Chapter 402: Spirit Seed VS Wind Demon

With a loud "thump," a worn-out horse crashed to the ground, instantly mangled and bloody.

Fu Shanyue, meanwhile, casually kicked over a guard next to him. The guard landed precisely under the falling horse, not uttering a sound, as his splattered brains hit the Red Yan envoy's face.

Just as the Red Yan envoy was about to wipe his face, he felt his body lighten as he was seized by the collar and lifted into the air.

Fu Shanyue grabbed him and leaped off the cliff!

Seeing this, two guards roared and charged forward. The Wind Demon exhaled, sending two powerful gusts that instantly blew them away.

The gusts were both targeted and precise.

"Huh, he's grabbing the Red Yan envoy?" This greatly surprised He Lingchuan. Fu Shanyue's target had shifted from the Mountain Plume envoy to the Red Yan envoy.

Was there some connection between the two?

Mountain Plume had internal strife, but what was wrong with Red Yan?

He had too little information to draw any reliable conclusions.

Debris continued to fall from the sky, but the guards were remarkably resilient. Even while dodging, they found ways to retaliate. With the Red Yan envoy unexpectedly abducted, their mission would be a near failure if they couldn't protect the rest of the delegation.

The elemental energy at the arrow tips shifted from deep blue to dark green, showing that their morale was not broken. Instead, facing desperation, they rallied with a shared resolve.

This was the only tactic the Wind Demon feared. Even if the guards shot wide, the swirling wind currents would eventually deliver the arrows to it.

He Lingchuan's gaze followed Fu Shanyue's figure, allowing him to see that neither he nor the Red Yan envoy had been dashed to pieces. Instead, they glided back to Wind Demon Mountain with the aid of a paraglider!

However, they landed on the lower outer slopes of Wind Demon Mountain, which were riddled with holes. The Wind Demon also obstructed the guards' view, preventing them from seeing where Fu Shanyue and his captive had gone.

He Lingchuan was about to sneak down to investigate when he saw the guard captain pull out something shimmering with gold.

It was the Spiritual Seed of the Treasure Tree King.

And it was the treasure specifically designated for collection by the Godbone Necklace.

Therefore, He Lingchuan immediately reined in his rock goat.

The appearance of the Spiritual Seed, paradoxically, sent the Wind Demon's rage soaring. Its form even began to fluctuate, and incredibly, two robust arms sprouted from its sides!

Most of the arrows shot by the guards were blocked by its arms and then hurled back with force.

It then pressed closer again, swinging its arms violently against the colossal wooden phantom. The force of each strike was unimaginable.

Once, twice… ten times.

Each heavy blow felt tangible, producing a massive grinding sound, as if the canvas was about to rip apart.

The wooden staff on the ground also swayed violently.

After all, it was merely a branch of the Treasure Tree King, incapable of possessing its full power. That it had endured this long was remarkable.

At that moment, the guard captain knelt, holding the Spiritual Seed in both hands, murmuring incantations.

Around them, a low voice seemed to echo.

As an observer, He Lingchuan noticed the Wind Demon gradually turning red, simultaneously drawing in all the surrounding strong winds. This created such a stillness that He Lingchuan, on the opposite perilous peak, felt the ceaseless mountain winds cease entirely.

Concentrating all its power would amplify its might. Evidently, such a furious attack was an excessive strain even for the Wind Demon.

Both sides had exerted their utmost.

The wooden staff on the ground finally buckled under the immense pressure, as all the force had been directed at it.

With a "thwack," it was ripped from the earth.

The entire guard contingent instantly lost their protection. The nearly Level 18 winds immediately swept everything skyward.

Not a single person, corpse, heavy carriage, or boulder was spared.

The barrier broke; the Wind Demon had won.

It let out a victorious howl.

The guard captain, too, couldn't keep his footing, but he was quick-witted and agile. He snatched the wooden staff and pressed the Spiritual Seed onto its tip!

The two items weren't shaped to fit, and it was unclear how they attached. Before He Lingchuan could get a closer look, the captain hurled the staff like a javelin fiercely towards the Wind Demon!

Logically, anything thrown at such close range would be deflected by the powerful winds. Yet, this staff was an exception; completely unaffected by the wind, it steadfastly moved towards its intended target—

—and pierced into the Wind Demon's head.

The Spiritual Seed suddenly flared with brilliant light, as if sunlight had returned to the gloomy world.

Though the burst of light lasted only a fleeting moment, it stimulated the staff to grow with full vigor, lengthening, thickening, and branching…

He Lingchuan watched, stunned. Weren't these the Treasure Tree King's aerial roots?

Without this unique ability, it couldn't have formed a forest from a single tree or supported such a massive canopy.

In just a few breaths, the staff astonishingly grew into a massive root ball, completely ensnaring the Wind Demon. The process was so swift that it even severed two of the demon's arms.

On closer inspection, each root had slender aerial tendrils, densely interwoven into an irregular net, even finer than human capillaries.

Of course, the Wind Demon wouldn't passively remain imprisoned; it transformed into several gusts of wind and attempted to drill its way out.

However, each root tendril emitted a golden light, collectively forming a solid barrier that forcibly contained the Wind Demon within the sphere.

The Wind Demon thrashed wildly inside, creating a great commotion but failing to break free.

This was one of the Treasure Tree King's signature demonic arts:

Root Entrapment.

