In Jiang Liu's eyes, a ghostly light flickered, and a crackling sound arose from his body as two black wings woven from lightning unfurled, transforming his entire demeanor in an instant.

"That black shadow just now was a space divine power..." Yuan Ming watched Jiang Liu from a distance, his expression becoming increasingly solemn.

He had just unleashed almost all of his hidden divine skills, yet he still couldn't achieve his goal, not even managing to harm the opponent.

As thoughts swirled in Yuan Ming's mind, he raised his hand and waved, putting away the Shura Blood Devouring Map and the Ghostly Soul White Bone Banner. These divine skills that relied on quantity and range of attack were useless against this guy, and keeping them out would only waste his mana.

Immediately afterward, he suddenly spread his arms, and his body rapidly expanded, in the blink of an eye transforming into an Undying Tree over a dozen meters tall.

"Oh, are you from the Demon Clan?" Jiang Liu was taken aback at the sight, his eyes revealing a trace of amazement.

Yuan Ming didn't respond; all the roots of the Undying Tree plunged into the void and disappeared.

Seeing this, Jiang Liu refrained from asking further questions. With a sudden flap of his wings, his form transformed into a black flash of lightning heading straight for Yuan Ming, the lightning containing spatial fluctuations and moving a few degrees faster than before.

However, at this moment, several black tree roots suddenly emerged from the void in front of him, thrusting toward him.

"Space divine power!" Jiang Liu raised an eyebrow but did not panic; with a flicker of his form, he dodged aside.

Yet, in the void behind him, the same thing happened as several black tree roots emerged, like a dozen sharp swords lunging toward his back.

It was as if Jiang Liu had eyes on his back; once again, his body turned into a flash of black lightning that swept sideways, dodging the rear tree root attack.

"Not even hitting once. I only need one successful strike to use the Shared Life Divine Power." Yuan Ming thought to himself, striving to urge the Undying Tree roots to attack.

In Jiang Liu's eyes, excitement flickered. Ignoring the relentless attacks of the black roots, his body swirled in electric light, diving rapidly straight toward Yuan Ming.

However, the closer he got to Yuan Ming, the more and faster the roots emerged from the void. Several times Jiang Liu almost got hit by the roots and thus dared not get too close.

Yuan Ming was equally frustrated, having exerted all his efforts in propelling the void-piercing capability of the Undying Tree roots. While visibly troublesome for Jiang Liu, the latter consistently managed to evade at the last moment; up to now, Yuan Ming hadn't hit him once.

For a while, neither could gain the upper hand over the other, causing a stalemate in the confrontation.

"Master, your mana is running low. This will go on forever if you let it—let me handle it!" Hua Zhi's voice echoed in Yuan Ming's Sea of Consciousness.

"With your attack speed, I'm afraid you won't even touch Jiang Liu's shadow." Yuan Ming replied through voice transmission.

"I have a plan..." Hua Zhi quickly explained.

Hearing this, Yuan Ming's eyes revealed a trace of surprise, then a Black Mist appeared on the body of the Undying Tree, blocking off the investigation by Divine Sense.

Jiang Liu, seeing this scene, turned stern once again, after evading another thrust from the Undying Tree roots, his body made a sharp turn, distancing himself slightly from the tree body, and raised his hand, striking fiercely towards the tree.

A black lightning shot straight from his palm aimed at the trunk of the Undying Tree.

As it was about to hit, Houtu Peak reappeared, its body emanating a thick Yellow Cloud that blocked the black lightning's attack.

"Hmph, that Magic Treasure again!" Jiang Liu's gaze darkened as he considered how to dismantle Houtu Peak.

Right at that moment, the void behind him fluctuated again, and several black tree roots emerged to strike his body.

These roots were much thicker than before, yet not particularly fast.

Jiang Liu's mana was mostly depleted, and without using an Escape Technique, he dodged to the side.

However, a human figure suddenly emerged atop these black roots—none other than Hua Zhi.

With a reach of her hand, she transformed it into countless green wooden pikes shooting swiftly at Jiang Liu.

Jiang Liu casually waved his hand, sweeping a robust bolt of lightning through, shattering all the wooden pikes into powder, turning into a cloud of black dust drifting in the air.

Jiang Liu, perplexed over dealing with Yuan Ming, lit up at the sight of Hua Zhi appearing, his body flashing with Lei Guang before disappearing.

When he reappeared, he was behind Hua Zhi, with his Golden Gourd Small Hammer glowing brightly as it swung down towards her.

Before the hammer could land on her, Hua Zhi felt the void in front of her vibrating, with an invisible pressure locking her in place, preventing her escape.

In haste, she crossed her arms in front of her, vines intertwining to form a thick green shield.

Quicker still were Yuan Ming's Undying Tree roots, which swiftly formed into a spherical vine cage encasing her.

The Golden Gourd Small Hammer slammed onto the vine cage, instantly detonating a blaze of Golden Light.

The vine cage and green shield lasted only a few moments before they crumbled in the Golden Light, dissipating into countless fragments.

The Golden Gourd Small Hammer continued relentlessly, smashing towards Hua Zhi.

