Chapter 623

622. Chapter 617: Tree Roots in the Void

A spaceship was flying through the void, with three men and one woman standing on its deck.

The four were chatting, their eyes all filled with sorrow.

"Brother Han, Senior Brother Qiong, Senior Uncle Wang—look over there…" the woman suddenly pointed in shock at a distant spot.

Before her voice had even faded, a colossal insect had already charged toward them.

Almost simultaneously, the three men and one woman leapt out of the spaceship and summoned their treasures.

"Boom!"

One of the insect's forelegs, like a blade, swept through—space itself cracked under the blow.

Violent immortal energy exploded, and several treasures were instantly blasted away.

Their domains, like eggshells, offered no resistance against the giant insect.

An even more furious wave of immortal energy slammed into them; all four were severely wounded and flung backward—they had combined their strength yet still could not block even a casual sweep of the giant insect.

Just as despair settled over all four, they realized the insect had ignored them and continued racing forward in frenzy.

Before they could comprehend this, another figure dashed toward them—also in the direction the insect was fleeing.

One man rubbed his eyes: "Did I see that right? That giant insect, the one that could kill us four in an instant, is fleeing?"

"You didn't imagine it—the insect is indeed fleeing," said Senior Uncle Wang.

Though answering his companion, his eyes were filled with shock as he stared at where the giant insect and Ding Huan had vanished.

The woman, having just returned to the spaceship, seemed to recall something and exclaimed urgently:

"Senior Uncle Wang, if even such a terrifying insect is being hunted by that man, it means his strength has reached the peak of this realm."

"Could we ask him to intervene for our Immortal Realm? To deal with that terrifying tree root?"

The other three all showed longing in their eyes.

Their four strengths were the pinnacle within their Immortal Realm.

Senior Brother Qiong was even the foremost Immortal Emperor.

Yet even their combined strength could not withstand a casual strike from the giant insect—how formidable it was.

If such a powerful insect is fleeing, how powerful must the one chasing it be?

"Senior Uncle Wang, I'm certain—if this elder is willing to act, our Immortal Realm's problem will be solved instantly," Senior Brother Qiong added, his eyes alight with hope.

He not only longed for this elder to resolve their Immortal Realm's crisis, but also wished to learn his Dao and cultivation methods.

The Han man, who had remained silent until now, sighed: "Do you think we can catch up to someone moving at that speed?"

Senior Uncle Wang regretfully said: "Too bad—we should've begged for his help before now."

In their eyes, a cultivator like Ding Huan might pause if he heard an Immortal Realm was in peril.

Ding Huan knew nothing of their thoughts—if he did, he'd only say: you're imagining too much.

He wouldn't stop until he killed this Insect King.

This Insect King posed too great a threat to the Semi-God Continent.

As Ding Huan's Soul-Stepping technique grew more refined, he drew ever closer to the Insect King.

The Insect King clearly knew it could not escape Ding Huan's pursuit—it charged into any cosmic vortex it encountered.

But Ding Huan's physical body was too formidable; where the insect went through cosmic vortices, so did he.

As long as the vortex couldn't tear open the Insect King's body, it couldn't harm Ding Huan.

No matter how desperately the Insect King fled, it could not shake Ding Huan off.

The Insect King had considered tearing open the boundary void—only by entering a new realm could it hope to escape Ding Huan entirely.

But having been gravely wounded twice by Ding Huan, it now lacked the strength to instantly rupture the cosmic boundary.

If it delayed any longer, Ding Huan would have already come and cut it down with one slash.

Another half-month passed; when the Insect King passed through another cosmic vortex, it froze.

For before it lay a dense mass of tree roots.

Not only was the Insect King stunned—so was Ding Huan, who had been chasing it.

He had seen many strange wonders in the cosmos—he'd even seen a colossal pillar jutting diagonally through space.

But to see such a dense tangle of tree roots floating in the boundless void—he had never seen the like.

The roots were too thick, blocking all passage.

For the Insect King to continue fleeing, it would have to detour around the roots.

By the time it circled them, Ding Huan would have already caught up.

Knowing escape was impossible, the Insect King finally halted and turned to charge Ding Huan.

Ding Huan's domain surged outward; his long blade gathered a furious killing momentum and slashed through the void.

Boom! Ding Huan's domain clashed with the Insect King's—its domain was instantly torn apart.

Crack!

The Insect King's massive leg collided with Ding Huan's blade's Dao resonance.

Half the leg was severed; the Insect King let out another piercing shriek.

Violent immortal energy recoiled back—Ding Huan felt as if a giant hammer had struck deep within his heart; he nearly spat out a blood arrow.

At that moment, Ding Huan felt only relief—that he had ambushed the Insect King earlier.

The Insect King was truly that powerful.

A thought-voice reached him: "I submit to you as my master—spare my life."

Indeed, its intellect was not low.

Ding Huan laughed: "Then give up your resistance."

Upon hearing Ding Huan's words, the Worm King instantly retracted its domain, and Ding Huan simultaneously retracted his domain as well.

