Chapter 136: Chapter 38: Commanding Wind and Thunder (Part 2)
The Divine Wood Guards charging across the Wood Centipede’s back were initially unconcerned. They were all in the Postnatal Realm, after all; surely not even a Grandmaster could stop more than a dozen of them alone. If they truly couldn’t win, they would just scatter and harass other areas.
But they had miscalculated one thing.
Namely, Su Zhou’s strength—and what he intended to do with it.
Su Zhou had no intention of simply knocking the Wood Centipede off the wall. He raised the seven-chi-long Spirit Iron Long Spear and thrust it straight at the creature’s head. Unable to dodge, the Wood Centipede’s head was pierced through. Most of the spear’s shaft sank into its body like a skewer, with the end coming to rest on the rampart, creating a fulcrum!
Then, he unleashed his Dragon and Snake Power!
"Hah!"
With a great roar, Su Zhou’s feet sank half a chi into the rampart. He exerted his full strength, muscles bulging, and used the wall as a lever to hoist the entire Wood Centipede—along with the dozen Divine Wood Guards still charging across its back—into the air. He then shook the spear, sending the shocked guards tumbling to the ground below!
"Lift!"
With several tons concentrated at the end of his spear, even Su Zhou found it difficult to control. But he didn’t need to. He simply swung the ’Wood Centipede Spear’—now writhing frantically in agony—and brandished it wildly. This crude attack immediately drove back another wave of Divine Wood Guards, whipping them so hard it snapped their tendons and broke their bones, leaving them momentarily paralyzed.
"Off you go!"
Then, deciding he’d had enough, he gave the great spear a shake. A blast of Spiritual Power erupted, and he flung the poisoned and half-dead Wood Centipede into the other remaining Wood Centipede siege bridge!
BOOM! The two behemoths, each weighing several tons, slammed into each other. They tumbled off the wall in a tangled mess, gouging a deep trench in the snow below. A few unlucky Divine Wood Guards were caught between them and crushed to pulp. Who knew how long it would take for them to regenerate enough to be combat-ready.
Even the other Divine Wood Guards were stunned into stillness at the sight. For a moment, no one dared to press the attack. The only thing that moved was a single, glowing cicada hovering in the air.
But if they weren’t coming to him, Su Zhou would go to them. He leaped directly off the wall and charged toward the Divine Wood Guards’ position.
Su Zhou brought his spear down on an unlucky Divine Wood Guard. Acting on a Martial Artist’s instinct, it raised its long saber to block, but it was useless. The Cross Spear head shattered the saber into a cloud of fragments. The Divine Wood Guard’s head was instantly pulverized, the sheer brute force of the blow driving its neck deep into its chest cavity as gouts of cyan wood blood erupted.
Just then, the twenty-one Divine Wood Guards at the rear launched their attack. These were the ranged units, who had been providing covering fire from a distance with arrows and cannons. Now, they shifted their aim, focusing all their firepower on Su Zhou.
If he’d wanted to, Su Zhou could have easily parried the arrows, which seemed to move in slow motion to his eyes. But with his Gale Armor active, why waste the effort? Volleys of heavy Martial Artist arrows flew toward him, only to be blown off course by the billowing, translucent armor. He was even able to anticipate the True Qi Cannon blasts, dodging them all with ease.
A few arrows hit his hands and feet, which weren’t protected by the Gale Armor, but they struck him as if hitting a solid statue cast from bronze and iron. They only managed to pierce his clothes; they couldn’t even break the skin.
"Hah!"
His Gale Armor, infused with violet-blue Spiritual Power, whipped up a fierce wind. He activated Lightweight Thousand-Mile Walk. With a soft cry, Su Zhou closed a distance of over twenty meters in a single step, shattering the Divine Wood Guards’ attempt to surround him. He laughed aloud, hefting his fifty-kilogram Spirit Iron Spear as he charged straight for the ranged troops, weathering the relentless barrage of arrows.
However, these archers were far from helpless in close combat. In fact, the Divine Wood Archers—burly and broad, a full size larger than the Demon Soldiers in the vanguard—were actually stronger than their melee counterparts. Realizing they wouldn’t get a second volley, they cast aside their Longbow Iron Cannons, pulled an assortment of heavy weapons from where they’d been planted in the ground, and counter-charged Su Zhou!
But their great strength was precisely the reason Su Zhou had come down from the wall to attack them.
Close combat erupted. Long-handled axes, Dragon Head Hammers—one Divine Wood Guard even wielded an obscure weapon like a One-legged Copper Man Spear. They brought their weapons crashing down on Su Zhou, who was a full head shorter than any of them.
But Su Zhou just focused his power into his great spear. With a single parry, he unleashed enough force to lift and throw an elephant, instantly knocking all four or five surrounding weapons from their wielders’ grasp. A few of the Divine Wood Guards’ fingers snapped clean off, leaving their palms bare. They had gripped their weapons too tightly; when Su Zhou’s brute force struck, the violent impact had simply torn their digits away.
"Aargh—"
One of the Divine Wood Guards with its fingers torn off began to scream, but its cry was cut short. Su Zhou, having just sent another Guard flying with a sweep of his spear, was already upon it.
He held his spear in his right hand and thrust out his left palm, unleashing a strike that howled like Wind Thunder. A series of sharp cracks echoed as his hand punched straight through the Divine Wood Guard’s chest plate. The blow was so powerful that it shattered the ribs and spine within, causing them to burst from the creature’s back like a thicket of bony shrubs.
Then, with a flick of his arm, Su Zhou reached inside the creature’s torso and grabbed the lower half of its spine. He used its body as a club, smashing it headfirst into another Divine Wood Guard.
SPLAT! Like two watermelons smashing together, both heads instantly shattered, spilling cyan Wood Liquid everywhere.
