Chapter 591: That Young Man Truly Was Adorable

"Jingci..."

Gui Ning looked at his own granddaughter, his expression carrying no small surprise but the moment Gui Ning sensed the ripples of spiritual energy radiating from Jingci's entire being.

Gui Ning understood, the one standing before him now was no longer his granddaughter.

"Second Sister..."

Not far off, Yuan's joyful voice rang out.

A streak of light tore through the night sky, coming to stand beside "Tushan Jingci."

"Yuan, I never expected that the one to awaken me would be you." She spoke to Yuan, her expression carrying a certain complexity. "Where is our eldest sister?"

"I don't know..." Yuan shook her head, a flicker of worry showing in her eyes. "Eldest sister doesn't seem to have been sealed away, but I have no idea where she is, nor what that fellow may have done to her."

"There's no need to worry too much. Eldest sister won't die so easily. Once this matter here is settled, we'll go look for her together."

She spoke softly, then turned her head, her gaze passing over everyone present, settling upon Xiao Mo.

Xiao Mo met her gaze, sensing that "Tushan Jingci" looked at him as though gazing upon an old friend, and yet also as though gazing upon an enemy.

"Nian, don't waste any more time." Shou stepped forward, gazing coldly at Xiao Mo. "Leave him to me! I will kill him with my own hands!"

The divine spirit named "Nian" did not argue with Shou, only lowering her head quietly.

At last, Nian let out a soft sigh, a flicker of complicated tenderness passing through her eyes.

"Go on and try again... try to stop us once more." Nian raised her head, speaking slowly to Xiao Mo.

With these words, Nian extended a finger, pointing at Xiao Mo and the others from a distance.

Blue blossoms bloomed before Xiao Mo and the others one after another.

Xiao Mo and the others dodged immediately.

Those cultivators who failed to dodge, once touched by the petals, found flowers blooming ceaselessly from their bodies.

In less than two breaths' time, they were entirely covered by blossoms without even managing to cry out in pain.

By the time the petals scattered away, neither soul nor body remained of them at all, those petals returning to the Moon Spirit Tree, once more transformed into its nourishment.

The great battle resumed.

Xiao Mo and Gui Junmeng charged toward Nian.

Gui Ning and the others took on Yuan and Shou.

"The laws that I, my eldest sister, and my third sister govern are quite different from one another."

Nian stood before Xiao Mo, gazing at him calmly.

"Millions of years ago, the law I governed was that of every flower and plant throughout the world. You myriad races called me the Flower Goddess."

"One day, a young man told me that I was more beautiful than every flower in the world."

"But then he said that my eldest sister was even more beautiful than I."

As she spoke, Nian could not help but smile gently, her eyes filled with tenderness, “That young man truly was adorable."

Xiao Mo did not understand why she suddenly spoke of these things and in the very next moment.

This divine spirit named "Nian" gradually let her smile fade, her fingers curling, tens of thousands of petals condensing into flocks of birds, surging toward Xiao Mo and Gui Junmeng.

These petals were sharp as blades. After Xiao Mo dodged them, they shattered an entire mountain peak, then turned once more toward the two of them.

As Gui Junmeng held these petals at bay, Xiao Mo chanted an incantation, the River of Yin and Yang enveloping Nian, attempting to pull her out from within Jingci's body but Nian merely took a single step forward, stepping clean out of the River of Yin and Yang, the long sword condensed from petals in her hand already pointed at Xiao Mo's heart.

After fifty exchanges between the two sides, Xiao Mo found that his opponent's strength was nearly identical to that of a cultivator only just entering the Ascension realm.

Fortunately, because she had not yet grown accustomed to this body and the laws of this world, her strength remained unstable and Xiao Mo and Gui Junmeng's quality of cultivation at the Immortal realm already far exceeded the ordinary as well.

And so, for the moment, Xiao Mo and Gui Junmeng remained locked in a stalemate with Nian, neither side able to gain a decisive advantage over the other.

The same held true for Gui Ning's side, trading blow for blow with those two divine spirits but as their opponents grew ever more accustomed to the laws of this world, and ever more accustomed to the bodies they now occupied, their strength continued to climb steadily, making it ever harder for Xiao Mo and the others to hold their ground.

Not only that.

Several of the Tushan clan's elders had already been fully brought under the Moon Spirit Tree's control, charging one after another at Xiao Mo and the others.

These elders' cultivation levels were not low either, making them equally troublesome to deal with.

Beyond this, more and more of the Tushan clan's cultivators were being brought under control as well, throwing themselves recklessly, like moths to flame, at Xiao Mo and the others.

"Xiao Mo, at this rate, this might not go well..."

Gui Junmeng transmitted her voice to Xiao Mo.

"I have an idea, one that might awaken Jingci."

"Jingci's great Dao and mine are connected to one another. I can sense that Jingci's soul still remains, it hasn't vanished, and it's still resisting, trying to reclaim her own body. If my own soul were to enter Jingci's body, perhaps it could help Jingci take back control."

"No."

Xiao Mo immediately rejected Gui Junmeng's proposal.

The souls of these divine spirits, having weathered millions upon millions of years, were still capable, even now, of seizing another's body. This alone showed just how terrifying these divine souls truly were.

Even if Junmeng entered Jingci's body, it would be nothing more than a lamb walking into a tiger's den.

"But if things continue like this..." Gui Junmeng clenched her small hands tightly, her fox eyes full of worry.

The current situation was extremely dire.

Never mind that the strength of these three divine spirits continued to grow without pause.

Those flower buds upon the Moon Spirit Tree, seeming to nurture some kind of being within them, were surely no mere decoration either.

If this continued to drag on, matters would likely take a very bad turn indeed and just as Gui Junmeng pondered this, the Moon Spirit Tree's vines lashed out once more toward Gui Junmeng and Xiao Mo.

At the same time, Nian flickered forward, sweeping a long leg toward Xiao Mo.

Petals blooming, Xiao Mo was sent crashing violently into a mountain peak.

"BOOM!"

An entire mountain peak was shattered instantly by the force of Xiao Mo's body, dust rising in every direction.

The next moment, vines of the Moon Spirit Tree descended from the sky, tearing through dust clouds a hundred zhang high, plunging toward Xiao Mo.

By the time the dust cleared, Xiao Mo's body had already been pierced through by the vines.

"Xiao Mo!"

Seeing this, Gui Junmeng's eyes trembled, her heart turning to ash.

She understood only too well what it meant for a cultivator to be pierced through by these vines and just as Gui Junmeng flew toward Xiao Mo, Nian blocked her path.

Xiao Mo lowered his head, looking at his own pierced body. He could feel his spiritual energy and life essence being ceaselessly drained away but the next moment, Xiao Mo discovered that the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet within him was operating on its own, ceaselessly resisting the vines' encroachment.

And within Xiao Mo's mind, characters rose up one after another, not the characters of the present-day world, and yet Xiao Mo could still recognize them, these characters spelling out, in their entirety, the mental cultivation method of the Great Dream of the Yellow Millet.

These characters ceaselessly broke apart, then reassembled themselves, at last condensing into an entirely new formation diagram.

In a hazy vision, Xiao Mo saw a man holding a long sword, drawing a formation array with sword-qi, the great array he drew identical to the formation diagram now forming in Xiao Mo's mind and at the center of that great array, statue after golden statue of divine spirits was being utterly suppressed and slain.