The corrupted druid decided to take action.
Since he didn’t want to fight Aksai head-on due to the backlash he was currently facing, he opted to use the strongest ally he had at his disposal– the demon tree!
The gigantic demon tree rustled as if moved by forceful winds when the corrupted druid raised his hand. He pointed towards the crowd of martial artists closing in on him and moved his open palm upwards.
Swoosh. Swoosh. Swoosh.
In the next moment, a potent Spirit essence ripple spread through the surroundings. It was so strong that even the martial artists unfamiliar with the concepts of Spirit essence could feel it.
The earth split in many directions, creating giant rifts and fissures. The area within 500 meters of the corrupted druid came under the effect of his wide-scale Spirit spell, cast using the demon tree as a medium.
From these rifts emerged blood-red tree roots, which pierced the bodies of the martial artists before they could even defend themselves.
The roots planted many demon tree seeds inside the bodies of the martial artists, which then sprouted using the martial artists’ own life force.
These sprouted demon tree seeds created metal rods inside their limbs and torsos, as well as iron vines that shackled the bodies of martial artists from the inside out.
This was not all.
The attack came from the sky as well. The demon tree sent out vines attached to its ancient branches. These vines were thick and blood-red in color. They moved with the agility of snakes and the fierceness of scorpions as they tried to shackle the martial artists.
These vines could produce demon tree seeds as well. It seemed the demon tree could afford to create more tree devils now that the martial artists had destroyed a significant number of them in an all-out war.
Those struck and shackled by the demon tree roots and vines faced a grim fate.
Half of them were turned into mummies almost instantly before their bodies disintegrated into ashes, dissipating into the air. The other half was transformed into a new batch of tree devils, fiercer and stronger than the previous variants.
All of this happened within just a few moments after Aksai took flight into the air using his Flying Lian Sword.
The tree devils Aksai had killed using his Array Formation seemed to have been replenished to a great extent by the demon tree. These tree devils then immediately started attacking the martial artists, turning on their former allies.
Out of those who had initiated the all-out war against the tree devils, only less than half had survived at this point. The rest either died while reaching the city square or were killed off by the corrupted druid’s area-of-effect Spirit spell.
Many were severely injured, and some had only partially transformed into tree devils.
The one-eyed man and gray-haired woman from Grand Martial Hall, Jin Jolan from the School of Flowing Winds, Wen Wei from the School of Rising Sun, and Lin Lan from Lotus Pavilion were among the lucky ones who had managed to protect themselves from the demon tree roots and vines.
With gritted teeth and anger boiling in their hearts, these martial arts masters started attacking the new batch of tree devils, who had been their allies only moments ago.
***
At this point, the isolation barrier that had covered the entirety of Serenity Peak began to sink. It seemed that the corrupted druid was in a desperate situation. He had given up his ability to control the whole city and had shrunk his sphere of influence willingly to strengthen himself and the demon tree.
Swoosh. Zoom. Cut.
Aksai cut yet another demon vine trying to capture him with his sword. He used his aerial maneuverability to dodge a cluster of demon vines. He slapped these demon vines with explosive talismans before getting away from them as fast as he could.
The demon vines exploded into fragments behind Aksai’s back as he tried to get as close to the corrupted druid as possible.
Aksai saw what had happened to the majority of the martial artists. However, he didn’t have time to assist them. He knew that the corrupted druid was only trying to buy time with his desperate moves.
Even though it looked like the corrupted druid had the upper hand because of the demon tree, Aksai knew that he had been cornered. As such, he needed to put even more pressure on him.
***
‘Damn it. Where did such a pesky bug come from in this world? I… I can’t allow him to do what he wants.’
The corrupted druid realized that Aksai couldn’t be stopped using the demon vines and roots. His control over the demon tree had also been affected to a large extent due to the backlash he faced earlier.
As such, he stopped trying to trap Aksai in a weak snare and decided to use his ultimate trump cards against him.
‘Hm? Did he give up?’ Aksai thought to himself as he watched the demon vines cease their attacks and retract. He was unsure what the corrupted druid was planning, but that didn’t stop him from approaching.
Finally, Aksai landed just 20 meters away from the corrupted druid. He gripped the Lian Flying Sword and approached cautiously, his gaze wary.
Although there was a new batch of tree devils, the corrupted druid didn’t use them to stop Aksai anymore.
He knew that any mediocre tree devils he created would not pose a challenge to Aksai. Instead, he let the tree devils fight the remaining martial artists while he dealt with Aksai himself. He created a perimeter using the tree devils, which ensured that Aksai would not get help from his remaining martial artists allies.
The corrupted druid was injured because of the backlash. However, he was not completely helpless against Aksai. He still had trump cards he hadn’t used yet.
“Aaaargh… my head…. Damn it…. No… Focus. Bring… bring me those bodies,” the corrupted druid mumbled, ordering the demon tree.
In the next moment, six rifts opened in the ground beside him. From these rifts emerged six powerful tree devils, coiled with numerous demon vines and roots.
These were the demon tree guardians that the corrupted druid had saved for emergencies.
They were far stronger than the average tree devils, as powerful as Spirit cultivators in the Spirit Refining Perfection realm or body cultivators in the Bronze Body Perfection realm.