"Watch out!"
Duan Xianxing reacted instantly, slashing out with a wave of sword qi that severed the vine upon contact. Dark green sap oozed from the cut, emitting a pungent, nauseating stench.
Liu Qi gasped, "This isn't an ordinary vine! It's a spirit-siphoning vine!"
Hardly had the words left his mouth when the layers of fallen leaves around them churned violently. Dozens of similar vines erupted from the soil, coiling toward the four of them like living creatures.
Li Nanzhu's mind flashed through her knowledge of spirit-siphoning vines. They weren't particularly dangerous demonic plants; they merely siphoned a cultivator’s spiritual energy. However, once entangled, they became incredibly troublesome. If the struggle dragged on until one's spiritual energy was depleted, they would become nothing more than fertilizer for the plant.
They had to end this quickly!
As the three of them threw themselves into the fight, Zhu Yinxi had already concealed his presence. He leaped lightly onto a different tree, evidently having no intention of intervening.
"You should be able to handle spirit-siphoning vines with your current strength. Put some effort into it."
The three were forced to defend their own directions. Duan Xianxing had already summoned his life-bound sword, its sword qi wrapped in lightning that ground the approaching vines into powder. "We need to find a way to clear a path, or this will never end!"
Liu Qi also formed hand seals, sending a roaring fire dragon surging out. The vines crackled as they burned. As a refinery master with a single fire spiritual root, his life-bound true fire was far more overbearing than ordinary flames, successfully suppressing the vines' offensive for the moment.
However, the regeneration ability of the spirit-siphoning vines was astonishing. They were relentless; broken fragments that fell to the ground took root and sprouted new shoots in an instant.
Li Nanzhu tapped her toes lightly and pinched a hand seal, her Kalpa Fire Dance Sutra circulating rapidly. Blazing fire lotuses erupted from her palms, spinning as they flew to drive back the approaching vines. To her surprise, the vines didn't fully wither after being scorched; instead, they wriggled and attacked once more.
Li Nanzhu realized this was because her current cultivation was insufficient. If she were one stage higher, the Kalpa Fire would be enough to burn them away completely. Nevertheless, she keenly noticed that the areas scorched by the Kalpa Fire Dance lotuses could no longer regenerate. Though the vines behind the burns still wriggled, their strength and aggression were significantly lower than before.
Her eyes flashed with a bright light, and she immediately shouted, "These vines are afraid of my fire! Their regeneration is being suppressed!"
Hearing this, Duan Xianxing’s sword style shifted abruptly. He and Liu Qi quickly retreated to Li Nanzhu’s side. "Little Junior Sister, how can we help?"
"Hold back the outer spirit-siphoning vines for me! I'm going to attack its root system directly. Let's see how it grows once the roots are gone!"
The two understood immediately. As she spoke, Duan Xianxing’s blade traced an arc, weaving a dense net of lightning that intercepted every vine lunging toward them.
Liu Qi pressed his palms together, causing three fire dragons to link head-to-tail, forming a wall of flames around the trio. "Daoist Li, hurry!" Under their coordination, they managed to force open a path for Li Nanzhu.
Li Nanzhu’s hands moved in a blur, sending even more fire lotuses spinning toward the densest cluster of vines. Wherever they passed, the spirit-siphoning vines emitted ear-piercing shrieks. The scorched sections carbonized rapidly, showing no signs of revival.
While the carbonized areas were limited, Li Nanzhu wasn't worried. If one lotus wasn't enough, she would use two; by smashing enough of them down, she would eventually burn this thing to nothing.
"It’s working!" Liu Qi shouted excitedly, but his expression suddenly changed. "Watch the ground!"
The earth shook violently as a dark purple vine as thick as a grown man's waist burst through the soil. Its tip split into five branches, reaching for them like a giant hand. The surface of this main vine was covered in rugged patterns, with dark green liquid visibly flowing beneath its skin.
"It's the mother vine!" Li Nanzhu’s heart tightened. "Why is there a mother vine of the spirit-siphoning vines in the outer perimeter?"
The other two didn't look pleased either. Although they were concerned, the strength of a mother vine was generally around the late Foundation Establishment stage. It wasn't something the three of them couldn't handle together.
Just as Li Nanzhu prepared to release more fire lotuses, the mother vine seemed to realize she was the only one who could suppress it. Dozens of branches shot out simultaneously, charging straight for her. Duan Xianxing swung his sword to block, only to find the severed vines regenerating in mid-air!
"This thing is getting crazier!" Duan Xianxing yelled, grabbing Li Nanzhu by her collar and leaping backward. Liu Qi quickly pulled a ring from his storage bag, injecting spiritual energy into it as he retreated. The ring instantly unleashed several blades of gold-attribute energy, temporarily stalling the vines' onslaught.
"Liu Qi, do you have any magic tools that can finish this thing off?" Duan Xianxing shouted while pulling Li Nanzhu along as he jumped about.
"Ordinary fire is useless against this, so my usual tools won't work. More powerful magic tools would likely attract even more dangerous things. I can't use them!" Liu Qi said helplessly. It wasn't that he didn't want to use them; he simply couldn't.
"Second Senior Brother, save us!" Duan Xianxing hollered at the top of his lungs. It wasn't that he couldn't win, but this thing was far too tedious and relentless. He would rather fight a tier 2 demonic beast than be chased around by this ghost of a plant.
"You can still handle it. Call me when you can't," Zhu Yinxi replied, still standing calmly on the tree, watching the three of them get chased around.
Li Nanzhu, being dangled by her collar in mid-air, felt dizzy and disoriented. She gritted her teeth and suddenly shouted, "Seventh Senior Brother! Put me down!"
