The Moon Sheltering Adansonia was probably weaker than a real Accomplished Demon, but still stronger than a late Golden Blood Child. Thus, it should have been easy for the mercenaries to fight it. However, its danger lay in its sneak attacks. Just as they were focused on dealing with the branches hurtled toward them as javelins, the roots were still beneath them. Obviously, they were forced to split their focus in order to avoid being impaled.
Now that the surprise was gone, the elite soldiers were maneuvering the mercenaries with more efficiency. All of them had their weapons drawn. Thanks to their formation, they were defending those who were the best marksmen. Several demons had now bows in hands. When they shot their arrows, they whistled, producing terrifying sounds. Some arrows turned into mythical creatures while others wailed as though they were damned souls. From the Moon Sheltering Adansonia, a barrage of branches was sent toward those arrows. The light of the moon blinded the archers for an instant as they collided.
Only a handful of arrows went through and reached the dead white tree. The dome of the tree was shaken as a small hole was caused by the attacks. However, it quickly closed itself up. With the blood it had just ingested, the vitality of the Moon Sheltering Adansonia was even stronger than before. So it could easily produce new branches. It was as though the mercenaries were fighting against the blood of their dead comrades.
Watching the scene, Cao Yun could tell that the group of mercenaries would at the very least be able to escape. There wouldn't be many more casualties. Or, rather, the Moon Sheltering Adansonia wouldn't cause many more casualties. However, the tree wasn't the only threat here. In fact, the tree was living in harmony with other threats. Now that the white tree had had its fill, it was time for the second part of the dinner.
Thunder echoed in the distance. Dark clouds appeared above Cao Yun and the mercenaries down below. Despite being thick thunderclouds, they didn't blot out the moon. After all, the moon was giving strength to the Moon Sheltering Adansonia and the newcomers didn't want the tree to be weakened. As the situation was evolving, the elite soldiers kept their calm and gave many orders. They had finally understood that they had to retreat immediately. Against the Moon Sheltering Adansonia, they had a chance, but they were surrounded by threats unknown to them. Besides, since their slaves had disappeared and were probably dead, they couldn't accomplish their mission anyway. Right now, their best solution was to join back with the main force. They were ready to face their punishment rather than to die and be devoured by the creatures of this desert.
For demons, having their blood devoured by a tree or by demonic beasts was a terrible thing. If they were killed by another demon and their blood or even blood essence devoured by them, it was fine as their blood would survive in them. But being devoured by demonic beasts meant that their blood would forever be lost in those beasts. In a sense, it was the equivalent for humans to lose their Hun and to be unable to reincarnate. Indeed, it wasn't rare for demons to extract at least the blood essence of their enemies in order to devour it. Some even went to the extreme of devouring the heart of their enemies, but it was much more rare to be honest. In fact, in some duels, the two fighters would drink a cup of wine mixed with blood from the two of them so the slain one would live on in the victor.
It was difficult to discern what was pure tradition and what was truly useful. After all, Cao Yun had practiced 'Fate Devouring Gate'. With that technique, it was possible to devour the blood essence of a demon to improve one's cultivation. But the effects were obvious only with the blood of a much stronger demon. At his current cultivation level, even if Cao Yun absorbed the blood essence of all those demons below, it wouldn't do much to help him. In fact, it would probably have no effect at all on his cultivation. Besides, the Moon Sheltering Adansonia and the arriving demonic beasts wouldn't let go of such a feast easily.
Finally, everyone saw what demonic beasts had arrived, they were large vultures. The largest one of them was probably the size of two men. Its head was entirely red as though it was covered in dried blood. Around its long black neck, there was some kind of fur that was soiled with fresh blood. Clearly, they had been chasing some other prey but had been alerted by the Moon Sheltering Adansonia in some manner. Cao Yun knew that those demonic beasts and this Moon Sheltering Adansonia were in osmosis. On their bodies, the feathers of the Gloating Thunder Vultures were white and covered with a lot of sand still sticking to them. And their talons were shining under the moon, looking terrifying. Not only were they as sharp as razors, they were also covered in small pikes and looked like serrated blades to lacerate their victims.
As soon as the Gloating Thunder Vultures appeared, the archers shot toward them. Immediately, the Moon Sheltering Adansonia grew new branches to block most of the arrows. Then, from the black thunderclouds, lightning struck down. At the same time, the Gloating Thunder Vultures disappeared in the black clouds. Not a single one of them was injured. After this failed attack, the Gloating Thunder Vultures reappeared suddenly.
From the black thunderclouds, they dove down toward the ground. Each one of this dozen of demonic beasts got a prey. They had targeted the weaker mercenaries. All of them tried to use their weapons and circulated their blood to the limit. However, the talons of the Gloating Thunder Vultures were inflicted untold pain as they were tearing apart their muscles. Although demons could heal faster than humans, those wounds were so messy that it would take them a lot of time to recover. Moreover, they would have no time at all. The poor victims were already brought toward the Moon Sheltering Adansonia. Without leaving any moment of repose, the mercenaries were stabbed through by the branches. This time though, the tree didn't absorb all of their blood. Most of their blood remained for the Gloating Thunder Vultures once the tree had destroyed their hearts.
Dropping the dead bodies on the ground, the Gloating Thunder Vultures went back to attack the group of mercenaries. Knowing that retreat had become impossible, the elite soldiers were ready to face those demonic beasts. Unfortunately for them, their orders were not listened to any longer. In panic, several mercenaries tried to run away. As soon as they broke formation, roots from the Moon Sheltering Adansonia attacked them. Many were killed, increasing the frenzy of the survivors. Despite the shouts from the elite soldiers, the mercenaries had lost all morale. They became easy pickings for the combined effort of the white tree and the ferocious vultures.
