Grandma Tree

Liu Jin didn't have time to answer. Suddenly, the wind outside the hall picked up. It wasn't the kind of draft that had been blowing through the hall before; it was a real gale. The treetops swayed wildly, the half-collapsed courtyard wall was smashed into flying pebbles, and the doors of the main hall rattled loudly in the wind.

The wind carried countless different sounds, men, women, young and old, all mixed together, like dozens of people shouting and roaring at the same time, making one's scalp tingle.

A figure slowly emerged from the wind. The person wore a dark green robe, with long hair flowing down to their waist, and their face was even more exquisite than the two female ghosts from before.

With her phoenix eyes slanted upwards, her lips a deep red, and a dot of cinnabar between her brows, she looked to be no more than thirty years old. But Liu Jin knew that this was the Tree Demon Granny, a thousand-year-old demon, and the true master of Lanruo Temple.

"How dare you!" the tree demon spoke, its voice like the clanging of metal, completely unlike a human's. "You killed my maid and yet you sit comfortably on my territory. You..."

She suddenly stopped mid-sentence. Her phoenix eyes narrowed slightly in the moonlight, sweeping over Liu Jin's body, her pupils suddenly contracting.

What she felt was not the pressure of a powerful figure, nor the fluctuations of a cultivator's magical power, but something deeper—a difference in the level of life.

She had cultivated for a thousand years, absorbing human yang energy and refining flesh and blood; her cultivation level was enough to crush any master from any sect in the mortal realm. But the person standing before her now was a being whose very breath was fire.

But she was, after all, an old demon who had lived for thousands of years, and it was impossible for her to turn around and run away after her maid had just died and she had lost all face.

She snorted coldly, and with a flick of her sleeve, dozens of tree roots as thick as an arm burst forth from the ground. Each root was enveloped in a dense, dark red demonic aura and carried a pungent, bloody stench as it lashed out at Liu Jin and Zhao Fengnian simultaneously.

Liu Jin stood up. He didn't use his internal energy or form any hand seals; he simply raised his right hand, and the blue and yellow intertwined firework ribbon emerged from his fingertips, which he flicked lightly.

The ribbon drew an arc, and the blue flame swept past the attacking tree roots. The roots turned to ash the moment they came into contact with the flames—not burning, but being directly incinerated.

Huang Yan flicked his wrist slightly, pushing aside another wave of tree roots, which bounced off the wall and shattered into a pile of debris. His movements were very light and slow, as if he were practicing calligraphy with a brush, each stroke leaving a brief streak of light in the air.

A fierce glint flashed in the tree demon's eyes. It formed hand seals, and its demonic energy surged dramatically. The number of tree roots increased tenfold, surging in from all directions simultaneously, blotting out the sky.

Liu Jin stood still, the ribbon in his hand spinning, twirling, entwining, and swirling slowly. Sometimes it was as supple as a ribbon, sometimes as sharp as a whip, each strike leaving behind a trail of interwoven blue and yellow light in the air. Those trails lingered in mid-air for a long time, weaving into an increasingly dense net of light.

Zhao Fengnian wasn't idle either. He rolled out from behind a pillar, palm up, a small orange-red fireball condensing in his hand.

Its color was many times dimmer than Liu Jin's blue flames, but it was faster to form and more accurate to strike. With a flick of his wrist, the fireball flew out with a long, thin tail, striking a vine that was about to ambush Liu Jin's flank.

The thin vine was burned and snapped, falling to the ground where it twisted twice before becoming still. He fired three or four shots in quick succession, each hitting its mark. Although the damage he caused was negligible compared to Liu Jin's, his positioning was very clever.

They target the forks hidden behind the main root, and immediately change positions after attacking them to prevent the tree spirit from locking on.

A vine lashed out from the corner, and Zhao Fengnian, unable to dodge in time, simply stopped. He flipped his hand and pressed a newly formed small fireball directly against his chest.

The fireball didn't explode; instead, it seeped into his skin like water droplets seeping into sand. Immediately afterward, scattered fiery scales appeared on the back of his hands, neck, and the outside of his forearms, with faint flames flickering between them.

The vine lashed his chest with a muffled thud. He staggered and took a half-step back, leaving a faint white mark on his scales. The mark disappeared as the firelight licked it away.

His strength had also noticeably increased, and he turned around and punched another vine, which was cracked all over.

"Brother, my beast transformation spell has actually fused and evolved with the Samadhi Essence Fire! This move is actually quite useful!"

......

"Wow, this chubby kid's witchcraft is pretty cool."

"Being handsome comes at a price. Among the wizards of the Western Ring, body modification is considered a low-class practice."

"It's not that there aren't any good ones, but at Zhao Fengnian's level, he can probably only get those versions that turn modified knights into cannon fodder."

"Poor child, tricked by others, only able to eat scraps."

"He has no choice but to blame himself for being foolish, but now his suffering is over and he has a bright future ahead."

"Hopefully he can follow Liu Jin closely and resolve his own problems."

"Um, doesn't anyone care about Grandma Tree?"

"If she was going to die, she should have died sooner. Her fate was sealed the moment Liu Jin arrived."

"The person upstairs is probably more concerned about Nie Xiaoqian than Granny Tree. Hehehe."

......

Liu Jin glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, said nothing, but simply increased the speed of the ribbon's rotation. The tree demon's attacks became faster and fiercer, but Liu Jin maintained the same rhythm, neither too fast nor too slow, neither too high nor too low, as if he were breaking down each step of a math problem.

He discovered that although the tree demon's demonic energy was immense, it was extremely mixed and chaotic. This was the result of it having devoured the flesh and blood of too many different people without completely refining it.

When the Qi of different people mixes together and clashes with each other, it's like a bowl of thick porridge made by mixing together various leftovers.

Even more fatal is that her demonic aura is yin, while the Samadhi True Fire is the ultimate fire of destruction, naturally restraining her in terms of attributes. Yin dissipates when it encounters fire, and turbidity vanishes when it encounters purity.

In other words, this old demon had a thousand years of cultivation and accumulated a thousand years of energy, but he had not refined this energy into something that truly belonged to him during those thousand years.

There is no survival crisis.

After confirming this, Liu Jin consciously began to reduce his output. He reduced the force of the firework ribbons by 30% and slowed down the speed by 20%, focusing more on observation and dismantling.

He had cultivated the Reverse Life Triple Realm for several years at the Sanyi Sect, and had fought against Zhang Zhiwei and Wugensheng. He hadn't fought many tough battles, and he rarely had the opportunity to try out new moves while fighting.

The transition between the blue and yellow flame sides of the ribbons could be smoother, the connection between wrapping and striking could be more fluid, and the light trails could linger in the air for a longer time to form a denser network of light.

The tree spirit grew increasingly alarmed as she fought. She realized that no matter how much force she exerted, her attacks were always effortlessly neutralized by the ribbon, and that the person was clearly not using their full strength.

This was no longer a battle; it was practice. She, the dignified master of Lanruo Temple, a thousand-year-old tree spirit, was being used as a target for testing her skills. Her offensive faltered for a moment.

Liu Jin's ribbons did not pursue. The tree spirit stood at the palace gate, her long, flowing hair dancing in the wind, her face trying to maintain an air of majesty and anger, but her heels had already quietly taken a half step back.