Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
A sword light descended from the sky, and as it flew, it constantly expanded.
The sword light that could slash out a canyon on the ground collided with the thick tree root that was waving in the air. Half of the tree root was directly severed.
However, that sword light was also shattered by the Yin Burial spiritual qi.
These shattered sword qi landed on the ground. The solid soil and rocks were still as unbearable as tofu. They were easily penetrated, creating a small hole dozens of meters deep.
Another huge flaming boar was summoned.
As it ran on the ground, everywhere it passed, all the plants and corpses turned to ash. The flames that ignited were absorbed by the flaming wild boar, helping it continue to grow.
In the end, the flaming wild boar’s head collided with the huge root of the Nine Nether Branch. The exploding flames shot into the sky, burning a large area of the swamp into scorched earth.
However, under the cover of the Nine Nether spiritual qi, an ancient Spiritual Root like the Nine Nether Wood was actually not that afraid of flames.
Cold spiritual qi spread out, and soon, the monstrous fire was suppressed.
The charred surface shattered, and more roots crawled out. Soon, they returned to their original size, number, and even more.
The root that was cut by the sword light quickly sprouted thicker and stronger new buds. Even the severed root twisted and grafted back to the other roots after touching them, continuing to attack the cultivators.
The vitality of this Nine Nether Wood was ridiculously powerful. Most of the attacks of the cultivators landed on it without any pain or itch.
Occasionally, it would unleash a powerful move. After dealing with one or two tree roots, it would grow even more at an exaggerated speed.
The more they fought, the wider the range of the tree roots and the greater the number. It brought immense pressure to the top cultivators of the Great Mountain Region.
In the beginning, the top cultivators mainly attacked, but soon, they only had the strength to protect themselves.
Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth, Yin, and Yang. Among the seven attributes, only Metal and Yang attribute attacks could cause relatively considerable damage. To a certain extent, it could delay the resurrection of the Nine Nether Wood, but the extent was very limited.
In particular, Yin and Yang countered each other. Yang-attribute cultivators were also suppressed by the Yin Burial spiritual qi.
Soon, they were reduced to a situation where they could only defend. They could only rely on the metal attribute sword cultivators of Shu Mountain to barely counterattack.
In theory, no matter what kind of divine object it was, it was impossible for the energy to really reach an infinite amount.
However, judging from the size of this thing, it could be seen that if this continued, the Great Mountain Cultivators would definitely suffer losses.
The power of this Nine Nether Wood was definitely not ordinary.
Jiang Li was very glad that he did not come to find trouble with it alone at that time. That kind of behavior was practically no different from courting death.
Of course, at this moment, he was not much better. Half of his shoulder was sliced open, and his body was covered in burnt blood. He looked extremely miserable as if he was about to die in the next moment.
In fact, if it was an ordinary Core Formation cultivator, such injuries would be enough to kill them several times over.
These injuries were not caused by the giant Nine Nether Wood. Instead, when he approached the center of the battlefield, he was accidentally injured by the aftermath of the top cultivators’ attacks.
Those were terrifying attacks at the Nascent Soul or Soul Formation realm.
His defense and resistance that he was proud of was broken almost instantly.
The high-quality and extremely stubborn Soul Formation spiritual qi still left negative statuses such as [Near-Death], [Internal Organ Damage], [Ambitious Burning], and [Body Splitting Sword Energy] on him.
Although he had many recovery statuses, his injuries were still worsening every moment.
If not for the fact that the effects of the One Day Death Pill allowed him to ignore the limitations of his injuries, he would have long been lying on the ground and unable to move.
Breaking into such a battlefield was indeed too dangerous. Even Nascent Soul cultivators did not dare to say that they were confident in protecting themselves, let alone him.
However, if they had not attracted the attention of this huge wooden head with the Nine Nether clone, it would not have been possible for him to run to this position.
He temporarily stopped and pressed the minus button behind [Body Splitting Sword Energy]. One second, two seconds, three seconds… After a full five seconds, the shattered sword qi that was wreaking havoc in Jiang Li’s body finally dissipated.
He heaved a sigh of relief and raised his hand to poke his chest. A blood sword immediately shot out.
After expelling the blood inside, the internal organs that had been cut into pieces in the chest and abdomen finally began to return to their original positions and quickly healed.
The half of the cut shoulder also quickly sprouted flesh and reconnected.
Then, it was the burn status.
It was no wonder that even Jiang Li could not withstand the flames of a Soul Formation Ancestor even with his resistance.
