Chapter 238 - A Blooming Tree
Xiao Sui's face turned pale, and he felt like biting his mouth, but when his gaze fell upon the vast and endless sea of knowledge in front of him, he suddenly fell silent.
Subconsciously, he felt fortunate that he hadn't really started a fight with Qiao Wan before. With this sea of knowledge, crushing him would be as easy as squashing an ant.
Staring at the tree in front of them, the three mischievous friends began to worry.
"What's the deal with this tree?" Fang Lingqing asked with fear.
It couldn't really be a relative, right?
Qiao Wan said, "Take another look."
As soon as she spoke, a nearby tree suddenly exploded with a loud bang.
Blocks flew through the air, and one of them hit Xiao Sui directly on the forehead. Not paying attention, Xiao Sui tilted his chin back and blood shot out from his nose.
Fang Lingqing , a confused young man, hesitated silently for a moment. "Is this... too embarrassing to bear, leading to suicide?"
But it didn't end there. Right after the tree that spewed blood and exploded, a rabbit dashed past. Its body seemed to expand like it was being inflated, growing bigger and bigger. In the blink of an eye, flesh and blood burst open, sticking to its white bones like a blooming tree.
Even with this grotesque sight, the rabbit was still alive, its red eyes spinning. With a gust of wind, its flesh flowers fell to the ground, but its four legs remained stuck in the earth, unmoving.
Seeing this scene, Qiao Wan and the others exchanged glances, too shocked to speak.
"What's going on?" Xiao Sui asked in his mind.
Fang Lingqing shook his head with a serious expression.
If trees could bleed and explode, there would be no way to explain this rabbit blooming.
Qiao Wan tightly grasped her sword and took a step forward, but her wrist was suddenly grabbed by Xiao Sui.
"Don't you care about your life?" Xiao Sui's face turned ugly. "If you don't care about your life, at least don't involve me. Let's wait and see."
Qiao Wan glanced at him and stopped in her tracks. The three of them watched as the rabbit in front of them rooted itself in the ground like a tree.
Apart from the winding bloodstains and scattered flesh on the grass, the surroundings seemed to return to peace, like an ordinary forest.
Now, even if she didn't want to continue forward, she had to.
*
Wang Ruyi was feeling very down.
She didn't expect to get separated from Lu Cixian and the others as soon as they entered the secret realm. Lost in her thoughts, she coincidentally bumped into someone from Sun Tao College.
She caught a glimpse from the corner of her eye.
The disfigured young man she had seen before was directing some of his junior disciples with a gloomy expression, while the others stayed behind temporarily.
It was clear that Yu Xingzhi had encountered the same strange phenomenon as Qiao Wan.
*
As for Chongde Ancient Garden, Bai Shanhu and Meng Canglang looked a bit serious. But what they saw was not rabbits blooming, it was even more terrifying. One disciple started blooming.
He was walking perfectly fine, but suddenly his feet seemed to have roots, his arms stretched out like a tree. He didn't speak or call for help, just silently rooted in the ground. Flesh on his arms burst open in clusters, sticking to his bones, swaying in the wind.
Like a tree in full bloom.
*
"How is it?" Yu Xingzhi's face turned pale, "Any updates?"
The disciple who came to report looked pale and trembling, obviously scared.
Yu Xingzhi fell silent for a moment, then reached out and placed his hand on the disciple's shoulder.
Feeling the warmth of a living person on his shoulder, the disciple finally regained his senses and slowly wrote a few words in Yu Xingzhi's palm.
"Brother Liu, he's gone."
After all, not everyone has the cheat-like ability of Qiao Wan to sense what's wrong. Staying quiet is definitely a cautious approach until we figure out what's causing this disturbance.
With a gloomy face, Yu Xingzhi looked past his junior brother's shoulder, towards the back.
Three or four fellow disciples, carrying Brother Liu, walked towards us in a mournful manner.
Seeing the tragic state of the body, even Yu Xingzhi , who had experienced the ghost market, couldn't help but feel a surge of nausea. He caught a glimpse of the clueless girl running towards them and quickly pulled her back, leaving a few words with spiritual power on Wang Ruyi's arm.
"Step back."
"Oh." Wang Ruyi obediently stepped back.
Only then did Yu Xingzhi approach a bit closer, carefully lowering his head to examine.
In front of them, there was a dead body without a head. Not only was the head missing, but there was also a small cut on the waist, and the organs had been squeezed out and were hanging on the waist.
It was obvious that the body wasn't just cut by a knife, but rather...
Yu Xingzhi felt a sinking feeling in his heart.
It seemed more like someone had squeezed the waist and forcefully pushed out the heart, liver, and spleen.
Yu Xingzhi quietly asked, "What happened?"
The disciple who was reporting crouched down and drew on the ground.
After a while, Yu Xingzhi finally saw clearly.
"I don't know, it just suddenly became like this."
Suddenly, Junior Brother Liu's head fell off, and his organs were squeezed out.
*
Meanwhile, on the other side in the West, the group from Chaotian Mountain had just sat down to rest.
"Look, senior brother, I caught a lot of fish in the net!" The handsome young Taoist from Chaotian Mountain happily held a stack of small fish, still wriggling, in his hands and sat down.
