Zhao Yunxiao could directly attack the plant root since he could feel exactly where it was, but doing so was unlikely to yield any significant results.

He was not going to simply assume that Hua Xian was an idiot.

Since Hua Xian had dared to allow his roots to come into direct contact with them, it could only mean that even if they tried to attack his roots, the damage done to him would still be minimal.

He either had absolute confidence in the toughness of his roots, or it could be that even damaging the roots would do little harm to him.

So, if they really wanted to take down Hua Xian, they still had to find his true body.

But to do so, they would have to first free themselves from the roots binding them.

Whether that was possible remained to be seen. But even if they managed to free themselves, if Hua Xian had any semblance of intelligence, he would definitely retract his roots to prevent them from following his roots to his main body.

And if they were to lose direct physical contact with the roots, they would once again be like lost lambs, unable to locate their opponent due to their distorted senses.

Things seemed extremely bleak, but Zhao Yunxiao still held onto a glimmer of hope.

Because unlike Nie Hanchang and Lou Yuan, he still had another card up his sleeve!

With a flick of his wrist, a dagger appeared in his hand.

Pierce-!

Zhao Yunxiao stuck the dagger into the thick roots around him, but it barely penetrated the surface before stopping.

As expected, the root was rather tough.

“Cute,” Hua Xian said nonchalantly.

However, Zhao Yunxiao was not discouraged by that.

A fierce light flashed across his eyes, and the ten golden tortoise heads moved.

“Tch! You are just delaying the inevitable!” Hua Xian finally showed a hint of irritation.

The roots immediately retracted from all three of them and slipped back into the ground – an obvious move to avoid confronting the Dark Tortoise Devouring Array.

Zhao Yunxiao quickly tried to grab onto the retreating root, but his distorted senses caused him to grasp at nothing but air.

“I can’t shoot without knowing where you are!” Nie Hanchang shouted upon feeling the roots retreat, instantly understanding that Zhao Yunxiao was starting to make his move.

“Don’t worry, I will take care of it!” Zhao Yunxiao yelled in response. “Lou Yuan!”

“W-What?!” Lou Yuan was startled. “I can’t do anything!”

“Point to his true body!” Zhao Yunxiao shouted.

“True body?! O-Okay!” Lou Yuan immediately spun around and did as he was told. “I am pointing at it now! But are you able to see me? I can’t even see my own hand properly!”

Zhao Yunxiao let out a grin.

As expected, Lou Yuan’s physical senses might be just as distorted as theirs under Hua Xian’s illusion technique, but his mastery of energy sensitivity was on a completely different level, allowing him to overcome the illusion technique and be fully aware of his surroundings.

And that also allowed him to directly locate Hua Xian’s true body – a single fairymist flower among countless others!

The only problem was that he was almost completely inept in combat, so he was unable to do anything with that information.

At the same time, both Zhao Yunxiao and Nie Hanchang were badly affected by the illusion technique, so there was just about no way for Lou Yuan to direct them in Hua Xian’s direction.

But this was where Zhao Yunxiao’s card came into play.

Zhao Yunxiao decisively threw his spatial pouch towards the entrance of the prairie, where a figure stood waiting.

That was Zhao Yunxiao Two, the very same earthen clone that Zhao Yunxiao had sent away earlier when they were still searching for the grimoire plant.

This was initially done as a precaution against Old Niu – to set up a killing array that he could lead Old Niu into when necessary – but it ended up only coming in handy now.

Under the effect of Hua Xian’s illusion technique, Zhao Yunxiao realised that while he could sense nothing from the clone that was in the prairie with him, he had retained the mental link with the earlier clone that had not followed him into the prairie, and could still sense everything in the latter’s surroundings.

Because of that, Zhao Yunxiao immediately controlled this earlier clone to give up on the killing array and hurry over, though he was also careful not to let Zhao Yunxiao Two enter the prairie itself, lest he fell under the same illusion technique.

But just because Zhao Yunxiao Two could not enter the prairie, that did not mean he could not help them out.

By casting his spiritual sense into the prairie, Zhao Yunxiao Two could sense Zhao Yunxiao’s true body. And using Zhao Yunxiao Two as a third party to observe his own body movements, Zhao Yunxiao was able to calculate and adjust his throwing motion on the fly, allowing him to throw the spatial pouch in the right direction and with the right amount of strength.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Zhao Yunxiao Two easily caught the spatial pouch, and the very next moment, a dagger was already flying through the air, heading straight for the bush of fairymist flowers that Lou Yuan was pointing at.

Since Zhao Yunxiao Two could sense Zhao Yunxiao’s true body, he naturally could sense Lou Yuan and where he was pointing to as well.

“What?!” Hua Xian was shocked by the sudden attack.

The earlier retracted roots shot out from the ground, forming a blockade that shielded the bush of flowers.

Boom-!

An explosion occurred upon impact, charring the roots black.

