Chapter 29: Disturbing a Kitten’s Sleep is a Scratchable Offense…

Unfortunately for Xu Quanfeng, no matter how furious he was, he could only grit his teeth, pull out the jade bottle containing the Ice Silkworm Illusion Crystal, and toss it to Lin Chuyun.

“There! Are you satisfied now?!” Xu Quanfeng ground his teeth together, vowing to investigate thoroughly once he returned to the sect to find out exactly which peak this thieving disciple was from!

Lin Chuyun contentedly handed the jade bottle to his own disciple for safekeeping, then nodded. “You three take care of that Flame Tree Demon.”

The implication was clear: he would handle the vine demon himself.

Xu Quanfeng couldn’t help but frown. He couldn’t quite see through this person’s cultivation, but the strongest disciple to enter this cavern was only at the Early Golden Core stage.

That Vine Tree Demon hadn’t made a move yet, but no one doubted its strength.

“Shi… Junior Brother.” Feng Xixing was also uneasy and grabbed Lin Chuyun’s wrist.

The light spot in Lin Chuyun’s Qi Sea was already very dim, and his remaining spiritual power wasn’t plentiful. If his spiritual power ran out in the middle of the fight…

Feng Xixing’s expression fell, his eyes flickering.

Lin Chuyun was also aware of his situation, but he was confident he could finish the vine before that happened. Seeing Feng Xixing still worried, his face softened and he reached out to brush the tips of Feng Xixing’s hair.

“Don’t worry, I know my limits.”

Feng Xixing had no choice but to let go. Taking advantage of the others’ distraction, however, he slipped an ice crystal into Lin Chuyun’s hand.

The familiar icy touch startled Lin Chuyun, but he quickly recovered and obediently swallowed the ice crystal. Only then did Feng Xixing’s expression improve. He didn’t dare delay any longer and moved to intercept the Flame Tree Demon.

Lin Chuyun shook his head with a helpless smile.

The spiritual power shield maintained by the disciples was on the verge of collapse under the Flame Tree Demon’s continuous assault. Seeing this, Xu Quanfeng didn’t waste any more words. He was the first to summon his Wind-Chasing Sword and strike.

The Flame Tree Demon screeched as it was hit. Its branches instantly became a frenzy, swarming towards Xu Quanfeng like a living tide. He hurriedly retreated, and behind him, Yan Sha’s scimitar flashed a brilliant arc, almost like a crescent moon, and slammed fiercely into the center of those branches.

The branches that had been impossible to cut before were now severed in a single blow, several at once.

Before the tree demon could entangle them again, Xu Quanfeng decisively charged towards the trapped disciples, Yan Sha following close behind.

Feng Xixing took one last look at Lin Chuyun before settling his mind and focusing on the demon beast before him. He needed to dispatch this tree demon quickly so he could go help Lin Chuyun.

But no matter how he tried to calm himself, he still felt an anxious restlessness. Feng Xixing couldn’t help but touch the tear mole at the corner of his eye. If he could use his Devil Qi, he could simply devour these two demon beasts directly.

But… doing so would not only expose the Devil Qi, he might also fail to suppress it again afterward.

He couldn’t use it.

With a cold face, Feng Xixing condensed countless ice swords in the air. With a flick of his right hand, the ice swords rained down, suppressing the flames covering the Flame Tree Demon.

Seeing the Flame Tree Demon being overpowered by the three of them, the vine demon that had been quietly lurking to the side seemed ready to help, but Lin Chuyun intercepted it before it could.

Lin Chuyun took a deep breath and tightened his grip on his Azure Wood Sword.

The closer he got to the Vine Tree Demon, the more Lin Chuyun realized its strength wasn’t simple. If the Flame Tree Demon wielded an obvious fire attribute, this Vine Tree Demon carried a silent, extreme, bone-chilling cold.

The Vine Tree Demon also assessed Lin Chuyun warily before suddenly whipping out several vines. These vines were even faster than the Flame Tree Demon’s branches. Lin Chuyun dodged by a hair’s breadth and countered with a swing of his sword.

But while the vines were softer than branches, they were even harder to cut. The Azure Wood Sword struck one, but instead of severing it, the blade got tangled.

Lin Chuyun narrowed his eyes and rapidly coated the Azure Wood Sword with his spiritual power. In an instant, the vine wrapped around the sword began to wither rapidly, as if its life force was being drained away.

And the withered portion even started to spread back along the vine. But after it crept a short distance, the Vine Tree Demon decisively severed that section of the vine.

It worked. Lin Chuyun breathed a sigh of relief.

This was a technique the original host had learned in the original book only after going into seclusion. It wasn’t really a profound spell, just another application of a Wood Spiritual Root.

A Wood Spiritual Root was naturally attuned to nourishing life. But when the principle was reversed, it could drain the life force from other living things. This absorption wasn’t without limits, of course, but for Lin Chuyun, a Nascent Soul cultivator, bullying a mid Core Formation demon beast was more than sufficient.

With this method, the Vine Tree Demon could do nothing to Lin Chuyun. If it dared to entangle him with vines, he would just absorb its life force. But Lin Chuyun couldn’t do much to it, either; after all, he couldn’t actually drain the Vine Tree Demon’s entire life force.

Man and demon settled into a stalemate.

Over on the other side, the Flame Tree Demon was already showing signs of retreating under the combined assault of the three men. The Spirit Wind Peak disciples seized the chance to flee to safety, stopping only to heal each other’s wounds.

