inspire-indiana Chapter 47: The Wood Demon's Head is Received
Chapter 47: The Wood Demon's Head is Received
"Qingyao, fire talisman!" Lin Yan said urgently. Ordinary swords and blades could hardly seriously injure this wood spirit that had lived for countless years. Only the most yang and intense flames could be the nemesis of plant and tree spirits.
Although startled, Su Qingyao remained calm. Upon hearing the sound, she immediately took out three blood-red talismans from her bag, the cinnabar patterns on them resembling burning flames. "【Bingding Yangyan Talisman】!" she exclaimed, handing the talismans over.
Lin Yan accepted the talismans and poured his pure, dark gray true essence into them without hesitation. The three talismans suddenly shone brightly, their intense heat forcing back the surrounding chilling mist!
"go!"
Lin Yan flicked his wrist and sent out three fire talismans that transformed into three streaks of crimson light, forming a triangular shape, directly targeting the massive iron-gray trunk of the ancient locust tree!
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Flames exploded! The talisman fire was no ordinary fire; it contained the power of exorcising evil and yang flames. The moment it touched the tree trunk, it immediately burst into flames, the tongues of fire licking furiously and spreading wildly along the cracked bark, instantly turning half of the tree trunk into a giant torch! The firelight disc dispersed some of the gray-green mist, making the ancient locust tree's ferocious outline look like a demon from hell.
"Squeak—!!!"
A sharp, piercing scream, unlike anything a plant could utter, suddenly erupted from the depths of the ancient locust tree, straight to the eardrums! The entire giant tree trembled violently, its scorched branches and leaves falling like rain, its massive canopy shaking wildly. The frantically attacking vines and roots seemed to lose some of their vitality and accuracy for a moment, their offensive noticeably faltering, many even twitching and retreating back into the ground.
How could Lin Yan miss this fleeting opportunity? His [Swiftness] talent erupted once more, his figure like a gray line tearing through the air, sweeping past the gaps in the temporarily withered vines, heading straight for the tree trunk that was ablaze with flames!
Several exceptionally thick vines, their surfaces gleaming with a metallic black sheen, defied the fire, lashing out with enough force to shatter stone tablets. Lin Yan's gaze remained calm, the gray-black blade of his longsword flickering with unpredictable light. His movements were concise and ruthless, slashing and thrusting, cutting down all the vines blocking his path, oblivious to the viscous sap splashing onto his robe. In the blink of an eye, he had reached the foot of the tree.
Upon closer inspection, the tree demon's true form appeared even more terrifying. Where the flames burned, the charred bark curled and peeled away, revealing the dark red to brownish wood beneath, resembling congealed blood. The wood even seemed to pulsate slightly as if it were alive! A foul wind, a mixture of pure plant and tree spiritual energy and violent, demonic energy, swept over, almost making one nauseous.
Lin Yan stopped, focused his mind, and firmly gripped the hilt of the sword with both hands. The dark gray-black Devouring Spirit True Essence around him surged and converged at an unprecedented speed, pouring entirely into the blade. The blade trembled slightly, emitting a low and dangerous hum, and the surrounding air seemed to freeze under that all-consuming aura.
"cut!"
A sharp shout, like a thunderclap, rang out! The longsword transformed into a streak of gray and black lightning, tearing through the air with unwavering determination, and slashed fiercely at the spot on the tree trunk where the flames burned most intensely and where the demonic energy was most concentrated!
"Pfft—!"
The dull thud of the blade cutting into wood carried a chilling, stagnant, and tearing sensation. The long sword plunged all the way to the hilt! A dark green, viscous sap, exuding a strong, sweet, and pungent herbal aroma, gushed forth from the wound like a long-suppressed fountain!
"Squeak—!!!"
The tree demon's howl suddenly rose to its highest point, filled with endless pain, fear, and madness! The entire giant tree convulsed and twisted wildly like a dying beast, countless branches lashing the ground like whips, sending soil and rocks flying everywhere; the ground rumbled and trembled violently, and more and thicker, increasingly dark-colored vines and roots, as if soaked in despair, broke through the soil in a final, hysterical counterattack, almost turning the clearing into a churning black thorn hell!
Lin Yan gripped the hilt of his sword tightly, his feet rooted to the ground to withstand the terrifying tremors and backlash from the tree trunk. Deep within his eyes, two gray-black vortexes silently appeared and spun, and a deep shout escaped his throat: "Spirit Devour!"
The purer and more domineering gray-black true essence, like a greedy beast with life and will, surged wildly into the blade deeply embedded in the tree trunk! The terrifying devouring power erupted in full force, its target being the [Yi Wood Spirit Core] hidden deep within the core of the ancient locust tree wood, which had condensed hundreds of years of earth vein spiritual energy and plant essence, and had already given birth to a strange and intelligent spirit!
