335: The Malice of the Holy Son of Withering and Flourishing

Although the Star Scar Guards were strong, they still lacked the power to face entities approaching the Saint Realm. Lin Yuan's goal was to use them to clear the periphery and weaken the targets, so that he or the Origin Guards could step in at the end to destroy key nodes in one fell swoop, harvesting more merit points and slaughter value.

However, just as the Star Scar Guards were advancing like a hot knife through butter and were about to approach the core area, a sudden change occurred!

Hum—!!!

On the flank of the battlefield, deep within a seemingly calm forest of bones composed of giant withered vines, dozens of cold, vicious energy beams filled with a deathly, withered aura erupted without warning!

These beams were not aimed at the Star Scar Guards, but were precisely fired toward the rear of the Star Scar Guards legion, at the area they had just cleared and which was relatively safe!

The beams did not explode upon landing but quickly took root like seeds! Countless grey-white, spike-covered "Soul-Devouring Thorns" grew and spread at a terrifying speed! Wherever the thorns passed, the space emitted a sizzling corrosive sound, and even the pure soul energy remaining after the Star Scar Guards slaughtered the exotic beasts was forcibly extracted and polluted!

Even more terrifying, these thorns seemed to have a life of their own; they actively coiled around the nearby Star Scar Guards, their spikes attempting to pierce the Star Scar Armor to inject a withered, deathly poison!

"Enemy attack! Not exotic beasts! This is a man-made trap!" the Centurion shouted a warning, swinging the Gui Xu Star-Slaying Blade to unleash a massive blade aura that slashed toward a thicket of thorns spreading the fastest!

Slish!

The blade aura severed a large patch of thorns, but viscous grey-white sap immediately gushed from the broken ends, instantly spawning even more and tougher thorns! Moreover, the severed thorns did not die; instead, as if possessing independent consciousness, they continued to attack wildly!

"It's 'Soul-Devouring Thorns'! Careful! They contain a deadly poison of life and death!"

Meanwhile, deep in the forest of bones, dozens of figures shrouded in grey robes, whose auras were almost integrated with the withered vines and rotten wood, appeared silently.

They held strange bone flutes or withered staves in their hands, chanting incantations and continuously guiding the expansion and mutation of the Soul-Devouring Thorns. These were the "Bone-Eroding Death Soldiers" sent by the Withered Glory Saint!

Their goal was clear: not to directly confront the powerful Star Scar Guards, but to use this vicious plant trap to delay, exhaust, and even pollute the Star Scar Guards, stealing their combat data and energy samples!

At the same time, they released countless tiny, nearly invisible "Dao-Devouring Insects," which, like grey smoke, silently attached themselves to the gaps in the Star Scar Guards' armor and even attempted to burrow into the energy circuits of the Gui Xu Star-Slaying Blades, greedily devouring and copying the energy fluctuations and structural information of the Chaos Star Scar Guards!

"Despicable!" The Centurion was burning with rage and was about to order concentrated fire to exterminate those death soldiers.

"Hmph! Withered Glory Saint... as expected, you couldn't hold back. You have already paved your own path to death." In the Dao Palace of Chaos Origin City, Lin Yuan's eyes were cold.

The feedback from the myriad dao furnace regarding the abnormal energy, as well as the Star City AI's monitoring of the microscopic energy flows on the battlefield, had long since allowed him to lock onto these lurking rats.

He did not act immediately but moved his mind, using the star city lord authority to directly issue commands to the Star Scar Guards on the battlefield: "Star Scar Guards, heed my command! Activate the 'Chaos Star Scar' armor! Release the 'Power of Gui Xu Field'! Target: the Soul-Devouring Thorns and the attached Dao-Devouring Insects!"

Hum! Hum! Hum!

A thousand Star Scar Guards simultaneously activated the Chaos Star Scar at the core of their armor! In an instant, countless mysterious Chaos runes on the surface of their dark Star Scar Armor suddenly lit up, emitting powerful Chaos energy fluctuations!

These runes were not static but circulated like breathing, forming miniature Chaos fields that covered their entire bodies!

