Ninth In the World

Panda Novel

When Di Jiu came back, he felt the aura of Yu Jie’s body rising more and more. This rising aura was no less than the aura Wu Cheng could release. It was obvious that Yu Jie was about to attain the connate realm.

It seemed like the cyan life-force she had consumed had been a big opportunity. That life-force was definitely more than it had seemed. The little tree man didn’t know how useful a cyan life-force actually was.

“Big Brother!” the Tiny Treant called out charmingly when Di Jiu came back, eager for Di Jiu to release his restriction on it.

Boom! The violent essence energy circled around Yu Jie and then above her head, forming a whirlpool of essence energy. Yu Jie’s aura instantly climbed to a critical point, until Di Jiu could feel the fluctuation of her breakthrough.

When Yu Jie opened her eyes, the joy in them could no longer be concealed. She quickly got up immediately after the breakthrough and gave Di Jiu a box. “Thank you for saving me, Di Jiu. You gave me the opportunity to attain the connate realm.”

Then, she saluted the Tiny Treant. “Although you killed a student from Elite Class No. 5, I still want to thank you for giving me that treasure and letting me cross over to the connate realm.”

The Tiny Treant snorted. “Stop bragging, you did not attain the connate realm.”

Yu Jie was shocked. She knew in her heart whether she had attained the connate realm or not. What did the Tiny Treant mean?

“What do you mean, you tiny tree root? She has indeed entered the connate realm!” Di Jiu hit the Tiny Treant’s head.

The Tiny Treant did not dare talk to Di Jiu as casually as he had talked to Yu Jie, so it quickly said, “The connate realm’s power is equivalent to a foundational expert’s, Big Brother. She has just broken through the martial arts heaven tier. There are still hundreds of thousands of miles ahead.”

Yu Jie looked at the Tiny Treant. According to it, there was no connate realm on the entire Fairy Square. Were the top 10 connate warriors there a joke?

Di Jiu, who understood what the Tiny Treant meant, believed that it was telling the truth. It seemed like the connate realm there was the equivalent of a martial king expert and the heaven tier was the equivalent of a martial grandmaster.

It was no wonder that there were very few martial king experts in the Ji Nation, as they were the equivalent of foundational experts. It would have been strange if there had been many of them.

“You know a lot.” Di Jiu looked at the Tiny Treant as he thought of ways to take it away and get it to share its knowledge on cultivation, array formation and restriction. It was basically a mobile cultivation encyclopedia.

“Naturally,” the Tiny Treant said proudly.

Although it had acted like a rookie in front of Di Jiu, it was actually very proud.

Di Jiu released the restriction on the Tiny Treant and then told Yu Jie, who was still in a daze, “Let’s go.”

As soon as he said this, he turned around and told the Tiny Treant, “Hurry up and release the trap array. I’m leaving.”

When it realized that Di Jiu had really let go of it, the excited tree root nodded like a chicken pecking at glutinous rice. “Okay, alright. I will open the trap array immediately and let you go.”

Yu Jie suddenly came back to her senses. She did not think that Di Jiu would actually let go of the Tiny Treant, but now that he had, she would naturally not harm it. She knew that the Tiny Treant sucked blood in order to cultivate because it considered this the same as absorbing soil nutrients. No one had taught it what could be absorbed and cultivated and what could not.

“You have advanced too fast, Teacher Yu. Will anyone question you when you get back?” Di Jiu suddenly asked casually.

Yu Jie nodded. “People will definitely ask questions.”

“What will you say?” Di Jiu inquired harmlessly.

“I can only tell the truth. I am a teacher at the Institute of Martial Arts, so it is part of my responsibilities to help develop the Fairy Planet. Plus, Si Ta died here,” Yu Jie said gloomily.

“Are you saying that the experts at the Fairy Square will find their way here and ask the tree roots for cyan life-force?” Di Jiu asked in surprise.

Yu Jie did not respond immediately. Eventually, she nodded. “Yes.”

She wouldn’t hide anything about the Tiny Treant. It had killed Si Ta from Elite Class No. 5 and almost killed her after all.

The Tiny Treant trembled and shouted quickly, “I have given you all my cyan life-force, Big Sister. I don’t have another drop.”

Its regret was a vast sea. The Tiny Treant had taught Di Jiu about restriction and Di Jiu had used it to restrict it. It had given Yu Jie the cyan life-force and now more people would come and ask for cyan life-force.

Yu Jie glanced at the Tiny Treant apologetically, but did not answer. The Tiny Treant did not have the final say on whether there was any cyan life-force or not. She knew all about human greed. When certain people found out that she had obtained a cyan life-force, they would not be able to rest unless they got the answers they wanted from her.

