Chapter 74: Peach Tree Demon

Li Si and He Zhong quickly ran out from the cellar and arrived in the main hall. They looked outside the door, and goosebumps immediately rose all over their bodies.

They saw that, at some unknown point, the outside had already been encircled by peach trees. Dense peach trees had closed together, appearing extremely strange and gloomy.

At this moment, it was already dusk. The dim yellow sunlight shone on the branches of the peach trees, and the shadows reflected on the ground were like pitch-black evil ghosts.

Yet what was even more terrifying was that one human head after another emerged from the gaps in the trees. There were men and women, old and young. The only thing they had in common was that their heads were all extremely dry and gaunt, and the skin on their faces was like tree bark.

These human heads stared at Li Si and the others with cloudy eyes, constantly opening and closing their withered mouths while letting out piercing wails.

At the same time, the peaches on these trees seemed like melting candles, turning into thick yellow fluid that dripped down from the branches.

Looking at the oily, thick fluid on the ground, Li Si and He Zhong suddenly felt their stomachs turn somewhat uncomfortable. One had to know that they had eaten these peaches before, and now, looking at the peach juice, it was simply like corpse fluid. No human could accept it.

“Scholar Li, what do we do?” Looking at this peach grove, He Zhong felt somewhat frightened and could not help turning his head, looking toward Li Si with hopeful eyes.

The experiences just now had already made him regard Li Si as his backbone.

“Put them down first.” Li Si took a deep breath, slowly crouched down, and placed the man on the ground.

Hearing Li Si say this, He Zhong nodded and also placed the little girl on the ground.

Xiaoduan, who was standing beside them, did the same, putting the woman down.

“Attack the peach grove.” Li Si’s thoughts stirred, and he gave Xiaoduan an order.

Sensing Li Si’s order, Xiaoduan flicked his Long Tongue, which turned into a deathly blue shadow and slashed toward the peach grove.

Clink, clink... The deathly blue Long Tongue continuously swept across one peach tree after another, making a series of metallic collision sounds.

Li Si’s eyesight was extremely good. Just now, he had seen that the tongue could only leave a shallow scratch on these peach trees.

Suddenly, the peach grove seemed to sense something. The wailing stopped abruptly, as if time had frozen. Even the sound of a needle dropping to the ground could be heard.

Li Si and He Zhong looked at each other. This stillness was like a caterpillar wriggling on one’s neck, making one unable to help getting goosebumps.

“Hehe... haha... heehee... heh heh... haha...” All of a sudden, waves of laughter came from the peach grove. Among them were hearty laughs, coquettish laughs, happy laughs, and gloomy, cunning laughs...

All kinds of laughter rang endlessly, seeming extremely strange in the dusk, because the people in this peach grove... none of them were laughing.

At this moment, a thick peach tree demon left the peach grove through the writhing of its roots and came toward Li Si.

On the trunk of the peach tree, the head of an old woman lifted slightly. Her cloudy eyes stared fixedly at Li Si. Beneath her grey-white hair, her thin, withered face pulled into a smile, constantly letting out chuckling laughter.

If one only listened to the laughter, anyone would think it was the laughter of a kind grandmother from next door, making one feel warmth.

But as Li Si and He Zhong looked at that dried-up face, they only felt their hair stand on end.

Li Si also understood in his heart. This tree demon clearly felt that he and the others could not harm it, so it simply came directly to kill them.

As for why there was only one, he had some guesses. Perhaps this peach tree demon was testing them. If he had no effective means of attacking them, then in a while, a whole group of peach tree demons would come up.

Thinking this, Li Si looked toward the other peach trees and exhaled. He had never imagined that one day, he would face a group of demon creatures.

Moreover, judging from Xiaoduan’s earlier attack, these demon creatures were probably even more terrifying than the tiger demon. After all, Xiaoduan had been able to cut open the tiger demon’s neck.

However, just as this peach tree demon was writhing toward Li Si, dense little black dots appeared on the ground.

Countless tree roots drilled out from the ground and suddenly lashed toward Li Si.

At this very moment, a deathly blue shadow flashed past, and these tree roots were directly cut off. Because the severed roots had lashed too forcefully, they flung everywhere.

After Xiaoduan’s tongue cut the roots, the remaining parts curled up painfully like the body of a snake whose head had been cut off. It was extremely strange, like a living thing.

Afterward, the dense tree roots on the ground withdrew, as though nothing had happened just now, leaving behind only small pits.

“These peach tree demons are actually afraid of pain.” A thoughtful expression appeared on Li Si’s face, and he then gave Xiaoduan an order. If tree roots drilled out of the ground, attack them.

After giving the order, he looked toward the peach tree demon that was writhing over. His right hand swept across his robe, and a talisman appeared in his palm.

When the peach tree demon wriggled near Li Si, the branches on its body seemed to come alive, intertwining with one another on the tree like snakes. From time to time, they made crack, crack sounds. Before long, they formed a strange giant hand and smashed straight toward Li Si.

“Dodge!” Li Si shouted, swiftly kicking the man lying on the ground to the side.

He Zhong’s reaction was also very fast. He had already been paying close attention to this peach demon, so before that strange giant hand smashed down, he had already picked up the little girl from the ground and thrown himself to the side.

That woman was also swiftly pushed aside by Xiaoduan with his tongue.

Rumble. Bricks and tiles flew everywhere, and everyone was buried in dirt. This wooden house could not withstand it and directly collapsed.

The peach tree demon also seemed somewhat stunned. It had never expected that its attack would encounter no obstruction at all.

However, during this brief moment of its daze, it suddenly let out a faint, pained scream, and all the human heads across the entire peach grove also let out pained screams with it.

Afterward, starting from the part of the giant hand, it turned into ash bit by bit and vanished.

Li Si stood up from the position where the peach tree demon’s giant hand had been just now.

Just now, he had precisely dodged the giant hand’s attack with skill and slapped the Low-Level Demon-Slaying Talisman onto the peach demon’s giant hand.

Looking at the ash the peach demon had turned into, Li Si was somewhat surprised. He had not expected this Low-Level Demon-Slaying Talisman to have such a great effect.

And precisely at this moment, an old woman of over sixty appeared in the air.

A flicker appeared in Xiaoduan’s eyes. His tongue slid out from his mouth, and he prepared to eat this soul.

But at this moment, Li Si turned his head and looked at him with icy eyes.

Xiaoduan immediately did not dare move, and resentfully withdrew his tongue.

Li Si looked at the somewhat confused old woman in the air, sighed slightly, and stretched out his hand.