"Squeak...creak..."
The tree spirit's howl instantly became weak and intermittent, filled with dying despair and disbelief. It could clearly feel that its primordial spiritual power and consciousness, which it had slowly accumulated over hundreds of years and cherished as its lifeblood, were being brutally plundered, extracted, and crushed by a cold, domineering, and terrifying force that seemed capable of devouring even heaven and earth!
Lin Yan was completely immersed in this strange process of absorption. Unlike his previous absorption of demonic beast blood and even Qian Lu's mixed true essence, this Yi Wood Spirit Core contained extremely pure, boundless, and vibrant wood-attribute primordial power, full of vitality and natural rhythm. This power was gentle and vast, yet it also carried the unique resilience and spirituality of plants, like a verdant river brimming with the vitality of spring, surging into his meridians.
The Soul-Devouring Body operated with unprecedented efficiency, rapidly refining and absorbing the pure wood-attribute spiritual energy. This not only quickly replenished the energy consumed in the fierce battle but also subtly nourished his physical body and meridians, propelling his early-stage Profound Realm cultivation towards a more stable and solid state.
At the same time, fragments of broken, ancient memories, imbued with the hazy light and shadow unique to vegetation and vague perceptions, also flooded into his consciousness...
...Many years ago, this place seemed to have been a miniature node where the earth's energy and spiritual energy converged, teeming with life... The image flickered and blurred... An illusory figure of an old man, dressed in a simple blue Taoist robe, with white hair and a youthful face, and surrounded by a clear, radiant Taoist aura, appeared here at some unknown time. His face was kind, but his eyes were as deep as the sea. He gazed at the direction of the earth's veins and sighed softly. With a flick of his sleeve and a light flick of his finger, seven points of spiritual light, as bright as morning stars and containing profound sealing power, flew from his fingertips, pointing in the direction of the Big Dipper, and silently disappeared into the depths of the surrounding earth's veins. "The earth's veins have cracks, and the spiritual energy is gradually dissipating... I, Qingyangzi, now use the Seven Stars as a guide to lock the spirit and solidify the veins, protecting this land and water, and wishing future generations of living beings to enjoy peace..." The old man's illusory figure gradually faded as he spoke, and the overly manifest spiritual energy of this place slowly receded and subsided, returning to the orderly flow of the earth's veins... Time passed swiftly, and countless seasons had gone by... One of the seven sealed starlight points, perhaps due to years of neglect or external disturbance, dimmed its spiritual light and developed a tiny crack... Pure wood-elemental spiritual energy began to quietly and continuously leak from the crack at the dormant point... Day after day, year after year, the leaking spiritual energy nourished the oldest locust tree in the area, gradually awakening and strengthening its nascent consciousness, making it insatiably greedy for spiritual energy, and thus giving rise to its demonic nature of bewitching living beings and seizing their essence to aid itself...
The process of devouring lasted for nearly half an incense stick's time.
As Lin Yan slowly withdrew his longsword from the nearly drained and utterly withered tree trunk, the once ferocious and terrifying ancient locust tree had transformed into a lifeless, decaying log. The trunk was charred and cracked, its massive crown reduced to withered branches, and the burning flames gradually died down, leaving only wisps of smoke carrying the smell of burnt wood. The wildly flailing vines and roots had long since collapsed limply to the ground, rapidly drying and weathering away, like fossils that had been dead for millions of years.
A [Wood Spirit Core], roughly the size of a pigeon's egg, crystal clear like the finest jade, with a shimmering, ever-flowing blue light within, rolled off the tree trunk wound as the blade was withdrawn and was caught in Lin Yan's palm. The spirit core felt warm and slightly cool to the touch, radiating an extremely pure life force and a unique spiritual fluctuation that seemed to draw one's mind.
Holding the spirit core in his hand, feeling the noticeably stronger and more solidified gray-black true essence within his body, and the precious fragments of memories in his mind about the earth vein nodes, the Seven Star Spirit Lock, the old man in green robes, and the spiritual spring of Canglang Mountain, Lin Yan's eyes gleamed with a dark light. A sudden realization dawned on him—devouring this wood spirit core not only enhanced his cultivation, but it seemed… also gave him a vague sense of control over some spiritual quality within the wood spirit core related to "illusion" and "awe." Perhaps, given time to comprehend it, he could derive supernatural abilities similar to the tree demon's illusionary attacks?
With the complete demise of the ancient locust tree spirit, the thick, impenetrable gray-green mist surrounding the clearing began to dissipate rapidly. A few brighter beams of sunlight finally pierced through the thin mist and the gaps in the branches and leaves above, dappling the ravaged clearing and illuminating the broken vines, the churning earth, and the terrified and injured companions.
