Shu Mingye already knew. Chopping off the branches was useless. Chop one, get two free. They just kept growing back, snapping and flailing. There had to be a weak spot somewhere.
He narrowed his eyes, still grinning through gritted teeth.
The Petrified Corpse Demon was clearly mad now. Probably offended. Understandable, he had been setting its limbs on fire repeatedly.
Its vines thickened into pulsing yellow veins, and those hollow eye sockets blazed with renewed malice. Then, with another earth-shaking roar, the demon slammed both arms to the ground again.
CRACK—BOOM!
The ground erupted. Jagged stone spikes rushed toward Shu Mingye, sharper, faster, and angrier than before.
This time, he jumped forward.
Mid-air, he twisted his body, spotted a floating chunk of debris and kicked off it. He used it as stepping stone to dive straight at the demon.
The demon, clearly not a fan of this maneuver, swung one massive, bark-covered fist to swat him out of the sky.
Shu Mingye didn't dodge. He grabbed the arm with his free hand, letting the momentum whip him around in a wide arc. Before the demon could react, he planted both feet on its chest and pushed off, flipping backward while dragging his flaming sword in a perfect, searing arc across the demon's thick throat.
A ring of fire exploded outward from the slash, bright and hot. The demon staggered, its neck blackened, burnt, and barely hanging together by a few melted, snapping tendons. Its head lolled to the side.
Shu Mingye landed in a crouch, breathing hard. His side throbbed. More blood flowed out from his wound.
Then with a sickening, bone-snapping crack, the demon's head jerked back into place. Vines slithered and stitched it back together.
Shu Mingye groaned. "… Seriously?"
The demon roared in his face.
And the ground beneath him exploded.
BOOM—CRASH—GRAB.
Giant hands, made entirely of thick, twisting vines, shot out of the dirt. Before Shu Mingye could react, they latched onto his boots with a THWAP, locking him in place. The vine-hands began dragging him downward, straight into the earth.
With a sharp grunt, he ignited the soles of his feet. Fire burst out in angry red spirals, sizzling and cracking. The vines hissed but didn't let go.
Annoyed now, Shu Mingye gathered more spiritual energy—pushing it into his legs until both feet were fully wrapped in swirling, coiled flame. The heat pulsed through the ground, lighting the vines.
WHOOSH—CRACKLE—SNAP!
The vine-hands burned and shattered.
He yanked his legs free and jumped back just in time.
More vines shot up from the ground beneath him, whipping around like snakes, trying to trap him again. He dodged one, slashed another, then ducked as a third tried to clothesline him midair.
Nearby soldiers weren't so lucky.
The vine-hands grabbed them from below, one by one, and pulled them under in seconds. Their skin turned gray, wood spreading up their bodies as their spiritual energy was sucked out completely. No screams. Just silence and more fuel for the demon.
Shu Mingye's eyes narrowed, jaw clenched.
He was still thinking about his next move when two figures suddenly appeared at his side—one with a sly fox mask and the other with that grumpy panda face.
Weren't they just fighting assassins?
A quick glance over his shoulder confirmed it. Yup. Those assassins were now decorating the ground. That was fast. Did she stare at them to death?
But there was no time to ponder her secret techniques, because before anyone could exchange pleasantries (or, more likely, sarcastic remarks), the ground beneath them cracked. Vines slithered out again, this time straight from the demon's feet. They pulsed with thick yellow spiritual energy. Every time they touched something—rock, armor, people—it all hardened instantly into wood.
More soldiers near them froze mid-motion as the vines brushed past.
Snap. Creak. Crunch.
Stone became bark. Armor turned to brittle wooden plates. And human skin stiffened, then cracked into dry bark-like husks. The demon wasn't even fighting, it was gardening at this point.
Shu Mingye narrowed his eyes, raised his sword, and snapped, "Everyone move. Stay away from the demon."
His voice wasn't loud. It didn't need to be.
It was calm. Cold. Commanding.
The soldiers scattered fast, bouncing away from the vines. Some tripped, rolled, but they all got the message: don't touch the weird glowing roots of doom.
Linyue and Shen Zhenyu of course didn't run.
Linyue's spear spun in her hand. Shen Zhenyu adjusted his grip on his sword.
Shu mingye swallowed back a mouthful of blood. He wasn't going to spit it out. His ribs screamed in protest, but he forced his breathing steady.
Now, only the three of them stood nearby the demon.
Just tree.
And the demon knew it.
The vines under the ground suddenly stopped. They slithered back to the demon's feet. With a low creaking rumble, the demon's back burst open again. This time, it wasn't dozens of small branches. It was three massive ones.
Thick, gnarled, and wrapped in yellow spiritual energy, the branches twisted around each other like ropes, then unfurled with a violent snap—each one tipped with thorny spikes. Each branch targeted a different person.
One for Shu Mingye.
One for Linyue.
One for Shen Zhenyu.
The air screamed as the thorned branch flew toward Linyue. She barely had time to blink before it slammed into the ground where she had just been standing. Dirt exploded. She rolled swiftly to the side, spear ready, heart pounding but face still calm, of course.
Shen Zhenyu, as expected, dodged cleanly to the side.
And Shu Mingye. He didn't dodge. He swung his sword straight into the oncoming branch. The moment before impact, the branch jerked back and Shu Mingye lunged. He stabbed forward with brutal force, catching the retreating branch at the tip and slamming it to the ground.
The thorned wood cracked beneath his burning blade.
Linyue didn't waste a second. She somersaulted forward and landed on the pinned branch.
Shu Mingye blinked in disbelief. "… Seriously?!"
She was sprinting up the length of the giant branch. Her long hair streamed behind her. Her spear glinted. Her mask still had that sly, smug grin. She looked terrifying.
The demon shrieked and writhed. Its massive branch twisted, trying to throw her off. But just as it tried to yank the branch up—WHAM!
Shen Zhenyu appeared out of nowhere, slamming his blade into the same branch to hold it steady. The ground cracked under the pressure.
Two other giant branches whipped around violently and chased after Linyue, swinging at her from both sides.
She didn't slow down.
She ducked under one.
Leapt over another.
Linyue leapt clean over the swiping branches, her body glowing faintly with blue spiritual energy. And kept charging toward the demon's main body. With perfect timing and zero hesitation, she landed briefly on the demon's big ugly wooden head, used it as a stepping stone, and launched herself onto its back.
Shu Mingye opened his mouth, then closed it again.
"… That was illegal," he muttered under his breath.
On the demon's back, things were worse up close. The squirming branches were still twitching, wriggling, bark-covered tendrils poking out. Disgusting. No thanks. She raised her ridiculously elegant spear, now pulsing with spiritual energy, and stabbed it straight into the base where all those branches sprouted.
It went in with a satisfying crack.
The petrified corpse demon let out a loud screech.
The three monstrous branches flailed wildly, one even spinning in a confused circle and smacking itself square in the face.
Shu Mingye and Shen Zhenyu both stepped back in sync, swords ready but brows raised.
The branches kept flailing, now randomly smacking rocks, trees, and one unfortunate boulder that had been doing absolutely nothing wrong.
Meanwhile, Linyue stayed right where she was—calm and unbothered—pressing one hand beside the base of her spear.
A soft whoosh, and blue flame erupted from her palm. It didn't burn wildly, it crawled, slow and focused, creeping along the cracks of bark and burrowing deeper into the demon's form.
The demon shrieked louder.