Flying through the air and nimbly weaving through the thrashing vines, Big Head spat sparks to attack, presenting a scene that felt strangely familiar.
The sudden commotion from below clearly affected Big Head as well, briefly pausing its stream of sparks, but it quickly resumed the attack, spitting fire continuously, although it seemed to have little effect on the vine demon. It continued its assault, appearing and vanishing amidst the swirling, sky darkening malevolent energy, flying about in a brave and fearless manner.
The iron chains anchored to the surrounding cliff faces were also clanking and trembling, while the rumbling sound of the earth being torn apart echoed through the valley below.
Surging malevolent energy also gushed out from the subterranean fissures with a howling wind.
Struggling to keep their footing, Nanzhu, Mu Aotie, and Baili Xin leaped onto the giant iron chains, stepping on one and holding onto another, their bodies constantly swaying with the violent rocking, while they watched Yu Qing stand alone to control the surging tempest.
Boom! A massive boulder was wrenched from the ground, forcing Yu Qing, who had been standing on it, to leap onto a thick iron chain, yet the object in his palm that was sweeping up and absorbing the malevolent energy never faltered.
What he held in his hand was none other than the necklace from his own neck. “Ah…”
Du Niang continued to scream in agony, and the behemoth that had overturned the earth below was finally revealed, which turned out to be its subterranean root system, boasting a scale fully a hundred times larger than its main trunk.
Countless rootlets wriggled like hands and feet, helping the root system drag itself out from underground, and amidst the rolling dark energy, the sight appeared profoundly sinister, even somewhat nauseating.
As the behemoth erupted from the earth, the iron chains piercing its body seemed to slacken considerably, a sight that severely startled the group of martial brothers.
A multitude of vine like tentacles erupted from its body once more and rapidly spread outward, grasping at the iron chains in every direction, seemingly pulling with all its might.
The chains groaned and clanked under the immense strain, cracks began to spiderweb across the cliff faces on both sides, and large fractured boulders began to tumble down with a deafening rumble.
The martial brothers finally understood what the vine demon was trying to achieve, realising it wanted to break free from its bindings in this place.
The tug of war reached a brief stalemate, and seeing that it could not pull the chains apart, the massive body of the vine demon suddenly spun into the air, wrapping around the chains to use its own torso as a pivot, then utilising its multitude of vines as arms to continue heaving, tightening its grip on the metal bit by bit, intending to use its full strength to snap the binding chains.
Every single chain emitted the strained sound of grinding metal.
Clang! A sharp snapping sound rang out, immediately followed by the crash of a heavy iron chain plummeting down.
Then it was not just one, but chain after chain that began to snap. The first to break were the older, more weathered links, forcing the martial brothers to leap from one chain to another as the ones beneath their feet gave way.
At the far ends of the chains, where they pierced the cliff faces, fractured boulders tumbled down one after another with a thunderous roar.
In a location hidden from the martial brothers view, a massive fissure appeared from the top to the bottom of an entire cliff section, causing the whole rock face to tremble and shake violently.
Suddenly, the extreme tension echoing from all directions began to slacken, and the heart stopping sensation that the sky was falling and the earth splitting apart noticeably faded away.
The group wondered if this was because the swirling dark energy was beginning to weaken.
The tornado like swirls of dark energy did indeed diminish rapidly, the massive vortex shrinking into a smaller one, then reducing to mere wisps of flowing clouds that streamed out from the colossal body of the vine demon and were continuously drawn into the pendant resting in the palm of Yu Qing.
That rolling surge of dark energy seemed to be the very source of the terrifying power the vine demon had suddenly unleashed, and as this source of strength was drained away, the creature visibly weakened.
The visage of the vine demon also began to change, the hideous black lines covering her face rapidly retreating back into her flesh one by one, resembling tiny, terrified snakes fleeing back to their nests.
Her features were gradually reverting to the appearance she had when she first encountered Yu Qing and the others.
When the final wisp of dark energy was drawn from her body, her benevolent and gentle expression returned to normal, though she appeared exceedingly weak, and the vines extending in all directions wrapped tightly around the chains to prevent her massive form from plummeting from the air back into the massive crater below.
Yu Qing placed the necklace back around his neck.
Du Niang looked down from her elevated position, asking weakly, “What is that?”
