The next moment, Zhou Ying's body flared with green light, ensconcing her fae avatar and resonating with the energy and life force of the shaman of the wood spirits.

"I won't let you destroy our Renhuang!"

In the center of an outburst of green light, Zhou Ying's hair rapidly grew so long it reached her leg, fluttering in an invisible wind.  Countless jade-green leaves wrapped around her, and the vitality radiating from her was visible to the naked eye. She seemed to have become one with the land. She looked like a goddess of nature, descending from the heavens.

Upon seeing her transformation, the wood spirits all subconsciously knelt down.

Waves of purifying energy radiated from her, and the wounded hunters found, to their shock, their injuries healing on their own. Su Hong's feet, which had been lopped off his body, were reattached whole without any external effort.

The trees whose trunks had been chopped off were quickly growing back, and the wound dealt to the ancestral abode of the wood spirits was quickly recovering.

Under ordinary circumstances, the critical wound would have taken a century or so to heal on its own; even with the wood spirits' assistance, it would have taken three decades. After Zhou Ying and the shaman of the wood spirits merged, however, their ancestral abode was recovering so quickly the new growth was visible to the naked eye.

Even Zhang Lie himself was surprised.

Although he had suspected that the wood spirits would be able to magnify Zhou Ying's abilities and had informed her of his suspicions, he had hardly expected her to have advanced so far.

"[Avatar of the Fae: Earthbound Prison]!" Thousands of jade-green wood dragons rose out of the earth with a humongous quake, covering the sky with naught but their bodies and devouring Shouta's elites whole with their gaping maws.

The sound of breaking wood emanated from their bodies, but Shouta's elites weren't able to make their way out.

As time passed, those sounds gradually grew fainter and fainter. Finally, out of the body of each dragon who had swallowed up one of the elite suras grew a wooden face, precisely that of the sura they had swallowed.  

Shouta trembled in fear upon seeing what had happened. It was as though a sword seemed to have been shoved down his throat. He gritted out, "How could this be? My forces won't give up until they've sated their bloodlust!"

Zhang Lie activated his dragonsoul soulshard and peered at the wood dragons carefully. "It looks as though your forces have been petrified at the genetic level."

In other words, their bodies had slowly turned to wood. It was fortunate that their souls were already incomplete as a side effect of whatever process Shouta had used to make them into his elites; otherwise, they might have lived out the rest of their lives in endless darkness and fear.

Suddenly, Zhou Ying stumbled and collapsed, and the shaman of the wood spirits slowly floated out of her body. The transformation had taken a toll on both their mental reserves, and Sun Mengmeng hurriedly stepped forward to support her.

Even after the shaman of the wood spirits extracted herself from Zhou Ying's body, however, the wood dragons didn't vanish. Branches began growing out of their bodies, which immediately sprouted.

Thousands of trees that took on the shape of dragons had appeared almost out of nowhere, and they formed the basis of a majestic and almost overwhelming forest. If not for the fact that half the trees had a sura face ingrained in their bark, it would have become a haven of natural beauty.

Those wounded hunters who had received a pulse of life-giving genetic energy from Zhou Ying's transformation slowly began to stir and recover, but the dead remained dead.

The wood spirits all gathered around their shaman and Zhou Ying, their eyes filled with respect as they looked toward her, as though she had suddenly become a holy maiden of their clan.

The Yeluo chieftain rushed over, pushing aside the crowd. His eyes sparkled. Sun Mengmeng frowned as she stood protectively in front of Zhou Ying. "What do you want?"

The Yeluo chieftain hesitated. "I want—"

Zhou Ying looked at him guardedly. "Chieftain, not only is there a significant difference in our age, we're even members of different races. I don't think—"

The Yeluo chieftain cut her off. "No, no, not that! I'd like a sample of blood from you and the shaman of the wood spirits."

The shaman shook her head. "My body is half-spiritual, and I can't afford to give up any of the little blood I possess, unfortunately."

Zhou Ying asked, "What do you want my blood for, Chieftain?"

"For experimentation, if possible."

Zhou Ying smiled. "If that's it, give the shaman and I some time to recover. Unfortunately, it's not possible for us to bleed in that state, but I'd be happy to hand you a strand of hair or even a bit of our flesh.

The moment she merged with the shaman of the wood spirits, any injuries she had sustained would heal immediately, no matter how serious.

Still with Shouta's neck gripped in his hand, Zhang Lie murmured, "It looks like your elite forces have all been taken down. What will you do now?"

Shouta cried out, "Hold it! I'm telling you, my father is the monarch of stars—"

Zhang Lie slapped him without holding back. "I've heard the same thing twice already, and I don't want to hear it again."

This was the first time Shouta had ever lost in a fight, and he didn't know how to beg for mercy.

"I told you I'd make you regret being born, didn't I? I keep my promises. Do you know how Xueju died?"

"You killed him?"

Zhang Lie shook his head. "No. I hung him up on the city walls and had people do whatever they wanted to him. It took him a few weeks to die, I hear."

Shouta's eyes widened.

Zhang Lie called out, "Su Hong, come over here!"

Su Hong, who had recovered fully, rushed over. "What's the matter, Governor?"

"Remember what we did to Xueju? Do the same to him."

Over the next few days, Shouta would regret his actions direly—he would regret his rashness, the fact that he was born a sura, and finally, the fact that he was born at all.

Su Hong turned to Zhang Lie. "Governor, this is one of the seven sura kings that are striking at Renhuang."

"The seven sura kings? What do you mean?"

"Please, come with me. There are a few people I think you should meet."

Su Hong brought Zhang Lie toward a group of hunters whom Zhang Lie vaguely recalled had participated in the battle against Shouta.

He frowned. "You're not from Renhuang, are you? At the very least, I don't remember your faces among the three thousand hunters who came to Renhuang with me."

Although Zhang Lie's memory wasn't so good that he had perfect recall of the three thousand hunters, he was certain that none of these hunters were among them.

Suddenly, the hunters in front of him knelt on the ground.

"Thank you, our savior!"

Zhang Lie frowned as he turned to Su Hong. "Just what's going on?"

Su Hong replied, "They were all rescued from imprisonment within the two sura capitals we seized. They came over to Renhuang in order to help us defend against the allied sura forces from the seven kingdoms!"

To Zhang Lie, however, any number of sura could be easily dealt with, as long as they weren't led by an asura. With the Yeluo around to concoct their sura-specific poison, he had nothing to fear!