Chapter 324 — The Poisoner and the Divine Physician
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 3 of 4
Emerging from the crown, below them lay a dizzying height, and a trunk so vast it towered far above the surrounding mountains!
The two white bats hurriedly flew downward, and after another while at last saw the ground.
Meanwhile the great tree kept giving off rumbling booms, and at intervals countless branches suddenly grew madly, becoming a second crown, a third crown, a fourth. The two white bats dodged again and again; suddenly thunder and lightning clashed in midair, crac-crac, striking back and forth, and then a fine drizzling rain began to fall.
By the time they landed, the two white bats hastily shielded their lower bodies and looked around; they saw no sign of Shen Mu and the others, only the mountain-like, majestic trunk blocking their view.
The ground kept splitting open, and thick root tendrils, like dragons, appeared, crackling as they stretched madly away into the distance, until even several mountain peaks far off were wrapped so tightly in root tendrils that not a gap remained. And overhead the sunlight was blotted out entirely, leaving hardly any light at all.
The Bat brothers flew onto the trunk and climbed swiftly along it, searching for Shen Mu and the others.
Suddenly a whispering, rustling sound came from the lowest tree crown, and root tendrils hung down from it, swaying to and fro, each bearing a great flower bud. "This should be the root-tendril monster's true body, then?
" Shen Mu's voice came.
Fu Yuqiu and Fu Yuchun hastily scrambled across the tree and, catching sight of Shen Mu and the dragon qilin and the rest, heaved a sigh of relief and leapt down from the tree, using their fleshy wings to shield their bodies on landing lest they be exposed. Shen Mu looked up at the giant tree the root-tendril monster had become, astonished beyond measure, and stepped forward to peel open one of the hanging great buds.
The bud was peeled open, and a girl hung down from within, motionless, both hands dangling.
The girl opened her eyes feebly, glanced at Shen Mu, and said in a thread of a voice, "Heavenly Sage Hierarch.
. .
" Shen Mu closed the girl's eyes, and the girl opened them again, glaring at him viciously.
Shen Mu went to open the other buds, and within each hung a girl upside down — the strange things borne by the root-tendril monster of Withered Silence Ridge, hardly independent lives at all; these girls were merely part of the root-tendril monster's body. "The root-tendril monster is only a tangle of root tendrils that absorbed the blood of gods and demons and became a great demon.
It had no trunk, and now, having absorbed the power of the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl, it has grown a trunk, and is likely all the more terrifying for it. " Full of care, Shen Mu said, "We must leave this place as quickly as we can!
" The Bat brothers saw some of their own hairs on the ground, no longer woodified, and were delighted; hastily shaking their bodies, they took the hairs back.
The dragon qilin at their side likewise shook itself and drew back its scales, restored as before.
Xiong Xiyu shook her head. "What is in the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl is the true soul of the azure dragon; this great demon cannot absorb it.
Most likely it is controlled by the pearl's energy and cannot move at all.
As long as we find the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl it swallowed, we can turn defeat into victory and slay Yu Bochuan and these traitors! " Xiong Qi'er asked curiously, "Mother, after we take out the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl, will this root-tendril monster come back to life?
" Xiong Xiyu shuddered.
With the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl now suppressing the root-tendril monster, if they took the pearl out and the monster regained the power to move, they would be in deadly peril again.
Suddenly a voice came: "Young Master, the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl is here!
" Shen Mu's face changed greatly.
"This is bad! We cannot let them dig out the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl!