110 Devils Grasp Vine. (1/2)

Li Yang and Fang Ying looked through the open entrance, inspecting the garden that surrounded the hexagonal palace, giving the various plants a closer look. The garden seemed to surround the entire palace, just as hexagonal as the palace itself. The threes were somewhat bent, their trunks almost twisting in a circle around the middle part of the trees, the bark on the trees was a very light brown and surprisingly smooth, as if the trees were still very young.

There were various fruits growing on the trees, and looking at how orderly the largest trees were lined up this place might have been an orchard once in the past. But now there was knee-high grass growing everywhere, colorful flowers, mushrooms, and strange shrubbery peeking over the top of the grass. There were a few smaller trees growing in the empty space between the trees, a few fruits had likely fallen and eventually started growing into new trees that ruined the organized aesthetic the garden once had.

There were a few places where deep green vines covered in finger-sized thorns grew out of the earth and coiled around some of the trees, the bark of these trees was far gnarlier than the bark of the other trees, their leaves not as verdant or lush. Contrary to what Li Yang and Fang Ying expected, the scent of herbs wasn't as thick as it had been earlier. There might be an array here that prevented the scent from becoming so thick that it became noxious, it wouldn't be fun to become nauseous whenever one entered their own garden after all. After sweeping every part of the garden they could see, Li Yang's eyes landed on the thorny vines.

”Ying'er, don't those vines look rather familiar?”

Fang Ying had also noticed the thorny vines, her brows furrowing slightly when she first saw them. Langshen also looked at the vines with a wary gaze, his instincts had likely warned him that the vines weren't as simple as they looked. Fang Ying nodded her head, tracing the vines and inspecting the place where they came out from the earth.

”Yeah, but they aren't quite the same as the ones we saw, their color is wrong, they don't have the characteristic growths around the base, and the thorns are a bit smaller. Although, if it really is one of those, it seems like the people of this city didn't just up and vanish into thin air.”

Fang Ying and Li Yang had lived for quite a few years in their past lives, they were already approaching their millionth year when they died. They had seen countless things in their long lives, some which they remembered fondly and some which still terrified them when they thought about them now. And if the vines in front of them were what they were suspecting them of being, they would belong to the latter category. Li Yang cast a sideways glance at a group of four people who were wading through the grass, quickly getting closer to a tree that was rather close to one of the vines.

”They'll enter the range soon, we'll see whether or not we're wrong once they do.”

Fang Ying's eyebrows twitched slightly, but she didn't say anything against it, keeping a vigilant eye on the four people. There were other groups spreading through the garden, but this group was the one closest to the vines, the others were still a bit further away. Looking at the robes that the four people were wearing, it seemed like they were unaffiliated cultivators who had earned their spot in this competition by taking part in the tournaments hosted by the Huo clan. It was likely that they were hoping to quickly snatch up some resources before the stronger groups had a chance to take everything.

The group scoured the area around them for any useful herbs or flowers, only casting a fleeting glance at the vines before ignoring them. They eventually spotted an orange flower with ten petals that had potato-like fruits growing along the stem, each of the fruits releasing a small fluctuation of Qi. The four people locked eyes for a short second before making sure that no one else saw the flower, quickly moving closer in a nonchalant manner.

The moment they got within 10 meters of the flower, parts of the earth around them exploded upwards, thorny vines rising up from the ground and surrounding them. After surrounding and imprisoning the group, the vines quickly closed in on them, aiming to turn the encirclement into an iron maiden. The tips of the thorns opened slightly, revealing that the thorns were in fact completely hollow. The attack had been launched too fast, the group wasn't even able to put up a defense in time to block the vines. But luckily for them, Fang Ying had been watching them intently. She quickly called out to Langshen, her white sword appearing in her grasp.

”Langshen! Get me over there!”

Fang Ying had no problem with killing people or letting others die, but that was if they were enemies or people she deemed evil. She would not just sit back and watch other people, who might be innocent, die. Space around Fang Ying rippled for a split second before she suddenly vanished appearing in front of the group of four and slashing down with her sword, large blades of blood appearing around her and attacking all the other vines. Li Yang looked at her actions, swiping his interspatial ring and taking out one of the countless swords he had accumulated after killing other cultivators.

”Good grief, she really can't just leave people alone. Then again, that was one of the reasons I ended up becoming attracted to her. Oy, Wolf, bring me 200 meters to the right of that tree over there, the one that splits in half in the middle. Once I stab the ground, send me over to that tree that's 175 meters to the north, you yourself can head to that tree over there, the one that's 60 meters to the left of the split tree.”

Li Yang knew that if Fang Ying weren't here, he wouldn't make a move to save these four people, he would watch as they died and use their deaths to gather more information. Langshen cast a sideways look at Li Yang, growling in dissatisfaction at the name Li Yang had given him. But even so, Langshen still did as he asked, space around Li Yang rippling for a split second before he vanished and arrived in the exact spot he had pointed out, 200 meters to the right of a tree that was cleaved open in the middle before connecting again at a higher part.

He tightly grasped the double-edged sword he had removed from his interspatial ring, channeling as much of his energy into it as he could. The blade quickly turned crimson from the heat of the energy he poured into it, small drops of molten metal starting to run down the blade. He stabbed the sword into the ground, the entire blade sinking into the ground with a sizzling sound.

The moment his blade entered the ground, space around him rippled and his body vanished, appearing in the other spot he had told Langshen about, right next to a small tree that carried a few fruits that looked like small yellow stars. The moment he vanished, the energy within the sword was fully unleashed, a golden pillar of fire and lightning stretching into the sky and turning all the trees around it to ash.