The Willows Above the Dry Bones

The colorful butterfly lightly flapped its wings, and the fog ahead dispersed, opening up a passage. It flew in. Qin Ran and the others followed it in, walking along the passageway.

The passageway extended silently in the fog, as if it had no end; the butterfly with fluttering wings flew ahead without a sound; Qin Ran and the others followed without making a slightest noise.

After walking for an unknown period of time in this serene atmosphere, there was finally a change up ahead.

The passageway opened up ahead, the fog dispersed, and at this moment the fog was gone. The passageway had reached its end. There was light coming in from the outside.

Qin Ran looked ahead and saw that on the other side of the passageway was a vast world. The sky and earth were bright and clear, with no more fog!

Suddenly everything became bright and clear, as if his mind that had been dull in the fog also lit up.

Everyone unconsciously quickened their pace, walked out of the passageway in a few steps, and came to the outside of the passageway. They looked around this new world.

The sky was infinitely high, blue in color, with no clouds. Sunlight shone down from above, illuminating the valley ahead.

The valley was not big, but gave people a strange feeling, as if this place used to be a flat land, but later a powerful force had sunk it down, turning it into a valley.

In the very middle of this valley, there was a lush, tall willow tree. The willow tree was huge. It grew from the bottom of the valley all the way up until its treetop poked out of the valley.

It had luxuriant branches and leaves. There were thousands of willow branches, all hanging freely like little girls who had braided many plaits with their thick long hair and let them all hang in the front. The branches had leaves, each glowing green, brimming with infinite vitality. Embedded among those leaves were rows of snowy white willow fluffs, like snowflakes falling onto jade.

Seeing such a willow tree, anyone would exclaim “How beautiful!” unless they noticed the scene of hell at its base.

At the bottom of the valley, in front of the willow tree, were piles of white bones. The bones were of all kinds of creatures: tigers, leopards, snakes, rats, ants etc., as well as countless human skeletons.

How many bones were there?

Piled up, they covered the lower half of the willow tree, filled up half of the valley. Looking from this side, it was as if a mountain of skeletons grew a willow tree on it.

On top of those skeleton bones, there were also many corpses that hadn't turned into bones yet. They were of all kinds of species as well, lying on top of that mountain of skeleton bones under that willow tree, one after another, with blood streaming down them.

The willow tree had endless life, while the skeleton bones under its feet spelled endless death.

Apart from that, up on the cliffs at the valley, in the spot Qin Ran and the others came out from and looking ahead, over there knelt seven or eight giant demonic beasts with massive physiques, facing the willow tree.

Each of these demonic beasts emanated an extremely horrifying aura within its body. Every single one was a top-level Greater Demon in the Hengduan Mountains range.

They knelt there prostrating with utmost respect towards that willow tree, as if humans kowtowing.

There was no more doubt. That willow tree growing amidst the mound of skeleton bones down in the valley was the legendary Devouring Demon Willow!

They had searched for who knows how long, some even sacrificed their lives for it, before finally locating this Devouring Demon Willow. But not a shred of joy rose in this group right now.

Because at this moment, those seven Greater Demons kneeling before the Devouring Demon Willow now stood up.

Each of them was at least Sixth Order in strength. They stood at the pinnacle of the Hengduan Mountains’ food chain. They were extremely powerful.

“No wonder there wasn't a single high level demon outside the Land of Immortal Legacy. So they were all here.” Qin Ran shook his head. He looked to Su Changqing and asked, “So what about plan B?”

“What?” Regardless of Su Changqing’s capabilities, he couldn't possibly know what plan B was.

“What’s next?” Qin Ran asked again. “What do we do after finding the Devouring Demon Willow? You can't possibly not have contingency plans, right?”

Su Changqing took out a disk from his Cosmic Bag, showed it to Qin Ran and let the others see it too, then said,

“This is a Tracking Disk that can track across thousands of miles. Once we place this here, Elder Ning will be able to locate it with his supernatural powers, then bring people here to eliminate the Devouring Demon Willow.”

Bring people here to eliminate the Devouring Demon Willow?

Hearing this, Qin Ran’s heart thumped. As perceptive as he was, he sensed something amiss.

For instance...

“Speaking of which, where did Elder Ning go?” Qin Ran asked.

He still hadn't figured out why Elder Ning and the other people from the Lingnan Immortal Sect didn't come together. They should have directly taken out the Devouring Demon Willow after finding it. But he was starting to understand a little now.

“Elder Ning has only reached the Initial Integration Stage whereas the Devouring Demon Willow has reached Full Integration, perhaps even Half-Step Union. So even if the Devouring Demon Willow is weakened later, Elder Ning still may not necessarily be able to defeat it.”

“While we were in the Land of Immortal Legacy looking for the Devouring Demon Willow, Elder Ning was also seeking help from nearby sects around the Hengduan Mountains.” Su Changqing explained. “He should be at the Boundless Sword Sect now.”

Something was wrong, very wrong!

But Qin Ran couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong for the moment. He carefully sorted through the facts in his mind without responding.

“So we just have to place this Tracking Disk here?” Jian Yuanjie spoke up to ask.

Even just standing there without moving, the horrifying demonic auras from those Greater Demons already made one’s scalp tingle uncomfortably.

“No!” Su Changqing shook his head. “We also need to ensure these beast demons don't destroy the Tracking Disk. The Devouring Demon Willow obviously can't move right now during its final preparations, but it can still get these beasts to destroy stuff.”

Hearing this, Jian Yuanjie was dumbfounded as a certain possibility came to mind. He anxiously asked, “Don’t tell me we have to guard this Tracking Disk and fight against these beast demons while waiting for Elder Ning and the others to arrive?!”

Su Changqing looked at him. There was an inscrutable smile deep in his eyes as he nodded.

“We’re doomed!” Jian Yuanjie instantly felt like retreating back into the fog.

One should know that a Sixth Order Greater Demon was equivalent in strength to a late Golden Core, half-step Integration cultivator. A Seventh Order Greater Demon was equal to a mid Integration Stage cultivator. An Eighth Order Greater Demon was comparable to a late Integration Stage cultivator.

Right now, there were four Sixth Order Greater Demons, two Seventh Order Greater Demons, and one Eighth Order Greater Demon!

As for them?

Five at Golden Core Stage, plus a butterfly of unknown combat capabilities.

Although due to external aids like magic tools, talismans, spell formations etc., cultivators on average had greater combat power compared to Greater Demons of the same level, there was still a limit to how great the boost was!

This situation didn't look good no matter how one looked at it!

“We don’t need to battle head-on, just stall for time. And we don't need to stall for long either, just until Elder Ning and the rest arrive.”

Su Changqing said. With a wave of his hand, he took out his own sword and assigned tasks at the same time.

“I’ll handle that Eighth Order Greater Demon. The other two Seventh Order Greater Demons will be left to Junior Brother Qin and Junior Sister Bai. You two only need to stall those two Sixth Order Greater Demons. No problem, right?”

“???”

Bro, there is a problem! Which eye of yours saw me as some godlike being able to fight above my level?