Just as it was about to hit the shield formed by Hua Zhi's arm, Jiang Liu's body suddenly stiffened, and a large amount of pink mist emanated from him, with dazzling red flowers sprouting from all over his body.

He suddenly felt his breath choke, as if his entire body was being bitten by countless insects and ants, enduring unbearable pain.

Hua Zhi was overjoyed to see that the spores planted by the spore avatar had finally succeeded in parasitizing. Her hand suddenly thrust forward, transforming into a long wooden fork, piercing towards Jiang Liu's eyes.

Yuan Ming also seized this opportunity, as strands of Undying Tree Roots reached out from the Void, thrusting straight towards Jiang Liu.

The latter saw the crisis approaching and the power of thunder and lightning within his body suddenly exploded.

He raised his head to the sky, letting out a thunderous roar, as black electric arcs erupted from his eyes, ears, mouth, and nose, countless arcs swirling around his body.

These bolts were astoundingly violent, instantly pulverizing all the spore plants parasitizing him.

The wooden fork from Hua Zhi and the Undying Tree Roots were also instantly torn to shreds.

Seeing the expanding electric arcs around him, Yuan Ming immediately abandoned the attack, pulled back the vines, and brought Hua Zhi away.

The next moment, a colossal lightning bolt spanning a hundred yards erupted, black electric arcs spreading out, engulfing and pulverizing all the approaching vines.

Fortunately, Yuan Ming had retracted his power just in time, saving Hua Zhi from suffering great loss.

Once the electric arcs subsided, Jiang Liu's figure emerged once more.

His face was now slightly pale, neck stiff, shoulders hunched, breathing heavily with restraint.

Clearly, the previous strike was not easy for him either, consuming much of his strength.

Just when he looked grim, planning to continue the attack, he suddenly seemed to sense something unusual, abruptly turning his head and gazing into the distance.

At the junction of the Heavenly Sea, a seemingly boundless black line suddenly appeared, rapidly spreading towards him. Nоtе: Chесk М_VLЕМРY_R fоr аny соrrесtiоns.

"This is... not good!" Jiang Liu's expression changed abruptly, quickly retracting his magic, not caring about battling Yuan Ming, turning to flee.

Yuan Ming, seeing Jiang Liu so fearful, dared not linger either, hurriedly making a spell, flying away.

However, his escape speed was far inferior to Jiang Liu's, and in less than 15 minutes, Jiang Liu's silhouette vanished ahead.

At the same time, the "black line" behind him also caught up, revealing its true form to Yuan Ming.

What appeared to be a "black line" was actually a boundless black mist, thick and sticky, resembling a high wall dividing heaven and earth, pressing towards Yuan Ming with irresistible force.

The spreading speed of the black mist was extremely fast, even as Yuan Ming desperately flew escaped, the distance between him and the mist grew closer and eventually was completely overtaken.

And just as his body was touched by the black mist, it easily penetrated his Protective Light Ring, causing Yuan Ming to feel his limbs and torso uncontrollably swell, nature's spiritual energy uncontrollably poured into him, growing at a speed ten times that of usual cultivation.

As the overwhelmingly abundant spiritual energy surged in, Yuan Ming's mana and Qi Blood Power rapidly rose as though sprouting mushrooms after a rain, but simultaneously, each part of his body emitted a violent ripping sensation, as if he would be torn apart in the next moment.

Hua Zhi, next to Yuan Ming, exhibited the same symptoms, not only did her body enlarge rapidly, her demonic power grew swiftly, accompanied by considerable pain.

"This black mist can make the body swell, could it be the substance Mao Yi mentioned in the Abyss that can enlarge the demon beast's body?" A thought flashed through his mind.

In the agony of intense pain, Yuan Ming's consciousness began to blur, his mana subsequently lost control, making him incapable of maintaining his flying escape, crashing straight into the sea.

Nevertheless, even in the sea, the black mist persisted, Yuan Ming was unable to escape.

Yet, the icy cold seawater barely revived a bit of his clarity, taking advantage of this, Yuan Ming gathered a bit of strength, transforming his body into the Undying Tree form.

The Undying Tree form was more resilient and possessed strong regenerative abilities, perhaps capable of resisting the mysterious black energy.

However, contrary to his wishes, the resilient body of the Undying Tree could not prevent the invasion of the black mist, under its influence, Yuan Ming transformed into the Undying Tree grew persistently taller at a rate far exceeding his human form.

Whether it was due to turning flesh into wood, Yuan Ming's sense of pain dropped significantly, his mind also swiftly recovered.

At the same time, Hua Zhi too plunged into the seawater, but her condition seemed far more serious than Yuan Ming's, she now fell completely unconscious, losing all senses.

Yuan Ming saw this and hurriedly stored her into the Spiritual Beast Bag, attempting to shield her from the influence of the black mist.

But when he opened the Spiritual Beast Bag, he discovered the black mist had infiltrated the bag's space, Lei Yu, who had been staying inside the bag, also exhibited signs of gigantism, though it seemed slower than facing the black mist directly as Hua Zhi did.

Yuan Ming instantly realized that spatial isolation could slow down the symptoms of black mist corrosion, but with a low-level spatial artifact like the Spiritual Beast Bag, the effect was minimal, perhaps only high-level treasures could completely shield from the influence.