Hidden Stones aren't some common, readily available item. In all of Shi Xuan's two lifetimes, he's only ever seen [New Life] use them twice.
The hidden stones here are placed in the artificial mountain, blending perfectly into it and becoming part of the artificial mountain.
If Shi Xuan hadn't possessed such abilities, it would have been almost impossible to discover.
Shi Xuan didn't stand on ceremony and directly put the hidden stone and the artificial mountain into his storage space.
At this moment, the formation that was originally hidden by the Hidden Stone was revealed, and it was exactly the same as the hidden formation of [New Life]!
Shi Xuan has broken this formation too many times; now he could break it even with his eyes closed.
The moment the formation was broken, Rong Xu, who was waiting outside the door, changed his expression drastically and turned to run away.
How could Lu Shenzhi let him escape so easily? Shi Xuan had a contract with Lu Shenzhi, and as soon as she had a thought, Lu Shenzhi knew what she was thinking and immediately stepped forward to control Rong Xu and his group.
After the formation was broken, Shi Xuan discovered an underground palace with the same structure as [New Life].
This familiar layout aroused Shi Xuan's suspicion. Could it be...?
Lu Wenxing followed Shi Xuan into the underground palace, saying as they walked, "This place is quite similar to those previous ones with the Compassionate Breath Trees..."
It's just like the structure of a tree with a nurturing heart.
However, according to Pang Jiaxiang and the other captured members of the [New Life] sect, the tree on the outskirts of the Luoyin Sect was their last one.
"Whether it is or not, a single investigation will reveal the answer."
Shi Xuan descended the familiar spiral staircase, which increasingly resembled the underground palace with the Cixi Tree that she had encountered before.
When they finally reached the bottom, Shi Xuan had a bad feeling.
The spherical gate opened, revealing to Shi Xuan not the thick, large trees that had appeared before, but in the very center of the spherical hemisphere, a small sapling was growing!
Even though the sapling is still small, you can still see the shape of a 'Cixi Tree'. This is a sapling of a 'Cixi Tree'!
Beside the sapling lay several withered corpses. Shi Xuan recognized one of them as Zhu Yi, the city lord of Cloud City!
Beside Zhu Yi, Zhu Lingyun lay there, pale-faced, blood still oozing from her wrist. It was unclear how long she had been in this state or whether she was still alive.
Shi Xuan immediately stepped forward and removed Zhu Lingyun from beside the Cixi tree.
Zhu Lingyun was somehow controlled and was currently unconscious, but still had a breath left.
Shi Xuan quickly gave her the pill.
After consuming a large amount of top-grade pills, Zhu Lingyun's complexion visibly improved.
A short while later, she slowly woke up.
The moment she saw Shi Xuan, tears streamed down her face.
"Am I dreaming?" Zhu Lingyun murmured to herself.
At this moment, Zhu Lingyun's innocence and liveliness from when they first met had completely disappeared.
Now, her eyes are filled with sorrow, and there is an obvious sense of defensiveness.
“It’s not a dream.” Shi Xuan helped her up and took some spiritual spring water from the silver frost for her to drink.
When Zhu Lingyun regained some strength and was able to sit up on her own, the sadness in her eyes became even more pronounced.
"Can you tell me what happened?"
Zhu Lingyun bit her lip and said, "It's all because of this tree."
She glanced at the sapling of the Cixi tree, then quickly turned her head away, as if she didn't want to look at it any longer.
“My father, my father, nurtured this sapling,” Zhu Lingyun said. At this moment, she knew the secret of the Compassionate Breath Tree and also knew why her dantian had been damaged in the past.
She knew it was something shameful, but because of it, her father had lost his life.
“My father once obtained a piece of spiritual soil, which is said to be a naturally occurring spiritual soil that can grow all kinds of spiritual plants in the world.”
She paused, her eyes losing focus, and it took her a long time to recover before continuing, "He used to be able to get the sacred fruit from others, but that year..."
The year she mentioned was the year when Shi Xuan and her group came to wipe out [New Life] and forced Xin Shi and the others to another stronghold.
“When Cloud City lost that tree, my father lost his source of fruit, but he still had one fruit left, which he had selected and preserved from the best quality one a long time ago.”
Shi Xuan raised his eyebrows, indicating that he had kept the best-looking fruit a long time ago, which shows that he had been thinking about planting the Cixi Tree for a long time.
It's likely that back then, because Xin Shi and his group's stronghold was located in Yunzhong City, they didn't openly reveal it.
After that, no one else from the "Newborn" group appeared. Only then did he begin to take out the Breath Soil and cultivate the Compassionate Breath Tree himself.
"He built the tree's living environment according to the style of those people before him, using the Breath Soil and many spirit stones, which finally made the Compassionate Breath Fruit sprout."
Shi Xuan looked at Zhu Lingyun, wondering if there was something else besides spirit stones...
Zhu Lingyun lowered her head slightly under Shi Xuan's gaze; she felt guilty.
Just as Shi Xuan thought, besides the Breath Soil and Spirit Stones, the growth of this tree also inevitably requires cultivators as nutrients.
“My father, my father, he killed some people in the city for this tree. Later, the tree was discovered…”
Human greed is boundless.
Zhu Yi had a sapling and some life-giving soil, but he lacked the ability to protect the sapling.
If he kept this secret, it wouldn't be a problem, but since he killed other cultivators to feed the tree, it was inevitable that it would be exposed.
Once this tree is exposed, many people will surely take the risk for profit. At that time, they may face death before the fruit even ripens.
“It was my father’s men. They wanted to take the sapling, so they conspired to kill my father…”
At this point, Zhu Lingyun choked up.
She knew her father had done evil things, but from childhood to adulthood, her father had been her only support and the best person to her. Even knowing what her father had done, she still couldn't bear to speak ill of him.
She still couldn't hold back her grief when Zhu Yi's death was mentioned.
Shi Xuan could understand her feelings.
Zhu Lingyun and Fan Mingzhu are somewhat similar in their situations; both are fathers who love their daughters, and both have committed evil deeds.
Compared to Fan Mingzhu, Zhu Lingyun's behavior was more like that of a normal daughter.
Zhu Lingyun felt sad, but she also knew that her father had done wrong. At this moment, she missed her father and felt guilty towards Shi Xuan. She avoided looking into Shi Xuan's eyes.
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