Chapter 449: Dragon Claw Sophora and Divine Remains

The grass was wildly overgrown, making it clear the garden hadn't been tended in a while. After the Panlong Army occupied Xiji, the garden was abandoned. With the capital in ruins and so much to be done, no one had the time to attend to it.

General Nanke frowned, "This grass is too long."

The foxtail grass beside him stood nearly six feet tall. "Could it really grow this tall in just two months without being tended? In another month or so, this place will become a haven for weeds."

Chief Eunuch Chang replied, "That's just how the West Garden is. Every plant here grows wildly; it gets out of control after just a few days if not trimmed."

General Nanke asked curiously, "Don't you try to find out why?"

"The former king also had people dig three feet deep to search, but they found nothing," Chief Eunuch Chang explained. "The palace also invited mages to examine it. They merely said the life energy here was potent, that it could accelerate plant growth, and was very beneficial to the human body. The queen, being frail, often came here to sit in the pavilion and enjoy the flowers."

"This place certainly accelerates plant growth, but it's not beneficial to the human body; on the contrary, it's harmful," General Hong said flatly. "The queen died young, didn't she?"

"Ah, yes. She passed away in the third year after moving in..."

General Hong instructed the soldiers behind her, "Spread out and find where snakes, insects, rodents, and ants are most numerous and largest in size!"

Everyone immediately scattered.

The garden was vast; once thirty or forty people entered, they instantly vanished from sight.

These dozens of people had no intention of being gentle with the plants; they stabbed their weapons into the ground. The dense clumps of grass, naturally, harbored small creatures. Rats and ants scrambled to escape, and Liutiao even poked a snake's nest.

If she weren't on a mission, she truly wanted to roast all seven or eight of these snakes into spicy jerky.

Just then, He Lingchuan caught a glimpse of a figure darting into the grass from the corner of his eye.

Though the creature was fast, He Lingchuan's eyesight was sharper. He immediately recognized it as a weasel, its size surprisingly as large as a wild dog.

With a size like that, it must be a demon, right?

He followed with two quick steps. He heard rustling ahead, but it quickly faded.

He Lingchuan pushed through the grass in the direction the sound had vanished. He soon found that at the end of the tall grass stood a large tree.

An ancient Dragon's Claw Scholar Tree, so wide it would take six people to encircle it. Its branches were lush and full, and its leaves surprisingly reflected a metallic sheen under the sunlight.

He walked around the tree but found no openings.

How did that shadow disappear?

He Lingchuan expanded his search, searching outwards in widening circles.

Finally, under a small mound about twenty feet from the tree's roots, he discovered a broken hole. The entrance was concealed by dense bushes and covered with a few broken tiles. Such tiles were common throughout the garden.

He Lingchuan carefully observed the traces around the hole. He had a good idea of what was inside. Based on his experience hunting demons in the Red Rock Plateau, at least four or five weasels lived there. It was likely an entire family, all together.

The West Garden's lush vegetation and abundant snakes and rodents made it a paradise for weasel demons.

He Lingchuan took a bundle of herbs from his pouch, lit them, and tossed them into the hole. He kept a close eye on his surroundings.

Soon, besides smoke billowing from the hole, the old scholar tree itself also surprisingly began to emit smoke from its trunk.

It seemed the burrow and the tree's roots were interconnected.

He called out loudly, "There's a den of weasel demons here!"

The grass rustled, and before He Lingchuan could even blink, General Hong was by his side.

That was... too fast.

General Hong looked at the old scholar tree, then leaned down to examine the hole. "Well done," she praised.

Just then, with two squeaks, a weasel demon darted out of the hole. It pounced, trying to bite General Hong.

He Lingchuan covered his face, unable to watch.

Sure enough, the next second, General Hong seized it by the neck and held it aloft.

The reason she didn't grab it by its large tail was because weasels possess a kind of biological weapon...

Ignoring its bared fangs and grimacing, General Hong shook the weasel in her hand. "I know you understand human speech," she said. "Cooperate with me obediently, and your entire family will remain unharmed."

These small creatures are most sensitive to energy fluctuations. Her oppressive aura was terrifying. The weasel demon struggled twice before giving up, letting out a few squeaks.

Held in General Hong's hand, it couldn't curl into a ball, but its tail trembled incessantly. It looked as if it had encountered a predator. He Lingchuan was truly afraid it might let out a defensive stench.

Fortunately, General Hong immediately said, "I keep my word. What's under the old scholar tree?"

The weasel demon squeaked again. General Hong seemed to understand it, and immediately told He Lingchuan, "Call everyone over, and bring the digging tools."

He Lingchuan nodded and went to do as he was told.

About a quarter of an hour later, the Great Wind Army and the craftsmen arrived with their tools.

General Hong had already released the weasel demon. She then pointed at the old scholar tree. "Dig down towards the tree, following the direction of the weasel's burrow, until you unearth something."

This ground hadn't been touched in untold years. It was hard as iron, but that didn't deter the collective force of shovels and hoes. A large pit was soon carved out.

The deeper they dug, the darker red the soil became.

Below four feet, the soil was a deep crimson. Combined with groundwater seepage, it felt wet and sticky to the touch, and indeed resembled blood...

General Hong observed this and said, "The yin energy here is even denser than the life energy. There are also wood ghosts planted here. What good outcome could a frail person expect from staying here long-term?"

Chief Eunuch Chang also craned his neck to look into the pit. "That mage was talking nonsense," he muttered.

Liutiao snorted, "Perhaps the mage knew perfectly well in his heart."

As they dug, the old scholar tree suddenly stirred without a breeze. Its branches and leaves rustled.

