Soul Land V: Rebirth of Tang San

He checked the seal on the mouth of the Crystal Bottle; it was a small sealing Formation. The divine consciousness of the Essence Spirit was blocked inside, preventing it from exerting any influence, because the primary characteristic of an Essence Spirit\'s divine consciousness is that without sufficient Spiritual Power to mobilize, it has rank but no strength.

Tang San skillfully released a thread of Spiritual Power to bypass the seal\'s obstruction, silently slipping into the bottle.

"Calm down first, then let\'s talk," Tang San conveyed his thoughts to the Essence Spirit inside the bottle through his Spiritual Power.

It seemed the Essence Spirit didn\'t expect someone to communicate with it, and its frantic motions abruptly ceased. Following that, a voice filled with anger resonated within Tang San\'s mental cognition.

"Let me out, let me out!" It was a fierce roar, brimming with rage and unwillingness.

"I will let you out, but first we need to talk," Tang San replied calmly.

"Talk about what? Let me out!" The Essence Spirit\'s emotions were still very unstable.

Tang San said in a serious tone, "In this state, we can\'t communicate, and you will lose the opportunity to gain freedom or even be reborn. Calm down first."

This time the Essence Spirit did not respond, but its body visibly calmed down. On the surface of the Essence Spirit, a shape resembling an eye gradually formed, looking towards Tang San from inside the bottle.

Tang San let it look at him, simply waiting in silence.

After a long while, the Essence Spirit\'s voice reappeared, somewhat hoarse but clearly less agitated, "Who are you?"

Tang San replied, "My name is Tang San, and I\'m the one who bought you at the grand auction. In a sense, I believe we should be friends."

"Friends? You are a Human?" The Essence Spirit\'s voice carried a tone of skepticism.

"Yes, I am a Human. But rest assured, I won\'t devour you," Tang San said calmly.

"Not devour me? You deplorable creatures, do you have any idea how many years it took me to attain wisdom, how many more to escape the shackles of the land, even approaching the breakthrough of the Heavenly Tribulation? Yet at such a moment, you severed my foundation, and in the midst of the Tribulation, I was destroyed and captured, my divine consciousness reduced to this state. You scoundrels."

Tang San sighed softly and said, "Firstly, calm your emotions. What happened to you was not my doing. If I\'m not mistaken, the ones who turned you into an Essence Spirit were more likely from the Monsters\' race, and it must have been a being at the Great Demon King Level who could snatch you in the midst of the Heavenly Tribulation. As I\'m a Human, and for us, the Monsters\' race itself is the enemy, and the enemy of an enemy is a friend. Since you were capable of undergoing Tribulation, it means your wisdom is high enough, and you should understand what I mean."

The Essence Spirit went silent for a while, its emotions gradually stabilizing once more, "What do you want to do? Human."

Tang San said lightly, "I want to help you. If I\'m not mistaken, your true body was once a Golden Tree, am I right?"

Indeed, this Essence Spirit was the result of the cultivation of a Golden Tree, or rather a Golden Tree that was about to reach God Level but suffered a tremendous blow, failing its Tribulation and having its divine consciousness seized. This was also why Tang San, upon seeing this Essence Spirit, had participated in the auction so resolutely.

"Indeed, I have cultivated from a Golden Tree, what of it?" the Spirit replied.

Tang San said, "Nothing much. I can\'t restore the glory you once had. However, now that you have developed divine consciousness, if you were to start over, I believe you would achieve God Rank even faster. Look behind you." As he spoke, Tang San pointed towards the Golden Tree in front of him.

The Spirit turned around and through the crystal bottle, it immediately saw the faint golden glow of the Golden Tree.

Instantly, the Spirit became unsettled. The yellow orb of light began to dash left and right, as if attempting to break free from the crystal bottle.

This time, Tang San did not stop it; he just silently waited and waited.

It took a full quarter of an hour before the Spirit calmed down. "Let me out, hurry and let me out. This is just a juvenile Golden Tree that hasn\'t developed wisdom yet. If I merge with it, I can rise again—in a hundred years, yes, just a hundred years at most. With divine consciousness, I\'ll be able to return to my peak and become a God level strong being."

Tang San nodded from afar and said, "You won\'t need that long. With my help, you\'ll achieve that goal in even less time."

"What do you want me to do?" The intelligence of the Spirit came online at last. When it saw the Golden Tree, all its anger transformed into pleasant surprise because it saw the best chance for its rebirth.

Tang San said, "I don\'t need you to do much, just to guard this area. In the future, I will give you more. What I want is just your feedback on this area. That\'s your instinct, so you really don\'t need to give anything."

It was indeed the Golden Tree\'s instinct to absorb the spirituality of heaven and earth and convert it into life aura, which wasn\'t very useful to it. Golden Trees were very common in the Rihchen Empire, and life aura was important for vegetation. However, they seldom had beings that developed wisdom. Moreover, the highest advancement for a Golden Tree was Rank 10, so in the Rihchen Empire, it was considered a very ordinary race.

But this was the world\'s understanding. In Tang San\'s view, Golden Trees were another type of creature altogether. The reason Golden Trees in this plane could only reach the divine-ranked level and not advance further wasn\'t an issue with the plane itself but because the Golden Trees had not found the direction for their further evolution. If left to evolve naturally, it could take tens of thousands of years for their true evolution to emerge. As for this species, Tang San was all too familiar with it and deeply understood the benefits and uses it could bring.

"Then release me!" the Spirit spoke again.

"Alright," Tang San said with a slight smile, without any hesitation. He opened the crystal bottle and just like that, he released the Golden Tree Spirit from its seal.

As the crystal bottle opened, the yellow orb of light almost immediately soared into the sky in an attempt to escape.

In the face of its flight, Tang San took no action, did not pursue, and still sat there with a smile, immovable as a mountain.

The yellow orb of light paused after reaching a hundred meters in the air, hovered for a moment, and then slowly descended, coming back in front of Tang San.

"Aren\'t you afraid I might run away?" Its voice conveyed through divine consciousness into Tang San\'s mind.

Tang San shook his head with a smile and said, "Why should I be afraid? What we have here is mutual benefit. This is the East, the domain of the Tianyu Empire. I think it\'s very unlikely for you to find your kind. My purpose in helping you is simple. The life force you release as you grow will nourish everything here, and that\'s enough for me. You must have felt the Spirit Gathering Arrays I\'ve set up in this area. With these arrays, your recovery and growth rate will greatly increase. And this is just the beginning. In the future, as I grow stronger, I will provide even more beneficial things to accelerate your growth."

The yellow orb of light said, "Then, if I reach the divine-ranked level in the future, you can\'t stop me from leaving."

Tang San said, "Of course, I can make a contract with you. When you achieve God Level in the future, you can leave any time you want. I won\'t stop you; I can even help you with your Tribulation."