Chapter 689: Alone Against the Tree Ancestor

Ding Huan immediately called for reinforcements, and at the same time his long saber was unleashed, slashing toward the tree root in a single cut.

Only this saber strike of his was a feint; after it was unleashed, he followed up with a fist that blasted toward that bluestone.

Boom! A tremendous force surged over.

The long saber in Ding Huan's hand was forcibly split apart from his Dao will.

A terrifying aura struck from the void; at this moment Ding Huan could not sense the specific direction from which the threat had come.

What a powerful fellow.

How could this be anything like not having recovered? The strength the Tree Ancestor was now displaying absolutely exceeded a Divine King; it was a God Merging-tier powerhouse.

Although Ding Huan was well aware that the best choice for him now was to retreat quickly, he had after all gone through countless life-and-death situations.

At this moment Ding Huan understood better than anyone that the moment he retreated, today he would absolutely be done for here.

Not only would he be done for here, even Pu Zhijian and Mo Changcan, whom he had called for support, would surely be done for here as well.

Even if it cost him half his life, he had to break the formation.

Therefore Ding Huan not only did not retreat, but instead sped up.

Boom!

As Ding Huan's speed increased, this punch of his solidly blasted onto that bluestone.

The bluestone split into pieces.

Puh!

A tree root pierced straight through Ding Huan's chest, and immediately dozens of tree roots and vines swept over madly, binding Ding Huan up tightly.

Ding Huan's originally sluggish divine sense instantly loosened, and immediately this patch of space became the same as the outside, no longer possessing that sticky, obstructive feeling.

As expected, that bluestone was the formation core of the grand array.

Now that the grand array had been broken by Ding Huan, Ding Huan felt not the slightest bit of joy.

The first time he had ever sparred with someone using magic, he had been subdued after just one move.

That tree root piercing through his chest was desperately absorbing his essence blood.

Not only that, the tree roots and vines binding his body were also continuously tightening, as if intending to slice him directly into fragments.

Fortunately his physical body was very strong, and his defense was no ordinary matter. Around those vines binding his body, many thorny tendrils extended out,

and these thorny tendrils also wanted to absorb his essence blood, but were blocked outside by him.

What made Ding Huan breathe a sigh of relief was that the Dao rhyme around the tree root was faint, and it too was desperately circulating its Dao rhyme.

Clearly, the tree root's situation was equally not easy.

His Gene Slaughter Law and Poison Dao Law had taken effect.

At this moment the tree root could only bind him, and had absolutely no ability to make a move against him.

He absolutely could not give this tree root the slightest chance to act.

Ding Huan frantically deployed Bone-Burrowing Dao-Devouring and Sinking-Dao poison, while at the same time the Slaughter Law specifically targeting the genes of divine-race cultivators was likewise deployed without restraint.

Wave after wave of Poison Dao Laws were swept away by the tree root, and even the Gene Slaughtering Law was continuously stripped away by the tree root.

When Ding Huan registered as Wu Wu Danzi, this tree root had completely trusted Ding Huan; after all, the aura of Dao laws around Ding Huan was that of a divine-race cultivator.

Therefore, in order to recover its strength as quickly as possible, the tree root had exercised no restraint in circulating the great Dao and absorbing divine spiritual energy.

This caused the tree root to now be extremely deeply poisoned, and also extremely deeply harmed by the gene-destroying law.

The scene fell into a stalemate for the time being.

Ding Huan's Yellow Flower Kill blasted out one strike after another.

Finally, when the eleventh Yellow Flower Kill was blasted out, he stopped the tree root from absorbing the essence blood within his body.

The tree root now could not spare a hand, yet it admired how powerful Ding Huan's divine sense was.

That kind of Yellow Flower Kill divine ability—let alone being deployed eleven times in a row—

under Ding Huan's current circumstances, being able to deploy it three times would already count as powerful divine sense.

This further strengthened the tree root's resolve to kill Ding Huan.

Once a powerhouse like this grew up, where would there be any room left for it, the Tree Ancestor?

