Chapter 32

Lin Du had guessed that the roots of this tree must be extensive beneath the sandy soil, but she hadn’t expected them to be this widespread.

She was already at least thirty feet away from the trunk, yet the tree roots could still reach her.

Not wanting to become fertilizer, Lin Du knew that facing it head-on would be particularly disadvantageous for someone like her who specialized in formations. However, by this point, she had no choice but to confront it.

The young man in blue raised his hand, channeling all the spiritual energy he had been furiously circulating into his right hand, and then threw a powerful punch.

With a loud bang, foul-smelling, crimson-black sap splattered everywhere. As it hit the air, it quickly froze into frosty flowers.

A bone-chilling cold spread rapidly from the air—this was the residual effect of Lin Du’s spiritual energy.

Ni Si, who had just barely escaped death, felt the cold pressing down on her so intensely that it became hard to breathe. The breath she had just exhaled instantly turned into white mist in the air.

Lin Du landed on the ground, followed by shattered red ice chunks clattering all around.

In front of the water mirror, Elder Ju Yuan, who had been on edge, finally let out a sigh of relief, followed by the sound of collective exhalation from others around.

Lin Du had never studied martial arts, nor did she know anything about sword or blade techniques, so no one understood how that punch could be so powerful. They could only attribute it to some extraordinary natural talent.

Only Lin Du herself stood there thoughtfully, looking at her fist. Because of the overwhelming spiritual energy, her hand hadn’t been tainted by any blood or flesh.

That’s right, blood and flesh.

The demonized red willow branches had long since turned into blood and flesh.

Lin Du recalled what Yan Ye had said that day: “One move is enough.”

Beneath the level of riding the clouds, no one could withstand her ice-breaking punch.

She pondered for a moment, fully grasping Yan Ye’s meaning.

Using her fists to cut through obstacles was simple and brutal, but it was effective.

She just hoped that as the “One Punch Man” of the cultivation world, she could keep some hair on her head.

Lin Du turned and glanced at the people shivering from the residual effects of her spiritual energy, then lifted her foot to leave this troublesome place.

Ni Si shuddered again under Lin Du’s cold, superior gaze. At this moment, no one understood better than she did what it meant to be the number one talent on the Qingyun List.

The spiritual energy was cold to the bone, piercing her skin through her pores. When she tried to resist the cold with her own spiritual energy, it instantly retreated upon contact with that overwhelming force.

Monsters have a certain intelligence; as long as they aren’t provoked into madness, they won’t attack something stronger than themselves. The small cultivator with the talisman was already troublesome, but the one who could shatter it with a single punch was even more terrifying.

After putting on an intimidating display, Lin Du maintained her haughty demeanor and turned to leave. However, she carelessly stepped on something and stumbled.

She quickly recovered, her cloak brushing the sand, and crouched down as if she had merely been preparing to do so.

What tripped her was a skull.

The skull was embedded deep in the sand, with only a portion of the top exposed.

Lin Du crouched down and tapped the skull with her knuckles, as if trying to gently awaken the slumbering soul. But it was clear the soul had long since departed.

Judging by the state of the bones, Lin Du estimated that this person had died at least a hundred years ago, which coincided with the last time this small world had opened.

She frowned. The death rate in this small world was low. Before she came, she had done her research. Of the 321 cultivators who entered last time, 301 came out alive. Even if this red willow had consumed all the victims, it wouldn’t have accumulated enough demonic energy to turn a spiritual plant into flesh and blood.

Lin Du took a shovel out of her storage ring and, under the complicated gazes of the two others, began to dig skillfully. She inserted the shovel into the sand, pressed down with her foot for leverage, and then flipped the earth with practiced ease.

“What is Lin Du trying to do?”

“Is that… a shovel?”

Elder Ju Yuan raised his hand to his forehead, “Yes, it’s a shovel.”

