Dark Blood Path

Legend has it that the dryad was an incredibly rare and unusual monster, not a mere tree but an evil life form with the power to extract energy from the earth and manipulate nearby flora. The Dryad’s strength lies in its ability to control all the plants within a certain range, turning them into formidable weapons. In a sense, the energy of the dryad was endless, giving it an attack range that extended far beyond its physical reach. As such, defeating this creature was no less challenging than taking down the forest ogre they encountered before.

Xiao Yu had heard about some extremely powerful high-level dryads that had the ability to control a vast radius of hundreds of miles and could even establish their own kingdoms. Within this range, all the plants become their own weapons and soldiers. Anyone who enters the forest will be immediately attacked, and many people have been killed without even knowing where the dryad was or what it looked like.

This dryad was young and though it might not be as strong as the high-level ones, it was still rare and difficult to encounter in the early stages. The attacks that everyone was facing were not actually coming from the dryad itself, but from the plants that had been assimilated and controlled by it. These plants were like weapons of the Dryad, and they were attacking everyone with hundreds of roots and branches.

Jinshi suffered a big loss against the monster and quickly retreated, not daring to approach it easily. Despite his incredibly high defense, his eyes were vulnerable. And while his defense was impressive, his movements were relatively slow, and his attack power wasn’t strong enough to effectively deal with the dryad’s endless onslaught of roots and branches.

Xiao Yu cut through thorns and thistles all the way, dodging all of its heavy attacks, and rushed towards the dryad. His blade glowed with a cyan light as it left a deep gash on the trunk of the monster. However, the incision healed almost instantly, leaving Xiao Yu astonished. As expected, the dryad was capable of extracting vitality from the surrounding plants and the earth, making it almost invincible!

The dryad’s body trembled, and an outline of a face suddenly appeared on its trunk. It looked like the wrinkled face of an old man, with an open mouth and a fierce stare. The image was blurry, which made it even more ferocious. From the gap between the two eye-like shapes, a purple demonic fire suddenly burst out.

“This is bad!”

At the same time as this thought appeared in his head, Xiao Yu’s pupils suddenly shrank, and he entered the bullet time state.

The entire world went silent in an instant, as if everything had stopped operating at once. Hundreds of tree roots and branches hung in mid-air like hair strands, frozen in time. On the trunk of the dryad, a powerful force was being condensed in front of the ugly face with the vague outline. It was a burning and boiling energy, similar to a flame, but with a greenish hue, and some purple-black energy was faintly mixed in it. Xiao Yu’s pupils shrank suddenly as he entered “bullet time,” sensing the dangerous situation unfolding before him.

As the jetting flames rushed in, they were reflected in Xiao Yu’s blood-red eyes. His original forward momentum quickly converged, and he stomped on the ground with his toes. He moved sideways lightly, as if he were an astronaut in space. The flames approached little by little, but at the last moment, Xiao Yu found a subtle gap to avoid the flames.

Bullet time lifted!

The green flames that had just spewed out transformed into a shooting beam, growing extremely fast in an instant. It streaked across the ground with a flick of a finger, leaving a long green trail in its wake. Finally, it landed on a big tree, causing a strange phenomenon to occur. The big tree was neither burned nor smashed, but rather, its entire form was covered in green energy, which instantly decomposed it into thousands of fragments. The tree completely disappeared from its place, leaving no trace behind.

Curse magic, instant disintegration!

Xiao Yu’s face turned pale, as he never expected the dryad to use such an ability. The Instant disintegration ability was an incomparably deadly curse magic attack that, on hitting the target, broke it into fragments that could not be distinguished by the naked eye, thus causing it to completely disappear from the face of this world.

Curse magic had a unique characteristic that distinguished it from other types of magic. The most significant feature was its success rate. For instance, in the case of the instant disintegration skill, this ability’s success rate was not 100%. Although it could make some powerful enemies disappear from the world in an instant, sometimes when it hits the target, the latter could remain unscathed. In such cases, the curse fails, and the magic does not work at all.

However, under normal circumstances, the success rate of the instant disintegration skill was extremely high when used against opponents of the same level of strength. Even when facing an opponent one level higher, there was still a 30–40% success rate. Hence It was definitely a heaven-defying ability.

Xiao Yu broke out in a cold sweat as he quickly threw a blast flame towards the dryad. He shouted urgently, “Stop fighting; this guy is too dangerous, let’s retreat!” With that, he swiftly turned around and started running away.

Dryads were legendary monsters, and the most terrifying thing about them is that they are the darlings of the earth and the forest. They can continuously extract power from the earth. In an instant, the monster re-condensed its power, and a green flame-like energy rushed out. It collided with the blast flame fireball, and the green energy instantly enveloped the fireball. Under the powerful curse power of the instant disintegration ability, the blazing flame turned into sparks all over the sky and dissipated in the air.

The dryad didn’t even stop for a second, and its energy gathered again—instant disintegration skill!

Xiao Yu’s body was inevitably hit by the green flames, and they covered him in an instant as he thought to himself, “It’s over; this time I’m dead!”

After this thought crossed his mind, Xiao Yu was struck by a sense of bewilderment. He soon realized that his body was unharmed, and he had no missing limbs. Strangely enough, despite the initial impact of the green flames, they vanished quickly, dissipating in less than half a second, as if the attack had never happened.

Did the curse attack fail?

But how come!

Given that they were at the same level of strength and the fact that the dryad was at least at the late stage of the first order, while he was still a little short of the middle stage of the first order, the success rate of the instant disintegration ability should have been extremely high. This skill was typically considered a third-rank magic attack and was usually only possessed by third-order monsters of the Lord Dark type. Hence, its success rate against opponents of the same level was about 90%.

