It seemed that the demonstration of coordination and cooperation between Shangguan Bing Xue and Bai Zemin this time had resulted in some shock to Lilith even though she had seen them fight together several times in the past.

Even if Lilith was confident in herself and did not believe that a woman could defeat her, particularly when it came to Bai Zemin’s heart since she was sure that she knew him better than anyone else, the scenery in front of her was too breathtaking.

Even Fire Sorrow, who had lived for millions and millions of years, was in shock at what she was seeing… one could only try to imagine how awesome the Zemin-Bing Xue duo was.

Such a level of coordination and understanding of each other on the battlefield was not something that two living beings could achieve just through training; even a hundred thousand years of training and fighting together could not be enough. 

Fire Sorrow had seen countless pairs of lovers sharing sorrows and glories on different battlefields; even Higher Existences. However, she still couldn’t find a second pair that could beat the pair in front of her.

Actually, Fire Sorrow had wanted to ask Lilith if she was confident in being able to do what Shangguan Bing Xue was doing now with Bai Zemin. It’s just that after thinking it over, she realized that asking such a question might not be a good idea, so she kept it in her heart and responded it by herself.

Bai Zemin attacking and Shangguan Bing Xue defending. 

When he was in danger he didn’t bother to protect himself even when he could feel the claws of danger on the back of his neck. However, as if he had eyes on his back, he managed to cover Shangguan Bing Xue whenever she seemed to be in trouble.

Such a level of trust in each other, understanding of the capabilities and limits of their partner… If this was not a match made by heaven what was it then?

Unfortunately, there was no way Shangguan Bing Xue could continue fighting in such a strenuous manner for long. At the end of the day, she did not have Bai Zemin’s Regeneration skill to exchange Mana for Stamina nor did she have a cheat skill like Overlap Regeneration that recovered all the Stamina lost with every stat conversion to Stamina.

Not to mention that she had been fighting hundreds of thousands of Third Order green gargoyles before she came to support Bai Zemin without even taking a minute to refuel!

Finally, two hours after joining him to fight the Mana Eater Tree together, Shangguan Bing Xue couldn’t take it anymore and the first opening in her defense was big enough for the enemy to take advantage of even if it only lasted a second.

A 500-Year General Tree slammed its fist towards Shangguan Bing Xue. Although its size was only 1/3 of the terrifying 1000-Year Guardian Tree, its power was still enough to crush a level 140 mutant beast not to mention the small body of a human female.

When Shangguan Bing Xue wanted to dodge the attack she realized that her legs were not responding at their usual speed, and by the time she wanted to do something different she realized that there was no more time so she hurriedly raised her blue sword to block in front of it.

BOOM!!!!!!!

Shangguan Bing Xue’s body was sent flying tens of meters backwards at the same time as her blue sword flew out of her grip. It was impossible for her, a soul evolver focused on magic and speed, to match the physical strength of a 500-Year General Tree.

While she was still in the air and with her brain feeling a bit numb as a result of the physical, mental, and spiritual exhaustion coming from her soul, about 7 Darkwood arrows flew at her from the darkness. Furthermore, each arrow had been cunningly launched and aimed at vital parts of her body.

Dark Wood was a very peculiar and special type of wood. If the body of a soul evolver below level 190 was hit by a weapon made of Dark Wood they would immediately lose 50% of their physical and magical defense for 0.5 seconds not to mention its ability to disrupt the mana inside the affected body.

Just as Shangguan Bing Xue was preparing to do her best after losing all her Mana, her body that was flying backwards was held by a pair of big arms and before she could even think of anything she saw the world around her turning into a blur.

A moment later, Bai Zemin’s voice entered her hearing, “Are you okay?”

Shangguan Bing Xue’s expression changed and her already pale beautiful face turned even paler when she realized something. She quickly stepped back from Bai Zemin instead of answering his question, and when she finally saw his complete body she grew even paler.

His armor that was practically a Rank 3 national treasure, the best armor in the entire faction, was covered with holes everywhere; some big ones the size of a fist, others were small ones the width of a finger; but holes nonetheless.

Legs, arms, shoulders, chest; there was no part of the armor that did not have at least two or three holes. Curiously, however, there were only 7 wounds on Bai Zemin’s body while the rest of his body that seemed to have been sculpted by divine hands was in perfect condition.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Bai Zemin pulled out the seven Darkwood arrows that had pierced his body when he saved Shangguan Bing Xue before, and even faster than she could feel bad about it she noticed how that flash of green light that faintly glowed around him disappeared without a trace.

At the same time as the glow of green light vanished, Bai Zemin’s seven bloody wounds began to close quickly and under the help of Blood Manipulation it took no more than 5 seconds for them to close entirely.

Shangguan Bing Xue sighed relieved in her heart. If anything bad ever happened to him because of her, she would never forgive herself no matter how many years passed.

One thing Bai Zemin did not tell Shangguan Bing Xue, however, was that there was something wrong with those Darkwood arrows.

Up until now, Bai Zemin had been spending Mana without worrying too much since he had Overlap Regeneration to assist him. However, now he realized that his Mana had completely disappeared and no matter how much he used Overlap Regeneration the number 0 stayed set.

Bai Zemin did not say anything aloud but his gaze grew cold as he looked towards the jade tree.

