An undisguised pneuma was approaching rapidly. In a blink of an eye, a shadow appeared not far away.
“Kiddo, run to the woods now!”
The elder in the jade token shouted urgently, but Fan Zisang didn’t move. As the shadow came closer, he distinctly sensed a fluctuation of a seal behind his neck. For he was the target, there was no chance to escape!
When did he get hit?
Fan Zisang frowned and thought over, but to no avail.
After several moments, the shadow became apparent, and Fan Zisang was startled to find out who was coming.
“It’s you!”
Lots of enemies popped up in his mind, even the missing Yue Lin, but he never thought of her.
Finding that Fan Zisang was in a depressed state but his life wasn’t in danger temporarily, Su Li was slightly relieved. Without saying a word, she took out the tactical matrix she prepared and deployed an illusory protective boundary to shroud them both.
“Boy, you can’t escape now, even if you want to.”
The elder in the jade token sighed bitterly, for he obviously misunderstood the boundary as a trapping tactical matrix.
Fan Zisang kept silent for a moment and took the initiative to ask, “May I know the reason of your grudge against Huajian Sect?”
As Su Li targeted Yue Lin earlier and now stalked him, he naturally thought in this way.
As Fan Zisang asked, Su Li suddenly stepped forward and grabbed his throat, putting a black elixir precisely into his throat! The elixir took effect immediately.
Fan Zisang’s face changed dramatically, “What did you feed me…”
Before he could finish asking, he fainted and collapsed on the ground.
The elder in the jade token was so anxious, but his soul-body couldn’t leave the jade token, so he could only watch that helplessly.
“Detoxifying of the Poisonous Spirit Devouring Insect is a painful procedure, so it’s better for you to pass out.”
Su Li suddenly said this without any reason, and her indifferent gaze seemed to fall through the jade token onto the elder. He froze immediately, restrained his pneuma and didn’t dare make a move.
Was this woman speaking to herself, or to him?
“She seemingly doesn’t come for revenging but for helping the foolish brat detoxify the poison as she said…”
The elder observed carefully. Seeing Su Li began to meditate beside Fan Zisang, he felt slightly reassured, for he could do nothing but wait quietly.
Time kept flying, and a day and a night had passed in a blink of an eye.
Finally, at some point of time on the third day, Fan Zisang moaned and woke up slowly.
“Where… am I?”
His eyes were dull, and his vision was a bit blurry as he looked at the one beside him. The time as long as around ten hours was extremely short for a cultivator, but it was so long for him in that state, so long that he forgot what had happened before he passed out.
Luckily, this status didn’t last long before his mind was calm again. He immediately recalled everything that happened before.
He straightened up suddenly, looking at Su Li, who slowly opened her eyes and looked at him either. He was silent for a moment and said in a dull voice, “Am I still alive?”
Su Li raised her eyebrows and waved her hand to disperse the tactical matrix, being about to leave.
Fan Zisang became even more confused and immediately spoke out, “Wait!”
He stretched out his hand to pull Su Li’s sleeve and inadvertently saw that his palm was white, no longer stained by the black color.
“Has the Poisonous Spirit Devouring Insect… been removed?!”
Fan Zisang’s eyes opened wide. Being excited, he suddenly remembered something and looked up at Su Li, “It was you who helped me! Why…”
“You talk too much.”
Su Li patted the dust, which didn’t exist, on her sleeve and said with a frown.
Fan Zisang was embarrassed, for he was impulsive and abrupt. Although full of questions, he didn’t know how to ask.
“How did your wounds come?”
Su Li frowned slightly. With Fan Zisang’s cultivation, he shouldn’t be in such a mess just a few days after entering the Secret Realm, even if he was affected by the Poisonous Spirit Devouring Insect.
“It’s a shame. Yue Lin has deluded the disciples of my sect…”
Although Fan Zisang didn’t understand why Su Li cared so much about him, he still explained everything, including the bizarre death of the three fellows from Huajian Sect.
Su Li was deeply thinking. She wouldn’t feel the slightest sympathy for the death of the three inherited disciples of Huajian Sect, but she was interested in how they ended up.
“Even Fan Zisang couldn’t see clearly what attacked them, which meant that the unknown attacker was much stronger than him. Strange… Someone in Jindan Realm shouldn’t be in the Secret Realm. Could it be some kind of mutations after a thousand years?”
Pondering for a moment, Su Li asked, “Do you still remember that place?”
Fan Zisang was shocked to hear the question and said in a rasping voice, “Fellow Practitioner, it’s really dangerous there. A practitioner in Zhuji Realm stands no chance. You…”
As Su Li frowned gradually, Fan Zisang’s voice became quieter, and finally, only a bitter smile remained on his face. He said helplessly, “I don’t remember it very clearly. But if I come near that place, I can surely recognize it. I am glad to show you the way, so we can look out for each other.”
Su Li didn’t reply and just calmly looked at Fan Zisang.
Fan Zisang felt uncomfortable under her stare. After resisting for a moment, he gave up and said frankly, “Since you saved my life, what’s wrong if I try to repay the debt and to show my gratitude?”
