Chapter 64: Terrifying Tree Spirit
“What is this?”
The others let out a cry of alarm. There was a huge lizard circling around on the top of a tree, tens of meters above. Its red tongue wrapped around that Xiao Clan disciple and pulled him upwards. He struggled continuously, his feet flailing in the air. The crowd stared blankly at this as the man was pulled further away. They were unable to think of any ideas.
Lightning Evasion!
Rushing Thunder Chop!
During this extremely urgent situation, Xiao Chen executed the Lightning Evasion in the direction of the sky. A streak of lightning broke through the eternal darkness of Gloomy Forest. Then, Xiao Chen instantly used the Rushing Thunder Chop. In the instant the lightning congealed, Xiao Chen appeared in the sky, looking like an ancient warrior. The Lunar Shadow Saber gave off a dazzling light, and the Rushing Thunder Chop struck at that red tongue.
The lightning disappeared and the light vanished; darkness pervaded the forest once again. The crowd below quickly went to catch the Xiao Clan disciple as he fell from the sky.
This Xiao Clan disciple was called Ye Lan; his surname was Ye. He was a servant that had shown steady and sure strength; he relied on that to enter to the core of the Xiao Clan disciples. He had a steady heart that exceeded that of an ordinary person. He cultivated for a long time in Seven Horn Mountain and had battled against many different dangerous Spirit Beasts; he had seen all sorts of terrifying Spirit Beasts. Despite his steady heart, he was frightened silly. The horrified expression on his face did not quickly fade away once he was caught.
“Ye Lan, what did you see? Where is Xiao Chen?”
“That’s right, where is Cousin Xiao Chen? Why is he not back yet?” Xiao Yulan asked anxiously. However, these people did not have any flying Martial Techniques; they had no way to see what happened.
After a long time, Ye Lan finally recovered his wits. He said, “How scary! The Demonic Beast was formed by the Rank 2 Spirit Beast, Fire Lizard, demonizing. In Seven Horn Mountain, I have killed many of that kind of Spirit Beast.”
“However, I have never seen such a huge Fire Lizard before. There was a surging black Qi all over its body. Its scarlet eyes are even more terrifying than the Fire Lizard King on Seven Horn Mountain.”
The crowd was all startled by his description. They had not walked far yet, but they had already encountered such a terrifying Demonic Beast. Furthermore, it was just a Rank 2 Demonic Beast. When they thought about the journey ahead of them, they were all fearful.
“Cousin Xiao Chen went to rescue you, why is he not back yet?” Xiao Yulan asked anxiously again.
A look of embarrassment flashed on Ye Lan’s face; he did not expect that Xiao Chen was the one who rescued him. He said awkwardly, “I only saw a flash of lightning, then I fell down.”
Xiao Yulan said anxiously, “I’m going up to check out the situation.”
“Don’t go yet. Look at that piece of tongue that fell,” Xiao Jian, who had maintained his silence, said suddenly.
The piece of chopped off tongue was a meter long, and there was purple liquid oozing out from the wound. It was said that the blood of Demonic Beasts was purple. When the crowd saw it, they realized the rumor was true. The purple liquid flowed into the black ground and was instantly absorbed, disappearing without a trace. It was incredibly strange. However, this was not the most frightening thing. The red tongue seemed to have a life of its own, and it was flailing around on the ground as though it was trying to escape from something frightening.
Everyone had a fearful expression. They had never seen such a strange thing before. In that moment, with their eyes opened wide and mouths left ajar, they were all extremely shocked. Finally, the tongue stopped flailing around and was pulled towards an old broad tree by a huge suction force. Suddenly, a face appeared on the bark. It opened its mouth and black teeth could be seen inside.
“Chi Chi!”
That huge mouth swallowed the tongue whole, continuously chewing as though it was tasting a unique delicacy, and making ‘chi chi’ sounds without end.
“It’s a Tree Spirit. The Tree Spirit is a Rank 3 Demonic Beast. We only walked for such a short distance... how is it possible that we met something like this already?” someone shouted loudly when he recognized the terrifying Tree Spirit.
“Let’s go quickly. This Tree Spirit is not something we can deal with right now. After it finishes eating the tongue, we will be next,” Xiao Jian said calmly.
“Right, right, that’s right! This is a Rank 3 Demonic Beast; it is equivalent to a Martial Grand Master.”
Xiao Yulan looked incredibly anxious as she said, “We can’t go. Cousin Xiao Chen is still up there. What is he going to do if we leave?”
“First Senior Sister, Cousin Xiao Chen’s strength speaks for itself. He will be fine. Instead, it is dangerous for us to remain here,” many of them wanted to beat a hasty retreat.
Just at this moment, the Tree Spirit finished with the red tongue. The gray eyes on the tree bark stared at the crowd, revealing a strange smile. It looked like it was making a funny face.
“Crap! It is done eating; we can no longer escape!” Xiao Jian quickly drew his Spirit Weapon, completely entering into a battle-ready state.
“Shua!”
Countless tree branches came grabbing at the crowd like ghostly hands. Immediately, many of them were caught by their arms or legs and were pulled towards the huge mouth. Xiao Jian calmly hacked at a few branches that came flying towards him. Then he dashed towards the people caught by the tree branches. Along the way, he hacked the tree branches relentlessly flying at him to bits.
Xiao Yulan and a few other Xiao Clan disciples performed the same action as Xiao Jian. They were all undergoing a bitter battle with the tree branches, and were up to their ears in work.
“Dang!”
