World's No. 1 Swordsman-Chapter 635: The Divine Tree Hidden Within a Mustard Seed

Chapter 635: The Divine Tree Hidden Within a Mustard Seed

Spring brought green fields and blooming flowers. Summer followed with cicadas and the songs of insects. In autumn, they crossed countless starry currents and quenched their thirst with dewdrops. In winter, they trod upon deep snow, leaving scattered footprints behind.

More than two years after leaving the thirteen qi planets, Wang Sheng faced the ever-changing expanse of space, living day by day in just such a rhythm.

Leisure was already rare, and having his senior sister by his side made it even more precious. For the moment, he no longer had to worry about great matters of right and wrong, nor concern himself with endless troubles. Instead, he immersed himself in her gentle presence and lingered there without wishing to pull away.

After passing through the fourth primal qi passage, Mu Wanxuan finally realized that she should not let her junior brother handle everything alone while she buried herself in cultivation and comprehension.

She had forgotten that her junior brother still had to steer the Shadowless Shuttle, observe the surrounding environment, and remain vigilant against potential danger at all times. By the time she noticed that he woke her up whenever they entered or exited a primal qi passage, she had already remembered that the Shadowless Shuttle had no form of automatic control.

From that point on, Mu Wanxuan took the initiative to slow down her cultivation. Each time they passed through a primal qi passage, she would spend several days playing and relaxing with her junior brother.

She would at times play the zither or the flute, producing gentle and lingering melodies. Other times, she would exude a shy charm as she gracefully performed a few moves of the Rainbow Feather Dance[1], which she had learned from Xi Lian. Her dancing had a unique allure to it. Every now and then, she would also sit and read manga, resting against her junior brother as though he were a cushion.

All of this proved that when two hearts were truly bound together, it was best to remain side by side through every dawn and dusk. Their time together grew ever more natural, and their closeness gradually lost its initial awkwardness.

Wang Sheng would occasionally tease her on purpose. Mu Wanxuan still blushed often, but she no longer deliberately rejected it except when she truly did not understand.

With a sword spirit watching from nearby, the two always maintained proper boundaries. It reminded Wang Sheng of his innocent first love from his previous life, when even holding hands felt like a treasured moment.

It was a simple form of romance, yet no less sincere.

Over two and a half years, he came to understand what "heaven on earth" truly meant. When one was accompanied by the person they loved, even the quiet vastness of space could become a paradise.

They grew to understand each other more deeply, their coordination becoming ever smoother. At suitable moments, Wang Sheng would teach his senior sister a few things about relationships between men and women. She gradually moved from confusion to enlightenment.

Perhaps because of the traditional upbringing she had received from Qing Yanzi, Mu Wanxuan remained quite conservative at heart. The sword spirit further reinforced this by occasionally popping out to assert her presence and whisper in Mu Wanxuan's ear, reminding her to preserve certain precious things and to offer them only to each other after marriage.

As Yaoyun had put it, doing everything before marriage turned the wedding itself into a mere formality. They would lose much of the anticipation.

Wang Sheng was at a loss for words. He truly wanted to seal his sword.

Overall, their journey was exceptionally comfortable. The message talismans remained silent, and the thirteen qi planets stayed peaceful—just as Wang Sheng had left them. Gradually, he set aside his worries and focused on guiding his senior sister toward the region of space where the divine tree resided.

The closer they drew to it, the easier Mu Wanxuan could detect it. This differed from Lishang's connection to her ancestral land, which not only actively called out to her but also offered her a precise direction and urged her to return for cultivation and breakthrough.

Unlike Lishang, Mu Wanxuan could only vaguely sense the divine tree's general direction. She could not determine the distance or locate its exact valley.

This uncertainty greatly increased the difficulty.

According to Huai Jing, the divine tree was a primordial spiritual root that had an incomparably powerful vitality. Such an existence was a supreme treasure in itself. Once it appeared in the world, countless experts would inevitably rush to seize it.

Right now, the divine tree was probably still hiding from mortal sight. They could even end up spending more time trying to locate it than they would on travelling.

Even after emerging from the twelfth primal qi passage, Mu Wanxuan still couldn't sense the divine tree clearly. Wang Sheng guided her to fly beyond the boundaries of the nearby celestial body, then lingered in space to observe it carefully. They once again detected the aura of a Golden Immortal.

Along their journey, they had passed by twenty-four celestial bodies and encountered four separate auras belonging to Golden Immortals. Each time, the two had deliberately kept their distance to avoid provoking conflict.

Golden Immortals and Heavenly Immortals existed on entirely different planes of existence. With an endless lifespan at their disposal, no one could measure how terrifying a Golden Immortal could be. Even if they were only at the early stage of the Golden Immortal Realm, they could single-handedly defeat any Heavenly Immortal.

This was the terrifying weight of the word "endless."

Wang Sheng said softly, "Senior Sister, try to get its direction."

Mu Wanxuan had already sat cross-legged beside him, eyes closed in deep concentration. A short moment later, she raised her hand and pointed into the distant starry skies.

Wang Sheng immediately felt a wave of relief. At the very least, she was not pointing toward the celestial body that the Golden Immortal guarded. Searching for the divine tree under the watchful gaze of such a being would be far too... thrilling.

He smiled lightly. "The divine tree is likely concealed somewhere. Buddhist Master Huai Jing said it rests within Emperor Qinghua's former residence. Perhaps we will gain other rewards as well."

Wang Sheng wondered if they could also find fragments of Mu Wanxuan's damaged true spirit within the divine tree.

Mu Wanxuan nodded gently, though her delicate eyebrows knit slightly as she whispered, "Be careful."

