In the starry skies, Mu Duo left the tree hollow and stood atop one of the massive branches of the withered World Tree. Gently brushing his fingers over the World God Pendant, he murmured, "A Rank Eleven World Tree, rebuilding the Wood Abyss, and becoming a Sovereign..." Mu Duo then soared upward, coming to a halt in the frigid, dim expanse before casting his gaze downward. The withered branches of the World Tree pierced through seven worlds like spears, once hoping to draw on their abundant vitality to sustain its own fading one. Unfortunately, even after draining the vitality from all seven, it still could not survive. Who killed it back then? Mu Duo wondered. To this day, he still did not know the cause of this towering World Tree's death. Gripping his World God Pendant tightly, he transmitted a message through it. "I've made up my mind. I'm willing to help the World Tree in your Abyss and aid it in ascending to Rank Thirteen." The reply came almost instantaneously. A radiant spatial rift tore open through the World God Pendant in Mu Duo's hand, and Pang Jian, in his normal human form, stepped through. Pang Jian's mind trembled. The World God Pendant had the power to transport him from the Nether Abyss to any other location that held a matching pendant. It was not restricted to places within the bizarre mist! Although this was not Pang Jian's first time in the starry skies, every place he had visited before lay above the bizarre mist. He had never ventured into the greater starry skies beyond. After stepping through, the only thing that lay before his eyes was an unimaginably massive World Tree, and the seven worlds it had pierced through. Even when he extended his divine sense to its limit, sweeping it across the vacuum of space, he could not spot any other worlds nor sense any signs of life. "You crossed over directly from the Abyss? You're nothing like the humans I've heard of. You have a Divine Persona. You—you're a high-ranking God? Your path to godhood, your advancement, how is it the same as ours?" Mu Duo was genuinely shocked. While Pang Jian was surveying their surroundings, Mu Duo was carefully studying him. As a high-ranking God of the Wood Race, Mu Duo could sense the aura of the World Tree radiating from Pang Jian. Even though he had yet to lay eyes on the Rank Eleven World Tree himself, Mu Duo was certain that Pang Jian spoke the truth. There truly was a World Tree in the Abyss! "I came from the Nether Abyss," Pang Jian casually replied. Turning his attention inward, he checked his various connections. He felt the familiar presence of the bronze expanse in the Seventh World of the Abyss, the Soulstream of the Nether Abyss, and the scattered World God Pendants. Through those pendants, he could glimpse the World Gods wielding them. However, he could not sense the black turtle, Pang Ling, or the Bee Sovereign. "What is this place called? And how did this World Tree die?" Pang Jian asked. "This place here is called the Darkcloud Realm," Mu Duo replied. "As for how it died, I have no idea." Mu Duo then explained that the Darkcloud Realm once belonged to the Bright Moon Race. Later, the Spirit Race invaded this region and mined its treasured mineral veins dry. Once depleted, they abandoned the area entirely. The dying World Tree eventually found its way here, hoping to draw strength from the worlds within the Darkcloud Realm to restore itself, but to no avail. Mu Duo chose to remain in the Darkcloud Realm partly because of the solitude, and partly because he believed that other living World Trees could one day be drawn to this place as well. Like those in the Abyss, members of the Wood Race in the starry skies also revered World Trees as sacred. Pang Jian quickly caught on to Mu Duo's implied words. "You're saying that this dead World Tree could still have a powerful pull on younger World Trees?" he asked. "Yes." Mu Duo nodded. "If possible, I would like the World Tree in the Abyss to be brought here." Pang Jian's eyes lit up. "Wait a moment." Activating the World God Pendant in his hand, he leveraged its connection with the Dao Source of Metal to cross from the Darkcloud Realm to the Seventh World of the Abyss. After becoming the World God Paragon, Pang Jian had gained the freedom to move effortlessly between the bizarre mist and the worlds beyond. Pang Jian teleported to Pang Ling, the barriers of the Sixth and Seventh Worlds no longer restricting him. "Father!" Pang Ling cried, manifesting before Pang Jian in the form of a sweet young girl. Pang Jian smiled and conjured a spatial rift before him. "It's time for you to go outside." On the other side of the spatial rift stood Mu Duo in the Darkcloud Realm, along with the withered World Tree that had pierced through seven worlds. The towering World Tree radiated an aura of death in the cold, shadowy expanse of the starry skies. Its bark was split and weathered, with not a single leaf in sight. Though it had withered in silence for years, it had undoubtedly once held a spirit like Pang Ling, blessed with profound sentience and wisdom. Now, only Mu Duo remained at its side, quietly hoping for the arrival of a living World Tree so that he could glean deeper insights into their shared bloodline. Pang Ling instinctively drew closer once she laid eyes upon it. "It-it..." Clutching her head, she suddenly cried out in shock, "It looks just like me!" Both Pang Jian in the Abyss and Mu Duo in the Darkcloud Realm jolted in alarm at her outburst. "Father, when I look at that World Tree, it feels like I'm staring at my dead self! It hurts—it hurts so much! My head!" Pang Ling's form was not corporeal, and as she clutched her head and howled in pain, her spirit body started to fracture. The mere sight of that withered World Tree had caused her spirit body to collapse. Pang Ling abruptly burst into droplets of emerald light that flowed back into her colossal tree form. Through it all, her consciousness echoed with unending panic. "Father, I was killed! The one who killed me—their power still lingers in that lifeless body. Just looking at it...If I get any closer, I'll die! I'm still too weak!" she rambled incoherently, disoriented and clearly suffering a severe backlash. Pang Jian's expression darkened. Sealing the spatial rift, he urgently asked, "How are you? What do you need to rebuild your spirit body?" What he intended as a kind gesture had nearly led to disaster. Even Mu Duo had not sensed the ominous power hiding in the World Tree. Pang Jian had also sensed nothing when he stood before it. Did a Sovereign kill that World Tree? Pang Jian wondered. Extending his divine sense into Pang Ling's trunk, he saw countless motes of emerald light flickering within, slowly absorbing the surrounding life energy as they reconstituted themselves. "I'm fine. As long as I can absorb the essence of nearby plants, I can reform my spirit body again. "But I still dare not approach that corpse of mine. There's a deadly will buried deep inside. I felt it the moment I laid eyes on it." The fear radiating from Pang Ling's arboreal body seeped outward, affecting all nearby members of the Wood Race. Suddenly, a Wood Race warrior, one spiritually attuned to Pang Ling, dropped dead while walking through the forest. The vitality within his body transformed into a dense aura of death that rippled outward from his corpse. The vegetation in that part of the forest started to wither.