As Zhang Xiao arrived in Davao, Zhong Yun simultaneously landed on Qiyun Star. Having heard from Xiao Ling that the base had been harassed by pirates, Zhong Yun felt a persistent worry about the extent of the damage.

To his immense relief, upon reaching the base, he found it completely untouched, showing not the slightest sign of being ransacked.

Returning to the base this time felt different from his previous visit. Looking at the citizens who came out to greet him, Zhong Yun experienced a peculiar and fresh sensation.

These subjects of his, like him, were of the Yellow Race—men and women, old and young—all dressed in identical uniforms. Each bore a starkly conspicuous number on their chests.

However, Zhong Yun couldn't linger on them; he had more pressing matters. After a brief observation, he departed.

“Are you prepared?” In the main control room, ZER’s eternally impassive expression seemed tinged with a flicker of tension.

“No,” Zhong Yun shook his head, flexing his finger joints while regulating his breath, waiting for the optimal moment.

Before him rested the box, pure white, as if carved from a single block of white jade. He remembered being puzzled initially; when he first retrieved it, the box had been pale yellow, but the color had faded within a few days.

The box was an irregular polyhedron, and Zhong Yun knew each of these planes could be pushed in or pulled out.

Zhong Yun finally moved. He lifted the white box and pressed hard against the largest plane. With a sharp crack… at four minutes and forty-one seconds, accompanied by another snap, the pure white container split open, revealing a single, deep-green sphere, about half the size of a fist.

“What is this? An elixir of immortality?” Having successfully completed the task of opening the box, before he could celebrate, a major question surfaced in his mind.

The moment his eyes fell upon the green sphere, they seemed glued, unable to look away. The bead was so purely green, seeming to hold infinite mysteries within its depths.

After gazing for a while, Zhong Yun’s consciousness grew hazy. Startled, he jerked his gaze away, unwilling to look again. “This thing is a bit sinister.”

“Place it in the lake at the center of the base,” ZER’s voice instructed. Whether it was his imagination or not, Zhong Yun detected a note of urgency in the tone.

Zhong Yun’s heart tightened. Daring not to delay, he clutched the green orb and hurried off the ship, making straight for the central lake.

“How do I place it?” Standing by the lake, Zhong Yun looked at the green sphere in his hand, momentarily stumped.

“Toss it into the lake,” ZER’s words came precisely on cue.

Zhong Yun put some force behind it and flung the strange green orb into the water. With a soft plop, the green sphere created a tiny ripple on the calm surface before sinking immediately to the bottom.

“What in the cosmos is this thing?” Zhong Yun felt genuinely frustrated. After all that effort, he still didn't know the reason behind it.

“That is a seed of the World Tree,” ZER’s voice resonated again.

“The World Tree?”

Wol Star, Mingzhou City.

“An entire semester has passed, and Ah Yun still hasn’t returned? He said he was going for special training, but does that really require seven whole months?” On a tree-lined path, Tian Hai stepped on the soft fallen leaves, counting the days on his fingers.

He hadn't seen anyone from Zhong Yun since he reported to the school seven months ago. They had grown up playing together and had never been separated for this long; it made him deeply uneasy.

“Huh?” After walking a short distance, Tian Hai suddenly spotted a familiar figure and felt a pang of surprise—why would he be here?

“Old Man Yang,” Tian Hai hurried forward to exchange greetings.

The man was Yang Siqing, who had stayed at Zhong Yun’s home for a period. He looked at Tian Hai, paused, and then recalled that this was Zhong Yun’s good friend.

The mention of Zhong Yun caused a shadow of sorrow to cross Yang Siqing’s eyes.

“It’s you,” His expression softened. “I heard you got into this school, but I haven’t run into you until now.”

“Are you teaching here too, Old Man Yang?” Tian Hai asked, surprised. Judging by his attire, he looked like a school faculty member.

“I’ve been here for almost a year now,” Yang Siqing replied. He glanced at the time. “I have a meeting to attend, so I must leave now.”

“Goodbye.” Tian Hai had intended to ask which grade he taught, but seeing his haste, he didn’t press. Yang Siqing took a few steps, paused abruptly, and then stopped again. “I am very sorry about Zhong Yun’s death.” Having uttered those words, he quickly walked away.

