The Garden of Yin-Yang Trees

At Yingxiong's shout, Xiao Chen quickly turned to look. A black shadow, as silent as a specter, had pressed itself against his back, grinning at him with a sinister air. Its features were indistinguishable, but the malevolent hatred radiating from it was unmistakably clear.

“Chi chi…”

War swords cut through the void in an instant, a dozen streaks of dazzling divine light illuminating the pitch-black ancient hall. But to their shock, the swords struck empty air. The black shadow vanished before their eyes.

“Pfft.”

It sounded like a ghost breathing beside their ears. In the next instant, the hall plunged into absolute darkness. Not a single glimmer remained; even the divine radiance from the war swords and the stone statue was utterly swallowed by the blackness.

A deathly silence reigned in the ancient hall, so dark one could not see their own hand. An icy chill spread, and the cold yin aura felt like a malevolent ghost blowing on their necks.

Suddenly, Renwairen felt a cold touch on his nape. An icy claw had grasped his neck, and a nauseating stench of putrefaction filled the air, sending goosebumps across his skin.

“Ah…!” Renwairen shouted. His blood vitality surged, blazing with yang energy to repel the yin aura. In the same motion, he tucked his head, ducked, and spun, his right hand slashing backward.

“Pfft.”

Although Renwairen looked like a child, he was a formidable Half-Ancestor. His right hand, sharp as a blade, tore through space and carved across the reeking black shadow.

A cold, sinister aura burst forth. The black shadow was sent flying. It vanished into thin air in the next breath. On the ground lay a rotting chunk of flesh the size of a dragon’s eye, so foul it made one retch.

“Such frightening speed. Even spatial translocation can’t match it,” Renwairen exclaimed. He had used his spatial arts, yet still could not lock onto the ghostly shadow.

The stench from the ground was like a decay that had festered for centuries, unbearable.

“Damn it! My hand!” Renwairen’s jade-like fingers had turned pitch black, the corruption spreading from his fingertips toward the base of his hand. This was corpse poison, potent enough to wound even a Half-Ancestor—evidence that the rotting corpse was far from ordinary.

Xiao Chen, Tianwaitian, and Yingxiong quickly surrounded him, guarding his side. Renwairen’s body blazed with overwhelming yang energy like a great furnace, slowly forcing the blackness out. Drops of black liquid fell to the ground with a sizzling hiss, their acrid odor stinging the nose.

“What kind of fiend is that?” Xiao Chen asked.

Yingxiong replied, “I assumed first it was my sworn brother, but now I think not.”

Tianwaitian said, “It could well be that millennial rotting corpse from the first hall.”

All of them had reached the Half-Ancestor realm, backed by formidable power. Though unsettled, they were not afraid. They decided to retrace their steps and investigate.

In the pitch-black first hall, the stench of decay was overwhelmingly thick, but the rotting corpse on the ground had vanished without a trace.

“It really was him!” Tianwaitian circled the spot where the corpse had lain. Aside from some marks of rotting fluid, there was no clue.

This made their scalps prickle. When they had first discovered the corpse, they had probed it with their divine senses and detected no energy fluctuation at all. That it could now move was an extremely bad omen.

“I don’t believe it can hurt us. Forward,” Yingxiong said nonchalantly.

They would not be deterred. They pressed on. In the second hall, a refreshing fragrance reached them, like the ripened scent of a heavenly treasure.

“I thought the fruit was in the second hall, but it seems farther still.”

The second hall was even colder, like an ice cellar, and darker, like the gaping maw of a ferocious beast—black and dead silent.

“Ah…!” Yingxiong cried out. He felt someone blow cold air on his neck, but when he slashed backward, he hit nothing. Frustrated, he did something absurd: he charged into the darkness and blew back.

“Pfft, pfft…”

“You blow your yin at me; I’ll blow my yang at you. Let’s see who suffocates first!”

But in that moment, Yingxiong sensed extreme danger. An icy force pressed silently against his throat, and blood began to trickle down his neck.

Yingxiong leaped back, hand clapped over his bleeding throat, an expression of disbelief on his face.

Xiao Chen and the others rushed over at once, probing with divine sense. What they saw shocked them.

A death knight sat astride a nether horse, corpse qi roiling around him. He held a cold, deadly spear, blocking the hall. There was not a trace of energy fluctuation about him.

