"Could it be that the Wood Clan has already been completely wiped out by the demon race? That would explain why we haven't seen a single one," Zhu Guo'er said, her expression shifting with a trace of worry.
"A complete extermination is impossible. The Wood Clan numbers in the hundreds of billions, and they possess numerous powerful beings at the Body Integration stage. Even if they're no match for the demon race, they couldn't possibly be wiped out so easily. Besides, the Wood Clan formed alliances with our human race and several other clans — the others wouldn't simply stand by and watch the Wood Clan fall. It's most likely that the demon race has merely gained the upper hand in this region, and the Wood Clan who originally lived here have all withdrawn," Han Li murmured after a moment's deliberation, replying in a slow, measured tone.
"That makes sense, Senior. Once we get further away from that spatial passage, we should start encountering Wood Clan members," Zhu Guo'er said, nodding repeatedly as she found his reasoning convincing.
Han Li said nothing more and continued to urge the flying carriage onward in silence.
…
Three days later, above a boundless primeval forest stretching to every horizon, the flying carriage came to a stop, hovering quietly high in the air.
Roughly a hundred zhang ahead of the carriage, seven or eight high-ranking demon cultivators blocked the path.
Each of these demons had a pair of green, fleshy wings growing from their backs, wore feathered robes, and had crimson eyes — their appearance was utterly hideous and terrifying.
Behind these demon cultivators swarmed a dense mass of two-headed demon birds, each about a zhang in size, their bodies covered in five-colored plumage, with a pitch-black horn atop each head. There were easily five or six hundred of them.
"How many groups have we encountered now?" Han Li stood at the front of the flying carriage, asking flatly without any change in expression.
"Senior, this is the seventh wave," Zhu Guo'er replied cautiously.
"Hmph. It seems the high-ranking demons responsible for this area still haven't learned their lesson. Then we'll just kill them all again. After dealing with this lot, we should finally get some real peace and quiet for a while." Han Li narrowed his eyes, his voice cold as frost.
With that, he suddenly flicked both sleeves, and streaks of inch-long green light poured forth in torrents — miniature green flying swords, seventy-two in total.
Han Li formed a single-handed seal, then tapped a finger toward the cluster of green swords.
A clear, resonant cry like a dragon's roar erupted from the swords. They blurred, and each sword split into two, those two into four, those four into eight…
In an instant, the sky was filled with green flying swords — a dense, packed mass of over a thousand blades.
The high-ranking demon cultivators ahead turned pale with shock at the sight. Yet they seemed bound by strict orders and showed no intention of retreating or fleeing. Instead, black energy surged from their hands as they conjured demon weapons of various forms. Roaring at the top of their lungs, they transformed into gusts of black wind and charged straight toward the flying carriage.
Behind them, the five or six hundred demon birds immediately beat their wings, letting out earsplitting shrieks as they swarmed after the demon cultivators in a chaotic mass.
"Go."
Han Li's eyes flashed with killing intent, and he spoke a single cold syllable.
The green swords trembled in unison and immediately shot forth as streaks of sword light roughly a zhang long.
In the blink of an eye, a torrent of sharp whistling filled the air. The entire sky vanished beneath a sea of green shadows. With a single flash, the thousand-odd sword lights engulfed every last one of the high-ranking demon cultivators and the hundreds of demon birds.
Wretched screams erupted instantly!
Great swaths of blood rain and countless severed limbs rained down from the sky. The demon cultivators and demon birds were slain to the very last one by the over a thousand sword lights in the span of a single breath.
Han Li flicked one sleeve, and the distant sword lights swayed before hurtling back in a stream, vanishing into his sleeve without a trace.
Now, apart from the thick stench of blood spreading through the distant sky, not a single living thing remained.
Han Li swept his gaze across the scene, then without another word urged the flying carriage beneath his feet. It transformed into a ball of green light and pierced through the sky.
The remainder of the journey unfolded exactly as Han Li had anticipated — no further demon cultivators or demon beasts appeared to obstruct them.
However, in the forests the carriage passed over, those black-green colossal trees still appeared from time to time, as though the entire Wood Clan territory had been overrun by these demonic trees.
What unsettled Han Li even more was that despite traveling such an enormous distance, he still hadn't encountered a single Wood Clan member. It was as though the entire Wood Clan had truly vanished without a trace.
…
One month later, when the flying carriage passed over a valley at the edge of a mountain range, Han Li finally spotted a small Wood Clan tribe being besieged by over a thousand demon cultivators.
This particular Wood Clan tribe numbered no more than ten thousand, but only two to three thousand among them were actually capable of fighting. They were being slaughtered by the thousand-odd demons and were on the verge of total annihilation.
With a surge of delight, Han Li wasted no time before unleashing his devastating methods, annihilating the demon cultivators in a single sweeping assault and saving the surviving Wood Clan members.