She desperately wanted to know exactly what object could so rapidly drain the dark energy she had accumulated within her body over so many years, and she found herself entirely unable to control its outward flow, a sensation akin to the arrival of the Grim Reaper that filled her with profound dread and an overwhelming urge to flee.
Yu Qing did not even know what the entity inside the necklace actually was, so how could he possibly tell her? Even if he did know, he would never reveal it, so he simply brandished his sword again and shouted, “Hack her!”
The group immediately swarmed forward, leaping up and wildly hacking at her with their swords.
“Alas!” Du Niang let out a soft sigh and offered no further resistance, perhaps because she no longer had the strength to fight back.
Her face faded and vanished into the tree trunk. The trunk was quickly hacked apart by the group, but when they struck the main rootstock, they discovered that with their level of cultivation, a single strike from their blades only left a shallow gash a few inches deep, proving the wood to be incredibly resilient.
At this rate, there was no telling when they could dismember this behemoth and truly slay the vine demon, and whether they could even finish the task before daybreak.
Yu Qing ceased his attacks, taking out a luminous stone to shine light around the area, and not knowing where Big Head had gone, he called out, “Big Head.”
Big Head, who had been clinging to an iron chain, darted over in a flash, landing on his shoulder and turning its head to look at him.
Yu Qing pointed toward the hole where the iron chain pierced the rootstock of the vine demon and said, “See if you can burn her to death.”
To give such an order meant he intended to utterly exterminate the creature and prevent any secrets from leaking out. Big Head immediately darted away, flying along the iron chain and burrowing straight into the hole.
Nanzhu and the others, who were still swinging their swords, suddenly sensed an anomaly upon the body of the behemoth and quickly leaped back to grab hold of the iron chains.
All the interconnected chains were trembling because the suspended rootstock of the vine demon was shuddering.
Very soon, the face of the vine demon Du Niang bulged out from the rootstock once more, shrieking in agonising misery, “What is it, what is that, get it out, get it out…”
She could feel that the flames burning her from within were no ordinary fire, as they possessed a restraining effect against her demonic form, rendering the burning flesh entirely useless and making it impossible for her to crush the flames internally using sheer pressure.
What was even more terrifying was that this restrictive, burning force was spreading throughout her entire body along her natural meridians, a process she could only halt by severing her own life force.
The immense terror and excruciating agony caused her to beg ceaselessly.
Yu Qing and the others watched coldly from the sidelines, showing not a shred of sympathy, and as they stood there with swords in hand, they actually appeared somewhat excited, clearly seeing that the internal assault of Big Head was far more effective than their own brute force attacks.
“Well done, Big Head!” Nanzhu even shouted excitedly.
Mu Aotie could not help but glance back at him, recalling the memory of Old Seven tossing Big Head into the stone bowl.
Such agony was so fierce and unbearable for the vine demon that the vines stretched out in all directions suddenly erupted with the force of a dying struggle, once again pulling the chains until they groaned and creaked.
Suddenly, several of the taut chains clattered and went slack, though they did not appear to have been snapped.
The trembling cliff face in the darkness finally lost its balance and collapsed with a thunderous roar, forcibly severing the entire canyon. The sheer scale of the impact was unimaginable, as billowing clouds of dust surged out of the gorge and billowed toward both ends.
Inside a building at the entrance to Spirit Valley, Xiang Lanxuan, Zhao Dengzi, and several elders of Kunling Mountain were engaged in a secret discussion, while Qin Fujun, Yan Yao, and others stood guard outside. The sudden, massive commotion caused those inside to dart outside, standing in the open and looking toward Spirit Valley.
They had previously ignored the continuous sounds of battle because Xiang Lanxuan had assured them everything was fine.
In the view of Xiang Lanxuan, the ongoing sounds of combat merely indicated that those individuals were not yet completely dead.
Now that such an earth shattering event had suddenly occurred, the group exchanged a single glance before darting away and flying toward the site.
Xiang Lanxuan, the first to fly over the abyss, plunged straight down, flicking her sleeves to unleash a powerful wave of force that cleared the area, sweeping the billowing dust to the left and right sides of the canyon to immediately reveal a glowing red object deep within the chasm.
Zhao Dengzi and the others who dove in after her saw it as well.
After the group landed one after another, they found Yu Qing and his companions looking thoroughly cowed, their faces covered in soot, bearing the expressions of those who had been caught red handed. The four of them actually looked quite wretched at the moment, their clothes in tatters and having just been battered by the shockwave of dust.
