465: Obtained the Space Spiritual Root

The words had barely fallen.

A phantom image had already torn through the air, suddenly appearing beside Feng Ziyi.

Five fingers clamped onto his neck like iron pincers, with a speed so swift that even the afterimage had no time to dissipate—the next second, the two vanished into thin air, as if they had never existed.

Almost simultaneously, the flowing light barrier/boundary enveloping Feng Changge shattered with a crack.

He stood there stunned, his pupils still frozen with undispelled shock.

It wasn't until Zhao Tingzhi, bleeding from the corner of his mouth and pale-faced, stumbled to his side and grabbed his shoulder that he suddenly came back to his senses.

"Did we... win?" Feng Changge murmured, his voice dry.

Though Zhao Tingzhi's aura was weak, his eyes burned with the wild joy of surviving a catastrophe: "We won! Changge, we won!"

He recalled the despairing moment when he was besieged by the four Quasi-Immortals, where even escaping became a luxury.

That world-destroying combined strike had almost crippled him completely; had it not been for the opponent's intention to capture Feng Changge alive, he would have long since perished.

And the final scene that turned the tide made his heart palpitate to this day—Xiao Zhuo descended like a god, a moon wheel streaking across the sky, and the four Quasi-Immortals were instantly annihilated as if they were made of paper!

A Quasi-Immortal's Physical Body, in front of that person, was no different from a Mortal!

Feng Changge suddenly burst into laughter, his laughter gradually shifting from a suppressed growl to a sky-shattering roar, as if to completely vent all the years of forbearance and grievance.

When the laughter abruptly ceased, only icy killing intent remained in his eyes.

He turned to his two imperial brothers, who were slumped on the ground, pale-faced, and said with a voice as cold as frost: "Grandfather, send them on their way."

Zhao Tingzhi wiped the blood from his lips, revealing a cold smile: "Good."

...Prince Yus Mansion, tranquil courtyard.

Xiao Zhuo casually threw Feng Ziyi to the ground, as if discarding a piece of trash.

Feng Ziyi's entire cultivation was restricted, his Meridians sealed, only his eyes, like venom, stared fixedly at Xiao Zhuo.

Seeing Xiao Zhuo ignore his existence and instead raise his hand to outline countless profound silver patterns, he had never heard of those interwoven energy structures, yet he instinctively felt a fear at the Dao level.

He suppressed his panic and spoke in a hoarse voice: "Your Excellency! With your heaven-defying cultivation, why humble yourself to serve Feng Changge? If you help me, half the Changfeng Imperial Dynasty's territory will be yours! I am willing to swear an Immortal Soul Blood Oath!"

Xiao Zhuo didn't even glance at him, as if his promise was lighter than dust.

Those deep eyes were merely focused on analyzing the silver patterns flowing in the air, occasionally making slight adjustments, as if completing a puzzle of some supreme Law.

After a long while, Xiao Zhuo finally lowered his gaze, his eyes falling on Feng Ziyi as if substantial.

That gaze was not looking at a person, but dissecting a specimen, penetrating the skin to peer deep into his Dantian.

Feng Ziyi trembled all over, suddenly realizing: "You... you want to extract my Spiritual Root?!"

Extreme fear engulfed him, his voice twisted and distorted.

Extracting a Spiritual Root was extremely painful; he himself had once used a secret technique to extract a High Grade Spiritual Root from a lowly commoner to replace his beloved concubine's Spiritual Root.

During that extraction process, the commoner's desperate wails were still fresh in his memory.

But at that time, he felt exhilarated.

Watching that commoner beg for mercy in pain, both he and his beloved concubine were incredibly excited, as if some twisted desire deep in their hearts had been satisfied.

He had even done such things more than once, of course, not for the purpose of studying Spiritual Roots, but solely to enjoy the screams of the commoners.

In the Nirvana Realm, although the secret arts for extracting Spiritual Roots existed in various major forces, they all had flaws—Spiritual Root grades dropping, Physical Body rejection, and even self-detonation were common occurrences.

But who among the powerful cared? The lives of ants were merely stepping stones.

How many talented individuals from humble backgrounds mysteriously "disappeared," how many scions suddenly "enlightened"—these were all bloody norms.

A hazy silver glow emanated from Xiao Zhuo's palm, slowly pressing towards his Dantian.

Feng Ziyi closed his eyes in despair, but the expected intense pain did not come immediately; he only felt a cold sensation seep into his Qi Sea.

