Martial Peak

Chapter 2015, Wood Spirit Calamity

This change made the expressions of the many cultivators who were standing in the square quite difficult, but awed by the strength of these Emperors, none dared act disrespectfully.

Most people were completely confused as to what was happening.

As soon as the barrier went up, Xiao Yu Yang and Gao Xue Ting, who were sitting on the high platform, looked at each other and stood up together.

The next moment, two immense Divine Senses swept forth, covering the entire square.

Almost everyone went stiff at that moment; after all, being scanned by the Divine Senses of two Emperors would naturally feel quite uncomfortable. In front of these powerful Divine Senses, all the secrets they tried to hide seemed to be exposed.

But soon, these two Divine Senses were taken back, allowing everyone to feel relieved.

“It seems that many have been infected,” Xiao Yu Yang narrowed his eyes before stretching out his hand and sending a streak of light out from his fingertip.

The speed of this bolt of light was extremely fast, and in the blink of an eye, it pierced towards the abdomen of a man wearing blue robes down below.

The blue-robed cultivator had a Second-Order Origin King cultivation, so after witnessing an Emperor Realm master attack him, he could not help paling and calling out, “Sir Star Envoy, you…”

He couldn’t figure out how a tiny, insignificant Origin King like himself had provoked a Silver Star Envoy of Star Soul Palace into personally attacking him.

Before he finished speaking, the bolt pierced his lower abdomen. The blue-robed man could not help letting out a grunt as he was sent stumbling back from the huge impact force.

At the same time, from his back, the bolt of light shot out, but now it clearly was wrapping around something.

Everyone looked carefully and was surprised to find that this thing was an oval-shaped cyan-coloured seed.

*Pa…*

There was a soft pop as the steam of light burst, and the seed was vaporized.

At the last moment, a shrill shriek seemed to come from the seed.

Seeing this scene, everyone’s expression changed drastically as they realized that something had invaded this blue-robed man’s body, and that Xiao Yu Yang had attacked him in order to get rid of it.

Turning their heads back, the crowd saw that the man in blue, who had been pierced by the bolt of light just now, was quite pale, as if his foundation had been damaged, but there was no immediate concern about his life.

Xiao Yu Yang did not even spare this man a second glance as he instead waved his hand, sending out a storm of light bolts.

One after another, these streams of light shot out and hit different cultivators in the crowd.

At the same time that Xiao Yu Yang moved, Gao Xue Ting also took action.

With a solemn look on her face, this woman traced a rune pattern in the air which quickly condensed into a small net. This net then multiplied before shooting out in all directions.

These small nets seemed to have a mind of their own and swiftly arrived at their targets, enveloping them.

All the cultivators shrouded by these small nets let out a gasp of fear, but surprisingly, these nets actually passed right through them. However, when these nets re-emerged, they had cyan seeds in them.

Gao Xue Ting formed a seal with her hands and instantly the small nets burst apart, shattering the seeds inside them to pieces.

“What was that?” A cultivator yelled in horror as he stumbled backwards.

Although they now understood these two Emperors were not trying to take their lives, many people were still shocked to see such strange seeds being extracted from the cultivators around them.

At that moment, inside the square, pitiful screams suddenly sounded from all directions.

Immediately afterwards, a violent force surged upwards.

Among the crowd, suddenly there were several strange trees. At first glance, these things were no different from ordinary trees, but they were exuding an extremely evil aura and at the center of their trunks, there were clear and obvious faces.

Yang Kai was also taken aback at that moment.

He saw with his own eyes a cultivator next to him undergo a tremendous and extremely rapid transformation.

This cultivator had been laughing with his companions and discussing his adventures inside the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda only a moment ago with a look of excitement on his face, but all of a sudden, a look of pain had filled his expression.

At the same time, a blue light shone from his abdomen and his skin cracked, spilling out blood from his physique as if something was trying to emerge from inside of him.

In the blink of an eye, the cultivator had transformed into a tree-like existence with a human face on its trunk. From his lips a terrifying howl, filled with vicious hunger sounded.

*Chi chi chi…*

Green vines shot out from the inside these trees and began madly flailing about.

Several nearby cultivators who were not paying attention were caught off guard. One of them was pierced by a vine and as a guzzling sound rang out, like someone was rapidly drinking down a glass of wine, the pierced cultivator rapidly shrivelled up.

“Wood Spirit!” Yang Kai called out in shock.

How could he not recognize what was happening before him? This scene was identical to the one he encountered when the Wood Spirit appeared on the second layer of the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda.

However, Yang Kai never expected that he would see it again in the square of Maplewood City.

As he shouted, Yang Kai swiftly backed away while at the same time condensing his Fire Sword Qi from his Five Elements Indestructible Sword Tempering Art to chop down the vines that were stabbing towards him.

With a loud thumb, the severed vines fell to the ground and burned as Yang Kai kicked off the ground and took some distance.

