Chapter 351: Tree Spirit

Xue Wei ignored them as well. He had promised the Emperor to do his best, but he was not going to try and persuade people to save their own lives.

As the people gathered, his alert eyes observed the forest they were in once more.

The plants were withered. Every single tree seemed as if it could collapse at any moment, and the creaking from them was anything but assuring.

"We need to leave this forest right away," Xue Wei said out loud, he had already made a decision and began leading the people who followed him towards the southern direction.

This realm had four seasons. Every corner of the realm represented one season, and it was easy to know that they had arrived in fall from sensing the chilling winds that swept through the dead trees.

Most treasures would be found in the summer part of the realm, and thus Xue Wei quickly decided on heading south.

The princes were not happy seeing how he did not even try to convince them to join their group and instead just ignored them, but they too had started to get a chill from standing in this dead forest.

Xue Wei looked at them all casually, before he began moving southward. Although he was moving he was not rushing, nor was he flying;, he was just walking normally inside the forest, making many of them puzzled.

"If we fly we will have a much higher consumption rate of energy," Lin Xiao decided to tell them why Xue Wei was doing as he was, "it will be impossible to protect ourselves while flying and we will soon exhaust all our energy, becoming an easy target for hunting beasts or other factions."

"Why not run then?" someone asked puzzled. Although the pressure was heavy, they were still able to run.

"If you want to die, then you run," Xue Wei said coldly. "There is something within this forest which sucks out the life of everything living. Alerting it would do us no good."

"How can you be so sure?" one of the princes asked, his voice was filled with disdain as he looked at Xue Wei.

"I cannot be completely sure," Xue Wei admitted, something that caught them all by surprise, and they looked strangely at him, but then he continued. "I am just not willing to risk my life. It might be here; it might not. If it isn't, then, that's good, but if it is and I had not prepared, my little life and the life of my friends would be lost."

The people were a little unhappy listening to Xue Wei. None of them really believed it would be as bad as he said. What could possibly threaten them the moment they arrived?

Seeing their appearance, Xue Wei said nothing more but continued forward. While the others were hesitating to follow, his friends showed their loyalty right away and followed behind him quietly while alertly observing the surroundings.

Seeing the overly alert Xue Wei and the others, these geniuses and princes from the Demon Phoenix Continent could not help but smile and laugh slightly, mocking them in their hearts.

"We should not follow such cowards!" one of the princes said righteously, his voice loud and reverberating through the dead trees.

"Idiot," Xue Wei spat out as he looked at them and continued forward, completely ignoring whether or not they followed him.

He had only promised to do his best. If they did not follow his lead, he would not go and die for their sake.

As Xue Wei had just vanished out of the eye of sight, a scream suddenly reverberated through the entire forest. Hearing the cry, Xue Wei sighed.

"So it was still here after all," he said as he spread out his spiritual sense.

"Do we save them?" Hei Gou asked with disdain. They had mocked them before, but they had promised to look after them.

"Go back," Xue Wei nodded his head with a sigh and rushed back the way he had just left.

When he reached the place where he had first arrived, he saw countless vines stretch up through the ground, holding the geniuses and princes captive.

"Idiots, it’s a wooden item, use fire!" he yelled out and understanding the severity of the situation every one of the geniuses and princes started to take on their original shape of Vermilion Birds.

Their bodies were covered in flames, and these flames quickly burnt the vines into retreating.

All of them heaved a heavy sigh of relief, but Xue Wei was standing looking contemplating.

While he was considering, Luoluo already ran out and followed the vines. "If we wait, it'll run away!" she yelled, and Xue Wei decided instantly.

"Follow me!" he yelled and rushed after the vines, shocking them all. But having already once realized that this was a dangerous place, no one questioned him anymore, and they followed him as he ran further and further towards the east, chasing the vines on the ground.

Suddenly they reached a big clearing in the forest. Here the vines stopped, and a massive tree was standing in the middle.

This tree was different from the others. It was not withered. Instead, it was bursting with energy.

"It is forming a spirit!" Luoluo said gravely as she looked at the tree, "an evil spirit!"

"It has formed a consciousness already, it just needs to form the body, and it'll become a spirit. But it has been absorbing the life of others. Hence it will become evil."

They all looked at the tree in front of them, wondering what to do, but then they saw a chilling grin on Xue Wei's face.

"It has gathered all the beast cores and valuables from all of the forest underneath the roots," he grinned, "if we were to take it out, we would gain big time, not to mention the wood of this tree is a treasure in itself."