Any discerning observer could tell that the guard captain was subduing the Wind Demon using the power of the Spiritual Seed. The Treasure Tree King's Spiritual Seeds could grow into border guards throughout the territory, possessing astonishingly abundant demonic power.

Furthermore, the ability of trees to block wind, stabilize sand, and absorb water was beyond doubt.

In today's era of sparse spiritual energy, perhaps only the Treasure Tree King, with its unique talents, could accomplish such a feat.

The guard captain's ability to use the Spiritual Seed was also a result of communication with a trace of the Treasure Tree King's consciousness left within the seed.

Of course, deploying it was a last resort. If too much of its stored power was consumed, it might not be able to successfully grow into a tree guard in the future, which would be highly detrimental to the stability of the Treasure Tree Kingdom's northern border.

In this era of dwindling spiritual energy, it took the Treasure Tree King thirty-six years to cultivate just one such Spiritual Seed.

The desperation of the situation and the safety of the delegation ultimately prompted the guard captain to make this decisive choice.

With the Wind Demon entrapped, the fierce winds suddenly weakened, and objects from the sky rained down like dumplings.

The guards who landed first scrambled to rescue people.

Fortunately, the special envoys from Sura Kingdom and White Elephant Kingdom were still alive, though wounded to varying degrees. The Sura envoy, in particular, was saved only because his belt snagged on a low tree. However, their first action after being rescued was to gasp for air—

It was impossible to breathe inside the rapidly spinning wind vortex.

Any people or horses previously caught in the Wind Demon's vortex who weren't immediately crushed by other flying objects would have died or fallen unconscious from suffocation.

Many more people and objects were unfortunate enough to fall off the cliff, where they would be shattered beyond recognition, beyond any hope of rescue.

The guard captain also landed on the ground. Taking just one breath, he hastily began reciting incantations to completely subdue the Wind Demon. No matter how high his martial prowess, facing such an intangible opponent rendered his strength useless; he could only diligently recite the terms taught by the Treasure Tree King.

However, the drawback of learning on the spot was a lack of proficiency.

The incantation, moreover, was maddeningly tongue-twisting and long. Some syllables seemed impossible for a human to pronounce. While it was a simple matter for the Treasure Tree King to recite, the guard captain had to restart if he mispronounced a single syllable. The more mistakes he made, the more anxious he became; the more anxious, the more mistakes. Sweat beaded on his forehead, and finally, he had to take a deep breath and begin again from the start.

During this time, the Wind Demon was not idle. It spun furiously within the root ball, creating another vortex of airflow, drawing in all the surrounding north winds to replenish itself.

After all, this root ball was not directly controlled by the Treasure Tree King; it merely followed its fixed factory settings. It restricted things inside from leaving but did not restrict things from outside from entering.

Thus, even though the Wind Demon was imprisoned, it could continuously draw power from the outside.

As the Wind Demon struck with increasing ferocity, the root ball floating in the air began to drift eastward—

—towards the ruins of the Misty Sect, moving at a considerable speed, at least fifty miles per hour.

The guard captain watched, helpless, his only recourse to clear his tongue and recite the incantation as quickly as possible.

Not far away, He Lingchuan observed this scene, his eyes gleaming. He suddenly spoke to Soul-Collector, "Send out the evil spirits; there's work to be done."

Although it was daytime, the surroundings were dim, allowing spirits to move. So, the Soul-Collector Mirror readily complied.

A black light shot out from He Lingchuan, drifting towards the official road on the opposite side, unaffected by the wind.

Amidst the chaos, no one noticed this wispy black smoke.

The guard captain closed his eyes, calmed his mind, and recited the incantation word by word. This time, it was finally without error or omission.

Just as he reached the last few syllables, a sudden sharp pain shot through his calf—he had been stabbed!

And that wasn't all; his attacker was also dragging his leg backward!

The guard captain's incantation was interrupted once more.

Two of his subordinates shouted, "What are you doing!" "Let go!" "It's a spy!"

The guard captain looked down and saw that his attacker was a gravely wounded individual who had been lying on the ground!

However, this injured person now had a distorted, ferocious expression, enveloped in black aura.

Protected by his own elemental energy, he instantly recognized that the man was possessed.

The guard captain kicked the man away. The injured man's head struck a rock with a "bang," his brains splattering out.

The black smoke on him swiftly drifted away.

Only then did the guards realize that the unlucky person kicked to death was from the Sura Kingdom's diplomatic mission, who had been swept into the sky by the whirlwind and lost half his life when he crashed down.

The guard captain was furious but helpless. He took a deep breath and began the incantation again!

But during this delay, the Wind Demon, still crashing within its root ball, had ascended past the peak of Wind Demon Rock.

"Well done," He Lingchuan said, patting the Soul-Collector Mirror in approval.

Now that the Treasure Tree Spiritual Seed had finally left the guards and was heading towards the peak, he naturally had to temporarily side with the Wind Demon.

The more chaotic the situation, the greater his chances of stealing the Spiritual Seed.

He Lingchuan also roughly guessed why the Wind Demon desperately needed to return here, but as he guided his goat downwards, he suddenly frowned.

At this moment, there were quite a few outsiders inside the mountain.

There's no shortage of clever people anywhere. Some merchants, realizing that the official road was the Wind Demon's hunting ground and that the opposite peak was safe, had come over. They figured as long as they stayed away from crowds, the wind monster wouldn't target them.

So, they had crossed over.

But to He Lingchuan, they were simply walking into their deaths.