Chapter 168: Chapter 58: It’s Decided, You Will Be the King of Divine Wood

[Coiling Dragon Spirit · Evil Soul of the Demon Emperor]

[The Evil Soul of a Demon Dragon, formed through a Secret Ceremony that absorbed and converted Banyan Undying Tree Essence.]

[The soul of a monster entangled with countless curses and threads of Cause and Effect.]

[Direct Consumption: Greatly increases all physical attributes, significantly increases affinity for Wood-element Spiritual Materials, and grants a certain degree of authority over Wood Element and Dragon Creatures.]

[Spiritual Refining: Can be refined into a Heavenly Calamity Wood Dragon ’Attaching Spirit’ to be attached to any piece of equipment or item.]

[Special Forging: Can be forged into the ’Hundred Devouring Calamity Dragon Tail Whip’ Soul Weapon.]

[Since ancient times, longevity and immortality have been the desire of all life. Most believe they would stop at nothing to obtain it, but only a few truly pursue it at any cost.]

[To accept the filth of the state is to be lord of the altars to the soil and grain. To accept the misfortunes of the state is to be king under heaven. A cold-hearted scoundrel ascended the supreme throne, yet brought the calamities he should have borne himself upon this land. After acting in a way completely opposite to a true king, the tyrant obtained immortality.]

[That is why he was destined for a bleak end.]

"What the hell? So the National Preceptor was the real final boss... This Demon Emperor didn’t even qualify to leave behind a legacy?"

At the zenith of the Celestial Palace, the entire structure was slowly withering and collapsing due to the Demon Emperor’s death. The living palace, shaped by the Demon Emperor using Divine Wood Power, had begun its own self-destruction after losing its master.

Su Zhou savored the aftertaste of the Demon Emperor’s Evil Soul with a disgusted look on his face. He shook his head and said, "Come to think of it, that makes sense. The sense of pressure from the Demon Emperor was nothing compared to the National Preceptor... This generation of bosses is pretty pathetic."

At this moment, Su Zhou, holding the Divine Blade in one hand with the nearly-scrapped Spirit Iron Long Spear and the Demon Emperor’s Dragon Horns tucked under his arm, stood before the Jade Pillars of the Celestial Altar, which were gradually returning to their green hue, and thought to himself, ’The Heavenly Calamity Wood Dragon Enchantment gives me the ability to control vegetation within a certain range. I can animate special plants and generate those living roots the Demon Emperor used to attack me—that’s not very strong. Even though the attack can implant parasitic seeds in the target, it’s not very useful in modern society or in an Otherworld where I don’t know the ecology.’

Just then, Yara shot out from beside Su Zhou’s ear. "You just think controlling plants isn’t cool, don’t you?"

Su Zhou paused for a moment before continuing to mutter to himself, "...And the Hundred Devouring Calamity Dragon Tail Whip is even more useless. After an attack deals damage, the whip devours a portion of the target’s Life Essence Qi and converts it into pure Essence Qi to heal the wielder—but the efficiency is slower than me just taking a bite out of my enemy. For someone with Super Regeneration Ability, it’s just gilding the lily. Pretty meaningless."

"The real reason you ate the Evil Soul right away was because you were about to pass out. You had to eat it to regain some strength so you wouldn’t be found unconscious when the people from the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army came up, which would’ve ruined your chance to look cool. That’s why you didn’t look closely at the Evil Soul’s abilities," the Snake Spirit’s ethereal voice piped up again. "Am I right~?"

"...Shut up!"

Furious from embarrassment, Su Zhou spat out two words from between his teeth. He poked Yara, shoving it back into his hair, then took a deep breath and continued huffily, "My analysis wasn’t wrong, anyway! With no legacy to be had, devouring the Evil Soul to get a boost to my attributes was the most logical choice right now!"

Yara, having been poked back into his hair, chuckled softly and added from within the strands, "The Celestial Wood Dragon—the true name for the Banyan Undying Tree Clan—is primarily of the Divine Wood’s bloodline, but it does possess some Dragon Blood. That part about ’granting a certain degree of authority over Wood Element and Dragon Creatures’ is essentially just increasing the concentration of that bloodline."

"For you, the more of that stuff, the better," Yara said. "Your Perfect Body needs these powers to improve, as long as you want to become stronger."

That being the case, was there any other choice? Of course not. He had to eat it.

It wasn’t surprising that the Demon Emperor had no legacy. He was never a Dao Seeker, had never systematized his own power, and had not walked his own ’Dao’. Even his power was just an Innate status achieved by piling up Divine Wood, so all in all, he couldn’t be considered a ’Powerhouse’ at all.

