Yet even after advancing more than a thousand li, apart from the surrounding ancient trees growing ever thicker and more robust, Lin Xiao and his group of four discovered nothing significant.
Within Lin Xiao’s body, the sensation of being summoned grew increasingly intense. From time to time, faint calls reached him.
“Child…” The voice seemed closer now, yet also hoarser, weaker.
Lin Xiao frowned deeply. Then, suddenly, a powerful sense of crisis surged through him.
“Careful!”
Long Tutian sensed it too and gave a low shout. Immense power surged within his body.
Qing Yan and Huo Ruyan moved at once, gathering back-to-back with Lin Xiao and Long Tutian, each watching one direction.
Lin Xiao immediately ordered the battle skeleton to fly back and join them.
However, after the four remained on full alert for a long while, nothing happened.
“My sense of danger should not be wrong. Why is there no movement at all?”
Long Tutian could not help wondering aloud.
“The feeling has not faded. It comes from all sides.”
Qing Yan added. As spirit beasts, his clan was most sensitive in forests.
“Lin Xiao, how do you feel?”
Huo Ruyan asked.
Though they had encountered no incident, the sense of crisis was far too strong. It left her deeply uneasy.
Moreover, the sensation came not only from ahead, but from every direction. They could not tell which way would be safest to retreat.
“That voice reaches my ears from time to time. Or rather, it seems to ring inside me.”
Lin Xiao replied. It was not a divine-sense transmission. He himself had no idea how it arrived.
“Hiss! Hiss!”
At that moment, hissing sounds suddenly came from all around, like the calls of snakes.
In moments, Lin Xiao and the others saw countless vines twisting and extending from every direction, covering the sky as they stabbed towards them.
The entire forest had become an endless sea of vines reaching out.
“What is happening?”
Demonic energy already billowed from Qing Yan’s body.
“Could it be a tree demon?”
Long Tutian said gravely.
Tree demons were special beings formed when trees or similar plants gained intelligence.
Such beings often lived longer than spirit beasts. Especially ancient trees, which could survive thousands or tens of thousands of years. Once they cultivated for that long, their strength frequently became terrifying.
Extending roots and vines was a common ability of tree demons.
Lin Xiao’s brow furrowed deeply. He had encountered a tree demon before. It was that colossal tree in the Domain of Evil, hundreds of zhang thick and ten thousand zhang tall, driven into a spatial rift. It could even trap yin demons. Truly fearsome.
Could such a tree demon have appeared here?
Was it luring him in?
But why him specifically, and not the others?
“Attack!”
Seeing the vines already stabbing within several thousand zhang, Long Tutian roared. Peerless fist radiance erupted from his hands, faintly carrying the roar of a dragon. Overwhelming fluctuations swept towards the direction he faced.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Huo Ruyan, Qing Yan, Lin Xiao, and the battle skeleton also struck.
Qing Yan unleashed a dark fist radiance. Rolling demonic energy swept across the void with unstoppable might.
Huo Ruyan deployed the Nine Heavens Blood Rain Sword. One slash, and it was as though blood rain poured across the sky. The sword radiance turned into countless drops that shot forward, piercing the emptiness ahead. Each drop might not be overwhelmingly powerful alone, but together they covered a vast area. This was clearly a large-scale attack technique.
This move was one of the martial skills she had obtained from the storage ring on the skeleton palm that Lin Xiao had acquired. Back in the ancestor’s cave near Qing Sang City forest, Lin Xiao had taken only the skeleton palm, while Huo Ruyan had claimed the Nine Heavens Blood Rain Sword and the Blood-Calling Scripture. Both techniques had extraordinary origins, and in Huo Ruyan’s hands now, they had become immensely powerful.
The battle skeleton unleashed a fist of evil power. The radiance carried rolling white mist of malevolent energy as it blasted towards one side.
Lin Xiao slashed with the Grand Heavenly Azure Dragon Slash.
Though the Grand Heavenly Azure Dragon Slash was not of particularly high grade, Lin Xiao’s own strength was great, so the technique’s power had naturally become extremely formidable.
Brilliant azure sword radiance transformed into an azure dragon that roared forward, smashing into the overwhelming vines ahead.
Boom! Hiss!
The five bursts of power struck the vines. Yet the vines were neither shattered nor repelled.
Instead, the scattered force and shockwaves simply passed through the gaps between the vines and continued forward.
The vines kept extending rapidly towards the four people and the skeleton.
“Not good!”
Long Tutian growled deeply. He immediately unleashed an even stronger attack. The Lone Dragon Art erupted at once. A golden dragon burst from his fist, its dazzling light illuminating the entire area.
The brilliant golden radiance solidified. The entire fist radiance transformed into a dragon three or four zhang thick and dozens of zhang long. At the front, a dragon head formed, complete with horn-like protrusions.
Its body seemed to sprout scales, utterly lifelike.
The whole fist radiance appeared to become a living golden dragon, carrying supreme, overwhelming, utmost yang, and utmost rigid might as it charged forward.
This time, Huo Ruyan, Qing Yan, and Lin Xiao all unleashed even stronger attacks.
Lin Xiao deployed the Yaoguang sword radiance, condensing an energy great hand.
Huo Ruyan activated her blood demon body. The Nine Heavens Blood Rain Sword radiance gathered into a river of light that surged forward.
Qing Yan directly hurled the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Disk. It spun like lightning, slicing towards the incoming vines.
The battle skeleton again used an evil-power strike.
Boom! Hiss!
Boom! Hiss!
No matter how powerful the attacks from Lin Xiao, the battle skeleton, Long Tutian, and Huo Ruyan were, they dispersed into shockwaves that passed through the gaps in the vines and continued ahead.
Even the fused spiritual energies containing devouring, burning, and thunder were no exception.
The vines seemed barely hindered and continued spreading towards them.
Only the physical weapon, the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Disk, sliced through the vines upon contact, severing a large section.
It spun and cut within them, cleaving a wide swath.
These vines could be severed only by physical weapons or objects.
Yet although the Heaven-Swallowing Demon Disk cut a broad area, the vines from the three directions facing Lin Xiao and the others had already closed in.
Lin Xiao’s brow furrowed deeply. This was the first time he had encountered vines and roots that his three types of spiritual energy could not burn.
Back then, his spiritual energy had been able to incinerate even the tentacles of Xu Tian Wang Yue.
