Long Chen noticed that this strange willow had eighteen roots growing out of it, connecting it to the World Trees like chains. It was absorbing the energy of the eighteen World Trees.

The thing that shocked him the most was that while the willow’s branches swayed gently in the wind, making it seem weak, the willow still made him feel an immense sense of danger.

He stealthily approached one of the World Trees from a safe angle. Making sure to stay out of view of the willow, he began to climb up a World Tree like a lizard.

His aura was completely hidden. As he climbed higher and higher, he eventually broke past the clouds. From here, it was even possible to see that distant battlefield.

He stealthily plucked one of the World Tree’s seeds and tossed it into the primal chaos space. His heart was thudding loudly in his ears.

The seed landed in the primal chaos bead’s soil. But there was no change.

“Is this seed out of energy too?” Long Chen couldn’t help being disappointed.

Usually, seeds would immediately start to germinate as soon as they were tossed into the primal chaos space. But even after a minute had passed, there wasn’t the slightest movement.

Crack.

Just as he gave up hope, a light sound came from the seed. It slowly split apart.

Roots dug their way into the ground like small tentacles. The seed split in two, revealing a small shoot.

“Haha-” Long Chen laughed delightedly. But just as he laughed, iciness washed over him. A green branch on top of the World Tree suddenly shot toward him.

It was the branch of a willow with the thickness of a chopstick. Green leaves covered it, flowing with divine light. Long Chen smelled the scent of death coming for it.

He directly summoned the divine ring, and five stars appeared in his eyes. He slashed his sword at the branch.

BOOM! Shockingly, his powerful attack was unable to sever that tiny branch.

The world rock, and the World Tree’s buds and seeds began to fall. Long Chen waved his hand, collecting those seeds.

Countless willow branches came out of the World Tree. It was like the withered World Tree had given birth to new life. But those willow branches did not belong to the World Tree.

In just a moment, the World Tree was covered in willow branches. They shot toward Long Chen.

“Split the Heavens 4!” Long Chen slashed his sword, unleashing a huge sword-image. But shockingly, these willow branches were too strong, and only a small portion of them broke. The majority were completely unharmed.

These willow branches looked weak, but they were extremely tough. When his attack landed, those seemingly delicate leaves would lit up and repel a large portion of his power. It was like his slash landed on cotton and couldn’t cause any significant damage.

Suddenly, the willow leaves lit up. A murderous aura rose as a mass of leaves shot at Long Chen. The willow leaves looked weak and light, but they possessed a terrifying destructive power as they tore through space.

The willow leaves were like a sea that completely filled the world. Millions of sharp leaf blades were piercing toward him.

Long Chen was appalled. He hastily summoned the Green Dragon Battle Armor and slashed his sword down again.

BOOM!

An opening appeared in the sea of leaves, but Long Chen was only able to break the ones in front of him. The leaves surrounding him had already lacerated his body. They were so sharp that not even his dragon scales could block them. In some places, he was cut to the bone.

Long Chen charged through the opening he had created. Having disturbed that strange willow below him, he had fallen into desperate straits. It was truly a case of great joy being followed by a terrible tragedy.

Piercing his way out of the sea of leaves, he sucked in a cold gasp when he saw what was outside. Millions of willow branches had formed layers of nets around this region, completely trapping him.

“Raging Flames Devour the Heavens!”

Golden flames suddenly erupted from Long Chen, enveloping the willow branches, instantly igniting them. This world became a sea of golden flames.

The leaves were incinerated, but the branches were protected and blocked the Heaven Incinerating Flame.

BOOM!

Although they managed to resist the Heaven Incinerating Flame, their defensive power sharply dropped. Long Chen slashed open a large opening for himself.

Long Chen joyfully flew out. At the same time, he tossed out a flame sphere behind him. Without looking at the results, he fled.

The flame sphere exploded, enveloping this region of the Dark Forest.

Long Chen fled. He had instantly disturbed countless slumbering tree demons. He couldn’t bother sneaking around any longer, and he directly summoned Huo Long, charging his way through.

Those tree demons dodged his path, but Long Chen continuously tossed out flame spheres, spreading the flames.

The Dark Forest was a complete mess. The tree demons were panicked, and some were running around, igniting other tree demons.

Long Chen simply rushed away without looking back. That terrifying willow wasn’t chasing him at least.

That willow was too strange. He had never seen such a terrifying existence. Without the Heaven Incinerating Flame, he might have died. Thinking of that, he felt a burst of lingering fear. It seemed he had underestimated the Dark Forest.

Long Chen fled away. From the air, it looked like a flame dragon was spreading a sea of flames within a forest.

He quickly reached the end of the Dark Forest. After putting away Huo Long, lightning wings appeared on his back, and he shot away.

He had only just escaped when several terrifying auras rose within the depths of the Dark Forest. He had clearly disturbed the Dark Forest’s powerful existences, but he had already escaped.

As for the flames he had left behind, they incinerated a large mass of trees. Those powerful experts had to personally extinguish those flames, or they would spread until the entire Dark Forest was gone.

Long Chen continued fleeing for several hours. When he felt like he was far enough, he finally took a break.

“Those willow leaves are strange.” Long Chen’s injuries were currently bleeding a mix of blood and some black liquid. It wasn’t poison. It seemed more similar to a curse that was constantly worsening his injury, making it so he couldn’t heal.

He was covered in injuries, and he consumed two healing pills to temporarily suppress them. His 108,000 stars began to circulate to assist in the healing, forcing out that bizarre energy.

As the Nine Star Hegemon Body Art circulated, more and more of that black liquid was expelled. After two hours, the black liquid was gone, and his injuries began to automatically heal.

“What strange energy. If an ordinary person was struck by one willow leaf, they would probably lose their life.” Long Chen smacked his lips.

Ordinary Jade Core experts would be unable to expel this curse energy. This power was even more terrifying than poison.

During the battle, if a person couldn’t heal their injuries and had no time to expel this curse, it would gravely affect their combat power.

The thing that amazed him the most was that he hadn’t even seen the willow’s main body attack. It had only attacked him through the body of the World Tree.

If it had been the main body attacking, its power would have been even more terrifying. As for Long Chen’s own attacks, they were unable to cause any substantial damage to it. But why had it not chased after him? He couldn’t quite figure it out.

He looked inside the primal chaos space where hundreds of World Trees had started budding. But even after all this time, their shoots were only three meters tall. They weren’t even as tall as the original seeds.

They only had two small leaves, and their bodies were somewhat translucent, growing extremely slow. Right now, these soft shoots were too weak for him to split up into more trees.

“This really is too slow.”

Long Chen circulated the primal chaos space, urging on the growth of the World Trees. But he practically couldn’t see any change. Ordinary trees would grow several meters in just a few breaths’ time. But considering the size of the World Trees he had seen, he understood that having these soft shoots grow to such a size would definitely be a slow process.

“How regretful. I should have thrown in some tree demons to turn into life energy.” Whether it was the bodies of Magical Beasts or tree demons, once they were tossed into the black soil, they would transform into life energy that would be absorbed by the plants in the primal chaos space.

However, feeling regret was too late now. He definitely didn’t dare to go back to the Dark Forest. If he encountered that willow again, it’d be troublesome. But what would be even worse was encountering those terrifying existences he had sensed just now.

Other than this, his Heaven Incinerating Flame had been exposed. He would need to come up with some excuse to cover this up, or if he exposed that he was Long San, he would be done for.

After resting and feeling like he had recovered to his peak state, he looked around and went straight toward the Ancient Battlefield.