This was a Heavenly Dao Fruit wrapped in black runes. The moment Long Chen saw those runes, he was completely stunned.

“Sovereign runes?”

Long Chen sensed a familiar aura from these runes—it was Lian Sanqiang’s.

Then, Long Chen stared blankly at the Heavenly Dao Tree. What kind of heaven-defying existence was this? It had actually stripped the core essence of a Sovereign Lord and condensed it into a Heavenly Dao Fruit.

Looking more closely at the tree, Long Chen noticed that there were many other fruits hanging on its branches—each one also emanating faint traces of Sovereign qi.

However, their Sovereign qi was extremely weak. Compared to Lian Sanqiang’s Heavenly Dao Fruit, they were utterly lacking.

These are… Sovereign sprout Heavenly Dao Fruits?!

Only now did he notice them. He had never seen these fruits before. But now, he saw that they were all withered.

Suddenly, one of them fell to the ground and was devoured by the black soil, vanishing without a trace.

Long Chen’s expression changed. He now understood why he hadn’t noticed any Sovereign qi Heavenly Dao Fruits before. They had already withered and fallen, just like this one.

“So it’s impossible to condense a Sovereign sprout Heavenly Dao Fruit? But then how was Lian Sanqiang’s fruit created…?” Long Chen muttered, confused.

As he focused his attention on the remaining withered fruits, he noticed that faint wisps of energy were leaking from them, drifting slowly through the air.

Long Chen followed the wisps of energy and quickly saw Evilmoon’s cocoon. It was Evilmoon that was absorbing the remaining energy from the withered fruits.

Each time a fruit was drained, it would fall and be swallowed by the black soil without leaving a trace.

Another one dropped with a dull thump.

“You’re absorbing Sovereign sprout energy, but not from a Sovereign Lord? That’s not like you…” Long Chen murmured.

Suddenly, he remembered—when he had killed Lian Sanqiang, all of his energy had been sucked away by the dragon scale sword.

That meant the portion Evilmoon didn’t absorb had been taken by the Heavenly Dao Tree and refined into a Heavenly Dao Fruit. That explained why Evilmoon was ignoring it.

Long Chen’s eyes narrowed. He had found the reason. This fruit was an incomplete product. It contained Sovereign runes, but no actual power. It probably wouldn’t even be able to produce a Sovereign sprout.

“Well, I can give it to Xia Chen to study. Maybe he can gain some insight from these runes. If he manages to create talismans with Sovereign runes… that would be incredible,” Long Chen muttered.

It seemed that the only thing of value was the Sovereign runes. These were Lian Sanqiang’s core runes, and they contained his innate divine abilities. They were definitely valuable.

“Evilmoon, no rush. There are still plenty of enemies in the world. I’ll send you more nutrients soon. When you wake up, I want to see your second state,” said Long Chen softly.

Long Chen knew exactly what Evilmoon needed—Sovereign qi.

And he had three means to obtain more of it: by killing Sovereign sprouts, killing Sovereign Lords, or acquiring Sovereign weapons.

But for now, Long Chen’s top priority was preparing for his heavenly tribulation. The rest would have to wait until after he became a Human Emperor.

Suddenly, he felt a gentle tug at his sleeve. Startled, Long Chen turned around to see a black vine pulling at him.

When Long Chen saw that the mysterious vine had revived, he was overjoyed.

It was only three feet long, but far thicker than before. Back then, it had been as thin as a bean sprout, but now, it was as wide as a human thigh. It had also grown three leaves, each one covered in dense black runes.

Both its leaves and stalk were covered in runes made of black strands, forming intricate, interconnected patterns like a drawn diagram.

Even its aura was different from before. If not for its faintly familiar spiritual fluctuations, Long Chen wouldn’t have believed this was the same ancient vine.

Black lightning continued to curl around it, accompanied by drifting black mist. But now, its aura was far more focused and condensed.

When Long Chen touched one of its leaves, sizzling black lightning surged out of it. Long Chen sensed an immense destructive power within it.

The revived vine was still very weak, but it seemed to have undergone a transformation. Its power seemed to be much greater than before.

Long Chen also noticed a faint trace of Sovereign qi on the vine. Perhaps it had absorbed some of Yan Yang’s energy during their fight.

The vine swayed gently as if trying to say something to Long Chen. From its spiritual fluctuations, Long Chen sensed a childlike attachment—as if it viewed him as a parent.

This time, disaster had become a blessing. The vine had died and been reborn, emerging stronger than ever.

Huo Linger was still refining the enormous amount of Yan Xu Flame she had absorbed. The black soil had devoured the corpses of many experts, unleashing a torrent of energy. Thanks to it, she was going to finish refining the Yan Xu Flames and awaken very soon. Everything was progressing very smoothly.

With confidence, Long Chen exited the primal chaos space and immediately sought out Xia Chen.

Xia Chen and Guo Ran were still exploring new runes for the Dragonblood Cross Slash. When Long Chen handed them Lian Sanqiang’s Heavenly Dao Fruit and they saw the sealed Sovereign runes within it, they were overjoyed.

“Such clear Sovereign runes! This will definitely be beneficial for us. Just give me some time, and I’ll be able to make talismans with Sovereign runes!” exclaimed Xia Chen, his eyes gleaming.

“Boss, we’ve already got a general framework down. Next is testing. I’m confident we’ll perfect the Dragonblood Cross Slash!” added Guo Ran with excitement.

Long Chen had to admit—when it came to this kind of thing, Guo Ran was genuinely gifted. As soon as Long Chen mentioned his idea, Guo Ran’s mind was flooded with inspiration, and he’d been working non-stop with Xia Chen ever since.

Previously, the two of them had put in a great deal of effort trying to fix this issue. But with this new concept and the Sovereign runes as a reference, the ideas were flowing.

Seeing that the two of them knew what they were doing, Long Chen gave them a few words of encouragement and returned to his room to rest and recover.

The next day, when Long Chen stepped outside…

He was greeted by a shocking sight—an endless crowd of disciples waiting for him.

“No way!”