An Jiaye's blade speed was extraordinarily fast, yet the Wood Demon plants changed even faster. As though some dark incantation had suddenly been whispered to them, they seemed to burst to life all at once — charged with reckless momentum, like a hotheaded youth who had lost all reason.
An Jiaye's blade light danced across the heavens, and whether on offense or defense, it was nothing short of flawless.
But the Wood Demon plants, even under the relentless onslaught of his blade light, refused to yield. They stubbornly pushed back up again and again, giving the impression that no matter how many times they were cut down, they would regenerate in the blink of an eye.
At this moment, An Jiaye had already pushed his offensive and defensive capabilities to their absolute limit. Yet even so, the pressure he felt only continued to grow.
The sheer number of Wood Demon plants was overwhelming. The army they formed resembled a boundless green ocean stretching endlessly in every direction, offering not the faintest glimpse of a hope's end.
An Jiaye kept his composure. Though surrounded by the Wood Demon plants, his spiritual sense never stopped sweeping through the environment, searching ceaselessly.
He was using his spiritual sense to hunt for the core root system of these Wood Demon plants — looking for a single decisive opportunity to end the battle.
But in this infinite green ocean, no matter where An Jiaye's spiritual sense probed, the rhythm he detected was almost identical everywhere.
In other words, the core root of this Wood Demon formation was hidden far too well.
Even someone of An Jiaye's Divine Abilities could not unearth it, and for a time, he grew thoroughly frustrated.
He had long anticipated that this battle would not be easy. But he had never imagined it could be this difficult.
If he could not find the core root, he could not sever the foundation. Without severing the foundation, there was no way to break this siege of Wood Demon plants.
In other words, the objective of this battle would be completely impossible to achieve.
A hint of anxiety began to creep into An Jiaye's heart. Facing the relentless, mountain-crashing waves of Wood Demon plants pressing in on him from all sides, even with his extraordinary Divine Abilities, he was gradually being worn down.
After all, no matter how outstanding his offense and defense, he was still a being of flesh and blood. He would still tire.
But the Wood Demon plants seemed to never tire. Not only did their momentum fail to diminish, it grew fiercer by the minute.
An Jiaye had managed to hold on at first, but as time wore on, he could clearly feel himself growing more and more exhausted. The Wood Demon lineage's plants seemed truly infinite — impossible to cut down, impossible to kill off.
"It seems... I've lost this battle." Though An Jiaye refused to accept defeat in his heart, his fighting will had finally begun to waver.
The moment that resolve started to crack, An Jiaye knew he had to leave.
His blade light swept outward in a wide arc, clearing away rows of Wood Demon plants that had closed in near him. He reached out with his hand and produced the Glass Divine Talisman.
Just as he was about to activate it, a voice transmitted directly into his mind: "Lord Jiaye, hold on a little longer."
The voice appeared without any warning, and An Jiaye's spiritual sense jolted in surprise — because this particular spiritual transmission was one he recognized all too well.
It was none other than Jiang Chen.
"Jiang Chen?" Lord Jiaye's spiritual sense stirred, though he did not speak aloud.
"I'm pursuing the Wood Demon lineage's ancestor, searching for the core root of these Wood Demon plants. Hold on for just a moment longer — I'll be able to lock onto them soon."