Chapter 111: Remodel

Within the gloomy forest, a group of Origin Qi Scholars carefully patrolled.

One of the Origin Qi Scholars was holding one of the Shorttailed Foxhounds in his hands.

The Foxhound seemed small, but it was a genuine mid-tier Vicious Beast, and its combat ability was decent as well. The small beast sniffed the air around it, an unsettled, impatient expression appearing on its face.

“The Foxhound is reacting to something. Everyone, be careful! He could be nearby,” the Origin Qi Scholar holding the Foxhound said.

Even though the Shorttailed Foxhound had an incredibly acute sense of smell, it wasn’t impossible to deal with. Some medicines could conceal scent. If you were lucky enough, some mud might even be able to do the job.

After charging into the mountains, his scent had become much weaker. Even though he hadn’t been able to completely escape from the pursuit of the Shorttail Foxhounds, they were having a much harder time tracking him, and the Vicious Beasts needed to go back and forth before being able lock onto the scent. Otherwise, there wouldn’t really have been a need for them to split up.

The group of Origin Qi Scholars came next to a large tree. The Shorttail Foxhound’s expression seemed to indicate that Su Chen might be nearby. One of the Origin Qi Scholars was already beginning to prepare a signal flare to notify the other search parties.

As they were looking around, however, they failed to notice that the tree they were standing next to had slowly opened its eyes. Countless roots began to snake across the ground, which they only noticed once the roots had wrapped around their legs.

“What’s the situation?”

“What’s going on?”

“Dammit, it’s the Vampiric Demon Tree!”

“Heavens, save me!”

“Launch the signal! Quick, launch the signal!”

Amidst the panicked yells. The trees’ roots were like snakes wriggling across the ground, and at the tip of the roots were mouths lined with sharp teeth. The mouths opened wide and began to bite down at the others.

“No!” All the Origin Qi Scholars began to retaliate, and the Origin Qi Scholar responsible for shooting of the signal flare released it.

The leader was a Yang Opening Realm cultivator who specifically cultivated his physique. He growled, and the muscles on his body immediately began to tighten as his body grew rapidly in size.

But even though he was powerful, the Vampiric Demon Tree was also extremely powerful. More root snakes appeared, wrapping their way around the Yang Opening Realm cultivator’s body and completely covering him from head to toe.

“Use flames and burn me!” the Yang Opening Realm cultivator howled.

Another Origin Qi Scholar, who had also been tied up, opened his mouth. Large amounts of flames surged forth from his mouth onto the Yang Opening Realm cultivator’s body, burning both him and the roots wrapped around him at the same time.

The Yang Opening Realm cultivator did not fear the flames, and his body continued to grow as the flames washed over him. On the contrary, the Vampiric Demon Tree’s roots began to crackle loudly as the flames burned them.

Even though Tree Demons were powerful, most of them had an inherent fear of flames.

The Vampiric Demon Tree was no exception. It shrieked with pain as the flames scorched it. The Yang Opening Realm cultivator, on the other hand, only grew more powerful; under his full-strength struggling, the roots were broken.

If no one else intervened, this small team could absolutely wipe out this Demon Tree.

Unfortunately, things rarely went that smoothly.

Su Chen’s figure appeared from the darkness. “Strength King He Houshan, your reputation precedes you. I must say, I respect your ability to go toe-to-toe with this Vampiric Demon Tree and your fire-absorbing ability.

Su Chen clapped twice. “Unfortunately......”

He gestured with his hand. Frost began to sweep through the air, forming an icy tornado. This was the Frosted Fragrant Blossoms that Su Chen had developed for Ji Hanyan.

Under the icy wind, the flames were immediately suppressed. Not only so, but the chill even penetrated deep into He Houshan’s body.

