Supreme Swordsman of the Nine Heavens

Chapter 71

Wood Elemental Demons

“Senior Brother, what do you have in mind? We can’t escape.” Si Anming, a disciple of Celestial Pole Sect, constantly looked over his shoulder.

“Don’t panic. We need to hang in there until help arrives,” answered Zhao Yunyang, trying to fulfil his duty as Si Anming’s senior despite being unnerved.

The two wounded cultivators were breathing erratically as they fled from the hunters after them. Si Anming thought he was on vacation and confident they could defeat elemental demons as a team even if demons did jump them. Sadly, it didn’t pan out the way he imagined. The people in their team were missing and busy trying to stay alive themselves.

“Die. Human.”

The dark enemy tailing the duo possessed four limbs, sharp claws and a pair of black feather wings plus spikes. It had a tiger’s head and fangs that could easily pierce flesh. It wasn’t an elemental demon. It was a winged fang tiger, a fiend.

“Watch out!” cried Si Anming.

Zhao Yunyang looked behind to see the winged fang tiger’s fierce gaze and felt cold claws thrust through his chest. His body temperature plummeted fast as he bled out. It didn’t take long before took his last breath and hung his head despite his eyes still being wide open.

“Senior Brother!”

The winged fang tiger tore Zhao Yunyang’s heart out slowly and dropped his prey’s corpse down onto a random tree.

“Delicious,” remarked the winged fang tiger, chomping Zhao Yunyang’s heart and making a bloody mess on his fur.

Once the winged fang tiger leapt at Si Anming, the latter quit running and shut his eyes, aware he was doomed whether he fled or fought back. However, the nightmarish sensation never came. He let out a breath of relief, thanking death for being so simple and painless.

“Fly away now!”

Si Anming snapped out of his daze and opened his eyes. Before his eyes was a youth roughly his age. He couldn’t put a name or sect on the face of the mature youth he met before. Realising help had arrived, he stuttered, “Wh-who are you?”

Cheng Yan gazed past Si Anming. There was still plenty of spiritual energy coming from behind Si Anming, indicating there was a fight taking place there. Cheng Yan had no time to explain, so he took off. As for the fiend, its severed carcass hung on a tree branch after it was cut in two before it realised it.

“Fly up!” yelled Mu Yu.

“I can’t. For some reason, the trees here grow up as we fly. There’s no escape,” cried Si Anming.

It finally clicked. They fired signals, but nobody flew above the trees to escape because the trees followed them up. Mu Yu placed a hand on a tree trunk to transfer her consciousness in. He sensed a potent energy coming from within. He launched himself up and flew for a while longer to see the green canopy forever there. It rendered him befuddled since their team was apparently an exception. Mu Yu hadn’t seen any wood demons when there had to be one manipulating the trees.

Hearing a battle take place, Mu Yu dropped the topic and said, “I’m going to assist others. Stay safe” and took off.

Bloodstained trees were strewn across the ground, yet not one was chopped. Foundation Establishment cultivators should’ve been able to slice them apart without even trying, though.

Five fiends had three cultivators surrounded. As with precious fiends, the fiends’ transformations were incomplete. There was a red wolf, black monkey and tigon. The cultivators’ flying swords were useless against the fiends. Meanwhile, the fiends could inflict critical damage. Cheng Yan swooped in to rescue them just in time.

Cheng Yan’s flying sword was superior to others’. He enhanced his sword with qi and wielded five flying swords at once, allowing him to make quick work of the fiends. Despite his efforts, more and more fiends were heard roaring. Insects, bugs, fiend beasts and more fiends rushed over. Yes, they were supposed to be out of sight during the day. That was why it led to speculation somebody was directing them.

Cheng Yan cut several fiend wolves in two and crushed the insects. He drove away a group of beasts only for more fiend beasts to encroach upon them. He could kill them, but there were was no end to them. Plus, he needed to protect three critically injured cultivators. Hence, he elected to flee with them.

Mu Yu didn’t pull out. He travelled from tree to tree as he watched the waves of approaching fiend beasts and wild beasts. The spell cast on the forest didn’t affect him. Even so, he had no time to help them as he found a wood demon!

The wood demon hid in a tree not too far from Mu Yu and watched over the chaos. Mu Yu and the demon discovered each other at the same time. Though startled for a moment, the demon made a dash as fast as it could. It was presumably the one controlling the beasts and insects, which was why, Mu Yu pursued it, impressively keeping up.

Mu Yu was basically part of the tree when he entered them. As such, he could swiftly hop from tree to tree if the leaves and branches were connected. He had a clear visual on everything around. By the same token, wood demons were able to stay out of sight.

The wood demon couldn’t shake Mu Yu off after running for two hours, so it gave up and exited the tree. Mu Yu emerged from the tree, too, and the two confronted each other on a tree top.

“You’re not an elemental demon. You’re human,” stated the green wood demon.

The wood demon’s voice was energetic and gave the listener hope unlike its appearance. Mu Yu looked around. He couldn’t discern where he was when it all looked the same. Based on the time he spent running around, he theorised he was far from the others.

“You’re not human. You’re an elemental demon,” stated the wood demon, contradicted itself. “What are you?”

“That’s none of your business. Are you the one controlling the beasts?”

The green mist shifting around in the wood demon’s eyes was distracting. “Humans shouldn’t be here.”

“Elemental demons shouldn’t be here.”

“This is our territory. Why can’t we be here?”

Unwilling to let humans and elemental demons continue with their war, Mu Yu declared, “Dismantle the formation, and we shall leave.”

The wood demon grinned. “None of you will be leaving this place.”

The wood demon commanded the tree next to Mu Yu to rapidly grow with hand gestures and tried to restrain Mu Yu.