Chapter 322: Root Demon Attacks (Third Update!)
Qin Mu was momentarily stunned: "Many girls bathing? What's so interesting about that in these desolate mountains... wait a moment, I have encountered girls bathing in desolate mountains before!"
He suddenly remembered something, couldn't help but shiver, and muttered: "It couldn't be that old demon, could it? Impossible, it couldn't have survived this long in the Great Ruins. I must be overthinking it! But to be cautious, I'll take a detour."
Suddenly, a voice came from behind, calling out clearly: "Fellow Daoist, what a small world we live in!"
Qin Mu looked back and saw Yu Bochuan leading many divine ability practitioners from the True Heaven Palace charging toward them at great speed.
Those divine ability practitioners from the True Heaven Palace were casting spells while running at full speed. One by one, large trees were pulling themselves up from the ground, transforming into tree giants that also began striding forward at a run.
At the same time, the earth rumbled and shook violently. Rocks flew through the air, stones rolled forward rapidly, gathering together to form stone giants.
Even the hills beneath Qin Mu and his companions' feet were vibrating. Soil and dirt shook loose and fell away, the rocks within the hills piling higher and higher as a hill giant slowly rose to its feet.
"It seems we have no choice but to charge through! Hopefully it's not that old demon!"
Qin Mu gave the order, and Dragon Qilin immediately sprinted forward. The hill beneath their feet had already stood up. Flames churned beneath Dragon Qilin's paws as he ran wildly along the arm of this hill giant.
The enormous hill giant turned, swinging its other arm down to smash them. Dragon Qilin leaped into the air, and behind them came a deafening crash like the sky splitting and the earth shattering. The hill giant's two arms slammed together, both breaking off at the impact, sending countless rocks flying in every direction!
Qin Mu looked back and saw that the moment these rocks landed, they began rolling around as if they had grown legs, continuously rolling back toward the hill giant. Before long, both arms had grown back.
"Palace Master, the divine arts of your True Heaven Palace are truly extraordinary!" Qin Mu praised sincerely.
Xiong Xiyu mustered her remaining mana, reached behind her with her hand, grabbed, and pulled. Immediately, a miserable shriek came from within the hill giant's body. Beams of green light flew out from inside the giant composed of hills and rocks, dissipating into nothing.
The hill giant collapsed instantly, its massive stones tumbling down and becoming a hill once more.
"This spell is amazing!"
Qin Mu's eyes lit up, and he said: "Would you teach me?"
Xiong Xiyu hesitated for a moment, then nodded: "You are the benefactor of my mother and me. If you wish to learn, I will naturally teach you everything I know."
Qin Mu smiled: "I won't take it for free. The True Heaven Palace is a holy land of the Western Lands. I'll also offer a sect-suppressing level technique from a holy land in exchange. Let's get out of here first!"
Dragon Qilin galloped at full speed, while the two white bats flew around them, occasionally releasing sound waves that knocked the True Heaven Palace experts pursuing them from the air. The bats urged: "Fat Dragon, hurry, hurry!"
"Stop shouting!"
Dragon Qilin roared in anger: "I'm already going all out!"
Fire blazed within his body, his form growing larger and larger until he became a beast over forty zhang long. When he ran, he truly moved like wind and lightning. In just a few breaths, he crossed the mountain peaks ahead and arrived at the lake where the white bats had said many girls were bathing.
This lake was extremely clear, like a transparent gem set among the mountains. From the surface, one could see the lakebed more than ten zhang deep. There were no water plants in the lake, nor any swimming fish—it was clean beyond imagination.
Around the lake, trees stood in neat rows encircling the water. On several trees hung pink and white clothes, along with trousers and skirts. By the lakeshore sat embroidered shoes with pink soles, the toes embroidered with peonies so vivid they seemed to drip with color.
From the lake came the sound of women laughing and splashing water, along with soft, beautiful singing. It was like a paradise on earth.
Dragon Qilin barged into this place rashly and was rather startled. He felt reluctant to disturb the peace here, so he shouted in his booming voice: "Girls in the lake, get to shore quickly!"
"Ah!"
The girls in the lake cried out in surprise when they saw this enormous beast charging in. One brave girl raised her fair arm and giggled: "Big guy, come down and play!"
Qin Mu looked at the women in the lake, his face turning ashen. He quickly urged: "Fat Dragon, it really is that old demon from Withered Silence Ridge! Go, go, go around it!"
He wasn't afraid of Yu Bochuan and his group—he was afraid of the root demon from Withered Silence Ridge, that old monster suppressed there by the Heaven Sage Sect!
"The old demon from Withered Silence Ridge?"
Dragon Qilin was terrified. All his dragon scales stood on end with a shishing sound, nearly piercing Xiong Qi'er's feet. He immediately ran around the lake, sprinting with all his might, his speed shooting straight up, far surpassing before!
Behind them, the mountain ridge rumbled and shook, rocks exploding off it as massive boulders tumbled down. Clearly, Yu Bochuan was leading the True Heaven Palace experts in casting divine abilities, trying to transform the great mountain into a mountain giant to attack them!
This mountain was far taller and more massive than the other hills, its peak elegant and imposing. If it transformed into a mountain giant, one step would cover six or seven li—catching up to them would be easy!
Just then, the elegant mountain suddenly collapsed. Rocks shattered, and countless pale white bones came tumbling out from within the mountain—human bones and beast bones, piling up into a mountain of their own!
So many bones were buried inside this mountain that it had almost been hollowed out to store them. Even Yu Bochuan and his men were stunned by the sight.
"What kind of creature ate so many people and beasts?"
Yu Bochuan didn't have time to think further. He shouted sternly: "The bones have spirits! Activate the secret technique and kill that milk kui!"
