Chapter 354: Wild Herbs

The foul silk excels at corroding objects of utmost yang and hardness.

The upper body of the Ghost Beard Tree is barely edible to the foul silk.

The Ghost Beard Tree did not fail to notice.

Its trickery escaped Xu Yuan’s various crafts and Dafu.

Yet it discovered this clump of silk-like filaments had stuck to itself and come along.

Because once the foul silk makes contact, it entangles instantly and corrodes at extreme speed.

The Ghost Beard Tree could no longer shake it off.

Thus the foul silk kept sprouting and coiling, tightly wrapping the trunk and clogging those tree eyes.

It had no effect on the underground ghost roots, which could carry the upper body and the foul silk away together.

But beneath the foul silk’s wrapping, the entire Ghost Beard Tree was extremely weak.

The underground ghost roots also gradually withered.

Xu Yuan pried out one tree eye with three hairpins, then suddenly realized he didn’t know which tree eye held the “true seed.”

Xu Yuan thought it didn’t matter, so he stabbed repeatedly with the three hairpins.

Since he couldn’t tell, he’d just pluck out all thirteen eyes at once!

The Ghost Beard Tree trembled weakly.

Each tree eye lost made it wither further.

After all thirteen tree eyes were plucked out, the strange trunk dried at visible speed, cracking and shattering from the treetop branches downward.

It scattered into countless wood chips.

Xu Yuan looked down and saw the ghost roots still writhing beneath the ground.

Xu Yuan thought a moment: someone in Ghost Witch Mountain was still searching for the Ghost Beard Tree—this thing shouldn’t die yet.

The trunk’s collapse could no longer be stopped.

Xu Yuan had a sudden idea: try it—no harm if it fails.

Xu Yuan reached out and gripped the “Yin-Yang Guillotine,” unused for a long time.

After acquiring the Dragon-Slaying Sword, then the Lightning Long Knife, plus his own sword pellet, he’d used this “treasure” less often.

But its ability to sever yin and yang still proved useful many times.

Like now.

Xu Yuan drew and slashed.

He cleanly split the Ghost Beard Tree into “yin” and “yang” halves.

The ghost roots representing yin and the trunk representing yang severed precisely.

Then Xu Yuan retracted the foul silk.

The evil thing took a bite.

Its quality seemed slightly improved.

But Master Xu rarely used it; he casually clenched his fist and turned it back into a demonic pill, storing it away.

The trunk shattered completely.

The ghost roots rolled in furious agony underground, like dozens or hundreds of giant earthworms, ready to burst forth and fight Xu Yuan to the death for revenge!

Xu Yuan sneered: “I spared your life—why not flee? Do you want to die?”

If the thing dared emerge, Master Xu would unhesitatingly burn it to ash with a burst of fire.

The ghost roots instantly felt guilty.

Even whole, it wasn’t a match for this fellow—how much less now, with only half its body?

And most of its power lay in the tree eyes, now all in the enemy’s hands.

The ghost roots put on a brave front, writhing a few more times underground.

As if threatening: “You wait!”

Then it dove deep underground—the ground instantly grew still.

The ghost roots had Dun ed hundreds of zhang away and plunged another hundred zhang deeper—no trace remained on the surface.

Xu Yuan nodded in satisfaction.

He collected his various crafts and prepared to meet the two Runshan men.

But suddenly he saw Dafu swaying, unable to stand.

“Dafu, what’s wrong?”

Xu Yuan picked up Dafu—its whole body was burning hot!

Dafu hated being held by Fan Zhe, but now it was too weak to stand, too feeble to struggle.

I must be sick… Dafu thought.

Shouldn’t have been greedy for food…

Xu Yuan frowned—he could see Dafu was ill. Was it because it ate something from the tree tumor?

He instinctively suspected this “illness” was tied to Ju Ya or Qiu Ningtai.

“If I can’t cure it, I’ll have to beg Qiu Ningtai.”

Xu Yuan carried Dafu back.

On the way, they passed a cliff.

Dafu suddenly opened its eyes, struggled out of Xu Yuan’s arms, and lunged to the cliff’s edge—leapt off!

Xu Yuan frowned; though he knew Dafu wouldn’t die from the fall, what was it doing?

Xu Yuan followed down on his Fire Wheel.

Dafu was at some point on the cliff face, using its flat beak to chip at the rock.

On this stretch of cliff wall grew a kind of purple-red grass Xu Yuan had never seen before.

Dafu was too weak to exert force; after two chisels, the rock didn’t budge.

Instead, Dafu’s whole body went limp, its large webbed feet couldn’t grip the stone, and it began sliding down.

Xu Yuan quickly caught it.

Dafu struggled a few times, then helplessly gave up—it simply had no strength left.

It tried hard to hide its strange little hands, grown from its own body, beneath its wings, not wanting Fan Zhe to see.

Then it pointed with the tip of its wing at the small grasses.

Xu Yuan understood, urged the Fire Wheel forward, and used his sword pellet to slice the grasses from the cliff wall.

The grass roots were deeply embedded in the rock crevices.

Each root bore nodules like beans.

They emitted a strong medicinal scent.

Dafu pecked one, swallowed it, exhaled a long breath, and tilted its head into sleep.

Xu Yuan flew back up the cliff and watched Dafu closely.

Its fever was receding.

Xu Yuan sighed in relief.

He carefully stored the remaining medicinal herbs.

This must be a rare herb he’d never encountered before.

Later, he’d use it to enhance his own pill.

His resistance to Ju Ya and Qiu Ningtai’s afflictions would increase.

His mission in the mountains succeeded—he’d found Bai Lao’s Eye and Gao Guanzi. Now he’d leave immediately.

The true seed had not yet reached the state described by that lord as fully mature.

Because the Ghost Beard Tree hadn’t devoured a great cultivator.

But Xu Yuan felt no regret.

Can everything be perfect?

The Ghost Beard Tree was extremely cunning; now that he’d found it, he couldn’t let it go, or he might never find it again.

Besides, that lord was watching nearby.

This “true seed” was the key to advancing to the Fifth Tier—best to secure it safely.

Greed might lead to empty hands.

Xu Yuan wouldn’t make that mistake.

…

By the river, a battle had just ended.

Traces remained on the ground and surrounding boulders.

But the fight wasn’t fierce—the sides were too uneven; the weaker side fell quickly.

Axes, hatchets, bows, and arrows lay scattered nearby.

Gao Guanzi and Bai Lao’s Eye wore dead-gray expressions, each encased in a mass of dark yellow slime, only their heads exposed.

They looked like… insects trapped in pine resin.

Above them, the six-winged strange insects split into two groups.

One group hooked their legs into the slime and fluttered their wings.

The other group bent their hindquarters, continuously secreting more slime to ensure the two Runshan men couldn’t escape.

My lord turned to his alchemist and asked, “How is your recovery coming along?”

“Another half hour or so and I’ll be nearly restored.”

My lord nodded: “Head to that grove we just passed. When you can use your nose again, we’ll resume searching for Ghost Beard Wood.”

My lord turned and walked away, and the strange insects followed him together.

Suddenly, he saw a man step out from the nearby forest: “Release the two of them, and I, your lord, will forgive you!”

(End of Chapter)