Ripples spread from the branches of the giant tree. A rain of light fell, and a slender figure appeared within it.

She was a beautiful woman who looked to be in her thirties. She was slender, and her hair was tied in a high knot. Each part of her was beautiful.

She held a wooden staff in her right hand. Immortal mist revolved around the staff, and an emerald gemstone was inlaid in its head. Powerful life energy fluctuations came from it, as though it was alive.

When she appeared, all the Spirit race women knelt on the ground, and their hands clasped over their chests. Their expressions were pious as if they were offering their respects to a god.

“Greetings, senior.” Long Chen didn’t know what he was supposed to call her, so he simply acted in accordance with the human race’s customs.

“When Ling Yao returned, she mentioned you. For you to come to my Spirit World with kindness in your hearts, you are my respected guest.” The beautiful woman smiled.

“Long Chen, this is the leader of the Spirit World, the Spirit Emperor,” said Ling Yao.

Long Chen was a bit speechless. Why hadn’t she introduced them earlier? He was just about to open his mouth and switch senior with Spirit Emperor.

Yet, the Spirit Emperor waved it off. “Spirit World’s customs are completely different from the human race’s. You don’t need to be constrained about it. As the respected guests of my Spirit race, I’d like to invite you to dance together with the women of my Spirit race!”

Music suddenly began to fill the air. Long Chen and the others raised their heads to see that it was coming from birds that had filled the air.

The Spirit race women began to dance. Each of their movements was graceful and elegant. Long Chen and the others were a bit embarrassed, because these women only had leaves covering their private areas. A great deal of their skin was exposed, making this scene too stimulating.

However, the women then began to laughingly pull the Dragonblood warriors into their dance. Those Dragonblood warriors became even more embarrassed.

When it came to hacking people with their blades, they had some skill. But having coarse men like them dance made them feel like they might die of embarrassment. Furthermore, with the Spirit race women holding their hands, their faces turned completely red.

However, they quickly found that these women were as pure as children. They had no other intentions, which made them feel ashamed of their thoughts.

The wood cultivators quickly became accustomed. They were the first to feel the purity of these Spirit race women.

Tang Wan-er was also very unrestrained, dancing with two of the Spirit race women. Tinkling laughter came from them occasionally. It was like everyone was being brought back to their childhood and was simply playing.

Everyone gradually became accustomed. The flashy Guo Ran did his best to display his own dance as he was surrounded by a group of women. It looked about as ugly as a bear trying to scratch its own back, making these women clap and laugh.

As for Guo Ran, he thought they were praising his dancing, and he began to dance even harder.

“Long Chen, are you not dancing?” asked Ling Yao.

“Me? I think I’ll pass. If I start dancing, I think I’ll be even worse than that fellow.” Long Chen looked at Guo Ran.

“Come, I’ll show you. It’s very simple.” Ling Yao grabbed Long Chen’s arm and pulled him into a dance.

In truth, their dance was very simple. There were only a few movements, and it wasn’t something that required great skill.

Long Chen couldn’t refuse a dance request from the person who had saved his life, so he thickened his skin and danced. He matched Ling Yao’s movements.

He quickly sensed something strange. As he entered the rhythm of the dance, he noticed a strange air flow around him. It felt like his heart was being cleansed by the dance, as if his soul was being purified. This was a feeling that made a person abandon all their misgivings and become one with the world.

In just a moment, Long Chen had relaxed a great deal. He felt like he had returned to his childhood and was gleefully playing under the watchful eye of his mother.

There was no mocking, no struggle, and no competition. It felt like they were all bathed in sunlight, playing like carefree children.

This feeling was something that had long since been forgotten under the torrent of blood and battle. Today, they finally found it again.

Tang Wan-er was dancing gaily, while Meng Qi was also dancing with one of the Spirit race women, an expression of peace and contentment on her face.

“This dance is called the Spirit of Life. It’s the blessing the Life God left for us. Whether you are in a good mood or a bad mood, whether you are angry or sorrowful, as long as you dance this dance, the wounds of your heart will be soothed, and you will feel happy and safe.” Ling Yao looked up at the tree above them. A grateful and devout expression appeared on her face.

Long Chen was startled. Was this giant tree the Spirit race’s Life God?

After an unknown amount of time, everyone became exhausted. Long Chen was also one of them, and he fell asleep without realizing it.

