Chapter 200

Chapter 200: Siege Succeeds

This place had once been a continuous forest.

Starting from the Yin-Yang Tree, the Dodder Flower Sprite kept spreading outward, climbing other trees with thin, weak threads and absorbing their life force and Spiritual Power.

As time passed, all the trees around it became its food, and this grassland was formed.

Everyone was startled; with a meadow this large, how many trees had the Dodder Flower Sprite drained?

They were almost at the center of its territory. Layer after layer of vine walls wrapped around them like thick barricades, and the group wondered: [Can we still escape?] At that moment, Su Xi Yu and the others looked grim.

Shen Sang Ruo stayed calm and said softly: “Senior brothers and sister, do not worry; just act.”

Her voice was light as the wind, yet firm underneath, carrying a quiet power that made people believe.

Hearing her, Song Wei Yan, Bai Ruo An, and Su Xi Yu steadied themselves.

They trusted her; if she said it, they would do it.

After the Dodder Flower Sprite had pressed them and siphoned their Spiritual Power for so long, they were already holding back a surge of anger. The instant Shen Sang Ruo finished speaking, they charged the vine walls.

Song Wei Yan shouted: “So you want to drain us dry, huh?!”

Song Wei Yan formed hand seals, Bai Ruo An activated a talisman, and Su Xi Yu hoisted her alchemy furnace; their momentum was fierce, as if they meant to vent all their pent-up rage.

The three struck at the vine wall together.

Unlike the branches of the Yin-Yang Tree, Dodder Vine tendrils were thin and brittle. One hit sent splinters flying.

The Dodder Flower Sprite itself was weak, barely scraping by by parasitizing other spirit plants.

Its base strength was not high.

Seeing this, Shen Sang Ruo smiled slightly, gripped her Luan Feather Fan, and joined the fight.

She kept sweeping out waves of Sunset Blaze Sea to stop the Dodder Flower Sprite from again manipulating the Yin-Yang Tree’s branches.

Even so, after hundreds of years of hiding and training, the Dodder Vine’s numbers had grown to a frightening level.

Su Xi Yu and the others smashed one wall, and another immediately surged up to take its place.

Added to the Spiritual Power they had just lost, they soon began to tire.

A strange, sly voice echoed: “My vines reach for more than ten kilometers around. You can’t clear them all, and you can’t leave! Heh heh heh!”

It had dodged many joint cleanups by Elders, hid in this Secret Realm for centuries, finally found a good host, and devoured the Yin-Yang Tree Demon.

It only needed to wait for the right moment, then drain a few Cultivators of their Spiritual Power and flesh to gain the strength to break out of the Secret Realm.

Now that it was exposed, it would go all out to suck these people dry!

But in the middle of the Dodder Flower Sprite’s wild laughter, a cool voice sounded: “Is that so?”

The sprite felt that voice right beside it. It looked up and saw Ye Huai appear before its true body, and it went pale with fright.

Shen Sang Ruo’s sea of fire had seized all its attention. Then Su Xi Yu and the others escaped and counterattacked, keeping it distracted.

Ye Huai, following a message from Shen Sang Ruo, used the chance to slip up beside the Yin-Yang Tree.

He found the Dodder Flower Sprite’s body coiled on the Yin-Yang Tree and thrust with his sword.

The blow nailed the sprite’s body to the trunk, as if You You had pinned it down with its claws.

The Dodder Vine’s true body was extremely fragile; pierced like that, it could barely resist.

In an instant, those thrashing tendrils lost their vitality.

An old fiend at Mid Nascent Soul Stage or higher was actually subdued by five Golden Core cultivators working together!

Freed up, Shen Sang Ruo and the others rushed over.

The Dodder Flower Sprite’s true body was not large, just a ball of tangled vines that still writhed and struggled.

Song Wei Yan glared and kicked the ball, saying: “So you’re the one who wanted to drain us?”

Bai Ruo An and Su Xi Yu showed cold smiles and took turns roughing the ball up.

Bai Ruo An mused: “Think these vines could be used to make Talisman Paper?”

Su Xi Yu answered: “I think tossing it straight into the alchemy furnace is better.”

The Dodder Flower Sprite had lain low for centuries, only to run into these five fiends the first time it acted. It fumed in silence, thinking: [Have I stayed hidden so long that the world outside changed this much? Can a handful of Golden Core cultivators really capture me?]

Seeing it had lost, it had to beg for mercy. It babbled in a childish voice: “Everyone, everyone! Let’s talk, we can talk!”

“I know you’re here for the competition. You need heavenly materials, right?”

“I have lots! Inside the Yin-Yang Tree’s trunk. Check near the first branch—there’s a tree hole, isn’t there?”

They had not expected such a surprise.

Shen Sang Ruo rose into the air, and just as it said, she found a tree hole.

But a Warding Seal seemed to cover it. She could not probe it with Divine Sense, nor could she pull anything out.

The sprite hurried on: “Only I can open that hole. Everything I’ve looted from the Mystic-tier Zone and Earth-tier Zone is inside. Spare me, and it’s all yours.”

Shen Sang Ruo arched a brow and said: “That is a pretty good bargaining chip.”

The sprite chuckled: “Right? Then your team will surely win. Why not?”

Her tone suddenly turned: “Who said I wanted to bargain?”

She smiled, slow and mild, and said: “Your life is in our hands. We can kill you and force open the hole. You have no right to negotiate.”

That smile was terrifying in the sprite’s eyes.

It raised its voice: “Then what do you want? What good does killing me do you?”

Shen Sang Ruo said evenly: “Getting rid of a menace helps everyone. You were just about to use us as food.”

Panic rose in the sprite’s heart. It twisted itself into tighter knots, thinking: [Are my centuries of plans really going to die before they start?]

Seeing her threat was working, she changed tack and said: “If you want us to spare you, we can.”

“You’re coming with us.”

“Ah?” the Dodder Flower Sprite blurted.

“You’re exposed. If you stay in the Secret Realm, you won’t escape a cleanup. Those Elders aren’t as easygoing as I am,” Shen Sang Ruo said with a bright smile.

The sprite silently complained: [In what way are you easygoing?]

She added: “If you come with us, we can take you out of the Secret Realm. Isn’t that what you always wanted?”