Aunt Wan Hua was terrified, but the opponent appeared too suddenly, and the two were too close for her to react in time.

Just at the critical moment, however, a burst of wild laughter reached her ears.

Following that, a streak of Blood Light flew out from behind her and, with a "bang," blocked the attack of the blue-skinned woman, then countered, forcing her back.

Aunt Wan Hua turned her head in shock, only to see an old man wrapped in Blood Mist standing behind her, who had transformed into the Blood Slave form of Elder San Jue.

At this moment, Elder San Jue's gaze seemed lost, his appearance and aura had greatly changed, and the other Tree-man Puppets naturally could not distinguish him.

Beside Elder San Jue, a red-clothed woman and a Blood-colored Skull appeared. It was Hong Ling and the Blood Shadow.

"Do not panic, everyone. We are here to aid you by the command of the Divine Envoy!" said Hong Ling. As she spoke, a group of Blood Slaves emerged behind her and charged towards the Tree-man Puppets, while Elder San Jue did not move.

Yuan Ming knew that Old Man Hei Zhu and the other two were not strong enough to fight alone, so he naturally wouldn't let them struggle by themselves. However, given Lei He's sensitive identity, Yuan Ming still concealed him for safety and didn't immediately use Elder San Jue, his trump card, to prevent any unforeseen incidents.

To maintain the battlefront, it was already enough for Hong Ling and the Blood Shadow to take action.

With the assistance of the Blood Slaves, Old Man Hei Zhu and the others grew more confident. The situation which had been desperate slowly became easy to handle.

Meanwhile, Hua Zhi certainly wasn't idle, moving continuously among the Tree-man Puppets.

However, her mind wasn't entirely on the fight.

She kept an eye on the overall situation. Whenever she found a Tree-man Puppet grievously wounded by Old Man Hei Zhu and the others, she would immediately act, ensnaring the Tree-man Puppet with vines and sending it into the Shura Blood Devouring Map.

As the master of the Shura Blood Devouring Map, though having handed over the Spiritual Treasure itself to Hua Zhi, Yuan Ming was still able to control the Shura Blood Devouring Map effortlessly, taking the Tree-man Puppets that Hua Zhi sent in and feeding them to the black tree inside the Stealing Heaven Tripod, making it grow faster.

With Hua Zhi's current strength, plus the help of the Shura Blood Devouring Map, ordinary Core Formation Stage Puppets were no match for her at all. If they encountered tough Nascent Soul Stage Puppets, Yuan Ming would also lend a hand.

Working together, they acted with incredible efficiency. In just a short while, they had already fed four or five Nascent Soul Stage Puppets and more than ten Core Formation Stage Puppets to the black Undying Tree without anyone noticing.

The black Undying Tree kept growing taller, and the Ju Mang Spirit Technique was also gradually approaching the fourth level.

A smile appeared on Yuan Ming's lips. This underground cave was a dangerous place for others, but for him, it was a rare treasure trove.

He was not fully focused on collecting the Tree-man Puppets, though. His Divine Sense was watching everything within the cave.

At this moment, all the puppets of the Undead Tree Demon had left the black cocoon, but not all had joined the battle. Many Tree-man Puppets still guarded near the giant tree.

Because of the Demon Mirror's anomaly, the Undead Tree Demon was no longer focused on refining the Level 5 Golden Crow. The black cocoon wrapping the Golden Crow shook again, and the Flames that were sprouting from the gaps grew more vigorous, as if sensing the change outside and trying to take this chance to escape.

However, beside the black cocoon, a Late-stage Nascent Soul Tree-man Puppet stood guard, vigilantly scanning the area without any laxity.

Just as it was fully focused on surveilling the surroundings, the base of the cocoon suddenly split from left to right, breaking nearly in half.

This sudden development caused the Late-stage Nascent Soul Tree-man Puppet to pause in shock, but it immediately regained composure and angrily struck out, raising and clenching its right hand.

The air within a hundred meters exploded suddenly, filled with burst-air currents everywhere.

A figure became visible, and it was Wulu.

The powerful impact struck Wulu instantly, sending him flying backward, crashing into a nearby stone wall, embedding him within it.

Wulu spat out a mouthful of blood, feeling as if all his bones were shattered, but more than the pain, what surged in his heart first was frustration.