Tian Hai scratched his head in confusion. Why was the old man talking nonsense? What did he mean by Zhong Yun’s death…

The sentence struck him like lightning, instantly clearing a long-standing fog in his mind. Simultaneously, it sent a chill through his limbs, and a powerful premonition of ill swept through him.

“Old Man Yang! Old Man Yang…” Tian Hai broke into a run, chasing the direction Yang Siqing had vanished, shouting loudly, “What exactly happened to Ah Yun?”

Yang Siqing was long gone. Only a few passersby remained on the shaded path, and they scattered as they watched him suddenly act crazily.

What happened to Ah Yun?

Yang Siqing’s words settled over Tian Hai’s heart like a massive, oppressive cloud, and his feeling of unease grew stronger.

Chen Wen must know something. Remembering Chen Wen’s unnatural behavior whenever Ah Yun was mentioned, Tian Hai was certain he held the inside story.

Tian Hai found him in Chen Wen’s dormitory.

Seeing Chen Wen standing stiffly at the door, sweating profusely, Chen Wen asked curiously, “What’s wrong? Are you being chased?”

Tian Hai walked into the room and sat down squarely on a chair. He stared intently at Chen Wen. “Xiao Wen, tell me honestly, what happened to Ah Yun?”

The smile vanished from Chen Wen’s face in an instant; a trace of sorrow was hidden deep within his eyes.

Tian Hai’s pupils contracted, and his entire body tensed like an enraged lion, every hair standing on end. He spoke, his voice trembling, “Could it be… Ah Yun really…”

Chen Wen turned his face away, unable to bear witnessing his utter devastation. He let out a soft sigh. “Since you already know, I won’t hide it from you.”

A desolate smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Ah Yun… he was also on that Tongguang Star.”

Silence.

The room was so quiet that barely a sound could be heard. The oppressive atmosphere in the air was so thick it made breathing difficult.

Chen Wen could not endure the suffocating solemnity any longer and left the room. He understood how Tian Hai felt; five months ago, he had reacted with the same shock, disbelief, and grief upon hearing the news for the first time.

And Liu Yunqi—how utterly heartbroken would she be upon hearing this news?

The Yang Family Residence, Mingzhou City.

Yang Bingchang was a refined middle-aged man. From the outside, he appeared younger than forty, clean-cut, and strikingly handsome. Yang Yunrong looked as if she had been molded from the same template.

The head of the Yang family, the most powerful man in all of Davao, now stood before his daughter’s courtyard with a deeply furrowed brow, troubled by a significant dilemma.

He was worried. His daughter hadn't stepped outside her courtyard in five full months, and even from outside, he could feel the bone-deep chill emanating from within.

He had long been aware of his daughter dating a common, poor boy. He hadn't actively opposed it, nor had he endorsed it. His daughter was young; it was merely a romance, nothing to fuss over. He had adopted a let-things-take-their-course mentality.

But the situation had unfolded beyond his expectation. His usually self-willed daughter had confined herself to the house for five straight months because of that boy's death.

He had initially thought it was just a childish game—what was so unusual about a girl her age having a fleeting romance? He hadn't expected her to be so stubbornly devoted. As far as Yang Bingchang knew, she and that boy had only been together for about a year at most. How deep could the affection be after such a short time?

Regardless, he could not allow his daughter to remain submerged in misery; he needed to guide her out of this shadow of grief as soon as possible. Perhaps introducing her to a few discerning, promising young men?

“Xiao Qi, it’s your father.” While pondering, Yang Bingchang walked into the courtyard and knocked on the door.

The door creaked open. Yang Bingchang smiled heartily. “You won’t even come out to greet your father now that he’s here?”

Upon entering, he saw his daughter sitting in a chair, her expression intensely focused on a pale-blue crystal pendant she held. One end of the pendant was looped around her slender, elegant fingers, suspending the charm before her as it rotated gently.

The pendant was an oval tag, with a photograph on each side—one of her, one of him.

As the pendant spun, their photos alternated, sometimes appearing to overlap as the rotation sped up or slowed down, and at other times separating as if existing in different dimensions.

“This must be Zhong Yun? The young man looks quite spirited,” Yang Bingchang said, sitting down beside his daughter to make conversation.

Liu Yunqi maintained her posture, as if unaware that someone had entered the room.

