Chapter 20 Obviously, the Goddess of the Tree didn't want any conflict with the trio here.

Hou Mingming condensed a black bow in her hand and said, "Give me information about the upper level entrance, or this battle is inevitable."

The girl frowned slightly, pondered for a moment, and several branches grew, forming a branch arrow that pointed to the depths of the green tree corridor.

"You better not let me find out you're lying to me." Hou Mingming looked remotely at the petite girl, a wanton smile rising at the corner of her mouth, "You will die miserably."

The girl didn't respond, as if she hadn't heard Hou Mingming's threat.

Hou Mingming snorted, raised her head, and gestured towards Zhao Wenlong in front.

Under the command, Zhao Wenlong didn't hesitate and stepped onto the stone path in front of him.

Inevitably, as the trio walked through this verdant green tree corridor, they encountered the young man across from them who was entangled by branches and struggling frantically.

The young man's struggling movements paused slightly, watching the trio approach. Suddenly, qi blades crisscrossed his body, frantically cutting the surrounding branches.

The young man shouted loudly, "Xin Ai'an, why don't you let me pass?"

With that one sentence, the green tree corridor instantly "came alive," not only "alive," but even rioting!

The battle between the two directly escalated, and the trio's expressions changed, but before they could react, they were overturned by the green ocean.

The three nimbly flipped over, rising and falling in the rapidly flowing green branches and leaves. As the "tide" surged, the trio steadily landed at the end of the corridor.

It looked like a dead end, but it wasn't. There was actually an exit on the left, but it was blocked by lush branches.

At the moment the trio landed, Hou Mingming drew her bow and aimed at the tree wall made of dense branches, shouting, "Prepare for battle!"

The trio were on full alert, but they saw the tree wall in front gradually thinning, and the branches slowly contracting, until through the gaps in the branches, they saw a stone staircase leading upwards, and...two busy figures.

To be precise, there were three figures, two of whom were staff members wearing bright yellow luminous suits, who were now trying their best to rescue a participating student who was entangled by branches and had his body pierced.

Hou Mingming put down her bow and arrow, not intending to accidentally injure the staff.

The student being rescued was in extremely miserable condition, his whole body covered with branches. The so-called "entanglement" was not just wrapping around the outside of his body.

The branches were like needles and thread, piercing through the participating student's body, from the front of his chest to his back, and then turning back to stab again.

Upper body, arms, thighs, ankles... everywhere was pierced by branches, making people's teeth ache and their flesh hurt just looking at it.

This was the masterpiece of that "Goddess of the Tree" just now, right?

The little girl looked so cute, but she was actually a ruthless loli?

What information did this scene convey?

That girl named Xin Ai'an really didn't want any conflict with the trio.

She not only gave way, but also directly manipulated the branches to overturn everyone at the first moment of the battle. And after that, she opened the tree wall leading to the upper level.

Jiang Xiao couldn't help but sigh, "You two are really famous. Such a powerful Goddess of the Tree actually gave way to you without saying a word? Didn't even collect a bit of interest."

Hou Mingming didn't say anything, as if she thought the world should operate this way, and there was no need to be surprised.

Zhao Wenlong said in a deep voice, "Those who act on impulse are in the minority. Although we are in her domain, we still have an absolute advantage in numbers. She shouldn't be willing to take risks."

Hou Mingming snorted and said, "She's just afraid to fight us. Those little tree puppets are just bait, attracting many people to her. Do you think she's happy to help people find their way?"

Jiang Xiao shook his head and said, "That's not right. When we followed the little tree puppets, those little guys directly played dead, obviously not wanting us to follow them."

Hou Mingming raised her eyebrows and stepped onto the stairs with her teammates.

Jiang Xiao thought for a while and said, "That Goddess of the Tree should have summoned many little tree puppets to look for the way everywhere. The one we followed should have been on the wrong path or a dead end, so it followed its master's aura to find its master and tell them that the road was blocked.

During this process, the Goddess of the Tree should have already found the correct entrance with the help of a little tree puppet, and we just happened to arrive. I don't think this kind of girl would hunt here."

Hou Mingming listened to Jiang Xiao's analysis with great interest and asked, "Why?"

Jiang Xiao climbed to the fifth floor and said, "Judging from her actions just now, she is calm, wise, knows how to assess the situation, and can be flexible. This kind of person couldn't possibly want to fight against all the participating students by themselves. Eliminating students doesn't give them points, after all, the real goal of the contestants is to gain a foothold on the seventh floor."

