Chapter 20: The Magical Beast Takes Action
The dense grass blades completely sealed Linley within, surrounding him with the scent of grass. "Creak, creak~~" The roots and stems of the grass squeezed madly, and the pressure at that moment was so intense that even Linley's expression changed.
"Just relying on this squeezing force, even an ordinary Saint-level powerhouse would be crushed into a meat patty," Linley thought to himself.
"This plant life is dozens of times more terrifying than the one on the second floor!" Linley dared not hold back.
"Break!" The light on the Purple Blood Soft Sword in his hand flared up—
Wherever the Purple Blood Soft Sword passed, space sometimes froze, sometimes produced overlapping shadows, and spatial blades appeared on the sword's edge. Although those grass roots and stems were more than ten times tougher than the plant life vines on the second floor, they were still torn apart like cloth strips before the Purple Blood Soft Sword.
"Boom!"
Broken roots and grass blades flew everywhere as Linley shot out of the dense prison of grass and roots like an arrow.
"Boss, I'm fine!" In the distance, a spherical mass of grass instantly melted open a hole, and Bebe, his entire body flowing with black light, flew out.
"Bebe, what move was that?" Linley felt a surge of joy in his heart.
"I'm a divine-level magical beast, the 'God-Eating Rat,' you know!" Bebe raised his little head, then noticed the scene not far away—a huge sphere of grass had clearly wrapped around someone, and this massive grass sphere was faintly emitting white light.
"Boss, Desri's in trouble." Bebe immediately recognized that the light aura belonged to Desri.
Linley noticed it too. Without hesitation, he flew straight over, extending his soul power to clearly see the situation inside—Desri's body was covered with a faint light armor protecting various parts, and many white light arrows materialized around him, madly attacking the surrounding grass blades.
Unfortunately, these roots and stems were too tough.
"Swish!" The Purple Blood Soft Sword swung out, and with just a few eerie purple flashes, the roots snapped apart.
Desri broke free and, seeing Linley, immediately said, "Thanks. This monster's grass blades are really tough. My instant-cast ninth-rank magic couldn't break through. Without your help, it would have been troublesome."
...
A red light flashed, grass blades flew everywhere, and Tulily stood in the air holding that divine artifact, a red curved blade. With this blade, Tulily was indeed like a tiger with wings. He shouted angrily, "Who is it? Stop skulking around. If you have the guts, come out and fight fair and square!"
"Boom!" Another grass sphere exploded, and Rutherford, his entire body wrapped in cyan light, also broke free.
The many powerhouses emerged one by one.
However, Olivia's situation wasn't great at the moment.
Just as he was trapped and squeezed by the countless grass blades, before Olivia could resist, he suddenly noticed—
All the roots squeezing him began to slide rapidly. These grass blades and roots were covered in sharp thorns. As they slid at high speed, it was like a farmer's saw, the serrated edges of the grass and roots constantly scraping across his body.
In an instant, Olivia's body surface was cut open.
"Hmph." Olivia's gaze turned cold.
"Swish!" A dazzling light flashed, and shattered grass blades and roots flew up.
With his black-and-white mixed long hair flowing, holding the Profound Ice Sword, Olivia stood in the air. However, there was a trace of blood on his body. Olivia thought to himself in shock, "What a powerful serrated edge."
...
The thirteen powerhouses all hovered in midair. Desri looked around and breathed a sigh of relief: "Good, no one died."
Olivia glanced at a nearby human Saint-level powerhouse, who had a large wound on his abdomen: "Carrosa, that was close. You almost lost your life." The man named Carrosa also exhaled: "It was close. If that creature's serrated edges had been any faster, those branches and leaves might have extended into my body."
"Extended into the body?" Linley, Fain, and the others shuddered at the thought.
If those branches and leaves entered a human body, they would probably shred the internal organs instantly.
"Don't move." Desri flew over to a human powerhouse and cast a healing spell on him.
This Carrosa was one of the three powerhouses of the second group.
Those three were the human powerhouse Carrosa, Olivia, and a magical beast powerhouse, the king of the Black Armored Giant Scorpions. Black Armored Giant Scorpions were usually ninth-rank magical beasts, and for this king to cultivate to the Saint-level peak was extremely rare.
"I hate encountering this kind of plant life the most," Linley said, looking down at the scene below.
Below, there was now nothing but endless desert. The original "oasis" had completely disappeared, leaving only broken grass blades and roots. Linley had just witnessed with his own eyes that the unbroken grass blades and roots had all seeped into the sand below.
"Let's go," Desri said. "If that plant life doesn't bother us anymore, we won't waste time on it. The most important thing now is to find the entrance to the eighth floor."
"Let's move." Linley and the others nodded.
The thirteen powerhouses no longer paid attention to the plant life and flew swiftly into the distance, beginning their search in this endless desert.
"There's another oasis ahead." Fain frowned and shouted loudly.
Linley looked carefully and, sure enough, there was a vague patch of green in the distance. As they flew closer, everyone clearly saw the huge oasis. Having experienced the previous encounter, no one dared to be careless.
"Let's stay away," Rosalie shook her head. "Keep our distance. This kind of monster is hard to deal with."
Everyone agreed and consciously avoided the desert oasis. But when Linley's group flew in another direction, that oasis directly sank into the desert below. At the same time, the desert sand began to tremble slightly.
The direction of the trembling's trajectory happened to be moving rapidly toward Linley's group.
