After an indeterminate amount of time, Ji Changkong slowly awoke, emerging from the state of 'No-Self' only to find himself momentarily disoriented, unsure of what had transpired. Yet, he suddenly realized his soul was suffused with a novel form of power.
Flames of Heaven surrounded him; he recognized he was still adrift in the Sea of Heavenly Fire. Those flames, which had previously caused a slight infringement upon his spirit, now imparted a profound sense of intimacy and familiarity, as if the Heavenly Fires had become an intrinsic part of his very soul!
His soul within the Heavenly Fire felt as though he were steeped in a hot spring—an indescribable comfort washed over him, chasing away all weariness.
It was a peculiar and utterly strange sensation. Ji Changkong looked around in astonishment, confirming he was still within the Sea of Heavenly Fire; nothing externally seemed altered. The sole difference was that he no longer feared the deadly Heavenly Fire.
"I should use this power here to temper my soul," a thought arose within him, intending to actively harness the energy of the Heavenly Fire to refine his divine spirit. But as soon as the notion materialized, he observed that all the nearby Heavenly Fires seemed to awaken!
In response to his mental shift, the Heavenly Fires danced around his incorporeal soul like sprites. Within every single flame, there seemed to exist a faint wisp of vital energy!
Ji Changkong gasped, startled by this shocking discovery. He released his mental barriers, attempting to sense further, to ascertain if this was mere illusion...
Thousands upon thousands of joyous auras surged toward him from the surrounding Heavenly Fires, flowing into his soul. These happy energies clearly originated from the Sea of Heavenly Fire itself; they possessed their own breath of life.
They were alive!
Ji Changkong stared, dumbfounded. Having confirmed this idea, he froze, watching the Heavenly Fires swirl in response to his whim. Suddenly, he felt bewildered.
These Heavenly Fires hadn't naturally manifested from the Heart of the Sun—so why, why did they possess independent life? Although their vitality was exceedingly weak, lacking much intelligence, they were undeniably life forms!
Ji Changkong gazed at the surrounding Heavenly Fires with confusion, watching as these simple flames seemed to treat him like kin, perpetually circling him.
The Nine Luminaries Life Tree! After a long pause, he recalled the original objective of his journey. As the thought of the Nine Luminaries Life Tree flashed through his mind, the Heavenly Fires orbiting him began to joyfully surge forward.
It was as if they were guiding the way for him.
Ji Changkong blinked, watching the flame sprites lead the advance, and after a moment of hesitation, he followed. He didn't know where the Heavenly Fires intended to take him, but he perceived genuine goodwill in the aura emanating from them.
He understood that such simple life forms, devoid of complex thought, likely harbored no malice or capacity for deceit.
Following the flying Heavenly Fires, Ji Changkong’s divine soul, momentarily taking the form of three flames, rapidly moved ahead...
Suddenly, he finally detected minute, diamond-like motes of brilliant light residing within the core of his three flame-form souls. These brilliant specks were intensely dazzling, as if inlaid within his fiery spirit, fitting in perfect harmony while simultaneously supplying a form of energy to his tripartite soul flames.
Under the influence of this energy, his divine spirit was ceaselessly undergoing transformation, seemingly altering the very essence of his soul's origin.
He couldn't fathom the nature of this change, but he gradually realized that the light fragments resembling crushed diamonds bore a certain similarity to the energy flowing into Shang Bingjie’s Celestial Aperture.
The reason he deemed them 'similar' was that the fragments within the core of his three soul flames appeared over ten times more potent than the stream of energy entering the Celestial Aperture of Shang Bingjie!
Ji Changkong grew increasingly perplexed. He had no idea what fundamental changes had occurred to his soul while he was submerged in the 'No-Self' state, nor could he determine whether these shifts were ultimately beneficial or detrimental. All he could do now was follow his instincts.
Since the simple Heavenly Fires offered no ill will, he simply followed them onward into the unknown territory ahead.
After a considerable duration, led by the Heavenly Fires, Ji Changkong arrived at a region blazing with piercing radiance.
A peculiar, small tree grew atop a slab of land glowing incandescently, like red-hot iron. It was a strange, twisted specimen bearing nine miniature suns instead of leaves. These nine tiny suns emitted a light so dazzling it paradoxically brought a feeling of peace, entirely contrary to the inherent violence of the Heavenly Fire!
The tree was not large, perhaps only a person's height. The fruit—the nine sun-like orbs—were each about the size of a fist. These nine fruits trembled faintly, giving observers the uncanny illusion of a synchronized heartbeat.
The space surrounding this peculiar little tree was extraordinarily abnormal, appearing as if it had been sliced into segments, resulting in extreme spatial chaos!