After saving another person, Xiao Jian caught one of the tree branches that was flying towards him. A fierce flame came surging from his hands, and with a ‘shua’ it traveled along the tree branch heading towards the tree trunk. The temperature of a cultivator’s flames were many times higher than an ordinary flame. If it came in contact with dry tree branches, it would definitely turn into ashes immediately. Xiao Jian’s flames were only able to travel along the surface of the Tree Spirit’s branches. However, he easily sensed the Tree Spirit’s pain; the damage done to it was significant.
Xiao Jian felt some dissatisfaction; even after his flames were strengthened by the Rainbow Flame Python inner core, their strength was not at the level he anticipated.
“Cousin Yulan, we have to think of a way to break out of this encirclement. Normally, this kind of Tree Spirit would not move around,” Xiao Jian hacked apart a few more tree branches and frowned when he saw that their surroundings were filled with tree branches.
Xiao Yulan looked into the sky with a helpless expression, her pretty face filled with worry. Finally she said, “We will work together to create a path. We will send out this group of people first, then I will come back.”
Xiao Jian did not say anything else as they did their best. Strong Martial Techniques were executed without holding back. The tree branches blocking their front disintegrated into small pieces. Upon seeing this, the people behind them quickly followed. In that instant the tree branches went into a frenzy, leaves falling one after another. The group of people arduously advanced forward, managing to advance step by step. They would soon break through the boundary of where the tree branches could reach.
Just as the crowd was about to relax, countless tree branches suddenly sprouted up from the ground. They were like dried up hands, grabbing the ankles of the crowd and raising them up into the air. This Tree Spirit was too sly; it only used the tree branches on its body to trick them. Just as they thought they were going to escape it made its move, causing everyone to fall in its trap.
“What should we do? Are we going to get eaten by this Tree Spirit just like that? Waaah!! I don’t want to die!” one of the girls in the group suddenly cried.
When the rest of them heard her, they felt extremely terrified. They remembered the earlier scene of the Tree Spirit eating the red tongue and could not help but tremble. Xiao Jian and Xiao Yulan were both continuously hacking at the tree branches at their feet. However, every time they were about to break loose new branches would rise up and bind them again.
Eventually, the Tree Spirit realized the strength of these two. Several more tree branches flew out, binding both their hands and feet. Instantly, they were hanging in the air, unable to move.
“Ze! Ze! Ze!”
Seeing that it had bound everyone, the strange face on the tree let out an eerie laugh. Upon hearing it, the crowd was filled with fear and despair.
“Meteor Burst!”
A shout suddenly came from above their heads. A human figure descended from the sky, and the shadow of a dragon could faintly be seen on his body.
“Boom!”
There was a heaven-shockingly loud sound, and the dirt on the ground was swirling around. Under the ground, a large tree branch was chopped in half and a pool of blood spurted out violently. Xiao Chen gently twisted his body and evaded the blood stream. The Tree Spirit cried out painfully, the tree trunk squirming around on the ground, which caused the ground to tremble. This made it difficult for the recently descended Xiao Clan disciples to stand on the ground.
Xiao Chen took advantage of this opportunity to leap off the ground. Using his saber, he cut through several large branches. A few streams of purple blood came spurting out. The Tree Spirit was in even more pain, and the trembling of the ground became even more violent.
“Bang!”
Xiao Chen focused his strength on both his legs before stomping down fiercely. After a loud ‘bang’, the trembling ground calmed. The might of his stomp had thoroughly suppressed the Tree Spirit, and the ground finally stopped trembling.
“Purple Thunder True Fire! Shoot, Shoot, Shoot!”
The flame that was suspended above his finger spun rapidly, then three purple flames flew out leaving a tail streaming behind, and all shot into the trunk of the Tree Spirit. The Tree Spirit’s cries of pain reverberated throughout the forest, causing fear to rise in those who heard it. Xiao Chen turned around and said to the crowd, “Leave quickly, I will guard the rear. We have to arrive at the camp of the Xiao Clan, which is listed on the map, by tonight. This Gloomy Forest is quite strange.”
When the others heard this, they quickly retreated. Xiao Jian looked at the Purple Thunder True Fire Xiao Chen had shot out. His expression was extremely gloomy, but he followed the crowd and retreated.
“Cousin Xiao Chen, take care of yourself,” Xiao Yulan saw that Xiao Chen was fine, so she relaxed.
The Tree Spirit finally stopped howling in grief. The eyes on its ghastly face stared at Xiao Chen maliciously. The tree branches broken by Xiao Chen were regrowing rapidly.
“Tu!”
A withered tree branch shot out from the huge mouth of that horrific face. The ends of the tree branch separated into five slender fingers, resembling ghostly hands, each grabbing towards Xiao Chen.
“Dang! Dang!”
Xiao Chen brandished his saber and blocked them. The Lunar Shadow Saber gave off a metallic clanging sound when they clashed. The clank of metal lingered on, but the tree branch was not actually cut apart by the Lunar Shadow Saber.
“Flight On Wings, One Line Chop.”
A plain saber strike hacked heavily at the withered tree branch. Xiao Chen chopped apart the spectral hand. However, after a short moment, another hand extended out. Xiao Chen was astonished. He did not want to be delayed here, but this Tree Spirit was incomparably queer. It was hard to say whether or not it had a trump card. Retreating backward by a few steps, he used the Lightning Evasion to flee.
A lightning bolt streaked across and Xiao Chen’s figure appeared 500 meters away. He relaxed and was about to look around him to find Xiao Yulan and the rest. Suddenly, a stream of strong Qi came from behind. Xiao Chen trembled in fear as he quickly evaded towards the left.
“Chi!”
A tree branch pierced through his arm. Xiao Chen cried out in pain and he broke out in cold sweat. If he had not evaded in time, this tree branch would have punctured his heart. It was unthinkable that the speed of the Tree Spirit’s attack was capable of catching up to lightning.