Nine Transformations of the True Spirit.

Five days later, Chen Yuan walked out of the hall and slowly flew into the sky to await the return of Master Fu.

Below, in the dark tree city, countless torches and luminous pearls lit up the sky. One hundred thousand green mantises stood in silent ranks, carrying heavy bundles woven from vines, stretching out and neatly arranged at the top of the giant tree.

Fu Luo Hai, Jin Zhan Xie, and several other green mantises stood at the forefront, gently fluttering their wings and gazing silently in the direction of the Heavenly Dao fragment. Their enormous compound eyes flickered, but they could only see endless darkness.

However, in the darkness, occasionally a few blazing red lights would burst forth from the earth, soaring into the sky, briefly illuminating the world before falling silent again.

The pungent smell of sulfur lingered in Chen Yuan's nostrils. Not far from Tree City, a plume of black smoke could be vaguely seen rising straight into the sky, deeper than darkness itself, destroying a small part of Tree City and a large area of ​​fields carefully cultivated by the Green Mantises.

Three days ago, the land of this interface fragment suddenly shattered into pieces, spewing out lava and thick smoke, and spatial rifts appeared in the sky, as if the end of the world had arrived.

Suddenly, a figure appeared in front of Chen Yuan, dressed in a blue robe, with a calm expression.

"Chen Yuan respectfully welcomes the Sect Leader!" Chen Yuan immediately bowed.

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried throughout the entire Tree City.

All the green mantises raised their two sharp, blade-like arms, awkwardly joined them together, and proclaimed, "The Green Mantis Clan respectfully welcomes True Man Fu!"

Their voices were stiff and sluggish, sounding quite strange, but when combined, they were extremely powerful, piercing the clouds and shaking the world.

This is the human language that Fuluohai has been urgently teaching his people over the past few days. They only know this one sentence, and they are not very proficient at it, but it is enough.

The powerful voice reached Master Fu's ears, but the praise of 100,000 green mantises could not cause his eyes to waver in the slightest.

He said calmly, "This place is quite far from the Spirit Realm. To bring you back to the Spirit Realm, we will need to use some special methods, which will cost at least ten years of your lifespan. Are you willing?"

Fu Luohai said without hesitation, "My clan is willing. Please, Master Fu, help save my Green Mantis clan!"

He bowed again, and all the green mantises followed suit, solemn and silent, yet containing an entire race's boundless yearning for life.

Master Fu nodded slightly, took out the star chart, and raised his hand to form a hand seal.

The silver star disk slowly flew forward, seemingly becoming much heavier due to the sealing of the World Destroyer Warship, and appeared somewhat sluggish.

The star chart arrived above the heads of 100,000 green mantises, and suddenly shone brightly, sending down 100,000 rays of starlight, each ray enveloping a green mantis.

Master Fu then took out a tattered yellow burlap sack, mended and patched it, and threw it forward. The sack opened upside down, and a suction force surged out.

Starlight enveloped the green mantises and was cast into the sack. Fu Luohai was the first, followed by the other green mantises. Within a quarter of an hour, all 100,000 green mantises were collected into the sack, leaving behind only a desolate tree city.

Master Fu pointed with his fingers, put away the star chart, and the sack flew back, bulging and piling up with oddly shaped patches. When Master Fu held it in his hand, it looked like a wealthy prince wearing tattered clothes, which was extremely incongruous.

A look of shock flashed in Chen Yuan's eyes. He had witnessed the methods of Mahayana cultivators more than once in the memories of the Great Sage Xuanli: the golden blade that could cleave the heavens and the earth, the crimson sea of ​​fire that could burn an entire world, the enormous demonic body that was tens of thousands of miles in size... But this was the first time he had seen such a mysterious treasure, which reminded him of the legendary Human Seed Bag.

Master Fu carried a sack in his left hand and made a sword-like gesture with his right. With a light stroke, a crack appeared. He grabbed Chen Yuan's arm and stepped inside.