Li Tie, wincing in pain, was being helped along; his leg wound had already been hastily bandaged. Wang Dashan pressed his shoulder, his face pale. Zhou Fu's arm wound was also bleeding. Lu Ling was busy checking the other team members' injuries. Although everyone was injured and the scene was chaotic, looking around, surprisingly, no one was dead! It was practically a miracle of surviving a near-death experience.
Su Qingyao quickly walked to Lin Yan's side, her gaze sweeping over his entire body. Seeing that he was unharmed, she focused her attention on the vibrant green spirit core, then looked at the lifeless ancient locust tree. Her voice was filled with lingering fear and deep contemplation: "How... how did this tree demon develop such bizarre and strange abilities?"
Lin Yan nodded and told him the essentials of the spiritual core and the memories he had seen after devouring it.
Upon hearing this, Su Qingyao's gaze turned as cold and deep as a still pool. She slowly unrolled the tattered page of the demon-slaying diagram, her fingertip hovering above a "Seven Stars Locking Spirit" array pattern annotated in cinnabar. Though she did not touch the paper, she seemed to sense the ancient aura flowing within it.
"The Seven Stars Locking Spirit... is an ancient method used by powerful beings to borrow the power of stars to suppress the spiritual core of the earth's veins." Her voice was soft and gentle, yet each word was clear, carrying a cold clarity that saw through the fog. "If that Senior Qingyangzi is a descendant of a senior Mahayana cultivator who participated in the ancient war against demons, or has received the true teachings of that lineage, then it makes sense that he used this method to stabilize the earth's veins and prevent the leakage of spiritual energy."
She raised her eyes, her gaze seemingly piercing through the rock wall and landing deep within the Canglang Mountain: "In that case, the spiritual spring in the mountain... is probably not just a treasure land where spiritual energy gathers. It is very likely a key array core in the 'Seven Star Locking Spirit' array, or even... a deliberately created 'array eye,' which not only nourishes the area but also secretly bears the responsibility of sealing it."
Her fingertips finally landed lightly on the vermilion array patterns, tracing the intricate lines as she continued, "Since Senior Qingyangzi is reinforcing the seal here, he should also be heading to the spiritual spring in Canglang Mountain to deal with the array foundation there. And the bone fragments we found deep within the Wolf King's lair..."
Su Qingyao paused, her tone becoming more certain and thoughtful: "The ancient demonic script and sealing aura on it may not have been obtained by the Wolf King by chance, but most likely were left by that senior when he was exploring or reinforcing the seal, to warn future generations or to record key information. It's just that for some reason, it fell into the hands of the Wolf King and was hidden in his lair."
She withdrew her fingers, slowly rolling up the diagram, her brow furrowing with worry: "What's even more unsettling is that the blockage of the earth's veins and the loosening of the seal here are not isolated incidents. Ancient formations like the 'Seven Stars Locking Spirit' that involve celestial bodies and earth's veins have interconnected nodes, their energies linked. If one point fails, the balance of spiritual energy will be disrupted, and it could spread like a dam bursting with ants, gradually affecting other areas..."
Su Qingyao looked at Lin Yan, her eyes reflecting the campfire and a deep, unfathomable worry: "If the spiritual spring of Canglang Mountain is truly a key point in a formation, its seal is probably not entirely intact. And how many similar nodes in the world, inheriting ancient seals, are quietly undergoing similar changes in places we cannot see?"
The implication is that the calamity in Blackstone Town and the secret of the Spirit Spring may only be the tip of the iceberg. A much larger upheaval concerning the workings of heaven and earth and the survival of the ancient seal has likely already begun in a corner unnoticed by anyone.
Lin Yan deeply sympathized with the heavy worries she expressed in her unfinished words. If the great formation's seal were to malfunction, the consequences would be unimaginable.
"Treat the injuries first, then leave this place," Lin Yan said in a deep voice. He put away the Yi Wood Spirit Core, his gaze sweeping over the wounded but not yet dead team. He felt a little more at ease. "This place is strange; we can't stay here long. We should get through this ancient forest as soon as possible."
With the ancient locust tree vanquished and the mist dissipating, the immediate threat was temporarily averted. However, the information brought by the tree demon's memories was like a boulder thrown into a still lake, creating ripples that spread far and wide, difficult to quell. Earth veins, seals, ancient cultivators, the mystery of the spiritual spring… a faint but potentially crucial clue was quietly connecting the events of Blackstone Town, the blood feud of the Su family, and even some of the root mysteries of this chaotic era of demons.
This wounded yet tenacious team is moving forward step by step along the path paved by fate and their own choices, towards a deeper and more unpredictable future guided by this clue.