You said you would practice martial arts. Have you mastered the Tiangang Dharma?

When the pine seedlings sprouted for the seventh time, Bai Yan discovered the changes in the demon world. When he combed his hair in the morning, the osmanthus flowers in his hair suddenly tightened their roots, and the petals trembled and made a crisp sound like wind chimes. The moment the comb teeth passed through the hair, the bronze mirror reflected a horrifying scene - each hair was wrapped with emerald light veins, like the aerial roots of a banyan tree piercing into the void.

"This is the resonance of the wood spirit." Yunxiu's antlers were wrapped with hemostatic vines, and her fingertips stroked the bulging blue veins on the back of Bai Yan's neck. "They are borrowing your spiritual consciousness to build a defense network." She lifted the bamboo curtain of the medicine hut, and Bai Yan gasped: all the herbs in the courtyard were suspended in mid-air, their roots intertwined into precise meridians, and dandelion seeds turned into sentinels in the sky.

At this moment, Mr. Jiaowei's zither sound tore through the morning mist. When Bai Yan rushed out of the medicine house, he saw the black-clad zither master confronting the ancient locust tree under the cherry tree. The old tree, which had always been docile, now had twisted branches and talisman-like patterns on its bark. Even more terrifying was the things entangled in the roots: hundreds of crossbows woven from vines, with arrows condensed from moonlight on the strings ready to be fired.

"Stop!" Bai Yan held down the wildly beating osmanthus flowers. The ancient locust tree made a creaking sound as its annual rings turned, and the arrow turned and aimed at his heart. At the critical moment, the pine seedlings suddenly broke through the soil, and the roots wrapped around Bai Yan's ankles and pulled him into the ground.

Fluorescent light lit up in the darkness. After Bai Yan's pupils gradually adapted to the dim light underground, he was shocked to find that the entire underground of the demon world had been transformed into a war fortress by plant roots: the roots of the thousand-year-old cherry trees turned into flowing walls, the hyphae were woven into an early warning network, and even the smallest roots were mutated into chains with barbs. In the deepest part stood a crystal-like growth ring column, and each ring of the growth ring was playing the scene of the outside monks setting up formations.

"Is this the memory of the demon world?" The moment Bai Yan touched the tree ring column, Qingli's scream penetrated the earth. When he was lifted back to the ground by the dandelion, the scene in front of him was like a nightmare - twelve puppets wearing Taoist robes were self-destructing outside the barrier, and the splashing blood and flesh touched the plants and gave birth to carnivorous plants.

The osmanthus flowers suddenly broke away from the hair and shattered into golden dust in the air. Wherever the dust passed, all plants cried out, and the leaves quickly keratinized to form shields. Bai Yan's temples throbbed. He "saw" the sword formation approaching three hundred miles away, as if the entire forest was shouting in his mind.

"Southeast Xun position, seventy-three flying swords." Bai Yan spoke uncontrollably, his voice echoing. The thousand-year-old cherry tree shook its branches in response, shooting out fruits wrapped in resin. Those fruits exploded in the air, and the sticky liquid solidified the flying swords into amber.

Yunxiu's exclamation came from the medicine house. When Bai Yan turned around, he saw the Soul Devouring Vine piercing through the chest of the monk puppet. But this usually docile healing plant was extremely violent at this moment, and the suckers on the vine were eating away at the flesh and blood of the puppet. When it turned to the weak Yunxiu, Bai Yan found that a broken Tai Chi jade was embedded in the core of the vine - it was the heart-protecting mirror given to him by his master.

"No!" Yunxiu stretched out her hand to catch the blood drops from the vines. A miracle happened. The vines stained with her tears suddenly bloomed into blood-red roses, and the runaway plants retreated rapidly as if they were scalded. Bai Yan then noticed that all the mutant plants were avoiding Yunxiu's antlers, as if there was an awe-inspiring aura there.

