Chapter 137: Lost Array Technique, Yin Mountain Locust Mother

After a dozen breaths, the smoke and dust cleared, revealing Mo Xiaoyao with blood-seeping eyes, still groaning in pain, while the ground had been blasted into a massive crater!

"It's a fiend!"
"Fellow Daoist Mo, how are you?"
"This secret key was transformed by a fiend; it was a complete scam all along! If I hadn't reacted in the nick of time, I would have been blasted to smithereens!" the latter said, still shaken with fear.

"Hiss!" The various masters looked at each other, half-skeptical.

Han Chong felt a chill in his heart. Every corner of the Nether Spring Yin Mountain was fraught with bizarre perils, as if an invisible hand was manipulating everything behind the scenes, toying with the powerful experts in the palm of its hand. What on earth was its ultimate purpose?

Once the trick was exposed, an eerie, ghostly laughter suddenly echoed from the dense forest above the ruins—shifting between male and female, making one's hair stand on end.

"Indeed, a demon is at work!" The masters looked up and peered around, yet they were unable to pinpoint the exact direction of the laughter, leaving them somewhat lost and helpless.

Immediately after, thousands of saplings burst through the earth across the surrounding ground. Growing at a visible speed, they shot upward, transforming in moments into a dense forest identical to the outside world—a veritable miracle!

Even more bizarrely, these thousands of nameless, strange trees seemed capable of moving at will, constantly shifting their positions and cutting off the paths between the various experts!

Terrifyingly, these thousands of grimace-faced strange trees were purplish-black in color, and from the middle of their trunks extended immensely flexible yet formidable purple-black serrated long tongues. As they moved, they lashed about like whips, nearly impossible to guard against.

"The Qimen Array!" Ouyang Jingguan's pupils constricted as he gasped.

"What? These strange trees actually operate according to an array?" Han Chong asked doubtfully.

"Indeed. The fierce demon of this place is actually adept at utilizing the long-lost Eight Gates Locking Immortal Array, deployed through thousands of root-connected trees. Its momentum is comparable to a thousand troops and horses; without the proper method, even Void-Returning mighty figures would find it hard to break through!"

"Since Brother Ouyang recognizes this array, do you know the method to break it?"

"I have only briefly glanced at this array in an ancient text of the Bureau of Astronomy and never studied it deeply. Now, finding myself trapped within it, I realize just how terrifying its might truly is!
The Eight Gates are: Rest, Life, Hurt, Delusion, Scenery, Death, Surprise, and Open.
Entering through the Life Gate, Scenery Gate, or Open Gate brings good fortune. Entering through the Hurt Gate, Surprise Gate, or Rest Gate brings harm. Entering through the Delusion Gate or Death Gate brings destruction.
I must ask Brother Han to cover me for a moment!"

Ouyang Jingguan used his left hand to calculate while holding a Bagua compass in his right, carefully observing the thousands of ancient trees moving rapidly to cross-reference them with the Eight Gates.

Han Chong held his sword, guarding his flanks and slicing off the lashing serrated long tongues one by one.

From time to time, screams and shouts echoed from the four directions as experts perished within the array.

No wonder the fierce demon here had lured all the masters to this spot—first enticing the powerful with a secret key to make them slaughter one another, and then deploying this ancient array with the intent of wiping out all the experts in one fell swoop!

Had they been outside the array, overlooking it from a distance and cross-referencing the Eight Gates, it might have been much easier. Now, trapped within the dim, shadowy array, even Ouyang Jingguan broke out in a fine sweat on his forehead, the situation tense to the extreme.

After the span of half an incense stick, the latter finally wore a look of joy, his eyes lighting up.

"Brother Han, follow me!"

The two walked and stopped, retreating and advancing by turns. Yet whenever they encountered dense groves of ghost trees, those trees seemed too busy to pay them any mind, brushing past them—truly bizarre to the utmost degree.

Gradually, some bewildered masters spotted Han Chong and the two, hurriedly following behind. Seeing this, they all clicked their tongues in wonder.

Even the unscathed Xiao Ling and Spider Spirit viewed Ouyang Jingguan in a new light, floating along behind them.