Then—crack!

His Dantian seemed to be crushed by an invisible hand, hundreds of years of accumulated cultivation gushing out like a thousand-mile flood, and excruciating pain instantly swept through his limbs and bones!

He opened his mouth to scream but couldn't make a sound—Xiao Zhuo had already sealed his throat.

He could only twitch violently like a fish out of water, cold sweat soaking his luxurious robes.

A few clear, cool streams swept through his Shattered Realm (Cultivation Class) Dantian, as if taking away something vital.

Feng Ziyi struggled to open his eyes, just in time to see Xiao Zhuo withdraw his palm.

A dazzling silver glow circulated in his palm, breathtakingly beautiful, emitting space fluctuations that he was intimately familiar with—that was his Spiritual Root!

It had been completely stripped away, without the slightest damage!

Xiao Zhuo held the silver light, examining it carefully, and finally a hint of satisfaction flashed in his eyes.

Immediately, he glanced indifferently at Feng Ziyi, who was slumped like a pile of mud.

"No..." The last reflection in Feng Ziyi's pupils was a hand pressing down.

Pfft—

After a soft sound, there was no longer the First Prince Feng Ziyi in the world, only a pinch of fine white dust on the ground, which scattered with a gust of wind.

Xiao Zhuo's palm hovered with that High Grade Space Spiritual Root, silver light flowing, Laws interwoven.

He meticulously analyzed it with his Divine Sense, and joy gradually welled up in his heart.

The structure of this Spiritual Root was extraordinarily intricate; although not as powerful as the Space-Time Spiritual Root he constructed himself, it held unique insights in its subtle details.

More importantly, among the thirty-six Origin runes that made up this Spiritual Root, twenty-seven were ones he had never collected!

Seven of them were even core runes of the space element!

The gains brought by this Space Spiritual Root were enough to significantly advance the construction progress of his Space-Time Spiritual Root!

"Unfortunately," he frowned slightly, "space-time imbalance is ultimately not the Great Dao. Only by finding the Time Spirit Root, with Yin and Yang complementing each other, can it achieve Perfection."

Just as he was about to immerse himself in deduction, a subtle yet powerful sense of prying suddenly touched his Divine Sense barrier/boundary.

"Fellow Daoist," Xiao Zhuo suddenly looked up, his gaze like cold lightning piercing through the Void Realm, his voice calm yet with the quality of metal and stone, "Prying into private matters is not polite."

Creak—

The courtyard gate opened without wind.

A figure stood quietly, a golden-patterned white robe flowing with Immortal Qi, Feng Qingxue's exquisite face carrying a hint of unconcealed surprise.

She had indeed intended to probe, but she never expected the other party's Divine Sense to be so keen, capable of instantly tracing back her prying!

What startled her even more was that this person clearly still had the aura of a Quasi-Immortal, yet their Divine Sense intensity was as vast as an abyss, not at all inferior to her, a True Immortal Middle Stage!

"Could it be a reclusive old monster?" Her mind raced, but a faint, apologetic smile bloomed on her face as she gracefully bowed: "Fellow Daoist, please forgive me. This humble one, Feng Qingxue, is an Immortal Envoy for the Tianyi Immortal Dynasty. Just now, I sensed abnormal space fluctuations here and feared something amiss, so I used my Divine Sense to investigate, with absolutely no ill intent."

Her gaze shifted, falling upon the dazzling Space Spiritual Root still held in Xiao Zhuo's palm, a hint of understanding and deeper curiosity flashing in her eyes: "It seems Fellow Daoist truly possesses remarkable methods? To be able to perfectly strip a High Grade Spiritual Root without damaging its Origin... Such a method is truly unheard of."

Xiao Zhuo flipped his hand, putting away the Spiritual Root, and stood with his hands behind his back, his aura like a deep-sea current: "Immortal Envoy overpraises. A small, insignificant trick, not worth mentioning. But I wonder, Immortal Envoy, what brings you here?"

Feng Qingxue stepped into the courtyard, her immortal bearing ethereal, her smile growing deeper: "If such methods are considered insignificant, then all Spirit Refiners (Lian Shi) in the world might as well throw themselves into a furnace. Fellow Daoist, there's no need to be wary. The Immortal Dynasty embraces all, and respects talent most. This humble one is simply curious and wishes to make your acquaintance."