The familiar chaotic void reappeared before Chen Yuan's eyes. Just like when they arrived, Master Fu grabbed his arm and sped along. All spatial turbulence and spatial storms subsided on their own, allowing for unimpeded passage.

Chen Yuan wanted to take this opportunity to comprehend the laws of space again, but found that it had lost its effect. It seemed that only by entering that "microscopic" state for the first time could he comprehend the laws of space.

Chen Yuan was somewhat disappointed, but a hint of joy also welled up in his heart. It seemed that his mastery of the laws of space had reached the limit below the Great Ascension stage.

The power of laws cannot be grasped through mere comprehension; to truly master the laws of space, one must come into contact with the actual laws of space.

This step can only be achieved upon advancing to the Mahayana stage; there is absolutely no shortcut.

The return journey took two days longer than the outward journey. Master Fu's escape speed was noticeably slower. Perhaps the World-Destroying Warship in the Star Chart added to the burden, or perhaps the 100,000 Green Mantises in the sack slowed him down, or perhaps both.

Along the way, Chen Yuan also saw a Void Cicada, a strange beast that had once almost killed him with a single flap of its wings, but now posed no threat to him.

The Void Cicada was as docile as a kitten in front of Master Fu, staying still far away and not daring to escape, for fear of angering Master Fu.

The barrier of the spirit realm posed no obstacle to Master Fu. He created a spatial rift, but instead of rushing back to the Myriad Stars Palace, he landed on a desolate wasteland.

Chen Yuan looked around and saw a desolate landscape. Scattered withered green grass covered the yellowish-brown Gobi Desert, while tall, red, wind-eroded rock pillars silently guarded the land.

Master Fu tossed out the tattered sack, its mouth wide open, and ten thousand rays of starlight flew out, falling to the ground and transforming into ten thousand green mantises.

They staggered about, their spirits low, but none of them cared for themselves first. Instead, they gently placed the huge bundles woven from vines behind them on the ground.

The green mantis, seeing the desolate scene around it, showed no dissatisfaction. Instead, its large compound eyes blinked incessantly, and its mouthparts opened and closed repeatedly—a sign of the green mantis clan's joy.

This wasteland is considered extremely barren in the spirit world, with no spiritual veins underground, only thin spiritual energy wandering in the sky and earth.

But for the Green Mantis Clan, who have suffered from the erosion of death energy for thousands of years, this place is nothing short of a paradise.

Fu Luohai, being the most powerful cultivator, was also the most affected, his energy weakening considerably, as if he had just experienced a major battle.

But he still managed to flap his wings and come to Master Fu. He put his two sword arms together and bowed deeply: "Master Fu's great kindness is something our clan can never repay even if we die. We should erect a statue for you and worship you every day."

Master Fu said calmly, "You shall stay here for the time being and not wander around. Chen Yuan, you shall come back to the sect with me."

Chen Yuan clasped his hands in a bow: "Sect Leader, the Green Mantis Clan has just entered the Spirit Realm. If there is no one to look after them, and other cultivators pass through this place, misunderstandings may arise."

"I will stay here for now and return to the sect once the Green Mantis Clan has truly settled down. I hope the Sect Leader will grant my request."

Master Fu nodded slightly: "Very well, after I return to my sect, I will send someone to find a sacred place for the Green Mantis Clan to settle down. After you return to your sect, come and see me as soon as possible."

As soon as he finished speaking, his figure vanished without a trace.

Chen Yuan and Fu Luo Hai dared not be negligent, and after bowing again and maintaining the gesture for a few breaths, they finally stood up.

"Elder Chen, True Person Fu said he would find a sacred site for our clan to settle down. Could it be that this place isn't a sacred site at all?" Fu Luo Hai's voice was full of surprise. Chen Yuan said, "The Spirit Realm is vast and rich in resources. This place doesn't even have a single spiritual vein. How can it be considered a sacred site?"

"Since the Green Mantis Clan has submitted to our sect, the sect leader will not treat you unfairly. At the very least, we will find a spiritual land with a small spiritual vein so that you can reproduce and thrive."