Zhao Yunxiao had refrained from using explosive talismans earlier, worried about accidentally setting the prairie on fire.

But now that his enemy was part of the prairie, why would he hold back?

If it catches fire, so be it!

Unfortunately, the flames from the explosion did not end up carrying over to the nearby bushes this time.

“Oh shit!” Lou Yuan quickly cowered from the blast and hid behind Nie Hanchang.

“Damn you!” Hua Xian’s boyish figure sneered in rage as he glared at Zhao Yunxiao Two, though the latter quickly disappeared behind the dense vegetation in the surrounding terrain, showing absolutely zero intention of facing Hua Xian.

Zhao Yunxiao had no idea about the actual range and activation rules of Hua Xian’s illusion technique, but he was going to do everything necessary to prevent Zhao Yunxiao Two from falling prey to it!

Another three other daggers flew into the prairie, aimed at the same bush of flowers despite coming from a slightly different direction this time.

Until they reached a high enough cultivation level, the true bodies of plant demons would usually have to remain deeply rooted to the ground, unable to move around freely.

This was the weakness of plant demons, and Hua Xian was no exception to the rule.

That was why most plant demons chose to split their presence in two, materialising a separate form that was more mobile in nature.

Of course, even the separate forms should not be completely immune to attacks, which made Zhao Yunxiao more certain that Hua Xian’s boyish figure had to be an illusion instead.

And now that Zhao Yunxiao knew the location of Hua Xian’s true body, he no longer had to worry about losing his mark on it!

“Wishful thinking,” Hua Xian said before extending his thick roots to block the daggers once again.

Boom-! Boom-!

Two more explosions bombarded the thick root, though Hua Xian also made sure to adjust his roots so that the same spot was not struck twice.

The third dagger was slightly slower, only arriving after the explosions were over.

Still, that did not escape the keen eyes of Hua Xian, who easily blocked it with the same root.

Poof-!

This time, there was no thunderous explosion that followed. Instead, it was replaced by a cloud of black smoke that burst out from a small bag attached to the dagger.

“What is this?!” the startled Hua Xian hurriedly retracted his root, only to find out that a layer of black powder had now covered the surface of the root.

This was the pollen of the darkpetal lily – infamous for its ability to numb enemies’ movements when inhaled.

Zhao Yunxiao had chosen to extend the duration of the Dark Tortoise Devouring Array for two reasons.

Firstly, it would serve as an attack option, and this had already proven its worth earlier by stopping Hua Xian from binding all three of them with his roots.

Secondly, its continued activation would suck up the fog in the area, concentrating them in the form of the giant tortoise heads. That removed the risk of this fog being an unknown medium that could potentially cause poison to spread throughout the entire valley.

In other words, the use of poison would no longer be out of the question!

While the pollen of the darkpetal lily would usually only be effective when inhaled, that applied slightly differently when it came to plants.

Roots were the organs from which plants absorbed most nutrients, if not all of them.

When the pollen of the darkpetal lily came into direct contact with Hua Xian’s root, some of it inevitably seeped within, entering his xylem sap that spreads from the roots throughout his entire body.

Roar-!

At this moment, the ten giant tortoise heads charged straight for the bush of fairymist flowers.

Now, it was back to the first reason for extending the duration of the Dark Tortoise Devouring Array – using it directly as an attack option.

Attacking the boyish figure might have been useless, but what about Hua Xian’s true body?

Zhao Yunxiao might not have been in a state to control the array to attack Hua Xian’s true body earlier, but everything changed with Zhao Yunxiao Two acting as a directional anchor from outside!

“You wish- wha?!” Hua Xian finally lost his cool, showing a sign of fear for the first time.

He could feel his entire body slowing down, no longer capable of moving at the same pace as before. Every time he tried to move, it took a second or two before the command actually worked.

It was a terrifying situation, almost as though he was no longer in control of his own body!

He wanted to defend himself with his thick roots. But under the numbing effect of the darkpetal lily pollen, his movements simply could not keep up.

This was the frightening potency of the darkpetal lily!

“Damn it!”

Hua Xian’s boyish figure vanished.

The thick roots that were too slow to return stopped moving.

On the other hand, demonic aura erupted from within the targeted bush – from a single fairymist flower.

Essence energy accompanied this demonic aura, spinning around the flower like a tornado and acting as a form of energy barrier.

Faced with this storm of energy that had suddenly appeared, even the surrounding fairymist flowers within the same bush were almost uprooted instantly.

Since his physical body was struggling to keep up, Hua Xian had decisively opted to give up on that altogether, choosing to concentrate all of his energy in creating an energy barrier instead.

At the same time, his sheer desperation and urgency could be seen from how he could no longer afford to care about the well-being of his companions – the very same matter that had led to him acting in the first place!

The ten giant tortoise heads charged forward, their huge jaws biting down mercilessly upon arriving at the edge of this energy tornado.

Bang-!

The energy barrier lasted for mere moments before shattering, exposing the defenceless sole fairymist flower within.