Xie Xuan let out a bitter smile: "Our Inspection and Supervision Department's fifty thousand troops are not suited for naval battles, and now I've been severely injured. We've truly reached the end of our rope. If I were at my peak, with the support of our fifty thousand men, perhaps I could still wrestle with the forces under Prince Pingbian. But now, with my severe injuries, the situation in the Northern Land is beyond rescue."

"Father, what about your injuries?" As Xie Lingyun spoke, tears streamed down her face again. Looking at Xie Xuan's empty arm, she couldn't stop her tears of distress.

Xie Xuan forced a smile: "It's just a small injury; it's not going to kill your father. Why are you crying so much?"

"Father, I'm not blind. Your aura is in disarray, and you say you're not seriously injured?" Xie Lingyun said as she pulled out a freshly obtained Golden Core from her sleeve: "Father, I have a treasure medicine that can help you recover from your injuries."

"What kind of treasure medicine can heal my injuries? My wounds were left by a ninth-tier Divine Spirit, imbued with the Power of Law. It's not easy to repair," Xie Xuan said.

Xie Lingyun ignored Xie Xuan and simply opened the lid to spill out a pill. The pill emitted a burst of Golden Light, wanting to fly away, but Xie Xuan suppressed the anomaly with a thought, even sealing the aroma within the cabin.

Looking at the pill, Xie Xuan's eyes showed astonishment as he spoke: "This really is an incredible elixir. Where did you get such a good thing?"

"Eat it first, and then I'll explain," Xie Lingyun said to Xie Xuan.

Hearing this, Xie Xuan did not refuse, swallowing the pill in hand. As the pill entered his stomach, in the next moment, the flesh at the site of his severed arm wriggled, and the severed arm actually regrew.

"What?" Xie Xuan was shocked, his eyes filled with disbelief: "What kind of elixir is this, possessing such unbelievable medicinal properties?"

As the effects of the pill took hold, the injuries on Xie Xuan healed in an instant. Moreover, his Essence, Qi, and Spirit began escalating, and his cultivation started to increase.

"This is an elixir left from the Ancient Divine Demon Era." Seeing Xie Xuan's recovery, Xie Lingyun's face lit up with joy.

"Where did you get this?" Xie Xuan tore off the gauze wrapped around him and questioned. This elixir was indeed defying the heavens, not only advancing his cultivation but also refining his Yang God. An elixir that could enhance a Yang God level cultivator was incredibly precious.

Xie Lingyun pointed outside: "Earlier, there was an anomaly surging to the sky at the Yellow River..."

"I see, your timely contribution of this elixir was just what I needed," Xie Xuan said with a joyful expression. "Heaven hasn't abandoned me after all!"

"Now, we must prepare for a good battle with Prince Pingbian." Xie Lingyun's face carried a murderous intent; she was never one to be easily bullied.

Upon hearing Xie Lingyun's words, Xie Xuan gave a bitter smile: "It's still no use! Our fifty thousand troops, if on land, might have the chance to break through, but now afloat, we remain at a disadvantage. We need to patiently await the right time and place and seize the chance to break out. If fifty thousand of us can make it out of the Northern Land alive, we'd already be considered lucky."

Xie Lingyun exclaimed: "How could it come to this?"

Within the underground cavern

Zhang Chen was endlessly infusing magical power into the Alchemy Furnace, continuously refining its mysteries. Fortunately, the furnace required an immense amount of magical power, sparing Zhang Chen the need to laboriously refine its prohibitions—the furnace itself actively drew in and refined Zhang Chen's magical power.

Divine Light swirled around Zhang Chen for a long time until his magical power was exhausted, at which point he withdrew his hands from the Alchemy Furnace: "At this pace, I will need at least another half a month to fully refine this furnace."

But he was in no hurry; he had plenty of time.

With nothing else to do, he decided he might as well stay here to perform sacrificial refining on the furnace and ponder the path he would take in the future.

Zhang Chen let his magical power gradually recover inside him and recalled a branch of the Heaven-Reaching Jianmu, which he then retrieved from the Ba Snake Space, holding it in his hand for careful examination:

"In theory, I should be able to acquire skills from this object. At the very least, it should provide me with a significant amount of experience points."

Based on Zhang Chen's past experiences acquiring skills, as long as he damaged the object, it could release experience points or skills.

"My True God Golden Light can already harm tenth-tier anomalies. I wonder if it can damage this treasure." Zhang Chen caressed the Jianmu branch, and the next moment released True God Golden Light from his palm. Upon encountering the branch, it appeared to treat the Golden Light as a nourishing substance, absorbing it completely, resulting in some inscrutable changes in the branch.

"Amazing! This is the first time I've encountered something that can absorb my True God Golden Light, treating it as nourishment." Zhang Chen's eyes showed disbelief.

Previously, his True God Golden Light subjugated others, not the other way around; he had never encountered something he would nourish before.

With his current knowledge, it didn't take Zhang Chen long to infer some principles: "My True God Golden Light seems to be a kind of light, while the Jianmu branch, being vegetation, can absorb light for photosynthesis. It must be something like this..."