Fu Luohai's compound eyes flickered with excitement. He apologized to Chen Yuan and then descended in his escape light to settle the 100,000 green mantises.

Since Master Fu will find a true spiritual land for the Green Mantis Clan, and this place is only a temporary residence, there is no need to plant those towering giant trees and build treehouses.

Chen Yuan didn't get involved in these trivial matters. He went to a wind-eroded rock pillar to meditate and regulate his breathing, waiting for the Tai Xuan Sect cultivators arranged by Master Fu to come and hand over the duties.

Now that he had taken Fu Luohai's sword arm, he naturally had to take care of the Green Mantis Clan.

……

Chen Yuan didn't have to wait long. Three days later, more than a dozen cultivators arrived at the place. They were cultivators from the Xixin Hall under Bai Zangzhou's command, and the leader was a Void Refinement Protector from Luosong Peak.

Upon meeting Chen Yuan, he was extremely respectful and presented Chen Yuan with a jade slip containing Bai Zangzhou's divine consciousness imprint.

Master Fu entrusted the resettlement of the Green Mantis Clan to Bai Zangzhou, and instructed him to send people to teach the Green Mantis Clan the rules of the Spirit Realm and issue them identity tokens for subordinate races, which was also a regulation of the Fatian Pavilion.

Only after going through this step can the Green Mantis Clan be considered recognized by the Tai Xuan Sect and be able to survive in the Spirit Realm, instead of being casually wiped out by some sect as an invading alien race.

The sacred land that Bai Zangzhou arranged for the Green Mantis Clan was not far from Donghua City, only about 400,000 li away.

The Spirit Realm is roughly the same size as the Burning Demon Realm, but the number of Mahayana cultivators in the Spirit Realm is far greater than that of the Great Saints in the Burning Demon Realm.

The area of ​​the Spirit Realm is much smaller than that of the Sacred Realm of the Burning Demon Realm, only about one-third or even one-quarter.

However, unlike the demon race, humans are not divided into countless races. Low-level demon beasts cannot transform into human form and hunt and kill each other. Within a hundred miles, only a few or a dozen demon beasts survive, occupying a large area.

The majority of mortals in the spirit realm live in cities and villages, farming and herding. Low-level cultivators often use spells to bring rain and drive away clouds to avoid droughts and floods, allowing them to live in peace and prosperity, multiplying and multiplying far more often than low-level demonic beasts.

There are fewer cultivators with spiritual roots than demonic beasts. Those with excellent aptitude join sects, and immortal cultivation families live together in clans. Independent cultivators also mostly rely on the markets and large cities built by various sects to obtain cultivation resources by cultivating spiritual herbs, mining spiritual minerals, and hunting low-level demonic beasts, thus occupying less land.

There are also demonic beasts in the spirit realm, and there are quite a few of them. They are distributed in various spirit domains, but most of them are low-level demonic beasts. Demon generals are extremely rare, and there are no demon kings or demon saints.

Not all cultivators are able to follow sects to conquer other worlds. The vast majority of rogue cultivators have extremely mediocre cultivation techniques and crude magical artifacts.

Their conquest of other worlds would be suicidal, and they might not even pass the examinations of the major sects to enter other worlds with their sect disciples.

The lower-level disciples of various sects also need to be tempered, and the demon race becomes the best choice. It can not only allow lower-level cultivators to accumulate combat experience and feel the cruelty of conquering other worlds in advance, but also be completely under their control.

The demon cores of these low-level demonic beasts can be refined into pills, relieving the pressure on spiritual herbs, achieving two goals at once.

The demons in the spirit realm are confined to a specific area, and the occasional ones that wander out do not hinder cultivators from coming and going.

Cultivators from different regions do not need to fly; they travel to and from each other via teleportation arrays and rarely pass through desolate areas.

Even if these places don't have demons, they are still harsh environments unsuitable for mortals to live in, and they lack spiritual veins and mines, so no cultivators are willing to establish cave dwellings there.

