As compared to the immortality of the ancient tree of the netherworld, the filthy air it emitted was comparatively insignificant.

　　Fahai and the rest who were standing afar were even more fearful. This filthy aura of the ancient tree was one of the things celestials hate the most. Those who cultivated and reached the state of celestials were all with clear minds and pure souls. Once contaminated with the filthy aura, god knows how long they needed to meditate to get rid of their demonic barriers. If they were careless and caused a Dao trial, they would have no place to go cry at.

　　Those who were eager to help earlier were no longer volunteering to assist anymore.

　　Chen Jinchang and Fang Yanying looked at each other. They would not sit and watch Shen Lian fight with that weird mammoth tree alone.

　　Fang Yanying had the Taishang killing sword in her hand with an intimidating look on her, a bit like a jade faced raksasa and not a Daoist fairy. She felt the same thirst from the mammoth tree just like Shen Lian.

　　Actually, the ancient tree of the netherworld had a stronger thirst for her compared to Shen Lian. The reason being that Fang Yanying had seen the Taishang Detection from the fundamentals of Taishang Daoist sect and her cultivation of killing sword towards the realm of merciless killing sword. These posed very deadly attraction to a demon tree like the Ancient Tree of the Netherworld. Once it obtained the source from Fang Yanying, it could study the merciless killing sword, cut itself of the restraints, understood the path Dao and become an actual god and not only a demonic tree.

　　Although Fang Yanying did not understood this entirely, she was clear that the mammoth tree must be destroyed, or else it would have seized any chance to consume her clean, skin to bone.

　　She murmured, “Junior Apprentice-Brother, I will charge in to assist uncle-master. You look after me from the side and just guide me out when you see something is wrong.”

　　Fang Yanying already knew that Chen Jinchan created a Void Transmittal technique from the Daoist scriptures, where he could turn ones Primordial Spirit into a stone bridge in dire situations, so the person stuck in there could be transmitted out from danger.

　　Chen Jinchan nodded in agreement. Senior apprentice sister’s strategy was perfect. Despite his high-level attainment, his actual combat experience was nothing compared to her. Moreover, Fang Yanying’s swordsman skills were well improved enough to be of great help for the honored master.

　　Fang Yanying remained silent as her sword was projected like a ray of red light, which flashed to another side of the Ancient Tree, cutting a branch off it.

　　However the Ancient Tree had regenerative powers, so Fang Yanying had not made any damage to its roots. But the interference of her killing sword still posed some trouble to the Ancient Tree. It had to divide some of its attention towards Fang Yanying, whereas Shen Lian casually approached the main trunk of the Ancient Tree.

　　As expected from the only inheritor of Chen Jianmei’s path of Killing Sword, Fang Yanying was not only polished in swordsmanship, her every strike point was its shift point of dynamic Qi, which was more unbearable for the Ancient Tree.

　　Usually the Ancient Tree would not feel a thing, but now its exhausted was almost exhausted by Shen Lian. So Fang Yanying’s every strike would have caused it to be extra flustered.

　　The path of Killing Sword had always been one of the most powerful attacking powers in all worlds. Its strength could be witnessed when the Lingbao Tianzun formed a killing formation using the Killing Sword to resist the attacks of four people at the Daoist Master level.

　　As Fang Yanying was purely taught in Daoism, her spirit and soul was crystal clear, unlike those sword celestials who were addicted to killing only. Her every strike was conclusive, and every blow added to her understanding of the Ancient Tree of the Netherworld, as she was getting a hang of the combat at hand.

　　Fahai and the rest could not help but wonder that if Fang Yanying was their opponent, how many strikes would they be able to take.

　　They could never picture that!

　　They unanimously agreed that Qing Xuan’s position was unshakeable in the field of cultivation with Shen Lian being the front and Fang Yanying supporting at the back.

　　Chen Jinchan was also a person with great analytic skills. He was well recognized in Qing Xuan as the headmaster who was the best versed in managing the school, after Zhang Ruoxu. Shen Lian was viewed as ‘the respected person who saved a gigantic building from collapsing at the last critical moment’; whereas Chen Jinchan was the one who built Qing Xuan from a timid past to its current standing as the leader in Daoism. Anyone in touch with him might not be satisfied with his character, but they had to admit that Chen Jinchan’s management was just and noble.

　　Comparatively, although Xuan Tian produced many talents, yet it still needed to be maintained by Lu Jiuyuan to achieve its current status, or else it would just be a strengthened version of Guangqing Celestial sect.

　　Ever since Shen Lian attained the state of Taiyi, this was the first battle that he could go all out. The previous fight with Lu Jiuyuan was not as satisfying because both of them were reserving their strength.

　　He also understood now the difficulties and complications of fighting against an immortal and strong opponent. The attacks of the ancient tree were actually very straightforward using its twigs to strike from left and right only.

　　Ultimately, it all came down to one key point – strength.

　　As compared to the prowess of Xuanmen, this was simply crude, but such a simple attack used its immortality to drag on with a Taiyi immortal like Shen Lian.

　　Once Shen Lian released his sacred look, all his movements were majestic. Although he was dragged down by the strange restraints of the Yellow Spring in the underworld, he could not move mountains and seas in his movements, but it was still quite intimidating.

　　However, the Ancient Tree of Netherworld did not turn into fine powder instantly. That was the proof of its tenacity, which was also why it could be the sacred tree for Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha.

　　Despite its strength, the Ancient Tree was still not as refined as the Taiyi Immortal. Combined with the side attacks from Fang Yanying, its energy source was exhausted.

　　A telepathic message was transmitted from the Ancient tree, “Young man, how about we put it to a stop here. I promise not to cause you any trouble anymore.”

　　Despite its evil aura, the telepathy transmitted from the tree was comparatively pure and clear like the old spring water in the mountains.

　　Shen Lian knew very well that this was the positivity born from extreme negativity, like an extremely filthy being with a pure untouched core within.

　　Therefore, he deduced that this Ancient Tree of the Netherworld also had deep Daoist cultivation, only to be restricted by its own true form.

　　Amongst the demons and monsters, the plants and rocks were the ones with the most difficulty in achieving Dao. All of the legendary plants were naturally born to be mystical trees, but eventually had to be accepted under the care of high-level characters like Daoist masters or Buddha, or else their conditions would be very bad.

　　Its intention to battle had dispersed as it kept its branches and shrunk itself. Shen Lian would need to spend more energy approaching it, but it would have been more difficult to counter-attack too.

　　Ku Li’s telepathic message was heard, “We can let you go with a condition. Produce one Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha Dao fruit for us and we will let you go.”

　　“Hmph, your ancestors had to call me old grandmaster when they see me. How dare you bully me like this?”