Blood gushed out of Aiden's thigh like a tap; the barbed branch had pierced through his thigh and went back, scraping a brutal path through his flesh. Pain thrashed through his brain as if someone had stabbed a thousand pins into his nerve system. It was so fierce that he couldn't even think straight for a moment and that moment of dizziness was enough time for the bloody thorny branch to come back for his head.

"Void Shield." Aiden cast the skill and limped away from the attacking tree. To his surprise, it was the first tree he had subdued with the Mana Fire.

Why was it awake now?

Scared, he scanned the latter two trees he had subdued with Mana Fire and thank god; they remained in their statue stage.

He scanned the surrounding, and the two trees he had just fed the Mana Fire were sleeping like a statue, and only the first one had woke up and it had gone crazy attacking everything in its range.

He hopped out of the range of the crazy tree and sat on the ground, leaving enough distance between him and the duo he had just put to sleep.

"Healing Hand." He pressed his palm and suppressed the blood seeping out. A metallic taste spread inside his mouth while dizziness affected him. The blood loss was affecting his thought process, and he bit his tongue to keep his focus on the task.

"Healing Hand." Continuously he cast the skill on his thigh, healing whatever he could. The wound was very slow to heal, and after dozens of casts, he managed to stop bleeding and fill the inner side of the hole.

"Fuck, it's not healing completely." Aiden scanned his injury. The flesh had regrown, but his tendons were in searing pain. They had barely patched together, and he feared they would tear apart if he put too much pressure on them.

It exposed a vile side of the skills. There was a limitation to the skill, and he had suffered a huge damage this time.

Exhaling heavily, he monitored the clock displayed in his sight, scanning for the most secure location. He spotted it at the boundary at the edge of the two sets of trees boundaries. From that vantage point, he could slip in and out of the trio of dark trees, maximizing his odds of staying alive.

Stolen story; please report.

Biting back a cry, he struggled to his feet and attempted to move about, but the agony made it nearly unbearable. The first step was a frantic leap fueled by dread and a rush of adrenaline, but now he realized he couldn't rely on it.

After a few minutes of limping, he reached the secure spot and slogged down. While drinking cold water, he watched the crazy tree whipping around, scraping a layer of earth with its thorny branch. The jagged points grew blunter as the tree battered the rough ground, yet it persisted like a crazed dog. After a quarter hour of non-stop flailing, its branches went limp, hanging like those of a lifeless body.

After waiting for ten more minutes, Aiden got up and limped toward the crazy tree, his heart racing continuously, his legs ready to run for his life.

The plant stayed motionless as he approached within a stone's throw. He hurried ahead as quickly as his injured leg allowed and summoned Alchemy Fire to reduce the bastard tree to ashes. It had cost him 240 life, and he couldn't regain 120 out of it. It remained gray and his injury couldn't be healed back up.

He slogged down at the spot of the burned tree and gulped a mouthful of cold water. Then he splashed it on his wound and then on his face, hoping the coldness would get him through the pain of his mind and body. The cold water amplified his agony, yet it rinsed out the grime and soot that had seeped into his severe cut. If he had some pure alcohol, he would have washed his wound with it. From next time onward, he vowed to carry a first-aid kit along with him. Despite this world being magical and with cultivation mojo, he couldn't remain too dependent on it.

Wait, he had the Purple Sap Lifeforce. Could he use it to heal himself?

Aiden combed through old man Li's memories and found the answer. Purple Sap Lifeforce was one of the ingredient, but it wasn't the ingredient. It had mild healing properties, and one could paste it on the wound to get the numbing effect.

Inhaling sharply, Aiden smeared the fluid over his injury. A fiery feeling surged through his whole limb, nearly causing him to cry out, but he managed to hold back.

Soon after, the ache in his leg faded away.

Getting up, he moved forward, albeit limping, but he had an undying resolve to get through this. One thing he had learned so far - he couldn't let these trees live on.

***

Mi Tha activated the Dark Demon Subdue skill on the first dark tree and moved past it without needing to defend or attack. This skill allowed her to subdue these trees, which were concealing the Dark Demon Inheritance of the lower level. With this skill, she could walk through the dark trees like walking in her garden.

Suddenly, she sensed danger, and a tree branch attacked her.

"Impossible." She leaped backward from the formation. Why did the tree attack? With her Dark Demon Subdue skill, she was the queen of this formation and yet the trees were attacking.

Fuck! Someone had broken the formation, and she had to rush now and obtain the inheritance before someone else captures it. In every ten years, only one person could obtain this inheritance and she had to be that one person.

At any cost.