Di Jiu sighed. “Actually, given the tree root’s ability, I think there is nothing to fear. I’m just worried that these people will ask Teacher Yu how to attack the Tiny Treant. Eventually, they will come bearing all kinds of flames. I want to help the tree roots… I know that those people may even attack me, but I will still go first.”

“I am an innocent white rabbit compared to those cruel people. As soon as I arrived on the Fairy Square, I was surrounded by people way more powerful than me. A guy even threatened me with a huge fireball. In the end, I had to hand over the three most precious things on my body before I could get out. You should open the trap array quickly,” he told the Tiny Treant.

The Tiny Treant relived the fear Di Jiu had created in it. Di Jiu had almost torn its skin off. If there was a whole bunch of people like him, then… No, they were talking about a bunch of people way more cruel than Di Jiu. One of them had even threatened Di Jiu with a big fireball…

The Tiny Treant did not dare think about the consequences, as it had other things to think about at the moment. “Can you take me away, Big Brother?” it shouted quickly.

Worried that Di Jiu would ignore it, the Tiny Treant eagerly added, “I know a lot of things. I can keep teaching you about restriction and array formation arrangements.”

Di Jiu frowned before he said hesitantly, “If I’m also chased by those people, then everything will be over. Plus, you can’t seem to move.”

“The Fairy Planet is huge, Big Brother. We could hide. Those people would never catch up with us.” The Tiny Treant spoke very fast, as if it couldn’t wait to voice all the thoughts on its mind.

“But you can’t move!” Di Jiu spread his hands and took a few more steps back.

The Tiny Treant quickly shouted, “I can leave! As long as you sign a friendly spirit blood contract with me, you can take me away. When you get out, you can undo the contract.”

Di Jiu looked at the Tiny Treant and said, “I already told you that this would attract the attention of the cruel people on the Fairy Square. I would be persecuted by them and they would take you away. How would I benefit from this?”

The Tiny Treant wanted to say that it had given him a cyan life-force and taught him the restriction technique and array formation arrangement. However, when it looked at Di Jiu’s disdainful gaze, it knew that Di Jiu would despise such an answer. The cyan life-force was the price it had paid for trapping Di Jiu there, and it had taught him the restriction technique and array formation so that Di Jiu would not kill it. If Di Jiu was so terrible, then anyone more cruel than him would…

The Tiny Treant did not dare finish that thought. Instead, it said quickly, “Do you have a better idea, Big Brother?”

Di Jiu touched his chin and stared at the Tiny Treant. After hesitating for a long time, he eventually said, “Look at you. You are still a cute little…”

“Yes, yes, I am very cute. I can make faces…” the Tiny Treant said before making a face.

Yu Jie held back a smile. The face the Tiny Treant made was devoid of any cuteness. It was actually a devious grimace. Plus, she knew about Di Jiu’s intention to take it away.

“Stop!” Di Jiu stopped the Tiny Treant immediately. “Why don’t we sign a servient spirit contract?”

“Ah…” The Tiny Treant stared at Di Jiu blankly. A servient spirit contract? Di Jiu might as well be asking it to move east instead of west.

“If you don’t want to, then you can wait for someone else to come and burn you.” Di Jiu turned away.

“No, I want to!” the Tiny Treant shouted when it saw Di Jiu turn and leave. When it thought that it had taught Di Jiu the restriction technique, it wanted to slap its own mouth.

A servient spirit contract was very simple. It basically meant that the Tiny Treant would allow Di Jiu to imprint a breathing restriction in the depths of its soul. This prohibition would only be controlled by Di Jiu, so if the Tiny Treant was disobedient, he could kill it.

Sure enough, after imprinting a breathing restriction in the depths of the Tiny Treant’s soul, Di Jiu immediately felt a new-found control over the Tiny Treant.

Di Jiu did not feel any embarrassment or guilt about this. This little guy was cruel after all. Who knew how many innocent people it had sucked in order to advance?

As soon as Di Jiu imprinted on it, the Tiny Treant broke away from its body and turned into a true tree man more than a foot high. It could only hope that nothing would happen to Di Jiu in the future. If anything were to happen to him, then the Tiny Treant would also disappear.

…

After leaving the tree roots, Di Jiu and Yu Jie separated. Yu Jie returned to the Fairy Square alone, while Di Jiu went to the cave abode he had been to earlier along with the Tiny Treant. His priority now was to refine the skeletal ring and see if it was a storage ring.