Chapter 348: Contact Across Space
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Jiang Li had discovered this leaf in the box where the Mu family’s Longevity Peach was stored.
The breed was very special. Even in the entire cultivation world of the Eastern Region, not many cultivators had seen it.
However, it just so happened that Jiang Li was very familiar with it.
It was because this was the leaf of the Spiritual Root of Heaven and Earth, the Nine Nether Wood. As a cultivator of the Nine Nether Dao Scripture, Jiang Li could guarantee that it was definitely real.
To be able to hand this leaf to him meant that the other party was either a puppet planted by another Nine Nether Branch or the main body was here.
Most importantly, the other party probably knew that there was a Nine Nether Branch behind Jiang Li.
Jiang Li originally wanted to find out the situation from the Mu family.
However, instead of finding out anything about the Mu family, his situation had already been secretly figured out by someone.
If he revealed this information to the Mu family of the Peach Forest, Jiang Li would probably be troubled by a huge problem again.
Apart from that, the ancient text written on the leaf also made Jiang Li very concerned.
“The Longevity Peach Yang Fruit can conceal the aura of the Yin Fruit.”
The Longevity Peach Yang Fruit referred to the Mu family’s Longevity Peach, while the Yin Fruit referred to the Nine Nether Earth Fruit.
Jiang Li had tried earlier, and the other party did not lie to him.
After using the Nine Nether Wood to absorb the Longevity Peach, he could fuse it into the Nine Nether Earth Fruit or the spiritual root seed.
The unique aura of someone parasitized by the spiritual root seed could indeed be perfectly concealed.
Even he could not recognize his puppet.
The reason why the other party sent this news to him was clearly to use it on the Beast Frenzy Sect’s Barossa.
Originally, Jiang Li did not want to use the spiritual root seed in the peach forest.
He planned to use the Spirit Absorbing Monster to control Barossa first. After dealing with the higher-ups of the Beast Frenzy Sect, he would let him find an opportunity to kill him.
This was because there was a flaw in doing this. After the brain was eaten by the Spirit Absorbing Monster, although cultivators could not see anything strange on the surface, this person’s essence was already dead.
This meant that the Soul Lamp or Life Token stored in the Beast Frenzy Sect would be extinguished on the spot.
It would not be long before the other party’s sect reacted. If they checked the time of his death, Jiang Li would easily be exposed.
It was not until he looked at the note and tested it that he realized that it was indeed possible. He used the spiritual root seed that had fused with the Longevity Peach to turn Barossa into one of his own.
With his status as the second generation heir of the sect, perhaps he could not directly resolve the conflict between the Beast Frenzy Sect and the Great Mountain Alliance.
However, for the time being, it was not a problem to stabilize them.
In the future, with him as the springboard, Jiang Li could gradually devour the opposing sect. As long as he turned a few important figures in the Beast Frenzy Sect into his own, this matter could be resolved without bloodshed.
He did not have to worry about the Beast Frenzy Sect’s incident for the time being.
The problem now was that he had to find the hidden Nine Nether Branch as soon as possible.
“Could it be Mu Chunkong?”
Mu Chunkong had personally handed this box to him.
It was the easiest for him to do something.
However, after thinking for a moment, Jiang Li shook his head and eliminated this possibility.
He had already tried many times on Mu Chunyang.
Due to the Mu family’s special cultivation method, the spiritual root seed could not parasitize them at all.
Even if he did it forcefully, the final outcome would only be the parasite dying under the collision of two completely different energies.
Although there were some differences between each Spiritual Root Branch, their quality would not change.
Since Jiang Li could not do it, there was a high chance that the other party could not.
It might be the second-generation disciples of other sects in the pavilion.
At that time, everyone’s attention was on the battle between Jiang Li and Barossa. Under such circumstances, it was probably not difficult to secretly put a leaf into the box.
He took back the bracelet from Shenshan Qiuhua and transformed it into a small version of the Golden Web Python in Jiang Li’s hand.
This was naturally the other Great Demon Python in the Myriad Snake Cave of the Rock Mountain Range.
Previously, Jiang Li had asked it to transform into a bracelet and stay in the high pavilion with Shenshan Qiuhua. Apart from protecting Qiuhua, he had also asked it to monitor everyone on it.
He had to guard against these second-generation heirs from behind the scenes.
Unfortunately, the other party was very cautious and did not observe any suspicious figures.