She formed a few hand signs, urging him not to take risks. Even if they returned empty-handed, she could still reach the Golden Immortal Realm without relying on remnants of her past life.

"Mm," Wang Sheng replied.

He piloted the Shadowless Shuttle at a measured pace. Making sure not to disturb the Golden Immortal, he quietly left the range of their overwhelming aura.

The Shadowless Shuttle flew on for several days in nothing but empty space. All they discovered was a binary solar system performing an elegant waltz across the universe.

The planetary orbits within this system were somewhat complex, and all three planets were desolate stars, as the endless space called them. They were devoid of primal qi and had no trace of life.

Wang Sheng asked his senior sister to detect the divine tree's location once more. This time, Mu Wanxuan pointed back the way they had come.

He asked in surprise, "We flew past it? Did we come across a planet along the way?"

"Um..." She shook her head gently. "Don't know."

Wang Sheng muttered, "It could be in some sort of hidden realm."

He guided the Shadowless Shuttle back along their route, taking greater care than before.

After several more days of flight, they once again approached the celestial body that a Golden Immortal guarded. Mu Wanxuan tried to detect the divine tree again and pointed toward the initial direction.

They seemed to have brushed past the divine tree twice.

What's going on?

After a brief discussion, Wang Sheng adjusted their course and began wandering through space in every direction. Mu Wanxuan continued to pinpoint the divine tree's location, while Wang Sheng marked each direction on the star map.

The more arrows he drew, the smaller the margin of error became. The divine tree was likely hiding where all the arrows converged.

The Shadowless Shuttle crept forward. The two tensed up as Wang Sheng expanded his immortal perception to its furthest range. However, when they matched their position to the star map and arrived at the point of the arrows' convergence, all they found was empty space.

Wang Sheng frowned. "Most likely some sort of illusory array."

Mu Wanxuan acted decisively. Yin and Yang qi surged from her palm as she prepared to leap from the Shadowless Shuttle. "Let's try."

However, Wang Sheng quickly stopped her. "Wait. If someone powerful is hiding in that illusion, we would be walking straight into danger."

His senior sister blinked. "What do?"

After a moment of thought, he decided to employ a secret technique of the Heavenly Court: the Sword-Spirit Summoning Technique!

Yaoyun was well-versed in arrays. Moreover, as a former princess of the Heavenly Court, she had studied under countless great figures.

Even so, after probing within the shuttle for quite some time, she could only say, "I can faintly sense abnormalities in the fabric of space here, but the fluctuations are extremely subtle. Anyone capable of creating this is certainly no ordinary expert. If my guess is correct, this may be the entrance to Emperor Qinghua's former residence. It likely uses the ancient art of mustard seed containment."

"Mustard seed? What do you mean?" Wang Sheng asked.

Yaoyun patiently explained, "It's a profound divine ability within the Dao of Heaven and Earth that alters certain rules of the Great Dao, allowing a region no larger than a fingernail to contain an entire small world. Without the proper method, it is nearly impossible to enter."

The trio fell into worried silence.

Waiting idly did not suit Wang Sheng, though. He piloted the Shadowless Shuttle through the surrounding space, conducting a thorough search. After two months of effort, he completed a detailed star map of the region.

Using the suspected location of the divine tree as the center, he explored countless miles outward and discovered three celestial bodies. Among them, the closest remained the one that a Golden Immortal guarded.

This region lacked fertile lands like those of ancient battlefields. Most cultivators stayed on their own celestial bodies to cultivate in peace, rarely venturing out. Hence, information was scarce.

Wang Sheng brought his senior sister to the other two celestial bodies to inquire, yet no one could offer any clue about hidden realms in the nearby space.

They couldn't even find a single rumor.

Reaching his wits' end, he considered swinging the Dragon Sword at random around the divine tree's suspected location, hoping to stumble upon something by chance.

However, at that moment, Wang Sheng sensed a streak of light approaching from the direction of the celestial body under a Golden Immortal's protection. Judging by their trajectory, the target appeared to be the hidden location of the divine tree.

This likely stemmed from the stroke of fortune that he had gained from Yaoyun.

Fortunately, the Shadowless Shuttle was no ordinary artifact; it was a treasure of the Heavenly Court. The approaching cultivator failed to notice the presence of the trio.

Wang Sheng piloted the shuttle several dozen miles away. Afterward, he spread his immortal perception across the area where the divine tree was concealed and waited in silence.

The streak of light arrived swiftly, showing no attempt to hide its aura or form. From the strength of their presence, they seemed to belong to a late-stage Heavenly Immortal.

Upon reaching the location, the light slowed abruptly and halted within the very region where Wang Sheng and the others had lingered for so long. The cultivator took out a jade pendant and formed rapid hand signs, causing a vortex to suddenly appear in space and swallow the person whole.

"Went in!" Mu Wanxuan exclaimed.

Wang Sheng, Mu Wanxuan, and Yaoyun exchanged glances, then broke into laughter almost at the same time. After searching high and low, the answer had finally fallen into their hands.

Yet almost immediately, Wang Sheng's brow furrowed deeply. He lowered his voice. "This is bad. Things just became troublesome."

"How so?" Yaoyun asked. "When he comes back out, we can simply capture him. Are you worried he is stronger than you?"

"That's not it," Wang Sheng replied. "He came from Qiling's direction. I recently learned that there is only one celestial sect there, and its sect master is a Golden Immortal. If we act rashly, we might manage to get in, but we wouldn't be able to leave alive."

Yaoyun and Mu Wanxuan both fell into contemplation once more. Wang Sheng also pondered the situation in silence.

1. A type of Chinese dance that uses long sleeve ribbons. ☜