Chapter 141: Chapter 40: The Seeker of the Boundless Path
"No, these aren’t ordinary explosions!"
As he dashed through the snow, dodging the ceaseless explosions behind him, Su Zhou quickly grasped the situation.
The explosions were caused by the snow and ice, which were flash-heated by the incredibly dense Thunder Spirit Qi, causing them to rapidly sublimate and expand!
"That outer shell was just something like a ’chrysalis’ that formed on my body’s surface from years of absorbing Divine Wood Spiritual Energy... The Demon Emperor wanted to become the Divine Wood Dragon, so all that Wood Qi needed to be absorbed to transform his body. But I only wish to become a Land True Immortal. I only need to absorb the purest Divine Wood Innate Qi; the rest is all impurities."
"But even as impurities, it is the purest form of Wood Qi, capable of generating wind and thunder!"
The Wood Qi from the Divine Wood surrounding the National Preceptor grew fainter, but in its place, an increasingly savage thunder light blazed forth!
Wielding his Magic Sword in his youthful form, the National Preceptor swung it in arcing patterns of thunder light. If Su Zhou had to describe it, the man looked like a giant Tesla coil. The National Preceptor formed a technique with one hand while drawing a Thunder Talisman in the air with his Magic Sword. With the full might of a Half-Innate Grandmaster, he commanded the thunder, unleashing blast after blast at the fleeing Su Zhou. His destructive power was like a one-man artillery battery!
And that wasn’t all. The furious electrical currents melted the years of accumulated snow on Taibai Mountain, turning it into a billowing cloud of water mist. This mist, saturated by the thunder light, transformed into a thundercloud. With a shift in his technique, the National Preceptor used the Celestial Extreme Four Symbols Sect’s Black Tortoise Water Control Secret Technique and the Qilin Thunder Skill in tandem, shaping the thunderous mist into a dragon that bore down on Su Zhou!
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! The Water Mist Thunder Dragon carried with it steam heated to two hundred degrees Celsius—hot enough to boil flesh from bone—and a current powerful enough to electrocute a mammoth. The sheer impact force of the Thunder Dragon was like that of a great siege ballista, effortlessly blasting aside any ice and rock in its path!
This was, without a doubt, completely different from any form of Martial Arts; it was a true, high-level Composite Daoist Skill! For a moment, Su Zhou found himself utterly helpless, left with no choice but to flee for his life.
’They never told me the gap between a Daoist and a Martial Artist was this huge!’ he griped internally.
"This isn’t an ordinary Daoist," Yara’s voice chimed in his mind, unhurried. "You’re facing one of the leaders of this world’s Daoist Sects, someone who’s been training for a century or two." Her trash-talking was, in its own way, helping to ease Su Zhou’s tension.
But just as Su Zhou dodged the pursuing Water Mist Thunder Dragon, he suddenly felt another dangerous attack lock onto him. He ducked sharply and dodged to the side—and in the next instant, a supersonic projectile slammed into the spot where he had been, sending up a shower of ice and frost!
It was one of the five Spirit Pearls from the National Preceptor’s Magic Sword!
Half of the inscriptions on the Magic Sword had been destroyed by Su Zhou’s bite, drastically reducing its effectiveness. So, the National Preceptor had resorted to controlling the Five-Thunder Spirit Pearls directly, bombarding Su Zhou with them like small cannonballs. It was a pincer attack, with the Water Mist Thunder Dragon on the other side!
’This isn’t working! I’ve got the Water Mist Thunder Dragon on my tail and the Thunder Pearls launching sneak attacks. This is too much!’
Su Zhou was confident in his high resistance to heat and electricity. He also had his ’Water Assistance’ ability, which might allow him to force his way through the Water Mist Thunder Dragon’s attack. However, he also knew that Water Assistance worked on ordinary water. Whether it would affect magically controlled steam was another question entirely. Just then, Su Zhou spotted his long spear, which the National Preceptor had flung away earlier. He hesitated for a split second before snatching it up again.
’If he can control a third Daoist Art to manipulate this Spirit Iron Long Spear, I’ll just drop it. But if he can’t...’
After dodging a few more bombardments from the Spirit Pearls, Su Zhou was certain: his opponent couldn’t control three high-powered Daoist Arts at once. He steeled himself. ’All right. If two powerful skills are his limit, then it’s not impossible for me to counter-attack.’
By now, as the National Preceptor commanded the Water Mist Thunder Dragon to pursue Su Zhou with its superheated, electrified steam, the surrounding icefield on Taibai Mountain had almost completely melted. The scorching air and superheated water, warmed by electromagnetic waves, had soaked the frozen ground until it turned into a soggy marsh, as soft as a saturated sponge. The very earth of the plain began to swell.
The moment he noticed this, the fleeing Su Zhou’s eyes lit up. He had a plan to break the stalemate!
’When a battle reaches a stalemate, how do you break it?’
’With brute force, of course!’
The muscles on the arm holding the Spirit Iron Long Spear bulged. Su Zhou took a deep breath, a fierce glint in his eyes. The next instant, he planted his feet. Ignoring the Water Mist Thunder Dragon pouncing at his back, he hurled the spear like a javelin with all his might, straight at the National Preceptor!
Seeing this, even the National Preceptor had to momentarily stop controlling the Spirit Pearls, instead using a magnetic field to deflect the spear. But in that brief moment while the National Preceptor was distracted, Su Zhou didn’t hesitate for a second. He plunged headfirst into the soft, swollen mud of the marsh!
The most important advantage a Transcendent has over an ordinary person is the sheer number of options available to them.
To a human, a swamp is a dangerous place. Once caught in the wet mud, one is completely unable to move and can only be swallowed... But for Su Zhou, who possessed Dragon and Snake Power and could restore his Spiritual Power with the Celestial Human Cycle, many of the world’s so-called ’death traps’ were, to him, merely slightly inconvenient paths.
SLOSH—Su Zhou wasn’t ’digging’; he was ’swimming’ through the mud! With the Water Mist Thunder Dragon’s electrical current dispersed throughout the entire marsh, it no longer had any effect on his movements!
Swimming is, in theory, the most physically demanding exercise an ordinary person might encounter in their daily life.
