With monsters charging at us, there wasn't much we could do. Well, more specifically, there was not much I could do.

When I had certain advantages, I was confident in defeating a one-star Qi Gathering Cultivator. On average, that was not the case. Here, everyone other than me was a Qi Gathering Cultivator, and they likely had more fighting experience.

So, without mincing my words and being honest with myself, I was the least valuable person on this team. Song Song coming here to stay next to me might just send a horrible message to everyone else when the monsters come around. She was the team leader, favoring and rewarding the weak never worked for any leader in history... ever.

"I will be okay," I reassured her. "You should be out there dealing with the enemy. Let others see you as the competent leader you have shown yourself in this journey so far."

"I'm thinking about it," she stated nonchalantly as if she were discussing the weather.

Thinking about it? Thinking about what?

"As you used to say, sometimes there is no time to think. Sometimes it's the time for action," I said as the sounds of crashing trees and something crawling on the ground grew louder. Every cultivator who had super hearing by normal standards heard something slapping on the muddy grounds.

Did the possible enemy have some tentacle-like limbs that it used to move?

"You seem to forget that most people on this team are replaceable," she said. "Even your so-called cousins. I can tell that they're only here because of their clan or some benefit of their own. Perhaps letting them all perish would be the smart thing to do; it would also take care of the possible spy in one fell swoop."

I really hoped no one else heard that and that they were more distracted by the sounds of trees crashing down. No one would be willing to follow someone who didn't value their lives at all.

Just as I was about to reason with her, Song Song continued speaking, "Also, who is to say that the traitor or traitors won't reveal themselves? They could use this chance to stab me in the back."

Perhaps telling her about the spy in the group might not have been smart. It seemed like it affected her more than I had anticipated. What would be even more ridiculous was if there really was no spy on her team. It could be that her master had dismissed any and all possible spies.

But right now, that was not important. What was important was that Song Song should be already performing!

However, explaining such things to Song Song in a logical manner had a low chance of working on her. I knew Song Song well enough to know that she would never do what others might consider right and would only base her actions on her own worldview.

"Don't worry..." I put up the best reassuring smile I could muster and said. "I will handle your back."

Song Song's gaze was directed at me, and her intense blue eyes felt like they were staring straight through me.

If she were a gamer in my last world, she would be the kind of person who killed all the NPCs in a stealth mission. So, technically, no one saw her.

She was pulling the same analogy here. She trusted me, so if the rest of her team died, she would be sure there were no traitors. Because no one would be left alive.

"I never asked, but why did you join my team again? We both know you would not put yourself in needless danger," Song Song inquired out of nowhere.

"Is this the best time to ask such questions?" I pointed to where the sound was coming from and how some of the trees in the distance fell.

"Do I seem stressed for time to you? I'm in no rush. This is the perfect time to ask such questions," she stated.

What was she playing at here?

I put my sandwich down and stood up, staring into the distance and narrowing my eyes at the approaching figures. But it was hard to determine what it was, even though my eyesight was supposed to be quite good as a cultivator.

"Because..." I began saying.

My mind worked faster than ever before to come up with the correct response. Because of how Song Song spoke, it seemed like whatever she sensed was strong enough to kill the disciples if she did not intervene.

My heart began beating faster, traces of panic formed, and my thoughts jumbled for a few seconds. Before I tightened my fists, the pain of my nails digging into my palm woke me up.

Song Song looked at me with an expectant gaze, the perfect picture of calmness.

"I joined you because I thought it would be safer than just staying in the Sect," I told the truth while hiding certain things that would make me sound crazier than the psycho girl next to me.

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"Well…" this time, it was her turn to be surprised as she stared at me wide-eyed. "Huh, you're actually telling the truth. This is even more unbelievable than the bullshit the sickly bitch was spewing."

But just as she seemed to be thinking of something, an explosion rocked the ground, and out of the broken trees burst more trees?

These new trees had faces carved in them, with red sap oozing out of their eyes that looked quite creepy. Their roots swished about like whips cracking in the air around them. Also, most of their trunks had differently colored rocks sprouting out of them, increasing their defenses.

There was no declaration of war or cliché villainous speeches. The battle began almost immediately, and everything turned into chaos. People used different techniques, and the trees swung their roots, hitting a couple of disciples.

I turned toward Song Song, about to tell her something, but she was no longer next to me and seemed to have listened to my advice as one of the trees suddenly had a hole carved in its body.

With all the chaos around, I backed off before any stray attack could hit me and observed the battle from a distance. Simultaneously, I used my Qi, attempting to sense if these beings had a leader or anything of the sort. But it was all for nothing, as the Qi these trees possessed melded so well into the forest that I couldn’t even sense them.

Despite the chaotic battle, my gaze was drawn toward the tree monsters.

Cultivators categorized other species of animals and those that could cultivate as monstrous beasts. But not every one of them was necessarily a ‘beast’. A plant-type monstrous beast was rare in the wild, and generally, there was little information on them.

Trees over a thousand years old or around that age could grow to become something like this. Time was only a rough estimate, as reports suggested that if a tree lived in a rich Qi environment, it could begin cultivating even faster.

These kinds of monstrous beasts were usually relatively peaceful. Still, there were times when they fed on human blood and saw humans as nutrients.

