Joe Di observed for several minutes, confirming there was nothing amiss before cautiously stepping onto the tree root.
His feet landed on the dead bark remnants, producing a scraping sound. Joe Di deliberately stomped a few times—the footing was solid, with no signs of danger. Relieved, he took another step forward, both feet now on the exposed tree root.
Something was wrong. The moment Joe Di stepped onto the cross-section of the root, he sensed it—he could no longer hear any sounds. The surroundings were eerily silent, almost unsettling.
On Celestia, there were always birdsong and fiend beast roars. Now, he heard nothing at all, which was clearly abnormal.
Joe Di immediately tried to retreat, only to discover he couldn’t get out. Everything around him was shrouded in gray mist—there was no sign of the outside world. Worse yet, even his spiritual sense couldn’t reach beyond the mist.
Joe Di’s heart sank. He realized he must have entered some kind of trap array. As for array techniques, he was utterly clueless.
In situations like this, it was all the more important to stay calm. Joe Di stood still, thinking about the direction he’d come from, then took a step back.
Since he didn’t understand arrays, Joe Di planned to step back again, aiming to return to where he’d first entered the root’s cross-section. But in reality, after that step, he still wasn’t outside the root. The gray mist remained all around.
Joe Di drew the Celestial Cleaver from his waist and gripped it tightly, but he didn’t attempt to fly with it. Since this was an array, trying to fly with the cleaver might land him in even greater trouble.
Gathering his true essence on the Celestial Cleaver, Joe Di swung it in a powerful slash.
The slash of white light from the cleaver was strikingly clear in the gray space. With a loud boom, Joe Di suddenly felt the ground vanish beneath him—he’d lost all support.
In his panic, Joe Di tried to gather his true essence, but found he couldn’t. Before he could summon the Celestial Cleaver, his feet had already hit the ground.
Crack! A bone in his leg snapped.
Without hesitation, Joe Di grabbed a pill and swallowed it, then slapped his broken leg dozens of times.
From this height, his cultivation should have prevented any injury, yet his leg still broke. It was as if the force of the fall had been precisely calculated to break his bone.
Fortunately, he was still a top-tier medical expert and had premium healing pills with him.
After dozens of slaps, his broken leg bone healed with remarkable speed. The pill dissolved into medicinal liquid, circulating through Joe Di’s body and quickly nourishing his bone.
Within moments, Joe Di could barely stand. But he didn’t get up—this place was strange, and his leg was still fragile.
Joe Di’s self-treatment took only a moment. At the same time, his spiritual sense spread outward. He was relieved to find it could now penetrate the surroundings. But when he scanned the area, he gasped in shock.
He was in a space constructed entirely from intertwined tree roots, completely enclosed. Even Joe Di couldn’t understand how he’d ended up in a root chamber—there was no entrance at all.
That wasn’t all—between the roots were countless pale bones. Beast bones, human bones—everything was here.
Soon, Joe Di’s spiritual sense found the person sending a distress signal. He recognized her—it was the female instructor, Jade Yu.
At this moment, Jade Yu’s clothes were torn to shreds, barely covering her body.
Jade Yu was originally a strikingly beautiful woman, and under these circumstances should have been even more eye-catching. Yet Joe Di felt only a chill—he sensed no allure or attraction from her at all.
A tree root had pierced through Jade Yu’s waist, suspending her in the middle of the root network. Her face was deathly pale, her limbs twitching slightly. In just over a month, Jade Yu had wasted away to a mere stick.
The reason Joe Di could see Jade Yu’s distress signal was because she was gripping a locator in her hand. Her eyes were closed, seemingly unconscious. It looked like she was only able to press the distress button during brief moments of lucidity.
Joe Di’s spiritual sense focused on the root piercing Jade Yu, and he quickly understood what was happening.
His spiritual sense clearly saw the root slowly absorbing Jade Yu’s blood. The process was agonizingly slow, but her blood was indeed seeping into the root.
Joe Di felt his leg bone was finally usable, so he stood up, channeling true essence into the Celestial Cleaver.
