Anger aside, they still had to face the siege of countless five coloured bees before them. They could not simply abandon their fellow disciples trapped inside the divine tree.
Faint and booming crashes echoed from within the divine tree. Elder Qu and the others who had already retreated knew exactly what that noise was. It must be their lost fellow disciples, unable to find a way out, trying to force a path through the interior of the tree.
Those who had already escaped knew it was futile. When attacking the swarms inside earlier, their strikes had inevitably hit the walls of the passages of the tree, revealing that the wood of the divine tree was extraordinarily tough and nearly impossible to damage.
Knowing their companions were trapped inside the divine tree, they dared not rush back in to rescue them, fearing they would also get lost and be unable to find their way out.
In his desperation, Elder Qu cast a spell and roared angrily, “Great Elder! Senior Brother Huan!”
His voice rang out one after another, booming like claps of thunder.
As a result, Huan Yushan did not appear, but his shouts did draw out someone else from the trunk.
A disciple of Kunling Mountain had stumbled upon an exit and crawled out of a hollow the size of a window in the trunk.
In fact, there were quite a few similar hollows of various sizes. It was just that the trunk was so massive, and the colours around the openings blended in so seamlessly, that they were not easy to spot unless the light was very bright. Besides, there were still many five coloured bees flying around, dazzling the eyes.
That man plunged downwards, followed by a swarm of five coloured bees that rushed out after him to continue their pursuit.
Upon landing, he immediately sprinted towards his fellow disciples. Even though they were also under heavy attack from the swarms, at least there was a sense of safety in sticking together.
Elder Qu, however, scolded him, “Why are you the only one who came out?”
The latecomer reported, “Elder, there are too many bees. We cannot see the path at all. Everyone was blindly rushing around, unable to find a way out, and we got separated long ago. If I had not happened to hear your shouts, I fear I would not have known when I could find an exit.”
As he finished speaking, he could not help but shiver. He had never experienced a scene where he was attacked by such dense swarms of venomous bees. There were almost enough of them to block out the light. More importantly, the attacking power and resilience of these venomous bees were quite strong, far beyond what an ordinary swarm could compare to.
His shivering was not just because of these nightmarish scenes, but also because of the immense pain. He had been stung many times by the venomous bees.
Hearing that shouting had helped him find the way out and proved effective, Elder Qu immediately waved his hand and signaled, “Everyone, shout together!”
“Great Elder!”
“Great Elder!”
While defending against the attacks of the bee swarms, the group shouted loudly together, their voices shaking the heavens.
Inside the small hall, A Lan paced back and forth, going in and out, occasionally reporting on the various changes in the situation both inside and outside the immortal palace.
“That old man named Huan Yushan is still wandering around up there and has already killed countless numbers of my kin. The people who broke into the immortal palace later have been confirmed. They are Little Beard and his group, just as Mister Xiang said. They are now rushing around everywhere inside the immortal palace, as if trying to avoid the people from Kunling Mountain.”
Hearing the confirmation that it was Yu Qing and the others, Xiang Zhen immediately perked up. “I will go and find them.”
The man in the flowered robe raised his hand to stop him. “It is not yet clear what the situation is. Let us wait and see a bit longer. Brother Xiang, do not make things difficult for me.”
He was as good as saying it outright. You know there is something wrong with my body right now, and I cannot use my cultivation. This must not be easily known to outsiders.
Xiang Zhen was merely indifferent to many things, which did not mean he was foolish. Understanding this, he remained silent.
In the passages where the swarms blinded the eyes, Yu Qing and the others were also lost. It was impossible not to get lost in such a situation.
They also dared not attack the swarms, fearing the noise of the fight would attract the people from Kunling Mountain. They were truly forcing their way through the swarms with their bare bodies.
The few of them had to stay close. If they separated even slightly, they might be scattered by the swarms.
Nan Zhu really could not take it anymore and could not help but shout, “Old Fifteen, if this goes on, we will exhaust our cultivation and be stung into sieves. If we are not poisoned to death, we will be stung to death.”
Yu Qing still repeated the same old words he had said several times. “Go up. Whenever we see a path leading up, we go up.”
This was not what they had originally thought. They had originally felt that the footprint of this tree was enormous, and they could completely slip away quietly from another direction, much like the way they had escaped from the Daye Bureau. They had not expected the swarms inside the divine tree to be this numerous, leaving no other way to slip away.
Nan Zhu said, “How long will we have to walk like this? Why not try your method of inviting the deity to ask for directions?”
Yu Qing did want to use the Word Observation Art to find another exit, but it was simply impossible to use it here. Five coloured bees were flying everywhere, and the air currents were a complete mess. At the very least, his level of the Word Observation Art was blind here. He could only say in a bad temper, “It will not work here.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the footsteps of the few of them stopped at the same time. Faintly, amidst the endless buzzing, they seemed to hear human voices. Listening carefully, someone was continuously shouting something.
The few of them quickly felt their way towards the source of the sound. Before long, they finally heard clearly what was being shouted. They were repeatedly shouting “Great Elder”, and they immediately understood it was those people from Kunling Mountain.
Soon, a light appeared before the eyes of the few. Feeling their way to the light, they discovered it was an opening the size of a dustpan. Using the cover of the flying swarms, they saw the group of people shouting under the tree, and also realised they were at a height of a hundred zhangs above the ground.
Before they could take turns to look, a loud boom came from above.
They did not know what was happening, but the Kunling Mountain disciples standing under the tree saw it. A large patch of five coloured bees was blasted out from a newly opened hollow in the tree, falling like rain. Immediately after, a familiar figure appeared, flashing down and landing right in front of them. It was exactly the Great Elder they had been shouting for.
