Refining the Mountains and Rivers

Everyone believed they were intelligent and that everything was under their control. But in reality, they might just be a clown performing on stage for others.

This was not preaching, but the simplest and plainest fact.

They had finally arrived at the ancient tree monster!

Even if they had a certain degree of understanding of this remnant body left behind by the Monster Race Great Emperor, when they truly beheld it for themselves and saw how it seemed to support the heavens on its crown, all of them were still left shaken.

When it was said that the ancient tree monster had been used as the foundation to construct this small world, they finally realized that this story wasn't false. At the same time, they instinctually shivered. How could such a giant tree exist in this world?

It was large, it was really large. So large that it blocked out the skies, so large that in their field of vision, there was nothing but this giant tree.

Xu Guzi took a deep breath. "Everyone, the moment to decide our destiny has arrived. Either we will pass this hurdle and obtain limitless good fortune, or we will be defeated and will all be buried here; everything depends on today!"

With a loud shout, his robes began to shine. Countless runes fluttered into the air, wrapping around him in layers upon layers.

Whoosh -

With the sound of breaking air, Xu Guzi rushed forward.

Dong Hanzhu had a vicious look in his eyes. "Then let's begin a slaughterfest!"

Bang -

The earth shook. Dong Hanzhu rushed forward like a tiger descending a mountain, his momentum terrifying.

Li Mingxuan was roused to excitement. He gestured with his hand and the Hundred Sword Boat flew forward.

He pulled Mu Qingluan along, "Let's go!"

Zhou Fenghuang followed close behind.

Zhao Qianyuan turned around and looked behind. His eyes were dark and glistening; it was unknown what he was thinking.

Soon, he turned his eyes away. The dragon spear in his hand shook and cried and he rushed forward like a dragon shuttling through the waves.

At the end of his line of sight, the ancient tree monster that seemed to support the world began to gently tremble, its branching swaying with the winds.

Then, countless small and large trees that were attached to the ground began to wriggle out. Visible faces appeared on the trunks of these trees as they started to howl forward.

Some large trees ran into each other. Several of them or even dozens together, they seemed to melt and fuse, their trunks and roots as flexible as rubber. In the blink of an eye they formed larger and fiercer trees that trampled across the ground.

Monster tree puppet soldiers! Monster tree puppet generals!

Xu Guzi thrust a hand forward. Hundreds of thousands of runes surged out, condensing into a large sword that came slashing down.

The monster tree puppet soldiers cried out miserably as they were split in half from top to bottom. The halves toppled to the ground, but they unexpectedly didn't die. Their wounds rapidly regenerated and in the blink of an eye there were two smaller monster tree puppet soldiers in place of the first.

The ancient tree monster was the root of this small world and it possessed incredible vitality. These monster tree puppet soldiers attached themselves to the ancient tree monster to live. As long as the ancient tree monster's vitality wasn't severed, these puppets would never die; they could be said to possess an undying body.

This was the most terrifying aspect of the ancient tree monster!

Xu Guzi's pupils shrank. He lifted a finger and pointed forwards. Countless runes surged ahead, breaking into the bodies of the two monster tree puppet soldiers like a tide.

Their bodies stiffened. Then, as if countless years passed, they disintegrated into powder.

At this time, it was no longer possible for them to regenerate. But, Xu Guzi's complexion was clearly not relaxed.

In order to kill these monster tree puppet soldiers, one needed to use absolute strength and instantly annihilate all of their life force without giving them the chance to regrow.

But this method caused serious losses. Xu Guzi looked up. He saw the numerous monster tree puppet soldiers. There were so many of them that they seemed like an incoming wave. There were also the larger monster tree puppet generals scattered amongst them. His expression began to darken.

Zhou Fenghuang waved her hand and the Dark Phoenix true flames fell down. After they touched a monster tree puppet soldier they would continue burning until the puppet was nothing more than ashes.

Mu Qingluan's blue flames had a similar attribute. Thus, although the two of them weren't considered the strongest of the group, the throughput of the killing power they released now was considerable.

