. Amidst the vast beast tide, hundreds of men held their ground, like a small boat on surging waves, seemingly teetering on the brink of capsizing. Yet, they repeatedly surged forward in desperate situations, repeatedly breaking through the blockade and swiftly hurtling towards the end of the tide.
"Boom!"
A massive black dragon swept across, annihilating countless ferocious beasts within a hundred feet. In the distance, the ground revealed the color typical of this plain.
The tide had finally been broken!
Success was at hand!
"Speed up, charge!"
Before the Soul Jade at the forefront could even make a move, the ranks within the ranks erupted in excitement, abandoning their rigid stance and bursting forth at top speed.
To break through the tide would mean the end of the alliance, and everyone was eager to seize the initiative.
Unfortunately, cleverness was meaningless in the face of sheer strength. The Soul Jade paused briefly before quickly recovering. In a flash, he appeared hundreds of feet away, his speed exponentially faster than before.
Behind them, Chen Guan, Gu Xun'er, and the rest of the team reacted quickly, each displaying their true abilities. Leading their respective teams, they quickly distanced themselves from the main force.
"Ah!"
screams echoed from behind. At this moment, the true nature of the situation was revealed. Those left behind became the target of the vast rage of ferocious beasts. Those lucky lone wolves, none of them escaped!
A
thousand feet from the beast tide, the first group to break through noticed something: the beasts seemed to be under some kind of influence, refusing to pursue.
With a slight sense of relief, everyone looked back, feeling a mixture of relief and lingering fear.
At the Ancient Domain Terrace, the team had numbered nearly ten thousand, but now only a few hundred remained standing.
Everyone knew the risks were immense and many would die, yet they had underestimated the mortality rate.
Just as everyone was sighing, a gentle breeze brushed their faces, bringing a refreshing breath of air that instantly calmed their restless spirits.
Swish! Swish!
As if awakened from a dream, the crowd suddenly turned their heads, their gazes gazing into the depths.
They saw, thousands of feet away, a towering, immense tree, its shade towering over the vast plain. A pure aura emanated from the ancient tree, shifting like a tide, waves, and clouds, transforming into various forms. As it gradually moved away from the tree, it slowly dissipated, appearing mysterious and unpredictable.
"Ancient Bodhi Tree!"
exclaimed a voice, and a Dou Zun warrior, unable to contain his burning passion, flashed past.
The tranquility was instantly shattered, and one warrior after another darted through the air, vying for the lead, even those from the same sect being disregarded.
Unfortunately, faced with the immense allure of the ancient Bodhi tree, they overlooked a strange phenomenon.
Hun Yu and the others, who had been leading the way, were now in a state of composure. This unusual situation clearly indicated a hidden agenda.
However, some warriors remained rational, such as those from the Xingyun Pavilion, who remained motionless.
"The Ancient Bodhi Tree—this opportunity is one of the top three in the Dou Qi Continent, and it's not so easy to obtain. Even within my clan, few have seen it, save for a few records in ancient texts." A young man behind Gu Xun'er shook his head.
Chen Guan remembered this man's name as Gu Hua.
"Haha, it seems you're also familiar with this. This Ancient Bodhi Tree is truly extraordinary. Our clan clearly records that a Semi-Saint once encountered it, only to perish utterly, and it's not even known how. It's fair to say that the greatest danger on this journey isn't the beast tide, but the Ancient Bodhi Tree itself."
Hun Yu's voice echoed, leading the group forward, their pace neither slow nor fast.
Chen Guan, Gu Xun'er, and the others weren't surprised to hear this; they all knew something. Chen Guan, in particular
, was undoubtedly the most knowledgeable person at the moment. However,
the faces of those who had survived, protected by their respective sects' powerful members, changed drastically. Some, even disregarding their own lives, rushed past the crowd, heading deeper into the depths, hoping to salvage their losses.
"Let's speed up a bit,"
Chen Guan said, glancing at the 'slow' Soul Jade. He immediately picked up speed and led the team deeper into the cave.
He wasn't some pushover; he simply knew what was coming, and with confidence, he was naturally bold.
However, seeing Chen Guan's acceleration, the previously slow-paced Soul Jade began to fret.
He hadn't taken the previous group seriously, believing they had little chance of obtaining the opportunity, and even if they did, he was confident he could seize it. He treated them purely as pathfinders.
But Chen Guan was different. He was a member of the Danta and had the Taixu Ancient Dragon Clan as his backing. Soul Jade knew many of his tactics.
If Chen Guan seized the opportunity first, it would be a serious problem.
"Hmph!"