Meanwhile, all the Star Scar Guards slammed their Gui Xu Star-Slaying Blades into the Void Realm beneath their feet! The Power of Gui Xu was frantically injected through the blades!

"Power of Gui Xu Field! Activate!"

Boom—!!!

Centered on the thousand Star Scar Guards, a hundred miniature fields, each containing the pure Power of Gui Xu annihilation, erupted instantly, overlapping and resonating with each other! In the area covered by the fields, the spatial structure was forcibly stabilized, and all techniques sank into oblivion!

Sshh, sshh, sshh—!!!

Those wildly spreading Soul-Devouring Thorns, the moment they touched the Power of Gui Xu Field, were like meeting their nemesis! The tough vines rapidly withered, carbonized, and finally turned into fly ash!

The vicious grey-white sap was directly annihilated! The Dao-Devouring Insects attached to the Star Scar Guards' armor and weapons didn't even have time to let out a wail before they were reduced to nothingness under the dual strangulation of the Chaos Star Scar field and the Power of Gui Xu field!

"Pfft!" Deep in the forest of bones, those Bone-Eroding Death Soldiers who were controlling the thorns and Dao-Devouring Insects were struck as if by a heavy blow, all spitting out blood, their auras instantly withering! They were mentally connected to the thorns and insects and were now suffering from the backlash!

"How is this possible?!" The leader of the death soldiers was filled with horror. "Their defense... can actually actively purify and annihilate?!"

"Lock on to the target! Power of Gui Xu volley! Leave none alive!" The Centurion seized the opportunity, pointing his battle blade at the hiding place of the death soldiers!

"Understood!" A hundred small teams, a hundred phantom images of giant Gui Xu Star-Slaying Blades condensed once again! This time, the target was clear—deep in the forest of bones!

"No—!" The leader of the death soldiers let out a desperate roar, attempting to escape into the shadows.

But it was too late!

A hundred condensed Power of Gui Xu blade auras tore through the poisonous miasma and withered vines, like the gaze of the Grim Reaper, instantly covering that area!

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

Dense annihilation explosions erupted in the forest of bones! Withered vines were shattered, bones were turned into powder, and the dozens of Bone-Eroding Death Soldiers hiding within, along with the traps they had set, were left without even a trace, completely erased under the concentrated bombardment of a hundred Power of Gui Xu!

[Killed Withered Glory Holy Land "Bone-Eroding Death Soldiers" x57, obtained 570,000 merit points, slaughter value +1.14 million!]

[Warning: Detected theft of structural information regarding the Chaos Star Scar Guards. Countermeasure program initiated; data stream captured and reverse-polluted to the source!]

[merit points: 5.870285 billion]

[slaughter value: 1.00114 billion!]

The cold prompt rang out in Lin Yuan's Sea of Consciousness. At the same time, a chaotic data stream, polluted by the Power of Chaos Return to Ruin and mixed with information about the failed theft, was forcibly packaged by the Star City AI and, following the residual Karma, was ruthlessly "slammed" back in the direction of Life and Death Bone City!

Life and Death Bone City, Withered Glory Altar.

The Withered Glory Saint was fully focused on sensing the progress of the death soldiers on the front line through a crystal ball, with a look of morbid anticipation on his face. Suddenly!

Pfft—!!!

The crystal ball shattered without warning! Countless sharp fragments, mixed with a violent, chaotic data stream containing the aura of Gui Xu annihilation, struck the Withered Glory Saint's mind like a backlash poison arrow!

"Argh—!!!" The Withered Glory Saint, as if struck by a heavy hammer, violently spat out a large mouthful of dark green blood, staggered backward, and crashed into the withered bone pillar of the altar!

His face instantly turned grey, and the rune on his forehead representing the Great Dao of Life and Death flickered violently, becoming dim and lusterless! A force of Gui Xu annihilation, like a maggot on the bone, raged wildly in his Sea of Consciousness, attempting to erode his dao foundation!

"Saint!" The grey-robed man stepped forward in terror.