The task given to him by the Nether Moon God was to sneak in with the Heavenly Escape Stone Talisman and release the Level 5 Golden Crow, which could reverse the tide of the battle.

Wulu cursed his own weakness for, although he successfully sneaked in and made the first move, it ultimately fell short by a crucial step.

The Heavenly Escape Stone Talisman only let his form completely disappear from sight but couldn't actually make his body vanish. When attacked, he would still become visible.

The Nascent Soul Puppet, seeing that Wulu was still alive after taking its strike, flashed a hint of surprise in its eyes and immediately lunged towards Wulu, firing dozens of white qi blades at him.

Numerous other Tree-man Puppets also pounced towards him.

Seeing this, Wulu endured the pain, gritted his teeth, preparing to activate the talisman again, when suddenly he noticed that the Late-stage Nascent Soul Tree-man Puppet had become rigid, standing still, motionless, and those white qi blades also dissipated.

The other pouncing Tree-men were the same.

"Quickly rescue the Golden Crow!" The voice of the Nether Moon God resounded in Wulu's ears.

Wulu's spirits lifted. Ignoring all his injuries, he used Flying Escape to appear in front of the cocoon entrapping the Golden Crow, took out a black dagger, and slashed again at the root of the torn cocoon.

The black cocoon was finally completely cut through. An extremely indignant cry from the Golden Crow rang out, causing everyone's body to stiffen, even the Green-clothed man and Qi Ye, who were locked in a fierce fight, seemed to pause for an instant.

The blinding sunlight, accompanied by piercing, heartburning Essence Fire, engulfed the black cocoon, turning it to ashes and then spreading to every corner of the cave.

Within the raging flames, a huge Golden Crow spread its wings and flew out, appearing like the rising sun, causing everyone to involuntarily squint their eyes—it was indeed Jin Chao.

Yuan Ming was about to communicate with Jin Chao to clarify the pros and cons and draw it to his side, but Jin Chao spread its wings and shot forth, instantaneously appearing beside the Late-stage Nascent Soul Tree Puppet, its burning claws striking down.

The Late-stage Nascent Soul Tree Puppet, trapped in an illusion, had its head explode and fell on the spot.

"Was it you who saved me? I'll remember this favor," said Jin Chao to Wulu, not waiting for a response before it flapped its wings and transformed into a golden illusion, disappearing.

Wulu's complexion was pale at the moment. He didn't bother with Jin Chao's gratitude, took out two pieces of healing pills to swallow, and was about to activate the Stone Talisman for concealment again when he suddenly saw the corpse of the Late-stage Nascent Soul Tree Puppet not far away.

His eyes moved, and he immediately flew toward it, a stream of Blood Light emitting from his palm, wrapping around the corpse.

With a flash of Blood Light, the corpse vanished into thin air, and Wulu's figure also disappeared.

Jin Chao's figure flickered and landed in front of a black cocoon in the middle layer of the giant tree, and with a swipe of its claw,

The black cocoon shattered upon contact, and the person wrapped within fell out—it was Golden Cloud Fairy.

At this moment, Golden Cloud Fairy's eyes were tightly closed. Even having been saved by Jin Chao, she was still in a state of unconsciousness, and her aura fluctuated erratically, as if she was at a critical juncture.

Seeing this, Jin Chao's eyes immediately showed concern. It then spat out fierce flames, forming a ring of fire around Golden Cloud Fairy, enveloping her in a protective shield.

Meanwhile, inside the Stealing Heaven Tripod, Yuan Ming raised his eyebrows.

Seeing Jin Chao like this, well aware of the situation inside the stone cavern, there's no need to go out of my way to recruit it.

He flipped his hand and produced a golden long saber, and swung it through the void.

Not far from where Golden Cloud Fairy was located were the black cocoons where Queen Ming Kong and the Water Ape Clan's brawny man were trapped. The space near the roots of the black cocoons fluctuated, and two streaks of golden saber light appeared out of nowhere, severing the black cocoon at its base.

Queen Ming Kong and the Water Ape Clan's brawny man had been waiting for this moment and turned into two tunneling lights shooting out.

The momentum of this action was completely covered by Jin Chao's presence and was not noticed by other people in the cave, nor by the Undead Tree Puppets. To outsiders, it seemed as if Jin Chao had casually saved the two.