Soul Jade snorted inwardly, frowning and speeding up to keep up.
Elsewhere, Gu Xun'er and the others shook their heads slightly and silently sped up as well.
For a moment, the pace seemed to pick up again.
Even without Chen Guan's full speed, the distance of several thousand feet would only take a dozen breaths.
Arriving several dozen feet from the ancient Bodhi tree, even though he had been mentally prepared, the scene still left him stunned.
The massive tree before him, its trunk at least several thousand feet long, stood like a pillar connecting heaven and earth. Its trunk was densely shrouded in an ancient aura, and its shade was terrifyingly vast, spreading out to rival the vastness of most of Shengdan City!
It was like a miracle!
Standing beneath the ancient Bodhi tree, one unconsciously felt a sense of insignificance, like an ant gazing up at a towering giant of gods and demons.
Their minds were so overwhelmed that they immediately lost focus on the battle hundreds of feet away.
After several breaths, sensing the arrival of a large group behind them, Chen Guan finally regained his composure and looked towards the raging battlefield.
The two sides fighting were: the group that had rushed ahead, and a mere five.
No, to be more precise, five puppets.
Five semi-saint-level puppets!
These five puppets seemed to be no different from humans except that they were lifeless and expressionless. However, Chen Guan could feel that they were very different from the Heavenly Demon Puppets. It was more like their souls had been erased and their bodies were controlling their actions. As a result, they seemed unable to use fighting skills and relied entirely on their brute force to fight.
Even so, they continued to crush those anxious warriors. A glance revealed four or five corpses sprawled on the ground, some with no bones left, leaving only a patch of crimson.
It was a solemn scene, but the ancient Bodhi tree had clouded the atmosphere, leaving the onlookers with a sense of melancholy, a fleeting tale of life, a fleeting tale of snails squabbling over right and wrong.
Fortunately, this emotion was short-lived, and everyone soon returned to normal.
"Brother Hunyu, help me!"
Those struggling to protect themselves noticed the arrival of the main force, and a five-star Douzun warrior from Hunyu's camp immediately shouted for help.
As he cried out, he steadily moved closer to the main force, seeking shelter.
The others followed suit. As long as they stayed close to the main force, these five semi-saint puppets would be no threat.
A hundred feet...
fifty feet...
twenty feet...
Just as they were about to converge, Hunyu waved his hand and slapped out, enveloping the person calling for help.
This palm strike completely crushed the already precarious wretch. Without a word, he was reduced to a bloody pulp in despair. "
What rank do you hold to be worthy of calling me a brother?"
Hun Yu waved his hands, expressionless, as if he had done something insignificant. Finally, he had some semblance of a Hun Clan member.
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Without the threat of the beast tide, the alliance ceased to exist. All who survived were rivals. Mercy?
Absolutely not!
Ignoring the remaining warriors, their minds shattered and gradually swallowed by death, Soul Jade glanced at the hundreds of onlookers.
"See? That old man in black is the half-saint I mentioned earlier, fallen from our clan. Now he's a puppet. You can imagine the danger here," Soul Jade said, pointing to a black-clad puppet engaged in a frenzied slaughter.
"I'll give you ten breaths to consider and leave this place. If you don't want to, be prepared to face them and us at once."
With that, Soul Jade began clearing the area.
In ten breaths at most, those reckless individuals would be dead, and they would be the ones left.
If it weren't for the fact that these remaining individuals, without exception, all belonged to relatively strong factions, and they had to consider Chen Guan and Gu Xun'er's exploits, Soul Jade would never have been so gentle.
There was a commotion within the group, each Dou Zun expert looking embarrassed and communicating secretly through voice transmission.
During this process, those below the Dou Zun level all broke away from the group and retreated far away, either on their own initiative or at the behest of their sect elders.
They had no chance of winning the Ancient Bodhi Tree. Rather than courting death, they might as well wait and gain some experience nearby.
Ten breaths were almost over, and fewer than a hundred people remained.
Without exception, they were all Dou Zun experts!
With the exception of the four teams of Hun Yu, the Ancient Clan, Chen Guan, and the Nine Phoenix of the Heavenly Demon Phoenix Clan, all the Dou Zun experts had gathered together, clearly planning a coalition. Together, they numbered over fifty Dou Zun, including three Nine-Star Dou Zun, a formidable force.
Chen Guan glanced at Yao Chen and Xiao Yan, the master and disciple, and communicated through voice transmission.
After receiving a response, he said no more.
Simply put, the master and disciple also held out some hope of winning the Ancient Bodhi Tree. If they were to team up with Chen Guan, even if they did win the opportunity, it would be difficult to distribute it.