Since he could not determine the target directly, Jiang Li looked at the leaf again.
The only thing that could be confirmed now was that this Nine Nether Leaf was completely fresh. It should have been plucked less than two hours ago.
In other words, the thing that had infiltrated the Mu family and was close to Jiang Li in the high pavilion was probably the main body of a Nine Nether Branch.
He was really bold and his methods of hiding his aura were really powerful.
Jiang Li felt a headache coming on. He pulled a few parallel minds together and thought of a solution for a long time.
If the other party deliberately hid and wanted to find him directly, it was no different from finding a needle in a haystack.
However, there was actually a way to contact the other party first.
After explaining to Shenshan Qiuhua, Jiang Li sat cross-legged on the spot and meditated while his mind had already sunk into the depths of his Sea of Consciousness.
This time, he did not summon the other parallel minds. Instead, he entered the Nine Nether clone’s consciousness.
Compared to Jiang Li’s main body, the Sea of Consciousness of the Nine Nether clone seemed to be much narrower, and his mental world was even more monotonous and empty.
In the gloomy mental world, there was only a huge tree floating in the middle of the world.
The surrounding area was only a few thousand feet before they reached the end.
Looking out, other than vaguely seeing Jiang Li’s main consciousness, he could not see anything else.
This was different from the scene Jiang Li had seen when he used the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra to obtain the Nine Nether Branch back then.
The consciousness of the ordinary Nine Nether Branch was actually hanging on the main body of the Nine Nether Wood.
However, after Jiang Li seized this branch, he cut off his original connection and hung it on the shore of his consciousness.
What he needed to do now was to let this mental space return to its original location.
Jiang Li focused his mind and activated the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra, severing the connection between the two mental worlds.
In the next moment, the mental world of the Nine Nether Branch shook. After leaving Jiang Li’s main body, it floated for a moment before being attracted by another existence and approaching in an unknown direction.
The mental world was illusory and did not have any concept of distance in the conventional sense.
Just like the mental connection between him and the yaksha clone, it could even cross the barrier of a world without being too affected.
Not long after, through the edge of his Sea of Consciousness, Jiang Li vaguely saw a huge inverted tree that could reach the sky.
Even in the mental world, it was very difficult to observe the other party’s complete posture.
Indeed, the parallel mind of the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra could even deceive this mental body. As long as he took the initiative to get close, he would similarly be accepted by the Nine Nether Wood.
Soon, the consciousness space stabilized.
Jiang Li looked around. In the other direction of his mental space, he was practically stuck to the mental bubble of another Nine Nether Branch.
The mission of many Nine Nether branches was to devour each other to determine the strongest person and return to the Netherworld to devour their true body to inherit the authority of the Spiritual Root of Heaven and Earth.
Therefore, they had the instinct to converge from the moment they were born.
For example, in this consciousness space, one could determine the distance of the main body through the distance between the mental bubbles.
Now, he was almost close to seeing the mental world of another Nine Nether Branch.
This meant that there was really a Nine Nether Wood that was quite close to him.
This should be the one who contacted him, right?
With a thought, Jiang Li ran to the edge of the mental barrier closest to the two sides.
At this moment, the other party also discovered him.
In the other party’s mental space, a small version of the Nine Nether Wood spontaneously floated over.
The appearance of the tree was that of an Immortal in Daoist clothing.
What was noteworthy was that behind the statue, the tree bark was not flat, but a shriveled crease.
It seemed that there was something growing under the tree bark. However, the thing inside disappeared for some reason. After the tree bark was empty, it wrinkled.
Jiang Li’s mind shook as he recalled the branch in the Mother River.
After obtaining the Demonic Tree Heart, he made it into the core of the Divine Statue clone.
As for the remaining half, wasn’t it exactly the same as the one in front of him?
Wait, if the other party was not blind back then, it would have definitely seen that the Ghost Lantern Cold Flame that burned it to near-death was released by Jiang Li.
Could it be that it had come to seek revenge?
After understanding the other party’s identity, he recalled the situation where parasitized cultivators frequently disappeared from his Hidden Rock Army.
Now, it seemed that it was very likely this guy’s doing.
Back then, the Nine Nether Wood in the underwater graveyard was almost burned to death by Jiang Li’s Ghost Lantern Cold Flame.
After escaping, it received a blessing in disguise. While it was heavily injured, it awakened a special talent similar to the spiritual root seed. It shrunk its body and hid in the bodies of human cultivators.
