Even the sky was not spared, completely isolating the entire island.
Only then did the power of the Eternal Night Demon King dissipate.
Xiang Beifei stood at the edge of the island, his gaze was quite serious.
"Could it be that the Moon God Flower grows by absorbing the sorrowful emotions of the Human Race?"
He looked at the surging walls of the Yellow Springs that were full of powerful spiritual power, pondering deeply.
Back then, in order to protect Changpan Valley, Xiang Beifei used a formation to project a powerful Illusion Array. With his current capability, even experts at the Heavenly Connection level could not discern anything amiss from outside.
To make this Illusion Array more realistic, he specially consulted Jiang Laolv, who was in charge of rituals in the clan, asking about every process and even simulated it, asking Jiang Laolv to check for any anomalies.
Jiang Laolv was shocked by Xiang Beifei’s disguise abilities at the time, but even Jiang Laolv did not know about the growth situation of the Moon God Flower!
So Xiang Beifei overlooked this point.
Thus, a hundred careful steps were undone by one slip, detected by the Eternal Night Demon King.
Xiaohei was worried about the situation in Changpan Valley. Zhi Shiyi, with the power at the Immortal Realm, could investigate the situation in Changpan Valley in less than a quarter of an hour, at which point they would realize someone intruded here.
"Finding the people is crucial first." Xiang Beifei said in a deep voice.
Now this island was surrounded by extremely powerful forces from the Eternal Night Demon King, at a level that no outside or inside could easily penetrate, unless it was the Meat-Winged Monster.
Since the Eternal Night Demon King locked down this island, then this is highly likely to be the Underworld of the Yellow Springs.
Fortunately, just now he was standing not far away, and these Immortal Realm individuals didn’t notice him, not even the Eternal Night Demon King, which is his only advantage at present.
He didn’t hesitate and immediately started running towards the island.
But as he approached the black forest on the island, he noticed that the ground felt strange underfoot, as if it was sunken, and somewhat soft. Looking down, he found himself stepping on a thick arm.
And when he stepped on it, the arm twitched, and along the arm’s body, there lay a four-armed, two-headed black ape, which looked lifelessly toward him.
Xiang Beifei was slightly stunned!
For this four-armed, two-headed ape was not a monster of the Yellow Springs, but a still-living desolate beast, yet this ape had a black tree growing on its body.
This black tree, of unknown substance, was over two meters tall and entirely pitch-black, including the trunk, branches, and leaves, all utterly black. And this tree had rooted itself in the body of the four-armed, two-headed ape, with its black roots penetrating the ape’s skin and meridians, as if using the ape as nourishment!
And on this ape, another yellow nine-tailed fox was pressed down, its head squeezed under the ape’s feet, and it too had a small black tree, whose roots had spread all over its body, with some even extending into its ears.
Neither the nine-tailed fox nor the four-armed, two-headed ape were dead, yet they appeared to be on their last legs, powerless to resist the black tree’s growth upon them.
Xiang Beifei looked further into the depths and was increasingly astonished!
For as far as the eye could see, desolate beasts of various kinds lay all over the ground, chaotically jumbled together, varying in size from as large as houses to as small as tiny insects.
Yet none of these desolate beasts were dead, but without exception, they all had tree roots growing on them, nourishing the black trees.
The black forest on this island was actually growing on living desolate beasts, as if these beasts had been purposely captured and forcibly subdued, being used as nourishment for the black trees!
Xiaohei was surprised to find that many of the desolate beasts on this path had been seen before, and most of them were even at the orifice transforming stage in strength!
But at this moment, all the desolate beasts were in low spirits, looking very pained, having their life force extracted, but due to their powerful cultivation, were unable to die immediately.
Xiang Beifei silently floated into the air, also becoming vigilant.
He couldn’t step on these desolate beasts now, because as soon as he did, these beasts would perceive it and look at him.
Erha asked in confusion, could it be that Helian Zheng also became a part of the supply for the black trees here?
Xiang Beifei’s heart sank.
He immediately used the ability of the [Heartbeat System], trying to see if he could search for the heartbeat of humans.
