Celestial Wood Vine Evolves

"Tsk."

With a sweep of his right hand, Xu Yuan flung Shi Kuan and Chen Fan's still-warm corpses, along with the Armor-Piercing Awl and several other unimpressive artifacts, straight toward the center of the swamp.

Splash.

The bodies did not sink into the mire. Instead, they were ensnared by aerial roots extending from the Jade Immortal Grass King.

In the blink of an eye, the blood essence and lingering souls within the corpses were visibly drawn out. That essence flowed into the grass, and the Grass King's jade-like stalk trembled faintly as radiant light circulated through it, the spiritual energy it emitted growing ever purer.

"Using cultivators' blood essence and souls to nurture and hasten its growth—truly a crooked shortcut."

Xu Yuan watched coldly without intervening. The Grass King had already developed an evil nature; harvesting it too early would inevitably diminish its medicinal potency. Though this kind of "forced ripening" added a few more traces of sinister impurity, the wood spiritual source within it had also become vastly greater and purer. To the Celestial Wood Vine, it might be a tremendous tonic.

About a quarter of an hour later, the two corpses had completely withered away, weathered into dust without even leaving bones behind. The Jade Immortal Grass King seemed to have "eaten its fill." Its radiance drew inward as it stood quietly in place, its abundant spiritual energy carrying a sense of satisfaction.

Only then did Xu Yuan raise his hand and grasp through the air.

The swamp churned. The Grass King, along with the four hundred-year Jade Immortal Grasses around it, was wrapped in an invisible, gentle force. Together with a great mass of spiritually saturated sludge clinging to its roots, they slowly floated before him.

Xu Yuan casually sealed the four hundred-year Jade Immortal Grasses into