350: A tough fight

Because multiple exclusive items were now simultaneously affecting the Sacred Giant Tree, the rate of its power loss reached an astonishing level.

So much so that everyone clearly saw… the entire massive Sacred Giant Tree instantly begin to wither, its numerous branches and leaves rotting away, its branches becoming dry and lifeless, drooping down, and its bark wrinkling and starting to peel off.

In just a few seconds,

this massive Sacred Giant Tree had shrunk considerably.

Under the massive loss of power, it became extremely weak and listless, seemingly having fallen to a point where it didn't even have the strength to lift a single branch.

This made everyone witnessing the scene's eyes light up.

They felt hope.

However, they also knew that only by truly slaying this Sacred Giant Tree would they succeed.

Immediately,

those controlling the mirrors all sped up their mirrors, causing them to rush towards the Sacred Giant Tree at the fastest possible speed.

Whoosh!

These mirrors all leaped up,

attacking the Sacred Giant Tree in front of them.

However, just as they approached the Sacred Giant Tree,

a mouth full of sharp teeth suddenly ripped open on the Sacred Giant Tree's scale-like bark, as if the trunk had opened a gaping maw, and it powerfully inhaled.

All the mirrors that approached it were immediately sucked into the Sacred Giant Tree's gaping mouth.

Then came a series of crunching sounds.

After being crushed, they were directly swallowed.

This startled everyone.

Logically speaking,

with all its power drained, this Sacred Giant Tree should have been powerless to retaliate.

But it actually possessed a mouth full of sharp teeth, just like the trees in this domain, and this mouth seemed unaffected by the power loss, which greatly shocked them.

Not only that,

after the Sacred Giant Tree swallowed the numerous mirrors, its withered body began to recover at an alarming rate.

It seemed that after it swallowed these mirrors,

they became the energy for its recovery.

This caused a large portion of the power it had previously lost to be restored at once.

The numerous branches that had drooped lifelessly regained vitality, new branches and leaves grew out, radiating new life.

"As expected, it's not that simple..."

Xiao Shi's gaze darkened.

Although these exclusive items could directly affect a Sage, the Sage clearly also had methods to counteract them and would not be helpless against the targeting of exclusive items.

Fortunately, the Sacred Giant Tree's suction had a certain range.

Only those nearby would be sucked into its mouth.

This caused the other mirrors that had not been swallowed to immediately retreat.

They could not give it a chance to recover by swallowing.

However, this presented them with a major problem… they couldn't attack the Sacred Giant Tree at close range.

Once they got close, they would be swallowed.

Although the Sacred Giant Tree's massive body was currently covered in a layer of ice in the Ice Domain, and was constantly necrotic under the freezing, this would only weaken it to a certain extent, not kill it.

To deal with this Sacred Giant Tree, they could only use long-range attacks.

But they were clearly lacking in long-range attack power, and their potency was insufficient.

Moreover, most mirrors were for close-range attacks, with basically no means of long-range attack… Xiao Shi frowned.

He knew that the greatest use of mirrors was their fearlessness of death; if they used mirrors for attrition, they would have a complete chance to wear down and kill this Sacred Giant Tree.

However, the Sacred Giant Tree's current suction ability completely countered these mirrors.

"No…"

Xiao Shi suddenly realized a problem.

This Sacred Giant Tree was currently suppressed, and all its abilities must have been greatly restricted.

This suction ability should also be restricted.

This made Xiao Shi's eyes flash.

He had a guess in his mind.

He immediately had a Martial Demon Realm beside him control his mirror to charge back towards the Sacred Giant Tree.

He wanted to verify his guess.

Although the Martial Demon Realm beside Xiao Shi was puzzled, in this situation, he still chose to trust Xiao Shi.

He immediately controlled his mirror and turned to attack the Sacred Giant Tree.

Whoosh!

When this mirror charged in front of the Sacred Giant Tree,

it was not swallowed by the Sacred Giant Tree.

The mirror's attack fiercely struck the Sacred Giant Tree.

Its entire attack directly penetrated the ice shell on the Sacred Giant Tree's surface, transmitting into the Sacred Giant Tree's body, and even gained a certain degree of amplification from the ice shell while penetrating it.

This further boosted the mirror's attack to a certain extent.