Of course, the strongest here was still Zhao Qianyuan. He hadn't even used his true skills yet. With just a wave of his spear, all vitality would be severed from a puppet.

There was no monster tree puppet soldier that could regenerate from his blow. With a single pass of his dragon spear, the slaughter strength contained within would instantly destroy their life force.

His terrifying slaughter caused a massive empty space to appear around him. He caught the attention of a monster tree puppet general. With a loud roar, the puppet general thrust out a wooden spear in its hands. At the same time, there was a rumbling from below the earth as numerous massive tree roots burst out, speeding towards Zhao Qianyuan.

There were attacks from above and below, and the strength of a monster tree puppet general far surpassed that of a monster tree puppet soldier. The roar itself possessed a certain soul-attacking ability.

To be accurate, it was three attacks at once!

Zhao Qianyuan's complexion didn't change. The dragon spear in his hands thrust out, brutally colliding with the wooden spear. At the same time he took a step forward, and when his foot landed on the ground, the earth erupted like wild waves, swelling out in all directions.

All of the tree roots that fell into these wild waves froze in place and then shattered to pieces.

At the same time, a pained roar filled the air. The puppet general's wooden spear had been torn to pieces!

Moreover, after the wooden spear shattered, the dragon spear continued racing forward. The monster tree puppet general shouted with anger as it quickly split up into 11 separate monster tree puppet soldiers. But in just several breaths of time, terrifying traces of breaking appeared on their bodies at the same time.

Finally, all 11 monster tree puppet soldiers died off completely!

In other words, even the incredibly strong monster tree puppet general was killed in a single strike by Zhao Qianyuan.

Beneath the ancient tree monster, in a place no one could see, the Sage had a look of appreciation on his face. "Zhao Qianyuan is truly worthy of being known as a peerless genius that appears only once every 100,000 years. He is indeed someone praiseworthy…but, what a pity."

Zhao Qianyuan's action of killing the monster tree puppet general lifted everyone's spirits. At this moment, there were angered roars from behind them. Countless tree roots drilled deep into the earth, forcing out a group of hidden cultivators.

Leng Feng's complexion was pale. He punched out and a wild strength flooded forth, grinding a monster tree puppet soldier to pieces.

Han Sheng flicked a finger and red silk threads flew out, like a human-shaped spider shooting a web.

Wherever the webs went, monster wood puppet soldiers would stiffen in place. Then, several breaths of time later, they loudly collapsed into countless broken blocks.

Xu Guzi spun around, a cloudy look on his face, "Those people really followed behind us!"

Fortunately, they had been forced out by the ancient tree monster's indiscriminate attacks. If they stayed hidden behind them this entire time, they would have suffered a great loss!

After the events of last night, although the two sides didn't fight on the spot, they had clearly torn apart any pretense of civility. There was no chance for them to make peace.

If those people had a chance, they would likely have attacked from behind.

But now, with the difficult monster tree puppet soldiers and generals everywhere, no one had any extra strength to deal with each other.

If they weren't careful and both sides were mutually wounded, then perhaps they might all die here today.

"Don't pay attention to them. With the hunting of the ancient tree monster right before us, they won't dare to act rashly." Zhao Qianyuan said in a low voice. His dragon spear swept out again, killing off another monster tree puppet soldier.

"Scion Zhao is correct. Our most important task right now is to kill the ancient tree monster!"

"These people came just in time; they can help us share the pressure!"

"Everyone, remain vigilant. As long as there is some distance between us, there shouldn't be a problem!"

Everyone began to speak up.

Han Sheng let out a deep breath. He whispered, "This is good. Those people don't want to provoke us right now. Once we kill off the ancient tree monster, that is when the true battle begins."

He had a dismal expression. Originally, by drawing support from a treasure, they had hidden themselves well and hadn't been discovered.

But who would have imagined that the ancient tree monster would compel them to appear, utterly ruining their plans of being the fisherman that finds benefits in the chaos.

If they had known about this earlier, they would have hidden further away! It would have been better than right now!

