The Taiyi Grand Cultivators of Du Guang Zhi Ye watched as the green vine grew taller day by day, a sense of inexplicable pressure arising in their hearts.
This pressure arose when they looked at the green vine. A hundred years had passed, and the green vine had grown to over thirty-six thousand five hundred zhang, as tall as a mountain.
The green vine was tall and straight, its roots gradually transforming into a sturdy trunk. It had no branches, no tendrils, and no leaves, soaring into the sky.
The green vine grew one zhang taller each day, never more, never less.
Qing Ling sat cross-legged beneath the green vine, not moving for a hundred years. Even when Bai Fu awoke from his slumber and stepped into the Golden Immortal realm, he merely offered a few words of praise with a smile.
Now, after reaching the Golden Immortal realm, Bai Fu possessed more refined divine abilities and talents. Not only did he have the innate ability to detect auspicious and inauspicious fortunes in all directions, but he also had a sense for locating heavenly and earthly spiritual treasures.
His ability to devour karma had been further enhanced, allowing him to selectively absorb only others' good karma and not their misfortunes, thus avoiding disaster.
As for his intrinsic combat strength, it remained rather ordinary, lacking the power expected of a primordial deity.
Perhaps this was the balance of heaven and earth, where gain came with loss, and all things were kept in equilibrium.
Now, Bai Fu spent his days sleeping upside down on the green vine, and at night, he flapped his wings and flew everywhere, searching for all sorts of heavenly and earthly treasures to devour.
He had also tried to offer the heavenly and earthly treasures he found to Qing Ling. However, having tasted exquisite spiritual fruits like the Yellow Middle Plum, and being a primordial deity himself, these spiritual items proved more detrimental than beneficial.
Therefore, Qing Ling had to decline Bai Fu's kind intentions. Bai Fu, in turn, mistook this as Qing Ling being unwilling to consume them himself and save them for his own cultivation.
Beneath the green vine, Qing Ling used his wood dao to strengthen the green vine, which in turn absorbed the dao power from all directions to nourish himself.
With every zhang the green vine grew taller, it suppressed an additional zhang of heaven and earth.
The higher and larger it grew, the broader and vaster Qing Ling's dao became. The heaven and earth that it suppressed would have their dao belong to him.
This was why the mountain lords felt a sense of pressure when looking at the green vine; it was not due to the person or the heart, but due to the dao.
As time passed and the green vine grew ever taller, a touch of green in the sky, standing tall and ever-growing, could be seen from anywhere in Du Guang Zhi Ye.
This was not a Dharma Image or a phantom of divine ability, but a true green vine.
In the far east, outside the sacred land of the Toad Clan, countless snake beasts rampaged.
Above the army of ten million snake warriors, Ke stared coldly at the Toad Clan's sacred land ahead. Dozens of Golden Immortal Venerables followed her, also standing ready for battle.
After a hundred years of war, the Xi Shan Snake Clan, in alliance with the Tian Jun Salamander Clan, and joined by smaller tribes like the Shi Shan Eighteen Tribes who took advantage of the situation, the Ling Toad Clan found itself facing widespread destruction.
After losing dozens of Golden Immortal Venerables in battle, the Ling Toad Clan was no longer able to resist and retreated all its clan members into its sacred land to defend its heritage.
Although the Xi Shan Snake Clan lacked top-tier combat power, their mid and low-tier combat strength was astonishing. With over a hundred Golden Immortal Venerables and countless trained and equipped soldiers, their army was invincible against the lower-tier tribes.
As a result, the Xi Shan Snake Clan and the Tian Jun Salamander Clan had almost equally divided nearly eighty percent of the Toad Clan's territory, with the Xi Shan tribal lands alone expanding by nearly sixty million li.
Ke looked coldly at the Toad Clan's sacred land, the countless Xi Shan banners fluttering above her, symbolizing the forward march of the Xi Shan Snake Clan.
"Ling Toad King, if you willingly relocate your clan into the chaotic lands, we will spare your life!"
