CHAPTER 648: CHAPTER 648: OBTAINING THE WORLD TREE, DESOLATE REALM OPENS! (SEEKING FOLLOWERS)

Toothless old man?

The Ancestral Empress was shocked and quickly covered Xiao Ye’s mouth, cautioning,

"Human Emperor, watch your mouth,"

"That’s the embodiment of the universe’s will, you have to show proper respect. If you talk like that, be careful not to piss Grandpa off!"

The Time Empress and Mu Qingxue also nodded solemnly, "Yeah, trouble comes from the mouth, watch what you say."

Xiao Ye scratched his head and replied indifferently,

"When I used to hang out with the old man, that’s what I always called him."

"He liked it too."

"You guys are overthinking this, that’s just how we get along."

The Ancestral Empress, Time Empress, and Mu Qingxue all had odd looks on their faces. *The relationship between this grandpa and grandson is way too weird, it’s nothing like a normal family.*

Xiao Ye curled his lips. *My background has something to do with the Desolate Realm?*

*Grandpa opened the Desolate Realm for me? For Xiao Ye?*

"Let’s go find the World Tree. Who knows when the old man will open up the Desolate Realm and release the creatures in it."

"Mm-hmm!" The Ancestral Empress and Mu Qingxue each grabbed one of Xiao Ye’s hands, and then they set out for the black hole at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.

The Time Empress looked at her own fair, delicate hands, wanting to grab one too, but unfortunately, she didn’t have a good reason or the proper status.

*After learning that the Human Emperor’s grandfather was the condensed will of this whole universe, she realized, deeply, that she absolutely had to cling to this thick, mighty thigh called the Human Emperor.*

*But now her Realm was only at the Star Domain, not even as high as the Human Emperor. She couldn’t be his Protector, so the only option was to become his wife.*

The four of them used Spatial Shift to arrive at the center of the Milky Way.

This area looked utterly empty, not a single star in sight.

But a sweep with divine sense revealed that, at the very center, there was a black sphere, compressed to the limit, floating there. It emitted such a powerful suction that not even light could escape.

The reflected light arcs that should be visible to the naked eye got swallowed too. So, you couldn’t actually see it!

But, looking around with just their eyes, there, up ahead, stood a massive, thriving tree—so huge that its bulk was about as big as all of Dragon Country.

On each emerald-green leaf, all sorts of rule origin auras radiated off of it.

On the leaves, drops of dew like morning mist carried a dense, nearly overwhelming Primordial Aura of life.

Around the lush green leaves, the mist in the air was thick with an almost overpowering Aura of Destruction.

The giant trunk of the towering tree radiated bursts of origin auras from the rules of time and space.

If you wanted to get close to this tree, your Realm at minimum had to be at Perfection within the Emperor Realm. Otherwise, you’d be sucked in by the black hole and could never escape.

But when Xiao Ye, the Ancestral Empress, Mu Qingxue, and the Time Empress stood before the World Tree, they sensed something strange.

"Is this really the World Tree? Why does it look like it has form but no spirit, like an empty shell?"

"I feel it too. This tree looks prosperous and possesses all kinds of rule origin auras, but those auras feel like illusions—like they aren’t real rule origins at all."

"It’s like a soulless husk. The soul should be the core of those rule origins."

The four of them eyed the World Tree suspiciously.

The real World Tree was supposed to be a world for every leaf. One World Tree equaled an entire universe, holding all the complete Dao laws and countless minor, medium, and major worlds.

A completed World Tree could even be called a multiverse.

At that moment,

Xiao Ye sensed a faint call from the World Tree.

Brilliant lights flared up, and the massive trunk of the World Tree suddenly leapt out of the black hole on its own. Its roots ripped free from the black hole; then, above the hole, the massive trunk rapidly shrunk down, transforming into a palm-sized miniature version, which shot straight into Xiao Ye’s hand.

The World Tree radiated a friendly aura.

Xiao Ye felt connected to the World Tree, like they shared the same origin. It was as if the World Tree was his own body, and he could control its branches and leaves at will.

"Whoa, it shrunk down and jumped out by itself."

"Wow, this tree is really cute."

"I never noticed before, but the aura of this tree is kind of similar to the Human Emperor’s,"

The Ancestral Empress, Mu Qingxue, and the Time Empress were all totally shocked.

Xiao Ye nodded, saying, "I feel like this tree is me, and I am this tree. We share the same roots."

"But why, though?"

"Aren’t I human?"

Out of nowhere, Mu Qingxue said, "Xiao Ye, you can see the template flaws in humans. Maybe try to see if you can spot any flaws in the World Tree."

"Maybe that’ll tell us what the connection is between you and it."

Reminded like that, Xiao Ye got it.

He opened up the Template Adjuster’s search function.

[Name: ???]

[Body Defect: ???]

[Solution: ???]

[Search failed, this item’s level surpasses the Template Adjuster]

Seeing this message, Xiao Ye was stupefied.

He actually couldn’t scan it. This was a first in history!

*Its level was higher than the Template Adjuster?! But the Template Adjuster was already at the Dao Origin level.*

*Could the World Tree be even beyond Dao Origin?*

*What level is that supposed to be?*

Xiao Ye shook his head. *If I can’t scan it, forget it. I’ll figure everything out about this World Tree eventually.*

Mu Qingxue looked stunned, "That look on your face—so you didn’t find a flaw? Your family’s secret technique won’t work?"

Xiao Ye nodded.

The Ancestral Empress looked absolutely shocked too.

The Human Emperor could see divine spirits’ body flaws, but actually couldn’t see through this tree?

The Time Empress analyzed,

"This tree was planted by the Human Emperor’s grandpa, so it must be something unusual. It makes sense you can’t see through it."

"Wait!"

Xiao Ye waved his hand. He had realized his divine sense could freely wander through the World Tree.

The World Tree, like it was giddy about being favored, shook all its lush branches in a happy dance.

Xiao Ye’s mind roamed through the tree, and he found it really was an empty shell—it had the World Tree’s appearance but not the substance.

Within every leaf, there was only the embryo of a world, all foggy and gray, nowhere close to being formed yet.

Countless rule origin auras of different attributes looked convincing, but were just illusions too—none of them were real rule origins.

But, a sudden clarity welled up in Xiao Ye’s mind.

Some new information just popped into his head automatically.

The World Tree grew out of the core of a universe acting as a seed.

But this particular World Tree grew from the hub of a destroyed universe’s core, which was missing some things and had been planted on a black hole to grow.

This cosmos core was missing a lot—things stolen by someone else. If the World Tree was to become real and complete, he’d have to get all those things back, use them as nutrients, and only then could the World Tree’s foundation be completed.

Thinking back to what Grandpa had said—there were things in the Desolate Realm he, Xiao Ye, had to get back, things that always belonged to him anyway.

The Desolate Realm, always the Desolate Realm.

It was clear there was a huge link between the Desolate Realm and the World Tree.

Xiao Ye exhaled deeply and said,

"We’ve got the World Tree. Let’s head back to Blue Star."

"That old man will probably open up the Desolate Realm any minute now."

But at that moment, the Ancestral Empress gave him a weird look, "There’s a lot of ominous, decaying energy rising on Blue Star now. Maybe the Desolate Realm’s already been opened."

"?"

Xiao Ye’s face darkened and he swore, "Fuck, that toothless old man didn’t even give us a second! Was it really that urgent?"