The vines killed in an orderly pattern, radiating outward from the towering tree that had abruptly sprouted in the center of the Peach Garden.
In other words, the closer someone was to the center, the sooner they died.
Within minutes, the line of death reached Yin Chao.
His eyes were vacant, no different from those of the people around him.
The woman and Xu Yuan stood a short distance behind him.
The tangled vines on the peach tree began winding around its trunk like snakes. One raised its tip, like a venomous snake poised to strike.
After confirming that Yin Chao offered no resistance, it inched toward his slender neck.
Once it had wrapped all the way around, the coarse vine tightened until his pale neck turned red.
The vine rose high, suspending his entire body from a branch.
Strangely, however, no Peach Blossom on a Human Face grew from Yin Chao's mouth.
A triumphant smile blossomed across his face, replacing his earlier foolish grin.
As if alive, the peach tree began screaming as it withered.
Its cries were much like those of the Peach Blossom on a Human Face, piercing and neither male nor female.
The withered vine fell away from Yin Chao's neck. The entire peach tree looked scorched, reduced to a blackened trunk with clawlike branches.
Yin Chao laughed, his gaze turning dark and unreadable.
Every vine in the Peach Blossom Woods was affected by him. They stopped moving, as lifeless as dead things.
The situation was spiraling out of control.
Just then, a young girl's voice rang out in midair.
"You do not believe in me."
Her voice carried a distinctive echo, as though she stood on high in an empty hall, her words reverberating again and again.
It carried divinity and the compassion unique to