The scout knew instantly that he would die as his bones and organs had been crushed and turned into mush. But he gritted his teeth and broke the root off the tree that had pierced him and escaped.
Just as the scout reached General Blazing Phoenix, his knees crumbled to the ground from weakness. His deathly pale face became even more ghostly as the leftover root in his chest wiggled around in a frenzy.
It tried its best to enter the ground, but once it realized that even though the scout was on his knee, it was too far away from the ground, it turned around. Aiming straight for the scout's head and ready to turn his brain into sludge.
"Don't even think about it,"
Seeing how even after the root had been torn away from its main body, it was trying to desecrate her soldier's body, General Blazing Phoenix's face chilled as she waved her hand to send three blood droplets at the root.
The moment her blood came in contact with the root, it caught on fire and nearly instantaneously turned into ash. Once the root had turned to ash, the fire went out without leaving a single burn mark on the scout.
"Medics come over immediately and keep this man alive as long as possible. I don't care if he is begging you to end his life due to pain. Just keep him alive until the Secret Medics can work their magic." General Blazing Phoenix said with clear anger in her voice.
If it wasn't for the fact that the last remaining one of her scouts could escape the forest without any injuries, the generals knew that she would have started a wildfire with her temper. The only thing she hated more than her soldiers being killed was allowing it to happen right before her.
After sentencing the scout to his fate, several soldiers grabbed the scout's body. They quickly took him to the back of the army, where the medics were located.
"What did you four find?" General Blazing Phoenix asked the four remaining scouts.
"The entire forest seems to be in the same state of rapid growth and expansion. Many animals struggle to survive by avoiding the plants, but just like what happened now, many of them are getting killed." One of the scouts calmly said with no fluctuations in his voice.
"We also visited the Beast Hunter Sect's headquarters and saw that half of the building was gone or suffered severe damage due to what looked like an explosion. However, it has been taken over just like with the rest of the forest." The scout continued.
"Anything else of note that you have seen inside the forest?" General Blazing Phoenix asked.
"There was an instant where we five destroyed a few trees that had blocked our way. Other than destroying the trees into piles of sticks, we felt as if we became slightly more energetic and stronger." The scout answered without pause.
"Oh, why didn't you mention this earlier? This is an important find!" General Devil Storm growled at the scout.
"We apologize General Devil Storm. We couldn't be sure if it was an illusion, real, or something negative. So we decided to leave it at the end as extra information that has been verified." The scout answered in the same timeless voice.
"General Devil Storm is right next to spill out all your information at once but make it clear which ones have been verified or not. This is a special mission with dangers hidden everywhere. Even unverified information could prove extremely valuable." General Blazing Phoenix said to her scouts.
"Understood," All four scouts shouted with their hearts.
"If that is all, you may retreat to your positions." General Blazing Phoenix calmly said as she waved her hand back to the army.
Without saying another word, General Blazing Phoenix's scouts nodded their heads and quickly walked back to the army in silence. Once her soldiers had retreated, General Blazing Phoenix turned to face the other generals and saw that they had looks of envy written on their faces.
She knew her scouts had left a positive impression on each of the generals even though the mission wasn't perfect. The information brought over was accurate to what they had assumed, and they even got additional information that could be extremely valuable without paying a high price.
"As you all have witnessed, the Branch Forest seems to have experienced a change after the battle between the demon and the immortal. Unfortunately, other than the forest plant life trying their best to expand their territory, we don't have much information on whether a greater danger is inside the forest."
"I suggest that we have our army stationed outside of the Branch Forest and use any method to halt its expansion completely. As for investigating the forest depths, I suggest that use generals and elite soldiers take turns commencing an investigation that is two hours long."
"In those two hours, we need to enter the forest and come out. If there are any delays, we should consider them dead until proven otherwise, and we can consider what we do after such a situation occurs." General Blazing Phoenix calmly proposed her idea to the other generals.
"I agree with General Blazing Phoenix's plan but would like to add that each of the investigation teams has to have at least two generals. We are dealing with an unknown threat that could be on the same level as demons and immortals."
"Sending one Blood Master realm general along with soldiers in the first-rate martial artist realm isn't even close to enough to do this mission safely. Having at least two generals will increase the odds that one of them would be able to escape to tell us valuable information." Responding quickly to General Blazing Phoenix's proposal was General Blood Stone, who felt that her proposal was too risky.
In his eyes, such a threat needed to be taken as seriously as possible, and every precaution needed a backup plan. He especially felt like losing a general without gaining anything was too wasteful and could instead allow them to be taken out individually.
"It seems that I underestimated how dangerous this mission was going to be after hearing Yoze had returned safely. Hopefully, we will be able to contain the forest from spreading any further. If not, Floyd should be able to escape since he is in the backline." General Blood Stone thought to himself as he felt a headache forming.
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