"The Three Demons of Black Mountain have been put down! Brothers, follow me and slaughter the demons, sweep Black Mountain clean!"
Chen Fan shouted and charged straight at a great White Wolf demon. This was Howling Moon Wolf Demon's most favored son, reverently called White Wolf Prince by the demons of Black Mountain.
His strength was formidable. Even while being held back by Lu Xuening and Huang Chengyue, he could still suddenly erupt and kill. Many constables, runners, Brocade Guards, and county soldiers had died at his hands.
"Lord Chen Fan, I am willing to surrender... Pfft!"
Before White Wolf Prince could finish speaking, Chen Fan cut him down with a single slash. His enormous head flew backward before crashing heavily to the ground.
"What was he trying to say just now?"
Chen Fan glanced at Lu Xuening and Huang Chengyue and asked.
Lu Xuening: "???"
Huang Chengyue: "!!!"
Having slain a Wolf Demon at the fifth level of the Divine Treasury Realm, you have stolen its remaining lifespan of 298 years!
This White Wolf Prince truly was a promising prospect. At such a young age, he had already cultivated to the peak Divine Treasury Realm, and he had not consumed much of his own lifespan at all. He was far superior to his father's generation.
This wave had directly brought Chen Fan nearly three hundred years of Demonkin Lifespan.
Didn't that make up for the lifespan he had lost previously while deducing "Heaven and Earth One-Blade Slash"?
Good!
This was simply too good!
"Forget it. It isn't important."
Lu Xuening and Huang Chengyue opened their mouths, just about to say something, only to be ruthlessly interrupted by Chen Fan again.
"You there, leave two demons for me!"
Chen Fan shouted, grabbed the Meteorite Iron Blade, and once again hacked toward the few remaining demons, leaving Lu Xuening and Huang Chengyue staring at each other in dismay!
"You can tell that he genuinely likes slaying demons and eliminating evil."
Lu Xuening remarked with emotion.
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"It's far better than someone like Cao De, who colluded with demons."
Huang Chengyue smiled as he spoke.
"That's true."
Lu Xuening nodded at that, then gripped her longsword and charged toward the few remaining demons on the battlefield as well.
Before long, with Chen Fan and the others joining forces, the Three Demons of Black Mountain and all the demons that had followed them were completely exterminated. Yet Chen Fan's side had also suffered grievous casualties. Nearly everyone who survived was wounded, but hope shone in every pair of eyes.
Ping An County had suffered under demons for far too long. Now, the demon scourge of Black Mountain had been completely ended in their generation. Even if demons were born in Black Mountain again in the future, as long as they kept up diligent patrols, they could surely strangle them in the cradle.
It could be said that so long as no outside great demon took up residence in Black Mountain, Ping An County could sleep without a care from this day onward!
"The corpses are rising!"
"The demonkin corpses are rising!"
No one knew who suddenly shouted, but it instantly drew everyone's attention.
That person pointed at a Boar Demon not far away, its body riddled with arrows like a hedgehog, yet it was actually getting back to its feet.
"Watch out!"
The next second, the Boar Demon lunged at him. Chen Fan roared at the sight and casually hurled the Meteorite Iron Blade in his hand, striking the Boar Demon and blasting it several meters away.
But more and more demons that had already died rose to their feet, including the Three Demons of Black Mountain whom Chen Fan had slain. Tiger Demon Mountain Lord in particular rose and began groping around, actually searching for his own head.
A massive wound pierced straight through Three-Eyed Ape Demon's head. He had long since lost all signs of life, yet at this moment, he rose again. His two eyes emitted a murky gray-white light as he bared his fangs at Chen Fan.
"What is going on?"
Chen Fan was also badly startled by the scene before him. These demons had clearly died, so why could they come back from the dead?
"Chen Fan, look at that tiger demon!"
Lu Xuening pointed at Tiger Demon Mountain Lord and warned him.
