Chapter 61 - Fighting the Rotting Wood Tree

Tian Longmeng wiped the sweat from his face before taking Yama Mengyuan's hand. With another survey of the place, it seemed that the fire cleared away some of the thickness of the malignant aura.

He was surprised that there were so many passageways but it did explain how the corpse wolves were able to ambush them so easily, especially with the thick aura blocking most of their sight. Thankfully, there were no other openings apart from those and the small holes that the tree roots protruded from.

"That is a big tree." Tian Longmeng admired the 18 feet tall twisted tree that filled half the cave. There were few leaves remaining on its rotting branches, but it made up with an abundance of small and large branches.

Yama Mengyuan and Tian Longmeng were careful to step on one of its extended roots and alert it prematurely. After all, they could tell from the essence leaking from its cracks that it was a true spirit medicine, probably as strong as a real desolate beast.

"That is a Rotting Wood Tree. We got to be careful when fighting it." Yama Mengyuan kneeled to survey how far the roots stretched.

Tian Longmeng was rather unwilling to battle the towering plant he had to bend his neck to see fully. "We have to fight this thing? Can't we just steal its resources while it is asleep?"

Yama Mengyuan rose to slap Tian Longmeng in the back of the head. "Did you really think it would lay sleeping while we cut its roots and ripped its core and bark off?"

"So what do you propose then?" Tian Longmeng rubbed his aching head, accepting of the reason but not liking the delivery. He scanned the entire cave once more before focusing on a green light peeking through the crevices of the open wood. "I would suggest burning the rest of the wolves before rushing this thing."

Yama Mengyuan braced her hands on her waist and similarly gave the area one final scan. "I would not say burn the rest. I do not think they will be able to reanimate. I do agree on ambushing the tree though. I think that will be the best choice since it would be unprepared."

"Let's go then." Hearing her words, Tian Longmeng's face lit and he prepared to launch himself onto the Rotting Wood Tree. Yet, as he was about to leave the ground, he was dragged into the dirt by Yama Mengyuan.

"Easy there, you cannot just jump at a spirit medicine. We would get destroyed, even with our advantage." Tian Longmeng ducked in response to Yama Mengyuan's annoyed tone. Seeing his theatrics, she palmed her face so hard it almost bled.

"If you are going to jump around then you need to jump smartly. Since it is too strong for us to handle, we have to focus on ending the fight as quickly and efficiently as possible." Yama Mengyuan explained her opening strategy. If Tian Longmeng could distract it enough then she could look for an opening to strike with her knives.

"That's good with me. You take the lead, I will do my best to attract its attention." Tian Longmeng quickly hopped back in his crouched position, ready to fire. Thinking of fire, Tian Longmeng looked towards Yama Mengyuan. "Are you going to use your flames?"

Yama Mengyuan shook her head. "That would cause damage to the material. This also means that you cannot go overboard with your attacks either." She warned, remembering their last tussle.

Tian Longmeng saluted before charging a small ball of essence in both hands. He raised his hands in the air, and with a downward swing he was off the ground.

He closed the distance between himself and the tree in a second, but the tree's reaction was faster. Tian Longmeng barely reached arm-reaching distance to the tree bark before he glimpsed a rushing branch flash towards him.

Using the impact as a springboard, Tian Longmeng switched course to a cave wall to avert most of the damage. "Damn, it hits very fast, and very hard too." He felt a slight sting in his legs but he bounced back for another exchange.

Meanwhile, Yama Mengyuan retreated until she was felt safely outside the roots reach before evaluating her next move. Even though Tian Longmeng has impressive combat instincts, he was too preoccupied with the incredibly fast branches to think about the next step. Luckily, Tian Longmeng's actions were succeeding in attracting the Rotting Wood so she was free to form her plans.

In the meantime, she threw her knives to cut at the branches and bark to ease the burden on Tian Longmeng. It grabbed some of the Rotting Wood's attention but Tian Longmeng did not miss to teach it a lesson whenever it forgot about him.

This made the Rotting Wood Tree increasingly irritated and attack Tian Longmeng even stronger. Although Tian Longmeng kept his speed and countered the attacks with mostly success, he noticed that the attacks were slowly getting too fast for him. What was worse was that countering at this high pace was very tiring.

Yama Mengyuan noticed this as well and moved her knives to chop at the branches. This turned the Rotting Wood's attention from Tian Longmeng as it grabbed at the pesky knives.

"Caught you now."

Overbearing Fist.

Tian Longmeng landed on a branch for a moment before blasting after one of its major branches. He thrust his fist forward and shot through the branch, blasting it to shreds.

The cave shook as the tree trembled in anger. It did not expect for these pests to actually injure it.

On the other hand, Tian Longmeng gained confidence after that exchange. Grinning boldly, he landed on another cave wall before shooting for another branch. However, the tree seemed livid and lashed at him with twelve branches.

Tian Longmeng did not hesitate to blast apart the smaller branches on his way for the bigger one. He was confident that the tree would not be able to attack if all the branches were gone, and the tree seemed to confirm this by hastening its attacks and retracting all of its leaked essence.

That is why he was frightened when Yama Mengyuan screamed at him.

"Dodge! Above!"

"What the-" Tian Longmeng barely had the time to look above when he was brutally smashed onto the tree's root by a dropping branch.

Tian Longmeng rolled off the root, gripping his left side as he curled in pain. He was torn between the pain and confusion. He was sure he counted the major branches left and had his eyes on them, so where did that hidden branch appear from?

He was in too much pain to escape and became prey to another attack, but Yama Mengyuan whipped in to snap the attacking branch in half. She quickly pulled Tian Longmeng out of the tree's reach before it fully noticed that another person was present. They barely managed to avoid the Rotting Wood Tree's detection and avoided a potential slaughter.

The tree activated all its roots to feel Tian Longmeng's location but it could only scan its half of the cave. This was Yama Mengyuan's life-saving countermeasure. As long as they stayed outside the reach of the roots, the tree could not detect them. Sadly though, none of them had enough firepower to kill it from a distance.