Hou Mingming nodded thoughtfully, "In other words, the contestant who was pierced and the contestant who was imprisoned should have been accidental encounters, rather than her actively hunting."

Jiang Xiao nodded, "On the contrary, I think she was the one who was ambushed..."

Suddenly, the trio standing at the entrance of the fifth floor were all stunned. The referee's voice came from their invisible earpieces: "The seventh floor is full with 16 people. The countdown of 15 minutes has begun."

Jiang Xiao: !!!

How long has the competition been going on? It's been less than two hours, and 16 people have already gone up to the seventh floor?

Are you all Ben Bo'er Ba? (奔波儿灞 is a character from Journey to the West known for being quick and nimble)

How can you climb the tower so fast?

"Let's go!" Hou Mingming quickly chose a path. The Holy Ruins at the top of the ancient tower was on the seventh floor. In theory, the higher the floor, the more ghost-faced monks the students would encounter.

Jiang Xiao and the others had seen what the fifth floor at the top of the ancient tower looked like. As expected, Hou Mingming could already hear the sounds of battle coming from various paths.

Therefore, the path without the sound of battle was likely the correct route!

Sure enough, under Hou Mingming's command, the path the trio walked was littered with the corpses of ghost-faced monks. Obviously, many people, even many teams, had passed through here repeatedly, almost killing all the ghost-faced monks on this route!

Under Hou Mingming's guidance, the group quickly climbed the tower.

Far away on the sixth floor at the top of the ancient tower, at the entrance of the stone steps leading to the seventh floor, there was a scene of flames, flying debris, and lightning...

A beautiful girl, about 165cm tall, was currently crawling on the ceiling of the stone steps entrance to the seventh floor, enduring the constant barrage of falling rocks from above.

If Jiang Xiao were here, he would immediately recognize this as the short-haired girl who had teased him with her abs.

Her body moved left and right, agile and nimble, really like a little spider, crawling around...

After a few ups and downs, the girl climbing on the wall suddenly looked up, only to see a sea of fire spreading out, igniting the entire stone steps passage.

Even more terrifying, the wind was howling, and the fire was taking advantage of the wind's power...

Her expression changed drastically. Unable to crawl in the sea of fire, she could only retreat quickly, eventually landing steadily on the sixth floor.

Returning to the sixth floor, she quickly turned around, her body close to the wall on the side. In the stone steps passage to the right of her body, a fiery dragon roared out.

"Ahhh!" The girl leaned against the wall, stomping her feet angrily, and cursing in a Beijing accent, "You son of a bitch! Just you wait!"

Just as she was cursing, she sensed someone coming.

She hurriedly turned her head, only to see a bald, muscular man about two meters tall!

Xing Yan?

The girl used her hands and feet, hurriedly climbing up the wall, not intending to appear in the path of this bald giant.

She recognized this particularly distinctive-looking strong man, the famous Xing Yan, the solo king of the Southwest Star Warrior University.

The bald giant had a face full of橫肉(heng rou: excessive flesh) and bulging muscles, stretching the camouflage uniform he was wearing to the point where it looked like he was about to burst out of it.

He strode to the side of the stairs entrance, looking at the fierce fire, he couldn't help but grin, speaking in a passable Mandarin, "Zhu Fengyu? Where are your teammates?"

As he spoke, he grabbed casually, and a rectangular shield more than two meters long quietly appeared in his hand. On the shield was even a ferocious兽面(shou mian: beast face) pattern!

The pretty girl pouted, looking aggrieved, "They've already gone up. They should be dismantling the enemy from the inside now. I'll be able to go up in a little while."

"Hmph." Xing Yan snorted coldly, "Then you wait."

Saying that, he jumped up, directly landing in the raging fire dragon.

Zhu Fengyu's beautiful big eyes rolled slightly, a smile appearing on her small face, her appearance of calculating something in her heart was extremely cute. She also jumped up, her petite body landing directly behind Xing Yan.

Xing Yan was more than two meters tall, with broad shoulders. In order to protect his whole body in the flames, the shield he held up was very wide, and the rear had indeed become a "pure land."

It's good to enjoy the shade under a big tree!

Zhu Fengyu put her hands behind her back, smiling brightly, and trotted along behind Xing Yan.

