“I’ll leave it to you, Jiu,” Lin Zhen said softly.
Zi Jiu nodded and took a step forward.
She pressed both hands against the city wall, and her fair, soft palms instantly ignited with terrifying flames tinged with black.
*Whoosh!*
The area where her palms pressed was instantly set ablaze, turning to ash and falling away as a passage began to open at an extremely high speed.
The group looked on, their faces lighting up with joy.
However, in the next second, the city wall suddenly underwent a strange transformation.
The burning sections quickly disconnected and fell to the ground, while branches and buds grew from deep within the unburnt parts of the wall, rapidly filling the gaps.
“Hmm?”
A trace of surprise appeared on Zi Jiu’s face. She then shoved her hands forward with sudden force, advancing step by step. If the city wall was going to repair itself, she would just have to move faster!
“I didn’t expect this city wall to actually be alive!” Standing to the side, Kaos curiously poked a vine inside the wall.
Yun Che furrowed his brows, scanning the city wall from top to bottom. Suddenly, a look of urgency appeared on his face.
“Wait, do you feel like the city wall is getting closer?”
“Closer?” Anvil, who had been trying to snap the branches and vines with brute force, heard this and pulled his hands out of the wall.
He measured the distance between himself and the wall before saying in surprise, “It really does seem that way. I was at least 20 centimeters away from this thing just now, and now there’s probably not even 10 centimeters left. I thought it was just my imagination!”
Hearing Anvil’s words, Lin Zhen’s expression changed, and he urged, “Jiu, go faster!”
“What’s wrong?” Zi Jiu turned her head in confusion.
“Maybe the city wall isn’t just alive — maybe someone is controlling it!”
The moment the words left his mouth, the city wall in front of them acted like a green sea, with a wave suddenly surging across its surface.
***
Immediately afterward, a rustling, clattering sound echoed from within the wall.
“What’s going on?”
Anvil was startled. Just as he took a step back, a dozen vines and branches as thick as forearms reached out from within, seizing his limbs and neck, and pulling him inward with great force!
These vines and branches were incredibly tough and constricted him tightly.
After 2 years of combat training, his body had filled out significantly, yet the sturdy Anvil was squeezed until his face turned red and his eyes bulged.
“Quick, help me!”
His joints were bound, making it difficult to exert force, so he could only call for help.
But as soon as he spoke, he realized that except for Aili, who had been standing at the very back gazing toward the city center, and Yun Che, who had timely dived into the shadows, none of his companions had escaped.
Everyone else had their limbs bound by these ghostly things.
Zi Jiu, who had already burned through most of the wall, was covered by the regenerating wall of plants and vanished from sight!
In the end, she could only disappear, swallowed by the plant wall in despair.
*Swish!*
“I should have thought of this earlier!”
Not far away, Yun Che’s figure emerged from the shadows, his expression grim.
“Since they could send out so many Tree God Guards to patrol the city, there’s no reason not to station people here at the city wall.”
“No, perhaps the city wall has been guarded by Tree God Guards from the very beginning, even before the alarm bells rang!”
After all, this place was constantly embroiled in war, and this was the royal capital of a kingdom. Every precaution that should be taken against the huang elves would certainly be in place.
They had been too careless!
If it really were huang elves trying to destroy the wall, they would have likely been wiped out by such a method.
However, they were star energy users with a wide array of methods. This sudden situation wouldn’t be enough to stop them.
Maintaining his composure, Yun Che briefly comforted Aili, telling her to retreat dozens of paces. Then, he seriously studied the “green ocean” that continued to grow and surge toward them.
‘I need to rescue A Zhen and Jiu first. Only their supernatural powers can cause damage to this regenerating plant wall!’
The thought flashed through his mind as he dove into the shadows once more.
When he reappeared, he was already inside the wall, arriving in the shadow beneath Lin Zhen’s feet.
The interior of the wall was almost entirely filled with plant buds and vines. These things were intertwined and incredibly tough, leaving almost no space for even half of Yun Che’s body.
He had no choice but to pull out his shadow-covered dagger, intending to first cut the restraints on Lin Zhen’s feet.
But at that moment, a *vroom vroom* sound, similar to a chainsaw, suddenly erupted.
His movements paused, and he looked up to see three small chainsaws cutting through the vines at extreme speed. The chains of these saws were all generated from star energy metal.
Star energy metal could not undergo complex processing, but that was according to the Empire’s processing technology.
For Lin Zhen’s supernatural power, turning it into chains was only a slightly difficult task.
*Clack clack clack!*
The chainsaws maneuvered through the narrow gaps in the wall. The incredibly tough vines were completely unable to stop the cutting, which dealt what seemed like “true damage,” as debris fell like rain.
**[Chainsaw Devil Lao Lin has arrived!]**
**[Is that you, Haruna?]**
**[Ohoho, there’s a Chainsaw Man to watch here too.]**
**[Just realized Lao Lin’s supernatural power is actually pretty broken. Weapons made of star energy metal are defense-shredding tools.]**
Lin Zhen had noticed Yun Che’s arrival long ago. Although his perception was far inferior to Yun Ruoxi’s, under Yun Ruoxi’s training and the Doctor’s development, he was stronger than most trainees.
As soon as the vines around his neck were cut by a chainsaw, he took two ragged breaths and immediately said, “A Che, go help me find the locations of A Kai and Anvil!”
“Okay!”
Yun Che brushed against the vines binding Lin Zhen’s legs, exerting sudden force to cut them apart. Immediately afterward, he dove back into the shadows, heading toward the locations of Kaos and Anvil.
But just as he reached Kaos’s location and peeked out, he was instantly forced back by an incredible wave of heat.
The place where Kaos was had already turned into a sea of fire.
Zi Jiu, her entire body shrouded in hellfire, had a face as cold as frost. Her hair had been turned a peachy-red by the flames. Behind her was an orange-red tunnel of fire that was rapidly healing.
She extended both hands, continuously spraying flames from her palms to scorch the plant walls on either side.
Kaos stood beside her, using his supernatural power to control the airflow, rapidly fanning the flames.
Under the cooperation of the two, the space being scorched out was expanding at a staggering rate.
“A Che? You’re here?” Drenched in sweat, Kaos noticed Yun Che’s arrival and managed a small smile.
“How is it over there?”
“Only Anvil is still trapped!” Yun Che said. “His brute force is heavily countered by this kind of ‘soft’ strength!”
“Understood! Jiu, focus on the right side!” Kaos shouted.
Zi Jiu abruptly redirected her flames, concentrating her firepower to the right. A pillar of fire as thick as an arm spiraled through, burning a path.
Finally, after several seconds, Anvil, whose face had already turned blue from the constriction, appeared in their line of sight.
Zi Jiu and Kaos immediately rushed over, working with Yun Che to rescue Anvil in short order.