Chapter 400 – Encountering Vine Demons Again

　　“How did you think of letting down a climbing rope from above?”

　　“Yeah, why are you so smart and resourceful?”

　　“Alright, I take back my previous view that you have no brains. You’re excellent and extraordinary.”

　　“Reliable ah!”

　　Lin Xuanzhi also looked at Wan Yitong with an expression full of appreciation.

　　Wan Yitong looked puzzled. “It’s such a high cliff, and I also don’t know what’s at the bottom. Of course I had to get a rope before I dared to come down. Besides, when you all were struck down, why didn’t you remember to throw an iron chain toward the mountain wall in time? It can’t be that you guys have heard too many stories in the cultivation world and think that no one dies when they fall down cliffs and that they can even encounter fortuitous opportunities?”

　　His words were so…they couldn’t respond at all!

　　Yeah, when Wan Yitong mentioned that, they realized — how come no one had the awareness to save themselves when they fell down here?

　　Alright, alright, this topic is over.

　　Yan Tianhen said, “But, you fell down just now.”

　　Wan Yitong coughed twice, “That was an accident. When I was about to land, my hand slipped and I fell.”

　　Yan Tianhen, “…”

　　Bei Shitian looked at Wan Yitong with a complicated gaze.

　　Wan Yitong threw a wink at him. “No need to thank me too much. You’re welcome.”

　　Bei Shitian replied, “No, I still think that only an idiot would do such a thing like going down a cliff.”

　　Wan Yitong, “…”

　　Although Bei Shitian was still unhappy to see Wan Yitong at all, it was undeniable that Wan Yitong came in a very timely manner and even perfectly averted the danger of them being trapped and worried here for many days.

　　The climbing rope brought by Wan Yitong was an auxiliary device; its length could change as needed, but the thickness would be different.

　　Lin Xuanzhi took the lead and grabbed the bottom of the rope to climb up.

　　Looking up, it was still a haze where the top couldn’t be seen, but when he climbed to a certain height, he actually directly saw the sky and the sea of clouds within a second, as well as the boundless mountains around him.

　　Lin Xuanzhi let out a breath of relief in his heart. He stopped climbing and stepped on his sword as he flew to the edge of the cliff.

　　Lin Xuanzhi stretched out his hand to shake the rope, indicating that he had successfully arrived at the top and that others could act now.

　　After a while, everyone climbed up one by one, and when Yan Tianhen came up, there were tiger cubs lying on his head and shoulders respectively.

　　Wan Yitong sighed, “Can’t we rest for a while? I climbed down and then climbed up. I’m dead tired.”

　　Bei Shitian replied, “You show the way and rest outside.”

　　Wan Yitong immediately changed his expression and pretended to say casually, “I was just casually saying that. Let’s go! The pregnant husband hasn’t even said he was tired yet, so how can I be tired?”

　　Duan Yuyang rubbed his nose and shrugged at Yuan Tianwen.

　　Wan Yitong led everyone to the place where Ren Fuyao and the others had disappeared before. On the road, Wan Yitong kept repeatedly exhorting, “When you all actually get to that place, don’t just rush in all at once. At least leave someone outside to guard it. Otherwise, it’ll be bad if the entire group is wiped out.”

　　Bei Shitian glanced at Wan Yitong. “You can stay outside and guard.”

　　Wan Yitong glared at Bei Shitian, “I’m warning you, don’t be prejudiced against me. Among us, I am definitely not the one with the lowest cultivation. Moreover, I’m so smart and resourceful that if we encounter any danger, I can definitely protect everyone.”

　　Bei Shitian had an ugly expression, and he no longer paid attention to him.

　　Anyhow, no matter what he said, Wan Yitong always regarded it as utter nonsense.

　　In that case, why did he bother wasting so much effort?

　　The mountain road was not very easy to walk, and the group was worried about whether they would accidentally step on the barrier, so they slowed down. Thus, an hour had already passed when they reached the place Wan Yitong mentioned.

　　Looking ahead, the mountain and rocks in front indeed had nothing unusual. If it weren’t for Wan Yitong seeing the group of people pass through the stone with his own eyes, even if Lin Xuanzhi and the others passed through this place, they would never have thought that the mountain rocks would turn out to be a barrier.

　　Lin Xuanzhi walked over, took out the spiritual Qi measuring plate, and saw that the red pointer had begun to spin wildly. It seemed to have broken from the richness of the spiritual Qi throughout the area.

　　However, Lin Xuanzhi found that whenever this red pointer spun to the sunken-in rock Wan Yitong mentioned before, the needle perfectly avoided that spot and returned the same way.

　　Lin Xuanzhi calmed his mind. “It seems that this is the place.”

　　Wan Yitong looked at everyone. “So, who will go first?”

　　Lin Xuanzhi spoke, “I’ll go in first still.”

　　Yan Tianhen stepped forward. “Then I’ll be with Dage.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi said, “I don’t know if the barrier here is a teleportation array, so if you don’t want to be separated, it’s better to hold onto each other when you enter.”

　　Yuan Tianwen heard this and nodded. He grabbed Duan Yuyang’s hand and clutched it in his palm.

　　Wan Yitong’s eyeballs turned; he scooted to Bei Shitian’s side and cleared his throat. “Senior Martial Brother Bei, look at you; you’re so delicate and weak. It’s not suitable for you to wander around on your own inside. It just so happened that Master told me to take good care of you, so why don’t we…”

　　Before his voice ended, Bei Shitian roughly seized his wrist. “Speak less nonsense.”

