“Bad! Bad news! Your Majesty, the Tree of Life is gone!”
The divine officer guarding the Tree of Life came crashing into Lingxiao Hall, stumbling so hard he nearly ate the floor. His face had gone white, his voice was shaking, and the panic in his eyes was plain as day.
“What did you say?!”
The Heavenly Emperor slammed his hand down on the table and shot to his feet. His brows locked tight, his whole face turning grim in an instant as he stared at the god officer kneeling below.
“Who has the nerve? Who dares steal the Tree of Life of our God Clan?”
The god officer swallowed hard. His throat bobbed once, twice, before he forced out his words.
“Reporting to Your Majesty...”
He hurried through the whole matter from start to finish, not daring to miss a single detail. When he was done, he lowered his head even more and said in a trembling voice, “When I arrived at the Hall of Life, the Tree of Life was already gone. There was no suspicious person anywhere around it.”
The Heavenly Emperor’s frown deepened.
His eyes swept across the gathered immortals. Then he rose without another word and strode toward the Hall of Life himself.
And sure enough.
The Tree of Life, which had once stood in the very center of the great hall, was gone clean. Not a trunk. Not a root. Not even a single leaf remained behind.
The Tree of Life was no ordinary sacred object. It was the source of life for all things, something on the level of the world’s very origin.
Now it had vanished.
If word of this got out, the whole Six Realms would be shaken to the core. Once fear spread, chaos would follow. And when the Six Realms fell into disorder, the consequences would be beyond measure.
So no matter what, it had to be found. Fast.
At that thought, the Heavenly Emperor’s face grew even darker. He snapped his sleeve through the air and barked coldly, “Investigate. Search for it. Tear this matter apart if you must!”
When the Heavenly Emperor was enraged, corpses could pile for a million li.
In a blink, every immortal in the Hall of Life, along with the heavenly soldiers and divine generals, dropped to their knees in a great wave.
“Your Majesty, calm your wrath! We obey!”
Two days later, Orion Cliffside, the High God skilled in divination, stood inside Lingxiao Hall.
He looked at the stern-faced Heavenly Emperor and said slowly, “Your Majesty, there is a lead on the Tree of Life.”
The Heavenly Emperor leaned forward at once. “Speak clearly. Where is the Tree of Life now? And who stole it?”
Orion Cliffside fell silent for a moment, as if weighing every word.
Then he said, “Reporting to Your Majesty, the Tree of Life was taken by someone of the Soul Clan. They brought it into another place. That place is... unusual. My powers are limited. I cannot divine it clearly.”
“Another place?” someone blurted out. “What place?”
Orion Cliffside’s brows knitted together. He seemed to hesitate, as though something was pressing hard against his throat and he could not easily spit it out.
Seeing this, someone in the hall could not hold back and urged, “Orion Cliffside, just say it!”
Orion Cliffside turned to the speaker, his expression heavy.
“The secrets of heaven cannot be lightly revealed. Whoever leaks heavenly secrets will suffer the backlash of Heavenly Dao...”
The Heavenly Emperor’s expression changed at once. “High God, do you at least know the Tree of Life’s general location?”
Orion Cliffside hesitated.
He lifted his eyes and met the Heavenly Emperor’s gaze. There was expectation there, and pressure too. In the end, he let out a long breath, as if he were bracing himself under a falling blade, and finally spoke.
“The Tree of Life was taken by the Soul Clan into the Three Thousand Worlds...”
“The Three Thousand Worlds?”
The hall stirred at once.
Someone frowned and asked sharply, “What do you mean by that, High God? Are you saying that under all heaven, there are more than just the Six Realms?”
Orion Cliffside nodded.
“Yes. There is more than the Six Realms. Beyond them, there are other worlds. And the Tree of Life is now in one of those worlds.”
The words dropped like thunder in the hall.
For a moment, even the immortals who had seen countless storms could not hide the shock on their faces.
The Heavenly Emperor pressed, “Then how do we go to those other worlds?”
Orion Cliffside lowered his eyes. After a pause, he said, “There is no way.”
The Heavenly Emperor’s brow furrowed tighter. Then something flashed through his mind, and he asked at once, “If there is no way, then how did the Soul Clan get there?”
“Reporting to Your Majesty...” Orion Cliffside looked at him and slowly shook his head. “I do not know.”
The Heavenly Emperor’s jaw tightened. He stared at Orion Cliffside and asked in a low voice, “Is there truly no other method?”
Orion Cliffside hesitated again, but in the end, he still said, “There is.”
The Heavenly Emperor’s eyes lit up on the spot. “What method?”
“One who possesses supreme fortune and is favored by Heavenly Dao can break through the rules of Heavenly Dao and leave this world.”
Silence fell inside Lingxiao Hall.
The Heavenly Emperor’s gaze swept over the gathered immortals one by one, then landed back on Orion Cliffside.
“Such a person... where is this person?”
Orion Cliffside answered, “Xiaoyao Palace. High God Ananke Vance.”
The Heavenly Emperor had more questions on the tip of his tongue, but before he could speak, Orion Cliffside’s face suddenly drained of all color.
His complexion went deathly pale.
The next moment, he jerked forward and spat out a mouthful of heart’s blood.
The splash of red against the cold floor was shocking.
Then his eyes rolled back, and he collapsed straight onto the hall floor.
The boy attendant at his side cried out in alarm and rushed over, catching him in a panic.
The Heavenly Emperor rose from the dragon throne at once. His face sank, and his voice turned heavy.
“What happened?”
The attendant held Orion Cliffside up, his hands already shaking.
“Reporting to Your Majesty, my master revealed heavenly secrets and suffered the backlash of Heavenly Dao. I fear that...”