Mr. Jiaowei's piano music suddenly became sharp. Bai Yan followed his line of sight and his blood almost froze - the sky of the demon world was oozing out resinous colloids, which were the plants repairing the barrier by themselves. But every drop of resin that fell would form an amber cage on the ground, sealing any little demon that happened to pass by.

"They are defending indiscriminately." Qingli's tail swept down the spider webs under the eaves. The silver threads were trying to entangle her ankles. "We must find the old tree spirit. Only he knows."

A loud noise interrupted the fox demon's words. The barrier in the northwest corner suddenly broke, and what rushed in was not the monks, but the overwhelming maidenhair ferns. These plants, which should have been weak, were now like steel needles, nailing everything they passed by to the ground. Bai Yan swung his sword to cut off the attacking fern leaves, and found that the cross section was flowing with familiar spiritual power - it was the sword energy he injected into the pine seedlings three days ago.

"Backlash." The voice of the old tree spirit came from underground. The ground under Bai Yan's feet suddenly bulged, and the roots of the tree dragged him into the maze of tree rings. In the deepest part of the tree rings, the old man was lighting his torso with a pipe: "Look carefully, this is the true appearance of the demon world."

The burning rings release ancient memories: the original world had no flesh and blood, only spiritual plants that absorbed the essence of the sun and the moon. One day, the sky fire descended, and the burning plants transformed into beasts in the ashes, which were the first generation of demons. And those plants that did not transform into beasts condensed their essence into seeds and buried them deep underground.

"So the plants are protecting their compatriots." Bai Yan's sword fell to the ground with a clang. The demon-killing formation of the outside cultivators was shaking violently at this time, and the image of the tree rings suddenly switched - under the demon-suppressing tower on the top of Kunlun Mountain, there was a giant tree with a crystal body imprisoned, and every branch was pierced with the corpses of the demons.

The battle on the ground has reached a life-and-death moment. Qingli reveals the true form of the Nine-Tailed Fox, but the fox fire ignites the runaway peach tree spirit. Yunxiu uses a broken deer antler as a pestle, and sprinkles blood mixed with herbs into the air. The most bizarre is Mr. Jiaowei, whose body cracks, revealing a resonance box shaped like an annual ring, and each new ice string is cutting fingers.

When Bai Yan rushed out of the ground with the burning tree rings, the warning bell of the osmanthus flower resounded through the sky. All the demons suddenly stopped moving, as if they had received some kind of ancient call. Bai Yan raised the burning tree heart and cut his palm with the sword, letting the blood and fire drip onto the ground together.

"In the name of the walker of the two worlds, please listen to the long-cherished wish of the first generation of spirits—" His voice resounded through the heavens and the earth at the same time, and the giant tree on the top of Kunlun Mountain began to shake violently. The plants in the demon world broke away from the soil and gathered into a green torrent in the air. When the flying swords of the monks touched this torrent, they all turned into falling flowers.

When the last sword light dissipated, Bai Yan saw a shocking scene in the void: behind every monster, the corresponding spiritual plant emerged, and the towering tree behind Yunxiu was exactly the one imprisoned under the Kunlun Demon Tower.

"In the name of medicine, I take the responsibility of purifying the world." Yunxiu's voice startled the fireflies all over the mountain. She tore the seal on her chest with her bare hands, and the demon pill locked by the golden chain made a sound of tearing cloth. The Soul Devouring Vine suddenly cried like a baby, and all the buds bloomed in response. The twisted face of the monk appeared in the center of each rose.

Qingli's fox fire illuminated the night sky at this moment. Bai Yan saw the roses devouring the evil thoughts of the hanged monk, and the dew on the petals condensed into black crystals. When the last crystal fell, a rose tattoo appeared on Yunxiu's skin, and the soul-devouring vine curled up at her feet obediently and bloomed its first pure white flower.