"These fish, take a look," he said, picking up one. "All you have to do is pinch the belly of the fish with your fingernail, cut off the head, and squeeze out the innards, then it can be eaten."
"Thank you, senior brother, I have to say, the spiritual energy in this place is really abundant," he said, pointing upwards. "Not only is the air filled with overflowing spiritual power, but even these small fish have as much spiritual energy as a person."
"Good," said Xie Xingzhi, not very interested as he withdrew his gaze and nodded slightly. "You've worked hard. Let's take a rest here and sort out the treasures we have collected along the way."
He took out a beautiful and slightly translucent white pill from his sleeve, and Xie Xingzhi furrowed his brow.
Those precious treasures from nature and the earth are not really important. What matters most is the inner core of the mythical beast living in this place. Just by having this core in his hands, it is worth two hundred years of lifespan.
But to retrieve the inner core, he has to cut open the belly of the other person.
Xie Xingzhi, a tired man, lowered his eyes.
His master, Daoist Red Belly, taught him that the way of the heavens is like a bank.
For every "good will" you deposit, you will receive the same amount of "good will" in return, maybe even with some interest. But if you have evil intentions, even if there is no immediate consequence, someday you will have to pay it back.
The way of the heavens is to take from the surplus to fill the deficiency; the way of the people is to take from the deficiency to gain in surplus.
In a flick of his thoughts, his gaze turned slightly cold, and he had made a decision.
With a swing of his sleeve and a twist of his fingertips, the inner core in his hand turned into a handful of powder.
It is not virtuous to use stolen lifespan to benefit oneself when heaven already bestows good fortune. Even without these inner cores, he could cultivate and achieve the Yuan Ying stage within a hundred years.
*
Except for these few directions, the remaining sects have also descended into chaos.
"We caught it!" One of the taller male cultivators grinned and pulled out a knife from his pocket, holding a creature that looked like an armadillo. "The scales on this creature are valuable."
"What kind of valuable thing is it?" The shorter male cultivator laughed mischievously. "I've never heard of it."
"A tonic for vitality."
The shorter cultivator looked surprised. "Senior brother, are you not feeling well?"
The taller cultivator rolled his eyes. "Go away, I'll give it to you for your own vitality."
*
As Fang Lingqing, using his sword to push aside the bushes in front, suddenly stumbled and fell to the ground!
"Taoist Friend Fang?!" Xiao Sui was taken aback.
Without blinking, Qiao Wan blurted out, "Little Fang?!" and immediately rushed over to check on him.
But as she approached Fang Lingqing, she hesitated and couldn't take another step forward.
The young man knelt on the ground, his whole body suddenly bleeding, blood seeping through his skin, fingers gripping the ground, coughing uncontrollably.
Xiao Sui saw this bloody scene and he froze in shock for a while before jumping up in fear.
"Is it an attack?!" he exclaimed.
Startled, he unsheathed two knives from his waist and swiftly cut down the tree in front of him.
With a loud crash, the tree fell, but there was no person or monster hiding behind it as expected.
Everything around was quiet and there was no sign of any magical activity.
Qiao Wan watched Fang Lingqing in agony, rolling on the ground.
Her face turned pale as she closed her eyes and expanded her consciousness, but she encountered no obstacles or other consciousnesses.
There were simply no people or monsters here.
So, what about Fang Lingqing?
It hurt!
It hurt him so much!
After practicing for many years, Fang Lingqing screamed in pain without any grace.
The sensation felt like someone took a knife and scraped off your skin layer by layer.
The young man was in so much pain that cold sweat kept flowing, not only was he bleeding, but his nails, buried deep in the mud, suddenly started peeling off. Ten nails were forcibly scraped off, revealing ten bloody and mangled fingers.
He cursed angrily.
Fang Lingqing bit his lip tightly, this time the pain was so intense that he couldn't even make a sound.
What kind of place is this?! A ghost market? And now even a fairy palace is playing tricks on him? Dammit, if he finds out who did this, he'll use his "Falling Blossom" technique to kill them.
*
Looking up, Yu Xingzhi's eyes were slightly red. "Bury Liu Junior Brother here."
A nearby disciple of the virtuous path nodded solemnly, but before he took two steps, he suddenly felt a chill in his waist.
The disciple of the virtuous path widened his eyes in confusion.
What happened? Why does it feel like the line of sight suddenly became shorter?
Where are Yu Xingzhi and the other senior brothers?
In Yu Xingzhi's ears, he heard a loud scream of anger.
"Enemy attack!"
"We are under attack!"
As he looked up, he saw a chaotic display of colorful swords and knives.
And where were his... his legs?!
He reached out and felt that his lower body was completely empty.
"Aaaahhhhh!!!"
Suddenly, the sensation returned and the pain came rushing in. The disciple of the Path of Goodness screamed in agony, his eyes filled with rage.
His legs!
Someone had sliced his stomach into two with a single blow!!
Almost at the same time, Bai Shanhu's fingertips moved slightly, her eyes reflected the shattered fragments of her fellow disciple, splattered with warm blood, covering her face.
The young girl was taken aback, her black hair sticking to her pale skin, and with a cold and angry voice, she raised her draped cloth-covered arm like a graceful snake.
"Run quickly!!"
