Dust permeated the surroundings; the powerful blast had uprooted trees for hundreds of meters. On the ground, Kaelen and the others laid forward. They didn't move until they couldn't hear the beast fighting.
...
"Cough-cough!" Squeezing out the dust from his lungs, Raizel let out a few dry coughs.
"Holy shit, we almost lost our lives," a hollow voice said. Everyone turned towards Tang Hao, whose head was plunged into the ground, making for a funny scene.
Kaelen sat on his bum and glanced around, only to see the sheer devastation caused by the clash of the beasts.
"Oh!?" Finally, his gaze paused on a giant tree, one that had somehow managed to withstand the explosion of power. It was peculiar, to say the least. Rather than a tree, it would be more accurate to call it a giant mushroom. Indeed, the mushroom tree was all white, and though it had branches, none of them swayed independently from each other. Instead, every single branch was connected to another, forming a dome-like form atop the tree. As the branches were not too wide, there were many holes around the tree through which moonlight penetrated. Though weird, the tree had a certain beauty to it and stood out from the regular bunch.
"It seems we have reached the destination of our first mission."
The one who said that was not Kaelen, but Su Yao, who was also admiring the Pristine Heart Tree.
"Ehh? So this is the Pristine Heart Tree." Tang Hao had removed his head from the ground and looked at the tree with a head full of dirt.
Raizel stood up with a swift acrobatic movement and walked toward the tree. It was safe for him to do so since the group had been lying flat on the ground for a few hours, waiting for the beasts to finish their battle. Thankfully, it didn't take too long, and the battle ended with the divine ape's victory. Which came as a surprise to no one; everyone here was a genius in their own right and could more or less detect who was stronger between the two. The divine ape that had learned martial arts, coupled with its unmatched strength, was a terrible opponent for any other beast and humans alike. What really surprised everyone was that despite winning the fight and rendering the divine bird vulnerable to a final attack, the divine ape simply walked off into the depths of the forest and left the bird alone.
"That divine ape was really something; it even let the bird live. It seems like it was just looking for an opponent to battle." Kaelen gave one last look at the battlefield. On the other side, the bird had long since left after recuperating for an hour or so.
Kaelen then walked towards the tree, right behind Raizel, who had reached its root. Standing right next to it, the tall purple-haired youth realized how tall the tree was. It was simply too long. What shocked him even more was the width of it; if ten humans were to hug the tree whilst holding hands, they wouldn't even cover half of it. Raizel crouched to the root of the tree and saw a bunch of "tiny" trees that looked no different from the Pristine Heart Tree, except that they had a spiritual silver glow that bordered on the ethereal.
"How many do you count? Judging by the size of this thing here, and according to Su Yao's calculation, there should be around two dozen," Kaelen said to Raizel, who was picking the Pristine Heart Roots on the ground.
"I count fifteen in total. There are five missing ones; you can see the uprooted spots there," Raizel answered and pointed at different spots.
"Fifteen, huh..."
'We only need to bring three back for the mission. The rest can be used by us, though Su Yao said it is useful at the Innate Spirit Realm, I'm not sure how useful. Anyways, we'll each take two and leave it at that,' Kaelen thought to himself.
"Odd, since it's a precious treasure of heaven and earth, there should be a beast guarding this and possibly others trying to snatch them. But there doesn't seem to be any beast in sight." A soft and somewhat cold voice came from behind. It was Xue Qing, the usually silent ice empress, who spoke.
"It's totally normal. Usually, we would have had to fight. The reason there are no beasts is because of the previous two's appearance," Raizel, picking up the last root, looked towards her as he said.
"I've got all of them; we can go to the next. It was quite easier than I expected, but I don't believe we will have as much luck for the next one." He added.
"You're right. The next treasure map guides us a week of traveling into the depths of the inner circle, and the one after is two weeks' worth of traveling, so we better get going. I hope we don't encounter monsters too powerful too early," Kaelen said.
"Alright, since we have everything, let's go." Thorin approached and replied, eager to wander deeper into the wilderness.
"Wait, guys. What's the rush? Let's camp here for the night and travel in the morning. Look up there; it's like a natural cabana. We can easily lay our heads comfortably atop the tree." Tang Hao, still a bit apprehensive after the previous encounter, needed some time to regain his courage and proposed.
Everyone looked at him with blank stares; naturally, they could tell the latter was afraid. But what he proposed was a good idea. Su Yao looked up the tree. Indeed, the interconnected branches formed a sphere around the tree body, and the holes were wide enough to enter inside.
"I think it would be a good idea to rest for the day. We don't know where the other beasts have gone. It would be wise to give us a day to increase the distance between us and them so as not to encounter them," she agreed with the proposal.
"Okay, I don't mind," Kaelen said with a smile. "What about you guys?" he asked Thorin, Raizel, and Xue Qing.
"I'm okay with it," Thorin said first.
"It's fine," Su Yao said next.
