With that, Zhao Zhen waved a hand. "The tree demon is dead. Go tend to your wounds."
Yan Hongxia thanked him, then suddenly remembered something. "Divine General, if I may report: a great demon stands behind this tree demon. He is called the Black Mountain Old Demon. His powers are astonishing, and his crimes are grave—"
"We were just about to capture and kill that fiend!" Zhao Zhen said. "Since we have the True Lord's decree to sweep the demons from Zhaoyun, how could we leave a vile demon entrenched here?"
Yan Hongxia was overjoyed. The Black Mountain Old Demon had terrorized the Zhaoyun Kingdom for years. Righteous cultivators from several nearby kingdoms had long wanted to destroy him, but his powers were too great for them to bring him down. Now, at last, the Heavenly Court had sent its divine troops. There was hope of slaying him!
"That settles it. Tend to your wounds and recover your strength. We're off!"
Zhao Zhen raised a hand, and the brilliant golden cloud beneath his feet bore tens of thousands of heavenly soldiers southwest. The Black Mountain Old Demon's lair lay a thousand li in that direction, no more than a short flight by cloud.
Among the ruins of Lanruo Temple, Yan Hongxia looked at Ning Jianchen's deathly pale face and took out a porcelain bottle. "Brother Ning, there are several healing pills inside. They work for Golden Core and yin-spirit cultivators alike. Take them and focus on recovering."
"Many thanks, Brother Yan!" Ning Jianchen accepted the bottle without ceremony, tipped out a pill and swallowed it, then sat down where he was to regulate his breathing.
Yan Hongxia sat cross-legged beside him. As he restored his own power, he gazed at the golden cloud fading into the horizon. "I hope they