After Yan Ruoruo gave the signal to retreat, Su Chen faced the surging tide of giant roots. Instead of leaving immediately, he once again unleashed his Rune Technique.
At this moment.
In the depths of his Sea of Consciousness, the small tree swayed gently. A large fruit hanging from one of its branches suddenly erupted in a dazzling light.
’Weave!’
As if blessed with sudden inspiration, he instinctively understood. The Holy Light Rune, the Flame Burst Rune, and the Gravity Skill Rune fused with a roar deep within his consciousness, weaving themselves into one.
As they layered and converged, a brand-new, triple-composite Technique was born.
’Molten Core Collapse!’
Su Chen thrust his right hand forward.
Soundlessly.
The dozens of giant roots surging forward suddenly froze, as if solidified in mid-air.
The next instant.
BOOM!
With a deafening roar, a ring of dark golden flame, condensed to its absolute limit, violently compressed before instantly detonating.
The mutated giant roots were all vaporized from the inside out, crushed into a fine powder under the extreme heat and intensified pressure. Before the shockwave could even spread, it was forcefully sucked back by an invisible gravity field, creating a secondary implosion.
The patch of forest ahead looked as if it had been struck by a meteorite. Rock strata melted and charred earth churned as the ground suddenly collapsed downward in a terrifying sinkhole.
The ancient trees controlling the roots also began to disintegrate. Their underground root systems snapped, and the now-unsupported trunks collapsed. The moment they touched the gravity field, they were blasted into sawdust by the intense heat and implosion.
"Holy shit!!"
At that moment, Pang Peng and the others jumped in shock. Even someone as calm and composed as Yan Ziqian looked utterly astonished.
’Light, Fire, and Earth-attribute Rune Techniques... they actually fused successfully just like that.’
Su Chen sighed to himself. ’It was almost impossible to chain the Gravity Skill and the Flame Burst Skill together before. Their attributes were just too difficult to harmonize. This is undoubtedly a massive breakthrough. It isn’t just chaining them, either. Under my will, the three Runes were forged as one, woven together into a brand-new Rune architecture.’
’With this integration, the damage and characteristics went far beyond simple addition, creating an explosive effect where 1+1+1 was much, much greater than 3.’
’Of course, what can be woven can also be unwoven.’
A thought shifted in his mind, and he quietly released his hold on the Rune structure. The three Runes returned to their respective places.
"Hurry up and finish the sacrifice."
The previous commotion in the forest had been snuffed out by his power alone. Under the protection of such a god-like killing move, Yan Ziqian seized the opportunity to finish sacrificing the large bag of Ashen Bud Flowers.
This time, perhaps because of the terrifying power Su Chen had just displayed, the brilliant light radiating from the altar’s Rune Array didn’t attract any frantic attention.
The world fell silent, as if the entire forest were holding its breath.
But with his Resonance Perception, Su Chen could still feel a pulse from deep underground. Within the cracks of the rock strata, strands of mycelia were quietly extending and converging, perhaps even using the network to exchange information.
"Let’s go."
After Yan Ziqian collected a Lv4 Spirit Element Rune and tossed a bottled Rune of the same level with unknown effects to Su Chen, the group wasted no time. The glow of cleansing auras, including the Purification Skill, began to erase the scent of spores from their bodies. Wrapped in Wind Fluff, they launched into the air. An invisible ripple concealed their figures as they quickly flew up to the canopy and skimmed across the sea of treetops.
「One minute later.」
A swarm of Iron-Eating Insects flew toward the cliff’s edge. The tide of insects, like a cascading waterfall, instantly engulfed the entire altar.
With a sound like millions of files scraping across an iron plate, the stone altar disintegrated. The Rune Array was devoured in less than a breath. In under ten seconds, all that was left of the entire altar was a ruined foundation.
But the swarm wasn’t satisfied.
One part of the swarm flew deep into the subterranean caves, while the other descended like a dark cloud, plunging into the deep chasm below.
But before they had descended even halfway, an invisible aura of annihilation began to spread. The life force was silently drained from the insects. Their carapaces dimmed in great swathes, the buzzing of their wings came to an abrupt halt, and they fell from the sky in a cascade.
To avoid drawing attention, the group traveled back in silence.
About halfway back, it seemed the fungal network’s hive mind had lost track of them completely. There was no sign of pursuit.
During this lull, Su Chen even managed to figure out a second triple-composite Technique.
Its name was ’Void Wanderer.’
The Flying Skill provided sustained levitation, the Gravity Skill offered freedom from the pull of gravity, and the Shadow Jumping Skill injected the essence of Spatial Teleportation.
The moment he activated it.
He instantly felt like a wisp of Wind Fluff, a drifting cloud, silently melting into the air just above the ground.
His first sensation was that gravity was no longer a restraint, but a toy to be commanded at will.
With a mere thought, his body flipped upside down, suspended in the Void. He then began to run through the air, still inverted, as if on solid ground. Everything felt perfectly natural; his body didn’t register the slightest sense of incongruity.
And then.
His form wavered like a ripple in water, and he passed straight through the trunk of an ancient tree. He didn’t damage it in the slightest, nor did he stir so much as a whisper of wind.
In this phased state, Su Chen continued to ignore all obstacles. He passed through thick vines and branches, and even flew through a swarm of bees without causing a single ripple.
Like Shadow Shifting, it allowed him to achieve a state that transcended reality, existing untethered from the world.
However...
It clearly lasted much longer.
Furthermore, this triple-composite Technique retained the spatial leap characteristic. With a single thought, Su Chen appeared in the air two hundred meters away.
That was the maximum distance.
Generally speaking, a Lv4 Shadow Jumping Skill had a maximum range of 65 meters. With the 100% Rune bonus from his ’Elemental Mastery’ class feature, that distance could be extended to 130 meters.
Now, after evolving into the triple-composite Technique, ’Void Wanderer,’ the maximum leap distance had suddenly jumped to 200 meters.

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