It was like he had gotten tired of playing and was now sleeping in the embrace of his mother. He felt completely safe in her embrace.

He didn’t know how long he stayed in that moment, but this dream suddenly took a turn. A bottomless abyss appeared behind him, and he felt like he would drop and break all his bones as soon as he turned. He instantly awoke.

Waking up, Long Chen realized he was lying in Ling Yao’s embrace. She was staring at him with care.

“Sorry about this.” Long Chen hastily crawled up. He found that the entire Dragonblood Legion was asleep, each of them in the embrace of a woman. Those Spirit race women had spiritual light flowing around them.

The Dragonblood warriors were like sleeping babies, lying in their embrace.

“They are enjoying the blessing of the Life God. The Life God’s power is soothing their sorrows, letting their souls sublimate. But you woke as soon as you fell asleep. It seems you have too many burdens to relax.” The Spirit Emperor walked over, a trace of pity in her eyes as she stared at Long Chen.

Long Chen smiled slightly. “It’s not that bad. There are many things that I have to carry, and I can’t just run away from them. If I did, it would be tossing my burdens to someone else, and that’s not what a man should do. Spirit Emperor, I came to the Spirit World to repay my debt, but it seems… without even doing so, I’ve accumulated a new one.”

He knew that the Dragonblood Legion was in a special, fetus-like state. This kind of state was something all cultivators would long to achieve.

The meditative state was a state of spiritual emptiness. By releasing everything, you became closer to the Heavenly Daos and could comprehend them better.

However, this state was artificial. Just by wanting to enter this state, you had a goal, which contradicted the point of this state. That made it very difficult for one to grasp anything about the Heavenly Daos.

Despite its low efficiency, this meditative state was the only cultivation method to get closer to the Heavenly Daos, so everyone had to use it to increase their mental realms.

A person’s mental realm was just as important as their cultivation realm. Normally, the mental realm had to be higher than the cultivation realm. The mental realm was like a canal, while the cultivation base was the water. The canal had to be constructed perfectly to allow water to flow through it.

If a person’s mental realm wasn’t high enough and their cultivation base sharply exceeded it, it could easily ruin a person’s foundation and cause a heart-devil. So there were many geniuses that couldn’t put their full energy into raising their cultivation base because their mental realms were lagging.

Now the Dragonblood Legion was in an innate meditative state. This was completely different from when cultivators forced themselves into a meditative state.

In the secular world’s words, everything you gained while you were still in the womb was innate, while everything you had after you were born was acquired.

Once you were born, you couldn’t gain more innate things. But the Dragonblood Legion had returned to a fetus-like state. This was practically a heaven-defying opportunity for them.

As long as their mental realms were high enough, Long Chen could refine medicinal pills for them to raise their cultivation bases rapidly.

That was why he was bitterly smiling. He hadn’t even returned his debt, and a new one was already piled on.

“There’s no need for you to care about this debt. Anyone who sincerely has good intentions for our Spirit race is our precious guest. Do you know those Dream Butterflies you attracted when you first entered the Forest of Life? The Dream Butterflies are the most sensitive spirit creatures within this forest. For them to like you means you truly care about us. We don’t have anything to repay you with, so this is just a bit of kindness from us,” said the Spirit Emperor.

“Spirit Emperor, what trouble have you encountered? I want to help,” said Long Chen.

“This trouble isn’t so simple. It might not be long before the Forest of Life will cease to exist.”

“Is it really so grave?”

“The Dark Forest has gathered reinforcements from many different powers, inflating their forces. And even before this, just the Dark Forest alone was hard enough to resist. Now, the Spirit race warriors are no longer able to block them, and the battle lines are being forced closer and closer to us. The Forest of Life itself is not able to kill other lifeforms, and being infected by their grievance and resentment is toxic to us. The Spirit race warriors and spirit beasts are the only things we can depend on. But looking at the current situation, there’s no hope,” sighed the Spirit Emperor. “So thank you for coming here, but we don’t want to implicate you. That would just make us feel worse. Throwing away your lives for a hopeless battle isn’t worth it.”

“Since we’ve come, we came prepared. Even if we have to die, we will stand beside you. Even if we have to fight to the last man, to the last drop of blood. This is the spirit of the Dragonblood Legion,” said Long Chen firmly. These were his principles, and the principles of the Dragonblood Legion.

“But if you help us, you will become the enemies of all the Martial Heaven Continent’s powers,” warned the Spirit Emperor.