Various thoughts flickered through Zhang Chen's mind as he retrieved the Golden Scissors. At present, this was his strongest tool for killing. Holding the Golden Scissors, he made a gentle cut on a tender leaf of the branch. In the next moment, a ball of emerald green light, extremely green and filled with exceedingly pure vitality, fell from the branch, resembling a small green sun, radiating the power to nourish all things.

[Skill discovered, would you like to pick it up?]

The Golden Finger decided it was time to pop out, the information interface sprang open in front of Zhang Chen.

"A skill drop indeed!" Zhang Chen's heart was overjoyed: "Pick it up!"

Then the Golden Finger interface flickered, the light cluster on the ground vanished, and a line of information appeared on the Golden Finger interface:

[New Skill (Unranked): Authority of Wood Element (0/10000000)]

[Note 1: Can command all Wood Attribute authority within a ten-meter radius]

Zhang Chen stared at the Golden Finger interface before him, his gaze swept over the Authority of Wood Element, landing on the remark.

"Command all Wood Attribute authority within a ten-meter radius? What use does this skill have?" Zhang Chen widened his eyes, feeling that this skill was somewhat redundant, as commanding all plants within a ten-meter radius seemed of no use during a battle.

Even if he could control all Wood Attribute authority within a ten-meter radius, it would have to be in a place with plants, wouldn't it?

Especially seeing the experience points required, needing as many as ten million to upgrade, Zhang Chen felt this skill was not only redundant but also a massive gold-eater.

Ten million experience points can accomplish too many things, many of his skills were already depleted of vitality.

Zhang Chen's gaze assessed the Golden Finger interface from top to bottom, with the new skill coming into place, Zhang Chen felt a surge of warmth rushing into his heart, he seemed to have a mysterious resonance with a certain Qi mechanism in Heaven and Earth.

Especially the Heaven-Reaching Jianmu branch in his hand, he seemed to be able to sense the information of the Jianmu branch, and even vaguely communicate with it, feeling as if he could converse with the Jianmu branch in his hand.

The most crucial thing is, he had a kind of intuition that the Jianmu branch before him no longer posed a threat to him, unable to deprive him of his lifespan.

It was a natural intuition, inexplicably appearing in Zhang Chen's heart.

Zhang Chen put away the Heaven and Earth Treasure Mirror, seeing the Jianmu branch in his hand submissive as a lamb, causing no harm to Zhang Chen.

"Interesting!" Zhang Chen fiddled with the Jianmu branch, suddenly feeling that his Authority of Wood Element seemed to have some substance, could it be that he was immune to all Wood Attribute mysteries worldwide?

At this moment, Zhang Chen's magical power was restored, he casually inserted the Jianmu branch into a stone slab, then came to the Alchemy Furnace and infused his magical power into it, refining the Alchemy Furnace once more. After a quarter of an hour, his magical power was exhausted, Zhang Chen withdrew his hands, again looking at the Jianmu branch inserted in the ground, studied for a while, and took the leaf chopped off from the Jianmu branch into his hand: "I wonder what the leaves of the Heaven-Reaching Jianmu can do?"

"Crafting talismans! Using in medicine! Saving lives! Crafting magical treasures!" The Great Freedom Celestial Demon popped out, speaking to Zhang Chen: "This item was born in Chaos, extremely precious, even a single leaf has incredible effects. If ordinary plant spirits obtained this leaf, they could immediately step into the Ninth Tier."

"Really? A mere leaf can propel an ordinary plant spirit into the Ninth Tier?" Zhang Chen's eyes were filled with disbelief.

"This is an innate item." The Great Freedom Celestial Demon retorted with annoyance: "What do you take innate items for?"

"Then if you consume the entire branch, wouldn't you be able to break through to the Fruit Realm?" Zhang Chen waved the branch.

"Breaking through to the Fruit Realm isn't likely, but breaking through to the Tenth Tier, Eleventh Tier isn't difficult." The Great Freedom Celestial Demon stated.

Zhang Chen was truly shocked at this point, his eyes scrutinized the Jianmu branch in his hand, the Authority of Wood Element slowly extended, carefully sensing the mysteries of the Jianmu branch. He leveraged the Authority of Wood Element to sense every vein in the Jianmu branch, those veins were all natural textures, each line containing mysterious and inscrutable patterns, every pattern formed by Heaven and Earth, imbued with unseen order and laws, rich with inexplicable mysteries.

He had a feeling that every vein texture represented a type of Wood Element Law in Heaven and Earth, and if he could analyze it, he could certainly master a Wood Element's Great Divine Techniques.

Unfortunately, Zhang Chen's level was simply too low, even if the laws were presented before him, he couldn't comprehend them thoroughly, unable to grasp their mysteries.

"You say I command the Authority of Wood Element, can command Heaven and Earth's Wood Element Law, then can I make this Jianmu bud and sprout, making it come alive again?" Zhang Chen turned to look at the Great Freedom Celestial Demon, a captivating light flickering in his eyes.

His Golden Finger explicitly indicated that he commanded all Wood Attribute authority within ten meters.

What is authority?

At the thought, laws follow.

"You have mastered the Authority of Wood Element? Since when? You must be dreaming, not even beings of the Fruit Realm could master an entire authority." The Great Freedom Celestial Demon looked at Zhang Chen, his eyes filled with disbelief.