Looking at the situation on the interface, it would take at least half a year to wear down the fire poison and recover from this burn.
If it was an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, they would have turned to dust on the spot.
He decisively removed it as well.
Jiang Li found a relatively safe place and stopped for about 20 seconds to eliminate the few worst statuses on his body. Then, he jumped off the tree root and plunged into the murky water.
“Old Pig, that was… was I seeing things?”
The Shu Mountain sword cultivator watched in disbelief as the figure jumped into the water and asked his old friend from the Scripture Storage Valley.
“Damn it! Tell me I was wrong. Does that kid Jiang Li want to die? Why has he come here! He even dared to enter the water!”
“Old friends, help me block the roots. I’ll go and rescue that kid. The Great Mountain Alliance can’t lose the Alliance Leader on the first day!”
…
The Nine Nether spiritual qi entered his eyes. Through his observation of the same spiritual qi, he could see that in the murky water, it was a huge ancient tree that was growing inverted.
The tree trunk was different from the others.
The shape was two statues of gods sitting with their backs to each other.
One was a kind and benevolent immortal while the other was a fiendish demon with vicious fangs.
However, the two statues, one big and one small, had yet to fully mature.
Jiang Li gasped when he saw this scene.
The growth of this Nine Nether Wood Branch required a total of three stages. In other words, three statues would grow on the tree trunk.
At that time, it would have the ability to open the passage to the Nine Nether Underworld and find the main body of the Spiritual Root of Heaven and Earth, the Nine Nether Wood, to defeat and replace it.
The Nine Nether Wood in front of him had already formed a second statue. Its progress had clearly already left Jiang Li’s clone far behind.
It would probably succeed in a few thousand years. However, since they were irreconcilable enemies and had met him, he had to be ruthless to it.
Stepping on the river water, Jiang Li brought a large number of bubbles and rushed to the bottom of the river, quickly approaching the tree trunk of the Nine Nether Wood.
Two balls of dark flames had already ignited in his eyes.
Jiang Li, a mere Foundation Establishment cultivator, was actually going to attack this monster that even several Soul Formation cultivators could not defeat alone.
In the cultivation world of the Great Mountain Region, Jiang Li felt that he was far from being an expert. In the Hundred Tempering Mountain battle, he could only display his strength in the periphery and could not even approach the core battlefield.
However, he was well prepared for today’s battle.
As Jiang Li approached, the Nine Nether Wood finally discovered him amidst its busyness.
Some of the small figures hanging on the inverted tree crown automatically fell off. After separating from the mother tree, those small figures automatically transformed into puppet experts of various races and surrounded Jiang Li.
Among these puppets, the weakest was comparable to a Golden Core cultivator. Once he was entangled by them, Jiang Li’s difficult journey would be completely wasted.
This was another troublesome ability of the Nine Nether Wood. Jiang Li’s Nine Nether clone had it as well. However, before Jiang Li subdued it back then, it could only capture ghosts and only collect the souls of more than a hundred Scaled Demons.
In comparison, it was simply unbelievable.
He quickly calculated the speed and distance of the two sides in his heart. He was afraid that he would not be able to touch the Nine Nether Wood before he was intercepted.
A large number of thoughts quickly flashed through his mind. Then, he took out a ball of Yin Burial Ghost Cloud from the coffin.
Inside were 500 ghost soldiers and many soul fragments.
He grabbed the black ghost cloud and connected the Dragon Imprisoning Lock to the Immortal Slaying Flying Sword.
The pitch-black ghost clouds immediately wrapped around the two artifacts.
Jiang Li immediately swung it, and the Dragon Imprisoning Lock stretched out at extreme speed. The Immortal Slaying Flying Sword dragged a strand of dark light as it stabbed directly into the Nine Nether Wood.
The huge demonic statue seemed to have sensed a threat. After opening its eyes to look at the chain flying sword on its chest, it looked at Jiang Li.
It was the same feeling. Jiang Li had just used this method to bully his alliance members, but now, he immediately suffered retribution.
Under the gaze of the demonic statue, his entire body was stiff and weak. After being suppressed by the other party, all his various abilities were greatly reduced.
However, he revealed a confident and victorious expression.
A dark black-green Ghost Lantern Cold Flame appeared in Jiang Li’s hand, and it instantly lit up the Soul Burial Ghost Soldiers attached to the Dragon Imprisoning Lock.
