Ninth In the World

“No, my friend!” the Tiny Treant screamed. “I can’t leave. If I could, I would have already left. I have no body, so I can’t leave this place.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t believe you. I will only believe you when I turn you to ashes.” The fireball in Di Jiu’s hand dropped slowly.

The Tiny Treant cried eagerly, “No, big brother! I have a proposition for you. You could restrain me…”

The circumstances were so urgent that the Tiny Treant had even called him big brother.

“What do you propose?” Di Jiu retracted the fireball. Although he had completed the sixth-stage Qi Refinement realm, he really had no means of restraining the Tiny Treant.

“I could teach you the restriction technique. You could imprison me. Restriction is a branch of the array formation, so sometimes it is more useful than the array formation itself. Many people arranged a Dharma Array by combining this restriction technique with it…”

Di Jiu, who did not want to waste time speaking with the Tiny Treant, slapped its head. “Just get to the point.”

“Yes, yes…” The Tiny Treant said immediately and began elaborating on the restriction technique and explaining all about the array formation. The Tiny Treant had acquired a very powerful memory from an array-formation genius, so when it described the array formation and the restriction technique to Di Jiu, it did so slowly and in great detail.

Di Jiu, who had never touched this subject, had always been yearning to learn about the array formation. Thanks to the Tiny Treant’s explanation, he quickly immersed himself in a vast sea of knowledge and completely forgot about looking for the storage ring.

People who had a strong desire for knowledge found that the time spent learning always went by too fast. The Tiny Treant’s mouth was dry from talking, yet Di Jiu was still listening carefully with no intention of stopping.

The Tiny Treant did not have the courage to stop when Di Jiu did not ask it to. It knew all about his power, so it was afraid that he could easily burn it to death.

As two days passed quickly, the most tormented entity around was actually not the Tiny Treant, but Yu Jie.

Although she could already stand up on her legs, she was very hungry. She had not eaten for a few days, so she felt a little weak as she walked.

When she approached Di Jiu, she saw that he was still immersed in the array formation. He seemed unable to extricate himself, which was probably why he was trying to practise the restriction technique. Yu Jie could only stare at the Tiny Treant and point to her stomach.

She knew very well that the Tiny Treant’s evil ways would be matched by another evil person. Actually, it was questionable whether Di Jiu was a wicked person, but the Tiny Treant had still been subdued by him. Considering that the Tiny Treant was respectfully telling Di Jiu about the array formation and the restriction technique, if she asked it what there was to eat, there would probably be no problem.

The Tiny Treant looked on bitterly as it spoke dryly to Di Jiu and imparted the knowledge of the array formation while also taking something out for Yu Jie to eat.

The Tiny Treant threw a cyan-colored lump about the size of an egg at her. The lump felt somewhat soft in her hands. Although Yu Jie was very skeptical about whether it was edible, her stomach was growling and the soft cyan lump in her hand seemed to have a clear plant fragrance.

Yu Jie believed that the Tiny Treant would not dare offend Di Jiu, so she simply closed her eyes and ate the lump.

A soft heat spread all over Yu Jie’s body. Suddenly, she felt filled with an indescribable energy. She quickly sat down and ran through her own cultivation techniques. Her cultivation level, which had been stuck so far, now loosened.

Soon, Yu Jie was surprised to find out that she had broken through the late-stage Earth Tier Level. Her cultivation level was still rising, so even though she didn’t understand anything, Yu Jie could tell that the cyan lump the Tiny Treant had given her was a good thing.

This lump not only made her strength increase rapidly, but it also made her feel hungry no more.

Yu Jie noticed that Di Jiu was still studying the restriction technique and Dharma Array. How could he not tell that she needed to seize this opportunity and practise right now?

…

Di Jiu was awakened by starvation. He had not cultivated lately, and going a week without completing a Spirit Qi Circulation would not allow him to last for half a month. Just five days later, he opened his eyes.

The Tiny Treant had stopped explaining and moving. Di Jiu noticed that Yu Jie, who was right next to him, had recovered and reached a healthy weight again. Yu Jie’s entire body fluctuated with essence energy, which was obviously a sign that her cultivation level had advanced.

How was this possible? Only a few days ago, she had been as thin as a match. How had she recovered? Before her recovery, Yu Jie had looked like a thin bamboo pole, yet now her amazing attraction shone through.

Under her fair neck her snow-white chest made one want to snoop through her loose clothes.

