Chapter 69: Devil's Breath

  "What's wrong with Xiaosan?" Zhou Qian cried out.

  "He may have discovered something, but... going further would be entering the inner zone! Master, hurry and stop him!" Fang Yizhe urged.

  "No rush, let's follow him." Xiǎo Rú glanced up at the sky: "In an hour, if in an hour we don't see anything and he's still wandering around everywhere, we'll bring him back. If all else fails, we can just knock him out."

  Xiǎo Rú proposed a compromise, walking for only an hour. With Cloud Water Marsh being so big, there shouldn't be any problems. Fang Yǐ Zhé reluctantly nodded in agreement.

  A few people followed behind, seeing Su Tang rush straight towards a mountain wall from afar. The mountain wall was over 100 meters high, with an upright and smooth surface like a mirror, without anything special.

  "What is Xiaosan doing?" Zhou Qian became more and more puzzled, looking at Su Tang's posture, as if he was about to crash into the mountain wall.

  Before his words had faded away, Su Tang's voice flashed in the bushes and then disappeared without a trace.

  Xiǎo Rú and others were greatly surprised, quickly rushing to the foot of the mountain wall, pushing aside the dense thicket of tall grass, suddenly discovering a crack at the base of the mountain wall. The crack was not wide, barely enough for one person to crouch down and crawl in.

  "How did Xiaosan know there was a crack here?!" Xixiao Ru stared with wide eyes.

  "Go in and take a look." Fang Yizhe couldn't control his curiosity either. Had... Su Tang really heard some sound?

  They drilled fifty or sixty meters ahead, and suddenly a bright light appeared in front of them. They found themselves standing on a protruding rock, about eight or nine meters above the ground. The surrounding area was a closed valley, with peaks encircling it, and a flat grassland in the middle. Su Tang stood at the edge of the rock, looking down, his shoulders slightly trembling, his chest heaving violently, seemingly extremely excited.

  Xiǎo Rú rushed to the edge of the rock, looking down, and suddenly saw a very eye-catching tree. The tree was about ten meters high from its roots, but it only had more than a dozen leaves. However, the leaves were extremely large, and from a distance, they looked like small houses hanging on the trunk. The thick branches seemed to be unable to bear the weight of the leaves, being bent downward.

  Xiǎo Rú's eyes widened in shock, and she couldn't control the turmoil inside her, shrieking: "The Tree of Destiny?!"

  The Tree of Destiny only exists in the ancient legends, said to be the source of all life and even the entire world. The Nature Sect, one of the three major sects now, still regards the Tree of Destiny as the supreme totem of their sect. Unfortunately, a totem is just a totem, and they haven't seen the Tree of Destiny for a long time either.

  Xiǎo Rú although her thoughts were simple, she immediately understood what this meant. If her eyes weren't deceiving her, if that was really the Tree of Fate, then the entire world would be shaken!

  Around the Tree of Fate, there was a group of people, who were the warriors that had paid one thousand gold coins to cross the bridge. They approached the Tree of Fate from all directions, but the Tree of Fate seemed annoyed by them. A cluster of roots burst out of the mud and danced wildly, trying to stop the footsteps of those warriors.

  Although the roots of the Tree of Destiny were very tenacious, after all, it was a living thing, and with life came wounds. Those warriors were not weak, they kept swinging their swords, charging forward, and more and more roots were shattered, severed, but they themselves did not suffer any damage. If this continued for a while longer, the Tree of Destiny would no longer be able to stop them.

  What's even more frightening is an old man sitting in mid-air, his right hand stretched out in front of him, without any visible movement, five sword lights as agile as a dragon are moving back and forth in the air, each impact can shatter hundreds of roots.

  Although Su Tang had lost his mind, his subconscious also knew what kind of opponent he would face, the Sect Master!

  Xiǎo Rú's scream caught the attention of those warriors, a young man turned around and looked at Xiǎo Rú, shouting: "Kill them!"

  A middle-aged warrior approached and whispered a few words, whereupon the young man said: "Whoever she is, kill her!"

  Being able to discover the Tree of Fate is a great fortune, but it also hides a great disaster. Once the news leaks out, let alone them, even those few big families will be reduced to dust under the wrath of Tianzong.

  Two warriors immediately broke away from the battle group and turned towards the rock where Su Tang and others were standing.

  "Mother... save me..." At this moment, the mournful cry in Su Tang's mind became exceptionally clear. He was enraged and on the verge of madness, immediately drawing his Night Cry Bow and aiming at a warrior.

  The sharp whistling sound seemed to last an eternity, as Su Tang shot out four arrows in a row. The warrior's expression was still relaxed at first, but upon hearing the whistling sound, his face suddenly changed, and he swung the crescent moon curved knife in his hand.

  Rumble, rumble, rumble... Su Tang's powerful energy was completely dispersed by the curved moon knife, but the warrior holding the knife didn't feel any better, retreating several steps and staring at Su Tang with a look of astonishment.

  "Get out! Leave quickly!" Xi Xiao Ru shouted. As soon as she saw the Tree of Fate, she knew that today's matter would not end well. If the Xi family had discovered the Tree of Fate, they would have eliminated everyone who understood the inside story, even if she was the eldest daughter, she would still be kept in the dark, because daughters are destined to marry out anyway.

  "What about Xiao San?" Zhou Qian shouted, she had already acknowledged Xiǎo Xiǎorú's decision and it wasn't that she was afraid of death. There was a master in front of them, Xiǎo Xiǎorú must draw her sword, and could only draw her sword. Those who stayed behind were just burdens.

  Su Tang was still shooting arrows at the warrior, when Xiǎo Rú suddenly showed her extremely violent side, grabbing Su Tang's hair from behind and pressing down on his knee, which violently collided with Su Tang's chest and abdomen.

  Due to the intense pain, Su Tang was unable to breathe, his mouth wide open and his eyes bulging out. However, his consciousness finally regained a hint of clarity.

  Xiǎo Rú fēn shǒu bǎ Su Táng rēng dào Zhōu Qiàn huái lǐ, jiē zhe zhāi xià Dàzhèng zhī jiàn, pāi zài Su Táng xiōng kǒu: "dài zhe tā zǒu, kuài!"

  Translation:

  Xiǎo Rú flipped her hand and threw Su Táng into Zhōu Qiàn's arms, then picked up the Dàzhèng sword and slapped it on Su Táng's chest: "Take him away, quickly!"

  The Taizong sword was extremely heavy, and with Xi Xiao Ru's casual slap, Su Tang was shocked to the point of rolling his eyes back and almost fainting.

  The next moment, Xiǎo Rú's fingertips finally landed on the hilt of the giant knife. As the dark blade was slowly pulled out, her pupils gradually expanded, and eventually her eyes became extremely deep and black, so deep that they seemed bottomless, and so black that they looked eerie.

  Two warriors who were rushing towards each other simultaneously stopped in their tracks. They discovered that a terrible aura was emanating from the girl above.

  Even the old man suspended in mid-air turned his head, no longer paying attention to the Tree of Fate, staring at Xiǎo Rú for a moment, and exclaimed: "What a powerful demonic aura..."

  Xiǎo Rú's mouth slowly curled up into a sly smile, not very friendly, as if looking down on something, yet also seeming to be gloating about something. Then her figure leapt up into the air and swooped down in a swift pounce.