Chapter 62 - Defeating the Tree

As she watched from outside the tree's reach, Yama Mengyuan fed a pill to Tian Longmeng. She needed to think of a winning strategy quickly. They could always give up and walk away but this was the only real treasure they found in the cave and for some reason, her heart could not stop thumping. It could be pride, but something in her would not allow surrender.

After a couple seconds, Tian Longmeng rose with a newfound rage. Before he threw his anger at the tree, he had to learn something first. "Where did that other branch come from?"

"Look there." Yama Mengyuan responded by pointing at the branch she recently broke, only now that it was almost fully regrown.

Tian Longmeng felt like he was having a headache. This more than likely meant that the branch that hit him was the very branch he broke. However, this also meant that no matter how much he breaks, they will always come back.

"So much for defeating it that way." Tian Longmeng sighed exhaustingly.

��We just have to cut off its supply." Yama Mengyuan seemed to already have another plan in mind. She called back her knives and advised Tian Longmeng. "I want you to distract it again, but more this time."

Tian Longmeng listened attentively to her plan and gave his approval. It sounds viable so he readied himself and launched once more into the air.

The Rotting Wood Tree seemed surprised to detect Tian Longmeng suddenly again but nonetheless sent branches at him. Though, Tian Longmeng was fully prepared this time.

Tian Longmeng grabbed the oncoming branches on his way to the tree, releasing them as he landed on the bark. After that he tore through pieces of tree bark, breaking and snapping any attacking branches.

This allowed Yama Mengyuan to enter the territory of the tree without being spotted and sneak closer to the major roots. She calmed her heartbeat, gripped her knives, and began carefully slicing at the roots. She moved among three of the roots, cutting enough to create an opening but not enough to sever its connection with the main tree.

At the same time, Tian Longmeng was doing a great job at distracting the Rotting Wood Tree. He was inwardly lamenting that he had to damage the bark to do so but at least it was better than becoming tree nutrients.

"That is the core, if I can rip that out then the tree will stop. Well, at least I hope so." Tian Longmeng did not know much about this tree but tore towards the green light that he saw before. He was hoping that if it was what he thought it was then troubling it should serve to anger the tree enough and give Yama Mengyuan time to do her thing.

His ideas worked better than he expected and attracted the full fury of the Rotting Wood Tree. Tian Longmeng dodged five branches that pierced at him, but he gulped at the sight of all six major branches aimed to kill him.

He quickly retreated for another part of the bark to escape the barrage of attacks but was scooped in the gut by a major branch. The branches did not relent and made a crescent in the air out of Tian Longmeng before slamming him into the cave wall.

"Guh." Tian Longmeng coughed a mouthful of blood. He tried to get back into action but he could barely move an inch without pain wracking his body. He could quickly regenerate with essence but the branches were not giving him enough time.

Strangely enough, the branch missed. Tian Longmeng had clenched his eyelids a bit but opened them in confusion. The whole tree seemed to be still. The first thought that entered his mind was Yama Mengyuan.

On the floor, Mengyuan planned to stealthily cut all the roots and sever them at once but she had to rush her plans early after seeing Tian Longmeng getting destroyed. She strengthened her grip on the knives and severed three of the roots before running for the fourth.

Before she could move from her location, a tree branch pinned her to the ceiling. She struggled and even ignited her knives to help her escape but the tree was too angry to let her escape that easily.

Yama Mengyuan could feel her organs squeezing on each other and her bones tremble. It was planning to crush her right on the ceiling and she did not have much time to explore options. The longer she stayed between the branch and ceiling, the more air escaped her compressed lungs. In five seconds she could barely move her limbs anymore as she gasped for air.

As her eyesight waned, she could only feel the air gush back into her lungs as Tian Longmeng broke the branch in half. He bounced back to catch her before she reached the floor and laid her in the safety zone before jumping at the tree one more time.

It did not take long before Yama Mengyuan was back to functionality and rose to witness Tian Longmeng's new form. He powered past all the branches with his body fully cloaked with essence. His speed and combat ability almost doubled, allowing him to easily head for the core.

"If he used that when we fought, there would not even be a fight." Yama Mengyuan inwardly thought. She quickly slapped her cheeks and ran towards the other roots to resume her plans. It seemed it was working since she had not seen the tree regenerating as it was before.

Tian Longmeng did not care about that. He was too focused on ripping out the core to recognize that the tree was moving slower than usual. He shredded piece after piece until he opened the core.

He got a good look at the glowing ball of green liquid, but before he could touch it, he was doused head-first with malignant essence.

Yama Mengyuan had just severed the fourth root but had to quickly retreat because of the milky thickness of the essence. "Tian Longmeng!" She quickly shouted in horror when she realized that he did not emerge from the cloud of essence.

She gripped her knives but did not ignite it. She wanted to throw them so badly but did not want to risk burning Tian Longmeng. However, without that her options became limited.

Grrr.

Those options became more limited when she heard wolf growls behind her. She wanted to beat herself to a pulp for forgetting that the Rotting Wood Tree's speciality was in its parasitic spores. If she only listened to Tian Longmeng earlier, she could have avoided this.

Pressed between the new threats and rescuing Tian Longmeng before it was too late, Yama Mengyuan really wanted to cry.

"I cannot have someone die because of me on this vacation." She moved the spatio-temporal ring on her finger to reveal a red thread. She hesitated but after a couple breaths, she was determined.

"You think this can stop me? You guessed damn wrong." A cry echoed throughout the cave as Tian Longmeng declared to finish the fight.

Yama Mengyuan almost lost her balance as the cave rocked harder than ever. Within the essence cloud, two screams competed against each other, with Tian Longmeng's childish roar drowning out the high-pitched shriek.

At the peak of the war cries, Tian Longmeng flew out of the essence cloud clutching the tree's core within his arms. He barely had the energy or breath to turn his sight to Yama Mengyuan and chuckle. "We won."