Evan Yang entered this strange planet, and even stranger sect. Everywhere was silent, just like a primeval forest. Curious, Evan asked, "Leonard, how many people are there in our sect?"
"I'm not sure, but there should be about a thousand people, give or take," Leonard replied.
"Only a thousand?" Evan was a bit incredulous, so he asked again, "How long has our sect existed?"
"I don't know exactly, but I've heard from the sect master that it's been around for a very, very long time. If not hundreds of millions, then at least tens of millions of years," Leonard replied.
"That long?" Evan found it hard to believe—it just seemed too ancient.
"Yeah, our sect master has been around for tens of thousands of years. Before him, there were at least a thousand sect masters. But two million years ago, something happened—North Sect, which used to be powerful, ended up like this," Leonard replied.
"Why? What happened to North Sect back then?" Evan wasn't very familiar with North Sect and didn't know why it had fallen so far.
"The sect master said that way back, I don't know which generation, North Sect had many planets—not just this one. At its peak, it was a major sect with hundreds of planets. But one day, a group of Emperors suddenly attacked North Sect. They were not only strong, but numerous. Even though North Sect had dozens of Emperors and thousands of Immortal Lords, they were wiped out. In the end, only this planet remained," Leonard said.
"Wow." Evan was stunned by such power, unable to imagine North Sect's former strength.
"Surprised, right? When I first joined the sect, the senior brothers told me about it. I was just as shocked as you are now," Leonard said.
"Then let me ask, why wasn't this planet destroyed?" Seeing the planet still intact, Evan was puzzled.
"I don't know either. Apparently, some big figure showed up and stopped those attackers," Leonard said.
"A big figure? One person stopped a group of Emperors? What kind of strength did they have?" Evan asked, surprised.
"That I don't know. The sect master never told me," Leonard said helplessly.
"So our sect has such a history. By the way, with so few people, how can you help me search for someone?" Evan asked, confused.
"Don't worry, just watch." Leonard smiled. He murmured a few words to the surrounding trees, and they began to emit a faint green vapor—very light, like a diluted version of the Heaven‑Cold Seed's aura.
Then the vapors gathered together, forming many bird shapes. In the end, they looked just like real birds—they could chirp and fly.
One, two, and then thousands appeared. Leonard smiled, "They'll help you search, don't worry. I've already given them the person's image. Now, only you and I can see them—no one else can."
"What?" Evan hadn't expected such an ability—he could even decide who could see them and who couldn't.
"Watch." Leonard waved his hand, and the thousands of little birds flew off at high speed. Evan's divine sense quickly lost track of them.
"How are they formed, exactly?" Evan asked, puzzled.
"They're one of North Sect's arts—the Seeker Bird Art. It's pure natural vapor," Leonard replied.
"Seeker Bird Art? Pure natural vapor?" Evan didn't understand.
Leonard took the opportunity to explain the sect's arts. "North Sect has many pure‑natural techniques. All these arts are formed from natural things—like water, trees, spirit beasts. As long as something has spiritual awareness, it can be used."
"Spiritual awareness? You mean trees have that too?" Evan asked skeptically.
"That's right. These aren't ordinary trees. I'll teach you how to tell the difference later," Leonard said.
Evan listened carefully. He felt North Sect's arts were very strange, but his curiosity pushed him to see what was really going on.
Seeing Evan so focused, Leonard led him into a forest. They stopped in a patch of trees, and Leonard said, "This area will be yours from now on—no one will disturb you."
"Thanks, Leonard," Evan said.
"You're my junior brother now, so don't be so formal," Leonard laughed.
"Then I'll start calling you Senior Brother Leonard," Evan said with a smile.
"No need for that. Here—this is some history and techniques of North Sect. Take your time cultivating," Leonard laughed.
"That's it?" Evan saw everything copied onto a wooden block and was confused.
"Yeah, North Sect is very primitive," Leonard replied.
Evan felt helpless, then looked around and asked, "What if someone treats me as an outsider?"
"Don't worry. Just now, I released your aura. Now the whole sect knows about you," Leonard replied.
"When did that happen?" Evan asked, surprised.
