Leng Qianhu’s fighting style was incredibly bloody. After he charged down, the two long sabers at his side flashed with a cold light. In the span of just two breaths, he had sliced all the mutated villagers in the center of the village to pieces.

There wasn’t the spray of blood one might expect. When the mutated villagers were dismembered, the substance inside them was akin to charcoal. Only the "girl" on the altar was different. Her body, severed in two, was still writhing, and scorching magma seeped from the wounds. Furthermore, fleshy buds wriggled on the half of her torso still attached to her head, as if trying to grow a new body.

Wang Ping, observing all this from the sky, took out the Purgatory Banner and asked, "Fellow Daoist, have you ever encountered such a strange monster?"

Although Tongyu Daoist couldn’t fight, his perceptive abilities were comparable to a Third Realm Cultivator. With just a glance, he saw the situation below clearly and said, "An artificial Spirit Vein. The First Day loves to do this sort of thing. The Spirit Veins they create exist in this kind of mutated form..." 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"No, wait. This village is strange. It seems something is buried underground, and the body on the altar appears to be its vessel. And considering those arrays... this array even has some kind of hallucinatory effect. It almost fooled even my Primordial Spirit’s senses. There must be something good down there."

"I doubt something that good will be easy to get," Wang Ping said.

"The believers of the First Day love to sacrifice all kinds of life, because the false spirits they create enjoy it. As long as the sacrifices are sufficient, their false spirits will grant them enough True Fire Energy in return. The deadliest part is the mutated entities that evolve from the false spirits themselves. When they merge, they are both bizarre and powerful!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Ping quickly performed three divinations and frowned.

’This...’

’Fortune and misfortune can change in an instant?’

At that moment, Leng Qianhu herded three ordinary people out of the village. He glanced up at the sky, then walked back to the altar and began speaking to the girl.

Wang Ping now had a plan in mind. He first put away the Purgatory Banner, then grabbed a large handful of plant seeds from his storage bag. Descending over Xia Bian Village, he activated the Spirit Communication Talisman and scattered the seeds onto the earth. Carried by the wind, the seeds quickly dispersed and settled on the ground...

Vast swathes of forest took shape at a speed visible to the naked eye, expanding outward until they stopped about five or six li away.

"With a skill like that, you could get rich just by planting and selling trees every day!" Leng Qianhu flew down and landed in front of Wang Ping. He was holding the girl’s severed body parts, bound separately with special ropes. A unique rune array on the ropes contained the flowing magma within the girl’s sundered skin and prevented her body from regenerating.

"This forest was generated by prematurely draining the Wood Spirit from this part of the world. It takes about a month for it to recover after each time."

"That’s still pretty good!"

Wang Ping didn’t want to get sidetracked by this. He stared at the girl on the altar, his tone becoming serious. "Now, let’s see just what kind of monster is hiding beneath this village!"

"My thoughts exactly."

"But before that, let’s give the Daoist Scripture Hall a heads-up..."

Wang Ping took out a pre-prepared signal flare and fired it. He watched it explode in the sky. By now, the forest surrounding the village had fully formed. Yu Lian had also returned to her original body length, and connecting to Wang Ping’s Qi Sea, she dotted the forest with dense water droplets.

"This woman is still alive, but only a small part of her consciousness is her own. The rest is a crazed monster, so there’s no way to communicate normally. This is a tool the First Day uses to control their false spirits. It’s my first time seeing one in person!"

Leng Qianhu’s explanation was even a bit more detailed than Tongyu Daoist’s.

Wang Ping glanced down at the girl’s body, which had been cut into several pieces, then exchanged a look with Yu Lian. He then formed a hand seal with his right hand, using the Spirit Communication Talisman inside his body to command the dense forest beneath his feet.

As the Wood Spirit Qi flowed, the ground beneath their feet began to tremble slightly. Dense and thick tree roots churned up from under the village, overturning all the buildings. The array in the village center was destroyed in an instant. As more tree roots plunged into the ground, the earth soon began to crack...

"With such a huge commotion, why haven’t the believers of the First Day reacted?" Leng Qianhu asked in confusion. "Was that Entering Cultivator who attacked you their only fighter?"

Wang Ping had the same doubt. The vegetation his spirit was connected to had almost reached Changwen Prefecture City, yet he sensed no hostile consciousness. He did, however, sense two Entering Cultivators from the Daoist Scripture Hall rushing to support him, one of whom was Xuanhe Daoist.

"I sense malice seeping from the ground..." Yu Lian warned them loudly.

No sooner had she spoken than Corpse Soldiers emerged from the churned-up earth. They seemed to have been stored in a damp pit, which rapidly collapsed under the strain of countless tree roots. Wang Ping quickly formed a seal with his other hand, infusing the essence of the Wood Spirit into the soldiers’ bodies through the dense network of roots.

The unearthed Corpse Soldiers immediately became nutrients for countless seeds. Various flowers and trees sprouted from their bodies, causing Leng Qianhu, who was watching from the side, to shudder in revulsion.

"It’s coming!" Yu Lian warned again.

Then, a crimson light flashed from within the fissures of the ravaged earth. The light shot into the night sky, as beautiful as an aurora, and continued to spread outward.

The tremors in the ground grew more severe as the fiery light spread. When the vibrations reached a critical point, a fountain of magma suddenly erupted from the center of the village. The bound sections of the girl’s body began to struggle even more violently.

"Waa... waa..."

A strange sound reached the ears of Wang Ping and Leng Qianhu. It sounded like an infant’s cry, yet also like a wild wolf howling for its pack. As the bizarre sound continued, a massive, flaming claw shot ten zhang up from the ground.

"What kind of monster has the First Day been raising down there with Corpse Soldiers!"

As Leng Qianhu cursed, flames surged, and a massive fiery monster over thirty zhang tall burst from the earth. Its flaming head and body resembled those of a wild wolf.

"Wolves are a favorite form for the First Day!"

As Leng Qianhu spoke, the flaming wolf ignited the Spiritual Qi around its enormous body, burning both earth and sky. The ground at the village’s center started to collapse, becoming completely submerged in surging magma. The molten rock then began to spread toward the surrounding, newly-grown forest.

"Waa... waa..." The strange cry sounded again as the massive monster’s hind legs bent slightly, preparing to leap.

"We can’t let it get away!" Leng Qianhu shouted.

Wang Ping knew that, of course. He instantly commanded the tree roots beneath the earth, which were suffused with the water droplets manifested by Yu Lian, to ensnare the giant wolf’s hind legs and torso.

TSSSSSS

A cloud of steam rose where the tree roots made contact with the giant wolf’s body. The wolf, poised to leap, stumbled and collapsed, sending splashes of magma everywhere.

"How is it?" Leng Qianhu asked.

"It’s only just woken up. We need to take this chance to kill it, otherwise things will get very troublesome..."