Duan Xianxing blinked and instinctively let go. Li Nanzhu flipped in mid-air and landed steadily on a thick branch. But the moment she landed, the mother vine's attack descended again, forcing her to shout to him.
"Seventh Senior Brother, your sword! Let me borrow it to fly!"
Hearing this, Duan Xianxing didn't hesitate to throw Wait a Moment to her. Li Nanzhu used the gap in the vines' attacks to leap onto the flying sword.
"Find a way to get me close to the mother vine!"
"Little Junior Sister, you're making this too hard for me!" Despite his words, the reputation of a Natural Sword Physique wasn't just for show. With a mere thought, Duan Xianxing guided Wait a Moment to nimbly dodge the vine attacks while he continued to dodge on foot, drawing the attention of some of the vines.
Watching the mother vine get closer and closer, Li Nanzhu directly summoned the Wanxiang Brush nurtured in her dantian.
Since ordinary methods couldn't kill this mother vine, she would use her Eight Principles of Yong. It so happened that she hadn't truly put the technique into practice since creating it. She would take this opportunity to test its power!
Circulating the Kalpa Fire Dance Sutra again, she infused the special power of the Kalpa Fire into the Wanxiang Brush. Controlling the spiritual energy with her mental power, she moved her wrist in a mysterious arc—the "Ti" stroke of the Eight Principles of Yong! Its inherent correspondence to the Li trigram would double the power of the attack!
As the stroke fell, the surrounding fire-attribute spiritual energy began to resonate. Where the brush tip passed, the image of the Li trigram faintly formed. With just this one stroke, Li Nanzhu felt her entire supply of spiritual energy being drained instantly, but she gritted her teeth and pushed the attack forward with all her might.
"Go!"
A deafening explosion echoed through the mountains.
The fiery character for "Ti" transformed into a shower of streaming fire the moment it touched the mother vine.
The mother vine’s main trunk was struck, and it immediately emitted a piercing shriek. Its dark purple bark carbonized and peeled off at a visible rate, leaking foul-smelling fluids. The previously flailing vines spasmed and retracted, writhing and rolling on the ground.
Li Nanzhu saw that the outer protective layer had been destroyed, but she had no spiritual energy left for further attacks. Fortunately, Duan Xianxing took advantage of the opening to fly over and carry her to another safe tree nearby.
"Now's the chance!" Liu Qi's eyes lit up as he quickly fished a crimson bead from his storage bag. "Brother Duan! Catch!"
Duan Xianxing caught it, feeling the searing energy radiating from his palm. He immediately knew what it was—an Explosive Flame Pearl, a single-use magic tool with an explosive force comparable to the full-strength strike of a Foundation Establishment peak cultivator.
"Thanks!" Without hesitation, Duan Xianxing injected spiritual energy into the Explosive Flame Pearl and hurled it at the mother vine's core.
With a thunderous boom, a pillar of fire shot into the sky. The barrier the mother vine had just begun to repair was blown apart again, leaving a massive hole!
"Now!" Duan Xianxing seized the opportunity. Lightning surged on his life-bound sword as he transformed into a bolt of electricity, piercing straight into the mother vine's core. Where the blade struck, lightning ravaged the plant, and the core was completely impaled.
Liu Qi wasn't idle either. His three fire dragons merged into one, charging through the opening Duan Xianxing had made to incinerate the mother vine from the inside.
With the death of the mother vine, the surrounding spirit-siphoning vines seemed to lose their vitality. They withered and died rapidly, turning into a field of ash.
The three of them landed on the ground, panting, and shared a look and a smile.
"Great job!" Duan Xianxing patted Li Nanzhu on the shoulder. "Little Junior Sister, you're amazing. I can't believe you actually broke that mother vine's defense."
Li Nanzhu was still a bit pale, but she managed a smile and wiped the sweat from her forehead. "It was a stroke of luck. My fire lotuses happened to counter those vines. But in the end, it was thanks to Daoist Liu's Explosive Flame Pearl; otherwise, it would have been hard to finish."
Liu Qi waved it off. "It's fine. I make those kinds of consumable magic tools all the time. It’s no big deal."
Only then did Zhu Yinxi hop down leisurely from the tree, nodding to the three of them. "It seems my intervention wasn't necessary."
Duan Xianxing rolled his eyes. "Second Senior Brother, you really are a 'great' senior brother."
"Alright, alright," Li Nanzhu interrupted their banter. "Since the mother vine is dealt with, let's see what we can harvest. A spirit-siphoning mother vine is full of treasures; we can't let them go to waste."
"Oh, right!" Duan Xianxing’s eyes lit up. Forgetting his exhaustion, he jumped up and began clearing the battlefield.
After a careful search, it was Duan Xianxing who first discovered the shattered spirit core.
"What a pity," Liu Qi shook his head. "If the spirit core were whole, it would have fetched a sky-high price."
Hearing this, Duan Xianxing looked pained once more. Had he known, he would have held back a little.
"If the spirit core hadn't shattered, we might not have won so easily," Li Nanzhu said optimistically. "Besides, the mother vine is full of treasures; the spirit core isn't the only good thing here."
In the final count, they managed to collect eight intact mother vine branches.
According to their prior agreement and individual contributions, the distribution was as follows: Li Nanzhu took the spirit core, Liu Qi took two vines, and Zhu Yinxi and Duan Xianxing each took three.
"I didn't expect to get a harvest so soon!" Duan Xianxing patted his storage bag happily. He might just become a rich man after this trip.
Just as the four of them planned to meditate and recover their spiritual energy, Zhu Yinxi's expression suddenly shifted.
"Something is approaching."
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