Chapter 324 — The Poisoner and the Divine Physician

What the strange beast spat from its mouth was a pearl, shedding a green radiance that bathed everything around in a jade-green glow — and it was not the pearl itself that shone, but what lay within it: something like an azure dragon swimming inside the pearl, and it was the dragon's light that lit the world around them. Xiong Xiyu's expression shifted slightly at the sight of the green light, and she turned her head at once: "The Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl of my True Heaven Palace!

" Shen Mu looked back, and saw that the pearl had already grown to more than a zhang across, and the azure dragon within it had grown clearer still, swimming joyfully inside it; the flower maidens that had been pouncing at Yu Bochuan and the others were shone upon by the green light and in an instant turned to wood, becoming wooden carvings, their bodies rigid, frozen in midair.

Po po po — sounds came from within their bodies, and green sprouts soon burst out all over the woodified girls, and then branches drew forth, dressing them in glossy green. And the tentacles behind them, which were the root tendrils of the root-tendril monster, likewise turned to hard wood and could not stir. Yu Bochuan led his host charging forward, and the horned berserk-ape beast held the pearl high in both hands, following close behind the crowd; wherever the pearl's light fell, flower maiden after flower maiden was frozen in place, each in a different attitude, every posture distinct, and no two the same.

"The Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl? " Shen Mu was briefly startled.

That a pearl like this could actually restrain a monster such as the root-tendril demon — truly a treasure beyond compare!

"The holy treasure of my True Heaven Palace has been taken by them as well! " Xiong Xiyu gave a cold humph, reached out a hand from afar, and the beast felt the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl upon its palms fly up at once; greatly alarmed, it hastily sprang up and flung itself upon the pearl, trying to press it back down.

Several other experts of the Heaven-Human realm beside Yu Bochuan burst out their vital essence as well, urging the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl on, contending with Xiong Xiyu; the pearl floated in midair, and for a brief moment the two sides were locked in stalemate, each striving to master this holy treasure.

The two white bats wheeled around and flew over at once, spinning in midair and shooting out countless fine hairs at Yu Bochuan and the rest, wanting to help, wanting to seize the pearl.

In the blink of an eye the two white bats were stripped clean of every hair — their hairs had long since been refined into a strange treasure, hairs like needles, and if one were struck, the hairs would turn exceedingly soft and burrow into the body, killing in an instant!

At the same time the dragon qilin shook its body, and dragon scales, one after another, like sharp-edged shields, howled and spun as they sliced toward Yu Bochuan and the others! In a moment the dragon qilin was clean and bare, stripped to the skin, naked as the day it was born, with only a few qilin hairs left on the tip of its dragon tail and on its great head.

Xiong Xiyu's flower-like face paled, and she said in panic, "Do not attack! " Before her words had died away, the hairs shot out by the two white bats were shone upon by the green light of the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl and turned to wood at once, falling to the ground with a shua shua shua.

The two white bats tried to withdraw their hairs, but found they had lost all sense of them; the brothers stared dumbstruck, hugging their shoulders, at a loss.

The dragon qilin's scales, too, turned to wood in an instant, becoming wooden shields that clattered to the ground one by one; the fat dragon was flabbergasted, its great belly pressed to the earth — originally the dragon scales covering that belly had kept it from sagging too badly, but now that the scales were gone, the loose flesh drooped down uncontrollably. "Hierarch.

. .

" The dragon qilin had utterly lost its head, and turned in panic to look at Shen Mu standing on its back.

Shen Mu had meant to drive his eight thousand swords forward in slaughter, but on seeing this he at once stayed his hand.

The Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl of True Heaven Palace was truly uncanny and unfathomable.

Though the dragon qilin's cultivation had not reached the Heaven-Human realm, its strength was not far from that realm, and its hide was thick and its flesh tough.

Back in the battle of Tianbo City, when the avatar of Demon King Dutian descended and fought a great battle with the Dragon King, a stray ripple of the attack had grazed the dragon qilin's rump and merely broken its scales; the dragon qilin's injuries had not been grave, which showed how strong the defense of those scales was. And the two white bats were stronger still, certainly at the peak of the Heaven-Human realm, and their hairs were not a thing they would use lightly. Yet who could have thought that their treasures, meeting the green light of the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl, would all turn to wood and all lose their control!

Had Shen Mu's eight thousand swords flown over, likely only the Worry-Free Sword would have escaped woodification; all his other flying swords would have become timber.

Xiong Xiyu gave a muffled groan; her dharma power was no match for Yu Bochuan and the others, she could not wrest the pearl from them, and the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl flew toward Yu Bochuan and his people.

Just then the earth suddenly shook violently, and countless root tendrils surged up from underground, dancing through the sky, and with a shua shua shua they knotted themselves into a great cocoon of dark wood, wrapping the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl about and dragging it down into the earth.

Xiong Xiyu and Yu Bochuan and the rest were caught off guard; neither side had time to reclaim the Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl before the root-tendril monster had snatched it away! Yu Bochuan said in a stern voice, "The Azure Mystic Water Dragon Pearl is the treasure of my True Heaven Palace; the true soul of the azure dragon is sealed within it.

This old monster cannot swallow it down! " Suddenly the quaking beneath the ground grew fiercer, and everyone's footing turned unsteady; the earth beneath their feet shook without cease and was still swelling upward, as though some colossal thing below were burrowing up.

Hong long — mud and stone flew apart in all directions, and a mass of green welled up from underground, lifting them up, higher and higher.

The dragon qilin hastily leapt aside as the crown of a great tree, covering dozens of mu, surged out of the earth and rose up beside them.

The two white bats hurriedly flew up, then, remembering they were bare and shiny, hastily covered their privates with both hands and came tumbling down, plunging headlong into the dense foliage.

The two white bats were briefly startled: this great tree was still growing madly, its crown larger and larger, its trunk taller and taller, and before long they saw snowy white clouds drifting past the edges of the crown. The air grew cooler and cooler and the sunlight fiercer and fiercer, and the two white bats began to find it hard to breathe; they hastily flew up and dove down out of the tree crown. Only in flying did they realize how long the journey was; the crown of this tree was immense and thick, and though they were swift, it still took them a good while to fly out of it.

Emerging from the crown, below them lay a dizzying height, and a trunk so vast it towered far above the surrounding mountains!

The two white bats hurriedly flew downward, and after another while at last saw the ground.