Amidst a miserable cry, the Soul Burial Ghost Soldiers were burned to ashes. Then, it spread along the Dragon Imprisoning Lock at an extremely fast speed.
On the small demonic statue, Jiang Li seemed to have seen a shocked and terrified expression.
Then, in the next moment, under the heroic sacrifice of 500 ghost soldiers, the Ghost Lantern Cold Flame that could burn and devour souls touched the huge Nine Nether Wood.
Immediately, as if fire met oil, the Ghost Lantern Cold Flame began to quickly spread on the huge Nine Nether Wood.
This kind of flame that came from the bloodline power of the Ghost Lantern Fish did not rely on the temperature to maintain its burning. Therefore, when soaked in water, it was still able to spread normally.
As for the Nine Nether spiritual qi, it was completely a top-notch fuel agent. Upon contact, it would only add fuel to the fire and become more intense.
The dignified Spiritual Root of Heaven and Earth, the Nine Nether Wood, was actually unable to resist this Ghost Lantern Cold Flame. It could only painfully twist the tree trunk, causing mountains and rivers to shatter and waves to surge!
This was the wonder and mystery of the world. Everything had natural allies and enemies, and they were interlinked together in an incredible way.
As he looked at the flames that were constantly spreading, Jiang Li could only sigh in his heart.
‘For every result, there is a cause. The cause of your defeat is me!’
This Nine Nether Wood thought that without the Ghost Lantern Fish, it could rest easy. However, never had it imagined that as soon as it stepped out of the house, it would encounter Alliance Leader Jiang Li, who had long prepared a huge weapon for it.
As for why he did not burn the tree root from the beginning, he took such a huge risk and only used the Ghost Lantern Cold Flame after diving into the water.
That was because this Nine Nether Wood was really too vigilant. It could almost be said that it did not leave the main gate or step out. For thousands of years, it had obediently stayed under the underwater graveyard. As long as the Ghost Lantern Fish were alive, it would not come out at all.
Moreover, Jiang Li used the Earth Spirit Eye to discover a serious problem. Below this water area, there was a huge hole that led to an unknown place.
The main body of the Nine Nether Wood had always been hidden at the entrance of the cave.
If he had revealed the Ghost Lantern Cold Flame from the beginning, this Nine Nether Wood would most likely have fled on the spot. At that time, breaking one or two roots would not cause any substantial injuries to it.
When he secretly stole the spiritual root seed in the bodies of the 2,000 disciples, he had already been marked by the Nine Nether Wood. As long as the other party was not stupid, they would definitely think that it was related to him.
If he let it escape unscathed this time, even if he held a killing artifact in his hand, the Scripture Storage Valley would not be able to withstand the attack of such an existence.
Therefore, he risked his life to come over and give it a fatal blow.
It could abandon the roots to protect the trunk, but this time, the main trunk was lit. Wouldn’t it be burnt to bits?
Wait… it could do this?
Jiang Li, who was underwater, widened his eyes in shock.
The demon statue of the Nine Nether Wood actually moved at this moment, tearing itself and the main trunk apart. It was about to bring the Ghost Lantern Cold Flame that had yet to spread to its entire body away from the main body.
How could Jiang Li allow it to do as it wished? He withdrew the Dragon Imprisoning Lock and used 500 ghost soldiers to wrap the chain again, and he stabbed it towards the other half of the Nine Nether Wood.
However, at this moment, a figure stopped before the sword and directly used his body to receive Jiang Li’s Immortal Slaying Flying Sword.
Following this, dozens of figures rushed forward and hugged the Dragon Imprisoning Lock.
The Immortal Slaying Flying Sword was fast, but in terms of strength, it was absolutely no match for several Golden Core and Nascent Soul cultivators. It was firmly pulled to the spot and did not move at all!
Jiang Li was shocked in his heart, and he could only use the cold flames to ignite the Soul Burial Ghost Cloud on it. The Ghost Lantern Cold Flame spread over again, and it lit up everything that touched it.
As subsidiaries of the Nine Nether Wood, they were also restrained.
After being ignited, the cold flames did not destroy their bodies. Instead, they directly burned the souls and Nine Nether spiritual qi in their bodies.
In just a few breaths, the puppets could no longer move, completely turning back into ordinary corpses.
The Dragon Imprisoning Lock swept them all back to the coffin.
However, this obstruction caused Jiang Li to lose the best opportunity to ignite the other half of the Nine Nether Wood!
“Oh no! This guy is running!”