187: Kneel properly
"Oho, so this is a Tree Spirit?"
His voice was heard before he was seen.
The voice carried a hint of flippancy and a touch of surprise, sounding completely out of place on a battlefield so tense it was suffocating.
Immediately after, four figures passed through the shattered mist and hovered above the canyon.
Leading them was a young man in black robes; his face was so handsome it was almost eerie, and his expression was lazy, as if he were merely a Young Master out for a stroll.
Behind him stood two peerless women, one as cold and aloof as an immortal, the other charming and spirited.
And the one who had just spoken was a... old rogue standing to the young man's left?
Sixth Ancestor Jiang Wuhui rubbed his hands together, his gaze sweeping over the Tree Spirits below.
They had pointed ears, skin as white as jade, and were tall and slender; most of them used only a few leaves and flower petals to cover their vital parts.
However, the Sixth Ancestor's attention wasn't on that.
He was looking for World Tree fruits and branches, preferably those still in their original forms.
Purely humanoid ones were just so-so.
Below, Gui Rui's heart sank to the bottom.
She couldn't see through the black-robed young man, nor could she see through the old man who was making comments.
But she could see the two beautiful women beside them.
One was in the 6th Realm.
The other's cultivation... made their very Souls tremble.
That was... the Aura of a Great Emperor!
Although not as powerful as a true Great Emperor!
But she was still an existence of Alternative Dao Attainment!
"It's over..."
Although Han Yueyi was crazy, she was at least a person of the Cangwu and was somewhat restricted by the Cangwu's rules.
But this group of people were clearly outsiders, and the kind of terrifying existences capable of destroying the Cangwu.
"Prepare to... fight to the death."
Gui Rui bit the tip of her tongue and spat a mouthful of essence blood onto the scepter in her hand.
"For the Holy Land!"
Gui Zhaoye's eyes were blood-red, the bowstring in her hand pulled to the limit, her arrow pointing directly at the old man who looked the most indecent.
"Heh? You dare glare at me?"
The Sixth Ancestor was amused; he took a step forward, and his originally playful expression instantly vanished.
"Boom—"
A supreme pressure belonging to a Great Emperor was released without reservation.
In an instant, the sky grew dark and the earth turned dim.
The World Tree, which had been dancing wildly, was actually forced to bend its back under this pressure.
The Formations that had just been set up shattered instantly like wet paper.
"A bunch of little girls, yet you dare brandish weapons against the Emperor Clan?"
The Sixth Ancestor snorted coldly and raised his right hand; the Law of Destruction condensed in his palm.
"Since you won't listen, I'll suppress you all first, then line you up so Yuaner can give you all a beating."
"Boom!"
A supreme pressure belonging to a Great Emperor crashed down like the Heavenly River flooding.
"A-actually... another Great Emperor!"
And this time, it was a genuine Great Emperor!
Heaven was truly destroying her Tree Spirit clan!
Seeing that the giant hand that blotted out the sun was about to fall.
If this palm strike landed solidly, the Tree Spirits might not necessarily be harmed, but the World Tree behind them would surely be flattened by half.
"Sixth Grandfather."
A calm voice rang out.
Without any fluctuations of spiritual power, it clearly reached everyone's ears.
Jiang Yuan raised his hand and gently pressed it on the Sixth Ancestor's shoulder: "Don't scare my property."
"Hehe, I'm just setting some rules for them."
The Sixth Ancestor instantly retracted his ferocious appearance, rubbed his hands, and retreated behind Jiang Yuan.
"Yuaner, you do it, you do it; your grandfather can't handle this kind of delicate work."
The pressure suddenly diminished.
Gui Rui panted heavily, looking at the black-robed young man in horror.
Even a Great Emperor had to be so respectful to him?
Who exactly was he?
"World Tree."
Jiang Yuan ignored the spirits below and instead looked up at the massive ancient tree.
At this moment, the World Tree was in an extremely violent state.
It sensed the Aura on Jiang Yuan—the Aura that was seizing its authority, its greatest enemy.
"Roar—"
It was as if an invisible giant beast was roaring in the Void Realm; countless vines turned into sharp spears, stabbing toward Jiang Yuan from all directions.
This was the Heavenly Dao's final counterattack, the struggle of a trapped beast.
"Careful!" Liu Shenyin instinctively wanted to act.
"No need."
Jiang Yuan's expression didn't change; he didn't even raise his hand.
He just quietly watched the vines attacking from all over the sky.
At the center of his forehead, a complex and profound purple mark suddenly lit up.
The heavenly heart imprint!
