Bai Xue's back was to the snow as she calmly looked at the trio, "Students from the heavens, your battle techniques aren't bad."
"Who are you?
You can't be a native, there's no way a native can crush us. We're all elites of our respective academies! "
Bai Xue's eyes shone brighter than diamonds, "Please mark the northeast as blue, I don't want to be disturbed here."
The student closed his eyes in agony and activated his gadget. Not long after, the area in the northeast turned blue.
Lu Yin and Jeraldine set off that very night. They rested for a while a hundred kilometers north of Jinling before continuing their journey north.
They were now in Shandong Wei County.
"Eh, the northeast turned blue!" Jeraldine exclaimed.
Lu Yin was surprised; had Bai Xue been defeated?
Lu Yin didn't have much time to think as an incomparably large tree appeared in front of him. It looked like a willow tree, and its branches were more than a thousand meters long. Countless branches covered the sky as they swept through the entire Wei County, even covering the surrounding roads and villages.
Lu Yin and Jeraldine immediately stopped and subconsciously probed the tree's power level.
"Four thousand two hundred and ninety!" the two exclaimed. This was a Melder, and the mutant tree was a Melder.
"Go around it!" Lu Yin immediately decided to avoid it.
Suddenly, a few branches shot out from the river below and whipped towards the two. Lu Yin pushed her aside and dodged as well, but the branches tore through the air with a deafening sound.
Jeraldine was terrified; if not for Lu Yin pushing her aside, she would have been attacked by a Melder.
"Go around it, go around it!" he shouted.
As he spoke, countless branches whipped towards them from all directions. Even though they were still some distance away from the tree, they were still within its attack range.
At this moment, it was very difficult to go around the giant tree. If they used the attack range of the giant tree as a radius, it would take them at least ten seconds to go around it. This was a conservative estimate. The giant tree would not let them pass smoothly, especially Jeraldine. With her speed, it would be very difficult for her to go around it.
Lu Yin moved in midair, and seeing that Jeraldine couldn't hold on any longer, he struck out with a Spacerender Palm that deflected the branches. He rushed to her side and grabbed her before rushing towards the mutant tree.
"You're crazy!" Jeraldine was shocked as she watched the tree grow closer and closer. Countless branches shot towards them like pythons, and the ground was littered with white bones.
"Look behind you."
Jeraldine turned around to look, her face was deathly pale. Their escape route had been sealed off. Endless green branches formed a wall to block them, leaving them with no way to retreat.
"It's over. A Melder, we're doomed," Jeraldine lamented.
Lu Yin's eyes coldly scanned his surroundings as branch after branch lashed out at him. He dodged nimbly, occasionally borrowing the force of the branches to move forward a great distance. At this point, he was less than three thousand meters away from the mutated tree's main body. The closer he got, the more he could feel how enormous and terrifying it was. Its energy distorted the void and covered the sky.
He was glad that he wasn't up against an intelligent creature. Although this mutated tree was powerful, its attacks were purely instinctive, which allowed him and Jeraldine to survive safely. However, they wouldn't be able to last much longer.
Jeraldine took out a dozen flame crystals from her cosmic ring and smashed them into the ground, setting the ground ablaze.
Lu Yin was speechless. "You want to burn it?"
Jeraldine was bitter. "Let's try. Maybe it's afraid of fire."
There was nothing wrong with this statement, as it was natural for plants to be afraid of fire. However, looking at this giant tree that covered the sky, there was no hope of igniting it. Even the flame crystals outside of Nanjing weren't enough.
Lu Yin didn't have time to waste on Jeraldine. His eyes narrowed.
A human?
Under the mutated tree, a black dot moved left and right, growing larger and larger. It was a human just like Lu Yin and the rest.
This person was even closer to the tree than they were and was constantly retreating to avoid the tree's attacks.
"So strong!" Jeraldine was shocked. She knew that she wouldn't be able to withstand the tree's attacks. If not for Lu Yin, she would already be dead. However, the person in the distance seemed to be doing it with ease.
Lu Yin's gaze turned cold when he saw who it was; it was the silver-haired man.
Under the moonlight, the full-powered Sirius Palm was blocked by a beautiful butterfly.
