Demon King-Level Plant!

"Fire oil is here!"

Some people rushed to the supply depot atop the city walls at top speed, each carrying two wooden buckets filled with fire oil!

Chen Fan and the others herded the demons together, then kept splashing fire oil over them. Several torches were thrown over, and blazing flames immediately erupted across the demons' bodies.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!

Sizzling sounds came from the demons' bodies. Then countless black willow branches drilled out through their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths, and their bodies quickly shriveled up!

"Who dares ruin my plans?"

"Courting death!"

The black willow branches tangled together, eventually forming a weeping willow covered in black boughs. An aged face emerged upon its trunk. Though standing amid roaring flames, the willow continued to stretch and grow, utterly unaffected by the fire!

The old face on the Black Willow's trunk wore a sinister smile. The next moment, it suddenly attacked. Countless black willow branches stretched in every direction, lashing toward Chen Fan and the others!

"Fall back! Leave it to me!"

Chen Fan shouted, slashing out with the Meteorite Iron Blade in his hand. Terrifying Blade Intent swept across the field. Had he been a Divine Aperture Realm martial artist, with true qi born within his body, this slash would surely have carried fearsome blade aura—qi condensed into a blade, peerless in its terror!

Unfortunately, he was currently only a Divine Treasury Realm martial artist. He could only mobilize the qi and blood throughout his body, using it in place of true qi to unleash this slash like a Mountain of Corpses and Sea of Blood.

The slash surged forward without hesitation, hurtling straight toward the Black Willow amid the flames. It severed countless black willow branches harder than steel before striking the Black Willow itself!

Boom!

The Meteorite Iron Blade struck the Black Willow, scattering sparks everywhere and leaving a deep blade mark on its trunk, which twisted like a coiling dragon. Black fluid gushed out in streams!

Rustle, rustle, rustle!

All the black willow branches that had stretched outward withdrew at once, then formed an enormous fist from countless tangled black branches, smashing viciously toward Chen Fan!

Chen Fan raised his blade to block. The Meteorite Iron Blade collided fiercely with the giant black fist, but the Black Willow's roots entwined together to form a massive black foot, kicking Chen Fan flying with a single blow!

The Black Willow tried to take off after Chen Fan, but after moving only a few inches forward, it came to a halt!

Then countless black willow branches stretched from its body, piercing toward the flying Chen Fan like a rain of arrows!

"Chen Fan, watch out!"

Lu Xuening flicked her sword in a flourish and unleashed an unfathomably profound sword technique. For a moment, sword shadows filled the sky, continuously colliding with the black willow branches.

Chen Fan landed on the ground and immediately sprang back up, grabbing Lu Xuening and retreating without pause!

"It can't move easily. As long as we don't get close, the farther away we are, the weaker its attacks become!"

Chen Fan said.

"You have some insight. Unfortunately, not enough!"

A mocking expression appeared on the old face upon the Black Willow's trunk. The Black Willow instantly broke apart, transforming into four enormous balls formed from countless tangled black branches. They rose into the air and landed before Ping An County's four gates!

Swish, swish, swish!

The four black spheres took root where they landed. At each of Ping An County's four gates, a Black Willow grew. Their branches stretched continuously, spreading toward the county town.

"Retreat!"

"Fall back into the city!"

Chen Fan shouted loudly. Everyone desperately retreated into the city, while behind them, the Black Willows extended countless black branches, chasing after them like a sea of black trees!

Once everyone had fled into the city, Chen Fan and Lu Xuening each pushed one half of the enormous gate shut. With a thunderous boom, the gates closed, and Huang Chengyue immediately dropped three crossbars into place!

Chen Fan and the others returned to the gate tower and discovered that all of Ping An County was surrounded by a black forest sea. Those black branches were climbing the city walls. Before long, they might completely drown the walls, then spread into the inner city, until the entire Ping An County was shrouded in that black forest sea.

"It wants to slaughter all of Ping An County!"

"Just what is this Black Willow? It can nurture three great demons of the Divine Aperture Realm, and it can envelop all of Ping An County by its own strength alone!"

As Chen Fan spoke, he turned his gaze toward Lu Xuening.

Lu Xuening was a martial artist from Dragon Abyss Prefecture, after all, and had seen far more than they had.

"This Black Willow is far too strange. It resembles the Ghost Willow of legend, but Ghost Willows excel most at devouring and controlling souls."

"It also possesses the traits of the Bloodthirsty Vine and can devour blood. Just now, I saw our brothers who died outside the gates get wrapped in willow branches and sucked directly into dried corpses. But the Bloodthirsty Vine is a vine plant, not a willow tree."

"Furthermore, it can manipulate its vines into all kinds of shapes, making it resemble the Cloud-Scraping Vine as well."

"Its branches and leaves are as hard as steel, their toughness comparable to the Cloud Iron Tree."

"And now it can spread its branches and leaves across all of Ping An County. Such a method is unheard of and unseen. Normally, only the legendary top-tier demon vines can accomplish such a thing."

"It is like something neither fish nor fowl, possessing the abilities of many plant-type demons but none of their weaknesses. It is truly terrifying!"

"Right now, it has merely displayed power at the Divine Aperture Realm level. If it is allowed to grow to a higher level and develop its strengths to the utmost, it will surely become a top-tier Demon King-Level Plant."

"If it already dares to cover all of Ping An County and treat everyone here as nourishment, then once it grows into a top-tier Demon King, it will dare to treat all the common people of Dragon Abyss Prefecture—even all of Cloud Prefecture—as nourishment."

Lu Xuening said grimly.

She truly did not know how such a terrifying demon could have appeared in a tiny place like Ping An County. Though its strength did not seem that terrifying yet, its potential for growth was simply astonishing.

Once it devoured all the people of Ping An County, its strength might enter a brief period of explosive growth. If it continued stirring up trouble then, that would be fine—the experts of Dragon Abyss Prefecture would surely discover the tragedy of Ping An County and realize the terror of this Black Willow.

But if it was clever, and after devouring all of Ping An County chose to lie dormant, slowly digesting its gains while hiding in the shadows to increase its strength, then by the time it appeared again, perhaps no one in all of Dragon Abyss Prefecture would be able to restrain it!

And looking back at the demon disaster in Ping An County now, there was an eighty to ninety percent chance that it had been manipulating everything from behind the scenes.

Not only had it raised three Divine Aperture Realm lackeys, it had also used demons to control all of Ping An County. It wanted to devour the entire county without making a sound.

What was more, even the demons of Black Mountain had been planted with its seeds. With but a single thought, it could turn every demon in Black Mountain into nourishment for itself.

And a demon with such scheming, after finishing this job, would surely flee far away. It would not merely leave Ping An County—it would likely leave the sphere of influence of Dragon Abyss Prefecture altogether, then secretly plot in its next destination!

If that was truly the case, then it would be far too dangerous.

"This does not seem to be its true body."

"Its true body should still be in Black Mountain."

"That Brocade Guard brother was not mistaken back then. There truly was a black willow atop Black Mountain, blotting out the sky and covering the earth."

"Many people believed he had been scared senseless by the demons in Black Mountain and had seen wrongly."

"But now, it seemed he had not been mistaken at all. More than twenty years ago, that Black Willow was already rooted upon Black Mountain."

Huang Chengyue said with a grave expression.