The mother god was a slender young woman in a leaf-green dress.

  “How beautiful.”

  Tang Wan-er and the others stared in amazement. This woman gave off a feeling that they had never seen before. It was a gentleness that could infect a person’s soul.

  Her beauty contained a warmth others did not possess, and her light green eyes contained a certain look, as if she had seen worlds be born, grow, age, and die. A green ripple appeared on the earth with every step she took. It was as if she was a primordial elf born at the same time as the first tree.

  Her beauty was not just in her appearance but also the warmth of her soul. Anyone looking at her would feel an involuntary closeness to her. They would even feel willing to entrust their lives to her.

  The Luo Spirit race’s experts knelt on the ground, piously calling her name. This woman was the Luo Spirit race’s mother god.

  “Respected nine star heir, thank you for your favor. Ling Xi will represent the Luo Spirit race in revering you as a god for as long as our race exists. We will listen to your guidance.” The women bowed to Long Chen.

  “Senior, uh…” Long Chen didn’t know how to respond. This person was the god of the Luo Spirit race, and she was acting so deferentially to him that he felt unnatural.

  “Please, call me Ling Xi,” said the woman.

  “Cough, alright, then… Ling Xi… I should be the one thanking you. When I was in trouble, the Luo Spirit race saved me. Without the Luo Spirit race, I might already be dead. The favor of a drop of water in need must be repaid with a gushing spring, let alone the favor of saving my life. Furthermore, we were already mortal enemies with Ye Ming and the divine families before this. You have no need to thank us. We must thank you instead for saving us,” said Long Chen.

  The reason Long Chen had ended up chasing them to the mother tree was because Ye Ming had set up his trap this way. They didn’t do this to save the mother tree, and they didn’t risk their lives for the Luo Spirit race. They had to stop Ye Ming from recovering the Heaven Devouring Fiend King’s full power.

  He had only done all this to protect himself. Even without seeing Qi Li be killed, he would have taken the risk of activating the Six Star Battle Armor.

  Fighting for his life had now been taken as a huge favor by the Luo Spirit race. Despite how thick Long Chen’s skin was, he couldn’t accept it.

  “Nine star heir, you-,” Ling Xi smiled.

  “You can call me Long Chen instead. To tell the truth, I’m not a good person, so you don’t need to be so respectful to me. I’ll feel guilty otherwise,” said Long Chen.

  Meng Qi and the others exchanged a smile. Long Chen truly had never gotten accustomed to talking so solemnly. He would rather laugh and joke around.

  The disciples of the Martial Heaven Alliance had seen countless so-called geniuses but had not encountered someone like Long Chen. He was dauntless in the face of powerful enemies. That kind of fearless courage was extremely admirable. But normally he didn’t put on airs, nor did he act icily arrogant like others. Even facing those weaker than him, he didn’t go out of his way to express his superiority.

  In their eyes, this was a true expert worthy of following. Rather than someone who had to trample over other people’s dignity to show how different they were, this kind conduct was what made them feel heartfelt respect. His pride did not need others to back it up.

  “Alright, senior Long Chen…”
“Actually, I’m not older than you, so you can just call me Long Chen.”
“Hahaha…” Everyone laughed, while Meng Qi and the others shook their heads. Long Chen really made people speechless. But he was correct, he truly couldn’t compare to the mother tree who had lived for countless years.

  This laughter lightened the sorrow they were feeling inside. Ling Xi stared blankly, seemingly not understanding why people were laughing. She awkwardly said, “Perhaps I am not able to communicate properly with you, so I will have Qi Li take my place. I will return to the mother tree. It will take some time to fully activate the life god source, so I won’t accompany you any longer.”
Ling Xi bowed to Long Chen once more before fading.

  Long Chen stared awkwardly. “Is she angry?”
“Hehe, no, the mother god doesn’t like talking to others. She normally only communicates using mental messages. But that would be rude to someone like you, so she came out herself. To tell the truth, it is said that she has never revealed her true form before. We’ve all benefited from you.” Qi Li laughed.