Thanks to the cultivation, the faint fluctuations of the essence energy around Yu Jie gave her a bit of a charm.

Di Jiu, who was not lecherous, moved his gaze away and looked at the Tiny Treant, who was watching him nervously. “Hey, small tree root. Why don’t you go on with your explanation?”

The Tiny Treant almost cried out. “I have been explaining for several days and nights, big brother. I’ll go dumb if I continue.”

When he heard the Tiny Treant’s hoarse voice, Di Jiu nodded. “If that’s the case, then I will not hold it against you. How come she suddenly recovered?”

The Tiny Treant looked at Di Jiu and said, “I could tell that you were very concerned about her, so I gave her an ancient tree life-force.”

Di Jiu’s mouth twitched. It hadn’t given this to him, yet it had given it to Yu Jie. He immediately said, “How many ancient tree life-forces are there? Give them all to me.”

“Yes, yes…” The Tiny Treant did not dare say no to Di Jiu. It quickly took out a bunch of fist-sized cyan life-forces and handed them over. “This is all.”

Di Jiu was naturally more knowledgeable than Yu Jie, so when he touched that bunch of cyan things, he felt their vitality. This was definitely something valuable.

“Not bad. You were sincere.” As Di Jiu spoke, he raised his hand and gestured.

The Tiny Treant’s restriction technique and knowledge were much stronger than Di Jiu’s, so it knew that these gestures were part of a restriction technique. Although it could block Di Jiu’s restriction technique with a variety of techniques, it did not dare move. All it could do was let Di Jiu restrain it with this technique so it could not move anymore.

The grievances in its heart were like drops of water in a river. It had taught Di Jiu the restriction technique, yet now that he had learned it, it wanted to ban it. The Tiny Treant did not think it was sincere. It just knew what was to come.

Yu Jie was really caught up in her cultivation, yet when Di Jiu restricted the Tiny Treant, she walked towards the pit they had encountered.

It had only been a few days, so Di Jiu’s array formation and restriction technique were just getting started. However, he could already feel the boundless nature of the array formation. Even the Tiny Treant had touched a corner of this vast, boundless road.

When he was free, he would have to spend a lot of time researching the array formation and the three jade slips Ai Di had taken. It seemed like those jade slips were still very valuable, so as soon as he got back, he would take the Crimson Sea Array Sect’s refining jade slip from Ai Di.

…

Inside the pit were only bones. Di Jiu rolled up two backpacks and threw them aside. One of them had to be Yu Jie’s, while the other one probably belonged to the genius cultivator called Si Ta.

Di Jiu’s mental strength scanned those bones repeatedly. After searching for more than an hour, he did not find anything of value.

It seemed like the Tiny Treant was very selective about attracting people in. If an expert slept on the roots of the tree, the Tiny Treant would usually not activate the trap array. Only when it felt that it could deal with the person did it roll them down and eat them.

One more hour later, when Di Jiu still couldn’t find anything useful, he got a little angry. Had the Tiny Treant lied to him? It made sense that a cultivator who could easily take away the ancient tree spirit essence would be no ordinary person.

How could an extraordinary person not even own a storage device? Even if there was no storage ring, what about a storage bag?

How could there be nothing there?

Just as Di Jiu was about to go back and look for the Tiny Treant, his mental strength sensed a thick, ring-like object.

When his mental strength revolved around it, a finger landed by his feet.

Di Jiu bent down and saw it clearly. There was a small ring on the phalanx of the finger, but the color of the ring was the same as the color of the phalanx. It was the grayish-white of a skeleton, which was why he had not seen it the first time.

Was that a storage ring? Di Jiu picked up the ring, which looked like a bone, and took it off the phalanx for a while. He wondered if it was really a storage ring, as it was too small to fit even on his little finger.

Had the guy who had been killed by the Tiny Treant worn a storage ring on the bones beneath his flesh?

Di Jiu’s thoughts permeated the small skeletal ring and touched the first restricting layer.

When he felt this layer, Di Jiu was really happy. He had been in contact with the restriction technique ever since he had first refined the kitchen knife, yet now he could easily arrange the beginner-level restriction and introductory array formation. This meant that the small bone ring was a dharma treasure that could possibly be refined.

Di Jiu put away the ring, picked up the two bags and turned away. He had decided to get out of there and refine the skeletal ring he had found as soon as he could.