The Chance of the Forest Devouring the Evil Spirits

【What mission???】

Lin Mu was quite excited. Ever since Jiang Che had given him a piece of high-grade spirit soil, he hadn’t seen this big shot again.

Though Lin Mu was a ‘plant person,’ he had heard plenty of rumors about Jiang Che. Hugging this thigh was definitely the right move!

【You should be in a semi-evil spirit state now, right? Your soul was already corroded by evil spirits before...】

【That’s right, Young Master. My evolutionary path is now leaning toward an evil spirit form, but these evil spirit energies seem to affect my mind.】

【Martial God stage?】

Lin Mu wasn’t surprised that Jiang Che could see through his cultivation level. After all, his system had been modified by Jiang Che himself.

【I’ll teleport you over. There’s a cave here, and deep inside it connects to another realm of evil spirits. There’s an abundance of evil spirit energy there... and there might even be a large-scale invasion of evil spirits crossing over in the future!】

Jiang Che seemed tired of explaining and simply used spatial laws to teleport Lin Mu over.

“Whoosh!!!”

Without even waiting for Lin Mu’s consent, the next second, he was uprooted from the ground!!!

“Boom!!!”

Lin Mu’s true form had been deeply rooted at the entrance of the Cultivator Academy, practically becoming one of the academy’s iconic landmarks.

His roots stretched for who knows how many kilometers underground.

His sudden disappearance caused a massive collapse of the ground.

“Holy crap! What’s going on?!”

“An earthquake??? Damn it, I was just about to break through!”

Countless students from the Cultivator Academy flew out of their dormitories, their eyes landing on the enormous crater at the school’s entrance.

Just how big was Lin Mu’s true form?

After countless evolutions, his strength had reached the Martial God stage, and his body was so massive it blotted out the sky, resembling an airborne castle—at least four to five hundred meters tall.

“Where did Dean Tree go??”

“I get it! Another group of alien invaders must have come, and Dean Tree went to fight them off!”

Indeed, Lin Mu had a stellar reputation at the Cultivator Academy, even rising to the position of dean. Once, a half-step Martial God powerhouse from the Western world came to test the academy’s strength, only to be impaled by one of Lin Mu’s withered branches the moment he reached the entrance. The man was drained into a dried-up husk and still hung from the branches as a warning.

From then on, everyone in the academy realized just how terrifying the big tree at the entrance was.

Even the academy’s teachers flew out in alarm.

Originally, many of the academy’s instructors couldn’t keep up with the times—after all, the Cultivator Academy gathered all the children of destiny, whose cultivation speeds were absurdly fast.

Now, most of the teachers were powerful beings from the Nine Heavens, exiled elites who couldn’t make it in their own clans. These minor Martial Gods descended to the lower realm and became instructors, enjoying ridiculously high salaries.

Jiang Che’s promised wages for these teachers included three high-grade spirit stones per month, along with various rare elixirs. The top-performing teacher in the annual evaluation even received a premium-grade spirit stone as a reward.

Jiang Che didn’t even bat an eye at these spirit stones anymore. Just from the Immortal Ancestor of the Jiang family alone, he had swindled an unimaginable fortune.

Low-grade spirit stones piled up enough to fill an entire lake, mid-grade stones were too numerous to count, and high-grade stones numbered in the hundreds of millions!

Premium-grade stones? Tens of thousands. Sacred-grade? Nearly a thousand. Even immortal-grade stones—though fewer than a hundred—were part of his stash.

To put it bluntly, Jiang Che’s wealth in spirit stones alone was enough to open a spirit stone bank in the Nine Heavens.

Money was no object!

Well, what else could you expect after fleecing first the Emperor-level ancestors and then the Immortal Ancestors? Those old monsters’ treasuries were practically emptied by him.

......

“BOOM!!!”

Lin Mu was teleported directly into the secret realm.

Originally, this realm was vast enough, but the moment Lin Mu’s colossal tree form appeared, the entire space suddenly felt cramped.

“What the hell? Where is this?” Lin Mu muttered, but then he shuddered violently.

He sensed a terrifyingly familiar aura!

This energy was identical to the one that had once corrupted his system.

“Huh? Young Master!” Lin Mu quickly spotted Jiang Che and called out excitedly.

“Do you recognize this energy?” Jiang Che pointed at the dark, gaping cave entrance, from which thick black mist continuously seeped out—a sinister miasma that seemed capable of corroding everything.

“Young Master... this is—!”

How could Lin Mu not recognize this energy?

Evil spirit energy!

Right now, he was already a semi-evil spirit entity—someone polluted by the energy but not losing his sanity. In short, he could harness the power of evil spirits without falling into corruption.

He knew exactly how terrifying this black mist was. Ordinary people would lose their minds instantly upon contact, turning into complete monsters.

But he wasn’t afraid. On the contrary, every cell in his body was screaming in excitement, urging him to dive into the mist.

His bloodline’s memories told him that he could evolve by devouring the eerie energy within the mist—and his evolution speed would be far faster than his current rate.

“Heh, just as I thought.”

Jiang Che noticed the hunger in Lin Mu’s eyes and smirked.

Perhaps this world didn’t have just one Child of Destiny like Chu Yuan. Another high-destiny individual might be Lin Mu himself!

Jiang Che’s intervention had merely optimized his system, purging the corruption from his evolutionary path.

Even without Jiang Che, Lin Mu likely wouldn’t have fallen into darkness.

He would have retained his sanity, slowly growing stronger using the eerie energy. Maybe he’d even become friends with Chu Yuan, the main Child of Destiny, and together they’d purge the evil spirits when the corruption spread across the Nine Heavens.

Jiang Che’s mind was already spinning a million-word xianxia novel plot.

“Go ahead. You should be able to devour this energy.” Jiang Che waved his hand.

The next second, Lin Mu excitedly lashed out countless branches toward the black hole, even digging his roots into it. He was practically dancing—well, he didn’t have limbs, but his excitement was unmistakable.

Sure enough, the moment he touched the dark substance, his entire body was engulfed in black mist as he voraciously absorbed the energy.

Martial God First Stage! Martial God Second Stage!

His cultivation skyrocketed at a visible pace, faster than a rocket.

However, it stopped at Martial God Fifth Stage.

“Young Master, this is insane! With this evil spirit energy, I don’t even need premium-grade spirit soil anymore. This stuff is even more addictive!”

Lin Mu was beyond thrilled. There was no better place for him to grow. Hell, he even wanted to crawl into the black hole itself.

"With my system here, it can protect you from being corrupted by the supernatural. You’ll stand guard at this spot—if anyone comes through the black hole... eliminate them immediately! Your breakthrough speed should be remarkably fast."

Jiang Che nodded, completely unconcerned about the possibility of Lin Mu betraying him once his cultivation advanced.

What a joke—even the system belonged to Jiang Che. Even if betrayal crossed Lin Mu’s mind... he’d stand no chance against Jiang Che.

This was the perfect opportunity to harness the power of the evil spirits and cultivate an exceptionally powerful subordinate!