  “You have to call him senior Long Chen, or it would be rude to the god,” reminded La Wei.

  “Hmph, I don’t need your reminder,” said Qi Li stubbornly.

  Long Chen hastily said, “You can just call me big brother Long Chen. That makes us seem closer, and we don’t need to feel so guarded when talking.”
“Do you see? You don’t even know how to analyze the god’s thoughts. How can you be the god’s emissary?” snorted Qi Li at La Wei.

  “He just needs to analyze your thoughts and that will be enough,” said Long Chen with a smile. Turning to everyone, he said, “Let’s all rest here. Everyone’s exhausted from the battle.”
This battle had truly been tense. They had been on the edge of death the entire time, and the appearance of the endless Black Armor Corps had truly brought them immense pressure.

  With the order to rest, many people directly fell asleep on the ground. Theoretically, cultivators didn’t need to sleep, but due to the sudden relaxation of their tense nerves, the best thing for their recovery was to return to the most primitive state of sleeping.

  The battle report quickly came in. Over three hundred thousand of their disciples had died. As for the Dragonblood Legion, they had also suffered seventeen casualties. There was no way around it. In such a terrifying battle, they could not maintain zero losses.

  The Dragonblood warriors were silent when they heard that. Seventeen losses. That was not a number. That represented seventeen life and death brothers that were gone forever.

  “Boss, it’s my fault. My directions…” Xia Chen shook his head.

  Long Chen waved his hand. “Don’t say anything foolish like blaming yourselves. We entrust our lives to each other. There were no mistakes in our battle. We are the strongest legion, and there is no need to doubt our power. It is simply that we had far too many enemies this time. Without you, the Dragonblood Legion would have taken far more losses. I’m sure those fallen brothers don’t blame you. But they’ll be disappointed if you feel guilty over it.”
Xia Chen nodded and clenched his fists. He didn’t say anything else. They had been surrounded from the start and pincered over and over again. There had even been a shameless opponent like Zhao Ritian launching sneak attacks and breaking into their formation.

  Although that couldn’t be blamed on Xia Chen, he still felt like he hadn’t done enough. He would further study and improve his formations in the future.

  “It’s also our equipment that can’t keep up with us any longer. If it weren’t for Zhao Ritian, they wouldn’t have died,” said Guo Ran hatefully. As he said this, he smashed a hammer on his forging table, causing everyone to jump.

  “AH!” A scream came from the forging table. Countless fragments of golden immortal metal flew out.

  Everyone stared. That was Zhao Ritian’s voice. He was trapped in the forging table, but his scream was quite healthy. Before this, he had been on his last breaths.

  Guo Ran repeatedly smashed his hammer, causing more and more fragments of immortal metal to fly out. They quickly piled up.

  “What’s going on?” asked Long Chen.

  “Hehe, this dogshit Zhao Ritian, I put the immortal metals and ores that I gathered into the forging table on purpose. As expected, he secretly absorbed them to recover. Now I’m making him spit out what he ate. This is saving me quite a bit of time purifying and refining the ores. Here, brothers, if you want to vent, you can try it too. Take the hammer and smash out the immortal metal. It’s like extracting juice, but it also brings him a lot of pain. It’s very satisfying. Anyone want to try it?” Guo Ran put his hammer down.

  It had to be noted that Guo Ran had previously said that a Forging Master would not allow others to touch their forging table or hammer. But this time, Guo Ran was breaking that rule for everyone.

  “It’s that great?” Long Chen stepped forward, but he was too late. Someone else had taken the hammer.

  “Dogshit Zhao Ritian, so such a day has come for you.”
“AHH!”
Zhao Ritian’s screams rang out as people repeatedly hammered him. Worried about the disturbance, Xia Chen set up a barrier to prevent the noise from spreading.

  Zhao Ritian’s screams were like music in their ears.

  “Long Chen, you bastard, a warrior can be killed but not humiliated! AH! If you have the guts, then just kill me!” Zhao Ritian’s voice rang out, filled with hatred. The response was another strike of the hammer.