However, it seemed like a suppressive aura here shielded everything, preventing the heartbeat from being sensed at all. He couldn’t even sense the heartbeat of the four-armed ape beneath his feet.
"Xiaohei, let’s split up and explore. You check out what other special features this small island might have. I’ll go find Senior Helian Zheng. If anything unusual happens, contact me immediately, don’t act brashly alone."
Xiaohei promptly leaped off Xiang Beifei’s shoulder and headed in one direction into the black forest, quickly disappearing among the trees.
Xiang Beifei, meanwhile, took Erha and veered off onto another path, then began to delve deeper into the black forest, searching for Helian Zheng.
The further he walked into the black forest, the stranger the air became. Countless black trees were growing on the bodies of desolate beasts, and from time to time, the beasts would let out feeble groans of pain, appearing barely hanging on.
"This is odd, I feel like I’ve seen these trees somewhere before. Erha, can you control them?"
Xiang Beifei carefully examined those black trees and asked Erha.
Erha squatted on Xiang Beifei’s shoulder, using its long tail to support its chin, indicating it could control them slightly as if they were indeed familiar.
But just then, Youmong suddenly popped its head out from Xiang Beifei’s clothes, climbed onto his shoulder, gently pulled at his ear with its tiny hand, and said in a frightened voice, "You You You!"
Xiang Beifei and Erha were both taken aback!
They finally remembered where they had seen such black trees before.
Youmong’s hometown, the Withered Forest!
The first time Xiang Beifei went to Mao Hou, it was during the new student competition held at the Nine Elite Universities. At that time, the Ghost Mustache of Remnant Visage had tricked all the new students into Youmeng’s territory.
Back then, Xiang Beifei and Xiaohei relied on the mound spirit stream of Mao Hou to defeat Shi Renmei and the Ghost Mustache of Remnant Visage, then headed towards the top of the mountain where Mao Hou was located.
Subsequently, a powerful God Refining stage force erupted from the mountaintop, blasting everyone away. Later, Erha was enraged in the Spirit Gathering Book, swung its tail, and fought fiercely with that God Refining force.
The force was no match for Erha, got defeated, and Erha even dragged out a black piece of wood from the pit on the mountain, which looked like it had been charred. Erha devoured it, then even unlocked a seal on its own!
That piece of wood was identical to the trees in the black forest before them!
Erha scratched its head and arrogantly lifted its head, saying, "Awoo?"
It was asking if it should make a move to take care of the black forest again. Back then, it could devour that black wood, and now it possessed the power of the Heavenly Connection realm, incredibly strong.
"Don’t stir up trouble, don’t mess with these things."
Xiang Beifei wasn’t actually afraid of what those black trees might do; he was mainly worried that if he acted, he would once again alert the Eternal Night Demon King.
"But really, what exactly are these black trees? How did they grow so bizarrely?" Xiang Beifei couldn’t help but ponder.
Youmong tightly hugged Xiang Beifei’s neck, then gestured animatedly, saying, "Youmeng Youmeng You You!"
"You’re saying that the piece of black wood once bound your entire clan?" Xiang Beifei exclaimed in surprise.
Youmong nodded fiercely with indignation, gesturing several times.
"Was it the Ghost Mustache of Remnant Visage who used this black wood to treat your clan as nourishment?"
Xiang Beifei grew increasingly astonished.
He had never paid much attention to the black wood of Mao Hou, because the black wood had already succumbed when faced with Erha, the Wooden Kirin. Back then, Erha hadn’t even broken free from its seal but managed to deal with the black wood.
Even though during the new student competition, the black wood was extremely powerful to Xiang Beifei and the other students who were only at the Meridian Opening stage, later, when Xiang Beifei returned to Mao Hou, he was already strong enough to easily defeat Erha.
Since the black wood was gone and the Ghost Mustache of Remnant Visage had wiped out the entire Mu Youmeng clan, Xiang Beifei only brought Youmong away, having forgotten about the black wood.
Now reflecting on that piece of black wood devoured by Erha and seeing the black forest here that looked just like the black wood, he felt that things might not be so simple.