"Is this the blood sacrifice of the Medical Immortal Clan?" Mr. Jiaowei's ice string cut his fingertips, and blood beads smudged the rings of the violin case to form an ancient totem. "It turns out that the Lu Shu lineage has never been cut off." Before Bai Yan could ask, the pine seedling in his arms suddenly trembled violently. He followed the guidance of his spiritual consciousness and came to the edge of the Mirror Lake, and found that the water was full of glowing leaves. There were golden veins on the back of each leaf. When he pieced together three hundred leaves, a terrifying star map emerged - under the Demon Suppression Tower on the top of Kunlun Mountain, the lifeblood of the first generation of demons was buried.

"Fellow Daoist, how are you?" The voice of Master Ling Xiaozi suddenly came from the water. Bai Yan swung his sword to shatter the reflection, but saw that in the lake surface that was shattered into glass, each fragment reflected the image of his heart being pierced by the sword. At this time, the pine seedlings pierced his palm, and in the severe pain of the roots and meridians fusing, Bai Yan heard the roar of the Kunlun Mountain avalanche.

Mr. Jiaowei's piano music saved him. When the seven ice strings broke at the same time, time and space froze for a short time. Bai Yan took the opportunity to insert the pine seedlings into the cracks of the piano body and found that the inner wall of the annual ring resonance box was engraved with spells to suppress the demons. In the oldest annual ring layer, there was a piece of glass-like finger bone sealed - it was the little finger that Xuan Du Zhenren cut off before he disappeared three hundred years ago.

"So you are the guardian of the boundary." Bai Yan's blood dripped onto his finger bones, and Mr. Jiaowei's dark pupils showed an illusion of a snowy field. The black-clothed musician revealed his true form in the earthquake: the torn Taoist robe of Xuan Du was entangled on a half-charred piece of lightning-struck wood.

When the thunder split the night sky, Bai Yan finally grasped the finger bone. Pine seedlings, snow spirits and lightning wood merged in the lightning, forging a crystal sword. The sword body flowed with golden veins like leaf veins, and cherry blossom petals and Tai Chi diagrams flashed alternately on the sword guard. When the first ray of morning light passed over the sword, a loud sound of chain breaking came from the top of Kunlun Mountain.

Qingli's scream came from the direction of the altar. When Bai Yan flew into the air with his sword, he saw the entire demon world turning upside down - the ground bulged to form an altar in the shape of a tree ring, and the burning remains of the old tree spirit turned into a sacrificial fire, exposing the blood-colored inscription that had been buried for thousands of years. The inscription was engraved with the blood fingerprints of humans and demons, and the date of the inscription was the day when the battle between gods and demons ended.

"We have all been deceived." Yunxiu stroked the totem of the Lu Shu tribe on the inscription, "There is no such thing as a battle to kill demons. This is simply a massacre that betrays the covenant." The shadow of the towering tree behind her suddenly materialized, and the Demon-Suppressing Tower on the top of Kunlun Mountain collapsed, revealing the spiritual body pierced by iron chains.

Bai Yan's sword changed at this time. The golden veins of the leaves separated from the sword body and formed a map of the ancient battlefield in the air. He saw how the first generation of demons used their spirits to nourish the earth, how human monks stole the spirit veins, and finally built the demon-suppressing tower with the corpses of the demons. The most ironic thing was that the star-fixing disk on the top of the tower was the snow that Xuan Du had transformed into.

When Bai Yan thrust the tip of his sword into the center of the altar, the entire space and time began to go back. The runaway plants calmed down and inserted their roots into the bloody inscription. The evil thoughts of the monks who were devoured condensed into black rain and fell, but when they touched the osmanthus lily of the valley, they turned into morning dew that nourished all things. Crystal-like world trees began to grow on the edge of the demon world, and each leaf recorded a tampered history.

When the crystal tree pierced through the clouds, Bai Yan was holding the gradually frozen grass sword. The finger bones of Xuan Du Zhenren on the hilt of the sword emitted a cold blue light, projecting a heavy snow in his sea of ​​consciousness - the truth of the betrayal three hundred years ago was climbing up his meridians along the frost.