　　Wan Yitong was stunned for a moment and couldn’t help grinning.

　　When they finished forming smaller parties and everything was ready, Lin Xuanzhi took Yan Tianhen’s hand and walked towards the sunken-in rock.

　　Sure enough, they didn’t feel any obstruction. They only felt that the scenery in front of them flashed once, and it changed into a dense forest full of green trees.

　　“Ao ao!” Ah Bai cried, and Hu Po also seemed to be somewhat excited.

　　Subsequently, Huangfu Jin and Leng Jixue also walked in.

　　When the two parties met successfully, they looked at each other and smiled. “It seems that this is not a teleportation array. It’s just a simple entrance.”

　　Lin Xuanzhi nodded. “This is good.”

　　Leng Jixue looked around in surprise. “Xuanzhi, why do I feel that I have seen the scenery here before?”

　　Lin Xuanzhi frowned slightly. “I also feel déjà vu. This seems to be the place where we met.”

　　Next, Ji Yunwei, Yuan Tianwen, and the others also came in.

　　As soon as Ji Yunwei entered, he shouted in surprise, “How come we returned to the earlier path?”

　　When one twisted his head to look back again, everything was empty, and they couldn’t see any place that could be a barrier.

　　They hadn’t even figured out whether this place was the earlier path they re-walked or whether it was a mirror image when Duan Yuyang let out a cry and nearly fell to the ground.

　　Everyone saw that two vines had crawled out of the ground and stealthily wrapped around his ankle. Yuan Tianwen reacted fast and quickly slashed the vines with his sword.

　　Those two vines seemed to be merely sounding them out and seemed to be just a prelude. Then, countless vine people materialized out of thin air in front of them.

　　Without saying a word, Yan Tianhen held a Yin flame whip and struck it towards those vine people. He could burn a single vine person in one whip stroke.

　　The rest of the people also cast their own techniques. For a while, blades glinted and swords left shadows as they danced around. The flames reached the sky. These vine people who suddenly appeared were ruthlessly wiped out.

　　Suddenly, an awful stench came. Bei Shitian was the closest to Yan Tianhen. He frowned. “How come the vine person you burnt smells like a corpse?”

　　Yan Tianhen also wrinkled his face, covering his nose as he spoke in a muffled voice, “I don’t know, it really stinks!”

　　The others were quickly attacked by this bad smell as well, and Duan Yuyang’s reaction was particularly big. He went directly to a tree to retch.

　　After Duan Yuyang vomited, he said weakly, “Ah Hen darling, don’t burn them, I’m dying.”

　　After scratching his head, Yan Tianhen jumped out of the battle circle and came to the side to arrange the talisman array together with Duan Yuyang.

　　There were a large number of vine people, but fortunately, their levels weren’t high, so everyone just spent some more time and eliminated them all.

　　Lin Xuanzhi looked at the broken limbs on the ground and couldn’t help looking grave. “It’s different from the vine people we saw.”

　　There was no need for him to say it; the others had also found the abnormality.

　　Except for the vine person who emitted a foul stench but was burned to dregs, the vine people lying on the ground still maintained human shapes. The most terrifying thing was that dark brown blood actually flowed from their wounds and fell all over the floor intermittently, which disgusted the people looking.

　　Lin Xuanzhi had a feeling that the ones he killed were not people made of vines, but real people.

　　“What’s going on?” Duan Yuyang asked.

　　Yuan Tianwen lowered his eyes. “It’s not clear yet, but it seems to me that the vines occupied their bodies.”

　　One could barely make out the facial appearance of these vine people. Wan Yitong stepped forward and looked at a corpse for a while, then suddenly exclaimed, “Come and take a look at this person’s face, I think I saw him in Ren Fuyao’s team!”

　　Everyone was surprised and came over to look, one after another.

　　Yan Tianhen had a very good memory. He looked at it carefully for a while and nodded. “He is indeed a member of Young Sect Master Ren’s team. Moreover, his status is still relatively high, so I have some impression of him.”

　　Huangfu Jin asked, “So, what’s going on here?”

　　Ji Yunwei knitted his brows and hesitated before he said, “Perhaps, these vines are vine demons?”

　　Lin Xuanzhi asked, “What is a vine demon?”

　　Ji Yunwei explained, “There had always been rumors in our Qi city that there was a terrible type of monster in the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest. They’re called vine demons. This kind of vine demon has sentience and can regenerate indefinitely. They can’t be killed at all. The most terrifying thing is that vine demons can merge with human beings and demonic beasts, possess their bodies and flesh, and then implant themselves into their hearts and brains, making them into vine demon people who carry out the vine demons’ orders.”

　　“Do vine demons prefer corpses or living people?” Lin Xuanzhi asked.

　　“They like the half-dead ones.” Ji Yunwei rubbed the goosebumps on his arm. “Because it is rumored that half-dead people have the greatest resentment, so vine demons can make the most of those kinds of people.”

　　Yan Tianhen gasped. “It seems that these really are vine demons.”

　　Ji Yunwei hesitated. “However, vine demons have only appeared in rumors. I’ve gone to the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest many times and have never seen them even once.”

　　“Before, you probably didn’t know that there was a Great Demon-Sealing Array in the Myriad Beasts Demonic Forest either, right?” Yuan Tianwen asked.

　　Ji Yunwei was stunned. “That’s true…”