Sword qi surged beneath Yun Lie’s feet. Turning into a streak of white light, he arrived before the Divine Tree.
His will was unwavering and no external distraction could move him. He paid no heed to the other cultivators fighting among themselves. His eyes and heart held only one objective.
Thus he was the first to reach the tree. With a shake of his right arm, he sent a streak of sword intent into it.
The sword intent was invisible, but because Yun Lie used his full strength, a faint phantom actually appeared in the air.
It resembled a gigantic transparent sword thrust straight into the canopy!
Boom!
A tremendous pressure from the sword spread outward. Under that sword intent, countless boughs in the canopy began to tremble.
In an instant, innumerable seeds came pattering down like a sudden shower, crackling as they fell. There might have been hundreds or even thousands.
Yun Lie immediately reached out. An overwhelming suction arose from his sleeve and swept up every seed before it touched the ground!
The sword intent moved with his will, sweeping ferociously through the canopy amid thousands of threads of sword qi. Wherever it passed, still more Divine Tree seeds fell, and Yun Lie gathered them all without ceremony.
The whole sequence took less than a single breath. Many powerful cultivators following him were only half a step slower, but that half-step delay gave Yun Lie an enormous advantage!
Those arriving behind him could only watch swathes of dark seeds, like masses of black cloud, disappear into the sleeves of the white-robed sword cultivator. They felt both anxious and impressed.
He truly deserved his fifth place on the Heavenly Dragon Ranking. He had beaten every one of them to the front!
By the time numerous cultivators reached the Divine Tree several blinks later, many others had been left behind altogether, unable to compete with them.
Once they reached the tree, however, their first task was no longer to hinder one another. They had to gather as many seeds as possible before turning to anything else.
One cultivator crooked his five fingers. A fierce wind shot out of his palm, knocking loose a swath of seeds. He then waved the storage ring on his other hand and collected them.
Another released a multicolored silk ribbon, sent it straight into a cluster of branches, and shook it repeatedly. The dislodged seeds landed on the ribbon and were swept back toward their owner.
Another raised a massive hammer and struck a thick branch with considerable skill. Numerous seeds shook free and were collected in his storage bag.
Still others blasted out waves of palm force, conjured gigantic grasping claws, or used warm yang winds to blow the seeds loose. Every variety of technique and divine ability was directed toward the Divine Tree.
The tree had stood for untold tens of thousands of years, and its entire body was incomparably hard. Even a strike from a magic treasure could not damage it. But the seeds were ripe, so the slightest vibration was enough to knock them free.
Seeing his senior brother seize the lead and gather so many seeds before the rest even caught up, Xu Ziqing felt his heart race with excitement.
Unfortunately, the other cultivators were no ordinary opponents. They followed Yun Lie by the smallest margin, making Xu Ziqing anxious again.
By the time they surrounded the tree, however, Yun Lie had already collected a great quantity of seeds from the outer canopy.
Rather than crowd together with them, he flickered and plunged straight into the depths of the treetop!
Xu Ziqing’s eyes lit up.
Senior Brother had made a marvelous decision!
The white figure darted to and fro deep within the canopy, stirring cutting winds of sword qi. Every sweep delivered countless seeds into his possession. His sword intent was as weighty as a mountain, and when his murderous will surged, yet more seeds were shaken free and fell.
Yun Lie moved with extraordinary speed. His fingers flickered, his sword light flashed like lightning, and his body shifted like the wind. Even as he freely gathered the seeds, no one could approach him.
People were said to follow the crowd. If Yun Lie had thought of a method, others who saw it would naturally imitate him.
Seeing him reap still greater gains, the other cultivators rushed into the canopy as well, hoping to snatch more seeds for themselves.
Unfortunately, those who followed directly behind Yun Lie could find no places he had missed. They hardly managed to collect a handful of seeds, and one cried out, “Damn it! There’s nothing left here!”
Someone else shouted, “Perfected One Yun is far too overbearing! He hasn’t left us a single seed!”
Those coming afterward realized the situation was hopeless and turned in another direction. One remarked, “Everyone’s competing for seeds. Who’s going to hold back out of kindness? We’d better look somewhere else!”
Some cleverer Golden Core Perfected Ones had already entered the canopy as Yun Lie had, but knowing from the outset that his cultivation was exceptional, they avoided competing with him and succeeded in gathering many seeds elsewhere.
Gradually, the seeds remaining throughout the canopy dwindled. It became difficult for the cultivators to collect large quantities.
But only eighteen Posuo Fruits were available in the competition. Before the very last moment, who would willingly give up?
Some cultivators therefore began to fight one another.
A nine-chi-tall burly man swung a great saber at a youth in splendid robes. The saber’s cutting force extended a full zhang and was ferocious. The youth answered with a punch that shattered the saber energy, then lunged in close and snatched the storage bag from the man’s waist.
But another person charged from behind before the richly dressed youth could put the bag away. A fierce wind struck his back; he barely dodged, only to find a sword flash slicing toward his wrist. To keep his hand from being cut off, he had to let go of the bag. A long whip immediately coiled around it and pulled it away. Someone else had been lurking nearby, waiting to profit from their struggle.
Amid the melee, every cultivator’s storage rings, bags, bracelets, and belts became targets. A moment’s carelessness could place one’s storage treasure in someone else’s hands.
