Halfway up a mountain ridge, in the middle of a cave, a young man with distinct facial features and an extraordinary temperament was sitting cross-legged inside. His expression was extremely strange, alternating between red and green.
Ling Xiao appeared in his Sea of Knowledge, watching the two trees of different colors entangled and wrestling with each other, a carefree expression of appreciation on his face.
He had set up layers of Heavenly Flames around him. If any of the trees collided with the barrier of his sea of consciousness, they would immediately be incinerated by the Heavenly Flames. Thus, the two trees were entangled very carefully, not allowing the slightest collision to happen around his sea of consciousness. This also prevented him from suffering the pain of being bombarded.
Lu Weng might be much stronger than the Blood Demon Spirit Tree, but his Profound Qi hadn't fully recovered yet, so he couldn't completely suppress the tree.
He had no choice but to ask for Ling Xiao's help. "Little friend, use your Heavenly Flames to burn it half to death. Then let this old man restrain it!"
The Blood Demon Spirit Tree cried out in alarm, "No … No! Human, if you let me go, I can give you an endless amount of blood essence and let you live forever!"
"Live forever? That sounds pretty good!" Ling Xiao's eyes lit up as he muttered.
Lu Weng was anxious. He knew that Ling Xiao was a greedy fellow. If he was tempted by the Blood Demon Spirit Tree, then he might even be suppressed by Ling Xiao. That would be troublesome.
"Little friend, don't be anxious. Don't you want my half of an Undying Heart?" Lu Weng hastily said.
Ling Xiao rubbed his cheek and said, "That's right, I'm still waiting for my half of an Undying Heart to save someone!
It looks like I can't let you go, Blood Demon Tree! "
"Don't … If you want to save someone, I can save them for you. My powerful Blood Essence can bring any human back to life!" the Blood Demon Spirit Tree cried out in alarm.
"Little friend, don't listen to it. It can only fill a human's Blood Essence. It doesn't have the ability to bring someone back to life!" Lu Weng cried out again.
"Bullshit, my powerful Blood Essence has the ability to revive people and reconstruct their bodies."
"You evil thing, even if you can bring someone back to life, they'll still become a blood-sucking devil."
"That's better than dying."
…
Ling Xiao snickered on the side. However, he did not intend to let them pester him any longer. He did not want the Blood Demon Spirit Tree to do something out of desperation.
"Old Lü, get out of the way!" Ling Xiao cried out in alarm and immediately mobilized the surrounding Heavenly Fire.
Balls of raging blue flames wrapped around the Blood Demon Spirit Tree.
The Heavenly Fire was the nemesis of this kind of evil being. Once it came into contact with it, it would immediately burn up.
The Blood Demon Spirit Tree let out blood-curdling screeches as it was burned.
"Enough, enough. Don't completely burn it." Lu Weng saw that it was about time and hastily stopped him.
Ling Xiao immediately withdrew the Heavenly Flame, and Lu Weng once again attacked the Blood Demon Spirit Tree, shattering its powerful blood essence!
The Blood Demon Spirit Tree's Profound Qi was greatly damaged. After another round of bombardment from Lv Weng, the tree spirit's state was finally on the verge of collapse. In the end, it disappeared with an unwilling and resentful expression.
When it disappeared, a square-shaped blood crystal fell from the sky.
Lu Weng impatiently scooped up the blood crystal.
Ling Xiao's eyes also shone. He knew that this blood crystal definitely contained the essence of the Blood Demon Spirit Tree. He couldn't let this old man Lu Weng have it.
"Cough cough … Old Lü, shouldn't we split this blood crystal? I was the one who subdued it!" Ling Xiao lightly coughed as he reminded Lu Weng.
"Little friend, you can't be like this. I already said that I would exchange half of my Undying Heart for it!" Lu Weng's face turned even greener.
It wasn't easy for him to obtain the Blood Demon Spirit Tree's Origin Energy to help him ascend to the next level. How could he give away half of it?
"That's what you promised, but you're too embarrassed to swallow such a big piece of blood crystal, right? Just now, I spent a lot of effort to subdue it. Otherwise, would you have been able to take it down?
You should at least give me some compensation for my hard work! "Ling Xiao said pitifully.
Lu Weng cursed in his heart, "You're just watching the show. What tremendous strength? You're clearly trying to extort me!"
But it was just a thought. In order to continue staying in Ling Xiao's Spiritual Sea, he could only endure.
"Other than half of my Undying Heart, I'll give you two Ten-Thousand-Year Tree Roots!" Lu Weng grumpily said.
Half of the Undying Heart had already cost him half his life, and now he had to give it away as well. That made his heart ache.
"How about this? Give me two more drops of Ten-Thousand-Year Tree Sap and two Ten-Thousand-Year Tree Fruits. Then this Blood Demon Spirit Tree's blood crystal will belong to you. Don't haggle anymore, or else we'll split it in half!" Ling Xiao reluctantly offered.
Lu Weng clenched his teeth and decided to endure!
"Then you can leave. I'm going to absorb this blood crystal. I don't have time to mess around with you." Lu Weng's heart ached.
"Fine, but first hand over the Ten-Thousand-Year Tree Root, Ten-Thousand-Year Tree Sap, and Ten-Thousand-Year Tree Fruit. Otherwise, who am I going to look for if you run off one day?" Ling Xiao didn't stand on ceremony with Lu Weng and immediately asked for the interest.
