Qingming Spirit Seed

“What is this thing?”

She slowly reached out and placed her palm against the surface of the burl.

The moment she touched the bark, she felt an extremely faint surge of wood spiritual energy. The energy was exceptionally pure, yet completely sealed away by the outer layer of bark.

Yun Heng channeled a strand of spiritual energy and slowly injected it into the burl. As soon as the energy entered, the surrounding blue-green patterns suddenly flared to life.

The next instant, a faint cracking sound came from the bark on the burl's surface.

“Crack.”

A crack appeared in the center and slowly spread outward. The outer bark peeled open like flower petals, revealing what was hidden deep inside.

It was a blue-green seed.

Only the size of a thumb, the seed possessed a smooth, translucent surface, with what looked like a strand of blue-green mist slowly swirling within.

Yun Heng stared at the blue-green seed before her.

This aura, this reaction...

Was this the Qingming Spirit Seed?

Shock flared in Yun Heng's eyes, quickly followed by a tinge of helpless amusement.

She had been sitting here all this time, only to realize she had been right next to the Qingming Spirit Seed the whole time?

In the center of the Ancient Vine Array, Xie Wujiu was bound tightly by countless vines.

His hands, legs, and waist were completely immobilized, and even the longsword in his hand was wrapped in several ancient vines, leaving only a fraction of the hilt exposed.

The surrounding vines continued to tighten slowly.

Xie Wujiu could clearly feel his spiritual energy draining away bit by bit.

Those vines could not only absorb the sword Qi he unleashed, but they were also continuously siphoning power from his sword bone straight through his body.

Only now did Xie Wujiu finally realize the true secret of the Ancient Vine Array.

It absorbed sword Qi and spiritual energy; every slash he had executed earlier was actually strengthening the array.

Having realized this, Xie Wujiu stopped striking immediately.

He loosened his grip on his sword and forcibly suppressed his surrounding sword intent, no longer attempting to slice through the vines with sword Qi.

However, having absorbed a massive amount of sword Qi, the Ancient Vine Array had already been fully activated.

The blue-green patterns on the vines pulsed continuously, and the constricting force on Xie Wujiu grew ever tighter. Even though he had stopped releasing sword Qi on his own accord, the vines showed no signs of stopping.

Inside this Ancient Vine Array that absorbed sword Qi, his natural sword bone had instead become his greatest liability.

Xie Wujiu's face turned slightly pale.

If this continued, even with his cultivation at the peak Nascent Soul realm, his spiritual energy would eventually be drained completely by the Ancient Vine Array.

Xie Wujiu gritted his teeth.

He could not keep resisting; the more spiritual energy and sword intent he used, the stronger the Ancient Vine Array would become.

Closing his eyes, Xie Wujiu endured the discomfort of his spiritual energy being drained and sank his consciousness into his body.

He sealed off his dantian and forcibly halted his cultivation method. The spiritual energy that had been flowing rapidly through his meridians gradually quieted down, entirely locked within his dantian.

But his earlier clash with the Ancient Vine Array had already consumed a vast amount of spiritual energy, and the vines had siphoned away much of the power from his sword bone.

Exhaustion and weakness washed over him simultaneously, rendering his consciousness increasingly hazy.

The rustling sound of the surrounding vines gradually receded, and darkness swallowed his vision completely.

Ultimately, Xie Wujiu lost consciousness and fell into a deep coma.

Meanwhile, Yun Heng stood on the branch of the ancient tree, gazing down at the Qingming Spirit Seed resting in her palm.

She had been thrilled when she first discovered the Qingming Spirit Seed, but now a new problem presented itself: how was she supposed to use this thing?

Yun Heng turned it over several times, but failed to find any array markings or instructions for use.

Scratching her head in frustration, she had no choice but to experiment blindly.

Cupping the Qingming Spirit Seed in her hand, Yun Heng channeled a strand of spiritual energy and slowly injected it into the seed.

The moment her spiritual energy made contact, the previously quiet Qingming Spirit Seed flared with a vibrant blue-green light.

Yun Heng instantly looked up toward the Ancient Vine Array. Every vine inside the array paused simultaneously.

The ancient vines that had been slithering slowly around Xie Wujiu froze in place as if receiving a command.

Did it work? A flash of delight appeared in Yun Heng's eyes.

However, after only a few breaths, the blue-green light on the seed's surface rapidly dimmed.

No, that wasn't right.

There had to be another way to use it.

She tried multiple times in succession and finally identified the issue.

When the Qingming Spirit Seed first revealed itself, it exhaled dense wood spiritual energy. But ever since she removed it from the burl, the blue-green glow had been slowly waning.

Yun Heng turned back to look at the split tree heart beside her.

The Qingming Spirit Seed was originally part of this ancient tree. Could it only exert its true power if returned to the tree and reconnected with its internal pathways?

She placed the Qingming Spirit Seed back into the split tree heart.

Upon contact with the tree heart, a faint blue-green light flickered on its surface. Though faint, it was far more stable than when she held it in her hand.

It really reacted.

Yun Heng began circulating the Tianheng Guiyuan Art.

The spiritual energy refined by her technique flowed down her palm into the trunk, following the pale blue-green patterns and slowly gathering into the Qingming Spirit Seed.

At first, the ancient tree showed no change.

Once the spiritual energy entered the trunk, it seemed to fall into a bottomless pit, vanishing in the blink of an eye.

The Qingming Spirit Seed in the tree heart remained quiet, and the blue-green patterns on the outside did not light up again.

Yun Heng frowned slightly.

Had she guessed wrong?

She continued circulating the Tianheng Guiyuan Art, channeling a steady stream of spiritual energy into the trunk.

As more energy poured in, an extremely faint pulse finally stirred deep within the withered trunk.

Inside the tree heart, the Qingming Spirit Seed quivered gently. Immediately after, a strand of blue-green light shone from within, and the mist-like energy inside the seed began to flow slowly.

The blue-green radiance spread outward from the tree heart, entering the ancient tree's long-withered pathways.

Those pathways, dormant for uncounted years, seemed to regain vitality—one after another, they were gradually lit up by the blue-green glow.

The once-dull patterns on the bark's surface also reappeared.

Before Yun Heng could even feel pleased, she felt her consciousness suddenly pulled by a mysterious force.

Subconsciously closing her eyes, her divine sense followed the spiritual energy entering the tree and plunged into the Qingming Spirit Seed.

The next instant, her consciousness felt as though it were passing through the tree heart, surging rapidly downward along the tree's internal pathways.

When Yun Heng saw the underground sight through the Qingming Spirit Seed, her breathing hitched for a moment.

This... this... this...

What is this?

Beneath the Ancient Vine Array lay no ordinary soil.

Countless roots of varying thickness were interwoven like an endless, vast net spanning the entire underground.

Yun Heng's consciousness followed the root system further ahead.

She realized that every single vine above ground was connected to this giant underground root net.

No matter how many times a vine was severed, as long as the roots beneath remained intact, they could regenerate using the energy stored within the root net.

And at the absolute center of all these roots was none other than the very ancient tree Yun Heng was standing on.