The current jade tree was no longer as impressive as before. Its luxurious green luster had disappeared without a trace some time ago, its incredible size of nearly 500 meters had shrunk straight down to 1/5 of it, and the entire surface of its trunk was covered with cracks to the point where it was surprising that it had not yet collapsed; the largest crack stretched from the bottom almost to touching the top at the peak!

The most significant change, however, was the fact that only about one or two dozen jade branches remained. Compared to the two or three hundred jade branches, those remaining 10-20 branches were too pitiful in comparison.

After a long time and while Bai Zemin was feeling slightly dizzy, the Mana Eater Tree’s voice rang out all around.

“Although it wasn’t a 1 vs 1 fight, I must admit that this was the toughest battle I have fought since birth.”

The surroundings were covered by several layers of ice, but with an explosion of blue fire coming from the distance, all that ice was soon covered by a seemingly inextinguishable sea of flames.

Three gusts of wind rushed from the distance, and as Shangguan Bing Xue looked back she could quickly identify the three mounts; Shangguan Xinyue’s silver Jiaolong, Feng Tian Wu’s Devastation Queen, and Little Snow with Xia Ya on her back.

The silver-scaled flood dragon was bathed in blood but was somehow able to continue flying in the sky. Shangguan Xinyue was also quite battered as there were several lacerations all over her body and she even seemed to be suffering great torment because of the dark haze coming from the wounds.

If not for the fact that she seemed very cheerful, even waving her hand towards Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue with a bright smile, the duo would definitely have been worried to death about her current condition.

Feng Tian Wu and Xia Ya were much better in comparison, it was just that both of them were pale like ghosts as a result of spending all their Mana.

Feng Tian Wu pointed to the sky for the last time and a giant blue fire arrow shot over 1000 meters before exploding. Tens of thousands of small blue flames rained down everywhere, setting fire to the parts of the forest that had not yet been baptized by the Endless Blue Lotus Flame.

The three dismounted and approached the duo in silence as they gazed at the jade tree without saying a word. 

After finishing the battle against the gargoyles, Xia Ya had gone to help Shangguan Xinyue as they had agreed earlier. However, she met Feng Tian Wu on the path so the two of them went there together. It was only after fighting for 1 full hour that the three of them managed to kill the Lich King and its terrifying bone dragon.

Although Xia Ya and Feng Tian Wu were a bit curious about some of the injuries that the Lich King and the bone dragon had suffered since they seemed to have been attacked by an unidentified monster, neither of them had the heart nor the time to think things through too much.

“To grow to this point it took me a total of 5600 years.” The voice of the Mana Eater Tree echoed not only from the jade tree in front of them but also spread out from the distance wrapped in blue flames, “But now everything is lost.”

Rumble…

Suddenly, the entire forest began to tremble. The trembling became stronger and stronger with each passing second to the point where even Bai Zemin and the others began to have trouble standing firm.

“What the hell is going on now!” Shangguan Xinyue had had enough of this damn monster.

Feng Tian Wu said nothing but her cold eyes scanned the surroundings as she returned to the back of her mount.

Xia Ya was even faster as she immediately mounted Little Snow and rose into the sky.

“Let’s have our last battle, Human King!” 

RUMBLE!!!

“But this time it will be a battle between you and me. Interventions will be denied!”

A flash of blue fire shot forward and enveloped Bai Zemin’s spear without warning. Before the others could react, he threw his spear with all his might forward with such speed that even he was surprised.

BOOOOM!!!!

The jade tree tried to protect itself, but it was already too damaged. Its branches were crushed as the flame-wrapped spear pierced and struck the center of the largest crack, spreading far enough to join each crack.

Finally, the jade tree that had given Bai Zemin so much trouble collapsed. Jade fragments flew everywhere and the fire spear disappeared beyond the sea of blue flames.

However, this did not seem to affect the Mana Eater Tree at all.

The quake only got worse and finally, Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue were forced to jump onto a mount to avoid falling down. 

More than 20 kilometers away from the northern periphery of the mutant forest, the beautiful face of Kristina turned deathly pale as she stared off into the distance as her head and eyes looked higher and higher.

There, in the distance, the mutant forest that had practically disappeared after being encircled and incinerated by the ever-growing sea of blue flames slowly rose into the sky. 

Head, neck, shoulders… Slowly, the largest beast any living thing on earth had ever seen rose from the ground.

“My God…” Kristina was a bold and fearless woman, but even she couldn’t help but take a step back as she looked up at the sky.

The rest of the Russian troops paled. They were so terrified that they didn’t even scream; this was the absolute power difference between them and the monster in the distance. Even from 20 kilometers apart, that beast probably only needed to extend its arm to crush them.

It wasn’t until now that they all realized that the mutant forest was only the hair on the head of a tree that was so tall that it connected sky and earth but so old that it was covered in gashes.

Kristina had seen giant monsters, she even saw a 1000 meter tall dragon before in the pase. However, all those monsters were dogs compared to the tree in front of her.

Of course, Bai Zemin and the girls next to him had no idea of the terrifying sight the Russian troops were seeing from outside the burning forest.

* * * * * * *

Really thank you very much to all those who send gifts to the novel and support with valuable Golden Tickets. I hope we can all keep it up <3

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.