Unfortunately, in this world there was no medicine for regrets. Although everyone had pallid complexions, they could only clench their teeth and break their way through the waves of monster tree puppets.

In the eyes of these puppets, there was no difference between them and the people in front of them; they were all intruders that needed to die.

When Han Sheng saw that no one panicked, he relaxed a little. Although everyone had lost their chance to simply 'observe' the battle, as long as they managed to last until the end, then with their strength it shouldn't be difficult to share in the spoils.

So what if Zhao Qianyuan was here? With their lucky chance and good fortune before them, this would be the turning point to change their future destiny. Anyone that dared to stop them would suffer an endless barrage of attacks!

Bang -

With a loud crash, a terrifying strength erupted. A monster tree puppet soldier was struck flying away, collapsing into dust in midair.

Han Sheng frowned, "Fellow daoist Leng?"

The two of them had secretly come to an agreement so he couldn't watch as his partner wasted his strength like this. Didn't he notice that everyone was still restraining themselves?

Ugh!

The time to truly go all-out had yet to arrive!

Leng Feng froze and he came to a stop. He took a deep breath and nodded, "I'm alright."

Although he said this, he actually felt that there was something wrong with his present condition.

Boiling heat seemed to swirl within his chest, as if roaring flames were tumbling all around inside his body. His heartbeat accelerated, giving birth to the desire to destroy all.

He wanted to suppress this feeling, but he discovered the more he tried, the less he could control it. He wanted to release everything within him, all of the chains, and engage in a wild and crazy slaughter!

"Calm down! Calm down! I cannot wear myself down too much right now; I still need to compete for the demon blood crystals, how can I make myself into bridal clothes for others!" Leng Feng roared out in his heart. But no matter what he tried, nothing worked. His line of sight began to blur and gradually turn red.

Whoosh -

There was the sound of breaking air. Leng Feng suddenly discovered that his senses had become incomparably sharp - this was the sneak attack of a monster tree puppet soldier.

His lips lifted in a diabolic grin. Leng Feng found that he couldn't control his body. Without dodging at all, he met the attack with his fist.

His fist struck against wood. His body trembled and the flesh and bones of his fist cracked and broke. But, he actually didn't feel any pain at all. Rather, he felt a full-throated ecstatic pleasure course through him!

He stepped forward and exploded ahead. He crashed into the branches and rained down a barrage of punches on the monster tree puppet soldier, smashing it to pieces.

After landing on the ground, Leng Feng subconsciously licked his lips. When he tasted a few drops of blood that trickled down from a wound on his forehead, he felt that it was particularly delicious. The haze of blood covering his vision became increasingly deep and red.

"Ahh!"

"Die! Die! Die!"

"Everyone that blocks me must die!"

Roars resounded from behind him. Leng Feng subconsciously turned around and saw that the others in his squad were turning crazy too.

They had abandoned all their scruples and erupted with their greatest strength. They raced forward without restraint, slaughtering anything in their way.

Leng Feng cackled, his voice strangely sharp and high. "Let's kill them together!"

Bang -

Billowing demonic energy erupted from his body, condensing into the phantom of a demon beast above his head. In the next moment, this phantom fused into his body.

Black scales instantly grew on the surface of Leng Feng's body. Combined with his blood red eyes, he seemed like the incarnation of an abyssal devil!

Bang -

Bang -

In the blink of an eye, two monster tree puppets were smashed into pieces!

Han Sheng shivered. He bitterly struggled to prevent his mind from falling into illusion. But, on this battlefield of slaughter and death, all sorts of negative emotions like destruction and hate began to flood his heart.

Looking around at all his companions who had gone insane, his eyes slowly began to turn red and a look of fear appeared on his face. "No, no...we fell into someone's trap…just when did this happen…"

He tried to resist, but as he was struggling with difficulty, a broken arm flew in front of his face and blood splashed on him, a little bit of it falling to the corners of his mouth.

Instinctually, Han Sheng reached out his tongue to lick it. A flow of heat flooded his mind and there was a loud explosion in his ears as the world suddenly turned red.

"Hahaha! Die! Die! You will all die!"