Yi Yang darted through the dense forest, azure light flashing from the Cloud-Treading Wind-Chasing Boots beneath his feet.
He avoided the Vine King's wildly lashing tendrils and the pervasive poisonous mist, using mounds of raised earth and Demon Beast skeletons as cover as he took the trickiest possible route.
His Illusion-Breaking Divine Sense remained firmly locked on the three slender, deep-purple vines on Lu Zui up ahead. Those were his targets.
One hundred zhang, eighty zhang, fifty zhang.
The distance between them kept shrinking.
Just as Yi Yang came within thirty zhang of the Ironwood's roots, the frozen earth beneath his feet suddenly collapsed. Two dark-green vines as thick as thighs burst from the ground, tracing twin afterimages through the air as they stabbed straight at his chest and throat.
Yi Yang's pupils contracted. It seemed the presence he had leaked had finally been detected by this Spirit-Devouring Blood Vine at Returning to the Profound Realm Perfection. To the Vine King's senses, his blood and vitality were nowhere near as rich as those of the two Dharma Body Realm Great Demons outside, so it had not reacted immediately.
But when Yi Yang made such an obvious move toward Lu Zui, even the Vine King's sluggish instincts recognized that something was wrong. Two vines immediately burst from the earth and attacked him.
Facing the two thigh-thick dark-green vines, Yi Yang exerted strength through his right wrist, tightened his grip on the Mysterious Abyss Saber, and slashed forward three times in succession.
Three streaks of dark-green Blade Astral Force flew from the blade and struck the two thick, lashing vines head-on.
Squelch!
The first streak of Blade Astral Force sliced through the vines' tough outer bark, the second severed the tightly interwoven wooden fibers within, and the third passed straight through the