Both start in hell: but their talents are multiplied a hundredfold.

Let's return to Ning Caichen.

When the woman, who resembled a female ghost, threw herself at him.

Ning Caichen instinctively reached out his hands to block the woman.

That terrifying internal energy at the grandmaster level was activated simultaneously.

The Essence Flower, one of the three flowers at the top, suddenly spun around.

The pure and genuine internal energy that Ning Caichen had received from Shen Jue instantly burned the female ghost, who was covered in yin energy, causing her to scream.

This is also the origin of that "oh ho ho" sound.

Hearing the female ghost make such a sound, Ning Caichen became anxious. He didn't know what to do for a moment, so he subconsciously went to help the female ghost.

Then, under the burning effect of her internal energy, the female ghost's voice became even louder.

This attracted three female ghosts, including Nie Xiaoqian, who were outside the west wing, to enter the wing to investigate.

Unsurprisingly, the three female ghosts tried to bring their sisters along, but the moment they came into contact with Ning Caichen, they were also burned by his internal energy and made a unified sound.

This led to Yan Chixia's misunderstanding.

Four female ghosts were crammed into the side room, their souls stirred by Ning Caichen's pure and yang internal energy, and they all made strange noises of "Oh ho ho".

The four ghosts were twisted and contorted, as if they were stuck within three feet of him, unable to break free.

Ning Caichen was sweating profusely with anxiety, repeatedly saying, "Ladies, I truly didn't mean to!"

"This thing started moving by itself!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a gust of cold wind suddenly rose outside the room, and the fallen leaves in the courtyard swirled and rose into the air.

Immediately afterwards, a dense, crushing sound of bricks and stones came from beneath the ground.

A dozen or so thick, black, and cracked roots burst out of the soil, meandering along the ground like living creatures, heading straight for the doors and windows of the side room.

That was the tree demon's whiskers.

Before the roots even arrived, a foul odor, a mixture of rotten wood and foul-smelling earth, had already begun to permeate the air.

With a crash, the window frame shattered, and several roots, like spears, pierced through, coiling towards the four female ghosts, trying to drag them out.

Just then, a loud shout rang out from outside the west wing, like muffled thunder rolling across the night sky.

"Heaven and earth are boundless, and the universe borrows their power!"

A streak of sword light flew out from Yan Chixia's hand. The broadsword split into three in mid-air, then into nine. In an instant, the sword shadows resembled a fan, slashing down.

As the sword flashed, the roots that had rushed into the room snapped off cleanly, and blackish-purple sap splattered everywhere. The severed ends emitted a shrill cry like that of an infant.

The remaining roots recoiled as if electrocuted, and a muffled, painful roar came from the ground.

Yan Chixia stood in the courtyard, holding a sword in one hand and pointing his other finger like a sword. His bushy beard stood on end, his eyes flashed like lightning, and he spoke in a deep voice, word by word:

"Old demon! You've overreached!"

Deep in the dense forest, a voice, indistinguishable between male and female, suddenly resounded like a raging storm, causing the broken tiles of the entire Lanruo Temple to fall off in a rustling sound.

"Yan Chixia!"

"I saw your profound cultivation and allowed you to stay at Lanruo Temple, yet you have repeatedly ruined my plans!"

"Today you have come again to cut off my roots and harm my child!"

The voice suddenly rose to a shrill note, turning into a harsh female voice: "You think I'm afraid of you, my grandmother?!"

Before the words were even finished, the entire dense forest shook violently, and thousands of branches swayed like ghostly claws!

The ground cracked, and more roots emerged from the cracks, densely packed, completely surrounding the courtyard outside the west wing!

The moonlight was completely swallowed up by the towering roots, plunging the surroundings into darkness. Only the sword light in Yan Chixia's hand shone like the only lamp in the dark night.

Inside the side room, Ning Caichen was still surrounded by four female ghosts, unable to move forward or backward.

Hearing the commotion outside, he cried out with a mournful face, "Hero! Help me!"

"What should I do?!"

The moment Ning Caichen's cries for help echoed from the side room, Yan Chixia, without turning around, burst into a tirade: "What are you going to do?!"

"You ask me what to do? I'd like to ask you what to do!"

"Four female ghosts surrounding a scholar like you! And you're doing just that! So happy you've forgotten all about home!"

As he cursed, he swung his sword to repel another wave of surging roots. The sword flashed like lightning, making the area in front of him completely impenetrable.

"Great hero! I am innocent and have no evil intentions!" Ning Caichen almost cried.

"But I can't move! The four of them seem to be stuck to it!"

Upon hearing this, Yan Chixia glanced into the side room amidst his busy schedule and saw that the yin energy of the four female ghosts was stuck together with the peculiar, unidentified substance on Ning Caichen's body.

Oh, so this kid didn't do anything reckless, Yan Chixia thought, but for some reason, he was a little disappointed.

But before he could think it through, dozens of roots surged out from the depths of the dense forest, pressing down on him relentlessly.

Yan Chixia bit his tongue, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the sword. The sword light surged, and he plunged the sword into the ground. He formed a hand seal, and a golden barrier rose from the ground, enveloping the entire west wing.

"Listen up, kid!" Yan Chixia braced his hands on the magic array, veins bulging on his forehead, and shouted in a deep voice.

"I don't care what kind of nonsense you're spouting!"

"Listen to me carefully now! When I remove the screen in front of the room, you rush out the door!"

"Just keep running forward, don't look back, don't stop, keep running until you can't see me or this tree demon anymore!"

"What should we do with these four girls?" Ning Caichen asked subconsciously.

"You call yourself a girl?" Yan Chixia was so angry he almost broke the hand seal.

"They're ghosts! Ghosts that have been dead for a hundred years!"

"Do you think you're visiting a brothel? If you run, they'll naturally slip away. Your virility is hotter than a branding iron; they can't possibly chase you, can they?"

A roar echoed from the depths of the dense forest once more, this time much closer, the voice seeming to press down from above: "Yan Chixia! Tonight, it's time for a final reckoning between us!"

Yan Chixia laughed loudly, his beard bristling, his heroic spirit soaring to the heavens: "Settle things? You crooked old tree, you dare to talk to me about settling things? Heaven and earth are boundless!"

"Borrowing the power of heaven and earth!"

He turned around and shouted towards the side room, "Run!"

A gap appeared in the golden barrier directly in front of the room. Yan Chixia drew his sword and rose up, transforming into a streak of light as he charged towards the countless roots.

The sword light poured down like a torrential rain, tearing a path through the darkness, its long, resounding cry echoing across the land:

"I will seek my own path!"

"Demons! Cease your rampage!"

Just as Ning Caichen watched Yan Chixia's back as he rushed towards the sky full of roots like a shooting star, he felt both moved and guilty, and his eyes were about to redden.

A clear, slightly languid voice drifted down from above Lanruo Temple:

Excuse me.

The sound wasn't loud, but it clearly pierced through the tree demon's earth-shattering roar and the piercing shriek of Yan Chixia's sword light.

Ning Caichen subconsciously looked up and peered out through the broken window of the side room.

In the pitch-black night sky above Lanruo Temple, a row of figures appeared out of nowhere.

They stood suspended in mid-air, emitting a faint golden light that pushed back a large portion of the surrounding darkness.

The one in the lead was Shen Jue, who was lying lazily on the Buddha carriage.

The eighteen Arhats of Jinshan Temple were all dignified and solemn, with bulging muscles and a faint golden light flowing beneath their monks' robes.