139 Incinerate!

　　“Sha!” Although the gigantic snake was covered in wounds, its core was not damaged at all, allowing it to spit a cloud of inky black smoke out of its mouth!

　　The cloud of black smoke traveled extremely quickly. Everything within its path—regardless of whether it was trees or the mud on the ground—gave off a sizzling sound of corrosion.

　　By the time the corrosive smoke cloud dissipated, a large area in a hundred meter radius was reduced to a barren land of bumps and hollows. It was like the the land had been wiped by a passing tsunami.

　　Two Evolved Jing experts who had been slightly slower in escaping the corrosive poison cloud were quickly dissolved with visible speed into a pile of liquid.

　　“Sss!” Those who had managed to escape the black smoke all sucked in a deep breath as they realized the danger they had just been in.

　　What followed that moment of shock was anger! So many experts could not handle a single snake, even losing a few of their men to it. All of them felt exceedingly ashamed.

　　Seeing that the gigantic snake appeared rather lethargic after unleashing the corroding poison cloud, everyone took the opportunity to charge at it again!

　　While the gigantic snake was entangled with the new wave of their attacks, Daoist Danxia aimed and sent his Vast Sun Disk flying towards the exposed neck of the Half Teng Snake, leaving a half-meter-deep wound!

　　Without any hesitation, everyone focused their attacks on the open wound!

　　As the battle raged, a sneaky Evolved Jing expert had also taken the chance to slink into the water, diving beneath the surface before swimming quickly towards the island in the middle.

　　The layer of bugs which had floated to the surface had already succumbed to the realgar long ago. The once ferocious army of bugs which was supposed to be a formidable obstacle had now become the perfect cover for that Evolved Jing expert!

　　After swimming for a certain distance, the nose of the Evolved Jing expert cautiously appeared above the water and after taking a new breath, it disappeared underwater again.

　　“Die!”

　　“Kill!”

　　The three main attackers—Bei Feng included—unleashed their strongest attacks together, right onto the gaping wound on the poor creature’s neck.

　　“SHA!”

　　A tragic cry rose out of the mouth of the dying beast as its head was separated from it’s body. Finally, after a long and exhausting battle, the body of the huge beast slumped lifelessly to the ground with a loud boom!

　　“Huff, huff!” The entire group of Evolved Jing experts was breathing heavily with exhaustion.

　　Many of them took out precious pills made from ingredients like hundred year ginsengs and other valuable herbs. Then, they sat down cross-legged and began to adjust their blood and Qi flow.

　　This victory had come at a great price. Over 10 experts had died, and even more were injured. But those who survived were all in an extremely good mood. The blood and flesh of this Half Teng Snake was some really good stuff!

　　Those who had joined the battle numbered about 60 to 70. Not counting the share of the people who had died, there was still over 50 experts to share the loot with. Of course, the portion would be determined based on the amount of contribution rendered in the slaying of the beast.

　　Undoubtedly, the ones with the highest contribution were Daoist Danxia, the middle-aged man from Qingfeng Gang, and Bei Feng. These three were the main force.

　　“How daring!”

　　An Evolved Jing master suddenly shouted, his voice echoing through the large cavern!

　　Everyone on the bank immediately stood up and looked over. In an instant, their faces turned black with rage!

　　“Which power does that fellow belong to?” Daoist Danxia asked in a strangely calm tone, but those who knew him would recognize that this was his usual behavior when he was really angered!

　　Like a swarm of bees with their beehive poked, all the log boats which had been prepared beforehand were pushed into the water at once. But no matter how they rushed, their actions were obviously too late.

　　While they were all fighting like crazy here, a detestable monkey had actually sneaked under their noses to steal the peaches!

　　Mao Xi was incredibly excited as he swam onto the island. The Primordial Heavenly Fruit was right before his eyes. On the tree before him, there were about 20-30 scarlet fruits about the size of an infant’s fist hanging on the branches, constantly emitting a sweet medicinal fragrance.

　　“Hmph! There’s so many Primordial Heavenly Fruits. I don’t believe that you people will really join hands to chase after me for taking one! Once I escape with it and go into secluded meditation and absorb the energy within the Primordial Heavenly Fruit, what can you do? The world is vast and the heavens are limitless. At that time, will there be a place where this old ancestor cannot go?!” Mao Xi snickered madly as he stretched his hands towards the nearest Primordial Heavenly Fruit.

　　“Rumble…”

　　Right as the prize was in front of his eyes, the most unexpected thing happened! Countless thick and powerful roots suddenly burst out of the ground, bringing large amounts of soil with them as they waved about in the air!

　　These roots were all at least as thick as a human arm. There were a few the size of a car too, their length stretching for an unknown number of meters underground!

