Chapter 286: Chapter 32: I’m Very Reliable
"But it doesn’t matter."
Su Zhou wasn’t concerned in the slightest. He knew exactly how to let his teammates find him while also ensuring their safety... It was the very method they had all agreed upon earlier.
The answer was simple: make every potential enemy attack him!
In other words, Taunt!
And so, in the next instant, as Bai Canglang watched in stunned disbelief, muttering, ’Wait, that’s not the kind of Taunt we agreed on, was it?!’ Su Zhou shot straight up into the air. He hovered hundreds of meters high, took a deep breath, gathered his Spiritual Power, and then let out a bellow that echoed across the entire Kunlun Secret Realm!
"Sunx Thief!"
Sunx Thief—Sunx Thief—Sunx Thief—Thief—Thief...
Instantly, the entire Kunlun Secret Realm trembled from Su Zhou’s thunderous roar.
RUMBLE... Countless birds burst from the dense forests below, taking to the sky in a panic. All the various Spirit Beasts living within the woods seemed to take it as a provocation and began to emerge from their lairs. They sensed the challenge contained in the furious shout, but failed to notice that its owner had deliberately restrained his Suppression, leaving behind only pure Taunt.
The hordes of beasts began to converge on Su Zhou’s location!
"Professor Su is over there!"
Even the team members who had been scattered by the Teleportation knew exactly where Su Zhou was. The explosive shout, combined with the thunderous ripples of Spiritual Power in the distance, gave them a clear beacon. They began to move stealthily in his direction.
"Hahaha, I knew it would work!"
At that moment, Su Zhou floated high in the air, gazing down with satisfaction at the hordes of beasts swarming from all directions. They looked as if they wanted to swallow Flat-top Mountain and everyone on it whole. He could hear the furious roars of tigers and the bellows of giant bears. "That’s it! Bring it on! Bring it on."
He failed to notice Bai Canglang’s face turning deathly pale at the sight of the thousands of beasts. Nor did he see Tang Yuan, who was already drenched in a cold sweat and on the verge of activating his Spiritualization. From the summit of Flat-top Mountain, there was nowhere to hide. They could see the slopes swarming with giant tigers and wolves, great bears and soaring eagles, all converging on them with menacing intent, cutting off every possible escape route.
’West Mother Great Venerable above...’
For some reason, Bai Canglang’s mind flashed back to their first meeting in Hongcheng. He remembered the words Su Zhou had said to him just before they parted ways.
"I’m one of the most reliable people you’ll ever meet. You can definitely trust me!"
This was the first time in his life he had recalled those words. He had a sneaking suspicion he wouldn’t live long enough to recall them a second time.
"What is going on?!"
Even in Kunlun Palace, at the center of the Kunlun Secret Realm, Garuda was utterly baffled.
"What is that Dragon Blood wielder doing? Did he just provoke the beast hordes with his own aura?!"
Its tone was a mixture of bewilderment and disbelief. Great confusion flickered in its golden eyes; the only thing missing was a question mark floating above its head. "That will cause every single Spirit Beast to charge him and issue a challenge! Isn’t he afraid of being surrounded and torn apart?!"
"Perhaps... he didn’t think it through?"
Even the voice from the black hole seemed unsure of the situation. It answered hesitantly, "The Dragon Race are an arrogant, conceited lot, not to mention extremely sensitive and quick to anger. This one appears to be a Thunder Control Dragon, so his temperament is likely even more volatile..."
But just as Garuda and the entity in the black hole were puzzling over this, a thunderbolt suddenly cracked across the sky in a distant, remote corner of the Kunlun Secret Realm, directly above Flat-top Mountain!
THUMP, THUMP! KRAKOOM!
Two muffled heartbeats, and then the thunder roared in answer!
Azure lightning coiled around his body. Facing the first wave of Spirit Beasts—giant tigers and ferocious bears, enraged by his challenge—Su Zhou threw his head back and laughed, raising the Long Spear in his hand!
Ever since he had slain the Demon Emperor, the Long Spear forged from the Demon Dragon’s Horn had not seen any use. But now, Su Zhou had brought it into the Secret Realm, and he channeled his Thunder Power to fully unleash its might!
CRACKLE! Arcs of electricity flashed as a magnetic storm, like the body of a Dragon Serpent, began to coil around the spear’s shaft!
In an instant, the aura of the former King of Divine Wood, the Heavenly Calamity Demon Dragon, mingled with the ferocious Thunder Power and Su Zhou’s own presence. It spread rapidly in all directions, carried by the bolts of Celestial Thunder that crashed down upon the beast hordes!
BOOM! RUMBLE! RUMBLE!
At that moment, Su Zhou, high in the sky, seemed to transform into a living thunderbolt cannon. Each time he swung his Long Spear, he called down a Thunderbolt that smashed into the converging beast horde, setting off a violent explosion. The earth trembled as furious shockwaves, like exploding heavy artillery shells, swept across the entire area surrounding Flat-top Mountain!
SIZZLE! The vanguard of the charging beasts was instantly incinerated, reduced to charcoal. The next wave of Spirit Beasts that followed hesitated for only a moment before turning tail and fleeing back toward their lairs. An intruder who released a provocative aura in their territory was detestable, of course. But if that provocateur was a Beast King, most intelligent creatures would do nothing more than whimper and retreat.
After all, they weren’t a trained army, nor were they mindless Undead. And they certainly weren’t humans, with their pride and sense of honor. They would never fight to the death for something as abstract as dignity.
Some of the Spirit Beasts that were too slow to escape, locked in place by Su Zhou’s aura, simply prostrated themselves on the ground, motionless, in a clear sign of submission. One colorful spirit tiger dropped to the ground in a pounce, then promptly rolled over to expose its belly, its face a mask of pure sycophancy.
"Whimper... purrrr?" A perfectly good ferocious tiger had been scared into acting like a common housecat.
In less than ten minutes, Su Zhou had crushed the will of the attacking beast hordes with a completely one-sided slaughter.
One man, one spear, and all the beasts bowed in submission.
"Who’s the native of this Kunlun Secret Realm, me or him?! Is he the Beast King of Kunlun Mountain?!"
In Kunlun Palace, watching the scene unfold in real-time through an observation Array, Garuda had lost count of how many times it had been shocked. "Don’t these Spirit Beasts despise outsiders more than anything? It took me ages to beat them into submission one by one! How did he gain their acknowledgment the moment he arrived?!"
"Hmm..."
Even the voice from the black hole pondered for a long while before reluctantly offering an explanation. "After all, these are Spirit Beasts native to the Kunlun Secret Realm... It’s only natural for them to fear the Dragon Blood of the Immortal God Race. The instinct to resist one of their kind probably doesn’t even exist in their bloodlines."
"Garuda, if you want to hinder these Immortal Divine Remnants, these Spirit Beasts are useless... To achieve your goal, you must call upon our power."
Even now, it was still seeking every opportunity to tempt Garuda.
The figure with the golden eyes narrowed them slightly.
It fell silent, contemplating for a long time. Finally, after frowning and staring at the image of Su Zhou conjured by the Array, Garuda slowly said, "Fine."
At the same time, an instinctive sense of opposition stirred within it for some unknown reason... It was the bloodline of the Great Roc Golden-winged Bird, the blood of Garuda itself, which possessed a natural antagonism toward all things of the Dragon Serpent kind.
’At the very least, I need to see your true power,’ it thought. ’Besides, this is a good opportunity to test the strength of the entity in the black hole.’