As she walked, Zhu Fengyu smiled charmingly, "Hey, big guy, cheer up. After we get up there, our team will protect you, guaranteeing you'll be in the top 32!"

Xing Yan was indeed a steel strong man, holding the兽面(shou mian: beast face) shield in one hand, resisting the fierce fire and wind blade attacks. He took one step at a time, steady and sure, advancing step by step, and actually fought out a path in the wind and fire dragons!

Xing Yan's voice was hoarse, "Follow if you want, but don't disturb me."

Zhu Fengyu was lectured and looked aggrieved, and couldn't help but make a face at the huge figure in front, sticking out her tongue vigorously.

Suddenly, the wind and fire subsided, and rubble attacked.

The sound of small rubble pattering on the shield was clear and melodious. Zhu Fengyu was still enjoying the shelter when she heard a loud noise from the shield!

"Dong!"

A huge stone, carrying tremendous force, smashed heavily on Xing Yan's獸面(shou mian: beast face) shield, actually smashing him downwards!

Zhu Fengyu's eyes narrowed, and she quickly jumped backwards. After a few backflips, she had landed back on the sixth floor, while the huge figure in front was still smashing backwards.

Zhu Fengyu quickly dodged to the side, and the boulder, along with Xing Yan, slammed into the distant stone wall.

"Big guy, not strong enough?" Zhu Fengyu trotted over, tilting her head, looking at Xing Yan who was sandwiched between the boulder and the wall as minced meat...

Xing Yan looked embarrassed, his hands grabbed the boulder in front of his chest, and he tore it apart fiercely to both sides. Along with it, the camouflage uniform on his body really burst open...

This time, Xing Yan didn't even summon his shield. With a grab of his right hand, a long-handled, black-cyan giant axe quickly formed.

The cyan light on the dark long axe surged, dreamlike. The head of the giant axe was wider than Xing Yan's upper body.

He exerted force on his back, his feet tensed, his muscles tightened, and he suddenly darted out. The exploding rubble splashed on Zhu Fengyu's body, making her stomp her feet in pain.

Xing Yan had already arrived at the entrance of the stone steps, and he slashed upwards with his axe.

Xing Yan roared, "Five Ding Open the Mountain!" (五丁开山: a Chinese myth about opening a mountain)

Zhu Fengyu was startled. You're fighting, what does this mean? Are you going to tell a myth?

The next moment, Zhu Fengyu's small mouth opened wide, and she was dumbfounded.

The black-cyan axe was lifted, and dozens of black-cyan semicircles were thrown out rapidly, instantly extinguishing the sea of fire in the stone steps passage, crushing the falling boulders, and directly rushing to the seventh floor more than twenty meters away!

"Ahhh~" A scream came from above.

Xing Yan's eyes flashed fiercely, and the ground trembled three times under his feet.

His huge body darted up, and in a rage, he blurted out his local accent: "Wo ri ni xian ren ban ban, shi na guo lai dang lao zi!?" (沃日你仙人板板，是哪锅来挡老子！？: A vulgar Sichuanese expression of anger)

Ten seconds later, the referee's voice came from the invisible earpieces of everyone in the tower: "The number of people on the seventh floor is less than 16. The countdown has stopped. Time is frozen at 11 minutes and 32 seconds."

Zhu Fengyu, who was still on the sixth floor, was stunned. Just now, Xing Yan went up, so why is the number of people less?

What's going on?

Could it be... Xing Yan got angry? Went up and killed the person who stopped him just now?

Zhu Fengyu clicked her tongue secretly, only to hear a sound of fighting and roaring from above. It seemed that no one was blocking the passage?

Zhu Fengyu cautiously climbed up, her sneaky appearance quite comical, but she found two students with unkind faces at the entrance, but they didn't attack her.

Eh?

Zhu Fengyu blinked her big eyes, took three steps in two, and hurriedly went to the seventh floor.

At the same time, the referee's voice came from the invisible earpieces again: "The seventh floor is full with 16 people. The countdown continues. 11 minutes and 32 seconds."

"Wow." Zhu Fengyu saw that several participating students were comforting Xing Yan, and beside Xing Yan was a participating contestant with a broken body, full of wounds, and bleeding profusely...

"Tsk tsk..." Zhu Fengyu retracted her gaze, looked at the few participating students surrounding the entrance, the enemies who had just stopped her from coming up, and now...

Zhu Fengyu waved her small hand, "Come on! I'll help you, let's block the way together! No one can come up!"