"Hmm?" The Black Armored Giant Scorpion king, flying at the back, looked down with its small eyes, then immediately issued a warning, "Everyone be careful, that monster is rushing toward us from beneath the desert at high speed."
In the Magical Beast Mountain Range, it was common for magical beasts to attack from underground. As a Saint-level magical beast, the Black Armored Giant Scorpion was very familiar with this kind of attack.
"That's right." Linley, Fain, Tulily, and the others all stopped in midair and looked down.
If one observed carefully, one could see that on the very surface of the desert, there were still one or two inconspicuous grass blades. For this kind of plant life, all its grass blades could be considered its "eyes." Whatever the grass blades saw, its main body could detect.
"What do we do?" Linley, Desri, and the others exchanged glances.
Killing this plant life would be troublesome, but letting it follow them so insidiously?
"Swish!" "Swish!"
Like two arrows, two long green roots shot out from the desert abruptly, almost instantly wrapping around Desri's legs. These two roots were as thick as an arm and were covered with numerous fine rootlets.
The moment they wrapped around Desri—
"Whoosh!"
They yanked downward violently. The speed at which these two roots shot out was too fast—shoot, wrap, yank—in the blink of an eye, Desri was dragged straight down. Desri roared in anger, simultaneously unleashing a violent mental storm downward.
"Not good." Linley and the others' expressions changed drastically, and they immediately chased downward.
"Plop—" Desri was dragged directly into the desert, vanishing from everyone's sight in an instant. The desert surface remained as ordinary as ever, as if nothing had happened.
"Go down!" Bebe shouted.
Bebe, the Three-Headed Six-Eyed Golden Lion, and the Black Armored Giant Scorpion—these five magical beasts—did not hesitate. Their sizes shrank sharply, and they charged straight into the sand below. Being large made moving underground very troublesome. For example, human powerhouses were absolutely slower than magical beasts underground.
Fain, Rosalie, Tulily, and the other seven were in midair, momentarily unsure of what to do.
"Now we can only hope for Bebe and the others, hoping they can save Desri," Linley said, feeling helpless himself.
If he entered the desert, his movement speed would probably be reduced by more than half. At that speed, he couldn't catch up to the plant life.
"That monster's vines and roots shot out too fast, like a powerhouse drawing a sword," Tulily frowned. "In a flash, they had already wrapped around Desri's legs. Also, Desri used a mental attack just now, but it seemed useless."
"It couldn't have been useful," Linley shook his head. "That monster's main body is as big as the oasis, nearly ten miles in radius. What came out just now were just its roots. Its main body is probably miles away from us. Desri didn't know where the main body was, so he launched a mental storm blindly. It would be lucky if it even hurt the thing."
Olivia snorted coldly: "That Desri is asking for death."
"How can you say that?" Fain and the others looked at Olivia with displeasure.
Olivia glanced at them and said indifferently, "The Divine Graveyard has all kinds of creatures. The methods for dealing with humans don't necessarily work on these creatures. Desri is just a Saint-level magus. Facing a sudden attack, the best he can do is cast an instant spell. How powerful can his instant spells be? Against this kind of monster, it's no threat. If he comes to the Divine Graveyard, isn't that asking for death?"
"What kind of talk is that?" Rosalie was dissatisfied.
"A Saint-level magus is inherently not good at close combat. When they reach the divine level and gain a divine body, close combat will naturally be compensated for," Fain said.
But Linley felt that Olivia had a point. A Saint-level magus did indeed have a weakness in instantaneous attacks.
"Oh?" Olivia said indifferently, "Becoming a god does grant a transformation and a divine body. A divine body is extremely powerful and best suited for close combat."
Olivia sneered: "But why wait until becoming a god? Couldn't a Saint-level magus, after reaching the Saint realm, spend a little effort on close combat? For Desri, spending a few hundred years wouldn't be a big deal, would it?"
"Making a Saint-level magus into a Saint-level warrior? Do you think it's as simple as you imagine?" Fain frowned and said.
"Enough," Linley spoke up. "Let's not argue. Everyone has their own thoughts."
A hint of joy suddenly appeared on Linley's face: "Alright, that monster has been dragged up."
"Dragged up?" Everyone was pleasantly surprised and immediately looked down.
Below, the desert began to churn, then bulged, and finally, with a "boom," sand flew everywhere. The first to fly out was Desri, covered in blood and somewhat pale. Seeing Linley and the others, he managed a smile: "That was really close."
"Boss, we're here." Bebe's voice rang out.
Then Bebe emerged from the desert as well. At the same time, Bebe's claws were gripping a huge root several meters thick. This root, several meters thick, dragged the monster below out, and a colossal creature appeared before everyone.
It was as tall as a ten-story building, its entire body entwined with thick, earth-yellow roots, its eyes the size of a house.
The roots wrapped around this monster's body were all less than a hundred meters long, clearly all severed. Bebe had dragged this monster up, and below were the Three-Headed Six-Eyed Golden Lion and the Black Armored Giant Scorpion.
"This guy tried to escape? Really..." Bebe's small claws gripped the root, easily swinging this massive creature around in midair like a giant windmill. "Boss, I thought it was tough. But it turns out to be a pushover. Boss, how do you want to deal with this monster? Just say the word."
The Black Armored Giant Scorpion also flew to the side: "This guy really isn't much. It only has those two or three tricks. Once we got close to its main body, it was finished."