The Purple-Robed Woman wore a purple veil and did not reply to Lin Qingxuan.
Just as she was about to ask who had come, a shouting suddenly echoed from beside the pillar of supporting light. The Man in Black and the surviving disciples of the Withered Wood Forest had all been sucked into the pillar of light together, vanishing without a trace. Not only them, but even Xiao Ling and Jin Dapeng did not escape the same fate.
Qiao Ruohe, Lin Qingxuan, and the Purple-Robed Woman all felt a powerful spiritual pulling force around their bodies, dragging them down toward the base of the light pillar.
Plunging into the depths of the forbidden area, they each tumbled onto the stake wood. Mist still swirled all around, but it had turned pitch black, so dark one could not see one's own hand in front of one's face.
A few surviving Withered Wood Forest cultivators tried to flee, but the Man in Black used several clusters of flames to devour their flesh and blood, burning them into charred corpses that hung from the stake wood. Like long-burning torches, they illuminated all sides.
Only then did they realize that the place where they stood was actually the root system of a ten-thousand-year-old giant tree, with roots and branches sprawling in all directions. Above those fiery corpses stood a colossal tree, immensely thick and supporting the heavens.
With her green-glow long sword in hand, Lin Qingxuan questioned the Man in Black: "Who on earth are you? Time and again you set fires and steal treasures within my Divine Wood Palace—what is your true intent?"
Immediately afterward, she pointed her sword at the Purple-Robed Woman and demanded: "And who are you, daring to trespass into the forbidden area of my Divine Wood Palace?"
The two individuals stood up from the green mud. They exchanged a glance, thoroughly sizing each other up. Seemingly reaching a tacit understanding, they both looked at Lin Qingxuan, smiled, and remained silent.
Qiao Ruohe and Xiao Ling stood in front of the half-conscious Jin Dapeng, guarding their injured companion. As they looked at these two cultivators who refused to reveal their faces, they sensed that both possessed extremely high cultivation levels—surely on par with Lin Qingxuan. If the two joined forces, Senior Sister might not be a match for them.
"Senior Brother, we must help Senior Sister." With that, Xiao Ling stepped to Lin Qingxuan's side.
This girl had never given Qiao Ruohe a pleasant expression. Although she had previously come to his aid, she had also vowed to kill him with her own hands. Qiao Ruohe felt not a shred of fondness for her. Yet now, with their lips and teeth interdependent, he feared that if Senior Sister died, he and Xiao Ling would not survive either.
Thus, the three disciples of the Divine Wood Palace stood shoulder to shoulder to fight the external enemy. Clenching two clusters of flames in their hands, they formed a three-against-two stance against the Man in Black and the Purple-Robed Woman.
Seeing this, Lin Qingxuan was also startled. Pausing slightly, she said: "Your cultivation is too low; don't stay here and drag me down."
Glancing toward the direction of the giant tree's intertwined roots, she exchanged a look with Xiao Ling, signaling them to find a way to climb the giant tree, as there seemed to be a way out there.
Qiao Ruohe remained unmoved, and naturally Xiao Ling was unwilling to leave. Once again, their Senior Sister's words were treated as wind past the ears by her junior martial siblings.
Even so, it caused a subtle tremor in the cold and aloof woman's palms.
"Kid, your cultivation techniques all come from the secret manuals I left behind. Do you really think you can defeat me?" Seeing Qiao Ruohe assume a combat stance, the Man in Black spoke to him first.
"If not for your gift, I wouldn't have been bound to the Disciplinary Platform by the sect to suffer punishment," Qiao Ruohe replied.
The Man in Black laughed heartily. "Kid, you should be thanking me."
"Thanking you for almost making me an accomplice of the Burning Heaven Cult and a sinner of the Divine Wood Palace?"
Hearing this, the Man in Black conjured a fireball in his palm and hurled it at Qiao Ruohe. Qiao Ruohe, prepared, conjured a fireball in his own palm to meet the spell.
With a boom, the two fireballs collided in mid-air, leaving only ashes to fall into the green mud.
The Man in Black was greatly shocked, thinking to himself: *The dark shadow within this kid is truly demonic; in a mere half-month, it has reached such power.*
"Kid, let me ask you," the Man in Black pointed at the flame in Qiao Ruohe's palm. "Without me, could you have transformed from a mortal body into a Spirit Controlling cultivator with such abilities?"
"Right now, you are still just a fledgling. But with your fire spells..."
The Man in Black pointed again at Jin Dapeng, who was lying by the tree roots, panting and watching the battle.
"...even this young master of Jinling, born into a martial arts family and having practiced the Indestructible Vajra Art for over ten years, is no match for you. Shouldn't you come over, acknowledge me as your master, and kowtow in gratitude?"