"Freeze."
He spoke a single word softly.
This word was not issued by spiritual power, but was a Law-Decreed Speech.
"Weng—"
The Heavenly Dao Laws of the entire Cangwu World trembled at this moment.
The vines that were only three inches away from Jiang Yuan's forehead stopped abruptly in mid-air.
No matter how the instinctive will of the World Tree roared or drove them, they could no longer advance a single inch.
Jiang Yuan could even sense the World Tree's disbelief.
It felt the portion of Luck belonging to Lin Yue from Jiang Yuan.
In other words, Lin Yue had given him everything she had.
Thus, Jiang Yuan could have authority exceeding the cangwu heavenly dao.
Jiang Yuan slowly descended from the sky, a golden lotus blooming under his feet with every step.
He walked to the main trunk of the World Tree, reached out, and gently pressed his hand against the rough bark.
"I know you're unwilling."
Jiang Yuan's voice was very soft, but through the heavenly heart imprint, it directly exploded in the depths of the World Tree's consciousness.
"But Han Yueyi has already been defeated. The new Empress is my person. The heavens of this Cangwu now belong to the Jiang family."
"You have no choice."
As the last sentence fell, a grand will that transcended the cangwu heavenly dao...
...followed Jiang Yuan's palm and overbearingly surged into the core of the World Tree.
"Wu—"
The World Tree let out a mournful cry.
Its originally violent will could not resist in the face of this absolute supreme rule.
The vines filling the sky hung down weakly.
The originally withered leaves regained their vitality, becoming even greener than before.
Countless specks of light fell from the canopy, surrounding Jiang Yuan as if to curry favor.
It had knelt.
The Tree Spirits below were completely dumbfounded.
The god they believed in, the mother they relied on for survival, actually behaved like a submissive... dog in front of this man?
Jiang Yuan turned around and looked down at the group of spirits slumped on the ground.
At this moment, he didn't have that Cangwu-destroying Aura.
But that sense of being integrated with heaven and earth, as if he were the very Incarnation of this Cangwu, made all the Tree Spirits tremble from the depths of their Souls.
"Now."
Jiang Yuan's gaze swept over Gui Rui's pale yet still beautiful face, a playful curve tugging at the corner of his mouth.
"Let's have a good chat."
Dead silence.
Inside the entire canyon, there was no sound except for the roar of the waterfall.
Gui Rui swallowed hard; she looked up at the black-robed young man standing under the World Tree, looking as if he were one with the entire divine tree.
That Aura... she was too familiar with it.
It was the Aura of the Heavenly Dao, the scent of the Cangwu's Origin.
But it wasn't exactly the same.
Compared to the previously cold and mechanical Heavenly Dao will, it had an added sense of overbearingness and a dictatorial human nature.
"You... You..."
Gui Rui's voice was trembling; she wanted to stand up but found her legs wouldn't obey her at all.
It was a suppression originating from the depths of her Bloodline.
As a being nurtured by the World Tree, she couldn't even muster the thought of resistance when facing the one who controlled the World Tree's authority.
"You refined the heavenly heart imprint?"
Gui Rui finally asked the question that she found unbelievable.
"At least you have some discernment."
With a casual wave of Jiang Yuan's hand, a vine automatically wove itself into a throne; he sat down leisurely, his posture lazy. "Since you know who I am, why haven't you knelt properly?"
*Thud!*
Without any hesitation.
If their previous resistance stemmed from dissatisfaction in their hearts.
Then at this moment, Gui Rui pulled her two daughters beside her and knelt in unison, their foreheads pressed tightly against the damp soil!
They had met their Father God!
"Tree Spirit Clan Chief Gui Rui, leading the entire clan... pays respects to Lord Father God!"
The dozens of clansmen behind her followed suit; for a moment, the canyon was filled with kneeling figures.
For the Tree Spirits, who were born of the World Tree and the Heavenly Dao.
Jiang Yuan, who had mastered the heavenly heart imprint, the Luck voluntarily offered by Lin Yue, and the submission of the World Tree, was the father of their entire clan! Father God!
He was the one they must be loyal to and submit to.
"You certainly know how to adapt to the situation."
Jiang Yuan's fingers lightly tapped the armrest, his gaze falling on Gui Rui.
"Stand up and speak. Tell me, Tree Spirits should be favored by the Heavenly Dao. Even those female cultivators outside with mediocre Aptitude and mere Spiritual Bodies can Cultivate to the Saint realm. You possess a Saintly Body, so why have you been unable to cross the Saint Bottleneck and step into the Emperor Realm until now?"