Xu Ziqing raised both hands in response. Two vines immediately sprang from his palms with a rustling sound, dividing in the wind into eight branches. They moved to encircle the combatants from both sides, leaving him and Yun Lie at the center.
As though they had already developed an understanding, Rongjin extended four vines to either side and swept them outward in a fan. The tendrils circled left and right, enclosing the many three-horned beasts outside the perimeter and preventing a single one from entering.
As a result, Yun Lie now had to face only the five four-horned beasts.
Seeing this, Xu Ziqing felt something stir within him.
He had formed a single thought when Rongjin appeared, and it had carried out his wish immediately. Such obedience showed the remarkable degree of coordination they had achieved.
This must be an effect of the Great Art of Myriad Woods Heart-Planting. Rongjin was his life-bound wood, and as it grew stronger, their minds would become more and more closely connected.
Understanding this, Xu Ziqing was delighted.
If matters continued in this way, Rongjin would obey his commands, and he would no longer need to fear that it might turn upon him when its strength became too great. His only concern would be that the blood nourishment it consumed might generate such intense malice that his own state of mind would be corrupted, driving him onto the evil demonic path. Apart from that, he need not worry. He could even restrain Rongjin’s instincts.
Rongjin moved with extraordinary speed. One flick of its vines ensnared several savage beasts, each pierced by leaf buds that drank great mouthfuls of blood. As their flesh and blood was drained, the vines became increasingly brilliant red, visibly growing thicker. Before long they no longer resembled their former slender tendrils, but had swollen to a roundness like half a pigeon’s egg.
The leaf buds had grown from mung-bean size to soybean size, each clearly defined. The one at the tip of every vine was nearly as large as a fingertip, and whenever it fed, it resembled a horrifying sucker.
Soon more than ten savage beasts were caught along each of the eight vines. Every leaf bud drank madly. When one beast was emptied, it moved to the next, leaving the ground covered with inner cores and heaps of bones and skins.
This terrifying scene was no less dreadful than the carnage Yun Lie had previously created with his sword qi.
Xu Ziqing was not troubled by the great number of beasts Rongjin had devoured, but he could no longer spare any attention to assist his senior brother. As Rongjin absorbed flesh and blood, it also released immense amounts of Wood qi.
That Wood qi, precisely as Xu Ziqing had expected, contained a distinctly ferocious influence.
These savage beasts possessed cultivation comparable to Xu Ziqing’s own. Once they had been devoured alive, the blood-malice qi left behind could not be dispelled easily. Xu Ziqing had to resolve it himself.
This was an inevitable task after subduing the Bloodthirsty Demon Vine, and dealing with it immediately was the proper course. Otherwise, the sinister qi would accumulate within him and cause far greater harm in the future.
Xu Ziqing glanced ahead. Seeing that his senior brother was holding his own against the five four-horned beasts, he relaxed and removed the bamboo tube from his hair.
He had refined this bamboo tube several times over the past half year, strengthening the connection between it and his mind. As soon as he held it, even without pouring much true essence into it, the tube emitted a soft green light and released exceptionally pure Wood qi.
Xu Ziqing thought briefly and remembered his previous life, when he had spent so much time confined to his sickbed.
Because he had been too weak to go out, he had learned several musical instruments. Of them, the flute had placed the least burden on his body and was the one he practiced most often. Unfortunately, playing still required breath, and at that time he could only produce a few notes before having to stop. It had been a pastime for his own amusement. Now, however, his body was healthy, and the true qi within him flowed without end. He could finally make a proper attempt.
Having decided, Xu Ziqing brought the flute to his lips.
It was extremely short, only slightly longer than his palm, with just seven holes. Its construction was very simple.
He closed his eyes slightly and blew his first breath.
A low, plaintive flute note sounded.
Xu Ziqing had long buried the matters of his previous life within his heart, and the music he had learned then did not suit performance in this world. Nor could he claim to be particularly skilled in musical theory. After thinking briefly, he allowed his fingers to move freely and his thoughts to follow his heart, expressing the faint, half-formed insights rising within him through music.
In an instant, the flute’s tone became clear, distant, and ethereal. It carried an extraordinarily tranquil air, pure and unstained by worldly dust.
As the music sounded, it seemed to wash his Dao heart clean. Each note became an expression of clarity, sweeping away the blood-malice qi strand by strand.
A deep sense of peace gradually arose within Xu Ziqing.
The melody was gentle, calming both heart and spirit.
Slowly the vicious influence born of the blood-malice qi dispersed. Even though Rongjin continued feeding and fresh malignant qi was still being generated, it could no longer approach Xu Ziqing.
The true essence within his body became livelier and more fluid in harmony with the music, seeming to improve faintly and become somewhat more condensed.
Xu Ziqing understood that this was not simply an effect of music. The progress he had made during the past half year of cultivation was being awakened and brought into greater harmony by the tranquil melody.
Since he had obtained this opportunity, he naturally would not let it pass.
His heart grew still as water, and the feeling of flourishing Wood life became purer.
Precisely because of this, the wild grass surrounding them began recovering its vitality. Without waiting for the spring rains of the following year, new shoots slowly pushed through the soil.
Rongjin quickly drained the three-horned beasts. Its vines had grown as thick as a grown man’s arm, translucent and lustrous, with an extravagantly beautiful crimson sheen.
