Lie Down and Rest Now

"I need to rest for a while."

Chu Wen leaned against a tree stump, gasping for breath.

Blood Energy: 0/100

Potential Points: 0

He had burned everything out.

He had even burned through all the Potential Points he had absorbed during the battle.

Otherwise, even Shadow Follows Form at the Return to Simplicity level might not have been enough to escape an Beast King's speed.

Shadow Follows Form, Return to Simplicity (Limit Broken Twice)

One limit break could roughly unleash 100% of Return to Simplicity's strength—equivalent to doubling his speed twice over. Combined with Blood Demon State, that was how he had escaped the Beast King's pursuit!

The price was boundless exhaustion. Right now, he only wanted to collapse and remain utterly motionless.

"They're here."

Lin Wei knew that Chu Wen's burst just now had to come with severe backlash. A pair of Mandarin-Duck Twin Halberds wreathed in crackling lightning slid out from her combat suit.

"Dummy, if you don't want to die, hold on until reinforcements arrive!"

Unexpectedly, Chen Dai seemed even calmer than Lin Wei. "Cover me. The beast tide is definitely targeting us. They attacked us to tie down Teacher Rox."

Lin Wei's heart sank. If she had not been from the Lin Family, perhaps the Beast Kings' plan would have failed.

Chen Dai dropped into a bow stance and hoisted Chu Wen onto his back. "Forget that for now. Holding out through these waves is what matters most."

The entire Lakeheart Island seemed to be formed from enormous vines.

Every thick root clung tightly to the soil below, and even the beast tide could not move quickly here.

Everywhere lay the corpses of demon beasts left behind from the previous slaughter.

The two of them leaped amid the beasts' charges, dodging in bedraggled disarray.

Any demon beast that sprang from the forest now and then would die before Lin Wei's Mandarin-Duck Twin Halberds. The flickering lightning carried a faint hint of yin-yang taiji; it had to be one of the Lin Family's trump-card techniques.

Chu Wen could still catch certain details. As Lin Wei rushed forward, she used a circling movement from the Kan position, taking the stance of Azure Dragon Tail-Sweep Form. She used the mother halberd to lift a skull, then cleanly slit the throat with the child halberd.

This was the standard of a major family's descendant!

Chu Wen only knew two saber techniques, while she possessed an entire system of combat arts!

By comparison, Chen Dai really was somewhat dull. He only knew how to swing with brute force, wasting both time and effort.

Chu Wen glanced at the panel again.

Blood Energy: 0.1/100

Blood Energy: 0/100

In the blink of an eye, the Blood Energy he had just absorbed vanished. It was as if something here was competing with Chu Wen's Primordial Source Pearl for Blood Energy!

"Dummy, head east. The Blood Bodhi Tree should be there. Put me down beside it."

Chen Dai called out to Lin Wei, and the two began weaving through the vines.

Lin Wei's expression grew increasingly grim. This kind of high-intensity sprinting, while having to fend off demon beast attacks at every moment, was hundreds of times more exhausting than fighting at school.

Fortunately, this place was filled with the Blood Bodhi Tree's vines. If they had been on flat ground, she might already have been killed by the demon beasts!

At the entrance, the beast tide had already been completely intercepted and slaughtered clean by seven War King squads.

Rox, meanwhile, had stepped onto the Lakeheart Island where the Blood Bodhi Tree stood.

He rolled his shoulders. "What a long-lost feeling—being unable to use even a shred of my strength. But my techniques aren't so easily suppressed."

"They should still be alive... I'm coming."

His feet moved light as the wind. Several beast soldiers lingering sluggishly at the entrance instantly turned into minced flesh.

Still one strike, one kill!

At the bottom of the lake.

Eagle-Eye Beast King looked at the fifteen Beast Kings remaining beside him, his heart bleeding.

In just a few minutes, they had lost six Beast Kings!

All six had been his descendants!

"Damned humans. A War God powerhouse actually killed so many Beast Kings in mere minutes..."

Elephant-Trunk Beast King said coldly, "Enough. All of this has meaning. Our children's deaths will bring about new life."

"Continue. As long as the Blood Bodhi Tree senses a threat to its life, it will produce seeds. Wait until we take the Blood Bodhi seeds. After that, this Blood Bodhi will wither away."