Su Li withdrew her gaze, and looked straight into the dense forest, saying slowly, “Don’t thank me! I was just entrusted by somebody to help you. I’m not willing to take you with me, because I’m afraid you’ll get in the way. Since you’re not scared of death, then you can follow.”
Then, Su Li walked towards the dense forest.
Fan Zisang felt more bitter, and he was somehow unconvinced, for her words really hurt.
But… was she really entrusted by someone?
In his memory, there was no one who fitted her description. Even Wang Yu had no way to deal with the Poisonous Spirit Devouring Insect, and the only possible one he knew was the elder in the jade token. Was this woman… probably lying?
But why did she lie?
Moreover, he vaguely sensed a familiar trait in this woman, a lingering sense of déjà vu. But, when he searched carefully in his mind, no one matched.
“Well, well… If I can’t figure it out, just let it alone. Since she saved my life, she definitely has no reason to hurt me.”
Scratching his head, Fan Zisang followed without hesitation even if he was slightly scared in his heart.
Hearing the footsteps behind her, Su Li didn’t even look back. They walked in the dense forest one after the other. Fan Zisang followed his memory and adjusted his direction from time to time. Six hours later, they finally returned to the spot.
“This is the place.”
Looking at the familiar giant tree in front of him, Fan Zisang stopped his steps. Suddenly, he remembered something and turned his head to look around, his face instantly becoming incredibly pale.
“The bodies have gone…”
Su Li narrowed her eyes, thinking. According to Fan Zisang’s statement, three people died here one day ago, but there was no smell of blood swirling in the air and no trace of death on the ground, as if no one had ever been here before.
“Could it be possible that you misremembered?”
Su Li asked, and Fan Zisang shook his head repeatedly. Then he walked towards the giant tree, saying, “I was leaning on this…”
Boom!!!
Before he could finish speaking, the familiar, terrifying feeling came back again. As his pupils contracted immediately, he finally saw the weapon that killed the three disciples of Huajian Sect… The killer was the giant tree!
“Too fast to see and hide!”
Fan Zisang breathed heavily, staring at the attacking shadow, but his body couldn’t keep up with his reaction. What he could do was waiting for the tree branches to pierce through his chest, just like the three from Huajian Sect.
“Oh, I forgot the benefactor. It doesn’t matter if I die now, but she can’t!”
At this critical moment, Fan Zisang shuddered and tried to block all the branches with his own body.
His sight was suddenly covered by a shadow, and the time seemed to be frozen at this point. All the quickly approaching shadows in front of him came to a stop.
“Errr…”
Fan Zisang was dumbfounded to see the scene, and he opened his mouth but found he didn’t know what to say. He even thought he had an illusion out of fear of death.
This mysterious female practitioner, whose figure was incomparable to the giant tree, stopped the terrifying branches bare-handed?!
“It’s a tree demon behind all of this.”
Su Li snorted with gloomy eyes and exploded the branches, which were thick as a washbasin, with her palms. The branches were directly turned into wood shavings flying all over the sky!
“Human Clan!! How dare you hurt me? It’s a capital offense!”
A hideous human face reappeared on the root of the giant tree, emitting a low roar with rage. Then, Fan Zisang saw, to his horror, all the branches of the giant tree came to life, and lots of snakeheads waggling their tongues appeared at the end of the branches. Thousands of cold eyes on the snakeheads were staring at Su Li and Fan Zisang, and those eyes could almost blot out the sky and hide the earth.
As Fan Zisang got goosebumps, his forehead couldn’t stop sweating, and he finally understood that Su Li’s words weren’t false at all. Encountering a demon like this, he was indeed a hindering burden.
“I’ve never heard of such a terrifying demon; how will she deal with it?”
He looked at Su Li, but found that the latter still kept calm. She mocked the demon mercilessly, “What a fancy and useless creature! Is this all your capabilities?”
The tree demon, who had expected to scare the shit out of Su Li, became furious to hear that. It drove all the snakeheads to bite Su Li and Fan Zisang without hesitation.
“Damn, Human Clan, I will shred you into pieces!”
Fan Zisang was profoundly scared, but Su Li deployed a protective tactical matrix around him, while she stamped her feet and rushed directly into the snakeheads.
“Be careful!”
He shouted, and he felt guilty about telling her about this. He should’ve not told this to his benefactor to put her in danger.
Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! …
In the nothingness, Fan Zisang couldn’t see clearly. Su Li raised up a shield, and the snakeheads gnawed wildly at the shield, making incessant noises. The shield tended to shatter after a few moments.
“At this distance, he should not be able to see it.”
Su Li took a deep breath, wiped the universe ring with one hand, and took out a standard flying sword of Danxia Mount, which Fan Zisang presented her. She never thought she could use it one day.
She made a finger gesture and congealed dozens of transparent imprints into the flying sword. The flying sword started to tremble drastically.
“Click, click, click…”
Traces of cracks appeared on the sword, and it instantly scattered all over the area like a spider’s web.
When the flying sword reached its limit to shatter, Su Li changed her gaze and stabbed the flying sword into the main body of the giant tree with all her strength. A cold bellow echoed in Fan Zisang’s ears.
“Explode… now!”