Lu Weng didn't want to argue with Ling Xiao any longer, so he handed over those items and immediately chased Ling Xiao out.
Ling Xiao grumpily said, "I'm only temporarily renting this Spiritual Sea to you. If you piss me off, then I won't rent it anymore!"
After settling the matter with the Blood Demon Spirit Tree, Ling Xiao began to walk deeper into the Setting Sun Mountain Range.
He didn't fly. He only walked on foot, completely concealing his aura. He was like an ordinary mountain youth, humming an unknown tune as he experienced nature.
At the same time, he also summoned Xiao Long, Xiao Jin, and Xiao Long, allowing them to return to their beastly nature.
The towering green ancient trees, the tender green grass, the fragrant flowers, the upside-down waterfalls, the swiftly flying spirit birds, the roaring spirit beasts …
Ling Xiao strolled among them, everything seemed so comfortable and carefree.
He threw all disputes to the back of his mind, no longer thinking about the World Energy he should be deducing. He only wanted to quietly enjoy the comfortable feeling.
For more than ten days, Ling Xiao's heart was abnormally calm.
However, Xiao Long couldn't stay still. He often brought Xiao Long and Xiao Jin to find powerful spirit beasts to fight and kill.
They would bring back spoils of war every time. Other than the corpses of spirit beasts, there were also high-grade spirit herbs.
Ling Xiao was also happy to let them strengthen their battle prowess and restore their bloodlust.
One day, Ling Xiao arrived in front of a piece of broken cloth and looked at the rushing water. The waves were like silver waterfalls hanging upside down, pleasing to the ears.
Ling Xiao had a sudden urge to play. He took off all his clothes and rushed down from the top of the mountain towards the pool under the waterfall. He allowed his body to fall.
Bang!
His entire body directly sank to the bottom of the pool, and an ice-cold feeling spread throughout his body.
"Awesome!" Ling Xiao couldn't help but exclaim.
With the blazing sun above his head and the cold water on his body, it was truly one of the happiest things in life.
Unknowingly, Ling Xiao lay on top of the pool and closed his eyes to rest.
After an unknown amount of time, he occasionally heard human voices.
"Junior Sister, do you hear the sound of flowing water? There should be a pool in front. Let's go there to wash up. These past few days, we've been chased by those fellows to the point that we can't take it anymore." A clear voice came from afar.
This was obviously a woman's voice.
Following that, another female voice angrily replied, "They're going too far. We were the ones who found the Ice Flame Flower first, but they said that they found it and even wanted to take advantage of us."
"That's right. If I hadn't acted quickly, that fellow would have touched my chest. Just the thought of that ugly appearance is so disgusting."
"Don't think about it anymore. Right now, we're already in the depths of the Setting Sun Mountains. There are dangers everywhere, and there are always high-grade spirit beasts roaming about. Let's wash up and find a way out so that Master won't worry."
The two women's voices were getting closer and closer, and so were their footsteps.
Ling Xiao hesitated. Should he leave now or not?
If he left now, he would definitely miss out on the wondrous scene of two beautiful women bathing. If he didn't leave now, wouldn't he also be seen by others?
"Forget it, let's just look at each other. There's no harm in doing so." Ling Xiao hesitated for a moment, and then revealed a devilish smile. He continued to lie in a corner of the pool and quietly closed his eyes, quietly waiting for the two women to arrive.
"I haven't washed my body in half a month. It's so uncomfortable." One of the women seemed to be a bit impatient. Not long after they arrived at the edge of the pool, she muttered to herself and then hurriedly flew towards the pool.
"Senior Sister, be careful!" The other woman hastily warned.
However, her warning didn't seem to have any effect on the woman in front of her.
The woman in front of them had already leaped to the edge of the pool and tossed the light gauze and satin on her body to the side. Her smooth and jade-like body was like a mermaid as she fell into the water.
When the beauty leaped into the air, Ling Xiao's tightly closed eyes opened a slit, and he just happened to catch that soul-stirring moment. His throat couldn't help but roll a few times.
Dong!
The woman fell into the water, creating countless waves. She cheered, "How refreshing! Junior Sister, hurry up and come over too!"
The woman who had come with her walked over from behind and reminded her, "Senior Sister, why are you always so impatient? What if there are people or spirit beasts in the pool?"
"Don't worry, I've already sensed that there's no aura here. How could there be people, let alone spirit beasts?" The woman in the pool responded.
"No matter what, it's better to be careful. Otherwise, you won't know what to do if you suffer a loss." The woman said again. After a pause, she said, "I'll let you out. I'll bathe after you're done."
"Alright, then I'll bathe first!" The woman in the pool responded and then happily cleaned her delicate body.
The woman at the edge of the pool began to look around to see if there were any other movements.
Just when she thought that there were no people or spirit beasts, her gaze returned to the pool. Her beautiful eyes instantly narrowed and a dense killing intent burst forth. A silver longsword instantly appeared in her hand.
"Senior Sister, hurry up and come up! There's someone over there!"
The woman at the edge of the pool cried out in alarm. Then, the longsword in her hand exploded and countless sword flowers shot towards a direction in the pool.
The woman in the pool was even more shocked. She jumped out of the pool and her smooth and graceful body was once again revealed in front of her.