Yang Bingchang sighed silently. It seemed she remained sealed within her own world. If this situation wasn't handled properly this time, it would likely cause significant damage to her state of mind.

He had come prepared this time. “I heard there is a survivor from the Tongguang Star who has returned.” He watched his daughter’s reaction as he spoke.

Liu Yunqi shuddered. The suspended pendant stopped directly over Zhong Yun’s photograph. For the first time since Yang Bingchang entered, she looked up at her father. “Is what you said… true?” Her voice was like fragile porcelain, heartbreakingly delicate.

“Yes,” Yang Bingchang nodded. “He is currently with the border defense forces on the southeast frontier and will be transferred back to Wol tomorrow.”

“I want to see him,” Liu Yunqi stated with an irrefutable firmness.

Yang Bingchang nodded silently.

“The World Tree? What is that?” On the other side, on Qiyun Star, the carefree Zhong Yun, who hadn't rushed home after his narrow escape, looked utterly perplexed.

The moment he asked the question, he felt the entire ground shake. He nearly lost his footing and fell backward, catching hold of a nearby tree to steady himself.

“Was that an earthquake?” Zhong Yun looked around with doubt and alarm. The fluctuating water in the lake confirmed the tremor had been real.

“Damn it, they don't even forecast earthquakes; that scared the life out of me.” Zhong Yun had never experienced an earthquake before, and this sudden event startled him.

His several thousand subjects had clearly felt the tremor too. One by one, they rushed outside, beginning to murmur amongst themselves. Zhong Yun dispatched a few robots to herd them back inside the dwellings, which were safer than the outside environment.

Returning to the ship, Zhong Yun asked Xiao Ling about the World Tree again. “What exactly is this so-called World Tree? Can it really help me reach the second level of the Yuan Realm?”

“There is a document here you can review,” ZER replied instead of answering directly, opening a file for him.

Zhong Yun looked at it skeptically. The document was richly illustrated, detailing the situation regarding the World Tree in depth.

After reading it, Zhong Yun’s emotions failed to settle for a long time. This was a secret that shook the very foundations of the cosmos.

The World Tree was the supreme secret of the Jialan Civilization. Then again, it wasn't entirely a secret; quite a few cosmic civilizations knew of the World Tree. However, in the history of the universe, apart from Jialan Star itself, no one had ever successfully cultivated a World Tree.

The World Tree was a super-plant that utilized an entire planet as its nutrient source. No one knew how it originated. It was incredibly domineering; once it took root on a suitable planet, it would cause all other vegetation on that world to wither away in an extremely short period. In the end, only a single plant would remain on the planet.

The World Tree possessed tenacious vitality; its roots could penetrate down to the surface layer of the planet's core magma. Furthermore, once it merged entirely with the planet, it would never die unless the entire planet itself was annihilated.

The World Tree also possessed formidable combat strength. Although it was merely a plant, under the control of the Jialan people, ordinary cosmic battleships were no match for it.

The World Tree was a treasure from its every part. Segments of its trunk were the finest material for crafting top-tier mechas; its flower dew was a supreme ingredient for preparing potent elixirs; its leaves could be refined into the toughest fibers…

But its most valuable component was its fruit—the single most effective item in the universe for increasing one's Yuan cultivation, bar none. Beyond that, it offered countless other benefits.

What Zhong Yun valued most was that the World Tree was the most suitable environment for Jialan people to practice cultivation. The sap it secreted was indispensable to them.

Without the World Tree’s sap, the Jialan people could never break through to the third level. It could be said that the World Tree was inextricably linked to the prosperity of the Jialan race.

Five thousand years ago, when the Jialan Civilization perished, there were quite a few Jialan people off-world—perhaps hundreds of thousands. But why had they never managed to rise again? The primary reason was that along with the destruction of Jialan Star, the World Tree had become extinct. The Jialan people lost the sap, and consequently, they lost their elite capable of reaching the third level. How could they avoid decline?

After reading the data, Zhong Yun sighed. So, the true reason for the Jialan decline was the disappearance of the World Tree.

Then, that question resurfaced in his mind: Xiao Ling, are you the legacy left by the Jialan people? Otherwise, how could you possess a seed of the World Tree?

However, he instantly pushed that question aside. Regardless of who Xiao Ling belonged to previously, now, Xiao Ling belonged to him.

P: Asking for votes again.