This opportunity is truly a rare occurrence, with favorable conditions and timing meeting! Wei Jiu naturally wanted to seize this chance to eliminate his inner demons accumulated over the years.
However, upon probing, Su Yishui indeed lost the imposing manner of being as unstoppable as before. Although he had sensed that the followers of the Crimson Gate were tailing them, he found it difficult to withstand even a few ordinary Crimson Gate disciples for long. In the end, he and his few disciples had to hide in the forest like cowards.
After Wei Jiu's men tested Su Yishui's baseline, he actually felt himself in a leisurely mood, wanting to toy and torment this young man who used to dominate him.
He decided to show up in person, planning to strangle each and everyone of his weak disciples in front of Su Yishui, break his limbs and then drain his remaining spiritual power!
But as Wei Jiu took a few steps into the forest, he suddenly saw the densely covered purple vines in the center of the forest. He narrowed his eyes to look closely. His expression changed drastically, and he muttered, "This is bad!"
He wanted to retreat from the forest immediately.
But at this moment, it was already too late! His men had already stepped on the purple vines…
The next moment, the originally silent vines suddenly moved like agile pythons, moving swiftly!
The entire forest instantly turned into an Eight Trigram maze, enclosed in an iron bucket, intercepting all intruders at different positions, making it difficult for them to reinforce each other.
Wei Jiu furrowed his brows and hollered, "Burn the vines with fire!"
His disciples immediately used their fire umbrellas to spray fire at the vines entwining towards them. However, the fire seemed to enhance the growth of these strange plants. In a short time, the originally arm-thick vines became as thick as tree trunks!
These plants have a fire attribute! Could it be… the legendary demonic Binding Immortal Vine? It thrives even more with fire…
Wei Jiu had a rude awakening and wanted his disciples to quickly stop the True fire attacks, but it was too late. He only heard the wretched screams of his disciples not far away, separated by the dense vine wall and the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.
Obviously, they didn't manage to burn the vines but burned themselves to a crisp.
Wei Jiu quickly looked around and soon found eight large trees with people crouching on them, realizing that these eight trees were the eye of the formation. If he wanted to get out, he had to destroy the eye first.
So he leaped up and attacked the tree without anyone on it.
He was eager to break the formation, so naturally, he chose a good starting point. The large tree in the northwest corner where no one was present, was the best target.
But who would have thought that as soon as he approached that tree, a snow-white ball of fluff suddenly jumped out of the treetop. Looking closely, it turned out to be a cat.
It seems that Su Yishui's arrangement of the vine formation had lacked manpower. This demon vine needs living people to drive it, so it seems he had caught a random cat to act as a substitute .
Wei Jiu sneered inwardly, dodging countless vine attacks with his agile body. He then wielded his twin hooks, intending to cut the big tree in half from the middle of the tree.
These vines were born attached to the eight large trees. As long as the trees were cut, the vines would naturally wither and die. But just as the hooks were about to hit the trunk, a thunderous roar sounded from above.
Wei Jiu looked up and all blood drained from his face— that cat suddenly opened its mouth wide and turned into a glaring white tiger in that thunderous roar, suddenly pouncing towards him.
He quickly used a Shifting technique to avoid the white tiger's fatal blow.
After the white tiger missed its attack, it jumped back onto the tree with a resounding roar, shaking the ground of the entire forest.
Wei Jiu exclaimed incredulously, "Geng jin White Tiger! Mu Qingge's mount… has been in your hands all along?"
Back then, Mu Qingge had shunned ordinary mounts like horses and bulls and felt that they were too mundane. She once went to the Western Sky Jade Peak alone and subdued a Geng jin White Tiger.
Although this tiger has the appearance of a tiger, it is actually an ancient exotic beast that feeds on living beings and is extremely ferocious. It once participated in the Fan Yao Battle with Mu Qingge and gained fame from that battle.