Even if it was great treachery and evil, it was a base sort of evil, different from the National Preceptor’s. Su Zhou had a vague feeling that if the National Preceptor advanced to the Innate realm, the ’evil’ it could accomplish would be far greater than that of the Demon Emperor, this ’Emperor’. It could even completely change a civilization’s customs and thoughts, spreading and establishing a fixed ’Order of evil’.

’But more important than all this is destroying the Divine Tree... But how do I destroy it?’

Muttering to himself, Su Zhou stared at the enormous, cyan Jade Pillar before him, frowning and sighing. "Just a single tip of a branch is already this huge... The entire Divine Wood has grown to span a thousand li, covering an entire province. How am I supposed to destroy it?"

"Physical destruction is impossible with your current strength." Popping out from the top of Su Zhou’s head and dangling like a cowlick, Yara observed for a moment before swaying and saying, "This thing’s roots already reach the planet’s mantle. For the next three hundred years, this world probably won’t have the ability to physically destroy the Divine Tree."

"Physical... so you’re saying I can destroy it on a non-physical level?" Su Zhou keenly picked up on the hidden meaning in Yara’s words. He blinked his one good eye—his left was still regenerating—and asked thoughtfully, "Using the Wisdom Tree Essence Soul in my Soul?"

"Oh? Your guess is pretty accurate." The Snake Spirit sounded a little surprised, but it didn’t seem to mind. "That’s right. After all, it’s the only thing about you that’s connected to the Divine Wood. But in essence, this wouldn’t be ’destroying’ it."

"Su Zhou, with the Wisdom Tree’s Essence Soul, you can consider making a ’contract’ with this Immortal Tree."

"A contract?" Su Zhou repeated the word, his tone puzzled. "With this Divine Wood, which is suspected to be a clone of a Great Being? Yara, have you lost your mind? You’re the one who told me not to get involved with other Great Beings!"

"Of course not." Yara wasn’t angered by Su Zhou’s words. It just twitched its tail, as if wagging a finger. "I did say that, but the Tree of the Great Dao is different... Su Zhou, think carefully. From the very beginning, you were already bound to It by fate."

"The branch of the Wisdom Tree, the Little Wisdom Tree, the first Evil Demon you encountered being the Wood Centipede, the first world you traversed being the Divine Wood World—and just now, you killed a guy who called himself the ’King of Divine Wood.’"

As it spoke, seeing the frown on Su Zhou’s face, Yara continued, "Su Zhou, if we were to grade this trip to the Otherworld, you’d get a near-perfect score. Even if you left right now, that Tree of the Great Dao fellow’s escape from its Seal would be delayed by at least a few hundred years. But now... now is when we see if you can really get that perfect score."

"...Tsk. I’ve already come this far. It’d be a shame not to get a perfect score."

After struggling for a moment, Su Zhou found he really couldn’t resist the temptation of a perfect score. Besides, what Yara said was true. His journey had undoubtedly bound him to the Divine Wood... No, it was more than just a bond. He had a Wisdom Tree Essence Soul living in his own Soul!

Since it had come to this, he might as well go all in. He gritted his teeth, stomped his foot, and asked, "What do I need to do?"

The Snake Spirit’s tone became cheerful. "It’s simple. Since the King of Divine Wood that this world spontaneously produced has already been taken care of by you..."

"Then you will be the next King of Divine Wood."

It had to be said, Yara’s powers of persuasion were quite impressive. Plus, its logic was sound: there could only be one Divine Wood’s Beloved capable of wielding the Divine Wood Power at any given time. That was why even the National Preceptor hadn’t become a second Divine Wood Dragon. Of course, it was also possible the National Preceptor wanted to cultivate its own path of the Innate Thunder Spirit, but there was no doubt that there was only one spot at the top of the Clan, and Su Zhou had just personally slain its previous occupant.

The Divine Wood itself rarely reacted to the outside world. As its foremost Beloved, the King of Divine Wood was responsible for protecting the Divine Wood from external threats as it grew. In return, the Divine Wood would grant its king a certain authority over its power. This was precisely how the Demon Emperor, after obtaining the Divine Wood Power himself, was able to bestow the Undying Root upon all his court ministers and the Demon Army.

"As long as you use the Array to communicate with the Divine Wood and obtain the authority of the King of Divine Wood, no one who comes after will be able to bypass you to gain the Divine Wood’s power. And no one will ever again be able to obtain a vile source of immortality like the Undying Root to plague this world."

Su Zhou listened silently to Yara’s analysis, thought for a while, and then slowly nodded. "I understand... Since I can’t physically sever the source of immortality, I’ll have to approach it from another angle."

Taking a deep breath, he said in a low voice, "Alright, Yara. Let’s begin."

And so, a moment later, after learning the procedure for the Orbit, Su Zhou began to prepare for the contract.

Upon the ever-withering Celestial Palace Altar, a cyan-green light began to spread.