They had learned this from one of the Demon Emperor's subordinates. There was more than one Blood Bodhi Tree in the Kunlun Region, but this one stood on the outskirts, allowing weak Beast Kings like them to interfere.

They had lurked here since the previous battle for it, continuously draining the Blood Bodhi Tree for nearly a year. Combined with the Blood Energy seepage from demon beast corpses outside, it had reached the final moment.

The sixteen Beast Kings spread out and began releasing surging demon power, wrapping the Blood Bodhi Tree within it.

The Blood Bodhi Tree's roots had already been losing vitality. Now, they withered away in patches.

Sensing the danger, the Blood Bodhi Tree began to emit faint, eerie red motes of light.

"After nearly a year, the seed is finally about to take shape. Keep going!" Bell-Deer Beast King said, an unusual gleam rising in his eyes.

Chen Dai carried Chu Wen beneath the Blood Bodhi Tree.

Lin Wei stood ahead, intercepting the charging demon beasts. After fleeing and weaving about all this way, they had already been surrounded on all sides.

The beast soldier-level demon beasts surged in from every direction. Even though she killed each one with a single strike, Lin Wei's hands had gone numb, leaving her without any strength.

"I, a dignified member of the Lin Family, am actually going to die while only a high-level warrior..."

Lin Wei laughed at herself. She had never expected that after overcoming countless obstacles to learn martial arts, she would end up like this.

Chu Wen lay beside the Blood Bodhi Tree's main trunk.

The trunk was more than thirty meters in diameter. No wonder it could support the entire Lakeheart Island.

"Dummy, help me chip away some of the bark."

Chu Wen could feel his Blood Energy increasing, but it was being absorbed too slowly. The bark probably protected the Blood Energy within from leaking away.

Chen Dai followed his instructions and chiseled several holes, but he too had no strength left. His vision swam.

He was far weaker than Lin Wei and Chu Wen. Lin Wei still had the strength to hold back the beast tide, while he was hanging on entirely by his last breath.

"Didn't you say before that I only had to hold them off for three minutes? It's been nearly half an hour. Why are you still so weak..."

Lin Wei had originally used demon beast corpses to maneuver around, but now her footwork had visibly slowed as well, and their line was shrinking bit by bit.

Fortunately, the Blood Bodhi Tree's trunk blocked the demon beasts from one direction. They only needed to drive back the beasts in front of them.

Roar!

Aoo!

Claws emerged one after another from the dense forest, and Lin Wei found it increasingly difficult to hold them back.

"Almost there."

Blood Energy: 10.6/100

Chu Wen watched as his Blood Energy slowly rose and his stamina gradually recovered.

Blood Demon State had completely overdrawn his physical strength. Under normal circumstances, he would need to recuperate for over half an hour, but absorbing Blood Energy while using the Primordial Origin Breathing Method could speed up his recovery somewhat.

"I can't do it anymore. I can't hold on."

Lin Wei did not have time to pull a child halberd from a demon beast corpse. She could only flash backward and retreat rapidly.

Gruesome white bone showed through her right hand. Her entire body went weak; she had reached the end of her strength!

This was a beast tide that blotted out the sky and covered the earth. Even War Generals would be swallowed in an instant.

They had managed to maneuver here for half an hour only because of the terrain.

"Hah..."

Chen Dai propped himself up and threw a combat saber. It pierced a demon beast's right eye, blood spraying everywhere, but he had no strength left. Once he finished, darkness flooded his vision and he collapsed to the ground.

Lin Wei smiled bitterly in resignation. She had done all she could. She only hoped her grandfather would not be too heartbroken.

What a pity. She had only been away from home for a few days, yet she was about to die so soon.

She stiffly turned her head, wanting to bid Chu Wen and Chen Dai farewell, only to discover that Chu Wen, who had been lying beside the tree trunk, was gone.

She snapped her head back around and saw a sight she would never forget for the rest of her life.

A combat saber soaked in blood spun through the air, then elegantly fell back into Chu Wen's hand.

The heads of demon beasts flew into the air, falling in a torrential rain alongside beast blood. It slid down her cheeks and stuck to her sweat-soaked combat suit.

She did not know what expression she wore at that moment.

All she saw was Chu Wen with his back to her, bent forward and gasping heavily, radiating an indescribable boldness—as though the beast tide before him was no longer a crisis.

"You've worked hard. Now lie down and rest."