On top of Hongyu, the former slaves were extremely pleased. Those men had abused their companions and killed many of them in the raids. Seeing them as mere food for demonic beasts felt right. At the same time, their admiration for Cao Yun increased. He was standing tall on Hongyu while observing the massacre, completely detached from what was going on. As his robe was fluttering in the winds caused by the black thunderclouds, he appeared as a vengeful god to them.
Knowing that trying to calm them their men was useless, the eight elite soldiers prepared their own defenses. Although they were outnumbered, all hope wasn't lost. The demonic beasts and the tree had a very good tactic, but they would probably be unable to react to something unexpected.
As the Gloating Thunder Vultures were busy slaughtering the mercenaries, the elite soldiers pushed their blood cultivation to its limit. Their very skin turned a dark shade of red. Here and there, there were golden lines on their skin as well, produced by their Golden Blood. As they were focusing on their blood, a Qi Manifestation began to form around them. There was a large bull riddled with spears stabbed everywhere in its body that was consequently covered in its own blood. When its hooves trampled on the ground, terrible echoes spread throughout the land. In its eyes, there was pure rage and savagery.
Instantly, some of the spears stabbed in the large bull flew upward just as two soldiers were shooting with their bows. Those arrows were spears as large as a human trunk and covered in the golden blood of the bull. They whistled in the air, directed toward the black thunderclouds. When they went through those clouds, they left large holes behind them and fell back to the ground in the direction of the Moon Sheltering Adansonia.
At the same time, several soldiers stabbed with their spears, halberds and tridents. The large bull charged forward. Many branches and roots were sent to stop it. But he didn't try to avoid them at all. As the soldiers were expertly using their own weapons to break the most dangerous attacks, the bull was still going straight toward the Moon Sheltering Adansonia. It collided with its full body against the dome of the tree. Using all of its strength, the bull broke apart most of the branches and hit the trunk of the tree. However, it was too resistant even for such an attack to uproot it.
Now that the trunk was exposed, the arrows that were falling down could reach the white tree. Thus, the Gloating Thunder Vultures tried to intercept them. Lightning fell all around the Moon Sheltering Adansonia in order to protect it just as some vultures were trying to grab the flying spears with their talons. Unfortunately for them, the blood all over the spears made them slippery. But they were still able to alter the trajectory of some of those spears.
The Moon Sheltering Adansonia emitted a blinding white light as it focused all the energy of the moon. The large bull was still trying to uproot it as roots were piercing its body all over the place. The backlash caused a few of the elite soldiers to cough out blood. At the same time, the archers were still shooting more and more arrows toward both the flying demonic beasts and the exposed tree. Even Cao Yun had to admit that they were good. Since they were forced to fight from a distance, he couldn't judge their martial prowess too much. But they had a very good formation and cohesion. Furthermore, the archers were very competent.
Of course, the demonic beasts wouldn't let them do what they wanted without striking back. Thus they attacked the battle formation of those eight elite soldiers. Since the majority of them were holding polearms, they tried to keep the vultures at bay. When the Gloating Thunder Vultures attacked, the sound of thunder deafened the soldiers, some had even blood coming out of their ears. However, they didn't break their formation. At the same time, lightning struck down toward the demons.
They all used various martial arts to defend themselves. Unfortunately for them, they could move too much as they had to protect the archers. The fight was extremely fierce but the vultures had the advantage as they could easily retreat after each assault while the demons were rather static. Although the Gloating Thunder Vultures weren't stronger than the elite soldiers, the fact that they could fly was giving them an overwhelming advantage on the demons.
A scythe slashed the sky and cut off the wing of one vulture. When it touched the ground, a saber was drawn to behead the demonic beast. Moving around, the vulture was able to block it with its razor claws and tried to pluck out the attacker's heart with its beak. Before he could succeed, a bone emerged from the ground and stabbed through the vulture. Enraged by their first loss, its comrades tried to slaughter the demon with the saber as he was a bit farther from the others. Despite his best efforts, he was struck by lightning after a strange sound paralyzed him an instant. Then, he was dismembered by several Gloating Thunder Vultures attacking at the same time.
With this death, the Qi Manifestation attacking the tree was weakened and the other demons all felt the strain on their bodies increase. A few of them were forced to use their very blood essence to stay strong.
The fight went on for long minutes. After more than an hour, both the demonic beasts and the demons were exhausted. They had all lost a few comrades. But no side seemed ready to let go of the battle. Demons with such a cultivation were rare in the Desolate Dune Desert. Although it was fraught with risks, the Gloating Thunder Vultures couldn't abandon those preys. On the other side, the demons knew they couldn't escape without exposing themselves to even more casualties.
Cao Yun could tell that the battle would soon reach its end though. After all, they were all exhausted and had pushed themselves too far. But even he couldn't tell for sure who would win. The Moon Sheltering Adansonia had lost most of its glory after being trampled by an enraged bull. The once magnificent dome was now broken all over and even with its vitality, the white tree would need some time to recover from that.
While the issue of the fight was uncertain, Cao Yun had made something certain. He knew precisely who the leader of those elite soldiers was. During the fight, he had been severely injured too. Even his spear had been broken and he was now fighting with a sword. However, his aptitude in the sword was clearly inferior to his spearmanship.
As both sides were getting ready for a final assault, Cao Yun was also getting ready for something else.