Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
Cries of agony continued to echo among the branches as more Hillmen fell from a great height. Some barely held onto the branches with their claws, but most of them slammed heavily onto the lower branches and turned into bloody meat.
The silver light of Telekinesis flickered continuously, knocking the Hillmen trying to approach Mo Fan and his team into the air. The Hillmen could only get to thirty meters from Mo Fan. As soon as they crossed that line, they would be sent flying by the powerful force of his Telekinesis!
Mo Fan was now able to split his will further into more wisps. Each wisp was a lot stronger, too. It could even kill a Hillman instantly if it struck the creature at the right angle…
Ai Jiangtu was able to dominate most of his battles with just a single spell, and Mo Fan had finally caught up to him. He felt more at ease when dealing with the Hillmen after his mental strength had improved!
That being said, he would be able to kill the Hillmen even faster if he was Possessed by Little Flame Belle.
“Watch your left!” Lingling warned.
Mo Fan did not even turn his head. A wisp of his will struck the Hillman that was leaping at him from his blind spot. The Hillman barely reached a distance of ten meters from Mo Fan, before spitting out a mouthful of blood as it slammed heavily into the main trunk.
“Keep going up!” Zhao Manyan had no choice but to constantly switch between attacking and defending. The Hillmen kept coming down from above. It was obvious that they had long moved into position, trying to prevent the humans from escaping again.
The branches below were filled with black figures. It was almost impossible to even count how many of them there were. These Hillmen were more stubborn than anyone had imagined!
Mo Fan was running short on energy. Otherwise, he would have gone down and snapped the neck of the Bronze-Fang Hillman that had inflicted serious damage on him in half!
The group continued to move up the tree. Luckily, Mo Fan’s Space Element was a lot stronger after his mentality reached the fifth stage. Otherwise, things would be a lot worse while the Hillmen were ambushing them in the dark!
—
Zhao Manyan panted heavily. He was absolutely worn out.
He barely had energy left after helping the group pass the demon sparrows’ territory safely. The group was on the run again before he could even rest up. His energy was seriously depleted.
Any Mage would feel extremely uneasy when they ran out of energy, especially when on a giant tree where a powerful creature could show up at any second…
“The Hillmen are below us, and unknown creatures are above us. We are seriously going to die at this rate. Damn it, I thought about the possibilities of dying on a battlefield, in a city, or at sea, but I never thought I would die on a f**king tree!” Zhao Manyan grumbled.
He had run out of energy. He could only grumble and complain to vent the enormous pressure he was feeling.
Mo Fan was still doing fine. After all, he was mostly using Basic and Intermediate Spells, reducing the consumption rate of his energy.
“They seem to have stopped chasing us,” Lingling told everyone.
Zhao Manyan looked down and saw the Hillmen crouching on the branches below them, watching them. They looked like they were too afraid to pursue any further, even though they were unwilling to let their prey go.
Zhao Manyan did not feel any relief from seeing that. Anyone who had been in the wild would know that when the demon creatures stopped pursuing suddenly, it did not mean the demon creatures had suddenly decided to spare their lives, but that there was something even scarier waiting for them ahead!
“What are you waiting for? Keep going up!”
“But what if there’s something even scarier up there?” Zhao Manyan protested.
“Scarier my ass!” Mo Fan was reluctant to believe that their luck was that bad. He immediately climbed higher with the girls.
Zhao Manyan’s timid character was exposed as soon as his energy was depleted. The Hillmen were very intelligent, indeed. They knew Mo Fan and his crew were almost at their limits, thus they did not give up on their pursuit.
They managed to run away from the Hillmen after climbing a few hundred meters up the tree. However, the Hillmen did not seem to have any intention of leaving. They stood there waiting on the branches, as if they knew the humans would eventually come down again.
Mo Fan greatly detested these Hillmen. He swore he would kill every single one of them once his energy recovered!
—
“It’s too quiet here,” Lingling said softly.
The view was the same in all directions. They were surrounded by huge leaves and intertwining branches. The branches were like a huge, complicated maze. They could no longer tell which one was the main trunk of the tree. It was very dark too, as the light of the stars was not bright enough to illuminate their surroundings, leaving everyone on their toes.
A sound gradually approached, followed by a gust of wind with a rotting odor. It sounded like a creature snoring.
Everyone looked around them, trying to figure out what the creature was.
Mo Fan was able to see clearly at night. He looked ahead and saw a creature with a lizard’s head but a leopard’s body fast asleep at a fork of two branches. It was totally unaware of the presence of the intruders.
Mo Fan did not dare speak. He slowly pointed his finger at the fork, at the deadly-looking creature mostly covered by branches and leaves.
Lingling was an absolute genius. She could tell what the creature was just by looking at the outline of the creature’s face. She said with an extremely soft voice, “It’s a Four-Lives Salamander Tiger, a powerful Commander-level creature. It spends most of its time sleeping, but it’s very dangerous when it’s awake!”