Before the Worm King could even heave a sigh of relief, Ding Huan's long blade soundlessly swept up a curtain of saber-light and sliced open the Worm King's skull.

The Worm King's furious shriek nearly shattered this stretch of void.

It wished it could devour Ding Huan bite by bite.

This human was actually so untrustworthy—clearly it had already given up resistance and agreed to acknowledge him as master, yet this human still ambushed it the moment it withdrew its domain.

At this moment it had completely forgotten that the very reason it had sent a transmission to Ding Huan to acknowledge him as master was to seize the chance to ambush Ding Huan.

But in its view, it could break its word, yet Ding Huan could not.

The Grand Void Flame pounced over, sweeping up the Worm King's Primordial Spirit and burning it into nothingness.

Ding Huan finally breathed a sigh of relief.

If he hadn't killed this Worm King, he couldn't have been at ease for even a single breath.

Now that he had killed this Worm King, he was relieved—at the very least he could ascend to the God Realm with no distractions.

After killing the Worm King, Ding Huan finally looked at the expanse of void tree roots before him.

These roots were tangled and intricate within the void, like the blood vessels of a human body, densely packed beneath this stretch of cosmic space.

Anyone with trypophobia would get chills on their scalp just looking at them.

Such a dense cluster of tree roots appearing so abruptly in the vast universe—this was truly somewhat eerie.

Ding Huan's divine sense landed on these roots; there were traces of vitality and the flow of heaven and earth primal energy.

Not only that, there was also a rich circulation of the Dao's rhythm.

His divine sense continued to seep in, but was blocked by layer upon layer of invisible force.

Ding Huan did not withdraw his divine sense, still observing these void tree roots.

These void tree roots—he actually found them somewhat familiar.

Ding Huan quickly recalled.

It was that ascending tree root at the God Clan's ascension ground in God Star.

Back then Ding Huan had thought that ascending tree root was large enough.

Now he realized that compared to the tree root before him, that one probably couldn't even count as a drop in the ocean.

What he could see now was merely a small portion of this tree root's vast root system.

Ding Huan always felt this thing couldn't be separated from the God Clan.

He reached out and touched one of the roots.

But the instant his hand made contact with the root, a powerful surge of Dao rhythm wrapped up the space he occupied.

The next moment, dozens of fine root tendrils extended out and locked down every avenue of retreat for Ding Huan.

Tendril after tendril actually tried to pierce into his flesh and blood, absorbing his essence blood…

Ding Huan was furious; the Grand Void Flame whipped up wildly.

"Boom!" The flame exploded, and the roots around Ding Huan instantly retreated.

What astonished Ding Huan greatly was that the Grand Void Flame actually hadn't been able to burn all these roots away.

So tough?

Ding Huan's long blade slashed out; thousands of fine roots snapped beneath that single strike.

Countless more tendrils surged toward Ding Huan.

Ding Huan swept his long blade in his hand; after severing these tendrils, even more extended out.

Ding Huan's heart sank. He wasn't actually afraid of these root tendrils—if an ordinary cultivator encountered such tendrils, they would probably only be drained dry.

But not everyone possessed his kind of domain and physical body's strength, along with the Grand Void Flame.

The Grand Void Flame blazed out wildly; the next moment, the space around Ding Huan emitted crackling and popping sounds of burning.

The roots retreated frantically.

Ding Huan stopped the burning.

Ding Huan felt not the slightest joy, only growing more wary of these roots.

This was no good thing.

When he had just made contact with the roots, he discovered that they not only devoured heaven and earth primal energy and absorbed essence blood and vitality, but also absorbed the fortune of heaven and earth.

This calamitous thing was extremely terrifying.

If one wanted to drive these roots away, starting from here simply wouldn't work.

Either start from the source, or strike at the base of the roots.

Ding Huan slipped downward along the roots.

At the very beginning, Ding Huan only wanted to find out where the base of these roots actually was.

As he continued slipping, Ding Huan's heart grew increasingly uneasy.

Because these roots had also pierced through numerous void whirlpools.

The terrifying swirling force of the void whirlpools couldn't even hinder the normal growth of these roots.

If this thing wasn't man-made, Ding Huan definitely wouldn't believe it.

Just how powerful must the fellow who could nurture such enormous roots be?

He could only hope this fellow couldn't make it to the Immortal World.

Ding Huan continued slipping downward along the roots.

Another half month passed, and Ding Huan stopped.

He saw the base of the roots.

That boundless, endless root system lay spread flat within the void; that densely packed scene stretched as far as the eye could see, just like a barren mountain whose brushwood had just been cut away.

The roots of the firewood kept extending, and the moment Ding Huan's divine sense swept outward, he saw a vast, verdant planet.

It was obvious that as long as these tree roots were allowed to keep growing, this planet would be reduced to dust.

Not to mention there was still a living planet here—even if there weren't, Ding Huan had no intention of letting these tree roots keep growing.

But how could he completely destroy these tree roots?

While Ding Huan was observing the void tree roots and the verdant planet at the edge of his divine sense, he had already detected a flying ship rapidly approaching.