Chapter 70: The Divine Command Grove [Luo Qian]

Rumble! Brilliant white strands of lightning flashed through the air, slicing peach trees in half with ease. Rows upon rows of trees crashed down in the mountain forest, yet not a single trunk groaned or splintered—proof enough of just how efficient Lan Yi's white, electrified hair was.

Lan Yi was destroying the peach grove.

He had already scoured every inch of the core rat tunnels hidden within the grove and found nothing left unchecked.

The diffusion safeguard was nowhere to be found.

If the Divine Fate Cluster’s clue was hidden here, then the odds were it would be concealed among the peach trees. And anything connected to the Divine Fate Cluster wouldn’t be so easily wiped away. Such wanton destruction would surely reveal some trace. If nothing turned up, then he would only have lost another ten or so minutes.

To set a spiritual energy cultivator to work as a mere lumberjack was a waste of immense talent.

Canghua could cleave battleships in two.

Cutting down trees was child's play.

From high above, the forest under the night sky appeared as if it had suddenly gone bald, exposing pale stubble beneath. And this bald patch was growing, spinning outward. With Lan Yi at its center, hair rotating and felling trees, it took mere minutes to lay waste to the entire, relatively flat grove.

No clue to the Divine Fate Cluster surfaced as he had anticipated.

Yet Old Devil Lan was not impatient.

He hovered silently above the devastated grove, pushing his colorless eyes into full overload, like some god scanning the earth with radiant, far-seeing vision, seeking any hint.

A minute passed. Two minutes...

Five minutes. Fifteen. Thirty.

The felled peach trees lay scattered on the ground. Still, nothing stirred—except for the insects fleeing in panic from the ruined wood. Their habitat in upheaval, even the lowest creatures had to run for their lives, lest death overtake them.

‘Still no result?’

‘What’s missing?’

‘Spiritual energy... willpower?’

Lan Yi’s patience was exhausted. Without hesitation, a phantom appeared behind his head—a fierce phoenix wreathed in lightning that swept its wings down in a flurry of falling feathers.

The instant the feathers touched the peach grove, Lan Yi found himself holding his breath.

The earth itself came alive!

Or, more precisely, the willpower that had lain dormant like a fungal mat beneath the grove suddenly sparked into life. Indeed, such is the unreasonable nature of martial arts: the moment this consciousness revived, under Lan Yi’s watchful gaze, it turned into a myriad of birds! Countless avians descended on the insects fleeing the peach wood, launching a wild feast.

The peach trees, stripped bare by insects; the insects, devoured by birds; the carnivores, in turn, eaten by mightier beasts; then, above these, appeared mythical creatures!

Mythical species—celestial beings, cosmic trees.

A white earth.

In the span of mere seconds, Lan Yi witnessed a breathtaking pageant of life. Even with his formidable willpower, he was nearly drawn in. When he came to, he had seen a spectacle of the food chain ascending from its lowest rung to its summit. His mind was stuffed with a torrent of information—almost to the point of bursting.

Most of it concerned the consumption and digestion of life.

It encompassed everything from simple insects to incomprehensible beings, their transformations and devourings.

And then, a coordinate for an artificial divine realm.

And finally, the information on the Divine Fate Cluster.

"Luoqian," one of the seven Divine Fate Clusters, capable of devouring all life.

Its effect was simple—so simple, in fact, that by description alone it seemed far less versatile or powerful than Canghua or Zhenyu.

But after experiencing, in immersive detail, the whole food chain of all living things, Lan Yi realized just how twisted Luoqian truly was.

This was no mere difference in function—it was a difference in the level of authority.

This also confirmed for Lan Yi that the Divine Fate Cluster which exploded in the main world before his rebirth was real. That reckless individual must have obtained information about the Cluster and broadcast it via spiritual energy communication, triggering a chaotic melee in which both the knowledge and the life who possessed it were shattered to atoms by the battling cultivators.

Thus, the Divine Fate Cluster naturally vanished without a trace.

But for that unfortunate soul, even trying to keep the Cluster’s secret would not have been straightforward.

Once tainted by the information of the Divine Fate Cluster, a spiritual cultivator’s life signature would inevitably be altered. It was a key, a gravity, and a destiny all at once. Only the techniques of top-tier cultivators could hope to conceal it.

Two lives of searching, so many years spent.

At last, he had a definite lead on the Divine Fate Cluster.

Lan Yi finally exhaled in relief. A seventh of the elements needed for a perfect ending had been found. If this good news could be shared at all, he would have loved to reconnect with old friends and share his joy.

This Luoqian clue was indeed well hidden.

Not only did it require mastery of both Daoist arts and martial prowess, but also an understanding of biological safeguard measures—and, most importantly, patience and persistence.

To this, Lan Yi could only think:

Utter madness.

He truly could not fathom what state of mind had led that predecessor to leave the Divine Fate Cluster’s clues in such a fashion.

Yet it could not be certain that the one who left the emergency landing chimera was the same as the one who left the clues. In Lan Yi’s eyes, the two differed vastly in their use of willpower. Most likely, the latter used the former’s remains as a cover, for reasons unknown, and went to great lengths to do so.

At this moment, the spiritual energy and life signature around Lan Yi were slowly dissipating.

As he descended to the ground, every living thing within ten meters instinctively fled in terror.

Mosquitoes, insects, snakes, rats—all scattered desperately. Even the grass and trees twisted away from him. Even the invisible microorganisms in the air struggled to escape.

In Daoist terms, this was Dao resonance.

One might also call it demonic resonance.

Should it touch a person, they would be tainted.

Lan Yi frowned slightly. It seemed he would have to waste even more time. Yet with the local willpower completely depleted, the space here would soon collapse.

"It seems you’ve run into a bit of trouble." A voice suddenly sounded nearby.

Lan Yi didn’t even turn his head. With a flash, Canghua, crackling with deadly current, shot out at once.

But Canghua struck only empty air.

The voice remained, but its owner was not there.

"Jin," Lan Yi said slowly, turning to face a patch of empty space. Jin Buhuan’s figure emerged as if an eraser were rubbing away a pencil sketch, gradually taking shape in midair.

A technique of space-time Dao.

"Heh heh! It’s me, your old man... Wait, wait! Let’s talk this through, Lan. I apologize, I confess, I surrender! Please, don’t use Thunder Pool—I can’t handle your Daoist thunder tricks!"

Jin Buhuan’s smugness lasted less than two minutes. Faced with Lan Yi’s dangerous gaze and the signs of a Daoist attack, he immediately begged for mercy.

He was here to do business, not to play the hero.