Yet none of the cultivators would stop. They had only one ke to gather the Divine Tree seeds. If they failed to strive a little harder and ended up behind the others, wouldn’t that be humiliating?
Xu Ziqing’s gaze followed Yun Lie without wavering. Even among so many cultivators, his senior brother alone seemed entirely at ease. Xu Ziqing suspected that he had collected the most seeds of all.
Some cultivators did attempt to take advantage of Yun Lie. Yet before they could get close, his sword qi seemed to sense their intentions and shot through the air to disrupt their steps, making a sneak attack impossible. And in direct combat, not one of the many Golden Core Perfected Ones below the Nascent Soul realm could contend with the fifth-ranked Heavenly Dragon cultivator!
Suddenly, a bell rang out, distant, clear, and lingering.
The Divine Tree’s cloudlike crown abruptly began to wither. Many leaves turned dark gray or earthy yellow, then visibly dissolved into ash on the breeze.
Soon every leaf on the tree had shriveled and vanished, leaving only its bare trunk and branches, which still extended stubbornly in all directions.
The richly dressed female cultivator rose into the air and announced solemnly, “The time has come. Please step forward in order and display your Divine Tree seeds for our sect master’s judgment.”
At her words, the cultivators hurried back to the ground. They checked their storage treasures, probed them with spiritual sense, and counted the seeds each had obtained.
Yun Lie sensed the change the moment the tree began to wither. He immediately darted out and came to stand beside Xu Ziqing.
Many cultivators were disheveled after fighting so many opponents in the contest, but not a speck of dust marred Yun Lie’s appearance. He had merely expended considerable strength, and his murderous intent had not yet dissipated.
Xu Ziqing was thoroughly accustomed to that murderous intent and did not fear it. Instead, he asked with a smile, “Senior Brother, how did you do?”
Yun Lie reached into his sleeve and took out a black ring. It was a mid-grade storage ring, capacious enough to contain several great mountains.
Xu Ziqing took the ring and discovered that it had not been bound to an owner and could be used by anyone. He swept his spiritual sense inside and immediately drew a sharp breath.
So many, packed together…
Before he could speak, the richly dressed woman began the tally. She inspected the cultivators’ storage treasures one by one, announcing the quantities inside.
“Liu Chengjing of Shengyun Gate: one thousand two hundred Divine Tree seeds!”
“Deng Hetong of the Shizun Sect: one hundred and thirteen Divine Tree seeds!”
“Wuxuzi of the Divine Wind Temple: two hundred and twenty Divine Tree seeds!”
“The Wuwang Sect…”
As the figures were announced, the crowd began discussing them.
Many female cultivators of Ruyi Immortal Estate had also assembled. The twelve influential Ruyi Envoys already occupied an elevated stone platform, their garments billowing in the wind, looking like celestial maidens.
They had observed the entire contest, and now they were hearing how many seeds the cultivators had secured.
A purple-robed Jade Maiden Envoy snorted. “Why have they gathered so few?”
The yellow-robed woman beside her shook her head. “The more capable ones will be announced later. These fellows at the beginning are nothing but frivolous people. How much ability could they have?”
A pretty woman in red on the other side laughed coquettishly, her flirtatious eyes sweeping about. “Dear sister, a man’s ability needn’t be too great. Too much of it can be hard to bear.”
The purple-robed woman’s brows shot up. “We have nothing to say to your lot! Stop spouting nonsense and disturbing my sisters’ peace!”
Another beautiful woman in bright multicolored clothes replied sweetly, “Very well, we’ll say no more. Look, the impressive ones are coming.”
Sure enough, the numbers the richly dressed woman announced next were much higher.
“Ou Mubai of Wuling Immortal Sect: eleven thousand Divine Tree seeds!”
“Cheng Zifeng of Wuling Immortal Sect: seven thousand and twenty-five Divine Tree seeds!”
“Shen You of Xiaoshui Immortal Sect: six thousand three hundred Divine Tree seeds!”
“Wuling Immortal Sect…”
Members of ordinary sects who had still harbored hopes heard how much greater the collections of the large sects were and could only smile bitterly in resignation.
“In the end, only those few sects get the real benefits. We can do no more than sip a little of the broth.”
“How could small sects like ours compare with those giants?”
“Well, never mind. We’ve broadened our horizons considerably this time, and the Divine Tree seeds we’ve obtained are valuable too!”
By the time the richly dressed woman had announced more than half the results, the Ruyi Envoys on the platform were each frowning.
A lovely woman in green asked in surprise, “How strange! There are one hundred and eight thousand Divine Tree seeds altogether. Yet the numbers announced so far do not even account for half. Why is that?”
The yellow-robed woman sighed softly. “Someone must have taken the lion’s share…” As she spoke, her beautiful eyes moved toward the crowd below.
Only then did the black-robed woman, whose aura was as unfathomable as a deep sea, speak. “It must be him.”
Rarely hearing their eldest senior sister praise someone so highly, the Ruyi Envoys became curious. “Who is it?”
Just then, the richly dressed woman’s voice rang out with another number.
“Yun Lie of Wuling Immortal Sect: fifty-four thousand Divine Tree seeds!”
The crowd fell into astonished silence.
After a long while, the woman in green murmured, “He alone actually gathered half of them…”