The fruit-born immortals pulled their swords out of their scabbards and attacked the marble-shaped Tianyis. Despite their best efforts, even when their arms went numb, they could not shatter Tianyi’s conduits.

Although they could not destroy the conduits, they showed no fear and arrived in front of the conduits, swords still in hand. They bent down and picked them up. The compressed form of each conduit perfectly fit the curves of the sword immortals’ palms.

With the conduits in hand, they retreated back to the phantom tree. Upon nearing the trunk, they did not stop and directly phased through the exterior and entered the innards of the tree.

Because of the suppression that accompanied the giant tree phantom, Tianyi could not release his immortal sense. He hadn’t tried using his universe sense yet, but he knew that if he did, the Heavenly Dao would definitely send down heavenly punishment. Just because he could not use his two senses didn’t mean he was unaware of his surroundings. Each conduit could still ‘see’ and ‘hear.’

Inside the giant tree was another realm larger than the outside appearance suggested. Although not as large as the Numinous Realm or other immortal-rank realms, it could still rival those pseudo-immortal-rank realms like the former True Dragon Realm, Phoenix Realm, and Qilin Realm.

More importantly, it gave Tianyi a familiar sensation. Of course, since he couldn’t release his immortal sense, this sensation was pure déjà vu. Tianyi searched his memories and recalled the void in the Numinous Sword Sect of a parallel timeline he visited.

The size was vastly different, but the outside diameter fit the edge of the void within the parallel Numinous Sword Sect.

Tianyi didn’t think that the parallel Numinous Sword Sect would remove the mysterious tree without reason. Even if they did, where would it go? In Tianyi’s estimation, the tree disappeared from the parallel timeline on its own. It was also likely that it merged with its prime timeline self.

In that case, there were only a few possibilities. At the Extremity Immortal Realm, the cultivator would merge their parallel timeline versions with their main self. However, the giant tree had not opened its spirituality. Rather than being a sapient life, it was closer to a divine artifact in nature. That would make it a divine tree.

Divine artifacts could only merge into one once two versions appeared in one timeline. A divine artifact could also merge parallel versions of itself under the control of its master, but under the caveat that the artifact’s master could almost completely control it. In the modern day, only divinities could completely control a divine artifact.

Although comparable to a divine artifact, it was unlikely that Divinity Yanxu could control it to merge with the parallel timeline versions of itself, because it was a living being and not an artifact.

But because it was a living being, it was not impossible to fuse parallel versions of itself because of external influence or guidance. Just because it was not sapient didn’t mean it was not sentient.

Tianyi relayed the information back to the Immortal Court. If it was only an immortal-level spiritual root, the Immortal Court would find it difficult to recognize, but there were far fewer divine-level spiritual roots. Combining it with the features of the colossal tree phantom, the Immortal Court concluded that it was the Allheaven Jianmu Tree.

According to ancient texts, the Allheaven Jianmu Tree was not as mystical as the other top ten spiritual roots of the Primordial World. Its greatest features were the resilience and toughness of its materials.

Many divinities who got a branch, leaf, or bark of the Allheaven Jianmu Tree were able to use it to create powerful artifacts. The material was so great that many divinities once concluded that it could be used as the pillar to support the heavens when Buzhou Mountain shattered.

Tianyi immediately thought of a usage for such a powerful divine tree. If it could serve as the core of a formation, the formation would absolutely become a peak formation of the modern era. Even if the formation wasn’t very exquisite or powerful, it could still reach the divine level!

A hint of desire entered Tianyi’s eyes. Ever since the creation of the Nine Heavens Universe, he had not seen many treasures that he wanted. This Allheaven Jianmu Tree was one of them.

Of course, Tianyi wanted it, and the Immortal Court also wanted it. As long as it was planted on Buzhou Immortal Island, the Immortal Court could be truly said to be impregnable. The Immortal Court had formation inheritances from the Primordial Era. The Allheaven Jianmu Tree would only shine more in the possession of the Immortal Court.

If he couldn’t get the tree, Tianyi wouldn’t mind getting a few branches. Many divinities in the past had tried to plant and cultivate a new Allheaven Jianmu Tree, but they all failed. Like the other top ten spiritual roots, there was only one in the entire system.

