Chapter 231
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Chapter 231: What Do You Think Humans Are?!
The Assistant prepared to attack. Though the others had concerns, they could do nothing.
In the Cult, those in power controlled everything.
Yet the prideful Assistant failed to notice crimson Manjusaka flowers staring intently at them while he glared maliciously at Mu Lin.
Manjusaka!
Mu Lin hadn’t been merely wandering through the deadwood forest.
He’d scattered numerous Other Shore Flower seeds, planting them upon the eerie dead trees.
Though the Deadwood radiated the Breath of Death that suppressed Qi Practitioners’ vitality and powers, hastening all toward decay, Manjusaka thrived differently. This death-blossom could feast on living energy to lure victims, or absorb death itself to flourish.
Mu Lin had originally planted them as trail markers to escape the ghostly labyrinth. The unexpected discovery shocked him.
"Sacrifices… Lord of Desolation? This disaster wasn’t natural strangeness but man-made?"
The revelation stunned Mu Lin, igniting uncontrollable killing intent. Seeing corpses hanging from branches – especially children under ten – made his rage erupt.
"What do you think humans are?!"
Witnessing these beings treat people like slaughter-livestock trampled human dignity. When Mu Lin saw the cultists preparing to attack rather than flee, he mentally sealed their fates.
"You’ve chosen death!"
"Kill!"
Mu Lin acted first without hesitation. His order cracked through the air like thunder.
"Crash!"
At his command, the Yin soldiers and ghost officials stopped patrolling and began slashing surrounding trees with swords.
Cultist observers sneered. "Fools! Our Sacred Trees can’t be harmed by mundane…"
"Screech!"
The Deadwood’s unusual ability normally caused blades to decay and rebound wounds onto attackers. But Mu Lin’s forces weren’t ordinary. Blessed by the Will of Humanity and belonging to the Yin Court, they held special advantage against monsters and evil spirits.
As the saying goes – exploit weaknesses, conquer immortals. When specially-countering blades struck, the Deadwood finally suffered wounds.
The cultist never expected such a scene, and it filled him with pain.
"Bastards! How dare you hurt our Sacred Tree! You’ll all die!"
His rage didn’t come from worshiping the tree, but because nurturing Deadwood was their task. Every tree Mu Lin injured meant months of recovery work, which naturally angered them.
Despite their anger, they still didn’t fear Mu Lin.
They never believed he could win, seeing him as nothing but a minor pest.
Their earlier hesitation only came from avoiding conflicts with powerful clans.
This wasn’t arrogance—they trusted the deadwood forest’s power.
And reality… proved them right.
"Woooo…"
Mu Lin’s attack stirred up a hornet’s nest. Crimson blood gushed from the wounded tree, staining the giant tree red.
Countless evil ghost faces emerged from the bark, screaming wildly.
"SCREECH!!!"
The ear-piercing shrieks brought dizziness and mental chaos.
More terrifyingly, the screams didn’t just come from the injured tree—all surrounding giant trees joined the chorus.
Thousands of Deadwood faces wailed together, transforming the area into a demon’s lair. The endless wails could drive anyone mad.
At the center, protected by Yin soldiers and ghost officials, Lin Qi and Fox Demon Bai Zhi suffered terribly. The demonic sounds twisted their faces pale with agony.
Outside the deadwood forest, Flower Xingyu—who hadn’t entered because no family or friends were trapped—also paled. Even at distance, the chaotic Demonic Sounds shook his spirit, making his energy unstable.
Alarmed, Flower Xingyu fled until reaching a kilometer away. When the sounds weakened, he stared at the forest with concern. Though not friends, their human decency made them hope Mu Lin’s group wouldn’t perish.
"Brother Hua, can Mu Lin win?"
"Hard… Destroying the deadwood forest? Impossible. This place is too dangerous."
Flower Xingyu shuddered violently, his previous experience leaving deep trauma. Yet he still believed in Mu Lin’s escape chances.
"Though he can’t destroy it, Mu Lin’s strong enough to flee. No one could stop him if he runs."
Having escaped himself, Flower Xingyu reasoned Mu Lin could too.
But the Assistant and others awakened by the forest’s mutation disagreed.
"Those rats escaped earlier because we didn’t fully activate the forest! Now you’ve angered the Sacred Tree! None shall escape this time!"
The vicious Assistant eagerly awaited seeing Mu Lin’s group panic and flee like cornered rats.
But soon, his expression shifted.
The overlapping, chaotic Demonic Sounds from the Deadwood were horrifying – even these cultists couldn’t bear them, forced to watch from a distance.