Lu Yin would never forget this scene for the rest of his life. He had been able to heavily injure Terence with the Palm of Sirius when he was a Seeker, but now that he was a Sentinel, his full-powered Sirius Palm had been neutralized. He hadn't been the one to initiate it, but the opponent's killing intent had forced him to take the initiative. He had been completely passive in that moment, unable to even grasp his opponent's strength.
"Yo, classmate, we meet again," the silver-haired man's eyes lit up and he smiled.
Jeraldine was puzzled; did they know each other?
"What a coincidence," Lu Yin said as he dodged the tree's whip.
The silver-haired man nimbly dodged the tree trunk. "Unfortunately, I've been trapped for a while. If you guys had headed north, there's a high chance of meeting me. It's fate."
"You know we're heading north?" Lu Yin raised an eyebrow.
"Of course," the silver-haired man replied matter-of-factly, "I also know your destination. It must be the capital, right?"
Lu Yin's eyes narrowed as he tried to guess who this person was. Was he the strongest person in one of the academies that Jaeger had mentioned?
"Careful!" Jeraldine cried out as dozens of branches whipped towards the silver-haired man from all directions. The silver-haired man smiled at her in a friendly manner, a beautiful butterfly appearing in his right hand.
The butterfly knife flung out in a dazzling manner as it flew towards the tree trunk. With a soft whooshing sound, the tree trunk was pierced through, and the silver-haired man rushed out unscathed. He turned around and smiled at Jeraldine again before looking at Lu Yin provocatively.
Lu Yin hugged Jeraldine tightly, and under her horrified gaze, he raised his hand and slapped at the tree trunk that was attacking them. Stars appeared from his palm, and the tree trunk exploded under the force of his palm, allowing him to walk out unscathed.
"I didn't sleep well last night, so I used thirty percent of my strength," Lu Yin said calmly.
The silver-haired man's mouth twitched, "I used twenty percent of my strength."
"You remembered wrong, I used ten percent," Lu Yin refused to back down.
The silver-haired man snorted, "I used half of my strength."
Jeraldine was speechless; were these two competing?
At this juncture?
Lu Yin didn't know why, but he felt an indescribable sense of danger when facing the silver-haired man.
The butterfly knife hovered above his head, ready to fall at any moment. Lu Yin subconsciously wanted to make this person wary, but he wouldn't act rashly if he didn't know the situation.
Countless branches appeared from all directions once more, sealing off the space around them.
Lu Yin said to the silver-haired man, "Let's work together and attack the main body, or there'll be no end to this."
The silver-haired man nodded, "I was too tired from playing a few days ago, or I could have dealt with it myself."
Lu Yin replied, "If we weren't in a hurry, I would have liked to test my palm strength on it."
The silver-haired man's lips curled up as he stepped on a branch and rushed towards the main body.
Lu Yin threw Jeraldine towards the flames on the ground, "Be careful," and rushed towards the main body as well.
The two weren't far from the main body, arriving in the blink of an eye.
Surpassing the Sentinel realm was an important step in one's cultivation. Becoming a Melder proved one's initial strength and touched upon the limits of the human body. Cultivators in this realm would remain stagnant for a long time until they broke through the limits of the human body.
Most of the elite students were Sentinels, and very few were Melders. Those who could fight against Melders were even rarer. Although the tree wasn't a sentient being, it was enormous and had a vast amount of energy. Defeating it was even more difficult than defeating an ordinary Melder.
The silver-haired man wielded the butterfly.
The butterfly knife flickered with white light as it shot towards the tree like a meteor.
Lu Yin unleashed his Cosmic Palm with all his might, and another fledgling star vaguely appeared. This was his second star, and once it was fully formed, its power would skyrocket once again.
The two attacked the main body of the tree at almost the same time.
The butterfly knife and Sirius Palm struck the same spot, causing the sturdy surface of the tree to gradually crack. With a bang, the two pierced through the tree and rushed out a few hundred metres, floating in the air as they looked back.
The huge mutated tree slowly collapsed, countless branches crashing down to the ground and covering the river.
Lu Yin and the silver-haired man both turned to look at each other, sensing the strength of their opponent even more clearly than before.
This person has grown even stronger, the same thought appeared in their minds at the same time.
On the other side, Jeraldine was the most shocked. Mutant plants were easy to dodge but difficult to kill due to their powerful defences. Even though she hadn't fought Veron before, she was certain that he wouldn't be able to harm the tree. Yet, these two had done so. They were comparable to, perhaps even stronger than, the strongest in the academy.