Tianyi suspected it was because of the Heavenly Dao purposely restricting the propagation of the top ten spiritual roots. However, that was not the case for the Nine Heavens Universe, so he thought he still had a high chance of growing a second one.

Currently, many of his conduits were outside of the Numinous Sword Sect’s formation and testing it. He tentatively dubbed it the Allheaven Jianmu Formation. It was lucky that he had disobeyed Minister Huang’s orders; otherwise, the Immortal Court would have lost another portion of their fighting force.

While investigating, Tianyi’s trapped conduits continued to gather information.

The fruit-born immortals brought his compressed conduits to the roots of the Allheaven Jianmu Tree. Upon resting next to the roots, new appendages grew out and wrapped around the conduits. They did not constrict or attack Tianyi, but what they did was even more terrifying.

Tianyi could feel the dimensional barrier around his conduits weakening. The tree roots weren’t attacking the conduits because they did not register them as threats or enemies. On the contrary, they were seen as nutrients to be absorbed.

The weaker the dimensional boundary became, the more energy the Allheaven Jianmu Tree converted. Until now, no one or nothing had been able to break down the dimensional boundary of his conduits. At most, they shattered it, causing them to disintegrate after Tianyi cut off the connection. For most conduits, it was more cost-effective to let them be destroyed than spare energy to save them.

The Allheaven Jianmu Tree must have liked it a lot because the speed of absorption increased.

As a test, Tianyi allowed one of his conduits’ dimensional boundaries to disintegrate, causing it to explode in a burst of immortal qi of primordial chaos. The highly corrosive qi only removed some dust from the Allheaven Jianmu Tree’s roots. The rest was directly absorbed, as if it was the gentlest qi in the world.

Upon seeing that it only boosted the Allheaven Jianmu Tree, Tianyi planned to destroy the rest of the conduits. The longer he resisted, the more energy the Allheaven Jianmu Tree would get. Since that was the case, it was better to reduce the amount of energy, even if it would give a temporary boost.

Just as Tianyi took action, he sensed the immortal qi of primordial chaos flowing through the Allheaven Jianmu Tree. Perhaps because his conduits were destroyed, the formation no longer suppressed him. The little bit of self left would be swiftly absorbed and couldn’t make any waves, but Tianyi sensed something interesting.

One after the other, all of Tianyi’s conduits self-destructed. Upon being absorbed, his clarity of the Allheaven Jianmu Tree increased.

He wasn’t the only will inside the Allheaven Jianmu Tree. Tianyi could sense other souls inside the divine tree flowing toward the crown. Once they reached the crown, a bud would form at the branches. After energy was injected, the bud blossomed before wilting and forming a fruit.

Tianyi could sense that many of the souls belonged to true immortals alongside mortal cultivators at the saint level. This also included earth immortals.

After being reborn from the fruits of the Allheaven Jianmu Tree, they became immortals, even those earth immortals. What surprised Tianyi the most were the true immortals who underwent the process.

He had studied the transformation from mortal to immortal of the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System. Upon becoming an immortal, the Heavenly Dao would inject its essence into the soul and merge it. Once fused, it became an integral part of the immortal. Upon death, the immortals would return to heaven and earth, literally becoming its nourishment.

In the process of becoming a fruit-born immortal, the soul was transformed. In a similar process to becoming a true immortal, the Allheaven Jianmu Tree would merge its essence into the new immortal’s soul. For existing true immortals, the Heavenly Dao’s essence would be replaced.

Tianyi’s eyes lit up. He had been studying a method to remove the Heavenly Dao’s essence from the soul. There was some success, but none of them were satisfactory. Although he hadn’t given up on devising a method, he only occasionally focused on this aspect.

‘I have to take at least a hundred of these fruit immortals back into the Nine Heavens Universe for study.’ After thinking that, Tianyi paused. Calling them fruit immortals sounded just plain weird. So, he named them Jianmu Immortals.

