Chapter 144: Chapter 41-42: If My Fate Is Mine to Control, a Golden Lotus Can Be Planted in the Fire
The defensive battle at the Taibai Mountain fortress was still at a deadlock.
Having lost the Wood Centipede and the Yang Flame Cicada—Spirit Plant Demon Beasts each comparable to half a Grandmaster—the Divine Wood Guard found it difficult to assault the walls from their disadvantageous position, especially with a Grandmaster on the defense. After Li Daoran and the others consumed their pills and temporarily recovered their fighting strength, the attackers left behind numerous bodies, which were dragged behind the walls and incinerated in the Magma Cauldron.
That was the one advantage of the volcanic terrain. On a typical southern battlefield, many of these corpses would not be destroyed in time. The Demon Soldiers would take them back, and with just a little bit of animal flesh and blood, they could restore their fighting strength. Of course, they would lose a great deal of True Qi and have to rebuild their Inner Qi Cultivation from scratch, retaining only their Spiritual Energy. Even so, they would be far stronger than any ordinary person.
However, the City Guard Martial Artists had also lost a dozen or so fighters. This was unavoidable; the Divine Wood Guard’s tactic of trading wounds for kills gave them an enormous advantage. To have achieved such a casualty ratio was a testament to the fortress’s tight defense.
Zhou Buyi was panting heavily. With Su Zhou gone, and his teacher’s hands so badly burned by the National Preceptor that he couldn’t draw his sword and had to fight with leg techniques, the pressure on the defensive line fell almost entirely on him and Weilie. But Weilie was old, after all. After firing two Rigid Shots with Su Zhou’s help, his Inner Qi was nearly spent. While he could still fight better than an ordinary Postnatal Expert, he could not hold the wall by himself as Su Zhou had done.
Just as Zhou Buyi gathered his Inner Qi, struck down a Divine Wood Guard—its armor so battered, who knew how many times it had attacked—and grabbed a Magma Bomb to finish it off, he sensed an incredibly wild streak of Thunder Light riding a fierce gale, speeding toward them from afar!
"The National Preceptor?!"
"Brother Su didn’t stop the National Preceptor?!"
Instantly, all the Castle Guardian Martial Artists were horrified. If Su Zhou had fallen to the National Preceptor, their defense was doomed to fail. A Grandmaster, even an injured one, was not someone a group of nearly exhausted Martial Artists like them could possibly stop.
But they had to try and stop him, regardless. Just as Zhou Buyi gritted his teeth, pulled a bottle of ’Four Spirits Jade Liquid Pills’ from his robes, and prepared to fight to the death, he realized something. The figure of Thunder Light paid the Martial Artists on the wall no mind at all. With a great leap, it soared right over their defensive line and charged into the depths of the volcano!
"Dammit!"
With a grim look, Weilie raised his Swift Strike, mustering the last of his Inner Qi to fire a Rigid Shot. But with the magnetic field shifting, even a shot this powerful was slightly deflected. A miss is as good as a mile—how could it possibly hit such a swift figure?
But before the morale of the Divine Wood Guard could rise and the expressions of the City Guard Martial Artists could change, another figure appeared, bringing a gale with him and approaching with a thunderous RUMBLE!
Without the National Preceptor to interfere, Su Zhou decisively swallowed a ’Four Spirits Jade Liquid Pill’. ’It’s actually delicious!’ The sweet, gentle, yet distinct nourishing energies of the four Spirit Plants permeated his body. As the pill stimulated his Spiritual Qi Circulation, his flesh and blood began to surge, and all the wounds that hadn’t had time to heal suddenly felt as if they’d been given a shot of anesthetic. He couldn’t feel them at all!
Toting his great spear, Su Zhou sprinted in pursuit of the National Preceptor. His Qinggong wasn’t ethereal and graceful like his quarry’s; it was pure brute force. With help from Wind Aid, each step covered a hundred meters. Any Divine Wood Guard in his path was either casually flicked aside or had its head used as a stepping stone, crushed underfoot. With no time to greet the Castle Guardian Martial Artists, he could only follow the National Preceptor’s example, striding over the defensive line to continue the chase!
As the National Preceptor flew, it sensed the fluctuations of Spiritual Qi. It quickly identified the point of most intense fluctuation—the Divine Weapon Foundry—and raced toward it!
However, a tall man stood silently blocking the entrance to the volcano’s core.
The man’s body was a mass of knotted muscle, with abnormally developed muscles bulging at his forearms and wrists. His Extreme Yang Internal Qi burned like fire as he held a pair of blacksmith’s great hammers, his aura resonating with that of the entire volcano.
It was none other than the Grand Master!
His Inner Power Cultivation was only at the Postnatal Second Rank, not even reaching the level of a Grandmaster. But in a region like the volcano, with its high-density Yang Flame Primordial Qi, his fighting strength was comparable to a Grandmaster’s. He was the final line of defense!
"Stand aside!"
The National Preceptor was in no mood to waste words. It raised its sword, and a flash of Thunder Light swept toward the Grand Master. Even if the blow couldn’t kill him, it had to brush him aside before he became a nuisance.
But the Grand Master simply remained silent, using the Qi Condensation and Object Manipulation Technique to empower his hammers. His Yang Flame Internal Power flared, amplified by the power of the volcano itself. This strength, added to a physical body honed to the peak of human limits, allowed him to rigidly block the National Preceptor’s sword!
CRACKLE! His feet sank two inches into the rock as a savage electric current swept over the Grand Master’s body. But who would have guessed that the misshapen muscles on his arms held a secret? They could actually absorb a large amount of the current. For a moment, even with all its power, the National Preceptor was unable to defeat him!
"Hm? Thunder Resistance Rings? The last surviving dreg of the Five Weapons Sect?"
The National Preceptor seemed to recognize him, as if recalling something. "I see now. You’re that little fellow who escaped with his life after I burned out your throat... Hahaha! To think that a bunch of fools who used Metal Weapons against me could actually produce a Grand Master with a decent brain!"
"But, get out of my way!"
The National Preceptor unleashed its power again, blasting the Grand Master aside. It had no desire to kill this last dreg of a sect it had already annihilated. After all, as long as it destroyed the Divine Soldiers, what did it matter if billions of people in this world hated it? ’Anyone who wants to fulfill their dream is bound to be disliked by some people,’ it mused. ’It’s just that in my case, there are a few more than usual.’
