“Damn it, what rotten luck, I actually ran into a Xuan-level tree demon.” William Harper frowned and ran toward the area where he had set up traps.

Countless vines swept toward William Harper, making William Harper feel immense pressure. These vines were like countless tentacles—once cut, they would immediately regrow.

William Harper moved through the forest like a leopard. With a push of his right foot, he leapt high, landing on a tree. Just as he was about to leap forward, a vine suddenly wrapped around his foot. As he prepared to cut it off, another vine coiled around William Harper’s neck, lifting William Harper into the air.

William Harper activated his innate qi, causing a burst of energy around him that shattered the vine. But before he could escape, countless more vines surged toward him.

“No, the gap in strength is too great.” Using innate qi to create energy bursts consumed a lot of true energy. After using too much, William Harper’s body was overcome by a wave of weakness.

The tree demon chased after William Harper, closing in—five meters, four meters, three meters.

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Chapter 3: Imperial Tiger

“Hit!” William Harper’s pupils suddenly contracted.

The tree demon stepped onto a bent tree, triggering a mechanism. With a bang, the tree straightened up, catapulting the tree demon into the air.

This kind of trap was highly effective against both humans and monsters. Even humans could easily fall victim to such an ambush, let alone a tree demon whose intelligence hadn’t fully developed.

The tree demon was flung into the air, exposing its torso. A red heart thumped in the middle of the vines. After cultivating into a demon, the structure of these tree demons’ bodies had become somewhat similar to that of humans.

Caught off guard, the tree demon was tossed into the air, disoriented and unable to find its footing.

This was the moment when the tree demon’s defenses were at their weakest!

Right there! During this time, William Harper had killed countless tree demons and knew exactly where their weak spot was.

William Harper jumped onto a tree branch, aimed the giant wooden crossbow mounted there at the airborne tree demon, and—whoosh, whoosh—over a dozen wooden bolts shot toward the tree demon in the air.

The tree demon could only stay airborne for a little over ten seconds at most.

William Harper pulled out a small hand crossbow, holding it in his right hand and bracing it on his left forearm. He channeled innate energy onto the iron needles, his hawk-like eyes locking onto the tree demon’s throbbing heart. He pulled the trigger—two slender iron needles flashed silver as they shot toward the tree demon’s heart. His movements were as swift and precise as a well-trained special forces soldier.

Sensing the threat from the approaching wooden bolts, the tree demon immediately felt danger. Though not fully intelligent, these monsters had extremely sharp senses. With a sweep of its vines, it lashed at the bolts—crack, crack, crack—the wooden bolts were snapped in half.

One iron needle pierced into the tree demon’s vine. The vine reflexively contracted after being struck. The other iron needle shot through the mass of vines and, with a squelch, stabbed into the tree demon’s heart, sending blood spurting out.

A direct hit!

After the iron needle pierced its heart, the tree demon let out a shrill howl, struggling desperately. A wound split open at its heart, blood gushing out. The venom of the wind serpent could effectively prevent the wound from healing.

The tree demon fell from the air, staggered as it landed, and before it could regain its footing—whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—more iron needles shot out from the grass.

Thud, thud, thud—six muffled sounds, all six iron needles hit their mark.

These tiny iron needles became the tree demon’s death sentence.

When fighting people, William Harper firmly believed in one principle: a single toothpick could pierce a throat. These tiny iron needles, when striking a vital spot, could be just as deadly!

“I don’t believe you can survive this!” William Harper smiled slightly. If it were an ordinary tree demon, a single iron needle would be enough, and the wind serpent’s venom would quickly spread through its body. For a Xuan-level tree demon, after taking seven iron needles—nearly ten times the normal dose of wind serpent venom—it could only last a little while before dying.

Thump, thump. Thump, thump. The tree demon’s heart made strange, trembling sounds as blood gushed out, pooling on the ground.

The fact that it could hold on this long was already surprising to William Harper.

William Harper hid in the grass, watching the tree demon’s ferocious face, as terrifying as a vengeful ghost.

It was time to reap the rewards. In just a little while, the tree demon would bleed out and die. Even a Xuan-level tree demon couldn’t withstand this!

Suddenly, countless vines whipped toward William Harper’s hiding place, and the tree demon lunged at William Harper with ferocity.

“I’ve been discovered.” William Harper was just about to get up and escape when a vine wrapped around William Harper’s sword-wielding right hand. Although the tree demon wasn’t highly intelligent, after so many encounters with humans, it had learned some techniques for attacking them.

This vine had clearly been lurking near William Harper for a long time. Before William Harper could react, his right hand was ensnared. As he reached with his left hand for his longsword, another vine wrapped around William Harper’s left hand. A tremendous force yanked William Harper into the air.

The tree demon had used this move to take out countless members of the Hao clan’s outer sect. These ambush tactics had become almost instinctual for it.

The vine coiled around William Harper’s wrist suddenly sprouted something like a suction cup, which pierced into William Harper’s arm. Instantly, William Harper’s hand lost all strength, and his longsword fell from the air.