Kaelen finally turned to Raizel, who nonchalantly replied, "Sure, I could use some sleep."
"It's settled then."
"Although, it won't be simple to get up there," he said.
"It's no problem for me." Su Yao stepped forward, and a violet light covered her entire body, making her look even more beautiful.
To everyone's surprise, she began to float and only stopped when she arrived next to a human-sized hole to get inside the tree head.
"See, easy!" She shouted softly with a smile on her lips.
"Right, I forgot you could float a bit at the Innate Spirit Realm with the addition of spiritual qi," Kaelen muttered as he looked at the maiden atop the tree.
"Alright, going next." Tang Hao said before floating up to the top as Su Yao did, though he was much slower and not as graceful. In fact, he was not graceful at all. Blue veins could be seen bulging on his forehead as he struggled to lift himself with his spiritual energy, holding an awkward bent-over position the whole time. Luckily for him, he reached the top before he ran out of spiritual energy.
"Ahahaha." Raizel burst out laughing at the sight. This Tang Hao is really a natural comedian.
Similarly, Xue Qing went next and floated up. Though she wasn't as graceful as Su Yao, she was much more graceful than Tang Hao, even though they were roughly at the same Innate Spirit level. perhaps because she weighed much less, or she just had better control of her innate spiritual qi. It was also possible that she had more of it, as everyone has a different starting point for how much innate spiritual qi they have at birth before unleashing it when opening the sea of consciousness and reaching the Innate Spirit Realm. She took a dozen breaths before reaching the top without too much difficulty. She still spent some effort, it seems, as beads of sweat dripped down the side of her face.
Finally, it was Thorin, Raizel, and Kaelen's turn to get up there, but none of them had reached the Spirit Realm, so they couldn't use telekinesis to carry themselves.
"I guess we're doing this the hard way, guys," Thorin looked at the other two and said with a smile.
"Indeed, though we need to be careful not to burst into the tree head, or else we will destroy our resting place for tonight," Raizel said with a slight smile at the corner of his lips, appearing particularly pretty.
"Alright, on three, we all jump. Make sure you control your power so you stop ascending right before reaching the top," Kaelen said.
"On three—one, two, three, up!" He counted up to three, and the trio all squatted down and accumulated strength before exploding a hundred and fifty feet in the air.
They quickly reached the top and reached out to a tree branch each, holding them up and swiftly entering through a human-sized hole. Like that, everyone was inside the top of the tree. It must be said, the tree branch had an unusual softness that made it comfortable to sit on.
"Guys, look at this view." Tang Hao was lying on his back and looking up through the holes of the tree. Atop the giant tree, you could see for hundreds of miles in the distance if you looked to the side, and the stars seemed to be within arm's reach if you looked up. The True martial great world was blessed with three moons that shone brilliantly throughout the lands, making the night sky particularly beautiful, the stars around benefited from the extra light which they reflected. For millions of miles, the sky was dark purplish silver color; extremely gorgeous.
On this particualrly clear sky, you could even see the nearest planets; four could be distinguished as such. The True martial Great world was a very diverse planet, if you looked from afar at it's entirety, you would see a blue planet with many massive patches of green, yellow, white and orange land. The five elements were omnipresent in equal amounts, making for a balance environnement. However, the other four planets that shared the same massive sun were not as balanced. Two of them were completely white, shimering with a icy silver glow. One wouldn't expect many living beings capable of surviving on such a unipolar place. The other two were slightly better. One mostly yellow, with some green land masses here and there, and the last one was very similar to the true martial great world, but only half it's size.
Everyone looked up and lay on their backs as they enjoyed the ethereal starry night in the most dangerous forest on the planet, without a care in the world. The group did not yet know of the tumultuous future they would face together. I'm afraid their trip to the Meng clan would be but a vacation in comparison to the dangers they would face. However, today, they were worry-free and wholeheartedly lived the experience. Silence reigned, but everyone could feel they shared the same emotions—no words could describe what they were currently experiencing, and words were not necessary in the current atmosphere. Thus, the night was spent in serendipity. After a dozen minutes, one by one, everyone fell asleep. If one were to look at everyone's faces, they would notice a smile at the corner of their lips.
When everyone closed their eyes, a shadow appeared at the very top of the sphere of branches. If Raizel was awake, he would see it was his grandfather, Old Dai. The boys didn't know, but the old Sage was looking out for them at all times.
"Hmm." Looking at the peaceful and fulfilled kids, Old Dai couldn't help but stare enviously. "Ohh, how I miss those days of childhood ignorance and bliss. I'm relieved that the both of you get to enjoy this moment with the friends you have made. Cherish it, for moments such as these are rare." Old Dai softly mumbled. His voice wasn't loud, but atop the tree, in this vast wilderness, on this serene night, it could easily be heard. Surprisingly, no one but one person was awakened by his voice.
That person was none other than Xue Qing