The scalpel, suffused with spiritual energy, formed a ten-meter-long blade of light.
"Boom!"
A deafening roar echoed, the ground trembling incessantly, and the crown of the Soul Nurturing Wood Tree shook violently.
This strike by Zi Lingling had nearly depleted half of her spiritual energy.
However, to her surprise, there was no sign of the formation on the ground being broken.
"I underestimated this formation. It seems I have no choice but to try this move."
Zi Lingling murmured and put away her scalpel.
Then, with a thought, a massive ball of spiritual energy appeared in her hand.
The spiritual energy ball was a riot of colors, what else could it be but the 'Five Spirits Burst'?
Zi Lingling's spiritual energy rapidly surged into the energy ball, even drawing in some of the spiritual energy from the surrounding air.
As the 'Five Spirits Burst' absorbed spiritual energy, it became smaller and smaller, but the energy contained within was not to be trifled with.
Two breaths had passed, and the 'Five Spirits Burst' had finally condensed to the size of a basketball.
"Go!"
Zi Lingling cried out softly, and the 'basketball' in her hand flew out, making intimate contact with the ground.
"Boom!"
A more tremendous roar erupted. The barrier let out a "crack... snap..." sound, and then shattered with a bang.
The formation that had trapped the Soul Nurturing Wood Tree was also completely broken due to the immense energy surge.
The surrounding houses collapsed one after another in the aftershock of the explosion.
The Zi family powerhouses who had rushed over were also pushed back a hundred meters by the blast wave.
"Senior, forgive me!"
Zi Lingling said to the Soul Nurturing Wood Tree and was about to collect it into the Goddess Hall.
But an accident occurred. The Bodhi Tree within the Goddess Hall emitted a burst of light, pushing the Soul Nurturing Wood out.
It turned out that the Bodhi Tree, as the ancestor of all wood, would not allow any other divine wood to reside within its domain.
Zi Lingling: "..."
Damn it!
At a time like this, it was still causing trouble!
Zi Lingling wanted to communicate with the Bodhi Tree, but time was running out.
In another three breaths, she would be surrounded by the Zi family powerhouses.
While she wasn't afraid, this was a significant deviation from her original plan and would affect her subsequent actions.
What to do?
The Soul Nurturing Wood could not enter the Goddess Hall, and the Nine Spirit Ring could not hold living things.
Therefore, the accommodation for the Soul Nurturing Wood became a problem.
She couldn't exactly carry a tree and run around the city, could she?
Another breath passed, and Zi Lingling was frantic.
Just then, a beam of light shot out from her dantian.
In an instant, the Soul Nurturing Wood Tree was enveloped by the light and disappeared before Zi Lingling's eyes.
She was slightly stunned and sent a wisp of her divine sense into her dantian.
When she saw the Soul Nurturing Wood Tree in the nascent world, she quickly activated the Phantom Dragon Step and, in the last moment before the Zi family powerhouses formed their encirclement, dashed through the gap.
The Zi family powerhouses felt a gust of wind and found that Zi Lingling was no longer in sight.
"Who dares to trespass into our Imperial Zi family!"
As the Zi family patriarch, Zi Wentian, roared, a surge of spiritual energy was shot towards Zi Lingling.
Zi Lingling ignored it, pushing the Phantom Dragon Step to its extreme, and in the blink of an eye, she had shot out over three hundred meters.
As Zi Wentian's attack missed, he also discovered that the Soul Nurturing Wood Tree, which had been trapped by the formation, had vanished.
A large pit had appeared where the Soul Nurturing Wood had been planted, the surroundings were in disarray, the barrier was shattered, and the formation was reduced to fragments.
Zi Wentian roared furiously, "Chase! You must bring her back! And bring back the Soul Nurturing Wood!"
"Yes!"
The Zi family powerhouses responded and, one by one, pursued in the direction where Zi Lingling had disappeared.
At this moment, Zi Lingling had already hidden inside the Goddess Hall and shrunk it down to the size of a grain of sand, placing it among the roadside flowers and plants.
She paid no mind to the chaotic situation in the Zi family, instead immersing her consciousness into her dantian.
In the world within her dantian, the small tree that had been there originally had grown to over five thousand zhang.
And the half-sphere that had been propping up the small tree had long since floated into the air.
The roots of the small tree had spread far and wide, covering the lower half-sphere.
The mountains and rivers, hills and valleys, were basically formed.
Even on the earliest formed mountain and by the river, a touch of green had appeared.
Ten million meters away from the small tree, the Soul Nurturing Wood Tree stood alone.
Zi Lingling's jaw dropped in astonishment at the immense changes.
But she soon came to terms with it.
It seemed that this nascent world within her body was growing all the time.
So be it, let it grow!
Zi Lingling withdrew her consciousness from her dantian and, through the Goddess Hall, sensed the situation outside.
It was still chaotic outside, with powerhouses coming and going, as if they wanted to dig up the ground.
Fine, let them stir up trouble!
Zi Lingling took out the herbs given to her by Qin Mingyue and began to refine their essence.
By the time she had finished refining all the herbs, a day had passed within the Goddess Hall.
Of course, only an hour had passed in the outside world.
The Zi family people were still busy, but they had found nothing.
Zi Lingling, who had stolen the Soul Nurturing Wood, seemed to have vanished into thin air. No matter what methods they used, they couldn't even find a single hair.
The Zi family patriarch, Zi Wentian, was furious but helpless.
Zi Lingling smiled calmly and began to refine the Blood Spirit Pills.
Her time was extremely pressing, and not a single second could be wasted.
Fortunately, with the assistance of Huang Yi and the Nine Extremes Qiankun Cauldron, refining the Blood Spirit Pills was much easier.
Two days later in the Goddess Hall, nine blood-red pills appeared in the Nine Extremes Qiankun Cauldron.
Zi Lingling put eight of them into a porcelain bottle and kept the remaining one separate.
After doing this, she lay down under the Bodhi Tree and slept soundly.
When she woke up, another day had passed in the Goddess Hall.
This meant that half a day had passed in the outside world.
The Zi family people had been busy from midnight until dawn without achieving anything, and they were all exhausted.
Zi Wentian's anger had not subsided overnight, and the servants and women of the Zi family lived in fear, lest they be caught in the patriarch's fury.
As dawn broke, the Zi family powerhouses deliberated and turned their attention to Dongfang City.
They searched house by house, trying to find suspicious individuals, but ultimately found nothing.
Zi Lingling waited until the afternoon, when the first wave of investigations had concluded, and then, when no one was paying attention, she slipped out of the Goddess Hall and recalled it into her body.
She released her immense divine sense, carefully avoiding everyone, and leisurely exited the Zi family.
She strolled openly through Dongfang City for a while before slowly returning to the Yue Lai Inn.