“Does that mean it has four lives?” Zhao Manyan asked worriedly.
“Exactly, it’s a very strange life form. It only needs to sleep for a day to fully recover even after suffering life-threatening injuries. As a result, the Four-Lives Salamander Tigers dare to provoke any creature. They aren’t afraid of challenging those that are stronger than them, including Ruler-level creatures!” Lingling said.
“We are lucky that it’s sleeping. It doesn’t seem to be bothered by us.”
“We should really thank the Heavens for that. Let’s find somewhere safe before it wakes up,” Zhao Manyan said.
Zhao Manyan was like a different person after he ran out of energy, like a little rat desperately trying to survive on the streets…
—
Everyone was tiptoeing as they continued up the tree, trying their best to stay away from the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger.
They were holding their breath while moving up the tree, fully focused. For some reason, their hearts were pounding heavily. They were afraid the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger would suddenly wake up!
Suddenly, they heard an inharmonious sound.
They had almost left the area when they saw a tiny Hillman making its way up to the branch. It then ran over to the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger under the gazes of Mo Fan, Zhao Manyan, Guan Xixi, Liu Xiaojia, Lan Luo, Liu Xiaojia, and Chen Yi, who were all staring at it with wide eyes!
At that particular moment, both Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan felt like there were thousands of llamas galloping in their hearts!
The little Hillman rushed up to the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger’s mouth and started making noise. It kept crying out loudly, even though it was extremely scared.
The Four-Lives Salamander Tiger woke up right away. It opened its mouth and swallowed the little clown that disturbed its sleep promptly!
The Four-Lives Salamander Tiger barely felt the Hillman that it had just eaten. The Commander-level creature had extremely sharp hearing. As soon as it woke up, it lifted its gaze and stared right at Mo Fan and his team, who were already quite a distance away…
“F**k this shit!” Mo Fan and Zhao Manyan cursed at the same time. They all knew how cunning and vicious the Hillmen were, yet they never thought they would do something so shameless.
They had sent one of their own up to die just to wake the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger up. Was it really fair for demon creatures to have such intelligence?
“What are you waiting for? Keep running, are you waiting to celebrate New Year here!?”
“Come to me, quick!” Mo Fan yelled.
The others realized what Mo Fan’s plan was when they saw a silver light circling him. They quickly stuck close to Mo Fan.
The Four-Lives Salamander Tiger was terrifyingly quick. It was able to move at maximum speed despite the complicated branches and leaves that were in the way. It was approaching the group so quickly that it looked like an illusion!
“Blink!” Mo Fan completed the Advanced Space Spell. The silver Star Constellation encapsulated everyone.
They quickly vanished into the tunnel of Space as soon as it opened up.
With a brief flicker, the group vanished into thin air, reappearing at a spot around three hundred meters away.
Mo Fan did not lower his guard, as he was afraid that the creature could still catch up to them. He immediately drew another Star Constellation!
The energy he needed to teleport seven people twice in a row was insane. Mo Fan already felt his head spinning, a sign that he had overdrawn his energy!
Luckily, they had managed to escape from the Four-Lives Salamander Tiger. The creature would have a hard time finding them with the leaves and branches limiting its vision.
None of them dared make a sound. They even held their breaths as long as possible. There was no sign of the Commander-level creature after ten minutes. They finally let out a relieved sigh.
“Those f**king sons of b**ches, I swear I’ll kill them all after we have all recovered!” Zhao Manyan stomped and yelled furiously.
Mo Fan was disgusted by what the Hillmen had done, too. It was his first time encountering such a shameless species. If the undead attacking the Ancient Capital were as intelligent as the Hillmen, the Ancient Capital would have fallen long ago!
Either way, Mo Fan shared the same thoughts as Zhao Manyan. He had an urge to just charge down the tree and slaughter every single one of the Hillmen!
“Let’s hide here for now. The Four-Lives Salamander Tiger isn’t as aggressive. I don’t think it’s going to chase us relentlessly. Mo Fan, use your Shadow Element to conceal our presence. The Four-Lives Salamander Tiger is not as sharp at night,” Lingling said.
“Mm, let’s rest up. We should be fine after recovering our energy.”
“We should be around three thousand meters high now?” Guan Xixi wondered aloud. She was talking to Chen Yi, but the girl was staring at the night sky with a blank expression instead.
“What’s wrong, Chen Yi?” Guan Xixi asked worriedly.
“I…I think I’ve seen this before…” Chen Yi said seriously. However, she shook her head and corrected herself, “I’ve seen something similar before!”
“Hardly anyone knows about the existence of this Giant Purple Sacred Linden. We wouldn’t even have found it if it wasn’t for the Hillmen,” Mo Fan interjected.
“It’s a drawing, I’ve seen a similar drawing… I remember now! It’s in my grandmother’s house. She has a drawing like this in her house. The leaves that reach the sky, the branches that are wide like roads, and the starry sky in the distance!”