Yingxiong was no longer the weakling he had been at first; after absorbing the power of the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree, he had gradually recovered. He immediately stopped the bleeding from his wound, transformed into a streak of purple light, and charged. His entire body bristled with fine scales, becoming a humanoid killing machine.

“Clang! Clang! Clang!”

He fought fiercely against the death knight, clashing with the icy nether spear thousands of times. To their astonishment, the death knight could match him blow for blow, even launching a devastating charge.

The nether horse, wreathed in corpse qi, carried the death knight forward like a crashing wall of darkness.

“Boom!”

In the final exchange, Yingxiong sent the death knight flying, and the nether spear snapped. But then the death knight wheeled his horse and vanished into thin air.

It was not spatial translocation—it was as if he had burst like a bubble and disappeared. The broken spear on the ground also evaporated like gas, gone in an instant.

This baffled Xiao Chen and the others. Tianwaitian and Renwairen searched thoroughly but found no dimensional pockets or spatial passages. The death knight had simply vanished before the eyes of several Half-Ancestors.

“There’s something wrong. That rotting corpse and this death knight—they follow the same method. Their disappearances are identical.”

“To fight a Half-Ancestor on equal terms… very unusual.”

They grew more alert.

The second hall was empty, devoid of any valuable artifacts. They moved on to the next.

The moment they stepped into the third hall, they were assaulted by a terrifying attack. The breath of death enveloped them.

“This is a necromantic curse!” Yingxiong shouted, knowing that Xiao Chen and the others were not natives of the Death World. He warned, “Guard your souls! Do not let foreign evil invade, or even a Sovereign will be crippled!”

In the pitch-black hall, a ghastly spirit flickered in and out of sight, its deathly aura soaring as it cast a sinister spell upon them.

They all dared not be careless, steeling their souls, their appearances solemn and holy, blocking out external evil.

Curses and prophetic arts were among the most dreadful abilities—they could infiltrate anywhere and were nearly impossible to eradicate once they took hold.

Suddenly, danger struck from behind. The death knight, spear whole again, charged atop the nether horse, his power enough to crush a strong warrior, yet he made no sound at all.

Meanwhile, the rotting corpse grinned with sinister glee, its decaying body radiating no energy as it lunged at them like a ghost.

With a necromantic curse before them, a death knight stabbing from behind, and a rotting corpse attacking from the side, the situation was dire. For an ordinary Sovereign, it would be one thing, but the necromantic curse was too terrifying—none dared to be distracted.

“Chi chi…”

Xiao Chen boldly manipulated the twenty-seven war swords to strike at the death knight, the rotting corpse, and the ghastly spirit. At the same time, he felt the necromantic curse touch him, a cold force like icy blades piercing his body.

Tianwaitian, Renwairen, and Yingxiong rushed to help, their divine thoughts like blades, sending bursts of brilliant divine energy into the stone statue.

The cold presence was driven back. At the same time, the Seven-Colored Sacred Tree radiated beams of light, flowing with warm radiance.

“Clang! Clang!”

In the distance, the war swords darted back and forth, slashing at the death knight and the rotting corpse, but their primary target was the powerful ghastly spirit.

He had to be eliminated first. He was the most dangerous threat. If he continued to ambush them from the shadows, none could defend against him.

“Pfft.”

After half an hour of fierce combat, the ghastly spirit was pierced through, but like the death knight and the rotting corpse, he vanished into thin air. It seemed more like a retreat than annihilation. Their method of escape was utterly inscrutable.

When peace returned to the third hall, the divine radiance on their bodies faded, plunging them back into darkness.

“What kind of place have we come to? Why can’t we destroy them?”

“Even Sovereign-level beings are not immortal and indestructible.”

They were deeply uneasy. An enemy of equal power who could not be killed was the most terrifying—a single lapse could mean a fatal strike.

They stayed in the third hall for two full days, devising ways to counter the necromantic curse. But then something happened that dispelled the shadow over their hearts.

Not only could Xiao Chen’s Seven-Colored Sacred Tree break the curse, but the two oracle bone diagrams also had the same effect. When Yingxiong and Renwairen were unexpectedly attacked, they thought doom was certain, but the two warm bone fragments radiated a gentle force that cleansed the necromantic curse completely.