Yet these sinister noises didn’t affect Mu Lin’s Yin soldiers and ghost officials at all.
"Impossible!"
He refused to accept this truth, but what happened next left him no choice.
Amid the chaotic Demonic Sounds, Mu Lin’s hundreds of Yin soldiers kept swinging long swords, long knives, and spears unaffected, acting like lumberjacks chopping Deadwood.
"Crack!" "Crack!" "Crack!"
One after another, Deadwood trees fell beneath blade strikes.
The hundred-plus ghost officials proved equally fierce. Though weaponless, their Soul Binding Chains whipped through air like steel serpents, lashing the twisted faces on Deadwood trunks.
"Thwack!"
"SCREECH!!!"
The brutal strikes made wooden faces scream anew.
Even from afar, the Assistant cultist sensed the change – these weren’t angry or greedy cries anymore, but true agony… shrill, desperate howls of pain.
Just hearing them made the Assistant shudder. He felt phantom pains worse than snapped bones or ripped nails.
This was expected.
Ghost officials’ Soul Binding Chains didn’t harm flesh – they tormented souls directly.
Few could endure such spiritual anguish, demons and evil ghosts included.
This was why countless monsters feared the underworld.
"Thwack!" "Thwack!" "Thwack!"
The deadwood forest echoed with chain strikes and endless wails. Eventually, some evil ghost faces on the Deadwood were beaten to death by the relentless attacks.
As these demonic visages shattered, the Deadwood’s unnatural aura faded significantly.
"Crack!" "Thwack!"
Thus Mu Lin’s forces worked steadily, clearing swathes of Deadwood in short order.
Seeing this, the Assistant snapped.
"Impossible! How dare you damage the Sacred Tree! Why doesn’t the weeping affect you?!"
The cultists couldn’t grasp what they saw, while Mu Lin stayed calm.
The answer was simple – Yin soldiers and ghost officials naturally countered Deadwood.
As for ignoring the screams? That came from the Trait of Transcendence.
Born from invincible belief, this trait kept Mu Lin’s mind supremely rational and detached, shrugging off most negative mental influences.
The Demonic Sounds were just another soul-shaking negative condition – powerless against such transcendence.
Unfortunately, Mu Lin’s formidable soul combined with his Trait of Transcendence rendered him immune to such influences.
As extensions of Mu Lin’s power, the Yin soldiers and ghost officials seamlessly connected with him. Empowered by their master, these subordinates similarly resisted the effects.
…
"Destroy every last piece of Deadwood here!"
Unshackled by external influences, Mu Lin acted with increasing boldness.
His command drove the Yin soldiers and ghost officials into frenzy. Deadwood splintered beneath their assault while ghostly visages shattered into nothingness.
This sent the Assistant into utter panic.
These deadwoods nurtured the Servants of the gods. If destroyed before the ritual’s completion, his doom would be certain.
Cold dread flooded the Assistant’s heart as bitter regret took hold.
"Damn fool! Why provoke this monster…"
Regret soon twisted into desperation.
"Attack! All of you! Unless we kill him, the High Priest will make us suffer fates worse than death for ruining the Servants’ arrival!"
Forced by desperation, cultists endured the Demonic Sounds’ torment and advanced through the deadwood forest.
Meanwhile, the ancient forest itself sensed impending destruction. With creaking groans, withered branches shook violently. Corpses dangling from deadwood snapped awake like puppets, their bony fingers clutching rusted weapons as they lurched toward Mu Lin.
Not just the hanging dead – skeletal remains buried beneath gnarled roots clawed through damp soil, joining the shambling horde. Thousands murdered by the Assistant’s schemes now rose against their destroyer’s enemy.
Outnumbered tenfold, Mu Lin’s forces stood firm even as the deadwood trees rattled their branches, attempting to snare Yin soldiers with hanging nooses of cursed vines.
*Thrum!*
The ensnaring vines found no purchase. Having abandoned all restraint, Mu Lin unleashed his full power.
"Sky Wall Palace Formation!"
*CRASH!*
The Yin soldiers and ghost officials merged into an impregnable fortress. Cursed vines meant to hang single targets now strained against unified resistance – like trying to lift a mountain with spider silk.
Though the hanging curse failed, the skeletal tide kept coming.
"Slaughter them all!"
The deadwood forest became battleground. As undead clashed with spirit soldiers, the cultists made their move – though not as the Assistant expected.
Instead of attacking Mu Lin, they cowered behind bony shields and deadwood trunks, hurling destructive spells at the very corpses and trees protecting them.
This madness froze the spell-chanting Assistant mid-incantation.
"Bastards! Have your brains rotted? Strike the demon, not our allies!"