The moment Joe Di stood, Jade Yu opened her eyes. Upon seeing Joe Di, she immediately showed a look of despair. Perhaps she was so severely anemic she couldn’t even wonder how Joe Di had gotten here.
She wanted to say something to Joe Di, but couldn’t utter a single word.
Before Joe Di could step forward to attack the root wrapping Jade Yu, several roots shot toward him. One root went straight for his abdomen, clearly intending to impale and suspend him like Jade Yu.
Joe Di flew into a rage, swinging the Celestial Cleaver. A fierce blade aura tore through the air, its murderous intent declaring that anything in its path would be split apart.
Thud thud thud! Several roots blocking Joe Di were severed by his blade. He clearly saw blood dripping from the cut ends, and even heard faint cries of pain.
Sensing Joe Di’s power, the remaining roots withdrew. Joe Di leapt into the air, slashing out again before landing.
His blade aura descended in a tearing vortex. The surrounding roots seemed to anticipate his move—seven or eight tried to block him. The swirling vortex of blade aura shredded the roots to pieces, and the blade light struck the root impaling Jade Yu without obstruction.
This chapter isn’t over yet ^.^, please click next page to continue reading!
Third Blade of the Di Family: Whirlwind Blade.
Ah! This time, Joe Di heard the cry of pain even more clearly—it definitely hadn’t come from Jade Yu.
The root was severed by Joe Di, and Jade Yu fell from the air—caught by Joe Di.
Cradled in Joe Di’s arms, Jade Yu seemed reduced to nothing but bone, her body devoid of any flesh. Both her leg bones were broken, even worse than Joe Di’s injury. With all the blood she’d lost, it would be very difficult for her to recover quickly.
When Joe Di swung his blade, Jade Yu happened to see it. But as she watched the roots coil toward her, despair overwhelmed her and she fainted again.
Joe Di quickly took out a pill and placed it in Jade Yu’s mouth, all while keeping an eye on the surroundings. He’d already severed more than a dozen roots, and the rest seemed to realize his strength—they didn’t try to approach him again.
His own leg bone had only just healed, and Joe Di saw that the roots he’d cut were just a few among the massive tangle. Since the remaining roots weren’t causing trouble, he didn’t bother attacking them further.
Joe Di extended his spiritual sense and saw, deep within the tangle of roots, a Rootling sitting there.
All those dense, tangled roots seemed to extend from the Rootling’s body. Even a casual sweep of Joe Di’s spiritual sense could detect the intense vitality contained within it.
It absorbed the blood of humans and fiend beasts to strengthen its own vitality. Joe Di didn’t know what kind of entity this Rootling was, nor how the trap array outside was connected to it.
After a moment’s thought, Joe Di decided to deal with the Rootling and take it away. With such potent vitality, he couldn’t just leave it here. Besides, if the Rootling had nearly killed him, he wasn’t about to let it go.
If his blade hadn’t harmed the Rootling, he’d end up with the same fate as Jade Yu. Or, if he wasn’t a medical expert, even with a broken leg he wouldn’t have been able to harm these roots at all.
He could act, but needed to wait until his leg was fully healed before making a move.
Joe Di’s healing pill was effective. In no time, Jade Yu opened her eyes and, seeing Joe Di sitting beside her, asked in surprise, “Joe Di, did you save me?”
“It doesn’t look like there’s anyone else here.” Joe Di recalled how Jade Yu had once called him trash, feeling a bit annoyed. If he’d known it was her, he might not have come at all.
“I didn’t expect you to be so strong. I’m sorry—I thought you were just someone who’d gotten in through connections, and I even resented you for it.” Jade Yu was truly grateful to Joe Di.
Waiting to die alone here was bad enough, but being impaled by roots and drained of blood was a terror and loneliness no ordinary person could endure. She was, after all, just an ordinary person.
“Forget it. I’m not petty,” Joe Di waved it off. Right now, his mind was focused on how to deal with the Rootling. He also wondered if moving with Jade Yu would trigger another attack from the surrounding roots.
The problem was, Jade Yu was exhausted and both her legs were broken—she couldn’t walk at all.