When Cheng Xiaofan sat firmly on the jade disc, a seven-colored light shot out from the spiritual mist surrounding the round seat, enveloping him.
The celestial cranes were instantly dumbfounded.
"Audacious human, you are courting death! This is the round seat where Emperor Shennong meditated and cultivated back then, how can it be a place for an ordinary mortal like you!" the leading crane roared in fury.
The human voice emitted by this crane sounded like a typical baby's voice, fierce and cute.
Hearing this, Cheng Xiaofan couldn't help but smile faintly and said, "Crane attendant, are you mistaken? Can an ordinary mortal enter the spiritual realm within this desert oasis?"
"Furthermore, how can an ordinary mortal sit on the round seat?"
Cheng Xiaofan's words stunned the cranes on the spot.
They landed around Cheng Xiaofan, their eyes wide open, staring at him warily, circling him.
"Who are you?" the leading crane questioned again.
Cheng Xiaofan chuckled and said, "Crane attendant, my name is Cheng Xiaofan, and I am the successor of Emperor Shennong. You could say I am the master here!"
Upon hearing this, the crane was shocked and said, "So you are Shennong's successor! Forgive us, our eyes were blind, and we misunderstood you!"
The eight celestial cranes immediately knelt beside Cheng Xiaofan and said in unison, "We, the Crane Attendants, pay homage to our master! We have finally found you!"
Cheng Xiaofan heard this and burst into laughter.
He said, "Esteemed Crane Attendants, thank you for guarding here for so many years. You have worked hard!"
The cranes heard this and said in unison again, "Master, this is our duty!"
Cheng Xiaofan nodded, waved his hand, and said, "I am here in this spiritual realm this time, and I will take this round seat with me. All of you, return to your positions!"
"Yes!" The cranes responded in unison and plunged towards the round seat.
In a flash!
The eight celestial cranes disappeared.
They all appeared within the auspicious cloud patterns carved around the round seat.
In fact, the moment Cheng Xiaofan first saw the eight celestial cranes, he had already discerned from their aura that they were all Dharma Cranes.
Dharma Cranes, as they are called, are celestial cranes artificially carved onto Dharma artifacts.
They could fly off the artifact, appearing just like real celestial cranes, guarding the surroundings, and immediately attacking when unfamiliar creatures intruded.
This round seat carved from Xuan Jade was naturally not an ordinary Dharma seat.
It was personally crafted by Emperor Shennong for his cultivation.
This Dharma seat could harness the Yin and Yang, Five Elements, and spiritual energy of heaven and earth for the cultivator.
Cheng Xiaofan had only sat on it for a short while, and his body had already absorbed a large amount of spiritual energy from the spiritual realm, as if his entire being had undergone a complete transformation.
"Hoo!"
Cheng Xiaofan exhaled a breath of turbid air.
At this moment, he suddenly shivered!
Wasn't he dreaming? How did it feel as if he had woken up?
He had fallen asleep at the foot of the mountain, transformed into a dragon in his dream, flown to the summit, and then returned to human form, only to find himself out of the dream.
Did this reflect his hardworking nature?
Indeed, he was the son of a farmer, never forgetting his roots!
Even in his dreams, he didn't forget to sneak out to pick up treasures!
Cheng Xiaofan gave himself a few pats on the back.
It was just too fantastical!
With a slight wave of his hand, the entire Dharma seat, along with the layers of spiritual mist surrounding it, was moved into his spatial dimension.
With a long time until dawn, Cheng Xiaofan was too lazy to move further. He leaned against a large tree nearby, closed his eyes, and prepared to have a good sleep.
Unconsciously.
Cheng Xiaofan found himself transformed into a golden dragon again.
What he found unbearable was that this golden dragon suddenly became a pervert, wrapping its long, thick body around the large tree.
Go ahead and wrap yourself up.
The body tightened its grip.
It was as if it was trying to wrestle with the tree!
Alright!
Cheng Xiaofan could understand the golden dragon's actions; it inherited his own mischievous nature from childhood.
He remembered once going to the back mountains to gather pig feed and discovering a willow tree by the pond with a crooked neck. He jumped over, hung from its branches, and used all his might to pull down, intending to break the crooked tree.
In the end, he did win; the tree broke, but he fell onto a rock, his head bleeding…
Was the golden dragon going to make a mistake this time and use all its strength to twist the tree into a spiral?
For a moment, Cheng Xiaofan felt he had lost control of the golden dragon. Its body, wrapped around the tree, tightened its grip.
That tree was truly unlucky.
He wondered what sins it had committed in its past life to offend the golden dragon.
In just a moment, the tree was twisted into a spiral, and a large amount of milky white sap seeped out.
This sap emitted a special fragrance, somewhat similar to milk.
In fact, it was more alluring than the scent of milk.
At this moment, the golden dragon's golden scales all opened, and it desperately sucked the milky white sap with its body.
Cheng Xiaofan finally realized!
So the golden dragon had smelled the sap from the tree long ago and wanted to absorb it into its body!
Damn it.
This dragon was even greedier than he was as a child!
But this method of "eating" was too novel, relying entirely on its body to absorb.
"..." Uh!
This was not right!
Cheng Xiaofan clearly felt that the milky white, fragrant sap was actually being absorbed into his own body.
Weren't he and the golden dragon merged into one?
"Squeak, squeak, squeak..."
The tree, literally twisted beyond recognition by the golden dragon, emitted a series of piteous cries. Unfortunately, unlike the old zelkova tree that had become a spirit, it couldn't cry out for help like a human.
The golden dragon's body, wrapped around the tree, continued to tighten its grip.
"What a fragrant aroma, so lovely!"
Cheng Xiaofan discovered that the golden dragon wasn't picking a fight with the tree; it was clearly bullying it.
"Boom!"
Finally, the ancient, towering tree was reduced to fragments by the ordeal, scattering on the ground.
The golden dragon then looked satisfied, retracted its long body, instantly reverted to human form, and lay down on the soft tree debris, snoring soundly.
After an unknown amount of time.
Cheng Xiaofan suddenly opened his eyes and woke up.
"I slept so soundly!" He stretched his arms wide, yawned, smacked his lips, and muttered to himself.
It was then that he noticed the tree debris piled on the ground.
Cheng Xiaofan remembered the scene in his dream where he transformed into a dragon and destroyed a perfectly good large tree.
He reached out, grabbed a handful of tree debris, and brought it to his nose to smell.
The fragrance was indeed enticing.
After smelling it once, he couldn't resist smelling it again. At that moment, three words suddenly popped into his mind: Undying Tree!
No way!
The legendary Undying Tree was what he had destroyed in his dream?