Page 759

The Tree Spirit dragged Lan Xi up from the ground with its vines, and a wisp of gray light floated out, enveloping Lan Xi’s entire body.

Clearly, it was using its soul to devour Lan Xi’s already crumbling spirit.

Lan Xi struggled fiercely, but was unable to muster even a hint of Immortal qi from within her body. Here, she was like a soulless mortal, so weak that even a child could kill her, let alone a Tree Spirit that had cultivated for hundreds of thousands of years through the Spirit Vein.

As Lan Xi’s soul grew weaker and weaker, the man in black glowed with a bloodthirsty murderous intent in his eyes. He gripped the Heavenly Sword tightly in his right hand and roared like a beast.

His arm, entangled in vines, forcefully twisted around, and the Heavenly Sword stabbed unhesitatingly into his own body.

The Tree Spirit, which was about to devour Lan Xi’s soul, let out a sudden scream. The gray light quickly released Lan Xi and retreated back into the branches of the human-faced tree amidst its cries of agony.

What just happened?

That madman in black, he actually stabbed himself with the Heavenly Sword.

Not far away, the Heavenly Sword pierced through the body of the man in black, and the vines wrapped around his waist instantly shattered into dust and fell to the ground.

He knelt on the ground with eyes red like Yama Raja, forcefully pulling the sword out of his body.

Blood sprayed out from his chest, staining the wildflowers on the grassland red.

Supporting himself on the Longsword, he slowly stood up and took one step after another toward Lan Xi, who was not far away.

"Ah Qing!" Lan Xi’s eyes wide with horror, she fainted. No one knew better than her the terror inflicted by the Heavenly Sword.

How could he be so foolish as to save her like this.

The Tree Spirit watched the man, who now seemed to have gone mad, from a distance. The breeze lifted his blood-dripping robe, and his ebony hair flew wildly. A fierce killing aura seemed ready to destroy the heavens and earth.

At that moment, the man in black was more terrifying than any Evil Ghost from Hell.

The Tree Spirit retreated in fear and then turned and ran.

The man in black, however, ignored the Tree Spirit and strode toward Lan Xi.

Looking at the girl’s near-transparent face, he gently bent down and picked her up, then step by step, shakily walked towards the nearby lake.

Wherever he passed, blood flowed into rivers, and not even a mosquito dared approach him.

Reaching the lake, he held her and walked into the water, placing her in the midst of the rich Spiritual Energy.

Afterward, the man in black fainted.

The bright red blood dyed the lake water, as the two leaned on each other, being nourished by the Spiritual Lake.

...

Time passed little by little.

For seven consecutive days.

When the first rays of morning sunlight touched the earth, all the colorful flowers on the grassland bloomed.

It was but an instant; the grass grew taller, and the flowers became more radiant than before.

In the lake, a woman sitting cross-legged at the center slowly opened her eyes. Every blink of her long eyelashes carried a halo of sanctity, and her dark eyes surged with white mist. Wherever her gaze fell, the flowers seemed to receive a strong vitality, growing rapidly.

She slowly stood up from the lake, her ink-black hair draped behind her, and her svelte figure wrapped in a snow-white robe. In that moment, she was breathtakingly beautiful, even the flowers on the hills were captivated by her.

Behind her, the once milky lake had lost all its brilliance, turning transparent, as the surrounding rich Spiritual Energy had long been completely absorbed.

"Ah Qing!" The girl’s first instinct was to search for the man in black.

Finally, she sensed his location, hurried to the center of the lake, and then she dived to the bottom, lifting the man in black, who had sunk to the bottom, ashore.

Lan Xi looked at the man in black, a twinge of pain arising in her heart.

She saw her Ah Qing, whose once youthful face had aged to full of wrinkles, teeth fallen out, and black hair turned all white. More terrifyingly, his blood had dried up.

Sustaining his body from decaying was a faint, almost indistinct, stream of white Spiritual Energy in his blood vessels.

"Ah Qing!" Lan Xi held him tightly in her embrace, tears streaming down her face.

How could he be so foolish?

Hadn’t she told him not to use the Heavenly Sword lightly?

Hadn’t he already experienced being wounded by the Heavenly Sword, bearing a wound that couldn’t heal?

She held his icy body, feeling as if a blunt knife was repeatedly stabbing her in the chest.

Hadn’t he promised to stay with her for a lifetime?

Lan Xi didn’t want Ah Qing to die.

"Ah Qing, please open your eyes and look at Lan Xi. See if I’ve become prettier than before." The girl, holding the man’s hand, his shriveled fingers clearly showing the outline of his bones.

Lan Xi had never felt such panic, anger, or fear before. Tears fell whooshingly, and she could no longer restrain the fury in her chest as she raised her head and let out a loud cry.

"Ah!..."

With her cry, the nearby mountains echoed with a deafening sound, and the earth trembled.

Rocks rolled down, trees snapped, and in just an instant, every living creature in the valley trembled and lay prostrate on the ground, struggling and screaming.

Suddenly, her eyes tinged with blood, Lan Xi slowly stood up, cradling the black-clad man’s corpse.

She took a step and shrank the ground beneath her feet, appearing in a nearby jungle in the span of a breath.

Her gaze lifted, and finally settled on a trembling trunk of a tree.

"Is it you who wanted to snatch my body, to replace me and ascend to godhood?" Lan Xi’s face darkened, her blood-red eyes revealing a murderous intent.

The Tree Spirit became inarticulate, suddenly collapsing to the ground, pleading for mercy, "Immortal Venerable, I know my fault. I will never dare to offend again, please spare my life."

Lan Xi’s lips curved into a cruel smile, "Spare your life? How much is it worth? Can you return my Ah Qing to me?"

As Lan Xi finished speaking, the Tree Spirit felt its body being hollowed out by a force, withering rapidly before the naked eye, until it turned into a pile of rotten wood, crumbling to dust.

The wild beasts lying on the ground in the forest were instantly terrified out of their wits.

Although they had not attacked the man in black, they were completely frightened. And those that had attacked the man in black were all annihilated.

Wherever the man in black had passed before was a Mortal World inferno, and if this Immortal Venerable became enraged once more, this piece of heaven and earth would probably become Hell Asura Land.

"Get lost before I change my mind!"

Following Lan Xi’s words, the beasts scattered like a flood, fleeing as far as they could.

It was too terrifying.

They thought the man in black was already fearsome, but the woman was even more so.

The Tree Spirit had ruled over this land for hundreds of thousands of years, all submitting to it, yet it didn’t survive a second in her hands.

Now that the Spirit Vein was completely drained, the woman had become the most terrifying existence.

Lan Xi gazed at the man in black in her arms; even after having slain their enemies, her Ah Qing was not coming back.

She laid him on the ground, looking at his lifeless visage, she couldn’t believe he was really dead.

She was going to save him.