Boom!!

Everyone clearly saw.

The Sacred Giant Tree's bark beneath the ice shell directly shattered and broke apart from the mirror's bombardment.

These barks were originally gradually necrotic under the freezing of the ice shell, and now they were easily broken by the mirror's attack.

A gap was exposed, from which crimson liquid flowed out, and the fibers became fewer and fewer, revealing tender red flesh.

"Indeed!"

Xiao Shi's eyes lit up.

He spoke to everyone.

"Its suction ability has a time limit; within a certain period, it can only be used once, it cannot be continuously used!"

"Now is the best time to attack it!!"

Xiao Shi specifically sent a mirror to verify.

Even if he guessed wrong, at most only one mirror would be absorbed by the Sacred Giant Tree, which wouldn't have too much impact.

And after successfully confirming his guess,

everyone immediately controlled their mirrors to rush towards the Sacred Giant Tree and bombard it with full force.

However, during the bombardment, a doubt arose in their minds.

That was, how long would it be until the Sacred Giant Tree next used its suction ability?

They only knew that the Sacred Giant Tree could only use its suction ability once within a certain period, but they didn't know the specific duration.

And its suction,

not only could it destroy these mirrors, but most importantly, it could use the swallowed mirrors to recover its own injuries.

In other words,

if they didn't figure out its next suction time,

if they were swallowed again after attacking for a while, the Sacred Giant Tree's injuries might recover completely.

This would make their attacks meaningless.

Xiao Shi also understood this point.

It's just that although he had deduced that the Sacred Giant Tree's suction ability had a time limit, he couldn't deduce the specific time.

He could only have these mirrors retreat immediately after attacking for one minute to avoid it.

For a time,

under the combined bombardment of numerous mirrors,

bursts of roaring explosions continuously came from the Sacred Giant Tree.

Its entire bark had completely ruptured under the bombardment of these mirrors, exposing the internal flesh.

Large gushes of fresh blood continuously gushed out from within this flesh.

Originally, this fresh blood also possessed extremely strong corrosive lethality, but now it was blocked by the ice shell condensed on the Sacred Giant Tree's surface.

After attacking for one minute,

all mirrors retreated simultaneously.

They withdrew to a safe distance.

Then, one of the mirrors went forward to probe, and after confirming that the Sacred Giant Tree still could not use its suction ability, the numerous mirrors continued to attack.

Under the continuous attacks of these mirrors, the Sacred Giant Tree's injuries steadily worsened.

If this continued… he believed it wouldn't be long.

This Sacred Giant Tree would be bombarded to death by these mirrors.

Regarding this,

everyone felt excitement and anticipation.

They felt that victory was within reach.

But Xiao Shi, at this moment, was frowning tightly.

He felt that the current situation was somewhat abnormal.

Aside from the initial suction, this Sacred Giant Tree had not launched any further attacks, remaining passively on the defensive.

This made him feel very strange.

Even if the Sacred Giant Tree had limited means at its disposal while suppressed, it shouldn't only have this suction ability.

This made Xiao Shi's heart grow increasingly wary.

And at this moment,

among the people around Xiao Shi, some began to lose their patience.

They believed that the Sacred Giant Tree, under the freezing of the Ice Domain, had lost its ability to counterattack, and wanted to quickly kill it while they had the chance.

Otherwise, once the time came for its next suction ability, they would no longer be able to engage in close-range attacks.

"Let's go for it!"

These impatient Martial Demons immediately had the Iron Refinement Corpse beside them charge towards the Sacred Giant Tree.

They wanted to work together with the Iron Refinement Corpse and the mirrors to kill this Sacred Giant Tree as quickly as possible.

"Come back!!"

As soon as the Iron Refinement Corpses moved,

Xiao Shi immediately called out to stop them.

However, no sooner had he spoken than—

Snap!

A black shadow suddenly descended from the sky.

It caused a cracking sound as if air was being whipped and shattered.

Fortunately, Xiao Shi had always been on guard.

The moment the vine struck down,

the Crimson Refinement Corpse, which had been standing beside him, had already transformed into a crimson-golden light and shot upwards.

It fiercely clashed with the descending vine.

However, just then,

a black shadow tore through the ground, surging out from beneath.

