The scene before him gave
If he could destroy this monster, the progenitor would die and the source would be cut off. Once that happened, even if the remaining Wood Demon Gu could still reproduce, they could certainly be eliminated.
After all, the reproductive capabilities of ordinary Wood Demon Gu couldn't compare to those of the Gu progenitor.
The sight of the Gu progenitor only strengthened Jiang Chen's resolve to kill the monster.
However, he had essentially exhausted the means at his disposal.
The only thing he hadn't used was the restriction left behind by that Heavenly realm powerhouse. It was a restriction set by a Heavenly realm expert — it should be more than sufficient to kill this progenitor.
But that restriction could only be used twice, and Jiang Chen wasn't about to waste one so casually.
Just then, an idea flashed through his mind. The Wood Demon Gu had two natural nemeses: one was the Fire of First Light, and the other was the Dragon's Drool Water.
And Dragon's Drool Water — didn't he have a ready supply?
At that thought, Jiang Chen snapped his fingers and summoned Little Dragon Xuan once more. "Brother Long, only your saliva can counter this creature. It's all yours!"
Little Dragon Xuan glanced at the hideous monster and a look of disdain crossed his eyes. His body coiled and unfurled, revealing his True Dragon form.
A single sneeze from high above sent countless droplets of Dragon's Drool Water hurtling downward like a thousand hidden weapons, a storm of deadly needles raining down upon the monster.
All things in this world truly were born to counter one another.
The monster that Jiang Chen's myriad techniques had failed to budge writhed in agony the moment the Dragon's Drool Water struck its body. Plumes of searing smoke hissed upward from the burns.
Little Dragon Xuan pressed on without hesitation and unleashed another sneeze.
The Dragon's Drool Water continued to pound into the creature, and its armored scales melted away like wax under a flame, leaving grievous wounds across its body.
The monster screamed in excruciating pain.
However, trapped beneath the pull of the Yuan Magnetic Mountain and further weakened by the continuous beam of the Flying Feather Mirror, it could barely move at all.
As the Dragon's Drool Water kept spraying, the wounds on its body grew larger and larger, the flesh charred and mangled, and its shrieks grew more and more miserable.
Jiang Chen remained unmoved. The Gu progenitor appeared to be not yet fully evolved — otherwise, even the Dragon's Drool Water wouldn't have been this effective.
He summoned the Five-Colored Divine Light Sword again, ready to strike while the creature was down and finish it for good.
But at that critical moment, two terrifying waves of pressure suddenly tore through the void from nowhere, slamming straight toward Jiang Chen and Little Dragon Xuan.
Jiang Chen was startled. He immediately recalled the Yuan Magnetic Mountain and thrust it forward as a shield, barely blocking both himself and Little Dragon Xuan's dragon form.
The two waves of pressure crashed into the Yuan Magnetic Mountain with a thunderous boom, shaking it violently. The golden glow flickered erratically, trembling nonstop.
"Pressure given physical form? Is this... an Emperor's pressure?" Jiang Chen had fought Imperial realm experts before. Their pressure, though formidable, could never condense into such a terrifying physical attack.
And in that moment, the Wood Demon Gu progenitor seized the opportunity. While Jiang Chen was distracted, it burrowed into the void and vanished without a trace.
By the time Jiang Chen activated his Heavenly Eye Divine Pupil to search, it was already gone.
Jiang Chen spat in frustration — what wretched luck. If not for those two waves of pressure, he could have definitely finished off the monster.
But there were no "what ifs."
Those two waves of pressure were extraordinary. Though their origin was unknown, they carried a palpable threat that Jiang Chen could feel in his very bones.
"Could it be that there's a Demon Emperor-level powerhouse hiding in this forest?" For a moment, Jiang Chen didn't dare to act rashly. Now that he had obtained the Soul-Soothing Wood, there was truly no need to push his luck.
The Wood Demon Gu progenitor had sustained severe injuries and would need considerable time to recover.
But the inexplicable pressure attack had cast a shadow over Jiang Chen's heart. That said, there was absolutely no way he would summon the courage to venture back in and investigate further.
He had the Soul-Soothing Wood in hand — there was no point in stirring up additional trouble. After all, the battle against the demons wasn't something he, Jiang Chen, could win alone.
With that thought, he stopped lingering and took Huang'er with him, fleeing swiftly toward the outer perimeter.
He didn't want to probe deeper, but he also feared that the Demon Emperor might pursue them. Still, he guessed that the Demon Emperor's movements were likely still somewhat restricted — otherwise, there would have been no need for a pressure attack. The Demon Emperor could have simply appeared in person, and against a true Demon Emperor, Jiang Chen would have had zero chance of survival without resorting to the cave dwelling's restrictions.
He needed only to compare against the Peacock Emperor to gauge the gap.
The Peacock Emperor had only reigned supreme for three thousand years as an Emperor, and even then Jiang Chen had already felt utterly powerless in his presence.
If a Demon Emperor from a hundred thousand years ago had truly awakened, that was a monster far older and likely far stronger than the Peacock Emperor.