But Jin Chao noticed that someone had made a move in secret and was shocked.

Its Divine Sense enveloped the surroundings, yet it failed to detect where the recent golden saber light had come from. The saber light was not very powerful, but it was this untraceable method that surprised it.

However, given the current urgent situation, Jin Chao did not delve deeper into it and simply spread its two fiery wings, grabbing the protective shield outside Golden Cloud Fairy with its claws, and flew out from beside the tree, entering the battlefield where the Green-clothed man and Qi Ye were engaged in combat.

The Green-clothed man looked over, and without a word, after a brief exchange of glances, they attacked Qi Ye at the same moment in the next instant.

Jin Chao was the first to act, spewing out a magnificent and colossal column of fire. The orange-yellow flames danced like snakes and dragons, carrying an extremely terrifying force.

At the same time, the Green-clothed man clapped his hands in front of his chest, and in an instant, endless green winds appeared out of nowhere, also forming into a massive tornado, merging with the fire column.

As the wind impeded the fire, and the fire drew strength from the wind, the two continuously combined, swelling to many times their size in an instant, even engulfing some nearby Tree-man Puppets and instantly reducing them to white ash.

Bathed in the light of the fire, Qi Ye's figure seemed as small as an insect. Despite his rapid speed, he could not escape the fierce onslaught of the firestorm.

At the critical moment, Qi Ye suddenly formed a hand seal, and multitudes of black lights surged from his sleeves, enveloping him into a black sphere before the column of fire could reach him.

The next moment, as the firestorm bore down, the spherical black light rapidly dissolved away, yet even more black light surged from within, mending the sphere's surface.

This tactic, however, could not withstand the tremendous power produced by the merger of wind and fire, and the black light sphere surrounding Qi Ye was pushed backward by the fire column, ravaging and absorbing countless Tree-man Puppets along the way before it could just barely stop close to the Undead Tree Demon.

The black light dissipated, and Qi Ye reappeared in mid-air, but at this moment, his momentum had also declined, evidently due to overexertion from fending off the previous strike.

As Jin Chao and the Green-clothed man joined forces, Queen Ming Kong and the Water Ape Clan's brawny man, who had escaped their confinement, flew out and joined the battle.

After rescuing them, Yuan Ming had immediately ordered them to fight and retreat, heading towards the position where Old Man Hei Zhu and others were, while also cautioning them not to get close to Jin Chao's battlefield.

Queen Ming Kong and the brawny man took the order and acted on it, but being close to the Undead Tree Demon, the area was swarming with Tree-man Puppets, escalating the difficulty of their escape.

Whether by accident or design, the combined strike of Jin Chao and the Green-clothed man, coupled with Qi Ye's resistance, had not resulted in severe injuries on them. However, the tremendous power dissipating from their clash cleared the nearby Tree-man Puppets.

Queen Ming Kong and the Water Ape Clan's brawny man were delighted at this sight and took the opportunity to bypass Qi Ye, traveling through the cleared area towards Old Man Hei Zhu and his companions. The unaffected Tree-man Puppets attempted to stop them, but Yuan Ming interfered from the shadows, using Illusion Techniques to delay them.

Eventually, Queen Ming Kong and the brawny man managed to meet up with Old Man Hei Zhu and the others before being surrounded by other Tree-man Puppets.

Meanwhile, members of the Tide-rider Alliance attempted to seize the opportunity to flee, but Wan Tianren and others entangling them had not been affected by the battling triad's magic. Seeing the Tide-rider Alliance trying to escape, Wan Tianren waved his Palm Leaf Fan, instantly summoning a gale towards them, while another Late-stage Nascent Soul Cultivator wielded his hands, sending out hundreds of bolts of thunder, effectively halting their escape.

"Big brother, these Tree Puppets are too numerous. If we keep delaying, we might suffer severe injuries. Let's use our trump card," Lan Xiao communicated.

"Wait a bit longer," replied Yuan Wuji, exhaling a dense Blood Cloud to block the incoming thunder and shook his head.

With the addition of Jin Chao, a Returning Void entity, everyone apart from the Tide-rider Alliance felt invigorated, momentarily gaining supremacy over the Tree Puppet army and seemingly gaining the upper hand.

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