By now, many cultivators also recognized what was happening, and in an instant, the name ‘Wood Spirit’ spread across the square.

“Circulate your strength to protect yourselves, don’t allow the Wood Seeds to invade your body, otherwise your fate will be the same as theirs!” Xiao Yu Yang roared loudly from the high platform.

Yang Kai heard this and immediately understood something, hurriedly circulating his strength to cover his body and avoid being accidentally infected.

Other fast-reacting cultivators followed Yang Kai’s example while those who reacted slower either escaped by luck or were unfortunate enough to be invaded by the tiny Wood Seeds and quickly degenerated into Wood Spirit Clones.

Atop the high platform, Xiao Yu Yang coldly snorted as he pushed his strength wildly, pointing his hand and swiftly killing several of the Wood Spirit Clones.

Gao Xue Ting did not lag behind and similarly began to act. Seeing that the scene could no longer be contained with gentle methods, she did not show any mercy and began executing all the Wood Spirit Soul Clones in range.

At the same time, the other four Emperors followed suit throughout Maplewood City.

When the cultivators returned to the square from the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda before, many had left immediately, and among these people, some had been infected by the Wood Spirit’s Wood Seeds. Somehow, the Wood Spirit realized it had been exposed so it immediately caused all of its seeds to sprout.

And so, the six Emperors began cutting down the Wood Spirit Clones like they were cutting melons and chopping vegetables.

After realizing the danger of the Wood Spirit, the cultivators of Maplewood City also began using their strength to protect themselves.

Soon, all of Maplewood City was caught up in a chaotic battle, but the overall situation was still manageable. These Wood Spirit Clones weren’t very powerful, and their methods weren’t varied. The Wood Spirit’s greatest advantage was that it could spread its Wood Seeds silently and infect other cultivators.

But as long as a cultivator was on guard, the chance of them being infected was almost negligible.

With the cooperation of many cultivators, the Wood Spirit crisis seemed like it would soon be resolved.

Half a day later, the corpses of Wood Spirit Clones lay everywhere in Maplewood City. These corpses were originally Maplewood City cultivators, but after being infected by Wood Seeds, they had all transformed into completely different existences.

The six Emperors did not take any chances and split up to perform a thorough inspection of Maplewood City.

During this inspection, they found a few hidden Wood Seeds.

This situation lasted for two days before the chaos in Maplewood City gradually subsided.

Within these two days, the number of Maplewood City cultivators that died reached into the thousands. This fully illustrated how terrifying this Wood Spirit was. It did not even need to take overt action, simply spreading its Wood Seeds was enough to raise a calamity.

If it had really been allowed to mature and grow, all of Maplewood City would likely have been wiped out.

Yang Kai finally realized just how horrible an enemy this was and felt that Mo Xiao Qi saying Emperors had even fallen to Wood Spirits in the past was not groundless.

Over the past two days, he had also been actively cooperating with other cultivators to seek out and destroy Wood Spirit Clones. After all, all of Maplewood City was participating in this effort, so if he did not stand with them, he would quickly become a target of public criticism.

During this time, both Mo Xiao Qi and Kang Si Ran had sent messages asking whether he was safe numerous times, only feeling relieved after receiving word from him that he was in good condition.

After all the dust settled, Yang Kai went to Spirit Pill Plaza to meet with Kang Si Ran and agreed on the date for him to resume his Alchemy work. Finished with this, he returned to the secluded home he had rented.

Yang Kai needed to sort out his harvest from the Five Coloured Treasure Pagoda.

At the same time, inside the City Lord’s Mansion.

The six Emperors gathered together with Duan Yuan Shan still standing to the side respectfully.

However, the expressions on these Emperors’ faces were not as relaxed as before, even seeming a bit solemn.

“Seniors, has the Wood Spirit really been wiped out?” Duan Yuan Shan hesitated for a long time before asking cautiously.

He had personally had to execute two of his once-loyal subordinates during this clean-up operation, so he fully realized just how difficult the Wood Spirit was to destroy, leaving him quite anxious and distressed.

“Even if I said it was wiped out completely, you would definitely not believe me,” Xiao Yu Yang raised his head and glanced over at him.

“Senior means…” Duan Yuan Shan’s face paled slightly.

Xiao Yu Yang sighed and explained, “There are many types of Wood Spirits, and their innate abilities are all different. This Wood Spirit… has indeed been more troublesome than this King had anticipated, so this King does not dare to guarantee it is really gone. Out there, there are perhaps some well-hidden Wood Seeds which we were unable to find.”

Duan Yuan Shan looked horrified and asked, “Even with the methods of several Seniors, you cannot be certain?”

Gao Xue Ting replied, “We cannot be sure unless we gather every single cultivator in Maplewood City and thoroughly inspect them one by one with our Divine Senses.”

“How could this one dare ask such a thing from my Seniors,” Duan Yuan Shan was taken aback and hurriedly waved his hands.