Chapter 100: Chapter 11: Rock Fortress
The man in white impaled by the long spear was not yet dead, but his lungs and spine had been obliterated, leaving him unable to speak. Su Zhou had no mind to listen anyway. He simply scanned the two ’Demon Soldiers’ before him. They had pushed their Spiritual Power to its absolute extreme, so much so that the veins on their faces bulged.
Demon Soldiers. They were certainly worthy of the name ’Demon.’ When not channeling their full power, they looked just like ordinary humans. But the moment they pushed their abilities to the limit, their exposed faces and hands were instantly covered in woody, cyan veins resembling tree roots. These roots throbbed with the rapid surging of the Demon Soldiers’ flesh and blood Spiritual Qi, giving them an inhuman, alien feel.
These two Demon Soldiers were fearless in the face of death, or perhaps they knew escape was impossible, so they didn’t waste a single word. The one on the left directly raised a crossbow and fired an arrow before drawing a scimitar from his waist and charging forward. His blade, shimmering with a stream of Inner Qi, swung toward Su Zhou’s neck. The one on the right was even more beast-like, dropping low to the ground and lunging forward. He jabbed furiously with an Armor-Piercing Cone, aiming for Su Zhou’s knees and ankles.
Even when possessed by an Undying Root, one can still tell the difference between handsome and ugly. The Demon Soldier on the left with the scimitar was quite good-looking—the kind who wouldn’t be out of place serving as a guard for the Royal Family. The one on the right, however, was rather plain; the roots covering his face actually did him a favor.
Soon, however, neither of them would need to worry about their looks. Su Zhou swung his long spear like a club, bringing the first Demon Soldier’s impaled body down with it. The blow caved in the entire head of the left-hand Demon Soldier. Eyes, teeth, and a spray of blood and gore exploded outward, even splattering onto the right-hand Demon Soldier.
The Demon Soldier on the right seized the opportunity while his comrade’s head was being smashed to bits. He thrust his cone with all his might toward Su Zhou’s knee, then prepared to retreat. ’I can’t win this fight. My only chance is to cripple him, then make a run for it.’
It was a decent plan, but it failed from the very first step.
Su Zhou gathered Spiritual Power in his knee, causing layers upon layers of Triangular Spirit Patterns to manifest. He simply thrust his knee forward. The Armor-Piercing Cone, jabbed with the Demon Soldier’s full strength, didn’t even break his skin. Instead, it was sent flying back in the opposite direction, even faster than the initial thrust.
Before the Demon Soldier could even react, the cone had pierced straight through his throat. Su Zhou then casually grabbed his head, gave it a light twist, and tore it from his shoulders as if unscrewing a bottle cap.
The scene was utterly gruesome. Warm blood, mixed with a cyan, sap-like fluid, splattered and flowed across the snow. In just a matter of seconds, all three white-clad Demon Soldiers had lost their ability to fight.
In any case, when Su Zhou returned to the small village carrying two relatively intact heads and one not-so-intact one—all with cyan roots dangling from their necks—the members of the escort team stared at him as if he were a monster. Or perhaps, as if he were some kind of great, mysterious being.
’Was this guy holding back *that* much when he fought us earlier?!’
"I ripped their heads off, but they don’t seem to be dead," Su Zhou said, holding them up. "So these cyan roots are the Undying Root? They’re pretty tough."
Su Zhou tossed the three heads onto the ground. They rolled over a few times on the frozen earth. It was clear the Demon Soldiers were not dead. The stumps of their necks were even slowly regenerating and healing, stopping the bleeding.
"...Once implanted with the Undying Root, they’re no longer human. They become Demons."
Mo Ganxiu stepped out from the stunned crowd. As the eldest, he was likely accustomed to seeing such undead monsters—mouths still opening and closing as if begging for mercy or spewing curses, even without a body attached.
The old man pulled a rather exquisite, rectangular brass box from his waist. He pressed a mechanism on top, and a Fire Serpent instantly shot out from a nozzle at the front. It seared the cyan Undying Root, quickly reducing it to charcoal.
’They have such intricate mechanical creations?’ Su Zhou thought. ’That makes sense. This Chao Country has existed for over five hundred years. In terms of timeline alone, this world would be in its modern era.’
As Su Zhou watched with interest, Mo Ganxiu explained softly, "It’s a good thing you brought back the Undying Root with them, Young Hero Su. If you’d only brought the heads, we would have had to trouble you to go back for them. Once implanted with an Undying Root, even if the head is crushed to bits, as long as the root itself is brought back and placed in Flesh and Blood Spirit Liquid, it can regrow into that person, complete with all their memories from before they died."
"After defeating a Demon Soldier, you have to use a Fire Thunder Technique to sear this root, or else chop it into tiny pieces to truly end its immortality. But who has time to mince roots on a battlefield? It’s too much trouble. That’s why we all carry these portable Vermilion Bird Boxes to finish off these Undead Demon Soldiers for good."
"They don’t actually need their heads." Just then, the long-haired woman with medical knowledge, the Swordman named Liuu Xizhao, stepped forward. She unflinchingly picked up the head that Su Zhou had smashed to a pulp, used her Inner Strength to pry open the deformed skull, and showed Su Zhou the contents.
