Chapter 2457: 2457

When the fruit pits fell into the soil of the primal chaos space, they quickly began to germinate. Tender sprouts grew out of the ground.

Long Chen focused the primal chaos space’s energy on one of the sprouts. After an incense stick’s worth of time, it became a tiny sapling. Unlike other saplings, it only had three leaves. Without any further urging from Long Chen, it began to automatically absorb the life energy of the primal chaos space.

“Even after concentrating the full power of the primal chaos space onto just one sapling, the growth rate is so slow. As expected, the Heavenly Qilin Demon Tree’s life energy is astonishing.”

Just a single sapling contained about the same amount of life energy as a fully grown World Tree.

“Alright, I choose you.”

Long Chen made his decision. He would grow a forest of these trees to replace the World Trees.

Long Chen planted only three hundred of the fruit pits for now. The rest, he kept aside. He didn’t want them competing with each other for energy, and he also had a use for the fruit pits. He was planning on using them for alchemy. Then their effect would be far greater than the juice.

Now he had a use for the sea demon corpses from last time. He tossed them into the black soil, and life energy filled the primal chaos space.

After a couple of hours, the tens of thousands of sea demon corpses had been devoured and the Heavenly Qilin Demon Trees reached a height of thirty meters.

At this point, they began to branch out. Two branches at the top continued to grow. The runes on those branches were different, with Long Chen recognizing one as Yin and the other as Yang.

Now he understood what the Heavenly Qilin Demon Tree had said about having one of its Yin and Yang branches cut off.

Long Chen sensed the amount of life energy within these three hundred saplings. Their total life energy was already about half of the total of the World Trees. That was a shocking amount. Once they were fully matured, they could offer him an extraordinary amount of life energy.

However, without any more corpses to devour, their growth almost came to a complete stop. Long Chen estimated that without any fertilizer, these trees would take several thousand years to fully mature.

Long Chen thought about tossing in the mudfish’s corpse, but he decided against it. The growth of these trees would not be a matter of one or two days, so he shouldn’t rush it.

The juice was already divided amongst everyone, and there were still two thousand drops left. Long Chen gave those to the group that had first noticed the marsh, leaving it up to themselves on how to split it.

Their newfound profit filled every one of them with excitement, especially the Xuan Beasts. The juice of the Heavenly Qilin Demon Fruit was even more effective on them, with no side effects.

“Has anyone received word from the other squads?” asked Long Chen.

“All of them are currently gathering or going in the direction that you indicated,” reported one of the Dragonblood warriors.

“It seems that opportunities aren’t so easy to run into. We’ve all benefited from the first squad.” Long Chen smiled at the group that had noticed the marsh.

“We’re the ones benefiting. Without you, we wouldn’t have obtained this opportunity either,” responded one of the Martial Heaven Alliance’s disciples.

“Not bad, this sucking-up ability is refreshing,” joked Long Chen, causing everyone to laugh. The lack of aloof arrogance from Long Chen made them all feel like he was easy to get close to. This was a rare charisma that they admired.

Long Chen looked at the compass and said, “Let’s go to our target destination. We have to gather with the other squads.”

Half a day later, they met another group.

“Boss, hahaha, take a look at my new steed.”

This new group was composed of three squads led by Guo Ran and Xia Chen. Guo Ran called out to Long Chen excitedly.

“Boss Guo Ran, where did you get a chick?” asked one of the Dragonblood warriors.

“Are you blind? Is this just a chick? This is a legendary ancient beast, the Nine Wind Blood Phoenix! It can reach the thirteenth rank when it is fully matured!” said Guo Ran in an extremely pleased manner.

“A thirteenth rank beast?”

Everyone was startled. This steed that looked like nothing more than a giant baby chicken didn’t strike as such an existence.

“Boss Guo Ran, how did you get it?”

“Of course I relied on my own power to kill two thirteenth rank beasts. There were two chicks, so me and Xia Chen split them. Xia Chen, don’t just stand there, show them your divine steed as well,” said Guo Ran.

Xia Chen waved his hand. “O, it’s sleeping, so I don’t want to disturb it.

Compared to Guo Ran’s flashy style, Xia Chen was far more reserved.

“You killed two thirteenth rank beasts? Is that really true? Even boss only managed to slay a single one!”

“What? Boss, you killed a thirteenth rank beast?” cried out Guo Ran in shock.

“Boss Guo Ran, what are you so shocked about? You said that you killed two of them. Were you just bragging?”

“Cough, are you joking? Am I such a braggart? Just ask any one of these brothers. They all personally saw it. Furthermore, the best proof is the corpses in Xia Chen’s astral space,” snorted Guo Ran.

An experienced disciple from the Martial Heaven Alliance said, “This truly is the Nine Wing Blood Phoenix. There are nine folds beneath its wings that will sprout nine differently-colored feathers when it is fully mature, and that will make it look like it has nine pairs of wings. Congratulations senior apprentice-brother Guo Ran on obtaining such a terrifying steed.”

“Hahaha, finally someone with vision. However, you don’t need to be discouraged. As long as you continue to do good things and accumulate karma, you can also be blessed by the heavens just like me,” laughed Guo Ran.

Xia Chen shook his head and summoned the two corpses. When they appeared, everyone jumped. The aura of these two beasts was horrifying despite merely being corpses.

“Boss, these are the corpses of two thirteenth rank beasts. I’ve taken the crystal cores, so you can see if you need anything from them. If not, we can just give them to Wilde,” said Xia Chen.

Once everyone retreated, they got a good look at the beasts. One was a muticolored phoenix, while the other was a two-headed lion. The two corpses were covered in wounds. The lion was almost cut in two, while the phoenix had several bloody holes in it.

Guo Ran hastily put away his steed. He said, “Ah, I may have overstated it just now. These two beasts were fighting each other and had killed each other by the time we arrived. The Nine Wing Blood Phoenix was probably a bit stronger, but to protect its young, it was struck by a sneak attack. To tell the truth, the reason I was able to obtain this mighty steed is all thanks to boss.”

Long Chen put away the corpses and asked, “Thanks to me? Why?”

“It’s thanks to you giving me the karmic luck reward from the Devil Slaughter Rankings. My luck is now amazing! We encountered a spirit lake at first and then a vein of immortal gold with even Source Qi at the bottom that we absorbed. Then I ran into these two beasts fighting each other, easily obtaining two corpses and two young Nine Wing Blood Phoenixes. However, it wasn’t perfect. There were originally three, but the lion ate one,” said Guo Ran regretfully.

Everyone stared at him, dumbstruck. How was Guo Ran’s luck so heaven-defying? He hadn’t encountered any dangers and had instead run into one treasure after another?

Even Long Chen was stunned. If Guo Ran’s luck was so heaven-defying, why hadn’t it manifested itself before now? Long Chen suddenly wondered if it was because his own bad luck had covered up Guo Ran’s good luck.

Long Chen sighed inside. He had fought with both his mind and body against the Heavenly Qilin Demon Tree and then killed the mudfish monster before obtaining his treasures, but Guo Ran had just picked his up. This luck was definitely heaven-defying.

“Guo Ran, you should lead the way for everyone,” said Long Chen.

“What about you?” asked Guo Ran.

“Me? It’s better for me to go my own way,” said Long Chen. After giving a few more instructions, he left on his own.