Xiao Yilan was bored and played with the branches in his hand and scribbled on the ground.

From time to time, he glanced up at the towering ancient tree behind him, standing on the ground, barely reaching the top. The huge canopy of the tree spreads out like a dark cloud in a high place, but it does not block the sunlight, Xiao Yilan does not see the shadow under the tree, as if the canopy is really just a cloud-like illusion, allowing the sunlight to penetrate at will.

This ancient tree is the thickest Xiao Yilan has ever seen, enough to be surrounded by more than a dozen people, and the thickness can almost fit the gate of Benhai City. Its root system is also very developed, like a vein with the trunk as the center, extending to all sides, and some thick roots are still exposed to the ground, coiled in the dragon. And the most bizarre thing is that there is a human face-like mark on the trunk of this tree made of bark and vines, as if it is a carving, but it is more realistic and spiritual than all the wood carvings that Xiao Yilan has ever seen.

Xiao Yilan was sitting on a tree root that was exposed to the ground, and the root of the tree just bent an arc and rose from the ground to form a platform that could sit down comfortably.

At this time, it was noon, and Xiao Yilan's own shadow shrank into a small ball at his feet. The ancient tree actually began to move, the bark and vines moved slowly, and the huge and simple face gradually changed its expression. The gap between the eyes slowly opened, like the face opened its eyes. Unlike the dryads, those eyes did not have jewel-like eyeballs, and their hollow sockets glowed with cyan fireflies.

If Xiao Yilan hadn't seen this scene many times, he would have screamed out in fright. But he just turned his head slightly, and said impatiently: "Don't do it, still don't do it." It stands to reason that you have lived for so many years, you shouldn't have to deal with ordinary people like us, why are you so difficult?"

An ethereal and deep voice sounded in the forest, many times louder than the cry of the tree spirit, but it did not startle the birds in the forest. The lips of that face didn't move, but Xiao Yilan knew where the voice came from.

"You shouldn't just be a mere mortal. ”

Xiao Yilan shrugged his shoulders indifferently, looking indifferent.

After a while, when he raised his head again, the blue light in the two hollows was gone, and the eyes on his quaint face were once again combined into a slit. "Come every day, are you annoying?" Xiao Yilan muttered to himself, took out a tree fruit from his arms and took a bite.

Then he grabbed the arm of a nearby dryad and swung forward like a vine.

He has been in this extreme southern land for more than half a month, relying on tree fruits to satisfy his hunger, and his mouth is simply faint of the smell of birds, but after the ghost-like woman who brought him in left herself here, most of the time the dragon does not see the head and tail, but there are still many tree spirits living here, the appearance is similar to wood, and the trunk like a tree is stronger and taller than wood. For some reason, the tree spirit did not show the slightest hostility towards Xiao Yilan, making Xiao Yilan feel that he was surrounded by dozens or hundreds of woods.

The tree spirit does not understand human language, and the intelligence is only at the level of a human child, after the freshness and surprise at the beginning, Xiao Yilan quickly became accustomed to it and became boring. But the jungle, which didn't seem to be dense, was like a labyrinth, and he tried many times before finally walking back to the ancient tree. Whenever he was hungry and thirsty on the road, a few dryads would pass by and bring him fruit and streams. This made Xiao Yilan feel as if he was being teased. After his third defeat, he finally understood that the problem in front of him could not be avoided.

Since that time, Xiao Yilan no longer tries to escape, so what accompanies Xiao Yilan all day long is this ancient tree.

Before coming to the extreme south, Xiao Yilan found it hard to believe that this ancient tree, which looked very old, was actually the most mysterious existence in the entire southern Xinjiang, and this was the core of the existence and reproduction of the tree spirits and even hundreds of millions of living beings in southern Xinjiang. The first time Xiao Yilan saw "him" was the first day he was introduced by the mysterious woman. The bark and vines of the huge ancient face writhed, and an expression of joy was actually revealed, and the scene was a little strange for a time on the trunk of a tree that was surprisingly thick.

But what he said surprised Xiao Yilan even more.

"The door of dedication is opened from here, and you are welcome to become a practitioner of the avenue. The quaint voice said.

Xiao Yilan only felt inexplicable, this monster who met for the first time put on a look of being very familiar with him, and what kind of "practitioner" did he have to be? He subconsciously felt that this was a name that needed to be sacrificed to get it, and the first time he came into contact, he had a rejection mentality.

So he began his first escape without saying a word. Of course, it ended in failure, and when he walked back here unconsciously, the mysterious woman was gone, and the old tree face was greeted with a bright smile.

It wasn't until Xiao Yilan sat down at the root of the tree angrily that the ancient tree spoke again: "At least this time, you have time to listen to me." ”

Xiao Yilan was noncommittal. Gu Shu continued: "For you, these things may have been lost in history for a long time, but the catastrophe in the future is related to hundreds of millions of living beings. ”

Xiao Yilan frowned and raised his head to look at the face.