It instantly swept past a Martial Demon Realm, causing his body to explode on the spot, his severed limbs, mixed with internal organs and blood, falling with a splattering sound.

This sudden scene

made the faces of the several Martial Demon Realms nearby change.

Now that they no longer had their Iron Refinement Corpses beside them, they were completely unable to resist.

They quickly had the Iron Refinement Corpses that were rushing towards the Sacred Giant Tree return to defend.

However, this vine that shot out from underground was even stronger than before, and its speed was also faster.

Whoosh!

In a flash,

these Martial Demon Realms were completely unable to dodge and were instantly torn apart by the strike.

"It was indeed plotting in secret!"

Xiao Shi's expression was grave.

The Sacred Giant Tree's use of vines for attack was clearly also restricted; under normal circumstances, it could only use one vine at a time.

But now it had directly used two vines!

And both of these vines had been greatly enhanced beyond their previous state.

Clearly, this was why it hadn't attacked all this time; it was building up power, allowing it to use two even stronger vines at once.

Now, the enhanced vines were already capable of contending with the Crimson Refinement Corpse.

Even if the Crimson Refining Corpse struck the vine with the Crimson Refining Corpse Blade in its hand, it couldn't cut it off directly as it had earlier.

Furthermore, the Crimson Refining Corpse could only block one vine, not two simultaneously.

This meant that everyone was now facing the threat of a powerful vine.

This single vine alone basically possessed the ability to annihilate them.

Additionally,

the Sacred Giant Tree's suction ability had reached the time when it could be used again.

Although everyone was prepared for this,

they promptly had their mirrors withdraw.

Still, a portion of the mirrors were sucked in by the Sacred Giant Tree.

This caused the Sacred Giant Tree's injuries to recover once more.

The entire situation instantly underwent a massive reversal.

"If this continues, we're bound to be toyed to death by this Sacred Giant Tree!"

Xiao Shi also felt the danger.

He had a strong premonition.

This Sacred Giant Tree would grow stronger the longer the fight continued.

If it couldn't be resolved in a short period,

dragging this on,

they would definitely be worn down to death by this Sacred Giant Tree.

"Its suction ability's cooldown is three minutes, so I must kill it within the next three minutes!"

Xiao Shi's gaze sharpened.

The reason he hadn't rushed to act was primarily to observe.

Now that he had a certain understanding of the Sacred Giant Tree's abilities, he was ready to act personally.

Swoosh!

He directly combined the Ice Domain Yama Blade and the Myriad Mirrors Handle in his hand, forming a long blade with dazzling ice crystals on its body.

It was… the Ice Mirror Yama Blade!

Currently, both the Ice Domain Yama Blade and the Myriad Mirrors Handle had used up their charges.

However, when the two were combined to form the Ice Mirror Yama Blade, there was still one use remaining.

Xiao Shi raised the Ice Mirror Yama Blade in his hand, and its blade, covered in ice crystal patterns, crackled as a layer of ice shell condensed upon it, emitting visible cold air.

His skin turned a dreamlike ice-blue, his hair billowed without wind, and star-like ice crystals swirled through his strands.

He propped the raised Ice Mirror Yama Blade in front of him.

The blade tip pierced the ground, and cold air rapidly spread in all directions, causing the ice throughout the entire Ice Domain to directly elevate to another, even more terrifying level.

The thick vine that had shot out from underground was about to sweep towards the Martial Demon Realms nearby, ready to slaughter them, when layers of thick, hard ice shell condensed upon it.

"Crack!"

The front end of the vine, where the ice shell had condensed, fractured and shattered heavily onto the ground, which was also frozen by the ice shell.

At the same time,

the ice on the ground continuously condensed, transforming into an ice mirror image identical to Xiao Shi.

It charged directly towards the vine, which was frozen by the ice shell.

"You, along with my mirror image, deal with this vine."

As soon as Xiao Shi spoke,

he had already used teleportation, attacking the distant Sacred Giant Tree.

The main threat posed by the Sacred Giant Tree now was its two vines.

One vine was being dealt with by the Crimson Refinement Corpse.

The other vine was left to his own mirror image and the other Martial Demon Realms.

Xiao Shi's goal… was to take down this Sacred Giant Tree within the next three minutes!