Everyone cast their spells. Countless bones scrambled and crawled, assembling into a bone giant as tall as a mountain. It strode forward and stepped into the lake.
Yu Bochuan and the others soared into the air and landed on the bone giant. The women in the lake couldn't dodge in time, and several were crushed underfoot.
Yu Bochuan and his group rode the bone giant, walking across the lake in pursuit of Dragon Qilin racing along the shore. Just then, the lake water churned violently. Hundreds of women burst up from the water and shot into the air, each connected to a pitch-black tentacle behind them. In unison, they shrieked: "Heaven Sage Sect Leader!"
Crack! Crack! Crack!
A series of loud noises came continuously. The bone giant beneath Yu Bochuan and his men snapped apart, wrapped in pitch-black tentacles that tightened with tremendous force. The bone giant shattered, fragments of bone shooting in every direction. Over a dozen divine ability practitioners at the lower Six Harmonies realm couldn't dodge in time and were pierced through by bone shards, falling into the water. Even those with slightly stronger cultivation found it hard to resist the flying bone fragments, each one coughing up blood from the impact.
Those who had fallen into the lake tried to struggle to their feet, but suddenly the lake water boiled like an overturned pot. Countless pitch-black things like giant pythons slithered and writhed through the water, wrapping around them and dragging them down to the lakebed.
Yu Bochuan and the others were terrified. They quickly flew up into the air, fleeing toward the shore. The lake that had been so peaceful and serene just moments ago suddenly became a scene of chaos. Tentacles kept rising from the water, each carrying a naked woman who would grab hold of someone and drag them into the lake!
The others hurriedly activated the divine abilities of the True Heaven Palace, trying to control these strange roots. The True Heaven Palace believed that all things have spirits, all things have gods—their divine abilities could control everything, living or non-living, turning them into weapons of attack. But when faced with these strange roots, their divine abilities were completely useless.
In a short time, over a dozen more people were caught by the women on those roots and dragged into the lake, their fates unknown.
"Heaven Sage Sect Leader, I've finally found you!"
Yu Bochuan and his men finally flew out of the great lake. They had just landed and hadn't even had a chance to catch their breath when they saw the trees along the shore all pulling themselves up from the ground and sprinting off in the direction Dragon Qilin had fled.
Yu Bochuan and his men were dumbfounded. They immediately started running at full speed. Several Heaven-Man realm experts from the True Heaven Palace activated their primordial spirits and cast divine abilities to fend off the attacks of these trees.
After fleeing over a hundred li, they finally escaped the attack range of these strange trees and roots. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and slowed their pace.
If they had been flying at a leisurely pace, they could have traveled over a thousand li without feeling tired. But fleeing for their lives at full speed, even a hundred li left them gasping for breath.
Dragon Qilin also slowed down, panting heavily, not too far away from them.
"We should have escaped."
Qin Mu breathed a sigh of relief and said: "The reach of this root demon's tentacles is only about a hundred li... wait a moment!"
His expression suddenly turned grave. He looked around and saw that they were in a dense forest with trees providing ample shade. This kind of forest was quite common, but occasionally mixed in were plants Qin Mu had never seen before.
These were large flowers over one zhang tall. Tender pink buds were gathered together, standing tall and elongated, with two large leaves growing on either side.
Although Qin Mu had studied pharmacology under the Medicine Master and could normally identify various plants and spiritual herbs, he had never seen these strange flowers before.
Yu Bochuan and his men also charged into this flower forest. They frowned at the sight but didn't stop, continuing to pursue Qin Mu and his group.
Suddenly, one large flower slowly extended its stamen. The bud rotated as its petals gradually unfurled. The tender pink color of the petals deepened, changing from soft pink to bright pink, then to deep red.
When the flower had fully bloomed, a young girl who had been kneeling and crouching within the flower slowly rose to her feet. She looked up at Qin Mu and let out a piercing cry: "Heaven Sage Sect Leader, your Heaven Sage Sect has ruined me—"
In the flower forest, one flower after another bloomed with a swishing sound. In the center of each flower stood a beautiful young girl, all of them looking at Qin Mu in unison and shrieking: "Ruined me—"
Qin Mu's scalp went numb. He urged Dragon Qilin: "Fat Dragon, breathe fire! Bat brothers, use your sound waves!"
Dragon Qilin spewed great flames, and true fire blazed all around his body. The two white bats flew into the air and released sound waves. Qin Mu activated his Carefree Sword, the divine sword darting up and down like light and lightning, severing the roots behind the girls as they lunged at him.
At this moment, no other sword would be of any use. Only this divine sword could withstand the roots of the root demon from Withered Silence Ridge.
But if this was the old demon's true body, whether the Carefree Sword could hold up was something Qin Mu couldn't be certain of either.
"This old demon's cultivation seems even stronger!" he said worriedly.
Whoosh! Countless girls soared into the air, carrying flowers and leaves as they attacked the people who had stepped into the flower forest.
A divine ability practitioner from the True Heaven Palace activated a jade tree. The jade tree had a thousand branches, which shot toward the girls. But the girl's petals and two leaves suddenly closed up, wrapping her tightly in a protective cocoon.
The practitioner was delighted, thinking the jade tree's roots and branches had her trapped. But the flower bud was slippery and couldn't be grasped. With a pop, it slipped free, and a stamen pierced through the practitioner's forehead.
Yu Bochuan's face changed drastically. He shouted sternly: "Summon the Sacred Treasure!"
The strange beast on his shoulder, only about a foot long, leaped down. It beat its chest with both fists, its body growing larger and larger. Suddenly it opened its mouth and roared, and a verdant treasure emerged from the mouth of this strange beast that looked like a furious ape with a horn on its head.
—This is the third update. Piggy still owes everyone one more chapter. I'll repay it with flesh another day!