414: Next steps

Many Cultivators transformed into streaks of light and flew to where Su Yun and the others were.

"It's the Saint!"

"I was wondering why the surrounding Ancient Restrictions stopped working; it turns out the Saint showed his Divine Might and broke these Ancient Restrictions."

"The Saint is finally back, we're saved!"

"The Saint is still as handsome as ever!"

"As his Junior Sister, I really want to offer myself to him in marriage!"

...Li Guanshan led over a dozen Taixuan Disciples and surrounded them immediately.

The dozen or so Taixuan Disciples looked even more disheveled than before, their clothes in tatters, their auras chaotic, and having suffered significant injuries.

"Take some Medicinal Pills to heal your wounds first!"

"It's temporarily safe around here."

"I will stay here as a Protector!"

Su Yun looked at the Taixuan Disciples and spoke in a gentle tone.

"We obey the Saint's command!"

The Taixuan Disciples sat cross-legged, took out healing Medicinal Pills, and began to recover.

Soon after, Li Xue also brought a group of Yaochi Disciples to Liu Ruoxi's side.

"Are you all alright?"

Liu Ruoxi looked at the Yaochi Disciples with some concern.

Besides worrying about whether they were injured, she was also concerned that they might become targets of public criticism.

After all, the Mysterious Fruit Forest was a Secret Realm controlled by the Jade Pool Holy Land. Now that this accident had occurred, it was hard for Cultivators from other Holy Lands and Cultivation Families not to blame these Yaochi Disciples.

"I'm fine, it's just..."

Li Xue recounted their recent experiences.

"By the way, Saintess, can you contact the Elders?"

"I'm not sure, I'll try."

Liu Ruoxi took out a crystal-clear token from her Storage Ring; this was the Yaochi Saintess Token, which could be used to contact other Yaochi Elders and the Holy Lord.

With a wave of her fair hand, white spiritual Qi flowed into the Saintess Token.

The Saintess Token flickered once and then dimmed again, completely unable to contact the outside world.

"No, I can't reach them."

"It's over, it's all over now, we really are trapped here!"

"Don't worry, Senior Sister Li!"

"Have you forgotten that we are supposed to be teleported out seven days after entering the Mysterious Fruit Forest?"

Liu Ruoxi's beautiful eyes flickered slightly as she comforted her in a soft voice.

"Miss Liu, that might not be the case anymore."

At this moment, Su Yun spoke from the side.

"Now these tree demons have taken control of the Ancient Restrictions within the Mysterious Fruit Forest."

"Since they can control the Ancient Restrictions to attack us, couldn't they just cancel the teleportation function so we can't leave?"

"What? This..."

Liu Ruoxi's expression turned solemn, and her heart sank.

She was right.

Su Yun was right.

If that was the case, wouldn't there really be no way out?

Afterward, Zhao Wuyuan and the Saints of various Holy Lands approached Su Yun one after another, cupped their hands, and spoke politely:

"Saint Su, have you discovered anything?"

"Yes, since you came out from deep within the Mysterious Fruit Forest and even broke the nearby Ancient Restrictions all at once, you must know something."

"We discovered traces of the Tree Demon Clan deep within the Mysterious Fruit Forest; they are the ones controlling the Ancient Restrictions to launch attacks on us."

Su Yun finished speaking and looked around.

As expected, he didn't see Chen Hao and the other Spiritual Martial Disciples.

Anyone else would surely think they had met with disaster.

But in reality, Chen Hao had definitely managed to dodge the recent attacks from the Ancient Restrictions by chance and had likely entered the depths of the Mysterious Fruit Forest.

However, the Opportunity in the depths had already been taken by him, so Chen Hao was destined to return empty-handed.

"Tree demons?"

"The Tree Demon Clan is hidden within the Mysterious Fruit Forest?"

"I was wondering why these Ancient Restrictions were chasing and attacking us for no reason!"

"So it was the tree demons controlling them from behind."

"This is too devious!"

"These tree demons actually didn't attack us openly, but used Ancient Restrictions for sneak attacks instead!"