The geniuses' and princes' eyes almost bulged out of their heads. Initially, he wanted nothing to do with this creature, but now he was already counting the treasure underneath it.

They felt the change was too obvious.

But the truth was that Xue Wei had initially been not known how strong this creature was, but after realizing it was weak to fire and the fact he had so many Vermilion Birds under his command, how could he not be eager to kill it and take the treasure?

"Isn't it a waste to kill something that is almost a spirit?" someone could not help but ask, but then Xue Wei grinned, "It would kill you if it got the chance, why not kill it first and take the treasure for ourselves?"

Hearing this, they could not retort. It was indeed as he had said. The tree had tried to kill them toand use their soul power to create its body.

Also, the treasures were quite tempting. Although they did not know precisely what treasures it was, since Xue Wei held an interest towards it, they too found it fascinating.

And thus, they all nodded their heads. They had decided to listen to Xue Wei's command.

"Ookay, we are twenty-five experts, twenty Vermilion Birds, so make four lines with five on each line."

The experts were puzzled, but they did as they were told, while the tree suddenly seeamed to understand what Xue Wei was planning.

A wail could be heard from the tree as the vines once more shot towards them with desperation, but before they had the chance to react, Xue Wei, Bai Tianyi, Hei Gou, Lin Xiao, and Luoluo had all attacked and removed the vines.

"Shoot fire at the main body!" Xue Wei ordered, and the twenty vermilion birds acted as they had been told, they constantly bombarded the tree itself with fire, the wails of the tree turning more and more high pitched.

At the same time, Xue Wei and his friends were merely back-ups. They just ensured that the vines were never allowed close to anyone, and soon the tree started burning.

"Can we still use the tree if we burn it?" someone asked, but they did not stop their bombardment.

Suddenly the vines became fewer and fewer in number, and Xue Wei called out, "Tianyi, time to be a woodchopper!"

"It's a sword, not an ax!" Being called a woodchopper made Bai Tianyi feel helpless, but he still summoned his sword intent, the dao of the sword, and created a massive almost corporeal sword which then chopped the tree into two, after which it made a low sweep and cut the two halves off from the tree stump."

The big sword dissipated into nothing as the wails died out. The tree that was laying on the ground was scorched on the outside, but the inside was filled with spiritual energy.

Xue Wei was the first to go over; he found many spiritual fruits, beast cores, and herbs, which could be used to increase one's cultivation base.

Contrary to what one might have expected, Xue Wei split everything into twenty-five equal parts and handed one to each of the people.

"LeEave the tree stump," he said when he saw someone heading towards it with slight greed in their eyes.

"Let it grow big again so others can harvest it a few thousand years from now."

Hearing this, the tree stump, which still had slight consciousness, felt so hateful that it wanted to throw up blood, but it had no blood, and no longer a tree body, so it was utterly crippled.

Even the companions from the Demon Phoenix Continent felt that Xue Wei was too rude and evil, but since they had benefitted, they said nothing.

"Well then, let’s head for summer now," he said casually. "There should be no more danger within this forest, but no treasures either, so now we can rush."

Having said this, he began moving south once more, the others following him closely. Even the princes who had initially thought that he was not suitable as their leader had succumbed. Only the First Prince, who was running at the very back, had an immensely ugly expression on his face. His usually elegant appearance nowhere to be found.

Xue Wei had long since known that the First Prince was anything but happy with him, but this did not mean he was going to back off.

If the First Prince really caused problems, then he would have already done everything in his power to kill him.

Xue Wei was not a soft persimmon; he was not willing to be trampled upon or used by others.

At this time, everyone was feeling much better. They had been in the realm for less than a day, and they had already managed to get their hands on treasures that could improve their cultivation.

As they left the forest, they came across a vast plainne where many beasts were living in small herds.

Some of these herds were immensely alert and would run away as soon as they arrived, others were aggressive and would attack.

Fortunately, none of the groups were bigger than their own group, and thus they could deal with them fairly easily.

These beasts were utterly immune to the Sovereign Beast aura. They looked different from any other beast they had ever seen, and it was clear that they came from another world.

The previously very inexperienced Vermilion Birds also quickly learned how to act. Their bodies had been riddled with wounds at the beginning, as Xue Wei only interfered if they were about to die.

As time had gone on, they had gotten much more familiar with the pressure and with their own strength. At the same time, they had looted every single treasure they had come across, and by now, all of them had already had an abundant harvest.

As they left the plainne, another forest stretched out in front of them, but unlike the withered forest, this one was filled with energy. In fact, it resembled a jungle.