What the Man in Black said was not entirely wrong. If not for the Spirit Controlling notes and fire-casting manuals he had left behind, which elevated Qiao Ruohe's cultivation, he would likely still be nothing more than a mortal body, incapable of standing here and confronting these immortals.
Yet this man undoubtedly had ulterior motives. Remembering how the Divine Wood Palace disciples had denounced him as a Burning Heaven Cult spy on the Disciplinary Platform, Qiao Ruohe guessed that this man intended to frame him; how could such a person be worthy of being his master?
Though small in stature, Xiao Ling saw things clearly. She said: "Senior Sister, let us capture this man and clear Senior Brother's name."
Her words reached Lin Qingxuan's ears, causing her combat stance to falter by thirty percent. "Who wants to help him?"
"Your Senior Sister's cultivation outwardly appears to have reached the Half-Out-of-Body Stage, but unfortunately, her aptitude is dull," the Man in Black sneered. "Her breakthrough from the late Spirit Controlling realm to the Half-Out-of-Body Stage was actually achieved by consuming a dozen Gathering Spirit Pills that damage one's lifespan. She can barely maintain it for twelve hours. With this phony skill of hers, she still wants to capture me? What is she going to fight me with?"
Lin Qingxuan's vulnerable mind seemed to be seen right through by this villain. Suddenly flying into a rage, she summoned her Half-Out-of-Body soul shadow and called forth her green-glow long sword, charging straight at the Man in Black without another word.
The Man in Black caught Lin Qingxuan's fierce spell. Although this woman had reached the Half-Out-of-Body Stage by taking pills, that was still genuine, high-level spiritual power being unleashed; he could only fight her to a draw. If Qiao Ruohe that kid were to unleash the demonic dark shadow within him to augment his fire spells and join forces with Lin Qingxuan, he feared he wouldn't be able to hold out for long.
Therefore, taking advantage of the moment his wall of fire blocked Lin Qingxuan's wood-attribute immortal technique, he cried out harshly to the Purple-Robed Woman: "Fellow Daoist, if you don't make a move now, once the elders of the Divine Wood Palace arrive in the forbidden area, neither of you will escape!"
Seeing that Senior Sister was fighting the Man in Black to a standstill for the moment, Qiao Ruohe stood alongside his Junior Sister to confront the Purple-Robed Woman.
Hearing the Man in Black call out, the Purple-Robed Woman crossed her arms, watched the spectacle, and said calmly: "I don't even know you. You fight your fight, I'll watch my show—don't drag me into this."
With a burst of his fireball art, the Man in Black deflected Lin Qingxuan's vine spell. Seizing the gap, he shouted again to the Purple-Robed Woman: "Fellow Daoist, if you and I join forces to wipe out the Divine Wood Palace disciples, I'll split the Dharma Treasure fragments of the Soul-Suppressing Wood evenly with you. How about it?"
"Goodness, you villain! So your target was the sect-guarding treasure of my Divine Wood Palace all along!" Lin Qingxuan shouted, her green-glow sword pressing toward his face while she wove spells to bind his body. The Man in Black gradually fell to a disadvantage.
"Kid! That purple-robed woman is a cultivator from Xingyue Mountain. She has the Soul-Returning Immortal Pill you need to save your father—hurry up and attack her, seize the gourd at her waist!"
Seeing that he could not persuade the Purple-Robed Woman, and fearing that she might join forces with Lin Qingxuan and cause his defeat today, the Man in Black shouted loudly toward Qiao Ruohe.
Hearing this, Qiao Ruohe could not help but fix his gaze entirely on the Purple-Robed Woman. Strangely enough, the woman's eyes were also looking him up and down, as if she recognized him.
"Do you really have the Soul-Returning Immortal Pill?" Qiao Ruohe asked.
The Purple-Robed Woman said softly: "Don't immortal pills all depend on your Divine Wood Palace's furnaces? What does that have to do with me?"
Suddenly seeing a glowing piece of spirit wood tucked at the waist of the Purple-Robed Woman, Xiao Ling opened her eyes wide in delight. It turned out this woman had already stolen the very object she had come to the Divine Wood Palace forbidden area to find.
Without waiting for Qiao Ruohe to act, in a moment of impulse, she unleashed a wood-and-water spell, attacking the Purple-Robed Woman to snatch the item at her waist.
The gap in cultivation between the two was quite vast. Never expecting her junior sister to rush forward blindly, Qiao Ruohe reached out to stop her, but it was already too late.
The Purple-Robed Woman had long been on guard; hurling a matrix of golden blade rain, she moved to cut Xiao Ling to pieces.