Saving the White Moonlight Chapter 52

As soon as the blood-covered bird flew into the palace’s range, it caused a violent reaction.
The rustling grew louder and louder. The whole palace actually began to tremble.
Large sheets of earth fell from the palace, raising dust that shot into the air. Even the “ruined walls” Yan Zhuguang had passed earlier were not spared. Before long, the palace area had piled into one mound of earth after another.
In the next moment, something became active inside the dust. Specks of green broke through the air. Those green grass stems that had seemed dead actually swayed and came alive.
A grand palace vanished in the blink of an eye and became a giant bush with thick needle-like leaves. Yan Zhuguang, standing on the stone square, was completely surrounded by these fierce grass clusters.
The change happened in an instant. Before the bleeding bird could hit the ground, countless grass leaves swept over it, wrapped around it layer by layer, and strangled and devoured it clean in an instant. Not even one feather remained. The sight made the heart shiver.
After the bird demon beast was devoured, Yan Zhuguang, who had awakened this huge beast, became its next target.
Countless grass leaves shot longer and surged toward Yan Zhuguang on the square like a storm.
The tips of those thin grass leaves even shone with cold light. If she were hit by such dense leaves, even if she was not strangled, she would be stabbed into paste.
“Host, what do we do?”
The system’s mini-map had turned fully red and kept flashing warnings of danger at Yan Zhuguang.
Those grass leaves moved extremely fast. The system had only just spoken when the attack reached the edge of the square.
At that moment, Yan Zhuguang moved.
Yan Zhuguang did not stop her feet. Following the patterns of the stone slabs under her, she began stepping with a mysterious rhythm. After only a few steps, the entire square began trembling wave after wave.
While stepping in that mysterious pattern, she took out the spirit stones she had used earlier to restore spiritual energy and quickly threw them in eight directions. When one batch of spirit stones was used up, she took out another batch and kept scattering them in certain directions.
One layer, two layers, three layers. In the short time before the grass leaves arrived, Yan Zhuguang actually stepped through the entire square and laid down three layers of spirit stones. Her speed was astonishing.
At the same time, those terrifying grass leaves had also closed in. The longest leaf tip was about to land on her.
The system’s heart nearly jumped into its throat. It stared at Yan Zhuguang, ready to open Host’s protective shield at the fastest speed and protect her safety.
At this moment, the hand seals Yan Zhuguang formed also stopped at the final move.
“Rise!”
Yan Zhuguang gave a soft shout. At the last possible instant, the stone slabs under her feet suddenly shook. Layer after layer of pale golden defensive formations lit one by one. A half-sphere of light covered the entire square.
The grass leaves that had almost touched Yan Zhuguang’s hair stopped abruptly. They were cut off by the powerful defensive formation and turned into severed pieces of grass that drifted down, spreading across the square.
A fresh grassy scent filled the whole square.
The defensive formation covered the entire square. The giant grass cluster outside had not caught its prey and had lost many leaves instead. It angrily waved outside. More grass leaves slapped against the shield, but each time they were bounced away. They could not shake the formation at all.
Yan Zhuguang let out a light breath and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
“Host, you scared me to death!”
The system finally let out a long breath too. It had almost fainted as a system.
This had been far too dangerous. Following Host without a strong heart would frighten a person to death.
Yan Zhuguang sat cross-legged to restore spiritual energy. To activate the formation, the small amount of spiritual energy she had as an early Foundation Establishment cultivator had already bottomed out.
“Host, how did you know that palace was made from grass?”
If not for that bird, the system would never have imagined that the palace was actually “alive.” It had been wondering why Host had clearly approached the palace but had not gone in. It turned out Host had already felt something wrong.
Yan Zhuguang said, “At first, I was not certain. It was only the attack from the wall and the root stem that appeared later that made me suspicious.”
“Suspicious?”
The system thought for a moment and did not notice what was wrong.
“After I was attacked, that root stem also appeared. If it were an ordinary person, they would probably think the thing that attacked the wall earlier was that root stem.”
“Was it not?”
“You saw how that root stem attacked. But when the wall was attacked, the ground below was perfectly intact.”
The root stem’s attack came with huge movement. If the root stem had to break through the earth, the ground would definitely split. If there had been that kind of movement, Yan Zhuguang would have sensed the danger long ago. She would not have needed to rely on instinct to dodge.
“I thought the root stem drilled into the wall to attack?”
Yan Zhuguang shook her head. “No matter how fast the root stem moved, it could not leave no trace. You did not notice. After those walls shattered, only mud remained. The grass stems used to build the walls had clearly vanished.”
“So at first, those grass stems hiding in the walls were attacking Host. That is why the wall exploded as soon as Host landed on it. And at that time, Host noticed something was wrong and knew those grass stems were alive?”
Yan Zhuguang silently agreed.
Her observation ability was extraordinary. While being attacked by the root stem, she had noticed the grass stems missing from the shattered wall debris, so she understood.
That was why even after reaching the palace center, she had not rashly rushed inside. She suspected those lukewarm attacks earlier had been meant to force her into the palace and then catch her like a trapped turtle.
“Then Host came to this square because you discovered its material was different from the palace?”
