftly retreated, bringing the branches entangling him along. The two attacking branches, though, kept elongating. There was seemingly no limit to how far it could go.

Shua!

The combat puppets took action. A blade of light flashed and the two arm-sized branches were cut down. Chen Feng then took action, keeping the severed parts of the branches. He did not want to let go of the power inside them.

Chen Feng roared, pulling the two branches tying him up with both hands as he kept backing away. At the same time, he was also – through the branches – absorbing the energy within the Tree of Life.

After retreating through 5,000 kilometres, the two branches snapped apart. However, the snapped part transformed into countless thin needles that shot towards Chen Feng. Before they could make contact with Chen Feng’s body, however, they transformed into strands of energy before flowing into him.

“Thanks. Any later and I would probably be sucked dry,” Princess Purplejade said, a lingering note of dread in her voice.

“Your men?” Chen Feng looked at the 10 or so cultivators behind Princess Purplejade with a look of shock. Back then, she had brought 3,000 cultivators over with her. Why were there only so few left?

“What are you thinking?” Princess Purplejade knew what Chen Feng meant.

“The others are not here. I only brought a small number of men with me here. However, I lost nearly 30 of my subordinates in the chaos earlier.” After saying that, Princess Purplejade’s face turned dark.

“For you.” Chen Feng brought out a round bead. Sealed within were several unique creatures. It was the bead that he had previously snatched from the Divine Monarch.

“Corpses of unique creatures! You are giving them to me?” Princess Purplejade grew surprised.

“Yes. I’ve managed to obtain quite a bit here.” Che Feng smiled.

“Thank you. A pity. Back then, I was stopped by the dead spirits inside. I was not able to obtain much.” Princess Purplejade shook her head.

“Now let’s talk about this. How did you fellows find this Tree of Life? By the way, can you confirm that this is the Tree of Life?” Chen Feng asked.

“I am unable to confirm it. One of the Gold Immortals that was captured there was the one who informed me about it. Right, he is a Divine Prince. Unfortunately, he is trapped inside right now,” Princess Purplejade said before turning to look at Chen Feng.

“Don’t look at me. I will not be helping out. Don’t forget, I am currently fighting against your Immortal Court.” Chen Feng was quick to shake his head.

“The situation back then is simply too terrifying. There were several thousand cultivators there, close to 100 Gold Immortals. And yet, almost all of them were devoured by the tree. Not even Divine Princes were able to escape.” Princess Purplejade shook her head. Recalling what happened earlier, she felt somewhat depressed. It was not as though she had never encountered tree-type creatures before. But all those paled when compared to the colossal tree.

“I know that you will not be helping, but some of them are my friends,” Princess Purplejade said.

“Enough. Now is not the time to talk about that. We need to take care of ourselves first,” Chen Feng said, jabbing his finger forward. Next, the Longevity Sword transformed into a beam of sword light and shot forward.

A branch had secretly made its way through space to arrive before them, only to be discovered by Chen Feng. The Longevity Sword slashed to cut the branch, but the branch elongated again to attack Chen Feng. As it was attacking, the space around it shook and circular waves of watery ripples spread out to envelop the surrounding space.

“The laws of space and water,” Chen Feng said with a smile. The Longevity Sword suddenly spun to create a storm of sword beams that broke the power of laws from the other party. At the same time, the Longevity Sword also flew back to Chen Feng’s hand.

“Just one branch could possess such a formidable power. It’d be too much for me if several more comes,” Chen Feng said smilingly.

He had only just said that when a thick branch appeared. This branch exploded in mid-air, transforming into over 100 branches that attacked them from various angles.

“You and your big fat mouth!” Princess Purplejade blurted.

Bang!

Suddenly, the ground exploded and countless spinning lances shot out. Two Gold Immortals failed to evade in time and were pierced by them.

A combat puppet swung its Longevity Lance to break the lances that had emerged from the ground, saving the two fellows. Then, they saw that those were not lances, but tree roots.

“Those are the roots of the Tree of Life! Hurry, let’s get out of here!” Chen Feng had already spread out the Longevity Wings on his back. Even his two clones had emerged. Grabbing the two wounded cultivators, he swiftly flew away. The two combat puppets were in charge of defending the rear.

