Chapter 368: Chapter 85: Peach Demon Elder, Transformed Great Demon

"What sound is that?"

Everyone stopped in their tracks and listened carefully.

This time, Lin Chen heard it clearly.

The wind carried the sound of rats gnawing on food, as well as a sound akin to scratching something hard.

The four paused for a moment, then decided to move forward.

Until...

At a corner, Lin Chen witnessed a shocking scene.

Seven or eight cultivators leaned against the Peach Demon Tree, their bodies swollen and bleeding profusely.

Their eyes were bloodshot, hair disheveled, with their chests exposed...

As if they were possessed, they frantically scratched their skin.

The scratches grew deeper, from swollen to bleeding, and then down to the flesh...

Eventually, even the white bones were visible to the naked eye.

Yet, the cultivators seemed numb to the pain, continuing to scratch desperately.

"Help, save me..."

Among them, a female cultivator with a lovely face, her hair covering half of it.

Her eyes were filled with a pitiful plea, yet her hands kept scratching.

She was the strongest among them, a Third Turn Golden Core, still retaining her consciousness.

A female cultivator with good cultivation and beauty should have been adored in the Cultivation Realm.

Yet now, she disregarded everything and shed most of her clothes, scratching her skin as if no one was around.

Lin Chen even saw her scratch her own chest into a bloody mess.

Blood flowed down her chest, staining her entire body red.

The other cultivators with lower cultivation had long lost their minds, even beginning to bite their fingers.

The sound Lin Chen had heard before, like rats gnawing, was them crunching their finger bones.

"Help, save me... I’ll agree to anything if you save me!"

The lovely Golden Core female cultivator continued to plead bitterly.

Lin Chen frowned slightly but did not act.

Zhou Tieshan, relatively inexperienced with the ways of the world, couldn’t bear it anymore, and took out an Antitoxic Pill to offer.

But just as he was about to give it, Jiang Liqian stopped him.

"She’s beyond saving. Don’t waste the pills..."

Jiang Liqian stepped forward and said to the female cultivator:

"You’re beyond saving. The Peach Blossom Demon Poison has reached your bones... You must have encountered a Peach Demon over a thousand years old, correct?"

"Do you have any last words? Speak them... and I’ll give you a quick end to spare you this torment."

The Golden Core female cultivator was stunned, her last hope for survival gradually fading.

She stammered:

"If you go to Celestial Dao City, and see Fifth Young Master, help me give these to him..."

"As for the other resources, consider them your reward..."

With that, she handed over a jade box.

Jiang Liqian didn’t reach out to take it; instead, she opened it with True Essence.

Inside were six or seven luscious peaches.

It was clear they had contracted the poison while picking the Millennium Demon Peaches.

Jiang Liqian nodded and said, "Alright, I promise you."

The Golden Core female cultivator lost her consciousness, desperately scratching her skin.

Jiang Liqian then summoned her Flying Sword, killing all seven or eight cultivators.

Afterward, she took their storage bags and broke the restrictions.

"Everyone, shall we split the materials in these storage bags?" Jiang Liqian said calmly.

"Alright." Lin Chen nodded slightly, understanding that taking payment for fulfilling a request was reasonable.

As long as they didn’t touch those peaches.

Li Zhenqian and Zhou Tieshan were still deeply shocked by the scene, unable to come to their senses for a long time.

After a while, Lin Chen hurriedly collected the bodies of the cultivators, distributed the resources from their storage bags, and then continued forward.

Among the seven or eight cultivators, the weakest were in the Late Period of Foundation Establishment.

With the four of them splitting evenly, Lin Chen gained tens of thousands of Spirit Stones, a surprising gain.

"Everyone, we should move quickly now."

"In Peach Demon Valley, you can only escape through the ground; flying is forbidden..."

"But I only prepared four bottles of Antitoxic Pills, and we’re not halfway through yet. If we take too long, they might not be enough..."

Jiang Liqian reminded them.

The four nodded and hurried on their way.

After another two-hour walk, covering several dozen miles, they still saw peach blossoms everywhere.

There was no sign of leaving.

At this point, Jiang Liqian frowned slightly, feeling something was off.

"According to the information, Peach Demon Valley should only be three hundred miles in circumference. Even if we walked slowly and took our time... we should have left within one two-hour period."

"But now... are we lost?"

Lin Chen frowned slightly and shook his head:

"No, we’re not lost... someone doesn’t want us to leave."

Lin Chen said, releasing his Divine Sense like a tide in all directions.

Yet even with his full effort, he could only sense within a hundred yards.

Li Zhenqian and Zhou Tieshan were even worse, barely maintaining their Divine Sense within ten yards.

After careful observation, Lin Chen decisively said, "Let’s keep going forward. There are some changes up ahead."

So, they continued walking for several more miles.

Indeed, the further they went, the older the Peach Demon Trees became.

Eventually, they were almost all over five to six hundred years old.

Suddenly, Lin Chen stopped and looked in a particular direction.

Following his gaze, they saw a few dozen steps away, a huge peach tree with seven or eight tempting peaches.

This was a Millennium Peach Demon Tree, as powerful as a Golden Core Cultivator!

"Wait here, I’ll be right back."

Lin Chen called out, his figure flashed to the base of the tree.

Just as he was about to pick the peaches, Jiang Liqian called out a reminder from behind.

"Lin Chen, leave one peach. Don’t pick them all."

Lin Chen was somewhat puzzled, but still followed her advice.

Activating his True Essence, he quietly picked six peaches, leaving a smaller one on the tree.

"Fortunately, nothing unexpected happened."

Lin Chen breathed a sigh of relief, giving a peach each to Zhou Tieshan and Li Zhenqian.

He and Jiang Liqian split the remaining four—two each.

Then Jiang Liqian explained:

"The Peach Demon Tree dislikes conflict, but every peach is like a child to it. If you pick them all, it will secrete the Peach Blossom Poison at any cost."

"Even the Antitoxic Pill might not cure it; the outcome could be the same as those people before..."

"So, leave one. Leave a line when doing things, and the Peach Demon Tree won’t go completely berserk."

Lin Chen nodded in acknowledgment, "I’ve learned something, Junior Sister Jiang!"

After picking the Millennium Demon Peaches, they continued for another quarter of an hour.

But still, there was no sign of an exit.

Instead, there were more peach trees, and their ages grew shorter.

Finally, after rounding a corner...

Li Zhenqian exclaimed in surprise.

"Peaches, so many peaches!"

Just ten steps ahead were hundreds of peach trees.

Each Peach Demon Tree bore nine Demon Peaches, all plump and mouth-watering.

"How many peaches are there? Must be thousands?" Junior Brother Zhou Tieshan’s voice trembled.

But Lin Chen and Jiang Liqian’s faces changed drastically...

Because a creature resembling both human and tree approached.

It spoke in broken human language, asking:

"Fellow Daoist, do I look like a human?"