“The square is the formation disk of a formation. It was so obvious. How could I not notice? Since a ready-made formation was here, of course I first had to ensure my safety.”
Sorry. I did not notice.
The system silently updated its database again.
Yan Zhuguang said, “This place should be the hunting ground of this unknown plant, and this square is probably the hidden realm owner’s lifeline for survivors. If someone grasps this chance, they can live. If not, they can only become its food.”
This was also why not a single living thing could be seen on the grassland. The demon beasts outside were probably so afraid of being eaten by it that they did not dare approach this place.
The system thought about it and found it a little unbelievable. “Even Host does not know what spiritual plant this is?”
“This spiritual plant’s scent is a little like mildly poisonous Heavenly Fragrance Smoke Return. Its shape and attack method are like fierce Ten Thousand Needle Grass. As for those root stems, their aura is slightly like Musu Seeds, the main ingredient used to refine Living Meridian Pills.”
“This is a mutated spiritual plant that was deliberately cultivated. Also…”
Yan Zhuguang paused.
“Also what?”
“Those three spiritual plants are all rather ordinary. Even a mutated spiritual plant formed from fusing all three should be far from reaching the level before us.”
The spiritual energy contained in the root stem eaten earlier by the Sacrificial Blood Spirit Vine had already far exceeded ordinary spiritual plants. In Yan Zhuguang’s view, this giant spiritual plant outside should at least be high-grade Mystic rank.
“The owner who cultivated this spiritual plant likely used other methods too.” And these methods were powerful for Yan Zhuguang, who had now arrived here.
The system learned something new.
However, now was not the time to discuss the spiritual plant’s type. “But how do we escape like this?”
The system looked at the grass leaves outside still slapping the defensive shield and felt a little worried. To escape, they had to leave the shield. Once they left the formation, would Host not be exposed to that grass’s attacks?
The spirit stones activating the defensive formation would eventually run out. Host could not stay inside the formation forever.
Yan Zhuguang was not worried at all. “No need to worry.”
After restoring the spiritual energy in her body, she began forming hand seals again. The system did not know what she wanted to do and stared without blinking.
In a little while, the formation on the square was actually turned off by Yan Zhuguang. Yes, the layers of formation light went out one by one.
Not only the system, but even the spiritual plant attacking outside the formation froze for a moment. Then it reacted, and dense needle leaves rushed toward Yan Zhuguang.
Although it did not know why this prey would give up the formation’s protection, who cared? Catch and eat first.
Needle leaves filled the sky and shot toward Yan Zhuguang. Yan Zhuguang began forming hand seals again. Her slender fingers moved so fast they left afterimages. Before the grass leaves could stab her, the pale golden formation lights lit one by one again.
Another patch of grass leaves was sliced apart by the formation. The grassy scent grew stronger.
The system scratched its head, a little unable to understand Host. Was she playing with that spiritual plant?
Next, the system had the fortune of seeing the cultivation world’s version of a lawn mower.
Yan Zhuguang turned the formation on and off. When she ran out of spiritual energy, she restored it. When the spirit stones ran out, she refilled them. The grass leaves on the square piled higher and higher until they reached almost halfway up Yan Zhuguang’s body.
So it could be played like this?
Yan Zhuguang had forcefully turned a pure defensive formation into an offensive one. This was the first time the system had encountered such a move.
Host was truly amazing. The system silently raised a thumb for Host.
After being worn down like this, even a spiritual plant with countless grass leaves began to struggle.
It had some intelligence. Although it wanted to eat this prey, it also had to consider its own gains and losses. Even if it ate that prey later, it might not recover the power it had consumed. This hunt seemed a little unprofitable.
After suffering from the formation several times, the spiritual plant slowed its attacks. When Yan Zhuguang opened the formation again, the fierce needle-leaf grass actually stopped strangely.
It hung outside the formation and waved in the air. After some hesitation, it withdrew those fierce grass leaves and silently shrank into the soil.
“It retreated, it retreated!” the system said in surprise. “Host, can we escape now?”
Yan Zhuguang ignored it. Her gaze locked tightly on the surroundings.
A small handful of grass leaves twisted together into a rope and secretly used the thick pile of grass leaves on the square to sneak behind Yan Zhuguang.
Yan Zhuguang seemed to have eyes on her back. She pointed backward, and green light flashed. She actually used the broken grass leaves left on the square in return. Like autumn wind sweeping fallen leaves, they scraped toward that bundle of grass stems and shredded it to pieces.
The system covered its mouth. It had not expected that spiritual plant to be so cunning. It even knew to feint in one direction and sneak attack from another.
The needle-leaf spiritual plant matched wits and strength with Yan Zhuguang. The broken leaves covering the square all became weapons in Yan Zhuguang’s hands.
Seeing that its attacks still failed after so long, the needle-leaf spiritual plant finally gave up and completely retreated to the palace’s earlier position.
Sap seeped from the surface of the needle-leaf spiritual plant and soaked the mud. It rolled once in the mud, and its grass leaves twisted and wriggled. It actually… slowly returned to the ruined palace form from before.
The system clicked its tongue in wonder.
It was about to say something to Yan Zhuguang when it saw a meaningful smile curl at the corner of her mouth. The system shivered.
Was Host about to trick someone again?