Rifts of varying sizes flickered into existence near the strange tree. Through these spatial tears, glimpses of entrances to other celestial bodies could be discerned. Through them flashed dazzling streaks of light, interspersed with razor-sharp blades formed of pure energy. These blades, appearing momentarily in the jagged gaps, could cleave a nearby planet in two if they struck it!
Further out from the spatial fissures, the power of the sun warped and transformed. The scorched earth expelled mysterious bubbles, no larger than a fingernail. However, the moment these bubbles emerged from the ground, they began voraciously consuming the terrifying solar power nearby.
In just a few breaths, the nascent form of a solar flare was established.
The bubbles emerged, absorbing the surrounding, strange solar energy, rapidly forming the initial structure of a flare. Some of these flares drifted outward, wafting from the Sea of Heavenly Fire toward the Sun’s surface. Others plunged into the spatial rifts, entering unknown distant star systems, where they exploded upon encountering any object in the vast expanse of space.
The peculiar small tree stood at the center, surrounded by chaotic spatial fissures, which were in turn ringed by constantly forming solar flares. Beyond that perimeter lay the Sea of Heavenly Fire, capable of shattering the soul of any Heavenly Scholar.
The Nine Luminaries Life Tree! Three layers of mortal danger guarded its perimeter, and the Sea of Heavenly Fire was merely the first defense!
Not only the relentlessly forming solar flares, but also the spatial chaos surrounding the Nine Luminaries Life Tree, were vastly more perilous than the sea of Heavenly Fire. Standing outside, gazing at the radiant tree, Ji Changkong was momentarily stunned, contemplating how he might approach the Nine Luminaries Life Tree and, more importantly, how to extract it from this place.
...
The strange little tree, bearing nine miniature suns, looked so bizarre, so aberrant—yet, why did it evoke such a sense of familiarity?
A thought suddenly pierced his mind. He felt an undeniable sensation that he had witnessed this marvelous scene somewhere before. Once this notion took root, it refused to leave, compelling him to concentrate, to delve into the fragments of consciousness within his mind.
Bone Island; the ancient, towering tree that pierced the clouds; the fruit at its apex—seven star-like orbs, revolving slowly upon the colossal trunk like the stars of the Big Dipper!
It was precisely then that, by accidentally entering the inner world of that towering tree, he had inadvertently gained the pure power of the Big Dipper, catapulting him to the peak of the Seven Star Heaven realm in one ascent!
That tree bearing seven stellar fruits and this tree bearing nine miniature suns—how strikingly similar they were!
Aside from the Nine Luminaries Life Tree being smaller, and bearing nine miniature suns instead of seven celestial fruits, the differences between them were negligible!
Recalling that wondrous, massive tree from Bone Island, and then looking at this Nine Luminaries Life Tree, he almost instantly affirmed that there must be some intrinsic connection between the two. He was certain that these two oddly shaped trees, regardless of size disparity, belonged to the same species!
"Yes, you have guessed correctly." A voice resonated deep within his soul. Giant branches and leaves suddenly erupted from the red, bubbling earth. These branches grew exponentially upon encountering the air, expanding so rapidly that within a few breaths, an ancient tree whose full scope was invisible filled the entire space.
From this inscrutable giant tree emanated an aura of life so immeasurably ancient it seemed to have existed for eons, comparable to the aura of the Four Divine Beasts on the Five Elements Continent.
This was a new, strange species, vastly larger than the towering tree on Bone Island. Its immense presence even surpassed that of the Four Sacred Beasts of the Five Elements Continent, reaching a magnitude Ji Changkong could scarcely comprehend!
"Those four merely sustained injuries during the Third Great War of Creation. In their prime, they were no weaker than I," the ancient tree’s divine thought echoed within Ji Changkong’s soul. It seemed to grasp his thoughts and slowly clarified, "The tree with seven stellar fruits you encountered previously on the Five Elements Continent's Bone Island was the result of one of my seeds sprouting. That it managed to blossom and bear fruit on the Five Elements Continent was something even I did not anticipate."
Indeed! Ji Changkong whispered internally. Hearing that the colossal tree on Bone Island was merely a seed of this entity brought him no surprise.
"The Third Great War of Creation? What is that? What is your relationship with the Four Divine Beasts?" Filled with questions, Ji Changkong looked at the twisted giant tree and could not help but inquire.
"You are not yet qualified to know," the ancient tree’s thought resonated slowly. "When you truly merge the power of those four, when you can break free from the constraint of a single continent, only then will you be qualified to know the details of the Creation Wars. However, since you have arrived here, you have earned the right to receive the Nine Luminaries Life Tree that I have newly nurtured."
"Wait!" Ji Changkong urged. "Tell me what I can know! I do not wish to continue living in such confusion! Those four are gravely injured and lying dormant on the Five Elements Continent; I cannot communicate with them!"