Looking at Ling Fan, who had just arrived with a large amount of stare rings floating behind him, Ling Yun couldn't help but shake her head.
"It looks like this one was poorer than the previous one," mumbled Ling Yun as she watched Ling Fan throw the spatial rings onto the pile.
Hearing his little sister's words, Ling Fan felt slightly exasperated.
"You should be happy we can loot so easily, if not for the fact that the disaster weakened most of the clans we would have had a much harder time stealing this much," said Ling Fan as he controlled the void ship to fly away.
"You don't have to lecture me, I know that very well, I'm not dumb," mumbled Ling Yun as she then continued going through the spatial rings, sorting their contents.
...
Looking at the enourmous tree before her, which had a portion of it's canopy dead, Cao Ling gritted her teeth.
"Little Cao, you don't have to be so sad, I've lived through worse in my life, you shouldn't underestimate an old tree like me, my roots aren't so easy to shake," said an old man as he suddenly appeared at the roots of the, staring at Cao Ling.
Hearing the words of the old tree, Cao Ling slightly calmed down, but even so, as she occasionally gazed at the withered leaves, some anger couldn't help but appear on her face.
After silently looking at the old tree for a while, Cao Ling suddenly became curious about something as she remembered the fight she had seen.
"Old man, are you really just a Dao Saint, how could you beat so many of those bugs as well as those cultivators?" asked Cao Ling remembering how a dozen or so Dao Saints, as well as someone even more powerful, attacked the old tree.
Even though the rock spirit, Yuanshi, fought three Dao Saints, lightening the load on the old tree, this was still incredibly impressive
Hearing Cao Ling's words, the old man couldn't help but nod.
"Do you know why Tree Spirits are considered the most powerful of the spirits, so much more so than grass, flowers, bushes?" asked the old man as he touched his long beard.
"Because they are rarer and have more potential?" asked Cao Ling, being completely uncertain.
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Hearing the response of the little grass spirit, the old man couldn't help but chuckle.
"No that's not it, rather, the answer is age," said the old man.
"Although us tree spirits grow very slowly, at the same time, our lifespans are very long, so almost every tree spirit you see could be considered an old monster."
"At the same time, all tree spirits are divided into two levels, those that have lived longer than three million years and those that have lived shorter than three million years."
"As the normal lifespan of tree spirits is extremely long, Dao Saint Realm tree spirits are almost immortal, as such, to restrict us, the Heavenly Dao introduced something."
"A Tribulation," said Cao Ling, without even waiting for the old man to speak
"That's true, A tree spirit needs to resist a tribulation every certain amount of time," said the old man, causing some worry to suddenly appear in the eyes of Cao Ling once again.
"Old man, you aren't close to death, are you?" asked Cao Ling as she looked at the old tree spirit.
Hearing Cao Ling's words, the old man couldn't help but burst out laughing.
"Don't worry, I may be the tree spirit farthest away from death in the Mortal Realm," said the old man, looking at Cao Ling, who seemed quite angry with him laughing.
Looking at the laughing old man, Cao Ling couldn't help but let out a snort before flying away.
...
After a few minutes, Cao Ling appeared in front of a huge boulder.
"Old man Yuanshi, as a rock spirit do you have any idea how long that old tree lived?" asked Cao Ling as she looked at the boulder.
A few moments after Cao Ling talked, an old man appeared in front of her.
"Honestly, I don't know, the only thing I do know, is that ever since he and I began guarding this place thirteen million years ago, he has never once faced any Heavenly Tribulation," said old man Yuanshi as he looked at the young Grass Spirit in front of him.
Hearing the words of the old rock, Cao Ling couldn't help but fall into deep thought.
"I can only say that he's at least twenty-three million years since hasn't experienced the ten million-year tribulation," said old man Yuanshi.
"Ten Million Year Tribulation?" asked Cao Ling, not being familiar with this tribulation.
"Yes, at Three Million, Ten Million, One Hundred Million, and one Billion years of age, Tree and Rock spirits experience tribulations," said Yuanshi, causing Cao Ling to temporarily fall into thought.
"Are there any tribulations after that?" asked Cao Ling.
"There shouldn't be, but we don't know, since the Two Tree Spirits and one Rock Spirit which passed this tribulation all ascended," said old man Yuanshi as he looked at the young girl.
...
As she walked through a field full of grass, Cao Ling couldn't move her thoughts away from the age of the old tree.
"Will I ever live as long?" mumbled Cao Ling as she felt the warm grass beneath her feet.
Suddenly, Cao Ling stopped, before immediately beginning to run toward a certain area of the field.
Staring at the grass in front of her, Cao Ling couldn't help but become emotional.
'System?'
[What is it, host?]
'Is Cao Ying a good name?' asked Cao Ling as she sat down on her knees and looked at the grass before her.
[...]
"Little Cao Ying, hopefully, you will be as cute as me," mumbled Cao Ling as she tenderly picked up a little blade of grass, protecting it using her spiritual power.
Sadly for the little blade of grass which had just gained consciousness, there was nobody here to protect it from receiving this name.