Chen Fan looked toward Tiger Demon Mountain Lord and saw countless dense twigs sprouting from the severed opening at his neck. The same was happening at the severed opening of his head. Those fine twigs linked together, and Tiger Demon Mountain Lord's head grew back just like that!
"Could it be that we've all run into something evil?"
Huang Chengyue said gravely.
"This is not some evil encounter. Someone is using tricks!"
Lu Xuening said with absolute certainty.
Even her master, an expert at the peak Divine Aperture Realm, could not have accomplished such a thing.
But some demons were born with incomprehensible demonic arts, such as fox demons' seduction, tiger demons' control over Tiger Wraiths, flood dragons' Summoning Wind and Rain, and so on.
The reason these demons could return from the dead was likely that an even more powerful demon was manipulating everything from behind the scenes.
"No wonder the Three Demons of Black Mountain, three wild great demons, could all enter the Divine Aperture Realm. So there was an even more powerful existence behind them, guiding them."
Lu Xuening also understood some things upon seeing this.
"Stop playing ghostly tricks! If you have the guts, get out here!"
Chen Fan shouted sharply, pulled the Meteorite Iron Blade from the Boar Demon's body, and unleashed Heaven and Earth One-Blade Slash. His terrifying Blade Intent nearly solidified into substance.
Boom!
With one slash, he directly cut the resurrected demons standing before him in half at the waist.
Yet the bizarre scene that had happened to the tiger demon soon appeared again. The demons he had cut in half were stitched back together by the twigs growing from within their bodies, which tangled and joined with one another.
"These seem to be willow branches. Black willow branches!"
Chen Fan frowned as he spoke.
"Black willow branches?"
"I remember that a Brocade Guard brother who once wandered into the depths of Black Mountain and came out alive said that he had seen an enormous willow tree deep in Black Mountain, one so tall that it nearly blotted out the sky and covered the sun."
"Only, the entire willow tree was pitch-black. He suspected that heavenly lightning had struck it into charcoal."
"Could that willow tree really have become a spirit, only to be rejected by heaven and earth and ultimately die beneath heavenly tribulation? Unwilling after its death, could its remnant soul have turned into an evil entity?"
Huang Chengyue thought for a moment before speaking.
He was an old hand at the Ping An County Brocade Guard Precinct. When he had first joined the Brocade Guard, they had still been powerful enough to suppress demons until they could scarcely breathe. They had even formed groups to enter Black Mountain and slay demons, all to accumulate merit points.
Back then, among the Brocade Guards who had entered Black Mountain with them, some had gotten lost and strayed into its depths. After returning, they had recounted their experiences to them.
"A completely black willow tree?"
"Could it be a willow tree that fell into demonhood?"
Chen Fan said curiously, as though speaking to himself, yet also as though asking a question.
"These demons have all been parasitized by black willow branches. While they were alive, there might not have been any visible clue."
"But now that they are dead, the willow branches parasitizing them are using their bodies as nourishment, growing wildly and completely taking control of their bodies!"
Lu Xuening swung her sword and directly chopped off an ape demon's arm. Holding that arm, she saw black willow branches wildly sprouting from the ape demon's severed limb. Those willow branches followed along her arm, continuously winding toward her body!
At once, she threw away the ape demon arm in her hand and swung her sharp sword, cutting down every black willow branch that had curled toward her.
"Burn them with fire oil!"
"There's fire oil on the city wall. Go get it at once!"
Chen Fan reminded them.
Even if they chopped these demons into eight pieces or shredded their corpses into ten thousand fragments, those eerie willow branches could still stitch the demons' bodies back together like fine needles and thread.
But if they burned the demons' corpses outright, those black willow branches would have nowhere to hide!
Besides, no matter how bizarre these black willow branches were, they still leaned toward the wood element and were essentially timber. Attacking them with fire might completely suppress them—or even destroy them outright!
Before you continue