Chapter 289: Chapter 34: Breaking the Formation
For the first time, he vaguely understood the pain and difficult choices the Immortal Gods must have faced thousands of years ago when the world changed abruptly, forcing them to leave their homeland.
But Su Zhou wasn’t thinking about any of that—his mind was consumed by a single thought: ’Faster.’
"Hah."
Taking a deep breath, Su Zhou regulated the flow of Spiritual Power in his body. He leaped into the air, empowered by Wind Aid. The ability simultaneously repelled the pull of gravity and negated some of the air resistance, allowing him to glide through the sky like a true Celestial Dragon. His speed surpassed one hundred meters per second.
At this point, it was already very difficult for Bai Canglang to catch up. However, Su Zhou had left behind a clear aura that he could track, so he wouldn’t lose him completely.
Su Zhou had now reached a vast, dense forest at the foot of a Dragon-shaped Mountain Range.
To make it easier to push off and accelerate, he didn’t fly too high above the ground. Instead, he would occasionally land, push off to gain speed, and maintain his top velocity.
But as he passed through a particularly dense part of the woods, his Spiritual Vision picked up an unnatural movement in the surrounding Spiritual Power... The trajectory of this movement was strikingly similar to what he had seen during his battle with the Demon Emperor in the Divine Wood World!
BOOM! The next instant, with a roar of vibrating Wood Qi, countless dense vines twisted together into the shape of a dragon’s claw. Then, with the predatory ferocity of a cordyceps fungus and a surging tide of vast Wood Element Spiritual Energy, it bore down on Su Zhou!
"A familiar feeling."
He chuckled. Things were different from his time in the Divine Wood World; he no longer wielded a Divine Soldier like the Blade of Annihilation. But times had changed, and so had he. He was no longer a mere Martial Artist at the Realm of Grandmaster, but an Extraordinary Expert comparable to a Martial Saint!
And so, on this day, a dragon-like gleam of spear light, bolstered by the Gale Power erupting from a dozen Gale Seeds, shot upward to meet the vine-claw, directly opposing its momentum!
A cold glint of light flashed as the Dragon Horn Long Spear tore through the air. Dozens of Gale Seeds burst simultaneously, infusing the weapon with over fifty tons of savage, brute force. It effortlessly blasted the giant claw-beast to smithereens, filling the air with a cloud of splinters!
But as one vine-claw shattered, a dozen more began to sprout from the ground. The entire surrounding forest could be seen twisting and warping. Thick streams of Wood Qi formed a massive Array that was now activating, howling with Spiritual Power. It intended to use the full might of the Spirit Forest to crush Su Zhou!
And Su Zhou chose to suppress the entire forest with his own power.
THUMP! A heavy heartbeat echoed as blinding, flashing Thunder Light enveloped Su Zhou’s body. He silently raised his long spear, then swung it with inhuman strength, unleashing waves of white, semicircular Vacuum Air Waves that cut through the air like blades!
It was one of the three universal techniques: Qi Manipulation and Sky Breaking! By now, it was perfectly integrated into Su Zhou’s Martial Arts, turning him into a giant gale-powered woodchipper that shredded every incoming vine-claw to pieces!
A razor-sharp storm of Spiritual Power, mixed with furious Thunderbolts, tore apart and scorched every wooden claw that dared to block his path. The piercing shriek of the vacuum waves even momentarily drowned out the sound of the thunder. But in the next moment, Su Zhou sensed the core of the entire Array. A true thunderclap boomed. Amidst a violent flash of light, a cyan-blue thunderbolt, obeying the will of the Thunder Lord, crashed down into the center of the bizarre forest. It triggered a massive explosion, which in turn ignited a raging inferno.
Far behind, Bai Canglang only felt an extremely powerful burst of energy and thunder erupt ahead of him. Su Zhou’s aura, which had been moving at high speed, stopped in place for a short time, as if he were fighting something. Then, it began to accelerate again, rushing forward.
’What happened?’
Filled with doubt, Bai Canglang arrived a while later at the place where Su Zhou’s aura had flared.
It was a dense forest, suffused with thick Wood Qi. But this part of the forest had been completely ignited by a Thunder Strike. Many trees were now nothing but charcoal, burning fiercely.
But even so, Bai Canglang could still tell that this forest was abnormal compared to a regular one. The tree trunks were twisted, covered in sharp serrations and barbs. Before being burned, it looked as if they had been trying to transform into giant, writhing, dragon-clawed hands, reaching to grab something from the sky.
’It’s the Wood Attribute Cyan Dragon Array!’ Thanks to his family’s profound knowledge, Bai Canglang easily recognized the forest’s true nature. It was one of the Great Arrays hidden within the Kunlun Mountain Range. In its complete form, it was capable of transforming an entire forest into a wooden blue dragon with power rivaling the Great Demon King Realm to battle intruders.
But now, after thousands of years, the Array was incomplete. Furthermore, with the recovery of Spiritual Power still in its early stages, it couldn’t exert its full strength. On top of that, before it could even fully manifest, the perceptive Su Zhou had detected it and swiftly obliterated it with his Thunder Technique.
’Such power... He truly lives up to his name as Zhengguo’s number one genius, unconventionally promoted to professor before the age of twenty!’
Praising him in his heart, Bai Canglang resumed his pursuit. But soon, a second wave of power erupted from Su Zhou up ahead.
By the time a frantic Bai Canglang arrived, what appeared before him was a great river shrouded in steam from the high temperatures, which had even formed a small patch of fog. He was stunned once again. ’This is the Weak Water Array! The air above it is distorted into a vacuum vortex to prevent anyone from flying over, and it’s filled with poisonous gas! And the Weak Water itself... not even a feather can float on it. Anything that enters is doomed to sink!’
