Chapter 351: Tree Spirit (1/2)

Xue Wei ignored them as well. He had promised the Emperor to do his best, but he was not going to try and persuade people to save their own lives.

As the people gathered, his alert eyes observed the forest they were in once more.

The plants were withered. Every single tree seemed as if it could collapse at any moment, and the creaking from them was anything but assuring.

”We need to leave this forest right away,” Xue Wei said out loud, he had already made a decision and began leading the people who followed him towards the southern direction.

This realm had four seasons. Every corner of the realm represented one season, and it was easy to know that they had arrived in fall from sensing the chilling winds that swept through the dead trees.

Most treasures would be found in the summer part of the realm, and thus Xue Wei quickly decided on heading south.

The princes were not happy seeing how he did not even try to convince them to join their group and instead just ignored them, but they too had started to get a chill from standing in this dead forest.

Xue Wei looked at them all casually, before he began moving southward. Although he was moving he was not rushing, nor was he flying;, he was just walking normally inside the forest, making many of them puzzled.

”If we fly we will have a much higher consumption rate of energy,” Lin Xiao decided to tell them why Xue Wei was doing as he was, ”it will be impossible to protect ourselves while flying and we will soon exhaust all our energy, becoming an easy target for hunting beasts or other factions.”

”Why not run then?” someone asked puzzled. Although the pressure was heavy, they were still able to run.

”If you want to die, then you run,” Xue Wei said coldly. ”There is something within this forest which sucks out the life of everything living. Alerting it would do us no good.”

”How can you be so sure?” one of the princes asked, his voice was filled with disdain as he looked at Xue Wei.

”I cannot be completely sure,” Xue Wei admitted, something that caught them all by surprise, and they looked strangely at him, but then he continued. ”I am just not willing to risk my life. It might be here; it might not. If it isn't, then, that's good, but if it is and I had not prepared, my little life and the life of my friends would be lost.”

The people were a little unhappy listening to Xue Wei. None of them really believed it would be as bad as he said. What could possibly threaten them the moment they arrived?

Seeing their appearance, Xue Wei said nothing more but continued forward. While the others were hesitating to follow, his friends showed their loyalty right away and followed behind him quietly while alertly observing the surroundings.

Seeing the overly alert Xue Wei and the others, these geniuses and princes from the Demon Phoenix Continent could not help but smile and laugh slightly, mocking them in their hearts.

”We should not follow such cowards!” one of the princes said righteously, his voice loud and reverberating through the dead trees.

”Idiot,” Xue Wei spat out as he looked at them and continued forward, completely ignoring whether or not they followed him.

He had only promised to do his best. If they did not follow his lead, he would not go and die for their sake.

As Xue Wei had just vanished out of the eye of sight, a scream suddenly reverberated through the entire forest. Hearing the cry, Xue Wei sighed.

”So it was still here after all,” he said as he spread out his spiritual sense.

”Do we save them?” Hei Gou asked with disdain. They had mocked them before, but they had promised to look after them.

”Go back,” Xue Wei nodded his head with a sigh and rushed back the way he had just left.

When he reached the place where he had first arrived, he saw countless vines stretch up through the ground, holding the geniuses and princes captive.

”Idiots, it’s a wooden item, use fire!” he yelled out and understanding the severity of the situation every one of the geniuses and princes started to take on their original shape of Vermilion Birds.

Their bodies were covered in flames, and these flames quickly burnt the vines into retreating.

All of them heaved a heavy sigh of relief, but Xue Wei was standing looking contemplating.

While he was considering, Luoluo already ran out and followed the vines. ”If we wait, it'll run away!” she yelled, and Xue Wei decided instantly.

”Follow me!” he yelled and rushed after the vines, shocking them all. But having already once realized that this was a dangerous place, no one questioned him anymore, and they followed him as he ran further and further towards the east, chasing the vines on the ground.

Suddenly they reached a big clearing in the forest. Here the vines stopped, and a massive tree was standing in the middle.

This tree was different from the others. It was not withered. Instead, it was bursting with energy.

”It is forming a spirit!” Luoluo said gravely as she looked at the tree, ”an evil spirit!”

”It has formed a consciousness already, it just needs to form the body, and it'll become a spirit. But it has been absorbing the life of others. Hence it will become evil.”

They all looked at the tree in front of them, wondering what to do, but then they saw a chilling grin on Xue Wei's face.

”It has gathered all the beast cores and valuables from all of the forest underneath the roots,” he grinned, ”if we were to take it out, we would gain big time, not to mention the wood of this tree is a treasure in itself.”