Considering the ferocity of this tiger, Wei Jiu, who was eager to break free, naturally didn't want to entangle with it any further. He turned his head and looked at the big tree where a comely young girl was sitting.
However, when that young girl saw him glaring over at her, she didn't panic at all; instead, there was a kind of eager smile on her face… which made one suspicious.
Moreover, that young girl's smile… seemed somewhat familiar, but Wei Jiu couldn't recall where he had seen her before.
He was naturally very paranoid and seeing Xue Ranran smiling so brightly, he felt something was amiss, so he decisively turned around and attacked the big tree where Su Yishui was.
When he turned around, he naturally couldn't see the calm and composed expression of the young girl behind him instantly collapse, her hands clasping in prayer while chanting softly.
Thank heavens, she was just afraid that this demon would come over, so she deliberately smiled at him. Although her Shifu instructed her that as long as she stayed on the tree, the vines would protect her, this fierce belly-splitting demon coming aggressively over was still terrifying!
But Wei Jiu charged towards her Shifu, she did not know if Shifu was confident enough to withstand his thunderous strike.
Su Yishui had been meditating with closed eyes on the central tree to the north all along. His left finger pointing upwards and his right finger pointing downwards, his wrist constantly rotating as if controlling the vine attacks.
Wei Jiu put in eighty percent of his spiritual power into this thunderous strike, intending to kill Su Yishui instantly and eliminate future troubles.
After all, Su Yishui was not who he used to be. Where was his formidable prowess? Wei Jiu had cultivated hard for twenty years and was very confident. Even the heads of the three major sects might not be able to withstand this fatal blow.
But just as his hooks were about to reach him, Su Yishui suddenly opened his eyes wide and took out a long rolling pin.
Ranran, who was on the adjacent tree, naturally saw it clearly; it was the one her mother had given her when she returned to Xi Shan.
No wonder she couldn't find it when she was making biscuits before leaving the mountain. It turned out her Shifu had kept it in his sleeve.
Wei Jiu's double hooks were extremely domineering. But Su Yishui, calm and unhurried, met them with the rolling pin. With a clever move, he parried the hooks with the rolling pin and quickly locked them up. As one who reels in a kite by rapidly taking in the string, he entangled them around the rolling pin.
This may look effortless, but it required channeling spiritual power continuously to counter the Qilin hooks; otherwise, a normal wooden stick would have been broken by the hooks immediately, how could it become the shortcoming of the hooks!
Wei Jiu exerted force to pull back his hooks, but he was unable to overpower Su Yishui. At this moment, he realized that Su Yishui was also entangled with purple vines, absorbing the spiritual power of the entire forest's vines to fight him. Su Yishui's open eyes also emitted a purple demonic light.
This trash Su, is so despicable! Su actually merged with the vines, manipulating the purple vines to absorb his spiritual power.
Even he, a demonic cultivator, scorned using methods aided by demonic boosts. It was a pity that Su Yishui, a model of righteousness, had fallen so low to the point of using demonic vines in combat!
These vines usually takes more than ten days to grow and requires extremely strict conditions of feng shui and light. How shrewd must Su be, designing this step by step, constantly showing weakness, leading him into this trap that he had prepared in advance.
Wei Jiu finally understood everything, but it was too late now.
As Su Yishui quickly reeled in, he had already pulled Wei Jiu to his side.
Wei Jiu was good at long-range attacks. He had fought with Su Yishui before and knew he shouldn't get close to Su Yishui's body. Within a foot, it was all Su Yishui's domain, and it was difficult to free oneself when one got close.
As a last resort, Wei Jiu had to release the double hooks and try to retreat. But the rapidly growing vines around him had already coiled around him like a dragon. Even if Wei Jiu used spiritual power to shatter a few, new vines immediately entangled him again.