Princess Purplejade was also carrying two wounded cultivators, a purple-coloured energy shield around her. Several branches had struck the shield only to be reduced to bits.

This time, Chen Feng and the others covered a distance of tens of thousands of li before the attacks disappeared. But they did not feel at ease and continued fleeing, only stopping after having covered a distance of 100,000 li.

“In truth, we are not safe here either. Given the Tree of Life’s level, even if there is a distance of millions of li in between, it would still be able to attack us,” Chen Feng said after stopping.

“If it’s not safe, let’s move farther away,” Princess Purplejade suggested.

“No need. I will be heading back soon,” Chen Feng said with a smile.

“Are you crazy? Even with the protection of the two combat puppets, you are still no match for the divine tree. By my estimate, the divine tree must have reached the Paramount Gold Immortal stage. Rather, its attacks are even harder to deal with compared to that of a Paramount Gold Immortal. Its roots have grown greatly and it has plenty of foliage. You won’t be able to approach it at all,” Princess Purplejade hastily said.

“Do you know what that is? That is the Tree of Life! The number one divine tree of the universe, something that one may never get to see even in a trillion years. Even Paramount Gold Immortals would go crazy over it. No matter how dangerous it may be, I will not let go of this chance,” Chen Feng said solemnly.

“Of course I know that the Tree of Life is a good item. However, collecting it is simply impossible,” Princess Purplejade replied.

“How can I give up before even trying? Besides, the power of life here is very strong. It is a good place for cultivation.” Chen Feng then stretched his hand out and the surrounding streams of energy were pulled over. Quickly, they formed a ball of energy on Chen Feng’s palm. Bringing out a seed, Chen Feng then threw it into the ball. Following that, the seed began sprouting. In but a few breaths’ worth of time, it had grown into a great, towering tree.

“See? This is just an ordinary seed. And yet, just that tiny amount of life energy is enough to bring about such an effect.” Chen Feng laughed.

“You are becoming too excited,” Princess Purplejade said.

“You’re right, I really am too excited. That’s because you do not understand what this Tree of Life means to me. Any other cultivator from the Longevity Clan would likely have rushed towards it by now.” As Chen Feng spoke, streams of energy surged around his body and eight rapidly-rotating vortexes promptly appeared around him. There were tree roots emerging from every one of the vortexes and they furiously pulled and absorbed the streams of life energy.

“This is!” Princess Purplejade grew surprised again.

“Do you know about the Longevity Tree? I have one in my body. It is one that grew out from a piece of Longevity Wood. Only, its growth rate in recent years has been too slow. The fruits that it produces could only be used as a normal fruit. They do not have much cultivation value. And now that I have come across such a good opportunity, I must eat my fill,” Chen Feng said with a smile. At the same time, space shook as the power of laws spread into their surroundings. Next, the rate at which the roots were devouring the power of life rose severalfold in an instant.

It was not something that could be noticed on the outside, but within one of Chen Feng’s bodily worlds, the Longevity Tree was growing furiously. The number of Longevity Fruits on it rose higher and higher. Power was brewing within every one of the fruits.

Unlike others, Chen Feng had many bodily worlds. The Longevity Tree took root within the world formed by the Longevity acupoint. At that very moment, the world was expanding, gradually becoming the biggest amongst all of Chen Feng’s bodily worlds.

The construction of a world required the power of life more than any other types of power. Chen Feng knew that. Before he could figure out how to collect the Tree of Life, absorbing some of its power to increase his own strength was the best thing to do.

Seeing Chen Feng enter a state of cultivation, Princess Purplejade shook her head helplessly. She knew that there was no point in trying to dissuade Chen Feng now. And so, after she had recovered some of her strength, she began summoning her other subordinates.

Chen Feng’s forces were the first to arrive. A river of Battlers came before gathering up behind Chen Feng in an orderly formation. It was not something that any other force could match up against. Observing the seemingly-endless army of Battlers covering the sky, Princess Purplejade’s eyes grew so envious that it felt as though it would bleed.

1 li = 0.5 km