Han Chong, however, knew deeply that these two fiends were ferocious demons comparable to the early Void-Returning realm. If they relied on brute force, they could probably have broken out of this array in an instant. Yet the two demons had constantly concealed their strength, causing him no small amount of wariness.

As for fear, that was out of the question; even if the two joined forces, it would be difficult for them to trap him here. The two demons were well aware of this, which was why they merely offered Han Chong faint, cold smiles without showing excessive hostility.

Following closely behind Han Chong and his companion, the masters finally caught sight of the edge of the formation. Making a concerted dash, they broke through, declaring the tree formation shattered. The array then rapidly shrank back into the ground, leaving behind bottomless chasms across the earth.

"Heh, to think that the renowned Yin Mountain Locust Mother has methods amounting to no more than this."

It was Xiao Ling who spoke, smiling lightly as she gazed into the depths of the nameless dense forest. Her voice seemed to pierce a hundred miles away. From the direction she looked, a sharp, piercing ghost howl suddenly echoed—one could tell the demon was hopping mad with rage!

"Yin Mountain Locust Mother? Does this fellow Daoist know the origin of the fierce demon here? Please enlighten us without reservation!" Mo Xiaoyao asked, his brows twitching slightly as he cupped his fists in a salute.

"Heh, my elders told me that three thousand years ago, the founding emperor of the Yin-Moon Imperial Dynasty once discovered a dragon vein within this Nether Spring Yin Mountain, and planted a now-extinct ghost locust mother tree right atop it.
This ghost locust mother tree was nourished day by day by the destiny and fortune of the millions of subjects of the Yin-Moon Imperial Dynasty, growing stronger with each passing day. To this day,恐怕 several Void-Returning mighty figures or Sky-Extreme martial arts experts would find it difficult to slay her!"

"Hiss!" The masters looked at each other in dismay. A tree demon nurtured by the national fortune of a country for three thousand years—no wonder this fiend possessed such heaven-defying abilities! And it explained why all the previous experts who came seeking the dragon vein had never returned.

Han Chong frowned slightly. It was no surprise to him that the demon Xiao Ling knew such deep secrets.

What was bizarre was why these two demons had come here. Furthermore, according to the First Prince, the dragon vein of the Yin-Moon Imperial Dynasty had once been sabotaged by an unknown powerful entity. If the ghost locust mother tree demon was truly this terrifying, there was no reason she would have just sat by and ignored it.

A battle between two mighty forces would inevitably result in heavy mutual losses, which also explained why this demon had resorted to trickery and arrays to deal with the numerous experts instead of charging out directly to annihilate everyone in one fell swoop.

"Fellow Daoist Feng, since this demon is so terrifying, do we not have the slightest chance? If so, why would you two risk coming here?"

"Heh, where there are people, there are flaws, and this demon is no exception. Her roots spread throughout the entire Nether Spring Yin Mountain, but her true life-root is firmly anchored at the entrance of the dragon vein and cannot be moved.
We only need to find the location of her life-root, and we can eradicate her!"

"Fellow Daoist Feng, what kind of weakness is that? This demon's root system is entrenched atop the dragon vein—doesn't that make it even harder for us to enter?" a yellow-faced burly man asked in confusion.

"Heh, let me ask you a question: no matter how sharp the sword in your hand is, if your opponent constantly crowds close to your body, what use is even the most exquisite swordsmanship?
Although this ghost locust mother tree demon has root systems spreading all over the Yin Mountain, once we close in on her life-root, even she will have nowhere to use her strength, leaving her entirely at our mercy!"

Xiao Ling analyzed calmly.

"Makes sense, makes sense! Fellow Daoist Feng is indeed erudite, well-informed, and resourceful. But this dense forest is full of thorns, pitch-dark, and extremely easy to get lost in. How are we supposed to find her life-root?"

The young Daoist asked the most crucial question. Without finding the location of her life-root, knowing all the details about the demon would still be completely useless.

"Heh, that will depend on this brother here." Xiao Ling glanced toward Ouyang Jingguan by Han Chong's side.

"Me? How would I know where this demon's life-root is? Fellow Daoist Feng, please do not make things difficult for me."

Knowing that this Xiao Ling was an unfathomable great demon, the latter maintained a certain distance, waving his hands with a smile.