On the other side, a cave master of the Tian Jun Salamander Clan, also a Taiyi Grand Cultivator, transmitted a message across the void to the Toad Clan's sacred land.
Above the Toad Clan, the Ling Toad King's face turned ashen, and he roared, "Tian Jun, Xi Shan, do you two clans truly intend to annihilate my entire race?"
Ke stood in the air, remaining silent, offering no response but a powerful aura that conveyed her stance.
The Ninth Cave Master sneered, "You colluded with the Black Lizard Upper Clan, plotting against our clans. Naturally, we cannot spare you!"
The Ling Toad King turned away from the Ninth Cave Master and looked at Ke, saying, "Fellow Daoist Ke, in the Eastern Wilderness, only our two clans remain independent, with the four Upper Clans standing in opposition. If my clan is destroyed, I fear the Xi Shan clan will be next."
Ke's icy expression did not lessen, but she said softly, "How my clan fares is not for you to worry about, Fellow Daoist. Rest assured, the Toad Clan will not be annihilated.
It is because my clan still needs to raise blood food for its members to reproduce."
The Ling Toad King's face turned pale. The two Taiyi Grand Cultivators of his clan had already fled, leaving him alone to manage the crisis. Was the Toad Clan truly on the brink of extinction?
He let out a long roar to the heavens, the air waves sweeping for ten thousand li, striking fear into countless snake-people and salamanders.
"My clan's thousands of kin face a catastrophe of extinction today! Ten deaths with no life!
But our clan was born between heaven and earth, nurtured under the sun and moon, and passed down through generations of ancestors. We cannot let it be severed in our hands.
The elderly and young may leave and enter the chaotic lands. The remaining clan members, regardless of gender, will open a path!"
His words reached the ears of every Toad Clan member, each filled with grief and indignation. The heavens and earth were too vast to find refuge, and their kin too numerous to save.
In this era, extermination was too common. Extermination meant killing every last one, regardless of age, youth, or gender.
There might be pity and sympathy, but never hesitation. The despair, weeping, sorrow, roars, and furious cries of countless clan members pleaded with heaven for injustice, resenting heaven and earth. Yet, there were no miracles, no saviors, and no last-minute rescues.
Ten million Toad Clan members charged out with their flesh and blood, carving a bloody path. A million elderly and young Toad Clan members stepped on the path paved with the corpses of their kin, moving towards life.
The snake clan army advanced like a cold, indifferent war machine, ceaseless in its slaughter.
The salamander clan army also madly hunted down the Toad Clan.
One Toad Clan member after another fell. Countless Toad Clan members endured tears, offering no farewells.
The path was covered in blood, and blood flowers bloomed everywhere. Countless young Toad Clan members, weeping, stepped on the corpses of their fathers and grandfathers, heading towards survival.
Heaven and earth began to rain, a black, tragic downpour that washed over blood and corpses. The Toad Clan's sacred land turned into a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
The Ling Toad King was no longer the lecherous rogue he once was, but the patriarch of a clan. The moment he ascended to the position of patriarch, his life belonged to the Toad Clan, not to himself.
Dark light surged through the heavens and earth. The Ling Toad King burned his essence blood and lifespan, fighting against a hundred opponents. The two Taiyi, and dozens of Golden Immortals, were all trapped by him.
Fierce black flames erupted from the Ling Toad King. His aura approached that of a Da Luo, his terrifying presence deterring nearly a hundred Golden Immortals from acting rashly.
Every clan had its foundation, but a foundation was just a foundation; it could not be instantaneously transformed into clan power.
The Ling Toad King clasped his hands behind his back, his expression serene, as he walked through the sky step by step. He had lost the desire to live and the fear of death. Between life and death, he found great enlightenment.
He chuckled faintly, "I never imagined that my Toad Clan would fall into decay under my leadership.
Xi Shan Snake Clan, Fellow Daoist Ke, I wish that your Xi Shan clan will one day experience the same fate as my Toad Clan!
And Tian Jun Salamander Clan, the same applies to your clan."