“Sizzle!”
A petal drifted onto someone. In an instant, that one-or-two-inch petal suddenly acted like a mouth. It bit into the person and began to devour him. In the blink of an eye, it flipped and swallowed the entire body, leaving nothing behind.
The petal itself grew to four or five inches.
“Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!”
It was not just one person. More than a dozen others were touched by petals in succession and were rapidly devoured.
At this moment, all the other petals seemed to come alive. They stopped drifting aimlessly and began rushing straight at the crowd.
Each one was like an open mouth biting towards everyone.
“What!” The crowd cried out in shock. They hurriedly swung their swords and blades, slashing at the petals.
Some petals were directly cut apart. Others dodged and bit into the bodies of certain experts, devouring them frenziedly.
Screams of agony rose one after another. Some people, in order to destroy the petals, even hacked off their own limbs along with them.
“Hmph!” Zhan Meng gave a cold snort. Terrifying pressure swept out and crushed large swathes of petals into fragments.
Ji Lian and Long Tutian also acted. While shattering the petals, they swept up the crowd and retreated rapidly outward.
In the blink of an eye, they had withdrawn from the hundred-li area where flowers were blooming in the void.
And at that very instant, rolling mist surged in the sky. A colossal flower a thousand zhang across emerged from the void.
The crimson flower was dazzlingly bright and alluring. Its stamens suddenly extended. Countless stamens, like long tongues, stretched towards the retreating crowd. They moved with blinding speed and reached the people in an instant.
Lin Xiao swung the Floating Heaven Palace to block a stamen as thick as an arm. When the stamen touched the floating-cloud prohibition, fierce noises erupted. It was burned and ground away by the prohibition.
That stamen quickly shrank back.
However, countless more stamens stretched towards them from all sides.
At the same time, innumerable smaller petals appeared around the thousand-zhang flower and shot towards the crowd like a storm.
Everyone attacked frantically. The three Martial Saints struck directly at the colossal flower. Countless small petals and stamens were shattered by their blows.
“Rumble!” “Rumble!” “Rumble!” …
Thunderous explosions rang out. The enormous flower shook under the terrifying power of the Martial Saints. The void itself seemed to tremble.
Yet it was not sent flying.
Among the stamens reaching for the crowd, nine were not broken. These nine swept sideways, instantly cutting dozens of people in half and killing them on the spot.
Three of them swept towards the three Martial Saints. They carried the greatest power, sweeping with the force of a thousand armies, and struck at the trio.
Zhan Meng and Ji Lian changed expression. They hurriedly raised sword and blade to block. Long Tutian met the incoming stamen with both fists.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!”
The power within those three stamens was utterly horrifying. Even the three Martial Saints were sent flying far away.
Lin Xiao was horrified. Fortunately, the stamen had not struck him. It first swept at Long Tutian. He ducked low, and it whistled over his head.
Had it hit him, his body would probably have been smashed in two.
However, after striking Long Tutian, the tip of that stamen suddenly extended again and stabbed towards Lin Xiao. He manoeuvred the Floating Heaven Palace to block it.
But from behind, the main body of the stamen whipped sideways.
Lin Xiao activated his blood-dragon phenomenon, pushing his strength to the limit. The Yaoguang Broken Sword slashed heavily onto the stamen.
“Pfft!” Blood mist sprayed. The stamen was severed by Lin Xiao.
Yet the severed section that whipped past him, still connected to the thousand-zhang flower, suddenly sprouted a new tip at the cut end and instantly pierced Lin Xiao’s body.
“Pfft!”
His shoulder was pierced. A large spray of blood burst out. The stamen tip began devouring his flesh and blood.
But in that instant, the Heavenly Eye within his body activated. It moved beneath the stamen tip and instead began counter-devouring it.
Sizzle! Sizzle!
The stamen was rapidly pulled and absorbed into the Heavenly Eye. Even the thousand-zhang flower hundreds of li away was dragged forward by the force.
The other stamens hurriedly slashed at the one piercing Lin Xiao, severing it themselves. Then all nine stamens rapidly retracted.
The severed portion, still dozens of li long, was completely swallowed by the Heavenly Eye inside Lin Xiao, leaving nothing.
At this point, Long Tutian and the other two charged back.
Seeing the situation, Long Tutian secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Ji Lian and Zhan Meng also relaxed for their own family elders and disciples.
The three Martial Saints were uninjured, though their qi and blood churned violently and they had nearly spat blood. The terror of those stamens was evident.
Fortunately, the stamens had withdrawn. Their forces had avoided heavy losses.
Otherwise the consequences would have been unthinkable.
Yet all three looked at Lin Xiao in puzzlement. They had clearly seen one stamen pierce his body, only for the flower to sever it itself and retract everything.
Even the thousand-zhang flower had been dragged forward.
The severed stamen that had entered Lin Xiao had been completely swallowed into his body. What secret did Lin Xiao’s body hold?
Or did he possess some extremely special constitution?
Everyone stared at Lin Xiao in astonishment.
At that moment, the towering giant tree a thousand li away began swaying violently, causing the ground to quake.
The three Martial Saints hurriedly looked over. The Yin Demon and the ten-thousand-zhang tree appeared completely unaffected.
It merely seemed as though the Yin Demon and the tree were still locked in struggle. The tree shook without cease.
But no more demonic qi poured out, nor did any branches extend.
Beyond the thousand-zhang flower, the shockwaves and commotion from the previous strike of the three Martial Saints had also fully dispersed.
The flower now seemed quiet. It hovered motionless in the void. At its centre there appeared to be traces of blood.
“What on earth is happening in this place?” The crowd looked around, filled with shock.
There was the Floating Heaven Palace, a giant tree imprisoning a demon head, and now this bizarre man-eating flower. It was simply inconceivable.
“Are you all right?” Long Tutian flew to Lin Xiao’s side and asked.
“I’m fine. No serious injury.” Lin Xiao swallowed a pill and began circulating its medicinal power to heal.
Those stamens had been far too terrifying, completely beyond his ability to resist.
Fortunately, the gluttonous Heavenly Eye inside him had been triggered and devoured the stamen. Otherwise he would have been in mortal danger.
Now he had discovered yet another benefit of the Heavenly Eye. As long as something could be devoured, even if it was alive, the Heavenly Eye would swallow it.
Long Tutian examined Lin Xiao from head to toe but could see nothing unusual.
In truth he was also curious how Lin Xiao had managed to devour the stamen and force the flower to sever it.
However, everyone has their own secrets. Since Lin Xiao did not speak of it, he naturally would not ask.
“Whoosh! Whoosh!” “Rumble!” …
Suddenly the roar of a vast ocean rang out. From the horizon to their side, a heaven-reaching tsunami surged towards them. Towering waves thousands of zhang high rolled forward, submerging everything.
Countless mountain peaks were struck by the flood and collapsed with deafening crashes.
