"The Black Mountain Three Demons have been put to death! Brothers, follow me and wipe out the demon horde. Let's scour Black Mountain clean!"
Chen Fan roared and charged straight at a White Wolf Demon. It was Wolf Demon Howling Moon's most treasured son, honored by the demons of Black Mountain as White Wolf Highness.
He was no weakling. Even with Lu Xuenning and Huang Chengyue holding him back, he could still burst into action and kill. Many constables, bailiffs, Jinyiwei, and County Soldiers had fallen at his hands.
"Lord Chen Fan, I'm willing to surrender... Pfft!"
White Wolf Highness hadn't finished speaking before Chen Fan cut him down with a single strike. His massive head flew through the air, then landed heavily on the ground.
"What was he trying to say just now?"
Chen Fan glanced at Lu Xuenning and Huang Chengyue and asked.
Lu Xuenning: "???"
Huang Chengyue: "!!!"
[Killed a Wolf Demon at the Spirit Concealment Realm Fifth Stage. Stole its remaining lifespan: 298 years!]
White Wolf Highness really was a promising prospect. At such a young age, he had already cultivated to the Spirit Concealment Realm Peak, and he hadn't used up much of his own lifespan either. He was far stronger than his elders.
This haul had brought Chen Fan nearly three hundred years of Demonic Creature Lifespan.
Hadn't he just made back what he'd lost from deducing Heaven and Earth One-Blade Cut?
Great!
This was just fantastic!
"Never mind. It doesn't matter."
Lu Xuenning and Huang Chengyue opened their mouths, about to say something, but Chen Fan mercilessly cut them off again.
"Hey, you there! Leave me a couple of demons!"
Chen Fan roared, then snatched up his Meteorite Iron Blade and charged at the few demons left, leaving Lu Xuenning and Huang Chengyue staring at each other in bewilderment!
"You can tell he really loves slaying demons."
Lu Xuenning remarked with a sigh.
"Isn't that a good thing?"
"He's a lot better than scum like Cao De, who colludes with demons."
Huang Chengyue smiled and said.
"True."
Lu Xuenning nodded, then gripped her Longsword and charged at the few demons remaining on the battlefield.
Before long, with Chen Fan and the others fighting together, the Black Mountain Three Demons and all the demons who had followed them were wiped out. But Chen Fan's side had also suffered heavy casualties. Nearly everyone who survived was wounded, yet hope shone in every pair of eyes.
Ping'an County had suffered under the demons for far too long. Now, the calamity of Black Mountain had finally ended at the hands of their generation. Even if demons emerged again in the future, as long as they patrolled diligently, they could nip them in the bud.
As long as no powerful outsider settled on Black Mountain, the people of Ping'an County could finally sleep easy!
"It's risen from the dead!"
"The demons are rising from the dead!"
Someone suddenly shouted, drawing everyone's attention.
Not far from him, a Wild Boar Demon riddled with arrows had somehow gotten back to its feet.
"Watch out!"
The next second, the Wild Boar Demon lunged straight at him. Chen Fan saw it and shouted, then casually hurled the Meteorite Iron Blade in his hand. It struck the Wild Boar Demon and sent it flying several meters.
But more and more demons that had already died were rising to their feet, including the Black Mountain Three Demons whom Chen Fan had slain. Tiger Demon Mountain Lord was especially unsettling: once he stood up, he felt around as if searching for his own head.
Ape Demon Three Eyes had a massive wound straight through his skull and had long since stopped breathing. Yet now he had risen again, his eyes glowing a murky gray-white as he bared his teeth and glared at Chen Fan.
"What's going on?"
Chen Fan was startled by the sight. These demons had clearly died. How could they have come back to life?
"Chen Fan, look at the Tiger Demon!"
Lu Xuenning pointed at Tiger Demon Mountain Lord to alert him.
Chen Fan looked over and saw countless fine branches growing from the stump of the Tiger Demon's neck. More of them sprouted from the severed base of its head. The tiny branches intertwined, and the Tiger Demon's head grew right back!
"Could we all have fallen under some evil spell?"
Huang Chengyue asked in a low, grave voice.
"It isn't an evil spell. Someone's behind this!"
Lu Xuenning said with absolute certainty.
Even her master, a powerhouse at the Spirit Aperture Realm Peak, couldn't do something like this.
But some demons were born with incredible sorcery, such as the Fox Demon's bewitchment, the Tiger Demon's control over ghostly servants, and the dragon's power to summon wind and rain.
These demons must have come back to life because an even more powerful demon was manipulating everything from behind the scenes.
"So that's why the Black Mountain Three Demons could all reach the Spirit Aperture Realm, even though they were three wild demons. There's an even more powerful being behind them, guiding them."
Lu Xuenning realized the truth as she watched.
"Quit your tricks and show yourself!"
Chen Fan barked. He pulled the Meteorite Iron Blade out of the Wild Boar Demon and unleashed Heaven and Earth One-Blade Cut. His terrifying Blade Intent had almost become tangible.
Rumble!
He swung once, slicing the demons that had risen from the dead clean in half at the waist.
But soon, the same eerie scene that had happened to the Tiger Demon played out again. Branches sprouted from the severed demons, twisted together, and stitched their bodies back into place.
"These look like willow branches. Black willow branches!"
Chen Fan frowned as he spoke.
"Black willow branches?"
"I remember a Jinyiwei brother who once wandered deep into Black Mountain and made it back alive. He said he'd seen a towering willow tree there, so huge it nearly blocked out the sky."
"But the tree was black all over. He suspected a heavenly bolt had blasted it into charcoal."
"Could it really be that the willow tree became a spirit, only for heaven and earth to reject it and strike it down with tribulation? Maybe it couldn't rest after dying, and its remnant soul turned into an evil spirit."
Huang Chengyue thought for a moment, then said.
He was an old hand at Ping'an County's Jinyiwei Baihu Office. When he had joined the Jinyiwei, the organization had still been powerful enough to keep the demons pinned down. They had even gone in groups to Black Mountain to slay demons and rack up Merit Points.
Back then, one of the Jinyiwei who had entered Black Mountain with them had lost his way and wandered into its depths. When he returned, he told them what he had experienced.
"A willow tree that's black all over?"
"Could it be a willow tree that's turned demonic?"
Chen Fan asked curiously, as if thinking aloud, though perhaps he was asking the others.
"Black willow branches have taken root inside all these demons. It might have been hard to notice anything while they were alive."
"But now that they've died, the willow branches inside them are using their bodies as nourishment, growing like mad and taking complete control of them!"
Lu Xuenning swung her sword and cut an Ape Demon's arm off. Holding it up, she saw black willow branches sprouting wildly from the stump. They crept along her arm, winding around her and reaching farther up her body!
She immediately dropped the Ape Demon's arm, then swung her sharp sword and cut down every black willow branch reaching for her.
"Burn them with fire oil!"
"There's fire oil on the city walls. Get it, now!"
Chen Fan called out.
Even if they hacked the demons into pieces—or minced them into a thousand scraps—the eerie willow branches could still stitch their bodies back together like countless fine threads.
But if they burned the demons' corpses, the black willow branches would have nowhere to hide!
Besides, no matter how strange they were, these black willow branches still leaned toward wood and were made of it. Perhaps an attack with fire could suppress them completely—or even burn them to nothing!
Before you continue