“Are you coming in with me?” Su Zhan asked. She was already ready to go in.
Chu Yao shook her head decisively. “No.”
“In that case, I’ll go in first and try.” Su Zhan nodded and strode inside.
The shrubs on both sides seemed to sense something and parted of their own accord, yielding a path.
“I suggest the two of you fellow Daoists go in together. The wooden people in there attack like a tide. One person might not be able to hold them off. Two would always be better. There’s strength in numbers, after all.”
The girl beside them who was cosplaying as a wooden person had not left yet.
Hearing Chu Yao’s words, she could not help but remind them.
“The default rule of this great formation is that only one person may enter to challenge it. If someone accompanies you, the wooden people’s attacks grow even fiercer. It is not as simple as when you challenge alone.”
Chu Yao pursed her lips and muttered under her breath, “A fortuitous encounter like this is definitely easier to pass with fewer people. Only a fool would believe that nonsense about strength in numbers.”
After saying that, she blinked, seeming to notice the words were a bit inappropriate, as if she had insulted both this person and Su Zhan along with them. She hurriedly added.
“Of course, I don’t mean you. I mean other people. Um, I’m used to speaking without a filter. Don’t mind me…”
“Ahem, it’s fine…” The person gave two dry laughs, somewhat awkward.
Su Zhan had not walked 100 meters into the valley before she sensed something was off.
Aside from the ground at the very start, the path ahead was covered in intertwined roots and thick branches, faintly a withered brown.
They grew dense and chaotic, stacking the path into highs and lows, very hard to walk.
She stepped along this path of roots and did not move quickly.
Underfoot it was sometimes soft, sometimes hard.
Several times she nearly thought traps were hidden below.
She had originally been keeping watch on her surroundings, but now she had to split her attention to watch her footing.
She simply could not go fast.
But… where are the wooden people?
The valley was rugged.
She wound around and turned through the path several times.
Forget wooden people.
Su Zhan did not even see any trees that stood a little taller.
The dense roots underfoot stretched on and on ahead, as if they had seized every place where other trees could grow.
Or perhaps the wooden people on this stretch near the valley mouth had all been cleared away by those two just now.
Su Zhan saw quite a few sword marks, broken branches, and wood scraps scattered along the roadside.
From the ground beyond a distant bend came a cracking sound, as if something were being snapped, and as if something were being chewed.
She halted.
Not out of fear, but because there was already no path ahead.
Mm, that is not quite accurate.
Rather, ahead, because the roots were gone, there was no path she could advance on.
The originally dense, intertwined roots looked as if someone had forcibly cut a break straight through them.
Su Zhan had thought there was earth beneath these roots, but she had not expected what lay below to be completely suspended.
A clear stream flowed slowly dozens of meters underneath.
And that was not all that exceeded Su Zhan’s expectations.
The cracking sound she had just heard was not beyond the bend, but beside the stream below the break.
A great many pieces of deep brown driftwood were climbing the stone walls on both sides.
Those pieces of driftwood hung in a bizarre posture, upper bodies facing downward, sporting branches as thick as arms, as if drinking water. The twigs sometimes tangled with those beside them, and sometimes drifted roughly with the current.
But looking closely, fallen twigs were seized again by other pieces of driftwood that had not yet gotten water to drink.
They swung the branches of their upper bodies, greedily stirring in the stream.
And so Su Zhan witnessed the most bizarre scene.
After those pieces of driftwood had gathered many twigs, they suddenly stood upright and froze, gave a shudder, and their upper halves were forcibly stretched a bit taller.
A segment about the size of a head split apart and drew near the twigs as if raising its head.
Then both sides of the middle-lower portion expanded, propping open a mouth.
Imitating a living creature feeding, they stuffed those twigs into the opening and made a cracking sound.
Watching this, Su Zhan frowned, somewhat uncomfortable.
Standing here blankly was no solution either.
She prepared to cross the break directly and formed a hand seal.
The Natal Spiritual Sword in her hand trembled at the command and obediently flew behind her. Once Su Zhan sat steadily upon it, it rose lightly into the air.
Crack! Crack!
The bizarre feeding sounds and the stirring of the stream suddenly stopped.
The wooden people beside the stream halted at the same time.
They even raised their heads in unison, their gazes chasing Su Zhan’s back.
They opened their mouths and let out smacking, strange cries.
Su Zhan had not made a sound, but clearly those wooden people had suddenly locked onto her. It must be because she had activated a hand seal and used spiritual power?
Those countless dim eyes, glowing like fireflies, stared straight at Su Zhan, making her skin crawl.
The next moment, those wooden people began gripping the stone walls on both sides and climbing upward with very swift movements.
Su Zhan hovered in midair and thought for a moment, then abandoned the idea of crossing the break and directed her Natal Spiritual Sword to descend.
For some reason, she seemed to sense a thread of displeasure.
But she did not think much of it.
She lightly gripped her Natal Spiritual Sword, and the blade was instantly wrapped in a glowing blue light.
“Qingyun Sword Art, Wind Scatter!”
Su Zhan murmured.
She gathered spiritual power for a moment, then swung a slash of sword qi fiercely toward the stone wall below.
The surging sword qi tore through the stone walls on both sides and broke open more gaps in the root path beneath her feet.
Transforming into a graceful silhouette of moonlight, it slammed hard into the wooden people.
The wooden people cried out strangely.
They all reached a hand toward their backs, and the hands they extended instantly barely took the shape of long swords.
Their movements were highly synchronized as they prepared to block, but the incoming sword qi cut them in half at the waist in an instant. Plop, plop, they fell into the stream.
“Not very strong…” Su Zhan panted slightly, her eyes narrowing.
Having seen how wretched those two had looked just now, Su Zhan had not held back at all.
She opened with her strongest killing move.
Only, she seemed to have overestimated these wooden people.
They were far weaker than she had imagined. A casual strike could destroy them.
“Then… let’s finish this quickly.”
Thinking this, she raised her long sword high and gathered more spiritual power, preparing to destroy the remaining wooden people with this one strike, clear away the hidden threat, and then continue forward.
The wooden people seemed to have no emotion of fear and kept climbing upward while crying out strangely.
Su Zhan swung her sword again.
A moon wheel immediately traced out from her sword, and a hazy radiance shone forth.
The fierce moonlight was larger and thicker. It forcibly slammed into these wooden people. They nearly died on contact!
In an instant, shattered wood chips and broken fragments rained into the stream and floated on the surface.
Yet those dim gazes still stared dead at Su Zhan.
“They don’t seem to be dead… Then nine more times it is.”
Su Zhan murmured to herself, and did not find it strange.
Wooden people probably counted as living demon beasts too, so being hard to kill was normal.
Just in case, Su Zhan fiercely swung several more slashes of sword qi toward the stream valley.
The stone walls on both sides collapsed quite a bit more, and the originally clear stream was stirred muddy.
Only when those uncomfortable gazes finally no longer looked her way did Su Zhan stop.
She did not linger.
Su Zhan rode her sword away, yet she did not notice that the wood-branch fragments that had fallen into the stream had, at some point, gathered together.