He Houshan didn’t fear flames, but his ability to defend himself against the frost was extremely lackluster, and he even feared it somewhat. The chilly energy penetrated deep into his body, causing his body to be covered in a sheet of ice. The Vampiric Demon Tree, assisted by the frost, once again sent its roots snaking towards He Houshan, the roots wrapping around him tightly as other roots stabbed right into He Houshan’s body, causing blood to spray everywhere.

The other Origin Qi Scholars were stunned when they saw this and began to cry out, “Have mercy on us!”

“It’s fun to chase me, is it? Is it worth a hundred thousand Origin Stones?” Su Chen laughed as he walked over, slashing with the Moon-Swallowing Heavenly Wolf Blade and cutting off the head of one of the Origin Qi Scholars.

The blade didn’t stop and continued to stab towards the next Origin Qi Scholar.

Blade strike after blade strike cut off one Origin Qi Scholar’s head after another.

The Vampiric Demon Tree, upon seeing Su Chen killing people, wasn’t happy and actually became angry. It began to howl, and even more roots surged forward to suck blood all the more voraciously. A few roots even snaked their way towards Su Chen.

“Quite ungrateful of you.” Su Chen’s figure floated backwards, retreating out of the Tree Demon’s attack range.

He Houshan wasn’t able to hold on anymore. With a series of loud cracks, the bones in He Houshan’s body were shattered, and he died on the spot.

As he died, Su Chen summoned a large number of Air Tentacles, grabbing He Houshan’s body and pulling it away. The Vampiric Demon Tree was infuriated and wanted to try and take its spoil of war back, but an instant later, Su Chen gestured, and a kettle of Firehawks surged forward, slamming into the Vampiric Demon Tree and starting a fire that roared brightly.

Even though the Tree Demon was powerful, the gap in strength was too great. It was burned to a crisp in an instant.

Su Chen appeared in front of the Vampirit Demon Tree in an instant, unleashing an Armor-Piercing Awl with his left hand and blowing its trunk open. He pulled out a greenish-blue crystal with countless strands of blood revolving around it.

This was the Vampiric Demon Tree’s Origin Energy Nucleus.

This kind of Origin Energy Nucleus was extremely rare. It could only be formed by absorbing a large quantities of fresh blood, and it would disappear extremely quickly.

After Su Chen retrieved the item, he then cut open He Houshan’s chest.

At this moment, He Houshan’s body had been totally drained of blood. Cutting open his chest didn’t actually cause more blood to spill out.

Su Chen stuffed this Origin Energy Nucleus into He Houshan’s body, poured a vial of medicine in after it, then retreated.

The sounds of yells could be heard off in the distance. Others had detected the commotion and were hurrying to the destination.

Su Chen’s mouth quirked up with a smile. “Accept my present, won’t you?”

As he spoke, he searched the bodies of the dead people one last time, taking the signal arrows with him before leaving.

A moment later, a large group of individuals arrived at the smoky battlefield and found the ground littered with corpses. Everyone was stunned.

“They’re all dead. Even Old He died,” an Origin Qi Scholar said somberly.

He Houshan’s body lay there peacefully on the ground, filling everyone with anger, fear, and sorrow.

At that moment, He Houshan’s finger suddenly twitched.

The more astute individuals among them noticed and said, “He’s not dead yet!”

A few of the Origin Qi Scholars charged over to help him up, then said with happiness, “He’s still alive! Old He is still alive...... AH!”

Immediately following, they shrieked with pain.

Two hands stained with blood were protruding out from their backs.

A tall, massive figure slowly rose from the ground.

The two corpses were casually tossed to the ground.

“What...... what’s going on here?” Everyone stared at He Houshan in shock.

The He Houshan before them was covered in visible veins of blood, and his skin had taken on a faint bloody luster. His eyes seemed as dark as black holes.

He was empty and lifeless, yet he exuded an incredibly frightening aura.

“What is this?”

“Demon!”

“It’s a demon!”

The whole group began to yell with panic.

Their final memory was He Houshan’s massive figure lumbering towards them as they were completely wiped out......