"On this world, there are four spirits, which are located in the south, east, west, and northwest, and also represent the attributes of the four heaven and earth spiritual energy in the world, namely the sea and hurricanes in the east, the fire and withering in the west, the earth and forests in the south, and the ice and snow and thunder in the north. The Dryad Clan is the Southern Spirit. You should know that those who practice internal martial arts and spells in human beings need to absorb the aura of heaven and earth. ”

Xiao Yilan seems to be shocked and attracted by the narration of the ancient tree, and this mysterious and magnificent story always attracts his interest, so he always watches the crowd in Liyungang and listens to the anecdotes on the sea. He stared at those empty eyes and said in a loud voice, "I don't know, it's okay, go on." ”

"The difference is that those who practice the Tao of Internal Strength temper themselves with the aura of heaven and earth, and the aura is refined into internal force, and the aura is stored in heaven and earth. It is said that the cultivation of the inner strength is to the extreme, and it is almost the same as a spell, but it is dangerous and difficult, and I don't know how many lives have been taken. However, those who practice magic do not rely on cultivation to obtain it, and magic uses human bodies to mobilize the vast aura of heaven and earth, and coexist with heaven and earth. This is naturally impossible for ordinary people, in ancient times, the birth of magic in human beings was derived from the four spirits, so magic also has these four attributes. ”

"What do you mean?" Xiao Yilan asked.

"In ancient times, the four spirits did not live separately in the east, west, north and south, and had close contact with human beings. This power is nothing more than a gift from heaven to the four spirits, but it is a powerful weapon for human beings. The power beyond human cognition also drives human desires. Have you ever heard of Ling Fa Ge?"

Xiao Yilan shook his head in confusion. The ancient tree continued: "That is a mage sect among the human race, at the beginning, their founder, a human named Ling Ting, designed to kill the Northern Spirit Barbarian Ape on a large scale, obtain the spiritual energy source in its body and use it on himself and his companions, they were also able to control the power of ice, snow and thunder and lightning, at that time, this powerful team, no one can match. This powerful force made human beings more and more blind and arrogant, and there were many imitators, and the four spirits were finally forced to withdraw from the Central Plains, and finally distributed in the southeast, northwest, and northwest, away from the human race. Without the origin of aura, it stands to reason that hundreds of years later, this power should disappear with the death of the first generation of usurpers, but the power of spells also makes people enthusiastic about chasing this power, and it is also Ling Ting, who pondered for more than ten years, and finally broke the boundaries of aura, and found the method taught by humans, which is today's spell, thus founding the spell sect. It's just that this practice of forcibly breaking through the boundaries between heaven and man has also made the spells that have been handed down weaker and weaker, and the origin of the aura inherited by the four spirits is not the same as the so-called spells today. ”

"I've been walking with a tree spirit for so long, and I haven't found that it has any 'heaven and earth aura' powers?" Xiao Yilan looked at the group of tree spirits around him who came and went very honestly and clumsily, and looked incredulous.

"Greed always prompts humans to repeatedly commit dangers, although the tree spirit has intelligence, but it will not be the opponent of the human being, it is a matter of time before it is discovered or hunted by the human being, so I erased the aura origin in the tree spirit's body, so as not to obtain the origin of the human being, and then kill the four spirits. ”

Xiao Yilan raised his eyebrows and said, "You still have this ability!"

"Southern Xinjiang is full of vitality, and the Tree Spirit clan has lived here for thousands of years, and has no intention of moving away from this place to compete with humans. In these 10,000 years, the world is complicated, and there are only two things, which I have never forgotten. First, in the face of desire, the human heart cannot be trusted. ”

Xiao Yilan shrugged his shoulders noncommittally, as if he was not a member of the human race in the mouth of the ancient tree.

"Second, southern Xinjiang is the destination of tree spirits for thousands of years, and it is the habitat of hundreds of millions of living beings. To me, this is an inviolable holy place. Therefore, I will not allow any force outside the laws of nature to trample on this land and poison the living creatures here. However, there is a catastrophe that will also sweep through this place. So, I need your help. ”

Xiao Yilan frowned: "What kind of catastrophe? Can you still predict whether the prophet will be successful? Even if there is, seeing that you have lived for so many years, you are also a powerful character, where can you use me?"

The ancient tree was silent for a moment, and the eyelids on that face seemed to droop. Then he continued: "The gift that years have given me is that I can often see something beyond the years. In the past 10,000 years, I have guarded the last source of spiritual energy rooted here, living with the creatures of southern Xinjiang, even if occasionally humans go deep into southern Xinjiang, I never easily interfere, and let the rules of nature rule this dense forest. But this time is different, the threat is enough to envelop the entire continent, and I live in the extreme south, and I cannot risk the entire southern frontier. That's why I need to tap into the power of people who do it. ”