Only three seconds? He's already the Lord of All Realms, so it doesn't matter.

"By order of the King! Capture all the demons and monsters of Shuitian Village. Anyone who dares to resist will be killed without exception!"

The sound from the mountaintop was like thunder. Immediately afterwards, hundreds of elite soldiers from the capital, clad in light armor and wielding long halberds, poured out of the forest and quickly formed a battle formation around the lake.

The leader was a robust young general dressed in black iron armor and with a long sword at his waist.

Judging from his cultivation level, Ye Xuan estimated that he was at the third level of the Foundation Establishment stage. Among the hundred or so armored soldiers behind him, some had some cultivation, while others were just ordinary people with strong bodies.

Besides the leading general, there were four other powerful cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage hidden within the formation.

Upon seeing this display, the worshippers under the shade of the tree immediately became agitated.

Most of them came from villages and towns, and even the worshippers from Changning County had never seen the royal army before.

Chen Hong and Wang Bai's expressions changed drastically. "The people from the capital have still come!"

Ye Xuan stood in mid-air, his gaze sweeping over the army below.

Aside from being somewhat surprised that he didn't see these people when he returned to Shuitian Village from Changning County, he already understood the situation.

Among the army of over a hundred people, none of the people from the royal ancestral hall were seen, suggesting that the two sides may not have joined forces, and there might even be a rift between them.

Just as he had expected, when the general saw the purple-robed ritual floating on the lake, he did not show any anger on his face, but instead used it as an excuse to talk about it.

"You audacious villagers of Shuitian Village, how dare you disrupt the ritual at my Wangdu Ancestral Hall! This crime is punishable by double!"

In an instant, shouts of battle erupted from the foot of the mountain, and over a hundred royal soldiers surged toward Xianliu.

"Sir, what should we do?"

Chen Hongqiang composed himself, looked up and asked, and the group of worshippers behind him suddenly understood.

Compared to the purple-robed ritual performed by one person just now, can the Immortal Venerable handle more than a hundred people now?

Ye Xuan slowly landed back on the lake surface, his toes lightly touching the ripples, his expression calm and composed.

"Are you all willing to remain beneath the Immortal Willow?"

Everyone remained silent, and no one left the shade of the willow tree, which pleased Ye Xuan greatly.

He scanned the entire area with his senses, and the soldiers in front of him were nothing more than ants in his eyes.

"Demon Willow..."

Ye Xuan murmured to himself, while the huge willow tree behind him swayed its branches, rising like a green waterfall, weaving an impenetrable barrier along the lakeside.

No matter how the charging soldiers swung their iron blades, they could not cut through the tangled mess.

Upon seeing this, a cultivator in the army threw out a stack of fire talismans, which transformed into a sky full of fire crows that attacked the willow branches and leaves.

But when the fire crows collided with the willow branches, they were violently scattered, sparks flying everywhere. Instead, a dazzling blue flame appeared on the willow branches.

The intense heat, reaching hundreds of degrees Celsius, caused the soldiers bound by willow branches to suffer excruciating pain, screaming in agony.

The leading general's pupils contracted. "It truly is a demonic willow, so terrifyingly powerful..."

Taking advantage of the opponent's astonishment, Ye Xuan moved swiftly among the willow branches and quickly reached the flank of the battle formation.

He clapped his hands together, and several cyan whirlwinds burst forth from his palms, demonstrating the power of the Flood Heaven Palm amidst the dense military formation.

The whirlwind slipped into the gaps in the battle formation, instantly throwing the soldiers into chaos. Several people were blown away, and the formation was thrown into disarray.

"Protect the general!" a guard shouted.

The stunned general snapped out of his daze, drew his sword from his waist, and sparks flew instantly from the blade.

With all his might, he chopped down a willow branch that was whipping at him. "It broke!"

But the joy on his face didn't last long. The broken willow branch wrapped around his ankle, tripping him and causing him to fall to the ground.

The flames floating on the willow catkins continued to intensify, and even when he activated his spiritual energy to protect himself, he could not completely stop the flames from penetrating his armor and scorching his skin.

