After leaving Ascension City and arriving at a desolate spot, Joe Di once again activated the Realmshatter Talisman.
A surge of violent power instantly tore through the void before him. Joe Di's spiritual sense was at least ten times stronger than when he first used the Realmshatter Talisman. His spiritual sense quickly located the familiar Skyveil.
Joe Di slipped into the rifted void, his divine body and powerful movement technique allowing him to reach the outside of Skyveil almost the instant the Realmshatter Talisman was activated. The talisman erupted a second time, tearing open a seam in Skyveil. Joe Di darted through the gap and landed atop the Skyveil domain.
Back when Joe Di was only at the Soul Ancestor Stage, he couldn't sense the laws here. Now, at the peak of the Transforming True Stage, with spiritual sense at the eleventh level, he could immediately feel the shattered rules of heaven and earth upon landing on Skyveil.
Joe Di had no intention of cultivating here; the first thing he sensed was Sprout's location.
......
Back then, when Joe Di saw the blue flames at the bottom of Flamecrest in Skyveil, a dull, withered Rootling hung its head, and not far from it, there was a black beetle about the size of a fist.
"Sprout, don't act like your boss just died all day long." The black beetle gleamed with a shiny black luster, looking far more lively than the withered Rootling.
"Shadow Scarab, I'm warning you, from now on you have to call me 'Big Tree.' If you keep calling me Sprout, I'll cut ties with you!" The drooping Rootling suddenly sprang up as if its tail had been stepped on.
The black beetle retorted, flying in the air, "You're definitely Sprout. If you have the guts, stop calling me Shadow Scarab. I'm way more handsome than your shriveled bark. From now on, you must call me Blackfire."
"Shadow Scarab, Shadow Scarab, Shadow Scarab..."
Rootling called out 'Shadow Scarab' several times in a row. According to past routines, it would usually repeat these three words dozens of times, until its mouth was dry and it couldn't speak anymore.
But today, Rootling only called out 'Shadow Scarab' three times before stopping. Instead, it leapt up with joy, "I sense Big Brother has arrived! Hahaha! Your Sprout is wise and mighty—I knew Big Brother wouldn't abandon me for someone new..."
The black beetle clearly sensed Joe Di's presence too, and flew directly to Rootling's head, hopping around as it said, "I feel it too—Big Brother really is here!"
Rootling reacted quickly, tossing the black beetle aside with a shake of its head. "Shadow Scarab, you just cursed Big Brother to die. I'm definitely telling him about it."
The black beetle jumped three feet high, "Sprout, don't make things up! When did I ever curse Big Brother to die? Big Brother hates lying tree roots the most. Don't try to suck up and get burned by him. If you ask me, you'd better tell Big Brother not to come here."
Sprout quickly responded, "That's right, he can't come here. That sickly ghost outside has been refining Flamecrest all along. If Big Brother shows up, he'll be caught for sure. We're doomed..."
"How about we sneak out?" The black beetle sounded much less arrogant now, perhaps because Sprout had caught it in a lie.
Sprout snorted, "Shadow Scarab, you blockhead, you were the one who wanted to hide here in the first place. This is Flamecrest, so of course you can eat fire, but it's ruined your uncle's smooth bark, making it uglier every day. Now that sickly ghost outside has set up a Trap Array, and you want to leave? If we could get out, would your uncle still be stuck in this hellhole?"
The black beetle hung its head, seemingly afraid to argue with Sprout. Though it secretly looked down on Sprout for always being an old tree bark before coming in, when it first hid here, it never expected the little tree root to be so fragile. After all, they were only at the bottom of Flamecrest, not actually making the roots burn.