The craftsmen were startled and hesitant, not daring to continue. Only the Great Wind Army ignored it and continued to swing their hoes.

"This tree has absorbed subterranean nourishment and has become a demon," General Hong said, placing one hand on the scholar tree's trunk. "Now it's worried we'll unearth its roots. Don't cause trouble, and I won't harm your life."

Her warning, however, had no effect this time. The old scholar tree rustled violently, and the soil beneath their feet began to move.

Menban was at the bottom of the pit. Two tree roots suddenly shot out from the soil. One wrapped around his calf and yanked hard, while the other coiled around his waist and tightened with force.

Caught off guard, Menban fell to the ground with a painful groan. Liutiao, standing nearby, saw his waist suddenly constrict. With the strength of this ancient tree, it seemed capable of constricting a person in half.

The strangest thing was, how could a scholar tree grow aerial roots as developed as a banyan tree's?

Liutiao drew her saber with a backhand strike, and chopped at the tree root.

With this woman's strength, she could cleave off a bear's head, yet this root remained completely intact. It only bore a white mark.

They also heard a 'clang', a crisp sound. The wood surprisingly sounded more like metal than timber.

The next instant, He Lingchuan plunged into the deep pit. With a swift draw and strike of his blade, he severed the root in one blow.

Menban immediately clutched his waist and took a long, sharp breath. That was a close call; he was almost constricted in two.

"Everyone out!" He Lingchuan roared, grabbing two nearby craftsmen and tossing them out of the pit. The rest of the Great Wind Army didn't need instructions; they leaped out on their own.

Thanks to his foresight, more tree roots emerged from the soil, coiling around anyone they encountered. They moved as flexibly as pythons.

He Lingchuan's blade moved like a blur, severing the attacking roots one after another.

Red liquid, even more like fresh blood, flowed from the severed roots.

A craftsman by the pit tried to hit a root with his pickaxe. The root remained unbroken, but the pickaxe head was knocked clean off.

Everyone gasped in astonishment. They now understood just how hard these roots were.

They were almost as hard as the outer palace walls.

"Refusing a polite offer," General Hong said. She pulled out her long spear from seemingly nowhere. Its tip blazed with a pale fire, and with one swift thrust, she plunged it into the thick tree trunk.

When the flames met the scholar wood, they spread with a whoosh, spreading so rapidly that an unknowing observer might have thought oil had been poured.

The tree bark crackled as it burned. The sound was crisp and sharp, like a wail.

General Hong pulled out her long spear. She walked around the Dragon's Claw Scholar Tree, and casually broke off a root, examining it carefully.

"Excellent, excellent!"

He Lingchuan could tell she was somewhat surprised, but also very pleased. Then General Hong gently tapped the tree trunk, and the pale flames miraculously vanished.

If not for the lingering scent of scorching and the section of the trunk that had been blackened by fire, the raging fire from moments before would have seemed like an illusion.

General Hong tapped the trunk again with her spear tip. "Dare to resist again," she warned, "and I'll ensure you're utterly destroyed, root and branch."

This time, the Dragon's Claw Scholar Tree did not react.

Only then did she tell everyone, "Keep digging."

The craftsmen and Great Wind Army jumped back down and resumed digging the pit.

No matter how they dug, the tree roots no longer extended out to cause trouble.

In fact, digging was now very difficult because the scholar tree's root system was so deeply intertwined, like a woven net, firmly protecting whatever lay beneath.

At this point, General Hong instructed everyone to try their best not to damage the tree roots.

However, various animal skeletons were successively unearthed from the pit. There were cats, dogs, and even three human skeletons!

Two of them belonged to an adult male and female, while the last one was very small, that of an infant.

General Nanke asked curiously, "This scholar tree has started capturing and devouring people. Did the palace truly not know?"

Chief Eunuch Chang was standing nearby. He coughed lightly and explained, "These people weren't captured by the scholar tree demon itself; they were buried here."

A'luo turned over the skeletons. The male skeleton's skull had a large concave hole in the back, clearly indicating a fatal injury.

Liutiao spat, "All royal palaces in the world are the same."

Everyone continued to dig.

About a quarter of an hour later, Menban's shovel hit something hard.

He reached out, scraped twice, and exclaimed, "Found it!"

A section of milky white was exposed from the red soil.

Divine remains again!

General Hong showed no excitement. She merely instructed someone to unfurl a large tarpaulin in front of the pit, to block the sunlight from reaching the bottom.

In another half an hour, the sun would set, yet General Hong insisted on blocking even this gentle sunlight.

With something unearthed from the soil, everyone's spirits soared. Ka Ye immediately started digging downwards—

Mainly out of curiosity, they wanted to see what deities truly looked like. The divine remains previously embedded in the palace wall had not revealed their full appearance.

Soon, the uppermost divine remains were cleared.

Likely due to geological factors, more than a dozen divine remains were stacked one on top of another. Their bones were gaunt, but mostly intact.

Everyone marveled.

These deceased 'heavenly gods' were visibly over ten feet tall, clearly larger than humans. However, their heads, necks, and upper bodies resembled humans. Their skulls were elongated, and the number of fingers varied: some had six fingers on one hand, others only four.

Below the waist, the differences were even more pronounced. One set of divine remains had an extra long tail, while another had no legs at all.

He Lingchuan asked curiously, "Are deities not a single race?"

General Hong replied flatly, "Are demons a single race?"

He Lingchuan touched his nose, instantly grasping General Hong's point. 'Heavenly gods' was merely a general term, not designating a single race. Just as birds and beasts could attain enlightenment and become demons, the forms of demons were also bizarre and varied.