224: Are they hunting?

As spiritual wood, these Wood Vine Demons could certainly sense his powerful Divine Sense; currently, his Soul Power level had reached the Middle Stage of a Soul Master, equivalent to the Soul Transformation level among Cultivators. Although he could only exert about thirty percent of that power, this strength was more terrifying than the heavens themselves to these Wood Vine Demons. In front of him, these Wood Vine Demons were like ants, completely unable to stir up any trouble...

Long Yuan thought for a moment and said, "Release everyone you have captured, otherwise I won't mind destroying this entire forest!"

After speaking, he released a Soul Blade, which circled the air above the forest. Instantly, countless vine tendrils snapped off, falling like a torrential rain of vines. Even more terrifying was that at the broken ends of those vines, a strand of Soul Power continued to erode them; even with the Wood Vine Demons' powerful regenerative abilities, they could not stop its forward momentum!

The Wood Vine Demons throughout the entire Wooden Vine Forest trembled at this moment. Some of the timid ones retreated entirely into the ground, leaving only the larger ones that could not perform such an action. Facing this terrifying suppression of Soul Power, they were shivering, and some vine tendrils continued to snap off as they could not withstand this immense force...

At one point, a huge wooden stake swept through the forest and "thudded" onto the ground not far in front of Long Yuan. Following that, more wooden stakes were sent over by the vine demons, along with some others bundled into spherical shapes. They were driven by some vine tendrils, rolling all the way to Long Yuan's feet before stopping.

Long Yuan checked with his Divine Sense and frowned, saying, "What about the five people before this group?"

The Wooden Vine Forest paused upon hearing this. After a while, five thick vine ropes flew over from the distance, carrying five huge vine nets that slammed onto the ground. It was none other than Geng Rutai, Xu Guanghai, Qi Huaiyi, Scarface, and Big Head.

Among them, Big Head, who was the teacher Li Yang at Qianlong Middle School, had actually assassinated the real Li Yang and used his skin to make a mask, pretending to be Li Yang himself while lurking in Qianlong Middle School. His real name was Big Head. Long Yuan took a look and found that his head was indeed quite large; perhaps the original Li Yang was the same, which was why he was targeted and assassinated by Big Head.

Because these five had been captured by the Wood Vine Demons for a long time and had much of their nutrients sucked away by the Wood Vine Demons, they were now listless, covered in bloodstains, with torn skin and flesh—they were practically five bloody people!

"Long Yuan, is it you!!!" Seeing Long Yuan, Qi Huaiyi's originally vacant eyes suddenly burst with a glimmer of light, and he rasped out.

"Qi Team Leader, I'm late! Are you alright?" Long Yuan asked.

"I... what on earth are these things? They seem like living creatures. I was bound by them without any warning, and no matter how I hacked or struggled, it was useless..." Qi Huaiyi said, enduring the severe pain.

While helping them remove the vine tendrils, Long Yuan said, "These are Wood Vine Demons. You trespassed into their territory, so naturally, you became their prey!"

"Wood... Vine... Demon?! You mean they are demonic creatures!!!" Qi Huaiyi said in shock.

"Well... you could say that, but they are only hunting based on instinct. If you hadn't trespassed here, you naturally wouldn't have come into conflict with them."

"Good heavens, they are actually hunting?!" Qi Huaiyi was almost numb with shock. He couldn't understand what kind of existence these things were. Since when could plants hunt? Was the world about to change?

Geng Rutai, who was on the side, suddenly realized upon hearing this and said, "So they have become spirits through the passage of time! I never thought these wood vines could become like this; it is truly an eye-opener!"

Xu Guanghai snorted, "Brother Geng, we almost lost our lives, and you're still talking about it being an eye-opener?"

"Haha, isn't Long Yuan here to save us? Strange, why didn't those Wood Vine Demons attack Long Yuan?" Geng Rutai suddenly thought of this point.

Everyone was shocked upon hearing this and looked at Long Yuan one after another, their eyes filled with suspicion...

You have to know that this place was at the center of the Wood Vine Demons' territory, and everyone had been captured by the Wood Vine Demons right here. But now, there was no movement at all, which felt a bit eerie when thinking about it. Could it be that Long Yuan was friends with those Wood Vine Demons? But how could that be possible?

Long Yuan said, "Senior Geng, you don't know, but these Wood Vine Demons are not in a hunting state all day long. It is very likely that they are resting during this period, so we must leave this place quickly, otherwise, it will be too late to escape once the Wood Vine Demons start hunting again!"

"Good heavens!!!" Everyone exclaimed, terrified by Long Yuan's words. Those who were originally lying on the ground groaning suddenly seemed to come back to life; they scrambled up from the ground and ran desperately in the direction of the forest exit...

Qi Huaiyi, Geng Rutai, Xu Guanghai, and Xu Guanghu's expressions also changed drastically, and they immediately fled outward as well. They were truly terrified by the Wood Vine Demons!

Long Yuan chuckled inwardly, moving the two large vine balls binding Scarface and Big Head into an independent small room within the Heavenly Dao Space. Then, with a sweep of his Divine Sense, he rolled all the broken vine tendrils on the ground into the Devouring Mouth. This batch of vines contained a certain amount of Spiritual Qi and was quite nourishing for the Heavenly Dao Space, so it certainly couldn't be wasted. As for the Wood Vine Demons, since they were so obedient, he would not exterminate them. After all, their appearance here was their own fortune. The Cultivation World emphasized the concept of predestined affinity; if one wanted to exterminate others whenever a conflict arose simply because one had higher cultivation, that would certainly go against the Heavenly Dao. Because there are always people with higher cultivation than oneself; if those people also exterminated the weak whenever they were slightly dissatisfied, wouldn't the world soon be left with only a few strong individuals?

Even these strong individuals would fight and kill each other, and in the end, either only one or two people would be left, or even those one or two would perish together, and then it would be completely over. Of course, the Heavenly Dao would not allow such a situation to exist. If such a slaughtering god really appeared, then another strong individual would surely appear in this world to destroy this slaughtering god, in order to maintain the natural operation of the Heavenly Dao. This is the mystery of the Heavenly Dao...

Qi Huaiyi ran for a while and suddenly noticed that Long Yuan hadn't followed. He quickly stopped and looked back, only to see Long Yuan walking out of the forest slowly. He quickly said, "Long Yuan, hurry up, it's dangerous there!"

"It's fine! By the way, Uncle Qi, what about the people you were chasing?" Long Yuan changed the subject.

Upon hearing this, Qi Huaiyi couldn't help but slap his forehead and said annoyedly, "Damn it! I actually forgot about Li Yang!"

Geng Rutai, who was nearby, also said loudly, "And Scarface! They must have been captured by those Wood Vine Demons!"