Thus, they advanced again. Even if they could not kill the enemy, they could protect themselves.

In the fourth hall, they encountered a blood demon, coalesced entirely from reeking congealed blood as black as ink and as viscous as sludge, infiltrating every crevice. At the same time, the ghastly spirit, the death knight, and the rotting corpse struck repeatedly from the shadows.

“So many creatures powerful enough to match Sovereigns guard this heavenly palace. There must be something extraordinary within—something of immense importance,” Tianwaitian judged.

“I like that deduction very much,” Yingxiong said with a grin.

“There seems to be a great treasure inside,” Renwairen agreed.

The four halls were merely the outer periphery of the palace complex, far from the central region.

But when they walked out of the fourth hall, light suddenly appeared before their eyes. The environment changed drastically. The fragrant scent of flowers greeted them. It was like a paradise.

This was a world filled with light. Lush ancient trees, strangely shaped rocks, small bridges over flowing water, cascading waterfalls, and pavilions reflected each other in perfect harmony—a scene of indescribable grace and vitality.

There was no gray mist, no deathly aura. Even without grasping the oracle bone diagrams or hiding within the stone statue, one would not be harmed here. The air was thick with spiritual energy, shimmering with colorful rays.

It was astonishing to find such a pure land amidst the deathly ancient halls—like a dream.

“This is a small garden.”

“What divine power could have created this—a small world independent of the outer gray mist? A true miracle.”

Ahead of the garden, the palace halls continued without end. This was still not the central region. But when they looked closely, they were astonished.

“Are those Yin Wood Ginseng Fruits? No… could they be the legendary Yin-Yang Fruits?!” Yingxiong’s mouth watered.

“Glutton,” the plump, fair-skinned Renwairen muttered with disdain. Yet when he himself noticed the divine trees in the garden, he too was startled, a flicker of desire in his eyes.

Tianwaitian laughed heartily, “Fate! To discover such a divine object in this godforsaken place is incredible. We are in for a treat!”

Three towering ancient trees rose, lush and verdant. Every branch was crystalline as jade, and the leaves sparkled with flowing light. Each branch was heavy with fruit, their fragrance filling the air. The garden’s floral scents were far inferior.

The three trees were gnarled like coiled dragons, of unknown age. At first glance, they resembled Purple Diamond Yin Wood Trees, and the fruit had the same shape.

The difference lay only in color. Besides flecks of purple, the trees emitted mainly black and white light, shimmering with crystalline brilliance.

These were the legendary Yin-Yang Trees.

A Purple Diamond Yin Wood Tree that reached five hundred thousand years could transform into a Yin-Yang Tree. Beyond the purple light, the tree body shone with black and white rays; the fruits themselves bore patterns like yin-yang fish, black and white interwoven, with yin and yang qi flowing. Their efficacy far surpassed that of Yin Wood Ginseng Fruits—truly sacred fruits.

“Born from yin, giving birth to yang—the transformation itself shows the sacredness of this treasure,” Tianwaitian mused. “I once stole a few yin-yang fruits from Ancestral God Shennong. So many years have passed… I never thought anyone else could cultivate such sacred trees. Fate! We’re in for a treat again. Hah… I miss those days.” He inadvertently revealed an embarrassing part of his past.

Hearing this, Yingxiong was already drooling. He rushed forward, knocked down a yin-yang fruit, and crammed it into his mouth.

“Strange, it has no taste?” he said, confused.

“Of course it doesn’t,” Renwairen shot back. “You swallowed it whole in one gulp.”

“Did I?” Yingxiong scratched his head.

The other three were speechless.

Tianwaitian also picked a brilliant fruit, its surface flowing with yin and yang qi in a hazy mist. When he bit into it, the garden was instantly filled with an intoxicating fragrance that could not be dispersed.

“Eh? Over here…” Xiao Chen was surprised.

Under the third gnarled yin-yang tree, there was a stone table and two stone stools, exuding an ancient aura. On the stone table lay an oracle bone diagram.

“Another oracle bone diagram!” The other three were also astonished.

In the distant past, someone seemed to have sat at the stone table, examining and admiring this oracle bone diagram, and left it behind without putting it away.

“If there is such a treasure in the garden, there must be even more astonishing discoveries in the inner sanctum ahead,” Tianwaitian said.