"Retreat! Retreat temporarily and reorganize!"

The general cried out for help, and several of his personal guards dragged him into the rear of the army formation.

Seeing that they were about to leave, Ye Xuan instantly floated to the rear of the army formation and manipulated the large lake behind him to create a wall of water, completely cutting off their retreat!

Ye Xuan smiled, and another white light emanated from his fingertips, landing on the leading general.

The secrets of the Immortal Willow Tree were revealed once more. They could only watch helplessly as their general experienced a body explosion, the immortal seed within him sprouted, and he ultimately transformed into nourishment for a willow sapling...

"Do you wish to leave behind the willow branches as offerings to the immortals, or do you aspire to be like him?"

A gap was torn in the water wall that had risen several meters high, revealing corpses floating on the lake in the distance.

On the chest of the purple-robed priest, a willow sapling was also planted, a truly tragic sight.

Everyone felt a chill run down their spines; either way, they were going to die!

Then someone in the crowd shouted out; it was one of those powerful cultivators at the Foundation Establishment stage.

They had spent half their lives cultivating themselves and had always been respected by others; they had never suffered such humiliation.

"A scholar can be killed, but not humiliated!"

The group suddenly sprang into action, disregarding friend and foe, using every trick in the book to try and find a way to survive. However, they underestimated the power of the willow tree behind them.

Countless willow branches rushed towards them, forming a cage that tightly trapped the few experts who had stood out.

Ye Xuan looked smugly at the cage woven from willow branches in front of him, and couldn't help but recall the scene when he was trapped by Willow Fairy in the Realm of Immortality.

Therefore, his Immortal Willow is far inferior to that Immortal Willow of Immortality, but trapping these people of the same realm to death is not a problem at all.

When the cage woven from willow branches was dismantled, the cultivators who had tried to fight to the death all died under the immortal seed.

Several streams of pure life force drifted towards Ye Xuan, nourishing him and causing his cultivation to grow rapidly.

The willow tree behind them also kept growing taller, eventually reaching nearly twenty meters!

"Sixth level of Foundation Establishment".

Ye Xuan brushed aside the willow branches, his eyes gleaming, and looked at the soldiers who had lost all fighting spirit, saying:

"Those who wish to stay and have not yet entered the path of cultivation may, like them, make offerings to the Immortal Willow."

After he said that, no one dared to resist or question him.

Witnessing firsthand how the military commanders were like ants before this young man and the willow tree, these soldiers from the capital threw down their armor and weapons.

Ye Xuan left the on-site handling to Chen Hong and the others, while he himself leaped onto the towering branches of the willow tree.

His perception instantly covered the entire world, and he found the royal capital ancestral hall.

Inside the vast ancestral hall, dim candlelight shone, and only an old man, looking very frail, stood with his eyes closed in front of the statue of a deity.

He tapped his knuckles lightly on the altar in front of him, his expression shifting between light and dark.

"Immortal Willow... Heavenly Dao Immortal Venerable?"

The old man had just learned of what had happened in Changning County. When this person suddenly appeared, claiming to be the incarnation of the Immortal Willow and also calling himself the Heavenly Dao Immortal Venerable, he suddenly opened his eyes, looked at the immortal statue, and was somewhat bewildered.

At this moment, a strange commotion arose in the deathly silent shrine. Two beams of golden light shot from the eyes of the immortal statue and landed on the high priest.

The old man immediately knelt down, prostrated himself, and cried out:

"My lord, are you aware of the unusual circumstances surrounding the short-lived man?"

Just as Ye Xuan was about to follow the golden light, he discovered that it was just ordinary spiritual energy, albeit with a slightly altered color, and fundamentally different from the aura of the Realm of Immortality.

The high priest, who was kneeling on the ground and bathed in golden light, seemed to have received some kind of instruction, and stood up again, his eyes flashing with divine light.

"Yes! We will certainly live up to your expectations, sir, and the ancestral hall will completely eradicate that false immortal!"