Chapter 56: The Ancient Willow Tree in the Blood Lake

With the deepening of his understanding of the divine weapon, the Heaven-Spanning Umbrella, Gu Chen finally figured out the second marvelous use of its domain.

The first marvelous use is integration with the environment. As long as he does not actively reveal himself, even a Titled Douluo cannot perceive the presence of anyone within the domain.

The second marvelous use is amplification and reduction, similar to the conservation of energy.

For every additional teammate within the domain's coverage, the overall strength of everyone increases by ten percent. The weakening of the enemy's power equals the sum of the power amplification of all members.

After summoning all the members inside the Heaven-Spanning Umbrella, Gu Chen issued his orders to them.

The octopus spirit attacks from the left, binding and controlling the enemy.

The giant black snake spirit attacks from the center, while the beautiful female spirit assists from the right.

The beautiful female was transformed from Ye Linglong's inner demon. Ye Linglong possessed the Ghost Spirit Saint Body, and her martial soul was a netherworld flower named the Equinox Flower, which belonged to the plant-type martial souls.

The characteristics of the Equinox Flower are that it likes shade, resists cold, propagates extremely easily, and has strong adaptability.

In an environment with relatively heavy yin energy, the Equinox Flower martial soul would significantly enhance the spirit master's own strength.

Disregarding spirit rings, the first characteristic of the Equinox Flower martial soul is parasitism.

The Equinox Flower martial soul releases a large number of Equinox Flower seeds.

Five to ten percent of them parasitize inside the enemy. Once parasitism is complete, the Equinox Flowers will take root and sprout inside the enemy.

They absorb blood from the human body to grow, making it a terrifying and evil skill.

Unless there is a vast difference in spirit power, it is very difficult to force the seeds of the Equinox Flower out.

The second characteristic is illusion.

The Equinox Flower martial soul emits a unique fragrance that causes the enemy to hallucinate.

The spirits themselves cannot apply spirit rings to themselves, but they can maximize the characteristics of their martial souls. This was their advantage.

Once the octopus, the giant black snake, and the female spirit were in position, Gu Chen released his second spirit skill from the Vigorous Vajra Bear, Night Devouring the Heavens, plunging the surroundings into darkness.

The Dark Nether Wolf spirit bone charged its energy, ready to launch an attack at any moment.

The fierce battle was on the verge of breaking out. After being provoked, the bloody vines also revealed their true form.

It turned out that its true body was actually an old willow tree, but this old willow tree was truly rather massive.

The trunk diameter exceeded three meters, and the tree body soared to a height of a hundred meters.

The aura emanating from its body was several times stronger than any spirit beast Gu Chen had ever seen.

Gu Chen's first intuition told him this was a ten-thousand-year spirit beast!

Without a moment of hesitation, Gu Chen decided to retreat.

"Run!" Gu Chen shouted to the little inner demon in the distance, who was still clearing out monsters.

Quickly recalling the octopus and other spirits, he urged his owl martial soul forward to flee backwards rapidly.

Sensing that Gu Chen wanted to escape, red willow branches filling the sky swept toward Gu Chen.

At the same time, a disdainful voice rang out in Gu Chen's mind.

"Insignificant human, you cannot escape! Stay and become my blood slave!"

Gu Chen ignored it and fled rapidly in the direction he had come.

He knew that the range of movement of this willow tree was probably limited; otherwise, it would have been impossible for it to remain hidden from the start and only launch an attack when the enemy approached.

What a despicable, shameless, and base spirit beast!

However, did it really think it could keep him here?

"Rapid flight mushroom sausage." Gu Chen ate a rapid flight mushroom sausage and quickly escaped the battlefield.

Just as Gu Chen was about to escape the ominous land and leave this mountainous area, he suddenly discovered a group of villagers rushing toward this place.

It was already too late for Gu Chen to shout for them to leave!

Willow branches filling the sky, sharp as swords, pierced through the chests of the entire group of rushing villagers.

Surrounding spirit beasts quickly swarmed forward, swallowing all these villagers into their bellies.

"No..." Witnessing such a tragic and horrific scene, Gu Chen's eyes instantly turned blood-red as he let out a mournful cry.

"You..."

"You..."

"You... all deserve to die!" Gu Chen gritted his teeth, his fingernails digging deep into his flesh.

Taking the starry ancient sword handed over by the little inner demon, Gu Chen was enraged.

"Little inner demon, fuse with me. All the opportunities here belong to you; I only want to slaughter this pack of beasts!"

"No need, we'll still split it half and half, but I want the spirit ring of that old willow tree!"

"Agreed!"

"Heaven and Earth lend power, Yin and Yang reverse, fusion."

The little inner demon's body returned into Gu Chen's body.

Gu Chen's realm soared all the way: twenty-third rank Great Spirit Master, twenty-fourth rank... thirty-first rank Spirit Elder, thirty-second rank... thirty-ninth rank Spirit Elder.

Fusing with the little inner demon, Gu Chen bore one hundred percent of her power, and his realm instantly elevated to the thirty-ninth rank.

However, this kind of fusion skill had a time limit. Currently, given the load-bearing limit of Gu Chen's body and the demonic energy level of the little inner demon, Gu Chen and the little inner demon could only maintain the fusion state for half an hour.

Yet there were at least tens of thousands of spirit beasts here, and deep within the ominous land, there were even a few spirit beasts approaching ten thousand years of cultivation.

For Gu Chen to wipe out this group of spirit beasts within this timeframe was nearly impossible.

But sometimes, when it comes to certain matters, how would one know if it is impossible without trying?

Watching dozens of vibrant lives perish right before his eyes, leaving not even their bones behind, how could he not be furious! These people were the very villagers who had just wanted to help Chu Chen.

Even though they clearly knew there was ominous peril here, they still entered, likely out of concern for his safety.

Yet he had indirectly caused their deaths.

The dead are gone, and all he could do now was exact revenge.

Kill!

Gu Chen was completely demonized, growing dual horns on his head, dual wings on his back, and a dragon tail.

His hands transformed into double claws, holding an enlarged iron rod made of gold-threaded silver needles in one hand and the starry ancient sword in the other.

Gu Chen transformed into an Asura, endlessly hacking and slashing amidst the attacks of the spirit beasts and the vines of the old willow tree.

The black dragon scale armor also autonomously protected its master, wrapping tightly around him.

Kill! Kill! Kill!

The octopus spirit, the giant black snake, and the beautiful female spirit were also summoned out by Gu Chen, joining the battle one after another.

Blood splattered across the air, staining the firmament red. Spirit beast corpses fell one by one, piling up like mountains and flowing like rivers.

The string of white numbers hovering above Gu Chen's head was constantly decreasing: 2300:23:24... 2200:22:22... 1000:33:11...

The jumping speed of the numbers grew faster and faster. Several thousand spirit beasts had already fallen, turning into desiccated corpses. Another one-hundredth of the rust on the starry ancient sword had vanished, and Gu Chen could clearly sense his power being augmented.

His combat prowess had increased by at least ten to fifteen percent.

When the numbers before his eyes jumped to 520:13:14, Gu Chen suddenly regained a trace of clarity.

He could no longer blindly hack and slash; he had to eliminate that old willow tree.

It was the ultimate culprit, and it had to die!

Gu Chen no longer merely slaughtered these weak spirit beasts, but instead directly chose to confront the bloody willow tree.

The Vigorous Vajra Bear martial soul erupted, and his first spirit skill, Savage Charge, along with his second spirit skill, Night Devouring the Heavens, were launched simultaneously.

Gu Chen smashed through old willow trees one after another, finally arriving right beside the main old willow tree.