A Record of a Mortal’s Journey to Immortality (Chapter 2001-Chapter 2248)

However, the divination had only progressed for around 15 minutes when a high-grade Wood Tribe being suddenly rushed onto the platform, then delivered a jade slip to Elder Han in a panicked manner.

"Elder Han, we've received urgent news from Cottonwood City, stating that high-grade devilish beings have infiltrated the city and our holy land."

Elder Han was already in an extremely foul mood in the wake of the Eight Wood Spirit Disciples' passing, and this piece of bad news immediately made him flare up with rage. "What?! How is that possible? Aren't all of the three Sacred Ancestors currently preoccupied? How did something like this happen? What are the guards of Cottonwood City doing?"

He reached out like lightning to grab onto the jade slip, then adhered it to his own forehead with a furious expression.

The other Wood Tribe elders were also astonished by this news, and they all turned to stare intently at Elder Han.

After the span of just a few breaths, the fury on Elder Han's face vanished, only to be replaced with complete despair, and it was as if all of his energy had seeped out of his body.

"Let me see!" One of the Wood Tribe elders couldn't wait any longer and rushed over to Elder Han before taking the jade slip from him, then also injected his spiritual sense into it.

Moments later, this Wood Tribe elder's face also completely paled, and he murmured to himself in a trance-like state, "The holy tree has been destroyed! The recuperating grand elder has also been killed... It's over! It's completely over for our Wood Tribe..."

The other elders' expressions changed drastically upon hearing this, and they passed the jade slip around to inspect its contents for themselves.

Even though they were already mentally prepared, seeing the news in the jade slip still dealt all of the elders a heavy blow, and two of them almost fainted on the spot.

"Alright, the tragedy has already taken place, so panicking now won't do us any good; let's think about what we need to do next. Our Wood Tribe will no longer be able to maintain independence in the Spirit Realm, but we have tens of billions of brethren that we must find homes for," Elder Han said through gritted teeth as he suddenly rose to his feet.

Even though his complexion was still deathly pale, he had managed to recover some of his former composure.

The other elders exchanged a few glances before mustering up the energy to chime in in agreement. "Indeed, we still have several backup holy trees. As long as we can ensure the continuation of our race, a Grand Ascension Stage being could emerge among us in the future, and we'll have a chance to regain our independence."

"What we have to do now is keep this a secret, then devise a plan to protect all of our brethren..."

Thus, the elders began to hatch a plan with grim looks on their faces.

......

Three days later.

In the air above a dense forest, a group of people, including Han Li, was quickly flying through the air.

The group was currently situated millions of kilometers away from the wood realm formation, and only half a day ago was he and Fei Xiaoxi informed by Cao Ji of the fact that the Wood Tribe's holy tree had been destroyed, and that their grand elder had been killed.

At this point, most of the Wood Tribe army had already retreated out of the formation, and the panel of Wood Tribe elders had decided to detonate the entire formation using the power of the second formation core to kill as many devilish beings as possible.

Thankfully, the panel of elders had notified the high-grade beings among their allied races in advance. Otherwise, they would've been caught up in the explosion as well.

Now that the holy tree and grand elder of the Wood Tribe were both gone, there was no point in continuing this battle.

Thus, Han Li departed from the second formation core with some human cultivators who had assisted the Wood Tribe in guarding the formation, and set course to return to Cottonwood City.

Presumably, the armies of all of the other races would also immediately retreat upon hearing this news.





Chapter 2176: Seclusion


Daoist Xie followed along behind Han Li in a nonchalant manner, while all of the other human cultivators were traveling in a dejected silence.

All of a sudden, a burst of rumbling suddenly rang out far in the distance behind them, following which a burst of astonishing shockwaves swept forth from the same direction, causing the earth to tremor slightly.

Everyone immediately looked around with different expressions to assess the situation.

It was clear that such an enormous explosion could've only been caused by the detonation of the Wood Tribe's wood realm formation.

Even from so far away, they could still sense the power of the explosion; one could only assume that all of the devilish beings within the formation would be killed aside from those remaining Sacred Ancestor clones.

It was no surprise that the Wood Tribe would do something like this; one had to realize that the current state of the Wood Tribe was caused entirely by the devilish invasion, so they naturally hated the devilish army with a vengeance.

As such, the panel of elders had decided to sacrifice the entire formation to exact some revenge on the devilish army and eradicate all of their elite forces.

However, having lost their holy tree and Grand Ascension Stage grand elder, there would be no way for the Wood Tribe to maintain its independence. It would either have to become a subsidiary to another race or move to a remote and desolate location.

Of course, the human race and all of the other races weren't going to continue to keep their promise and wage war against the devilish army for an allied race that no longer deserved to rank among them.

As these thoughts ran through Han Li's mind, he waved a hand, ordering the entire group to accelerate.

The devilish army had just received an extremely heavy blow, and the formation was no longer around to trap them, so who knew if the Sacred Ancestors were going to take revenge on the retreating united army?

As a safety precaution, it was best for them to get back to Cottonwood City as soon as possible.

All of the other human cultivators naturally responded to Han Li's instruction, and they all sped up in their flight.

......

Two months later, Han Li, Patriarch Ao Xiao, and Mo Jianli were having a calm discussion in the air above a mountain near Cottonwood City.

Behind Han Li stood Daoist Xie and Zhu Guo'er, while Silvermoon stood behind Patriarch Ao Xiao.

At this moment, Silvermoon's expression was very aloof, and she was listening to the conversation in an emotionless manner.

"Who would've thought that this would be the outcome of our attempt to reinforce the Wood Tribe? The Wood Tribe has already decided to split their brethren up into several groups, most of which will become subsidiaries to our races, while one group will venture into the primordial world and find a secretive location to settle," Mo Jianli said in a wistful voice.

"This is a wise decision. If another Grand Ascension Stage being could emerge within the Wood Tribe soon, they could reunite their brethren, and it wouldn't be impossible for them to regain their independence. However, if no Grand Ascension Stage beings appear among them within the next 100,000 years, then the Wood Tribe would truly disappear off the face of the Spirit Realm," Patriarch Ao Xiao said.