Just from a glance, Tianyi could see that these Jianmu Immortals resonated with the Allheaven Jianmu Tree and the formation it formed. Although he didn’t know to what extent, it was very simple for Tianyi to conclude that these Jianmu Immortals would receive a boost within the Allheaven Jianmu Tree’s domain.

Without the Allheaven Jianmu Tree’s enhancement, a Jianmu True Immortal would likely only equal a transcending-mortality saint.

Tianyi wondered what would happen if he pulled these Jianmu Immortals outside of their source’s domain. Would they be restricted by the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System like himself, or just lose all the benefits? Or maybe the Heavenly Dao would immediately send punishment to destroy them?

Still, Tianyi held himself back. Although it seemed like the Allheaven Jianmu Tree had isolated the influence of the Heavenly Dao, that was not the case at all. In fact, it just made the Heavenly Dao retreat. On certain matters, the Heavenly Dao would still assert its influence.

Matters like himself. If the Allheaven Jianmu Tree had really isolated the Heavenly Dao’s influence, Tianyi’s power would have increased and not decreased. So, he was suppressed by the Heavenly Dao and the Allheaven Jianmu Tree.

Because of this, only his level-three conduit could take action to force a Jianmu Immortal into his Nine Heavens Universe, but he could only do that a few times before the Numinous Sword Sect retreated. By then, even his strongest conduit wouldn’t dare to invade alone.

Tianyi wanted at least a hundred, not fewer than ten. ‘What should I do? Destroy the Allheaven Jianmu Tree? But that’s difficult.’

Outside, he had already taken action and unleashed a Constellation Cessation in the ye state of qi. However, it was resolved by the Allheaven Jianmu Tree before even making it ten percent in. Even when using Constellation Cessation in the yu state, the Allheaven Jianmu Tree dissolved and absorbed the energy before even reaching fifty percent of the way in.

Had Tianyi launched it anywhere else in the Numinous Realm, a huge hole would have been blown in the dimensional boundary, shattering the sky or land. It was even possible for a part of the Numinous Realm to break off if it landed at certain points.

‘Should I use Universe Reflection?’ Tianyi immediately shook his head. That move was too powerful. It might destroy the Allheaven Jianmu Formation, but it would definitely destroy the Numinous Realm with it.

Comparing Constellation Cessation to Universe Reflection was like comparing a firefly to the bright moon. The two were not in the same class at all.

‘Forget it. It’s better to wait for the Concealed Emperor or Perfected Huanglong to deal with it.’ Just because he couldn’t find a method to solve the Allheaven Jianmu Formation without destroying the Numinous Realm didn’t mean the two divinities could not.

He focused on the situation outside the Numinous Sword Sect. A thought occurred to him. ‘I can’t use Universe Reflection on the Allheaven Jianmu Formation, what about the Immortal Extermination Sword Formation?’

With such a thought, Tianyi contacted the Concealed Emperor and told him his plan. Although Tianyi didn’t know it, it would be difficult for the Concealed Emperor to remove the Immortal Extermination Sword Formation in a short while.

Upon hearing Tianyi’s plan, the Concealed Emperor agreed. He didn’t think Tianyi could really destroy the Immortal Extermination Sword Formation, but he was also clear on Tianyi’s strengths and uniqueness. Perhaps Tianyi could surprise him.

Under the Concealed Emperor’s guidance, the Immortal Extermination Sword Formation drifted apart from the Numinous Realm.

“He already reached the agreed distance, how much longer before you take action?” the Concealed Emperor asked.

“Give me some time, the success of my technique takes some luck,” Tianyi said with some embarrassment. It was as if the goddess of luck had rescinded her favor.

When he used it before, he had some moderate success in forming the Universe Reflection, but under pressure, his success rate seemed to have plummeted. Tianyi knew the more hasty he became, the lower the success, so he forced himself to calm down.

‘Finally!’ Tianyi thought.

He only had a small window of success. So he immediately teleported outside the Immortal Extermination Sword Formation in a level-two conduit, the nascent Universe Reflection cradled between his hands.

Without any hesitation, he slammed the Universe Reflection into the number one killing formation. The nascent universe exploded, bringing forth creation and destruction.