Inside was a tangled mess of tree roots soaking in a cyan-white pulp. At first glance, it really did look a little like brain matter.
Zhou Buyi also stepped forward. He looked expressionlessly at the Demon Soldier’s head on the ground, its mouth still opening and closing ceaselessly. He shook his own head. "Demon Soldiers don’t need food," he said. "They only need water and sunlight for basic movement. But if they want to fight or heal their wounds, they need to absorb flesh and blood."
"The heavy snows have sealed off the Taibai Mountain Range, and prey is hard to find. Even if they caught a few animals, it’s nothing compared to a human... They couldn’t find any other source of flesh and blood."
"So... is it the Undying Root that’s alive, or is the original Demon Soldier still living?!"
Even Su Zhou couldn’t help but feel his skin crawl, a profound sense of disgust washing over him. ’So this is what happens when you’re implanted with an Undying Root? Your entire body is taken over by Divine Wood Roots. This isn’t implanting a bloodline; it’s an Undying Root controlling a regenerating corpse!’
"Don’t overthink it, Su Zhou," Yara’s voice said. "This world has Souls. The Souls of these Demon Soldiers are transferred to the Divine Wood Root during the ’Orbit’—a process of ’possession,’ you could say. It’s true that the Undying Root occupies and controls their original bodies, but the person is still the same person, if you go by the Soul."
"It looks unsettling, but it’s not as extreme as you’re making it out to be. Your mind is still shackled by your original Spiritual Energy-less world."
Yara’s single sentence snapped Su Zhou out of the intense, empathetic revulsion of ’I am not myself.’ He shook his head, calmed down, and began to understand how Demon Soldiers were made. Through a ritual, a person’s Soul is transferred to the Divine Wood Bloodline—that is, the Undying Root. Then, the Undying Root is used to control and corrode one’s own body, which has become an empty shell.
In this way, aside from becoming a nigh-immortal member of the Divine Wood Race, any damage to their physical body is merely ’severe damage to the shell.’ To put it simply, Demon Soldiers are like pilots controlling flesh-and-blood Mecha. Injuries to the body are just damage to a ’robot’ that can be repaired by consuming ’flesh and blood resources.’ That’s why they can so recklessly use such an intense method for circulating their Spiritual Power—one that borders on self-destruction—to unleash strength far beyond their normal capabilities.
Of course, that didn’t stop Su Zhou from smashing their skulls in with his long spear.
After that display, at least no one in the escort party thought Su Zhou was on the side of the Anx Dynasty. Demon Soldiers may be called ’soldiers,’ but in reality, they are an elite force that has undergone a mysterious Orbit and been implanted with the Undying Root. The ones still around today are all battle-hardened veterans who have fought against the Hundred Schools’ Righteous Army for decades. They are extremely valuable.
Sacrifice the lives of three Demon Soldiers for a self-harm ploy with an appallingly low chance of success?
The Demon Emperor isn’t an idiot. And even if he were, his military advisors certainly aren’t.
"Sigh... In truth, it’s not just them."
With a long sigh, Mo Ganxiu, having finished burning one of the Demon Soldiers, stood up. He raised his hand, rolled up his sleeve, and revealed a withered arm. Su Zhou tilted his head to look and was startled—faint, cyan, leaf-colored veins were spreading across Mo Ganxiu’s arm as well!
"Decades ago, tens of millions of people died because of the Demon Emperor’s tyranny. Their flesh, blood, and souls were absorbed by the Divine Wood. As a result, the Divine Wood’s power has completely saturated the very land and air."
Seeing Su Zhou’s utterly genuine and unconcealed surprise, Mo Ganxiu was once again certain that the young man truly knew nothing about this. The old man pulled his sleeve down, looked at the Demon Soldier’s corpse on the ground, and shook his head. "The longer you stay on the front lines, the more susceptible you are to being corroded by Wood Qi and growing these roots. I don’t practice any Martial Arts; I just build equipment in the rear, and I’m already like this..."
"This... This is Affiliation..."
Su Zhou cried out in his mind. In the Current Realm, he would have been speechless. He once again felt the profound terror of a Great Being. According to Yara, the Immortal Banyan Tree was merely a Divine Wood born from the lingering will of the yet-to-awaken ’Tree of the Great Dao,’ yet it could influence an entire world, gradually converting all its people into its Beloved, whether they wished it or not...
’This kind of power... It must be eradicated!’
In the Silence, the party set off once more. This time, however, Su Zhou had three heads with dangling wood roots tucked at his waist. Back at the wooden cabin in the mountains, a hastily dug pit served as the grave for all the ordinary people who had died.
There was nothing more Su Zhou could do for them, other than kill more Demon Soldiers and steel his resolve to destroy the Anx Dynasty and the Divine Wood.
The long trek was tedious. Along the way, Su Zhou saw no sign of any other Demon Soldiers.
Just as the Taibai Volcano rumbled once more, Zhou Buyi, who was leading the way, let out a long breath and wearily came to a halt.
"We’re here," he said. "That’s the place where the Divine Soldiers are forged."
He raised his hand, pointing to a gap in a nearby mountain peak—a sunken saddle.
Su Zhou focused his gaze, peering into the distance.
And then, he saw it—a simple yet complete Rock Fortress situated not far from the Taibai Volcano.
