Open up and break into another world

This was a secluded and peaceful place, like a paradise.

Within a radius of hundreds of miles, there were no sandstorms, no mists, and nothing else; only a… gigantic willow tree.

Xu Ming had never seen such a huge willow tree before!

This willow tree was over "a hundred miles" tall! Its willow branches filled the sky, numbering in the hundreds of millions; each willow branch was hundreds of miles long—although it clearly looked like a willow tree, it was so massive that it was hard to believe!

Whoosh!

Xu Ming and Yin Ran casually flicked their hands, swatting away the attacking willow branches.

However, Xu Ming's expression was somewhat solemn: "A single willow branch is already difficult for a Fourth-Step Dao Lord to deal with; then, how strong would this willow tree be, with its hundreds of millions of willow branches?"

Xu Ming finally understood why no one who entered the core area of this Bewildering Flower Sea had ever been able to leave alive.

It should be known that even an Invincible Half-Step Dao Lord only possessed the strength of a Second-Step Dao Lord. And this towering willow tree, because it was native to the God Kingdom, was not restricted by the God Kingdom's rules; any random willow branch had the strength of a Fourth-Step Dao Lord!—An Invincible Half-Step Dao Lord entering here would naturally face certain death.

"Speak, how do you want me to help you?" Xu Ming said, looking at the giant willow tree.

Yin Ran said, "Plant life, although mostly large in size, rarely grows to be so huge! As soon as I saw this willow tree, I suspected that it must have absorbed some kind of heavenly treasure to have grown like this!"

"Mm!" Xu Ming listened.

Plant life generally has lower intelligence, so cultivation is also very difficult. Few plant lifeforms are able to successfully cultivate.

However, the heavens are fair!

Although plant life has difficulty cultivating, their strength far surpasses humans and demonic beasts of the same level—and this is just the normal state of plant life.

And this mutated giant willow tree is undoubtedly even more terrifying.

"After investigating, I discovered that beneath this large willow tree, there is a piece of 'God-Transforming Blood Jade'!" Yin Ran continued, "The God-Transforming Blood Jade has special effects for nourishing the soul and strengthening the physical body! Although most of its energy has already been absorbed by the large willow tree, this God-Transforming Blood Jade still has a significant effect on me!"

Xu Ming understood: "You want to obtain this God-Transforming Blood Jade?"

"That's right!" Yin Ran said, "However, each willow branch of this large willow tree has the strength of a Fourth-Step Dao Lord; with hundreds of millions of willow branches combined, even I cannot possibly snatch the God-Transforming Blood Jade from it! Therefore, I need your help!—You help me hold it back, and I'll go and snatch the God-Transforming Blood Jade!"

Xu Ming thought for a moment: "Alright!"

"Then… let's go!"

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Xu Ming and Yin Ran simultaneously transformed into two streaks of lightning, shooting towards the large willow tree.

Boom!

Flames rose all over Xu Ming's body, and he held a long spear in his hand.

In Yin Ran's hand, a frosty-blue sword appeared. The sword emitted a chilling aura that could freeze souls; Xu Ming felt a tremor in his heart just from looking at it.

"Roar!!" Suddenly, the giant willow tree let out a heaven-shaking roar; the entire willow tree trembled wildly.

The giant willow tree was enraged!

Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish! Swish!…

Hundreds of millions of willow branches, covering the sky and earth, lashed out at Xu Ming and Yin Ran.

"You two insignificant humans, you dare covet my treasure!" the giant willow tree roared angrily.

"Enter the earth!" Yin Ran said, directly burrowing into the ground below—the treasure she wanted was deep underground.

"Okay!" Xu Ming also plunged headfirst into the ground.

Just as the two of them burrowed into the ground, the willow branches followed closely behind, stabbing into the ground.

Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!…

The hard ground was as fragile as tofu, instantly riddled with holes.

After stabbing into the ground, these hundreds of millions of willow branches, like hundreds of millions of steel bars, stirred wildly in the tofu, encircling Xu Ming and Yin Ran.

"You go ahead!" Xu Ming said, turning around to face the hundreds of millions of willow branches.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!…

The hundreds of millions of willow branches stirred the earth frantically, lashing out.

Xu Ming's figure retreated continuously, always maintaining a close distance with Yin Ran.

The hundreds of millions of willow branches stirred, baring their fangs and brandishing their claws as they surrounded him.

"You go down first!"

Xu Ming shouted telepathically, directly taking the initiative to meet the hundreds of millions of willow branches.

Boom!!

Countless willow branches surrounded him, instantly forming a huge willow branch cage around Xu Ming, trapping him inside.

"Be careful!!" Yin Ran shouted, but she didn't dare stop at all, continuing to burrow rapidly towards the depths of the earth. Because more willow branches were already attacking her.

After Xu Ming was trapped in the willow branch cage, dense willow branches immediately attacked from all directions, front, back, left, right, above, and below.

"Hmph!" Xu Ming snorted disdainfully, "Dare to surround me?"

Boom!!

His long spear danced wildly, transforming into a coiling fire dragon that surrounded him.

The attacking willow branches, once they touched the fire dragon, were immediately burned to charcoal and shrank back.

"Hmm? So weak?" Xu Ming was surprised.

He felt that these dense willow branches didn't seem to have the strength of a Fourth-Step Dao Lord at all; they weren't even as strong as a Limit Half-Step Dao Lord!

"How could they be so weak?"

Soon, Xu Ming reacted; it wasn't that the willow branches' strength had weakened—each willow branch was definitely a Fourth-Step Dao Lord, no doubt about it.

But it was… the effect of the "Intelligence Suppression" cheat that had been activated!

Intelligence Suppression: The host gains bonus damage against opponents with low intelligence; the greater the intelligence gap, the higher the bonus damage ratio. This function is passively activated when the host attacks opponents with low intelligence.

Plant life generally has low intelligence. This giant willow tree, although mutated and at the Dao Lord level, was no exception.

Xu Ming had the "Intelligence Suppression" cheat, which gave him bonus damage against low-intelligence opponents like the willow tree.

Before, when only one willow branch attacked, Xu Ming had swatted it away with a single palm, so he hadn't paid much attention; now, with dense willow branches attacking from all around, Xu Ming naturally deeply felt the power of "Intelligence Suppression."

"Hahaha…" Watching the dense willow branches shrink back after being burned, afraid to continue attacking, Xu Ming immediately laughed loudly.

"Kill!!"

Xu Ming's long spear pointed forward, directly blasting a large hole in the willow branch cage and killing his way out.

And just as he killed his way out, Xu Ming saw that Yin Ran had also just been suppressed into a willow branch cage.