　　Mao Xi was as pale as sheet of paper as he stood on the spot, frozen with fear. An extra large main root was currently swinging towards him with an unexpectedly crazy speed!

　　The thought of dodging had barely formed in his mind when the thick root smacked into him. Before he could even react, Mao Xi was already deader than dead.

　　Within the huge cavern, countless roots suddenly burst out of the ground, even appearing from the walls!

　　Those who were still on the bank immediately flew into a panic, dodging the emerging roots with crazy agility!

　　“Dang!”

　　An Evolved Jing expert swung his weapon at a root which had sprung up beside him. The saber in his hand was already extremely sharp in the first place. Coupled with the strength behind his cultivation, it should be an easy task to chop off this root which was as thick as a grown man’s thigh.

　　But unexpectedly, the saber was only able to slash through half of the root before losing all its might and getting stuck. This one slash seemed to have provoked the rage of the countless roots as a vast number of roots immediately converged on that wide-eyed man, even blotting out view of his surroundings as they flew towards him like a huge blanket!

　　Seeing this, Bei Feng and the rest also began to flee towards the cliff, quickly scaling up it with wild abandon!

　　“What kind of d*mn dogsh*t luck is this?! Even the Primordial Heavenly Tree which appeared 100 years ago was not as terrifying as this! You have a guardian beast with perverted strength guarding you? Fine. But now even the d*mn tree itself attained divine powers!”

　　The Evolved Jing masters were all cursing bitterly, but each one was running faster than the other!

　　Apart from a few dozen unlucky bastards who did not make it onto the cliff in time and got overwhelmed by the roots, the others were relatively unhurt. But looking down at the cavern floor covered densely with squirming roots still gave one a squeamish feeling in their chests.

　　The roots also began to crawl up the cliff in pursuit, but their speed was far inferior to the escaping martial practitioners.

　　Only when they have climbed back to the surface was everyone able to loose a breath.

　　“I suggest that we drop an incendiary bomb down that cavern and burn the d*mn roots!”

　　The Evolved Jing master from a large clan said as soon as he crawled out of the pit.

　　“I second that!”

　　“Agreed!”

　　The surviving experts were still feeling their faces stinging from getting smacked so hard. A large group had gone down, but ended up getting chased out by a tree! At this point, they couldn’t care less about hurting the Primordial Heavenly Tree’s main body and the Primordial Heavenly Fruits.

　　Based on the situation below, perhaps even a Xiantian realm master would not be able to subdue the tree!

　　Soon, all the Evolved Jing experts at the scene gave their approval for the idea and quickly relayed the information back to their families and clans!

　　The combined strength of all the powers behind all these Evolved Jing experts and the level of connections they had with the various government sectors was truly shocking!

　　The request for the usage of the fire bomb was approved by the Southwestern army headquarters very quickly. After all, the existence of this mystical tree was a huge threat to the safety of civilians!

　　Of course, the condition for borrowing the strength of the army was that half of the Primordial Heavenly Fruits would go to them. Although this could not be helped, the experts at the site still felt a great amount of heartache.

　　A squadron of military-grade helicopters arrived within an hour, all fully loaded with incendiary bombs!

　　After clearing out a large empty area for the helicopters to land, a row of 500 kg incendiary bombs was moved into the cave. The temperature caused by the combustion of an incendiary bomb could reach over 3000 ℃. It was primarily used to burn defensive structures and fortifications. In terms of damage, the effect an incendiary bomb had to flammable targets could be tens of times greater than an equal amount of blast type explosive!

　　No matter how extraordinary the Primordial Heavenly Tree was, its main attribute was still wood. But with the protection of the huge lake around it, the main body of the tree should be able to avoid most damage.

　　After confirming that the roots had not retracted back into the ground, the crazy amount of incendiary bombs was pushed down the pit all at once!

　　“BOOM!”

　　The highly sensitive bombs exploded as soon as they hit the ground, sending a blast of hot air rippling in all directions! Following that, a sea of fire spread out, sweeping through the cavern and latching onto the flailing roots!

　　What kind of heat was 3000 ℃? It was the kind of heat that was enough to melt a majority of the known materials on Earth!

　　Although the Primordial Heavenly Tree was mystifying, it had ultimately not formed a consciousness yet. It could only act on instinct. By the time the Primordial Heavenly Tree reacted to the situation, all of its roots which had been exposed above the ground had been incinerated!

　　Instead of dying down, the firestorm burned even stronger as tme went by! The vast forest of trees in the cavern also turned into a sea of flames!

　　Even the experts standing at the top of the cliff could feel an intense heat surging up—along with a huge cloud of thick, black smoke!