Ding Huan's entire body was wrapped in Grand Void flames; what shocked Ding Huan was that the speed at which the Grand Void flames burned this tree root was actually very slow.

This was absolutely no ordinary tree root.

Judging by the situation, for the Grand Void flames to completely burn away the tree roots binding his body would take at least half a shichen.

Half a shichen, and the tree root would probably be able to make a move against him again.

What puzzled him was why Pu Zhijian and Mo Changcan still had not arrived.

The grand array of this patch of space had been broken by him; these two fellows now had no obstruction whatsoever, they should have arrived very quickly.

Ding Huan's speed in deploying poison and gene laws was very fast, and this old tree root's speed in stripping away the Poison Dao Laws and Gene Slaughtering Laws was equally very fast.

Seeing that the binding effect of the Poison Dao Laws on the tree root was growing smaller and smaller, and the Gene Slaughtering Law was also being repelled outside by the tree root,

Ding Huan's heart burned with anxiety.

This could not go on.

If it continued like this, he would very soon become nourishment for this tree root.

His consciousness sea opened wide, and as Ding Huan's divine sense swept, a giant drum appeared in the void.

Opening the consciousness sea was very dangerous, but Ding Huan believed the old tree root now had no chance to make a move against his consciousness sea.

The instant the giant drum appeared it expanded to ten thousand zhang, and Ding Huan's divine sense transformed into a drumstick and struck the giant drum.

Dong!

The first drumbeat sounded like tearing silk.

Wave after wave of killing aura exploded outward centered on the giant drum.

The space that had been fighting over life force suddenly erupted with killing intent, like billions of soldiers sweeping in, and this patch of space instantly became a vast battlefield.

Dong dong dong!

Another three consecutive booming drumbeats.

The killing intent filling the sky gathered in the gaps between beats, then condensed into a long river of slaughter that slammed into the tree roots that were frantically stripping away the Dao of Poison and the Dao of Genes.

Dong dong dong dong!

The drumbeats grew denser and denser.

As the drumbeats continued without end, the killing aura within the long river of slaughter they gathered kept climbing…

Killing intent from both sides of the slaughter river poured madly into the river itself, letting the long river of slaughter grow ever stronger. Banners in riotous colors line the two banks; war drums shake the mountains as if to topple them!

Beneath those suffocating drumbeats, despair spread.

The speed at which the tree roots stripped away the Dao of Poison finally slowed, and strands of God-race gene-killing-law aura once again wrapped around the roots.

"Crack!" Ding Huan finally tore through the first vine of tree roots that had been binding his body.

Ding Huan was overjoyed inside—as long as he broke free of the first one, the rest would be easy.

Even Ding Huan hadn't expected that these tree roots would be even more ruthless than he was.

The moment he broke free of that first vine that had been binding him, another dozen or so vines swept over, this time binding him even more tightly.

Because the tree roots had split their attention to deal with him, the Dao of Poison and the gene-killing laws once again seeped into the resonance of its great Dao.

Ding Huan was very clear on how terrifying the Dao-Sinking Poison was.

If this Dao-Sinking Poison invaded one's great Dao, it would be almost impossible to strip it out again.

Earlier, although the tree roots had been eroded by the Dao-Sinking Poison, it had not yet fused with its great Dao.

Looking at them one by one—

Under the attack of the Evening Drum, the tree roots could no longer even maintain the balance between stripping away the Dao of Poison and the gene-killing laws.

Still daring to risk an attack on him now—truly not knowing life from death.

Sure enough, the next instant, the long river of slaughter brought by the Evening Drum was like a blade, nearly splitting that tree root apart down the middle.

The Dao-Sinking Poison also thoroughly fused into the resonance of the tree root's great Dao.

Go all out then—this thing your Grandpa Huan isn't afraid of.

Ding Huan's sea of consciousness, the great Dao universe, spun madly; beneath the starry sky the river of stars flowed, and his divine sense transformed into billions of drumsticks slamming down.

Dong dong dong dong dong!

The unending drumbeats completely filled this patch of space.