Three hundred thousand miles away from Donghua City, there are vast stretches of desolate mountains and plains rarely visited by humans.

Some of these places clearly have micro or even small spiritual veins, but the Tai Xuan Sect deliberately sealed them off and did not mine them.

Although the Tai Xuan Sect has not been established for very long, it occupies the most abundant and prosperous spiritual land in the Xuanling Domain and is becoming increasingly prosperous and is currently in a period of expansion.

These relatively barren spiritual lands became a burden, neither worth keeping nor worth abandoning. Since cultivators from other sects dared not provoke the Tai Xuan Sect, they were left to decay.

The Cloud Green Plain, which was used to settle the Green Mantis Clan, was such a useless piece of spiritual land. The surrounding 30,000 li were allocated to the Green Mantis Clan, which was enough for them to multiply and thrive.

A small spiritual vein was somewhat insufficient, but it was already extremely satisfactory to the Green Mantis Clan, who had been ravaged by death energy.

Fu Luohai knew that the Green Mantis Clan had not accomplished anything, so he dared not make any demands. He expressed his gratitude to the Void Refining Protector of Luosong Peak and treated him with utmost respect.

Remembering the sword arm offered by Fu Luo Hai, Chen Yuan specially took out three immortal spirit stones (note) and bought a large number of low-grade spirit herb seeds from Donghua City, so that the Green Mantis Clan could cultivate spirit herbs on their own and exchange them for cultivation resources.

This sharp longsword left behind by the Green Mantis, who was at the peak of the Heavenly Blade Realm, is comparable to medicinal herbs of the peak of the Demon Saint Realm. It is only a hair's breadth away from becoming a Mahayana treasure, making it extremely precious and of great use to Chen Yuan.

Besides cultivating spirit herbs, there are also several miniature spirit material veins in the Cloud Green Plains. However, the Green Mantis Clan has never come into contact with these kinds of spirit ores and does not know how to mine them.

Chen Yuan then brought in several weapon refiners from the weapon refining hall. These refiners were experts in the properties of spiritual materials and taught the Green Mantis Clan how to mine them. Fu Luo Hai thanked him repeatedly.

In addition, there are low-level demonic beasts distributed around the Cloud Green Plains. The Green Mantis Clan can obtain demonic cores and medicinal herbs by hunting these beasts to hone their skills.

A month later, seeing that everything was arranged, Chen Yuan took his leave. Before leaving, he told Fu Luo Hai that he would look for an opportunity to transform the spiritual veins beneath the Cloud Green Plain for the Green Mantis Clan.

The spiritual realm has a long history of cultivation arts and crafts, with astonishing achievements. Among them is the art of spirit seeking, which uses various treasures and methods to modify spiritual veins, upgrading small spiritual veins to medium or even large ones.

Fu Luohai led all the Divine Edge Realm cultivators of the Green Mantis Clan to see Chen Yuan off. At this moment, he was extremely glad that he had offered the Void Breaking Marquis's sword arm to Chen Yuan instead of directly offering it to True Person Fu.

This blade arm is a treasure to cultivators at the Void Refinement stage, but it's nothing in the eyes of cultivators at the Mahayana stage. It's unlikely to make Master Fu look at the Green Mantis Clan differently, but it could make Chen Yuan take good care of it.

Chen Yuan returned to Donghua City alone, ascended Tongtian Island via the teleportation array, and went straight to Tongtian Peak to pay his respects to Master Fu.

The Wanxing Hall still presents the same profound and secluded scene, where nothingness and the sea of ​​stars intertwine. Master Fu sits upright amidst the starlight, like an enlightened immortal.

"You have made a great contribution by offering up the World Destroyer Warship. You can take this item to find a friend of mine, and he will give you the Ferocious Tiger Demon Core."

Master Fu spoke calmly, raising his hand. A stone box and two jade slips appeared out of thin air in his palm, slowly flying towards Chen Yuan. (End of Chapter)