Huan Yushan had also broken out after unintentionally hearing the shouts. With a sweep of his large sleeves, a wave of qi exploded like a shockwave, bouncing countless five coloured bees attacking his fellow disciples away like pebbles. Then, the invisible qi formed an upside down bowl, protecting the group of fellow disciples. The swarming bees that rushed over again could not breach it in the slightest.
The crowd from Kunling Mountain immediately breathed a sigh of relief, but each of them was in immense pain. Out of the large group, only the three Upper Profound realm cultivators led by Elder Qu had withstood the countless continuous attacks without being harmed by the five coloured bees in the slightest. The others had been stung more or less.
Their facial expressions were twisted in pain, but they still followed suit and bowed in greeting. “Great Elder.”
Huan Yushan swept his eyes over the crowd and frowned. “Why did you all run here?”
“Uh…” Elder Qu choked and was speechless, not knowing how to answer for a moment.
Many people at the scene lowered their heads slightly. Huan Yushan immediately realised something was wrong. He swept his eyes over the crowd again, spotted the problem, and his expression changed. “Where are the Tanhua Lang and Xiang Lanxuan?”
Elder Qu was very embarrassed, but this matter could not be avoided. He still had to brace himself and answer, pointing at the divine tree. “They escaped into the divine tree…”
He had no choice but to recount the whole process of being deceived and tricked. Of course, at the end, he could not help but curse Yu Qing a couple of times.
“You…” Huan Yushan pointed at Elder Qu’s nose. He really wanted to ask him, did I not tell you to stand guard? What did you come here for? Do you not know that Xiang Lanxuan escaping is a huge hidden danger? Do you not know how great the potential value of A Shiheng might be? However, he swallowed the angry reprimands that reached his lips. In front of all the disciples, he ultimately saved some face for this junior brother.
His remaining reason told himself that he could not blame this junior brother entirely. That Tanhua Lang was indeed cunning. If he were in his shoes, he might not have been able to resist such rhetoric either. If he had heard that bastard Tanhua Lang’s rhetoric at the time, he probably would have brought the people over too.
The biggest difference was that with him personally overseeing things, those people could not have escaped so easily. It was highly unlikely that they would lose the people while running.
Apart from his embarrassment, Elder Qu reminded him again, “Senior Brother, there are still more than a dozen disciples inside.”
Huan Yushan shook his head. “We cannot worry about them for now. Have you forgotten how they escaped from the Daye Bureau? I am now worried they have already escaped from another exit. Immediately scatter the men to watch all around the divine tree.” Hearing these words, Elder Qu also felt he had been forced into a muddle by the current situation. He suddenly ignored the lives of the disciples inside the divine tree, and also ignored the stinging pain on the bodies of the disciples beside him, ordering them to immediately rush to guard all around the divine tree. The group immediately scattered in all directions, bearing their pain. Yu Qing and the others, hiding in the opening above, also saw this and secretly thought it was terrible, fearing they were going to be trapped inside the divine tree. What Yu Qing was most worried about was not even this. Seeing how Huan Yushan came down from the divine tree, he was secretly terrified. Could it be that he had already dealt with the demon king and the others?
Suddenly, a feeling of the earth shaking and mountains trembling was transmitted.
It was Huan Yushan. He suddenly shot out like a meteor and fiercely slammed into the trunk of the divine tree.
Boom! A heaven shaking and earth shattering explosion rang out.
A pit was left on the divine tree, caused by smashing a piece of bark. The trunk beneath the bark did not seem to be much affected. The crown of the giant divine tree did tremble a little, but that was all.
Countless five coloured bees were startled and flew out, filling the sky. Huan Yushan, who had flashed and landed on the ground, stared at the newly made scar on the tree and marvelled at it. “It seems it really is not an ordinary tree with deep roots. It is worthy of being called a divine tree.” One must know that a single stomp from him could cause a mountain to collapse, yet his full strength strike just now could not leave too large a mark on the trunk.
Elder Qu was wondering what he was going to do when Huan Yushan had already turned his head and instructed, “I want to see how many mysteries this divine tree can hide inside. Pass the word down and tell everyone to start fires from all around. It might not burn very well, so chop the bark first. Get the fire burning fiercely first. I refuse to believe it cannot be burned down.”
Elder Qu was startled and quickly asked, “That demon king, has Senior Brother already dealt with him?”
Huan Yushan shook his head. “I could not find him. I do not know where he ran off to.”
Elder Qu quickly reminded him, “Senior Brother, if you have not dealt with that demon king, do you know the consequences of burning down the divine tree? Will we not face crazy retaliation from the demon king later?” Huan Yushan stared at him. “Have you not realised it yet? If that demon king could really recover within a day and a half, would that Tanhua Lang still dare to hide here? We have all been fooled by that bastard Tanhua Lang.”
Elder Qu was still a bit worried. “Could it be that the demon king was not affected at all?”
Huan Yushan said, “Some of the things that bastard Tanhua Lang said were not wrong. If he did not have the confidence to deal with the demon king, with his cultivation, he really should not have run around here blindly. When I saw the demon king yesterday, I noticed their state was a bit abnormal, but I just could not think in that direction at the time.
If the demon king was not affected, how could there be no reaction when we made such a huge commotion? Even if they went out, this is the demon king’s lair. Under normal circumstances, how could there be no one guarding it? And that bastard Tanhua Lang dared to hide here. Does that not explain the problem? No matter if it is swarms of bees or people hiding inside, once the fire starts, humans or ghosts, they will all have to come out. Burn it for me!”
Hearing this, Elder Qu nodded. He turned around and immediately ordered the disciples beside him to pass the order to the men scattered all around the divine tree.