"Just now. Look." Leonard smiled, opened his finger, and a puff of vapor floated out. Evan saw it, and thought about the Seeker Bird Art from earlier—maybe it was also a North Sect art. Evan grew even more curious about North Sect's techniques and smiled, "I'll study them carefully."
"If you have any questions, just go to the tenth cave to the right of the one I showed you earlier—that's where I stay," Leonard said.
Evan nodded in understanding, sent Leonard off, and looked around the forest. He thought about building a house, so he tried to gather some wood, but found he couldn't cut any from the trees.
"Amazing—are they impossible to cut down?" Evan exclaimed, puzzled.
Just as he finished speaking, the tree Evan tried to cut suddenly extended its branches and wrapped him up.
"Whoa—what is this now?" Evan exclaimed in shock.
"That's a tree that's gained sentience," Eldon suddenly said. Eldon, the Ancient Tree Soul Evan discovered earlier, instantly recognized its kin and informed Evan.
"Like you?" Evan asked curiously.
"Yeah, but it's much stronger than me," Eldon replied awkwardly.
Evan realized he must have upset the tree and said, "Do me a favor—explain it was just a misunderstanding."
Eldon started speaking in a tongue Evan couldn't understand, and soon Evan was set down, landing on the ground.
"This place is really weird," Evan said.
"Yeah, there are lots of ancient tree souls here, all stronger than me. They act like guardians of this land," Eldon replied.
"I see. They look just like normal trees, but once you experience them firsthand, they're definitely unusual," Evan said.
So Evan gave up on chopping wood for a house and instead found a small hill, dug a cave, and set up an array at the entrance before settling in.
"North Sect? Let me see how they identify these trees." Evan knew trees with spiritual awareness could be identified and followed Leonard's instructions.
Evan took out the record of North Sect's history and began reading it slowly.
North Sect has many arts, but their foundation is natural spiritual awareness—like controlling trees and communicating with spirit beasts.
Seeing how interesting the spirit‑communion art was, Evan skimmed it and found North Sect's spirit‑communion technique had seven levels.
Evan started learning the first level. It was tough at first, but Eldon helped him a lot. As Evan practiced, he used Eldon's relationship with the spiritual trees to aid his training.
Soon Evan mastered it, gradually able to communicate with the trees without Eldon's help.
This made Evan very happy, so he wanted to learn the Seeker Bird Art like Leonard. But the problem was, Seeker Bird Art required level 2 spirit‑communion, so Evan had to keep practicing.
After two years, Evan awoke from cultivation, having mastered the spirit‑communion art. Not only that, he could now use the Seeker Bird Art, though he could only command a thousand spirit birds—spiritual birds formed from energy—to search as he wished.
"Only by advancing spirit‑communion can I command more spirit birds," Evan thought. To form more spirit birds at once, he needed to master higher levels.
"Looks like I need to master spirit‑communion completely," Evan realized. Many arts, including Seeker Bird Art, required advanced spirit‑communion.
So Evan continued cultivating spirit‑communion, and his own cultivation quietly advanced, though he didn't notice.
After about twenty years, Evan mastered spirit‑communion to level seven—the highest level. Yet he felt something was off, as if the art wasn't truly complete.
So Evan sought out Leonard, who had visited him several times over the years. In the sect, Evan and Leonard were familiar, but the others hadn't met him.
"Evan, what brings you here?" Leonard said in surprise when he saw Evan.
"I wanted to ask—is the spirit‑communion art truly complete?" Evan asked curiously.
"You mean our North Sect's spirit‑communion art—the basic heart method?" Leonard asked.
Evan nodded. Leonard replied, 'It's complete.'
"Are you sure?" Evan asked curiously.
"It was passed down to me by a senior. Why do you ask?" Leonard replied, curious about Evan's odd look.
"I just have a feeling, but didn't know who to ask," Evan said.
"What kind of feeling? Tell me, maybe I can help," Leonard replied.
"It just feels incomplete—strangely so," Evan said.
"That's odd—you feel that way too?" Leonard said in surprise.
"What? You feel the same way?" Evan exclaimed, surprised.
"Not exactly. But I've heard that anyone who reaches level seven gets that feeling. Our sect founder left behind a cryptic message about it, but none of us understand it, and the sect leader hasn't explained." Leonard replied.