"Damn, I knew these Ancient Restrictions seemed like they had eyes, so that's why!"

Zhao Wuyuan and the others suddenly realized the truth.

Their conversation also spread to the ears of the surrounding Cultivators, and the crowd immediately erupted in an uproar.

Among them, the Wanyao Saint had an extremely displeased look on his face, his fists clenched, releasing a powerful aura.

Their Dragon Clan had always prided themselves as the strongest clan of the Yao Race.

Now they were actually made to look so pathetic by a mere Tree Demon Clan.

This was simply outrageous!

"Cursed tree demons, I'm going to find them and settle the score right now!"

"That's right! They're just a mere Tree Demon Clan; maybe they just happened to take control of the surrounding Ancient Restrictions by chance, and their actual Realm probably isn't high."

"Yes, we must have our revenge!"

...However, Zhao Wuyuan felt that things were not that simple.

Was the strength of the tree demons who could control these Ancient Restrictions really inferior to theirs?

If it were true, that would be fine.

But if they guessed wrong, then there would be trouble.

Su Yun was able to come out of the depths of the Mysterious Fruit Forest unscathed and knew that tree demons were secretly controlling the Ancient Restrictions.

He must have some understanding of the tree demons' strength.

Thinking of this, he continued to look at Su Yun and asked directly:

"Saint Su, what Realm are those tree demons at?"

"The highest-level tree demon I encountered was at the Enlightenment Realm, and there were also many at the Body Integration and Soul Emergence Realms."

"What? Enlightenment Realm?"

The Wanyao Disciples and other Cultivators who were just shouting about seeking revenge on the Tree Demon Clan immediately chickened out, and some said in despair:

"Then aren't we finished? How can we possibly withstand tree demons of the Enlightenment Realm!"

"Yeah, the strongest Cultivator here is the Taixuan Saint, and he's only at the Body Dao Integration Realm; he can't beat an Enlightenment Realm Cultivator either!"

"That might not be true. Back at the Dao Yi Holy Land, didn't the Taixuan Saint defeat the Blood-colored Yao Beast Phantom that was at Enlightenment Layer One Realm?"

"Now that so much time has passed, it's normal if he can defeat a tree demon at the Enlightenment Realm!"

"The Enlightenment Realm is not something the Body Dao Integration Realm can compare to."

"I admit the Taixuan Saint is powerful, but it's still unlikely he can defeat an Enlightenment Realm tree demon."

"The Taixuan Saint must have relied on some kind of trump card to escape after encountering an Enlightenment Realm tree demon."

...The scene suddenly became noisy.

"Then Saint Su, what should we do next?"

"Should we find a place to hide?"

"Or what?"

Zhao Wuyuan asked again.

As things stood, they could only rely on Su Yun.

If these people went up against those tree demons, they would surely be wiped out.

Even if they didn't face the tree demons, they had no way to withstand those Ancient Restrictions alone.

"Hide? Saint Zhao is thinking too optimistically."

"Right now, those tree demons have likely taken control of the Ancient Restrictions throughout the entire Mysterious Fruit Forest."

"Even if they haven't fully mastered them, finding our hiding place would be effortless for them."

"Hiding is useless."

"I plan to go directly and take out the Clan Chief of the Tree Demon Clan."

"Once he's dead, the lockdown on the Mysterious Fruit Forest should be lifted."

Su Yun said indifferently.

The Clan Chief of the Tree Demon Clan was roughly at the eighth layer of the Enlightenment Realm.

He had found this out earlier by interrogating several Body Dao Integration Realm tree demons.

It might not be just the eighth layer of the Enlightenment Realm; it could be higher, but it wouldn't be much higher.

After all, the Tree Demon Clan lived in hiding; if they really had a tree demon at the Tribulation Crossing Realm, would they still need to hide?

They would have come out openly long ago.

Now that the Mysterious Fruit Forest was locked down and no way to break the seal could be found, he would go and kill the Tree Demon Clan Chief who had locked down the forest.

That should break the lockdown; if it still didn't work, he would think of another way.