Rather than affect their feelings, it would be better to split up.
Master and disciple Yao Chen would remain in the alliance. If the alliance could secure an opportunity, they would have a chance to take it.
"Boom!"
Exactly ten breaths later, a resounding explosion echoed, annihilating the first group.
Five puppets, devoid of consciousness, driven only by killing instinct, immediately charged towards the group.
Hun Yu glanced at the temporary alliance, chuckled, and immediately led his troops to confront the Soul Clan's semi-saint puppet. A giant black dragon swept across the sky, isolating the other four puppets, forming an independent battlefield.
The meaning was self-evident: five forces, each dealing with one puppet.
If they couldn't even handle this puppet, they had no right to compete with them.
Hmm, fair enough.
Gu Xun'er followed closely behind, a golden flame emanating from her body, also intercepting a puppet.
Seeing this, Chen Guan and Feng Jiu also moved, each leading a group to lead away one puppet.
The battlefield was divided into five.
"Bang!"
Chen Guan clashed with the semi-saint puppet. The terrifying force sent him retreating over ten feet before he regained his footing.
After a brief trial run, Chen Guan had a good idea of the semi-saint puppet's strength. Its power was even greater than those semi-saint energy entities he had hunted in the Heavenly Tomb, but due to its lack of combat skills, it posed only a moderate threat.
Now that his own strength had increased, and he had a team of supporters by his side...
destroying it would be easy!
However, Chen Guan had no desire to show off. He divided his attention, playing with the puppet while observing the battlefield.
To his surprise, he discovered that within the Five-Sided Battlefield, the group seemingly facing the most difficulty wasn't the Xingyun Pavilion, where Master Yaochen and his apprentice were, but the Sky Demon Phoenix Clan led by Feng Jiu.
Earlier, during the attack on the beast tide, Gu Xun'er had privately warned him that Feng Jiu's irises were the result of his cultivation techniques. Most of his combat skills involved cultivating these irises, making them incredibly difficult to defend against. He possessed considerable experience in harnessing his spiritual power.
But what they faced wasn't a human, but a soulless puppet. This rendered Fengjiu's strength useless, more painful than a punch on cotton...
If it weren't for the support of several clan elders, they would have barely been able to defend themselves.
This was the only tense battle on the battlefield. Even the makeshift alliance, thanks to their numerical advantage, fought with flying colors, firmly gaining the upper hand. They continuously inflicted damage on the puppet, and their utter destruction was inevitable.
As for Gu Xun'er and Hun Yu...
"Boom!"
Within two minutes, Gu Xun'er had concluded the battle, having detonated the puppet.
A half-saint puppet, devoid of skill, was a simple blow to her, no matter how restrained she was.
After the battle, Gu Xun'er led the Gu Clan members to the side, not intending to continue.
About half a minute later, the Soul Jade unleashed its divine power, unleashing a pitch-black palm print that shattered his unknown ancestor into a shard of ash.
Chen Guan averted his gaze, silently exerting a bit more strength. The advantage on this side of the battlefield shifted to a winning position, and three minutes later, the battle was over.
Perhaps inspired by Chen Guan's power, several members of the Sky Demon Phoenix Clan also erupted in a reckless attack.
The effect was remarkable. In about ten minutes, the fourth Semi-Saint puppet was defeated.
But the cost was not low. The Sky Demon Phoenix Clan lost two Dou Zun elders, a heavy loss that left Feng Jiu heartbroken.
He was already highly likely to be the next Sky Demon Phoenix Clan leader, and these elders would be his minions from now on.
"Chen Guan, what are you laughing at?"
Feng Jiu, seeing the undisguised mockery on someone's face, seemed furious. She no longer cared to pretend, as they were already sworn enemies.
Chen Guan grabbed Xiao Yixian and Yun Yun, who were beginning to show signs of murderous intent, and offered an apologetic look.
"I'm sorry for being so abrupt. Two of your Sky Demon Phoenix Clan members just died. It's really not nice for me to laugh like that. I promise I'll wait until you're completely wiped out before I laugh again." Hua
Wu,
the youngest of the Hua Clan, couldn't help but laugh.
"You!"
Looking at the expressions of those around her, Feng Jiu felt as if she'd eaten something, her eyes darkening slightly. But in the end
, she chose not to take action. It was a wise decision.
Feng Jiu didn't initiate, and Chen Guan, not wanting to waste his energy on her, simply ignored her, turning his attention to the final battle.
As expected, the makeshift alliance spent nearly twenty minutes finally dispatching the puppet.
The price is a huge consumption.
(End of this chapter)