49: Chapter 49: Purifying the Soul!

"Rumble! ! !"

Accompanied by Lian Zhan's final, overwhelmingly violent punch powered by vital energy, that semi-transparent defensive formation, having weathered the erosion of countless years and long been on the verge of collapse, finally let out a crisp, overloaded cracking sound.

"Crack!"

A sound akin to shattering glass echoed through the canyon, and the barrier that had protected the Private Herb Garden for who knows how many epochs completely transformed into countless points of light, dissipating into the air.

"It's broken! It's finally broken!"

Lian Zhan gasped heavily for breath, his muscles trembling slightly from excessive exertion, yet an unprecedentedly fanatical light erupted in his eyes.

"Hahaha! These high-grade spiritual herbs filling the garden are all ours!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Lian Zhan rushed into the core area of the Private Herb Garden like a mad savage bull, taking the lead.

Zhang Hao and Liu Ting also wore expressions of joy, their breathing even becoming hurried.

The three of them rushed in full of excitement.

Then.

The three people, along with the dozens of dependent beings behind them, instantly seemed as though they had been petrified, firmly nailed to the spot.

A gentle breeze swept through the canyon, stirring up a few withered and yellow fallen leaves on the ground.

The Private Herb Garden, which had looked brilliantly colorful and full of vitality from outside the formation.

At this moment, what entered their field of vision was actually a deep pit that had been turned completely upside down!

There was nothing.

The topsoil of the entire Private Herb Garden was riddled with potholes, as if a thousand hungry Starry Sky Giant Beasts had plowed back and forth across it ten times.

Let alone spiritual herbs, even the mud that carried the slightest bit of spiritual energy had been forcibly scraped away three feet deep by someone!

Clean!

Clean to the point of utter destitution!

In the vast spiritual field, only at the very center stood a lonely foxtail weed that had drifted in from goodness knows where.

This weed seemed to have gained human sentience, swaying left and right in the breeze and dancing with the wind.

Dead silence!

Zhang Hao's eyeballs were practically popping out, and he stared fixedly at that weed swaying in the wind, his voice trembling so much it changed pitch: "Th-this... What is going on? Where are the spiritual herbs? The Private Herb Garden whose formation we painstakingly fought through for half a day... is just this?!"

Liu Ting was even trembling all over with anger!

Lian Zhan stood blankly in place, looking at that pathetic foxtail grass, as the "lenient" tone of that faceless person right before leaving suddenly surfaced in his mind.

"Pfft! ! !"

A surge of blinding rage rushed straight to his crown; Lian Zhan could no longer suppress the roiling vital energy in his chest, and a mouthful of old blood sprayed directly out, dyeing the pathetic foxtail grass in front of him red.

"Faceless person! ! Was it that faceless person who did this?! I'm going to kill him!" Lian Zhan roared towards the sky, his eyes bloodred, practically on the verge of falling into a deviation.

"Brother Lian, calm down a bit first!"

At the critical moment, Zhang Hao grabbed the nearly rampaging Lian Zhan, his brows tightly locked as his brain began to spin at high speed.

"It's impossible that the masked one did this!"

Zhang Hao pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose, a light of "rationality" flashing in his eyes as he gave a reasonable and logical analysis.

"Think about it carefully, everyone. Although that faceless person's strength was bizarre just now, he was constantly suppressed outside the formation by our combined forces and never left our line of sight!"

"This is a formation left behind by an ancient Tier-3 Creator. Even if it's damaged, it is definitely not something he alone could silently sneak into."

"Furthermore, even if he possessed heaven-defying abilities, how could he simultaneously fight us while pulling up such a huge Private Herb Garden by the roots from afar? Digging away three feet of soil to boot? That completely defies common sense!"

Hearing Zhang Hao's analysis, Liu Ting also calmed down a little, asking hesitatingly: "Then Brother Zhang means..."

Zhang Hao took a deep breath, walked to the edge of that huge deep pit, squatted down to grab a handful of ordinary soil, wearing an expression of having seen through the truth.

"There is only one truth!"

"Years of erosion, spatial collapse!"

Zhang Hao stood up, pointed at this empty deep pit, and said in a resolute tone: "This folded space has existed for far too long. After tens of thousands of years of growth, the energy contained within those high-grade spiritual herbs is simply too massive."

"As the Divine Kingdom's laws degraded, this fragile space simply couldn't withstand the energy of these spiritual herbs. Due to energy overload, the space collapsed, and in the end they all fell into the void turbulence and completely vanished!"

"And this weed..." Zhang Hao pointed at the foxtail grass, "because it didn't have any spiritual energy, it miraculously escaped a calamity and survived."

This "well-reasoned and evidence-based" bullcrap instantly stunned Lian Zhan and Liu Ting.

Thinking about it carefully, it actually made some damn sense!

"Damn it, what bad luck!" Lian Zhan wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. Although he was still burning with anger inside, he managed to accept this explanation and regained a bit of psychological balance.

"Forget it, since it's spatial collapse, there's nothing that can be done. This canyon is very large, and since a Private Herb Garden could appear here, there might be other ruins. Let's keep searching!"

The three of them tidied up their depressed moods, commanded their exhausted dependent beings, and continued to explore deeper into the canyon.

At this very moment.

In a concealed rock cave dozens of miles away from the canyon, as a wisp of Lin Yunfei's mind sank into the Creator's Divine Kingdom.

The scene before his eyes was so abundant that describing it as a "massive windfall" seemed a bit pale.

Beside the vast black lake, the originally barren black frozen soil had now been covered with a thick layer of dark golden spiritual soil.

Upon this spiritual soil, hundreds of high-grade spiritual herbs exuding a rich medicinal fragrance swayed in the wind.

"Fire Phoenix Ginseng over five hundred years old—there are more than fifty plants of it alone!"

"Earth-Heart Snow Lotus at a thousand years old—twenty blossoms!"

"And this patch of Tier-2 top-grade Spirit-Gathering Fruit trees—they've actually all come back to life!"

Lin Yunfei looked at the "gold mountain" emanating precious light before him, feeling every pore on his body relax.

Nourished by this spiritual soil, the massive body of the Starry Sky Ancient Tree grew even more luxuriant in its branches and leaves, and that aged human face was filled with joy.

"Great Creator, the vital energy contained within these spiritual soils is extremely pure. Not only can it allow these spiritual herbs to continue growing, but it is also subtly transforming the foundational laws of Your Divine Kingdom."

"Mhm, well done."

Lin Yunfei nodded with satisfaction, his gaze finally falling upon a peculiar, palm-sized lotus emitting a milky-white halo right at the very center of the spiritual field...