This kind of consumption was simply never-ending. Even Wei Jiu, who was about to form a Nascent Soul, couldn't keep up. Because those purple vines seemed to have thin tendrils that pierced into his body like needles, constantly absorbing his spiritual power…
Feeling his spiritual power plummeting rapidly, Wei Jiu began to panic. He gritted his teeth, shouting, "Su Yishui! If anyone finds out that you're secretly nurturing demonic vines, your reputation will be ruined!"
But Su Yishui, who seemed to be in a demonic state, did not stop at all, absorbing the unending stream of spiritual power through the vines.
Right then, Su Yishui used the vines to quickly absorb Wei Jiu's spiritual power into his body. In a moment, his hair crown shattered, his long hair danced in the air, looking like an evil god descending.
But his face was still expressionless, until Wei Jiu was about to be covered by the vines all over his body, he coldly spoke, "Twenty years ago, I had told you to stay away from me, otherwise I would… kill you."
When Su Yishui said this, his eyelids lowered, showing disdain, his tone as if crushing an insignificant cockroach.
This inherent contempt stimulated Wei Jiu's hatred, making him grit his teeth.
But he knew clearly that this Su wasn't bluffing!
These purple vines has got to be the legendary Parasitic Immortal Vines. If entangled by this demonic thing, it was very likely to end up a dry corpse.
Everyone else all thought Su Yishui was upright, lofty, and even disdainful of associating with his father, the Prince Ping who became a rebel king.
But Wei Jiu always felt that this guy was very sinister, making him fearful.
Now he had fallen into Su Yishui's trap and was about to become a dried corpse. The only solution was to pull a *cunning escape by sacrificing half of his golden core and see if he could break free.
*金蝉脱壳 literally means golden cicada escapes its shell
Thinking of this, Wei Jiu was infuriated. He could only grit his teeth and chant a spell, forcing out half of his golden core. Turning it into a human form with spiritual power, he let the purple vines entangle it. As for himself, he silently chanted the Earth Escape Technique, quickly shrinking and escaping underground.
Seeing how he was just about to form a Nascent Soul but was now forced to sacrifice half of his core, destroying years of cultivation in an instant, his frustration was beyond words.
But this method did work, at least saving his life.
When the battered and exhausted Wei Jiu finally crawled out of the ground, he looked back at the faint purple light in the forest. He reached out, and crushed the subordinates who came to talk to him, absorbing their spiritual power to replenish his depleted golden core.
"Su Yishui! I am your sworn enemy!"
Tu Jiuyuan stood aside, feeling shocked and terrified, with a wave of heartache upon looking at her Master in such a sorry state.
Not to mention Wei Jiu cursing and swearing, using foul language, vowing to tear Su Yishui into pieces.
Meanwhile, in the forest full of vines, after Wei Jiu fled in panic, the last rays of the setting sun also disappeared. As the forest gradually became shrouded in darkness, those purple vines wilted rapidly as if dehydrated, disappearing in a blink of an eye.
When Yu Chen and the others came down from the trees, still in shock, Gao Cang looked amazed and said, "Shifu you are truly amazing! It's a pity that the people from the three major sects are not here, or else who would dare to say you are weak!"
But Bai Baishan had an unsettled expression. He had been obsessed with cultivation since he was young, naturally understanding more than Gao Cang and the others.
Just now, Wei Jiu shouted "demonic vines". If what he said was true, wouldn't Su Yishui be privately nurturing demonic things prohibited by those of the righteous path?
Upon hearing the hesitant inquiry from his second disciple, Su Yishui mildly said, "All living things grow, each with its own purpose. Whether it's demonic or celestial, it's all determined by the heart. If it can save a life, how could it be a monster?"
This statement was ambiguous, neither denying nor admitting. Bai Baishan was tactful and didn't ask further.
However, it was clear that Su Yishui had taken the third path of cultivation. By using the purple vines to absorb more than half of Wei Jiu's cultivation, and effectively filled his own golden core which had been empty for a long while. Such a high-grade supplement as Wei Jiu's cultivation was something you couldn't buy even with a thousand taels of gold!