"Fellow Daoist, are you still not awake?" Ling Xiaozi's shadow seeped out from the sword, and the dragon pattern on his Taoist robe moved as if alive. "What is suppressed under the Demon Suppression Tower is not some spiritual root, but the demon sword Taichu that brought chaos to the world."

Bai Yan swung his sword to shatter the shadow, but the ice shards condensed into chains on his wrists. Yun Xiu's screams came from afar, and he turned around to see a horrifying scene: the crystal leaves that recorded history were growing wildly, the sharp-edged leaves cut through the space, and black mist wrapped in snowflakes flowed out of every crack.

"Hurry up and make the Boundary Tree stop!" Qingli's fox tail wrapped around three flying leaves, but was burned by the memories in them - on one of the leaves, she personally handed the young Yunxiu to the old tree spirit. More demons fell into madness after touching the leaves, their pupils appeared blood moons, and their claws began to indiscriminately attack the existence with spiritual energy.

Mr. Jiaowei's piano music suddenly became harsh. Bai Yan saw the black-clothed musician holding the broken body of the lightning-struck wood and strangling his neck with the ice string. "Kill me," the voice of Xuan Du Zhenren seeped out from the rings of the piano case, "I couldn't do it back then, so Ling Xiaozi had the opportunity to tamper with the blood tablet."

Bai Yan's sword was faster than his thoughts. When the grass sword penetrated the body of Jiaowei Qin, thousands of lightning flashes burst out from the cracks. The snow on the top of Kunlun Mountain evaporated at this moment, revealing the blood-red altar buried for thousands of years. What was even more terrifying was the remnants of those liberated monks. They were wrapped in wind and snow, and condensed into Ling Xiaozi's hundred-foot Dharma image above the demon world.

"Heaven and earth are the furnace!" The Dharmadhatu formed seals with his hands, and the crystal tree suddenly bent into a bow shape. Bai Yan's grass sword flew uncontrollably to the treetops, and Xuan Du Zhenren's finger bones began to separate from the sword. At this moment of life and death, Yunxiu jumped onto the treetops with blood-red roses all over his body, and his antlers completely shattered into starlight.

"The soul of the one who uses medicine can bring peace to the world!" Her flesh and blood turned into fireflies when it touched the world tree, and the crazy monsters suddenly stopped - a rose mark bloomed on the forehead of each monster. Bai Yan's chain broke with a sound, and he saw Yunxiu's last smile and the time-traveling flower blooming between her fingers.

Time and space began to flow backwards. The burning altar of annual rings was restored to its original state, and the runaway crystal leaves returned to the branches. When Bai Yan caught the fallen grass sword, the hilt of the sword had already merged with his knuckles. The memories of Master Xuan Du came flooding back like a tide: it was not a betrayal at all, but Ling Xiaozi had trapped him with the demon-killing formation and forcibly stripped him of his identity as the guardian.

"Master, you are wrong." Bai Yan swung his sword and slashed into the void. The crystal tree suddenly split into countless prisms, each mirror reflecting the truth of a different time and space. Ling Xiaozi's image was distorted in the mirror array, and the memories he had tampered with began to backfire on himself.

Qingli's fox fire illuminated the core of the mirror array at this time. The nine-tailed fox revealed its ancient true form, with each tail wrapped with a burning blood tablet. "Sacrifice the thousand-year glory of the fox clan!" Her voice shook the world, and the flames on her tail condensed into demon-breaking arrows, "Please open your eyes, Ten Thousand Demon Tomb!"

The moment the arrow left the bowstring, the skeletons of the demons sealed in the monuments broke out of the ground. The demon-suppressing tower on the top of Kunlun Mountain completely collapsed, and the roots of the giant tree rose from the ground, entangled with the crystal tree to form a ladder to heaven. Bai Yan stepped on the ladder and jumped to the heart of the Dharma Image. The cherry blossoms and Tai Chi on the grass sword exploded at the same time. (End of this chapter)