In their Supreme Sect, after building their foundation, all disciples were made to learn how to cultivate spiritual plants and raise spiritual beasts—a way of teaching them self-sufficiency.

The shovel was an auxiliary tool that all disciples received for their first inspection of land and plants.

“Your Supreme Sect disciples are certainly versatile,” one elder remarked with a forced smile.

Lin Du’s movements became faster, and soon everyone understood why she had taken out the shovel.

The roots of the red willow were gnarled and thick, each as wide as a grown man’s arm. Exposed to the light, they appeared a blood-tinged black. Without spiritual energy, the shovel couldn’t even budge the roots.

Even the well-informed elders couldn’t help but gasp.

The willow had absorbed so much blood and flesh that its branches had become saturated with malevolent energy, intertwining and entwining with human bones scattered among them.

The roots extended deep into the ground, encasing a multitude of bones, emanating an eerie chill.

Lin Du lowered her gaze and saw a skull. Two roots seemed to have grown later, piercing through the empty eye sockets. The roots were thinner there but grew thicker as they extended forward, like branches nourished by blood and flesh from the bones.

This was already thirty feet away from the trunk. Lin Du had only dug a small pit, just large enough for an adult to lie down in, yet she had already uncovered over a dozen skulls.

Lin Du looked up at the sky and then spoke, “This small world opens on average once every hundred years. Since its discovery, it’s only opened seven times. Seven times, and this many people have died?”

As Yan Ye’s disciple, she naturally knew the Heavens had no voice, but with such a commotion, someone must have seen something.

Some of the elders in the hall immediately stood up, mouthing Lin Du’s words.

Jun Qian’s scalp tingled, “A total of 157 cultivators have died across the seven times it’s opened.”

But not all of those 157 died because of the demonic willow.

This meant that even before, many must have died under the influence of this demonic willow.

Lin Du glanced at the terrified Ni Si and Li Dong, then put away the shovel.

The exposed red willow roots soon became agitated under the daylight.

Lin Du pulled out her Floating Life Fan and, in front of the two of them, waved it once, freezing the restless branches.

As the eerie frost slowly formed, Li Dong suddenly shouted, “It’s you!”

Lin Du lifted her eyelids and looked at the two, who had grown more fearful as they noticed the frost solidifying. Their expressions turned to disbelief as they looked at her.

“Were you trying to scam me?”

Lin Du lowered her eyelids again, “No, don’t flatter yourself. It was just an accident.”

This time, she used her mind to direct the energy away from Ni Si and Li Dong.

Ni Si stomped her foot in anger, “It’s clearly because of you that we got frozen! And now you’re asking us for money?”

Lin Du squatted down, not bothering to lift her head, and took out a short dagger to cut off a piece of the root, which was covered in a thin layer of ice. Just as the root was about to react, the cut was sealed by the spreading frost.

She looked down at the writhing root branch in her hand, deep in thought.

No, something was still off. The demonic energy wasn’t right.

It wasn’t just blood and flesh; there was also resentment.

Black resentment was within the roots, with the outer layer formed by the demonic energy of condensed blood and flesh.

This meant that the tree had been demonized due to an accumulation of intense resentment.

Lin Du took out a formation ruler and a detection formation, watching as the intricate lines of the formation quickly converged.

“Lin Du! You owe us an explanation today!” Ni Si and Li Dong were still chattering on.

Annoyed, Lin Du snapped her fingers, and the frost crawled up their legs, scaring them into trying to flee beyond her spiritual range.

But it was too late; the two quickly became frozen in place again.

Ignoring their curses, Lin Du looked up at the red willow, “So that’s it.”

The red willow had grown on the site of an ancient city.

She roughly estimated the city’s range on the sandy ground, and the red willow was positioned right at its center.

And at the center of this city, there was actually a gathering formation.

What it was gathering was resentment.

The immense amount of resentment nurtured the already yin-aligned red willow, causing it to become demonized.

Was the source of this resentment the city buried beneath the desert?