Chapter 721

Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan find the astral wind flying heavenly boar’s corpse but hold back from touching it, since the eighth star hall above them is shaking slightly, with explosions and the growls of fierce beasts inside. A pillar of fire bursts from its roof and tears a hole clean through. Inside, a heavily injured flame tiger shoots a fireball at a huge tree, whose thick, tentacle-like branches destroy the fireball and send the tiger flying instead. It crashes after a hundred steps and reverts to human form: Immortal Monkey King Shi Lei, who spits out three teeth, thrilled at the ancient desolate plant before him, the walking meat tree. ^{ch. 721}

Star Lord Wan Xiang, fighting beside him, urges Shi Lei to stop toying with it and use his true earth path strength. Shi Lei agrees, having already killed the astral wind flying heavenly boar with his transformation path strength, but sits to heal first, since fire path dao marks still on his body would weaken his earth path Gu. Wan Xiang, heavily injured by Song Zi Xing and left with a damaged foundation, still has ingenious methods, and swallows his anger to face the tree alone. His five starlight clones are smashed, and the tree’s branches send him flying clean out of the star hall. It then turns on Shi Lei instead. He abandons his healing and rises to fight it himself. ^{ch. 721}

Outside, Wan Xiang smiles coldly: sending himself flying was his own scheme, meant to force Shi Lei into the fight. But real pain follows, and he spits blood, realizing the tree’s strikes etch strength path dao marks into him and have already battered his organs. He chooses to heal rather than return, reasoning Shi Lei will fight harder under pressure regardless. Summoned Gu worms form a star cloud bed that lets him float and heal. Once whole, he eyes the boar’s corpse and the other desolate beast corpses nearby, wanting to loot them, but holds back for Shi Lei’s sake and flies back into the star hall instead. ^{ch. 721}

Below, Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan confirm that the Gu worms Fang Yuan left behind fooled Wan Xiang. They sneak into the boar’s shadow and inspect its wild Gu, most of which were destroyed in the fighting or fled once it died. Fang Yuan then tries to take its soul, this corpse still unlooted because the battle has only just ended. The other corpses nearby held none, likely already claimed by Shi Lei or Wan Xiang. This soul turns out badly damaged, only a small fragment left from whatever struck it during the battle. The result disappoints him. ^{ch. 721}

Fang Yuan sets hundreds of light and dark path Gu worms circling the corpse and nods, and Hei Lou Lan uses dozens of her own to draw the boar into her immortal aperture. Fang Yuan keeps his worms flying in the same pattern, their light and shadow holding a false image of the boar in place. Hei Lou Lan spots one flaw: the image lacks an anus, and fixing it costs the image its penis instead, since the boar’s true body is too vast to copy in full. They settle for keeping the penis over the anus as the more convincing choice. Fang Yuan turns down her suggestion to build the trick into a proper killer move, doubting they will need it again. ^{ch. 721}

Looking up, they see the star hall now ringed with holes, its explosions louder than before. A broken tree crashes out of it, both halves striking the ground hard enough to shake the earth beneath their feet. Fang Yuan and Hei Lou Lan recognize it as the walking meat tree. ^{ch. 721}