During my reading, I often contemplated how a plant with self-awareness would view a human. No doubt we might seem like barbarians to them. Or perhaps we were an inferior species who needed so much to survive and could not naturally live that long.

But despite what I had read, my information was limited and often, perhaps even incorrect.

Even I hadn’t known they could hide their presence so well in a forest. I should update that part in my Monstrous Beast encyclopedia.

I observed everything about these creatures: how they moved and attacked, the instinctive tactics they used, how they manipulated their Qi during battle, and everything else in between.

These were things that I planned to write down after the battle, but opening a book and writing things down was quite dangerous at the moment.

I tried to recall if any monstrous beast resembling these trees was something I had written down about in my encyclopedia. Though I considered myself well-versed in monstrous beasts since I had written a whole book about them, certain similarities sometimes made me wary of providing my team with incorrect information.

The battle grew more gruesome as one of the trees smacked its whip-like roots on the arm of one of the inner disciples, causing the arm to twist at a weird angle. Another root swung in the same position in a blur, and the guy’s arm went flying.

The arm flew through the air, and the morning sunlight illuminated the severed appendage. Unlike what one would expect, the arm was not cleanly cut; it looked more like someone had used a dull knife to sever it. The poor guy fell to his knees, holding onto his bleeding stump and screaming to the heavens.

But that turned out to be the wrong decision, as while I couldn’t see it clearly, another swing from the tree’s roots came toward the one-armed guy, and this time the target was his throat. Thankfully, another inner disciple used his sword to cut off the root midway before the attack could land.

Unlike how one would imagine battles like these, there was no glory, only carnage, and blood littering the ground that I could smell all the way from here. When I thought of battles, I usually assumed carefully crafted plans and schemes. This was nothing like that, and any moment now, one of the inner disciples was going to inadvertently kill one of their teammates due to friendly fire. They were throwing attacks wherever there seemed to be some root coming for them without thought of what their attack could hit.

One of the many tree-like monstrous beasts turned toward me and charged at me. I had no idea whether it did so instinctively because I was alone and far away from others or perhaps it picked me as the weakest in the group. But as the creature charged, it didn’t take long until it almost reached me.

Instead of engaging in direct combat with one of the creatures I had just seen sever some guy’s arm with just the swings of its roots, I decided to back off and jumped backward. That was when the tree used its roots and extended them, grabbing onto some other trees. It quickly ripped them off the ground and hurled them at me.

As soon as the trees thrown by the monstrous beast blocked my vision, I dodged to the side. It was a good thing I did because one long, thin root pierced through the tree and the ground where I had previously been.

Interesting. Could it use some rudimentary strategy when fighting? Did it have a semblance of basic intelligence, or did it learn from seeing someone else do something like this?

I would rather stay on the sidelines of this fight, but it wasn’t like I could keep backing off and going too far away from the group. That would just invite more trouble!

I wanted to test a couple of things on both people and monstrous beasts alike, and this was as good a time as any.

Taking a deep breath, my Qi instantly exploded out of my body as I looked at the tree and focused all the malicious intentions in my mind toward the creature.

Yes, this was the killing intent move I had been practicing occasionally. But without being able to control my Qi accurately, it wasn’t quite at the level I wanted.

The monstrous beast froze for a split second, but that wasn’t enough to halt its momentum as it kept charging at me.

Not only did I lack Qi control, but maybe my mindset wasn’t quite there either. It wasn’t like I had enemies I hated so much that it would enhance this technique. The person I most wanted to kill was Ye An, and even then, I was in no rush to do such things.

There was not a lot of malicious intent in me for anyone. Thinking about killing someone was just a waste of time. That shit made it impossible to concentrate on anything other than hatred; I wouldn’t even be able to read a book in peace if I left such emotions running rampant on a daily basis.

I was about to maneuver out of the way of the roots again, dodging another attack, when suddenly, the monstrous tree halted in place. Cracks spread around its body and exploded in a gory mess of wood, red sap that looked like blood, and other chunks of stone fused with flesh.

Behind the beast stood Song Song, her hand extended outward without a drop of blood on her clothes. She stared at me with a frown, and for a second, I almost thought she was angry at me for something. But it seemed more like she was contemplating something.

Song Song turned toward the rest of the battle, then suddenly, a chill crawled up my spine as she began chuckling. Not the happy kind either, but the kind that belonged to a clearly deranged individual.

“This technique… How didn’t I think of something like this before?” Song Song muttered under her breath.

The next instant, my body shook and froze in place as a sense of terror overwhelmed me. Irrational despair filled my body, and a malevolence so evil permeated the surrounding area that it churned my stomach and made me feel like throwing up.

However, despite this, I couldn’t help but stare at Song Song as just her standing there had made all the enemies freeze in place. Sadly, it seemed like she lacked control, and even our allies were affected by this, which was no surprise since she was using this for the first time.

Yes! This was the technique I had envisioned! Song Song had the Qi Control and temperament to pull something like this off! This was the killing intent I had imagined when someone actively used it.

Then, just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse, I could taste the copper in my tongue, and the feeling of maliciousness in the air grew heavier.

One of the disciples finally gave in, hunching over and vomiting his breakfast and dinner. “Bluegghh!”

Dark spots began crawling at the corner of my eye as Song Song’s killing intent spiked once again.

Was I about to pass out?

Shit, I think she might be a bit too compatible with something like this!