The long river of slaughter also went berserk; vine after vine of tree roots was severed, and even that mid-grade divine spirit vein of the dark attribute was now torn into fragments.

That still wasn't all—with a sweep of his divine sense, Ding Huan blasted out dozens of heavenly thunderbolts.

Boom boom boom!

The tree roots, already split apart by the killing sound of the Evening Drum, looked even more withered under those arcs of lightning.

Ding Huan could clearly sense that the Dao-Sinking Poison had thoroughly fused into the other's great Dao.

Old tree root, you're done for.

Ding Huan felt immensely vindicated.

"Ding Huan, we're coming…"

From afar, Mo Changcan's voice finally reached him.

Ding Huan let out a breath of relief.

Those two fellows showed up just as he was gradually gaining the upper hand—perfect timing.

Perhaps sensing that it was growing more and more dangerous, the Dao resonance around the tree roots suddenly became even more violent.

A terrifying Dao-resonance aura spread through the space.

Ding Huan thought to himself that this was bad—would that old Wang Ba not self-detonate his own body?

Ding Huan had just thought this far.

"Boom!"

A shattering-space-like blast of sound filled the entire space; the giant drum suspended in the void was also blasted away by this terrifying explosion, then rapidly shrank and fell to the ground.

Ding Huan felt as if his five viscera and six bowels were about to be torn apart; the aura of death enveloped him.

He himself, just like that Evening Drum, was blasted away.

Life force was being frantically stripped away at this moment.

"Pfft!" A blood arrow was spat out by Ding Huan.

Bang! Ding Huan's entire body slammed into a huge pillar, then fell down.

Ding Huan let out a breath of relief, continuously absorbing the life force from the Life-and-Death Mirror to heal his wounds.

Fortunately, he was a body-tempering cultivator, and his physical body was extraordinarily sturdy.

Otherwise, with that one blow, even his bone fragments would probably have been reduced to nothing.

Mo Changcan and Pu Zhijian, who had just charged over from afar, were blasted away once again by this violent self-detonation; fortunately, they were still far away, otherwise they would have been hurt far more badly than Ding Huan.

Ding Huan circulated the Nirvana Art, and only after quite a while managed to barely stand up.

The clothes on his body had long since been reduced to nothing by that terrifying explosion; he could only change into a new set and sit on the spot to heal.

Pu Zhijian and Mo Changcan also healed for quite a while before walking over again.

"Ding Huan, are you all right?" Mo Changcan asked carefully.

Ding Huan spat out another mouthful of dirty blood: "Not dead yet."

"That's good. Where's the Tree Ancestor?"

Mo Changcan also knew that as long as Ding Huan wasn't dead, then everything was fine.

Regarding healing wounds, Ding Huan was far more skilled than him.

Puzhi Jian's gaze shifted from Ding Huan to the distant explosion site. After a long while, he said dazedly, "Fellow Daoist Ding, surely the Tree Ancestor didn't self-detonate?"

Ding Huan had also recovered considerably. He stood up and sighed, "You guessed right—he did self-detonate."

"That old tree root got off easy, that bastard. He even set up a trapping formation to keep the two of us stuck outside; otherwise we'd have come over long ago."

Mo Changcan cursed bitterly.

Ding Huan sighed, "I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. That tree root didn't die—it escaped."

He was certain the tree root had escaped. This place connected to the void, and the void was likely the escape route the tree root had prepared for itself; it had long since figured out the direction to flee.

Still, even if the tree root escaped, it probably wouldn't stir up much of a storm.

Its true body had been killed by him, and that was fatal for the Tree Ancestor.

What was even more fatal was that he had implanted the Bone-Burrowing Dao-Devouring Poison and the Sinking-Dao Poison into this tree root, along with the Gene Destruction Law.

No matter how strong the tree root was, without a million years it could forget about resurfacing.

(Fellow Daoists, good night!

On the first day of 2025, Old Five humbly requests your monthly ticket support!

Wishing all the readers of *After the Myth* a smooth and successful 2025, with good health!)

(End of chapter)