Soul Land 5: The Rebirth of Tang San-Chapter 859: Blue Gold Tree Elder Council

The Grand Elder didn’t want to confront Jin Miaosen directly, and before fully absorbing the power of the Ancestral Tree, he didn’t dare to do that either. The Ancestral Tree’s powerful protective abilities covered the entire Skytree City, and as long as they were within the city, Jin Miaosen would be the most protected. The elder didn't have the courage to face the full power of the Ancestral Tree.

Now, Jin Miaolin had returned and had even advanced to the level of Great Nymph King. This was something the Grand Elder had never expected. It was just as Jin Miaosen had said—the Grand Elder couldn’t tell how strong Jin Miaolin was exactly, but he was a Great Nymph King without a doubt, and under the radiance of the Ancestral Tree, the Grand Elder had no confidence in winning against him.

Tang San had been quietly observing the drama and considering the best course of action. Since the opportunity had presented itself, there was no harm in getting involved. After all, it posed no danger to him, and the life energy of the Blue Gold Tree clan was truly fascinating. It could certainly be of great benefit to him.

Meanwhile, the Grand Elder’s expression gradually calmed. He looked coldly at Jin Miaosen, then glanced at Tang San before speaking in a deep voice, “You are correct, the essence of the Ancestral Tree should indeed be passed on to and protected by its direct heirs. However, Jin Miaolin has been away from Skytree City for many years, and the first thing we need to do is verify his identity. Furthermore, inheriting the Ancestral Tree’s essence is a matter of great importance. It is not something one single person can decide, whether it is you or I. Did you consider the feelings of the clansmen when you acted? This matter requires the council of elders to be convened to verify Jin Miaolin’s identity and decide whether he should inherit.”

These words were spoken with a grand air, and the two other elders standing beside him nodded repeatedly.

Jin Miaosen responded coldly, “A collective decision? The Elder Council is already your puppet. What difference does a council decision make from your own? And since when did my brother need you to verify his identity? The acknowledgement of the Ancestral Tree’s essence is the greatest validation. It represents the will of our ancestors, and that is not something you or the council can refute.”

She was fully aware that the result of a council decision would never allow her and her brother to inherit the Ancestral Tree’s essence. After their father’s death, the Ancestral Tree’s essence was not absorbed by anyone, so it was continuously nourishing all the members of the Blue Gold Tree clan. The higher one’s cultivation, the greater the benefits. Furthermore, the Grand Elder had been using various methods to draw upon the Ancestral Tree’s power, speeding up the release of energy and benefiting from it. Although the other elders didn’t profit as much as the Grand Elder, they still had a steady stream of benefits. It could be said that the elder had tied the entire Elder Council to a shared interest. Under such circumstances, how could anyone be on the side of her and her brother? Once the Ancestral Tree’s essence was passed on, only an Emperor could allow the tree to recover; in the absence of one, the benefits to other clansmen would diminish.

Thus, after calming down, the Grand Elder was now acting with complete confidence.

He ignored Jin Miaosen and turned to Tang San instead, saying, "What do you say? If you truly are Jin Miaolin, then you are the heir, and Jin Miaosen has no place to speak here."

Tang San looked at him calmly and replied indifferently, "Let the elder council decide."

Hearing this, Jin Miaosen became anxious. "Brother, the elder council is under his control!" freewebnøvel.coɱ

The Grand Elder ignored her and immediately responded, "Very well, we’ll do as you say." As he spoke, he raised his hand, and a blue-golden beam shot into the sky, erupting into an enormous silhouette of a Blue Gold Tree. The colossal image blossomed in the air, and under its radiance, the Ancestral Tree appeared even more sacred and magnificent.

Jin Miaosen was about to say something, but Tang San gave her a reassuring glance. For some reason, when their eyes met, she felt her heart grow much calmer.

Tang San’s mindset was, of course, very different from hers. What she didn’t know was that her all-new elder brother didn’t care about the outcome of the council’s decision at all. Tang San had already made up his mind—how could he leave empty-handed after entering such a treasure trove?

He had already gained the purest bloodline of the Blue Gold Tree clan from Jin Miaosen, and with this bloodline, he could draw upon the Ancestral Tree’s power. Such immense, pure, and high-level life energy would be of enormous benefit to Tang San. It might even help him push all of his bloodline imprints to the eleventh order and lay a solid foundation for future breakthroughs. So, even if he had to take it by force, he wouldn’t let this opportunity slip away.

The reason he had agreed to the council meeting was that he wanted to see just how strong the core forces of the Blue Gold Tree clan truly were before deciding on his next move.

As his divine consciousness continued to improve, many things from his previous life became clearer. Faced with this situation, he knew exactly how to act to maximize his gains.

Jin Miaosen moved closer to Tang San, lightly touching him with one of her vines. Tang San sent her a reassuring wave of divine consciousness. He paid no further attention to the elders, instead focusing all of his divine consciousness on the colossal Ancestral Tree before him.

This Ancestral Tree gave Tang San the sensation of being the life source of this world, with life energy so pure and concentrated that it even made him feel as if he had returned to a divine realm. Though the life energy here differed from the divine energy of a divine realm, its purity was exceptional, unlike any other. It brought Tang San a profound feeling—a sense of transcendence, a higher level of life, and even traces of embryonic godhood.

He had encountered top-tier Emperors like the Crystal Demon Emperor and the Celestial Fox Demon Emperor, but in terms of life level, they still fell short compared to the towering Ancestral Tree here.

This was why he harbored absolutely no doubt about what Jin Miaosen had said earlier, that the old Ancestral Tree was one of the Three Ancestors of the nymphs and that it had supplied life energy for the entire continent. It was not just an ordinary powerful being, but likely the embodiment of one of the primordial forces from the very birth of this plane. If such a being retained its divine consciousness rather than living on as a mere husk full of life energy, it would have been instrumental to the plane's evolution, and if that evolution succeeded, it would have unquestionably become a true god.

Unfortunately, becoming a true god was simply not something any entity could achieve alone. To attain godhood outside of a divine realm, there were only two possible methods.

The simpler method was what Tang San had done when he became a god. He relied on an existing divine realm, acquiring a divine seat from within it, and ultimately becoming a god, transcending his original plane and ascending to a higher divine realm. The other method was to push the entire plane to evolve. It was far, far more difficult, but it had the advantage that, once the plane became a divine realm, native gods would be born. Not just one, but many, and the one leading the process would become the ruler of the new divine realm.

This Ancestral Tree must have been originally comparable in terms of personhood to the Eternal Tree of Douluo Continent, which had undergone two evolutions. The difference was that the Eternal Tree was protected by a divine realm and it still had its divine consciousness. The Ancestral Tree, on the other hand, had likely encountered an accident during its evolution, causing it to fail, or it simply hadn’t found the right path. Its evolution had been purely biological, not spiritual; as a result, it had been reassimilated by the plane instead of developing as an independent entity.

In most places, the beings revered as supreme gods and such were like the planar ruler of this world—the instincts and sentience of the plane rather than actual intelligent entities. Their only purpose was to maintain the balance of the plane, so they instinctively rejected anything that could impact this balance. In such planes, if one’s cultivation touched upon the realm of gods, there were only two possibilities: either they succeeded in creating their own divine realm, or they evolved into a higher-level lifeform that could be considered a divine being in a sense, but in reality was assimilated into the plane and became a part of the planar ruler.