Chapter 572 551: First Sight of the True Rootless Wood

"Alright, we're pulling out."

Having collected the materials, Teacher Tang turned and said to the group.

Gu Ming nodded and was about to reply when Cyan Treasure suddenly trembled violently.

"What's wrong?"

Their minds were connected, and Gu Ming instantly sensed the disturbance inside Cyan Treasure.

The Seed of Rootless Wood Grass in its Dantian was resonating abnormally.

This seed had long since integrated into the Way of the Annular Time Core during Cyan Treasure's Evolution from Three-star to Four-star, becoming an inseparable source of Power within it.

Its reappearance now wasn't due to Cyan Treasure's own will, but rather a pull from an external energy.

Gu Ming's first instinct pointed to the dragon bones in the Dragon Transformation Pool.

This was the Inner World, where everything eroded the materials of the real world.

And from the system's perspective, Cyan Treasure, as a Time Dragon, was using its Time Talent to reverse time and view the cause of the local Ancient Dragon's death.

With these two factors combined, it was only natural for an accident to occur.

He quickly shifted some of his attention to the system's notification area.

Sure enough, at that very moment, a new message scrolled by:

"Cyan Treasure failed to fully reverse time on the Ancient Dragon's cause of death, but through its Time Reversal Talent, it glimpsed a scene of Rootless Wood's past presence."

"It turns out the Inner World's Rootless Wood once absorbed the spiritual essence of the dragon bones here."

"From that reversed memory, Cyan Treasure learned a fragment of the 'True Rootless Wood' Daoist Skill and had an epiphany."

"However, the new Daoist Skill belongs to the ways of the Inner World, which is not the same path as the ways of the current world. Cyan Treasure is deeply troubled, and its Dao Foundation of the Way of the Annular Time Core is already showing signs of instability."

'So, it's the system's fault,' he thought.

Cyan Treasure had been perfectly fine, but because of the system's temporal displacement, it had glimpsed something from another timeline that it shouldn't have seen.

Rootless Wood was a product of the Inner World.

How could its Dao Principles possibly be borne by a mere Four-star Level Cyan Treasure?

Merely knowing of them was enough to corrupt its Dao Foundation.

'If it naively trusts that Power from the opposite world and tries to integrate it into its own path…'

Gu Ming's expression changed slightly as he sensed something was wrong.

"Teacher, we have to get out of here, fast!"

They couldn't afford to stay here any longer.

The longer they remained, the more unstable Cyan Treasure's condition was likely to become.

The most important thing now was to get as far away from the Inner World's Ancient Dragon bones as possible.

Teacher Tang quickly swept his Divine Sense into Cyan Treasure's Dantian and saw the Seed of Rootless Wood Grass.

Its color had changed. It had lost its previous healthy luster, and instead looked as if it were stained with the darkness unique to the Inner World.

Above the seed, a Foundation Establishment Tripod had manifested, fiercely suppressing the mutation with the way of the Dragon Race.

Teacher Tang immediately looked at Master Xiao.

Master Xiao nodded and steered the Sea Beast beneath his feet into a rapid retreat.

It all happened in an instant.

From the pitch-black mist behind them, the voice of a dragon suddenly echoed.

Everyone's faces paled.

That sound, that direction... it seemed to be coming from the dragon skeleton.

'Did it come back to life?'

'Why is something happening at this critical moment?'

No one dared to look back.

Teacher Tang was possessed by his Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul, his powerful aura enveloping the area to resist the approaching Dragon Mighty.

Master Xiao also summoned another of his powerful Pet Beasts, expanding its aura.

They resisted the pressure while accelerating their escape, using a high-speed Secret Technique that forced their mount Pet Beasts to burn their own lifespans for a burst of speed, charging outward along the waterway.

But the sound from the dragon skeleton behind them grew closer and faster, and the shape of a bone dragon seemed to be rapidly approaching through the mist.

Suddenly, the air felt fresh, and the world outside was bright as light streamed in.

They knew at once that they had escaped, that they had left the borders of the Inner World.

However, the sound from the dragon skeleton did not stop. It completely tore through Space and stepped out from the Inner World.

RRRIP!

Gu Ming finally looked back instinctively and saw enormous, violet-black roots, like strands of flesh, wrapped around the parts of the Dragon Race skeleton where flesh was missing.

There were no flames burning in its empty eye sockets; it didn't look like a living creature.

It looked like a Wood Attribute dragon corpse saturated with void power and Dark Energy, a terrifying sight that seemed capable of Devouring everything.

Strangely, despite having "come alive," it had no Star Level aura at all, only the corrosive feeling of the Inner World, making it impossible to judge its Star Level strength.

Gu Ming's mouth went dry.

'How could that thing be the one chasing us...?'

'Didn't the system say it was a Time Reversal of the past? Those roots, both strange and familiar, shouldn't have been there.'

'Could it be... the cause and effect are reversed?'

'The entity was actually there, so the system described it as Cyan Treasure performing a Time Reversal to "correct" the perceptual error between the two sides.'

Teacher Tang looked back and tasted a familiar source of Power from the puppet dragon.

"Isn't that Cyan Treasure's Rootless Wood?

"The Power of these two is from the exact same source."

Despite this, he had no intention of confronting it.

Teacher Tang raised his right arm, clenched his fist, and thrust it forward.

The Profound Celestial Beast Ghost Soul behind him, clad in ethereal fire armor, swung its massive fist forward. The fist swelled to a hundred times its size, burning with ghostly flames that carried the Power to sear souls, and smashed viciously toward the puppet dragon.

The punch landed squarely on the dragon skeleton's skull.

The ethereal fire spread along the bone seams, emitting a sizzling, burning sound.

However, the skeleton merely reeled back slightly as the wood fibers on its surface immediately surged out, enveloping and extinguishing the ethereal fire layer by layer.

Enraged, the Ancient Dragon let out a low roar. Its bone claws, wrapped in violet-black vines, swept out, tearing open large rifts in Space.