Was it merely luck?

Xiao Yu refrained from dwelling too much on this and concentrated on escaping as he knew time was of the essence. However, he was suddenly interrupted by yet another instant disintegration attack. Frustrated, he cursed under his breath, thinking that even with boundless energy, the creature should have a limit. After all, instant disintegration was no ordinary skill; even for a first-order monster like this one, it should require a substantial amount of time and effort to condense such a vast amount of energy.

This dryad was actually the same as a cannon!

He immediately used Bullet Time to quickly dodge!

Another instant disintegration!

Xiao Yu managed to evade the attack but couldn’t afford to stand still for even a moment as he was quickly met with another burst of green flames. His heart skipped a beat for a split second, but to his relief, he discovered that he was left unscathed, just as he had been the last time.

“Damn, my luck is too good!”

The dryad was unable to launch a third attack as Xiao Yu had already moved beyond its range. Quickly seizing the opportunity, Han Kexin, Jiang Xiaowen, and Wang Chao swiftly followed suit, ensuring that they too were well beyond the reach of the forest under the dryad’s control, allowing them to escape smoothly.

Soon enough, Xiao Yu reunited with Du Tao.

Wang Chao yelled angrily: “Motherfu**er. We’re all in this sorry state because of that old bastard.”

Jiang Xiaowen was equally furious. Zhou Fu’s deception had resulted in Sun Fei’s senseless death, as well as the loss of one of the Hawk’s members. Clenching her fists in frustration, she exclaimed, “What was the point of attacking us? We were clearly leaving, weren’t we?”

Han Kexin placed her hand on Jiang Xiaowen’s head and patted her slightly, before explaining, “Xiaowen, you tend to see people as being too simple. This time, we were deceived by their facade. We thought they were harmless, but it turns out they were a group of wolves in sheep’s clothing. From the very beginning, they had their sights set on our supplies, so they cunningly led us into the dryad’s woodland, with the intention of attacking and killing us. They likely plan to take our supplies for themselves using some method.”

“What a vicious guy!”

Du Tao said apologetically, “I’m sorry, it’s all my fault that things transpired like this.”

Xiao Yu chimed in, “It’s not entirely your fault. I was also at fault for being careless this time. After all, they appeared to be a group of simple country folk, with many elderly, women, and children among them. Their strength seemed negligible, and I didn’t think they posed much of a threat to us. Although there were a few hints here and there, I didn’t pay much attention to them until it was too late.”

Wang Chao shouted loudly: “Let’s go back immediately and kill them all. All of them!”

As the group returned to the settlement with a sense of urgency, they discovered that it was completely deserted. All the makeshift shelters that had been erected were still standing, and even the stoves and iron pots that had been used for cooking were left behind. Only a few supplies and weapons appeared to have been taken.

The corpses of more than 20 women and children were lying here and there on the ground, as well as those of some young men who took up arms to resist.

These people obviously left in a hurry, but they did not forget to leave behind their burdens.

Xiao Yu speculated that during their battle with the dryad, Zhou Fu had not strayed too far and had instead kept a safe distance to observe from afar. After witnessing the impressive fighting prowess of Xiao Yu and his group, they likely realized that the monster was not powerful enough to defeat them. However, they also feared that their enemies might turn the tables and launch a counterattack. In anticipation of this, they had hurriedly returned to the settlement, rallied their group, and fled the area as quickly as possible.

Wang Chao was filled with anger. However, with no outlet to release his frustration, he vented his rage by smashing an iron pot into pieces with his mace, stomping his feet, and shouting, “These cunning bastards! Fatty’s so mad. Boss, let me take a few people and catch up to them. I’ll make sure to wipe them all out!”

Xiao Yu shook his head and replied, “Given their cunning nature, they most likely split into multiple groups and fled deep into the forest. We might not be able to catch them, so it’s better to let it go.”

Zhou Fu may have had a simple and honest appearance, giving the impression of a hard-working farmer, but he was actually an old fox who possessed a decisive and ruthless character. His swift and resolute decision to abandon the camp and to murder any women, children, and elderly that were present in such a short period of time was indicative of his cunning and shrewd nature. With such scheming and determination, Zhou Fu has the potential to become a tyrant in these troubled times.

Wang Chao was very puzzled and said, “Let it go? What do you mean by that?”

Xiao Yu raised his head and fixed his gaze on a certain direction in the forest with intense eyes. “Zhou Fu? I remember that name!” he exclaimed. He then turned to face the others and issued a command, “Destroy everything here and collect wood and dry branches from the woods. We will set fire to the forest!”

Everyone else was surprised, “What are you talking about, you want to set fire to the forest?”

Xiao Yu spoke calmly with his hands behind his back, “Indeed. Although we suffered a loss, we can also see it as a chance. The dryad is a rare monster that we couldn’t afford to let it go. It’s invincible in its territory, but if we set fire to the forest and burn its home, its power will be weakened to the minimum. Moreover, Zhou Fu and his group couldn’t have gone too far, and we can still cause them trouble if we set fire to their escape route.”

Without any hesitation, everyone immediately began smashing everything in the entire gathering place. They then went into the woods separately to find some flammable items, taking out all the fuel they carried and pouring it on the dry firewood and hay. They threw everything into the woods and carried out dozens of ignitions at once.

The plants in this world secrete an anti-combustion substance during the burning process, which could effectively prevent the spread of fire and avoid the outbreak of large-scale forest fires, but small-scale fires could still be created. Today, the wind direction was favorable, and the fire quickly grew in size. Trees were set ablaze, and the flames began to spread northward, engulfing more and more trees in its path.

Thick smoke billowed, obscuring half the sky.

After setting the fire, Xiao Yu led his people back to the black forest in the south direction