After lying low for a period of time, it had appeared again at an unknown time and did not expose its tracks. Instead, it hid in the range of the Great Mountain Region and dug out Jiang Li’s secrets from behind the scenes.
Due to the fact that Jiang Li’s network was too big, it was inevitable that this fellow would find him.
This was really impossible to guard against.
After this fellow fled back then, Jiang Li had specially taken out the lamps of ten Ghost Lantern Fish and refined it into a one-time use Ghost Lantern Flame Bomb before handing it to the higher-ups of the Great Mountain Alliance.
As long as this Nine Nether Wood dared to appear again, even if he was not present, the Great Mountain Alliance could still use the Ghost Lantern Flame Bomb to give it a fatal lesson.
Unfortunately, this tree demon became smarter after the incident. In the end, he was the one who was tricked.
The two sides stared at each other through the barrier of the mental world.
However, the soul could not cross this seemingly small distance.
At this moment, a tree root stretched out from the other party. On the tree root was a pitch-black token with the words “Great Mountain” written on it.
At the same time, Jiang Li’s chest suddenly emitted a burning sensation. It was his Great Mountain Alliance Leader Token that had a reaction.
With a thought, he held his Alliance Leader Token. After reading the information, his expression immediately became even uglier.
“We finally meet again, my clansman. Or rather, I should call you Green Mountain Ascetic!”
It was the token he had left Yan Hong.
However, the one who sent the message was clearly the Nine Nether Branch that was contacting him from afar.
It turned out that even Yan Hong had fallen into the other party’s hands.
Coupled with the Hidden Rock cultivators that went missing mysterious, it was obvious that all the information they knew was leaked.
Fortunately, Jiang Li did not have the habit of telling his subordinates everything. What was passed down were only missions and never the entire plan, so the information leaked was still within his tolerance.
Moreover, this Nine Nether Wood probably did not think that a human could control its kind.
After obtaining the information about the Hidden Rock cultivators, it roughly guessed the experiences of this “fellow clansman”.
In its understanding, the Nine Nether clone had originally appeared in the cultivation world as Green Mountain Ascetic and intercepted many of its spiritual root seeds.
Later on, it found a way to get to know and control the Alliance Leader of the Great Mountain Alliance, so it left the Great Mountain Region with the army and arrived at the main city of the Eastern Region.
It called out the name “Green Mountain Ascetic” because it wanted Jiang Li to know that it had already obtained all the information and wanted to inflict some mental pressure.
Jiang Li did not deny it when he saw the other party misunderstand this, and he only calmly asked the other party through the Alliance Leader Token, “So it’s you. Where are my seeds?”
The other party had no reservations right now. If Jiang Li did not want to be in a passive spot, he had to pretend that he did not care as well.
The word ‘seeds’ expressed his attitude towards those missing cultivators.
“Don’t worry, they’re in good shape. You snatched away two thousand seeds from me earlier. Isn’t it good to use them to repay me now?”
In the cultivation world of the Great Mountain Region, there were only two Nine Nether Branches. It naturally had to count the cultivators who had disappeared when it was still in the underwater graveyard as Jiang Li’s doing.
However, Jiang Li did not intend to admit it at all.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. However, you’re not allowed to touch my territory and my seeds.”
“Return all my seeds. You should know that you’re not my match.”
Jiang Li did not show any anger or even worry, as if he was really just a tree.
The other party already had considerable intelligence. If he let the other party feel that he valued those seed cultivators and even Yan Hong, he would be severely threatened.
Jiang Li put on a stoic expression and even raised his hand to summon a ball of ghastly white Ghost Lantern Fire.
He looked as if he was not afraid of him but was determined to win.
Seeing the pale white fire, fear and anger clearly flashed across the face of the other party’s immortal statue tree.
Although the color was already different, it had suffered greatly from this flame back then.
Even though Jiang Li’s Nine Nether clone was inferior to it, so long as this ball of fire was present, there was no possibility of it winning.
Just like that, Jiang Li did not show any signs of being threatened at all. Instead, he started to threaten the other party.
This bold move would kill Yan Hong if he was not careful.
However, the other party’s next sentence made Jiang Li heave a sigh of relief.
“It’s not good for us to fight here.”
“I can return those seeds to you, but you have to help me deal with the Immortal Peach Demon Wood!”