166: Chapter 166 The Mother Peach Tree

Amidst little Li Yao's pure laughter, a bizarre pure land manifested outside the zhou tian star boat.

Countless wraiths ceased their attacks, their distorted faces showing blank confusion as their empty eye sockets "gazed" at the flying boat from afar, as if reminiscing about those long-gone days when they still knew how to laugh.

This peaceful area continued to advance forward as the zhou tian star boat delved deeper.

"How interesting. Could it be that my daughter has become a walking 'peace dove'?"

Li Xuan stroked his chin, feeling like he had discovered a new use for Li Yao.

Ao Qingxue held the little princess, the astonishment on her face yet to fade.

She looked at the innocent, giggling infant in her arms, and then at the army of wraiths outside that was enough to make a Golden Immortal's Dao Heart collapse.

Ridiculous. This entire family was simply too ridiculous.

However, as the flying boat drew closer to the core of the Yaochi Ruins, this bizarre peace was shattered.

A surge of resentment, far more intense than before, swept toward them from ahead like a bursting black heavenly river.

This resentment had already condensed into a physical form; the sorrow and hatred contained within had even begun to affect the Laws of reality.

Black snowflakes drifted aimlessly through the Void Realm, each flake bearing the blurred, agonizing profile of a weeping Fairy.

"Wuu..."

"It hurts..."

"I hate..."

This time, even little Li Yao's laughter was suppressed.

She seemed to sense that overwhelming sorrow; her little mouth puckered, her beautiful brows furrowed, and she stopped laughing.

"It seems we've reached the main player's territory."

Li Xuan sat up straight.

The flying boat passed through the final mist of resentment.

The scene before them caused everyone on the boat to lose themselves for a moment.

It was an immortal garden that had once been incomparably glorious, but was now devoid of any Life Qi.

It was filled entirely with withered peach trees.

They had once been so holy and extraordinary, but now they were like charred corpses drained of all vitality, collapsed crookedly on the ground with twisted branches, as if they were still enduring immense pain before death.

The ground was blanketed in peach blossom petals that had long since turned to black ash.

This was the legendary Holy Land that the myriad immortals yearned for—the Peach Garden.

And at the very center of the Peach Garden, a colossal tree that reached between heaven and earth stood stubbornly.

It was too massive; although the canopy was mostly withered, the remaining branches still reached toward the sky, as if trying to tear a hole through this darkness.

Its bark was cracked, oozing black sap, yet there was still a faint, lingering aura of life stubbornly pulsing deep within the heart of the tree.

This was the ancestor of all pantao trees, the one said to have been born alongside heaven and earth—the pantao mother tree!

Li Xuan's Double Pupils saw the root of this divine tree's pain clearly.

Deeply embedded in its mountain-like trunk was a pitch-black dagger only a foot long and covered in cracks.

The dagger's design was ancient, yet it emitted an evil aura that even Li Xuan found alarming.

It was like a malignant tumor parasitic on the heart of the pantao mother tree, constantly draining the mother tree's life Origin and converting it into a massive amount of resentment, polluting the entire Yaochi Ruins.

This dagger was the source of everything!

"Who... dares to trespass... in the Forbidden Ground..."

A ghostly voice, seemingly coming from the Nine Serenities of the Netherworld, echoed directly within everyone's Divine Soul.

Li Xuan's expression turned solemn as he looked beneath the pantao mother tree.

Within that resentment as thick as ink, a blurred figure surged and converged, revealing a silhouette.

She wore a magnificent palace dress that had long been dyed black by resentment. Her long hair was disheveled, and her face still bore traces of her once-peerless elegance. Now, however, there were only two bone-deep black tear tracks on her face, and only two points of ghostly fire flickered in her empty eye sockets.

Her aura was domineering, malicious, and powerful—not inferior to Arhat Fatian at full strength. She was clearly a Grand Unity Golden Immortal as well!

[Warning! Detected extreme resentment aggregate—Yaochi Wraith Queen!]

[Identity Analysis: Former Chief Maid of the Yaochi Immortal Realm, personal maid of the Quasi-Immortal Emperor. Perished during the Ancient Catastrophe; her Divine Soul was polluted by dark forces and merged with the resentment of ten thousand Fairies, transforming into the guardian spirit of this place.]

The System's notification sound confirmed Li Xuan's suspicion.

"Men... are not welcome here..." The Wraith Queen raised her head, her gaze locking onto Li Xuan with precision. "Get out... or... die!"

As the final word "die" left her mouth, her killing move was already launched.

She made no extra movements, merely raising her hand.

Boom—!

At this moment, the resentment of the entire Yaochi Ruins seemed to find a vent, turning into a pitch-black ocean that whipped up ten-thousand-foot waves, crashing down toward the zhou tian star boat!

This was not the attack of a single Li Yao.

This was the 'Sorrow of an Era,' accumulated over countless eons, fusing all the unwilling pain and hatred of hundreds of millions of Fairies before their deaths!

Before this black ocean, the zhou tian star boat, a massive starship, was as tiny as a lone leaf about to be overturned.

"You have some skill."

Li Xuan gave a light snort. Instead of retreating, he advanced, stepping out of the boat.

"Qingyue, Qingxue, look after Yaoyao."

He gave the instruction, Chaos Qi circulating around him as he fully activated his Hongmeng Chaos Body.

Boom!

The phantom of a world constructed from the Law of Chaos unfolded behind him.

The sun, moon, and stars rotated, while earth, water, fire, and wind were reset, forcibly blocking that crashing sea of resentment on the outside.

However, Li Xuan frowned.

He could block the physical impact of the resentment, but that soul-eroding malice was omnipresent.

Despite his Grand Unity Golden Immortal Dao Fruit being solid and immortal, he currently felt as if his Divine Soul were being entangled and bitten by countless icy tentacles, trying to bore into the depths of his Sea of Consciousness.

Visions even appeared before his eyes: countless Fairies with fluttering sleeves being swallowed by darkness. Before they died, they all stared at him intently with eyes full of despair and malice.

"Is this... the weight of Yaochi?"

"Why should one worker make things hard for another? This elder sister looks like she was a model worker in life, and even after death, her performance metrics are through the roof."

Li Xuan shook his head, dispersing the illusions.

Seeing her strike fail, the Wraith Queen seemed entirely unsurprised.

She raised both hands, forming an ancient hand seal in front of her.

Following her movements, the entire Yaochi Ruins hummed and trembled.

The remains of those long-dead peach trees actually glowed together, as strands of pure resentment flew out from them and converged upon her.

"Yaochi Profound Truth: Wail of Ten Thousand Immortals!"

Buzz—

An invisible sound wave rippled out with the Wraith Queen as the center.

This time, the attack was no longer grand in scale but condensed into a single line. It was silent and ignored Li Xuan's Chaos world, slashing directly at his Divine Soul Origin!

This was a technique of pure Divine Soul execution!

Its power was enough to heavily injure a Grand Unity Golden Immortal of the same rank!

A needle-like sting came from Li Xuan's Divine Soul—a warning of mortal danger.

This Wraith Queen not only possessed immense power but also mastered the core secret arts passed down by the Yaochi Immortal Realm.

She could mobilize the power of the entire ruins for her own use; on this home ground, she was nearly invincible.

To defeat her, one would have to completely purify the resentment of the entire Yaochi Ruins.

Otherwise, she was immortal and indestructible!

This battle had become troublesome.