Chapter 12

Chapter 12

I vaulted over the highway guardrail, and the cold around me was even heavier than I had imagined.

The twisting roots of the locust trees wrapped around my calves, only for me to rip them apart by sheer force.

I drew the Soul-Whip. Lightning swept through the air, and the flailing branches shrank back one after another.

Seizing the chance, I dragged Liu Xun and Ren Song out and shoved them toward the guardrail.

But then my feet sank heavily beneath me. I felt an ancient power, as if it were coming from deep within the mountains.

My rash intrusion seemed to have enraged it. The earth under my feet was collapsing at a terrifying speed.

I shouted Liu Xun and Ren Song’s names, hoping they would turn back and give me a hand.

But the two of them scrambled and tumbled over the guardrail without either of them sparing me another glance.

I desperately grabbed hold of the roots of a nearby locust tree, and sharp wails flooded into my mind.

I saw an ancient locust tree rooted deep in the earth, with blood vessels growing inside its body. Its root system was covered in the souls of the dead who could not be reincarnated.

At midnight, they turned into one Blue Cloth Gown after another, wandering through the mountain forests and wild villages to deliver fresh prey to that Blood Locust.

Now, did this demonic tree want to eat me too?

I didn’t feel afraid. For some reason, I felt a strange excitement instead.

I could sense that deep in the soil, some kind of root system was racing toward me.

I bit down on the web between my thumb and forefinger, and the taste of blood filled my mouth.

The Soul-Whip stretched taut into a straight line amid the lightning. I spat a mouthful of blood onto it, then let myself fall into the depths of the soil.

When darkness swallowed my vision, I sensed the enormous root system that spread throughout the mountain.

Before those roots could coil around me, I wielded the whip like a sword and stabbed straight into it.

Lightning split into the earth, and a spray of blood-red liquid gushed out like a fountain!

“Brother Long!”

Dashun had driven the truck over. He saw Liu Xun and Ren Song, but I was nowhere to be found.

The truck’s high beams shone beyond the guardrail. In the dense locust grove, the soil churned endlessly like rolling magma, but there was no sign of me at all.

Frantic with worry, Dashun was just about to jump down.

I grabbed a locust branch and burst up from underground.

“Dashun, the Mount Tai Stone!” I shouted.

Dashun hurriedly got out and went to open the cargo compartment.

Taking advantage of the brief moment after I had wounded that thing, I climbed back onto the road.

But clearly, I had completely enraged it.

Countless roots crawled up from beneath the guardrail and onto the pavement. One person after another wearing a Blue Cloth Gown stepped out from behind the locust trees.

“If you don’t want to die, get your asses down here and help!” I roared at Liu Xun and Ren Song, who were still huddled in the cab like quails.

They knew it too. If we didn’t do something now, none of us were getting out of here.

That Mount Tai Stone weighed a good four or five hundred pounds, and moving it was extremely difficult.

We had left in such a hurry this time that the truck didn’t have any specialized unloading tools, only a simple loading board.

Dashun set up the board. The four of us moved the stone to the edge of the truck and were just about to set it onto the board.

The roots flooding onto the road had already burrowed under the wheels, and the entire truck tilted with them.

Ren Song cried out in alarm and let go completely!

My calves tensed, the muscles in my arms bulging violently as I held the stone steady.