Before Yu Qing had brought out the necklace to absorb the dark energy, they had actually been thrown into a panic by the vine demon and nearly wiped out entirely, with the leg of Nanzhu even being pierced straight through by a vine thorn.
All four of them bore injuries of varying degrees.
Xiang Lanxuan merely swept a glance over them, and seeing that none of them were seriously hurt, she lost interest in them, her attention entirely captured by the object suspended in the air by chains right before her eyes.
Everyone could tell it was the massive root system of a plant, and upon looking at the crater below, they could easily guess it belonged to the vine demon that had dwelt at the bottom of the cliff for many years.
The main puzzle was trying to figure out the cause of the red light emanating from the root system.
Widening her magical eyes to peer closely, she discovered that the threads of red light spreading across the root system were actually the natural meridians of the plant itself.
How could its own meridians emit light, and why was the brightness increasing by the second?
Meanwhile, Yu Qing was sizing up the Kunling Mountain elders who had arrived with her, secretly wondering in astonishment how Grand Executor Xiang could be coexisting so peacefully with this group.
He spotted Qin Fujun, who had already regained her freedom, and could not help but cast a glance at Mu Aotie, recalling that he had entrusted the prisoner to him, though he had not yet found the time to ask what exactly had transpired.
“Save me… spare my life…”
The head writhing in agony upon the root system groaned and pleaded in broken gasps, in too much pain to even string together a complete sentence.
Witnessing this state of affairs, the expression of Zhao Dengzi turned dark and cold, realising he had been thoroughly deceived by the vine demon earlier.
Xiang Lanxuan, meanwhile, turned to look at the thoroughly battered martial brothers and asked in a deep voice, “What did you do to her?”
Yu Qing replied weakly, “Used a fire attack.”
A fire attack? The newly arrived group immediately scanned the suspended root system of the vine demon from all angles, yet they could not spot any ignited source of fire anywhere.
Xiang Lanxuan demanded bluntly, “Where is this fire attack coming from?”
Yu Qing stammered, “Stuck a fire right into her belly.”
Was that really it? The group even darted around the vine demon in a full circle, yet they still could not discern what sort of spell had been used.
In just that brief span of time, the writhing head of the vine demon ceased its thrashing, frozen in an expression of absolute agony, and its feeble wails completely faded into silence. More importantly, everyone finally got to witness the true destructive power of the fire attack.
The suspended root system began to glow red all over, radiating an intense and oppressive heat like a massive, thoroughly ignited lump of charcoal, and open flames soon appeared, blazing fiercely. The fact that such a colossal entity was burning from the inside out caused the onlookers to cast frequent glances toward Yu Qing and his companions.
Qin Fujun suddenly spoke up, “Sect Master, they have also killed our Kunling Mountain disciples.”
Yu Qing and the others looked over to find her pointing directly at them, which immediately made them tense up, knowing full well that their meagre strength was no match for Kunling Mountain, and they nervously turned their gaze toward Xiang Lanxuan, remembering that this woman had promised to spare their lives as long as they helped open the sealed exit.
To their surprise, Zhao Dengzi, the Sect Master of Kunling Mountain, replied in a calm tone, “I am aware, the sect will handle it accordingly.”
The intent to brush the matter aside with a single sentence was abundantly clear.
Qin Fujun seemed as though she wanted to say something more, but her master, Wan Liqiu, reached out with a halting gesture to signal her to remain silent.
Let alone her, even Yan Yao and the others watched the scene with shocked uncertainty, entirely unsure of what it all meant.
Suddenly, a loud rumble erupted, and sparks of fire shot in every direction.
Perhaps due to the sheer weight of the iron chains themselves, the red hot root system suddenly shattered and collapsed, sending embers flying everywhere, prompting those nearby to wave their sleeves and cast defensive spells to shield themselves.
Amidst the showering sparks, a small speck fell toward Yu Qing, extinguished its glow, and landed directly upon his shoulder, revealing itself to be Big Head.
Yu Qing turned his head to look at Big Head resting on his shoulder and let out a slight breath of relief, having just been worried that these newcomers would discover Big Head was the actual arsonist.
Naturally, he was now far more concerned about how Kunling Mountain would deal with them because of what Qin Fujun had just said.
A massive shower of scattered embers tumbled down into the crater below, while the iron chains, now freed from the root system, swayed back and forth, the former binding zones glowing a vibrant red as the flames spread to ignite the surrounding vines.