What kind of cursed thing is this?!

 

Deep within the dense forests of Wanchao Valley in the Hengtian Sect, Lin Jie finally escaped the last layer of the illusion. Gasping for breath, he steadied himself.

The illusions had shown him countless scenes he would rather not have witnessed—some real, others fabricated. The final one left him drenched in cold sweat: the people he cherished lay dead before him, their chests pierced through by man-eating vines, blood streaming out before they were drained into hollow husks.

As his gaze swept over the lifeless shells, he recognized Meng Xi, Bai Ke, his master Huo Junxiao, Ancestor Yu Xian… and lastly, the girl standing at the end of the line.

It was his long-lost sister, whom he hadn’t heard from in years.

Thankfully, in the depths of fear and despair, Lin Jie held onto a shred of rationality. He remembered Bai Ke mentioning that when those vines killed, they didn’t leave behind husks.

Not even a shred of a corpse remained—at most, there would be a small puddle of blood.

Moreover, how could his Master Junxiao and the salted fish Ancestor Yu Xian possibly fall to a few measly vines? The very thought was laughable!

So, after calming down, he managed to escape the final illusion. Yet as he emerged, he was hesitant to open his eyes, unsure if he was still trapped in the dream or truly free. The layers of illusions had left him unable to distinguish reality from deception.

But reality offered him no time to hesitate. He had barely taken two breaths, his pounding heart yet to settle, when a series of piercing screams reached his ears.

Having just escaped one nightmare, Lin Jie shuddered and snapped his eyes open.

Still, the echoes of the illusions distorted his senses. His ears buzzed as if partially clogged, muffling the sounds around him. His vision was blurred, like waking from deep sleep, leaving him unable to make out his surroundings.

He blinked twice, trying to regain focus, when someone suddenly grabbed his arm and dragged him aside with startling speed. The action was so sudden and fast that Lin Jie yelled , “Oh, crap!” as he stumbled several steps before barely managing to steady himself.

“What are you daydreaming about?!” The person scolded in a low voice.

The deep, familiar voice instantly struck a chord with Lin Jie—his Master Junxiao!

After being trapped in the illusions for what felt like an eternity, hearing this voice nearly brought Lin Jie to tears. Furiously rubbing his eyes, he wailed, “Master! You’re finally here! I was stuck in illusion after illusion just now  for some reason, almost lost my life, ahhhhh!”

After rubbing and blinking his eyes a few more times, his vision finally cleared. Before him stood Huo Junxiao, no longer in his youthful disguise but in his original form—a tall, stern figure in black robes. His brows were tightly furrowed, his expression grave, and he was holding someone tightly in his arms.

Lin Jie didn’t need to look to know it was Bai Ke.

But upon closer inspection, Bai Ke looked different. Unlike Junxiao, he hadn’t reverted to his original appearance but seemed caught in a form between his youthful disguise and maturity, appearing somewhere between a teenager and a young adult.

“Eh? Xiao Bai, he—” Lin Jie noticed Bai Ke’s pale, bloodless complexion and couldn’t help but voice his concern.

“He’s the same as us,” Junxiao said gravely. “Fell into Hengtian Sect’s trap and got caught in the illusion. By the time I opened my eyes, we were already here, likely drawn by the sect’s formation.”

“Drawn here?” Lin Jie was startled. “Why bring us here?”

Junxiao shot him a glance but didn’t answer immediately. Instead, with lightning-fast reflexes, he grabbed Lin Jie and leapt dozens of meters away. Nodding towards the front, he said, “To feed the fiend.”

Still reeling from the chaos, Lin Jie followed his master’s gaze. What he saw nearly made his legs give out. He almost collapsed on the spot.

There, some dozens of meters away, stood a monstrous tree-like fiend. Its massive trunk was so thick that it would take at least ten people joining hands to encircle it, and its towering height was nothing short of terrifying.

On the massive trunk, countless branches extended outward like a myriad of writhing serpents, twisting and whipping through the air.

Lin Jie recognized those branches immediately!

They were identical to the vines they had encountered earlier in the forest.

He gasped sharply as he saw the evil tree’s roots, partially exposed above the soil, begin to writhe. Then, with a sudden burst, they shot out from the ground. The fiend was attacking from both above and below, leaving no room to escape.

It was clear that the formations set up by the Hengtian Sect throughout the forest were not isolated. They worked together, using illusions to lure victims to this exact spot.

Sure enough, just a short distance away, three or five disoriented disciples stumbled out of the forest. They looked completely deranged—two of them, apparently overwhelmed by some hallucination, had even started grappling with each other in a chaotic scuffle.

The enormous fiendish tree shuddered violently, and nearly a hundred branches shot toward the confused disciples, looking like a hungry and crazy predator.