And in a spot unnoticed by everyone, Bai Linghan, who had long since fled, had quietly returned.

In the end, Bai Linghan couldn’t bear to give up the treasure. Every time he sensed a treasure, it was no ordinary heavenly resource—always at least Spirit Tier.

In his mind, if he sensed it, it should be his.

When he saw the scene before him, his eyes lit up. The two demon beasts were tangled in a fierce fight with those four people, leaving him completely unnoticed. It was the perfect chance to sneak away with the treasure.

With this thought, Bai Linghan lowered his presence as much as possible. He quietly circled around the fighters and followed his senses to a cold pool.

The temperature around the pool was extremely low, but the concentration of spiritual power was very high. Once there, however, Bai Linghan found it difficult to pinpoint the treasure’s exact location.

He stood at the edge of the Cold Pool, hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and dove in.

……

Lin Chuyun forced back another attack from the Vine Tree Demon, his spirit sword trembling subtly in his grip.

His spiritual power was running low.

The light spot inside him had dimmed completely, and the surrounding spiritual power was nearly all absorbed. If Feng Xixing hadn’t given him an extra ice crystal earlier, he might already be preparing to flee.

Why was this Vine Demon so persistent?

Lin Chuyun had a massive headache. He had thought he just needed to make the Vine Tree Demon back off. In the original text, when the Flame Tree Demon was beaten to death, the Vine Tree Demon didn’t even appear.

So why was it so loyal and devoted now?

Could it be that in the original book, the Vine Tree Demon wasn’t too lazy to save the Flame Tree Demon, but had just happened to be out that day?

Lin Chuyun took a deep breath and forced the wild thoughts from his head. The fight with Feng Xixing’s group was at a critical stage. No matter what happened, he couldn’t let the Vine Tree Demon interfere.

Just as he was thinking this, he noticed the Vine Tree Demon before him was acting strangely.

It had suddenly become violent. All its vines were thrashing madly, as if trying to charge out in a frenzy. Lin Chuyun quickly formed a sword technique, a flash of countless sword shadows forcing the Vine Tree Demon back once more.

But the Vine Tree Demon only retreated slightly before trying to rush out again.

Lin Chuyun didn’t know what had happened, but he dared not let it pass. He gritted his teeth and squeezed out another wisp of spiritual power, repelling the Vine Tree Demon once again.

With that attack, his internal spiritual power was utterly exhausted.

Lin Chuyun panted lightly. The Azure Wood Sword in his hand felt heavy. He could feel a rising heat inside him, just like the rainy night he had transformed from a cat back into a human.

The scene before him blurred, then cleared, then blurred again. In his daze, he saw the Vine Tree Demon charging again. Instinctively, he raised his Azure Wood Sword and hacked at it. But the moment the sword hit the vine, the heat inside him swept away all his consciousness.

Feng Xixing drove his Ice Sword deep into the Flame Tree Demon’s demon core with finality, but his heart suddenly lurched in panic. He didn’t spare a single thought for the dead beast, turning on his heel and sprinting toward Lin Chuyun’s location.

Yan Sha collapsed onto the ground, exhausted, unwilling to move a single finger. Xu Quanfeng was in slightly better shape. Seeing Feng Xixing rushing to help, he felt too embarrassed to rest, so he followed behind.

Feng Xixing’s steps quickened, but when he saw the scene before him, his mind went blank with shock.

Lin Chuyun was wounded; he seemed to have lost consciousness. He hung there limply, head bowed and motionless, tightly wrapped by the Vine Tree Demon. Only his right hand, still clutching the Azure Wood Sword, remained outside.

In the next second, even those pale fingertips were swallowed into the mass of vines.

Feng Xixing’s heart plummeted. The tear mole at the corner of his eye seemed to deepen like a drop of ink. In that moment, he was ready to Enter the Devil Path, anything to save Lin Chuyun faster.

But before he could make a move, the shrouded human figure suddenly stirred. In his haze, Lin Chuyun remembered he was fighting a demon beast and instinctively used a sword technique.

But this time, it wasn’t the Azure Wood Sword that emerged. It was a fire sword that appeared from nowhere.

The fire sword was exceptionally sharp and in the blink of an eye, it burned all the vines around Lin Chuyun to ash. With his support gone, Lin Chuyun plummeted limply from the sky.

Feng Xixing rushed forward, arms already poised to catch him.

Then, in mid-air, a light flashed from Lin Chuyun’s body. By the time he reached Feng Xixing’s hands, he had transformed into a palm-sized little black cat, sleeping quietly with its eyes closed.

Feng Xixing froze, but his hands, as if acting on their own instinct, skillfully cradled the little kitten into his arms, even rolling the little black cat’s tail around his finger casually.

A tail slap of annoyance hit the back of his hand – a warning not to disturb its sleep.

He poked a cat ear, and the ear flicked back and forth with displeasure.

He rubbed a soft paw pad, and then…

Sharp claws unsheathed from the pad. The little black cat was issuing a practical warning that disturbing a kitten’s sleep is a scratchable offense!

Feng Xixing’s expression melted into tenderness. Carefully, he leaned down and gently nuzzled the forehead of the little black ball of fur.

His cat…

“Junior Brother Feng? Where is that other disciple?” Xu Quanfeng hurried over, looking around in confusion at the mess. The Vine Tree Demon had fled somewhere, and the disciple who had swindled him was also gone.

“What is that… in your hands?”