Nourished by the flesh and blood of these past days, it had finally recovered some of the splendor of an ancient demon vine. It was no longer weak and grasslike, but had become a genuinely formidable monster. By releasing all its tendrils together, it might even bind a Golden Core Perfected One, giving Xu Ziqing a powerful hidden means of protecting himself against someone above his realm!
Rongjin shook off heaps of beast bones and skins. Its vines moved obediently among them and picked up hundreds of savage-beast inner cores. Strangely, although the demon vine could devour a cultivator’s Golden Core or even Nascent Soul when absorbing their flesh and blood, it could not consume the inner cores of savage beasts.
In fact, it could not consume the cores of demon beasts or spirit beasts either. Perhaps the energy contained in such beast cores was of too low a grade. Human cultivators had to overcome countless obstacles to form their Golden Cores, resulting in exceptionally pure energy that the vine could absorb easily.
Rongjin gathered every inner core in its tendrils and delivered them to Xu Ziqing. By then he had just finished dispelling the blood-malice qi and opened his eyes.
Seeing how obedient Rongjin had become, he smiled faintly and collected the inner cores.
Ahead, Yun Lie had been keeping the five beasts occupied with his sword. Now his sword intent suddenly erupted.
An invisible force flew from between his brows, immediately giving rise to an overwhelmingly sharp presence. That sharpness carried unimaginably powerful killing intent, as though it meant to slaughter every living thing in its path and transform the whole region into a land of death.
This was the crushing strength of sword intent: influencing the soul through sword momentum and subduing all things beneath sword pressure!
After flying forth, the sword intent changed.
It had originally been a single supreme force, but in an instant it divided into five, becoming five currents of sword intent.
Although they appeared separate, none was any weaker. The power had been divided with greater precision and refinement without suffering the slightest reduction in strength.
The five four-horned beasts were exceptionally fierce. The poisonous fluid they spat could turn a hundred li into a barren wasteland, killing every blade of grass. In its destructive effects, it was not entirely unlike Yun Lie’s sword intent.
Yet powerful as the poison was, it could not penetrate Yun Lie’s sword intent. Before it could draw near, it was invariably shredded into nothing.
The beasts also possessed terrifying strength in their hooves and charges. They ran like beams of light, and a thrust of their horns could pierce magical artifacts and easily damage even lower-grade spiritual artifacts.
Yet however tremendous their strength, they were like trapped animals before Yun Lie’s sword intent, held down by overwhelming force.
The Ruthless Slaughter Sword Dao truly deserved its reputation as one of the most tyrannical sword paths. Where its killing intent reached, nothing could escape destruction, and no one’s life was beyond its grasp. Its will was immensely powerful, freezing the seven emotions so that the mind never wavered.
Having cultivated such a sword path, Yun Lie could advance with irresistible might as long as the principles within his heart remained unchanged. Every stroke of his sword was as unstoppable as a mountain and never deviated from its purpose.
This sword path contained no elaborate tricks. It overwhelmed enemies through raw force.
Unlike other sword paths that depended on varied techniques, it was absolute, uncompromising, and dominant.
Yun Lie had only one sword intent and had condensed only one sword-path divine ability. Yet that alone had made him nearly invincible among cultivators of the younger generation. Few could match him, and he was acclaimed throughout the Southern Domain as the strongest beneath Nascent Soul. His entire reputation sprang from this.
The five streams of sword intent shot toward the five savage beasts like five deadly blades, or five small mountain peaks falling with force sufficient to shatter mountains and fill seas.
Although the beasts possessed strength comparable to Golden Core, they were greatly inferior to a sword cultivator who could kill eight peak Golden Core experts in succession. The sword intent immediately penetrated their hides, covering them in blood.
Countless wounds opened across their legs. Their meridians were severed, leaving them barely able to move, much less charge or fight. Rongjin smelled the blood and immediately grew restless.
But Yun Lie did not strike again. He merely said, “Go.”
Xu Ziqing understood at once. Rongjin sprang forward with delight.
In the past, a four-horned savage beast could distribute its power throughout its body, preventing Rongjin from piercing it even if the vines managed to entangle it. With enough strength, such a beast could even tear free.
Now matters were different.
Using the wounds Yun Lie had opened, Rongjin easily drove its leaf buds inside. The beasts could no longer circulate enough power to protect themselves. Once the vines pierced their bodies and began consuming their flesh and blood, their strength ebbed still faster, leaving them less and less able to resist.
Before long, Rongjin greedily finished consuming all five four-horned beasts. It was as though it had feasted upon five Golden Core Perfected Ones, and the wildly waving vines grew still more numerous branches.
Thereafter, the two martial brothers cultivated tirelessly on the plains. Sometimes Yun Lie would plunge into a savage-beast herd and fight freely while Xu Ziqing watched; sometimes Xu Ziqing himself would battle a golden-horned three-horned beast while Yun Lie stood guard; and sometimes, as on this day, they would coordinate their attacks and divide the enemies between them.
Whatever the method, they always allowed Rongjin to deal the final blow and consume the beasts to nourish itself.
After another ten or so days, Rongjin’s hunger grew even stronger. Having been fed flesh and blood again and again, it now possessed thirty-two vines. When released, they spread over a vast area, their terrifying might more pronounced than ever.