Huo Junxiao reacted immediately, raising his sword while keeping Bai Ke tightly in his arms. He transformed into a streak of sword light, slicing through the mass of branches. Blinding golden light burst forth, and the hundreds of branches were pierced clean through by his sword’s energy, severed completely. They fell to the ground, where they instantly  dissolved into clouds of black mist that swiftly reabsorbed into the tree’s trunk.

With a sweep of his long sleeve, Junxiao gathered up the dazed disciples and retreated toward Lin Jie’s location. But as he turned to look back, he saw that the severed branches had already regrown, as if nothing had happened.

Lin Jie stared, dumbfounded. "What the hell?! How are we supposed to fight this thing?!"

Junxiao hadn’t expected the fiendish tree to be so bizarre, seemingly immortal and tenacious. His brow furrowed deeply.

Yet the situation left no time to pause. More disciples continued stumbling into the area, and Junxiao had to repeatedly intervene to save them.

But the fiendish tree was no fool. At first, it had focused solely on the prey at its base, ignoring Lin Jie and the others. But once it realized its preys were being rescued, and it had yet to claim a single one, the tree seemed to go berserk.

Dark, curling mist emanated from its body, winding around each of its branches. The entire tree started thrashing wildly, its massive, snake-like branches lashing out indiscriminately, leaving almost no space to evade. The tree’s colossal trunk itself began to shake, moving directly toward the place where Lin Ji was staying.

Junxiao, burdened by the unconscious Bai Ke in his arms and a horde of frenzied disciples, had no choice but to encircle everyone and retreat further.

Just as he was overwhelmed, Yu Xian emerged from the nearby forest. Without hesitation, the Ancestor charged at the fiendish tree, slashing at it relentlessly.

The scene erupted into a flurry of motion and sword light.

Yu Xian circled the tree in a blur, cutting into its edges, before landing gracefully beside Junxiao. "Brat, when did chopping down a demon tree become such a drawn-out process for you?"

Before Junxiao could reply, the tree itself provided the answer to Yu Xian’s question.

The severed branches dissolved once again into black mist, pouring back into the trunk. Moments later, the branches regrew, completely restored, as if they had never been cut.

“...What kind of cursed thing is this?!” Yu Xian exclaimed, his beard bristling as he glared at the fiendish tree.

Lin Jie, trembling, pointed at the monstrous tree. “Is this the source of those vines? Does this mean... that the so-called blood beast the Hengtian Sect was raising in Wanchao Valley is actually this thing?”

“The idiots of Hengtian Sect,” Yu Xian grumbled, his frustration boiling over. “It’s obvious this thing isn’t even a beast! What the hell were they thinking?! First illusions, now this demonic abomination—if they keep this up, they’ll bring divine retribution upon themselves sooner or later!”

But this fiendish tree, vexing and indestructible as it was, left them with no choice but to face it head-on.

According to their earlier assumptions, whether it was the exit from the forest or the path leading to the Ice Soul, both seemed to be connected to this fiendish tree. Unless they completely dealt with it, Lin Jie and the others couldn’t leave, and Junxiao wouldn’t be able to take Bai Ke to find the Ice Soul.

As for Bai Ke’s current condition...

Both Junxiao and Yu Xian frowned as they glanced down. Bai Ke still appeared to be struggling within the illusion. His brows were tightly furrowed, his lips pressed into a thin line, and fine beads of cold sweat dotted his forehead.

The Hengtian Sect’s purpose in setting up the Nine Killing Formation was likely to create illusions that would gradually lead the targeted disciples to this demonic tree. As such, whether it was Junxiao, Yu Xian, Lin Jie, or the weaker disciples, none of them fell into complete unconsciousness while trapped in the illusions. Instead, they were left in a confused, disoriented state, stumbling their way toward the tree.

Only Bai Ke...

Junxiao couldn’t help but feel immensely grateful that, even in the illusion, he hadn’t let go of Bai Ke’s hand. When he broke free from the illusion, it allowed him to immediately check on Bai Ke’s condition.

Unfortunately, the moment Junxiao opened his eyes, Bai Ke seemed to have exhausted the last of his strength and collapsed. Since then, there had been no sign of him regaining consciousness.

Even the weakest, most dazed disciples had begun to recover after Junxiao saved them from the illusions. All except Bai Ke.

Junxiao refused to believe that someone as sharp as Bai Ke wouldn’t have realized he was in an illusion, or that he wouldn’t have been able to identify its flaws and break free. The only explanations were that the illusion Bai Ke experienced had been exceptionally unusual and utterly drained him, or that it might have something to do with the Seven Star Pill within his body...

Whatever the reason, their most urgent priority was to destroy this fiendish tree and get Bai Ke out of here as quickly as possible.

 

Translator : DarNan