Black Sheep let out a hoarse cry that sounded like a crow weeping blood and slammed his blood-soaked right hand onto the ground.
Secret Technique: Ancient Wood Foundation!
Instantly, the ground for dozens of yards around began to tremble violently. Countless roots, each as thick as an infant’s arm and black as ink, burst from the soil. They didn’t lunge for Chu Bai. Instead, like crazed vipers, they coiled up Black Sheep’s legs and burrowed directly into his Flesh and Blood.
Chu Bai’s Divine Thought clearly detected the cold, grim Evil Qi, which had accumulated deep within the earth for centuries, flooding into Black Sheep’s body through the roots like a tidal wave.
CRACK! CRACK!
The grating sound of bones rearranging filled the air.
At the site of Black Sheep’s shredded shoulder, countless tiny flesh buds, mingled with cyan-black wood grain, began to grow frantically. In just three breaths, the wound—grievous enough to kill an ordinary man—was sealed shut by a hard, wood-like shell.
His aura hadn’t weakened. On the contrary, now connected to the Earth Vein, it radiated an oppressive weight as heavy as a mountain.
’He’s actually refined himself into a part of this Earth Vein?’
Chu Bai’s brow furrowed slightly. His Divine Thought told him that Black Sheep was now less of a man and more of an ancient, malevolent tree rooted to this very spot.
Although this Secret Technique would severely damage his lifespan and even cause his Cultivation to regress after the battle, for now, he was the "Earth God" of this hundred-yard domain.
Black Sheep rose slowly, splinters of wood flying from his body. His sinister gaze swept over the Demon Slaying and Demon Suppression guards, who were gradually tightening their encirclement, before finally landing on Chu Bai.
He knew perfectly well that the young man before him was no ordinary cultivator at the Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer. The precision of his Spiritual Power control, right down to his fingertips, filled Black Sheep with a despair he had never known.
"Retreat! Take the treasure and break out from the west—now!"
Black Sheep’s voice was hoarse and deep, carrying an authority that could not be questioned. "I will stay here and hold the line! Get to the Prefecture City and rendezvous with the lord!"
"Yes!"
In the ruins by the dry well, the dozen or so Wild Cultivators, whose ranks had been thrown into disarray by the encroaching army, heard the command as if granted a great pardon.
Two masters at Late-stage Qi Cultivation among them exchanged a glance, then retrieved a long box covered in black talismanic cloth from a tent.
"Anyone who stands in our way dies!"
The two Wild Cultivator leaders roared, leading the dozen or so remaining desperados in a frantic activation of their Dharma Artifacts.
For a moment, a sinister wind howled. A chaotic and vicious barrage of Wild Cultivator Magic Techniques lit up the sky as they launched a desperate charge toward the western side of the encirclement, right where Feng Qin and Hu Hao were stationed.
’Trying to escape?’
Chu Bai’s eyes turned cold. The Jade Treasure Gourd at his waist once again pulsed with dense Purifying Qi, instantly calming the slight ripple in his aura caused by shattering his opponent’s defense.
His footwork shifted, and just as he was about to use Fire Step Ascension to bypass Black Sheep and intercept the box, he felt a sudden weight at his feet.
Countless roots shot up from the ground like Spiritual Serpents, sealing off every inch of space around him.
Black Sheep spread his arms, which transformed into countless thorny blades dozens of feet long, forming a grim, insurmountable barrier before Chu Bai.
"Your opponent... is me!"
Black Sheep sneered, his wooden armor glinting with an eerie cyan light in the moonlight. He was trading his life for theirs, determined to leave behind a single ember of hope for his organization in the ruins of Chaotic Bone Ridge.
Chu Bai halted. A brief sweep of his Divine Thought revealed that Feng Qin and his men to the west had already engaged the Wild Cultivators attempting to break through.
"Don’t be in such a hurry to die. You still have to come back with me to the department to report."
The battle in the center of Chaotic Bone Ridge had now entered its most brutal stage.
Black Sheep’s body had swelled to over ten feet tall. His skin had completely transformed into wrinkled, grayish-black bark, and countless roots like Lock Chains bound him tightly to the Yin Qi-filled earth.
The ground churned violently in a thirty-yard radius around him, forming a Death Forbidden Area of thorns and spikes.
"Feng Qin! Hu Hao! Take your men and go around him! Latch onto that important treasure and don’t let a single one of them escape!"
As Chu Bai’s dive slowed mid-air, his voice boomed over the battlefield like thunder. "Leave this old bastard to me!"
"Be careful, my lord!"
Feng Qin and Hu Hao knew Chu Bai’s strength well. This was no time for sentimentality. They immediately led two hundred elite guards, splitting into two torrents of steel. Skirting the range of Black Sheep’s roots, they gave chase, hot on the heels of the Wild Cultivators attempting to escape.
"Heheheh... Junior, you’re too arrogant!"
Black Sheep let out a deep rumble, a cruel sneer twisting his wood-like face. "I have activated Ancient Wood Foundation. I now live and die with the Earth Vein of Chaotic Bone Ridge."
"As long as the Spiritual Mechanism of the earth endures, I have an Undying Body! You won’t even be able to scratch my skin before you run out of Spiritual Power!"
Chu Bai’s expression was as placid as still water. Without a word, he brought two fingers together, furiously compressing Spiritual Power at their tips.
"Ignite!"
BOOM!
Aided by the Fire Element Ring, flames erupted. But under his Micro Level control, the fire didn’t spread. Instead, it condensed into a thin, whip-like strand that lashed precisely against Black Sheep’s thick, wooden armor.
A harsh sizzling sound filled the air. Where the line of fire struck, the grayish-black bark instantly carbonized.
But immediately after, a dense, cyan-black Yin Qi surged from the ground. In the blink of an eye, vibrant green shoots sprouted from the carbonized wound before hardening back into bark.
"Useless! Do it again!" Black Sheep laughed maniacally.
Chu Bai’s eyes were glacial. His figure flickered unpredictably in the air as he unleashed a torrential downpour of Magic Techniques.
One volley, two volleys, ten volleys...
Chu Bai’s assault was relentless, each Magic Technique striking precisely at Black Sheep’s Spiritual Power nodes.
Ten breaths passed.
The triumphant sneer on Black Sheep’s face slowly froze.
He realized that even under such a high-frequency, high-intensity magical bombardment, the young man’s aura hadn’t weakened in the slightest.
Logically speaking, even a cultivator at Qi Cultivation Perfection should feel their Spiritual Power draining after casting such powerful techniques a dozen times in a row.
And yet, the five-colored Spiritual Light around Chu Bai remained as brilliant as ever. Under the cycle of the Five Elements, every stray wisp of Spiritual Power was reabsorbed and converted.
Five Elements Mutual Generation, perfect and complete.
Supported by his Micro Realm mastery of the Guiyuan Technique, while the total volume of Chu Bai’s Spiritual Power was that of the Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer, its quality and recovery rate had long ago reached an astonishing level.
For him, this intense exchange was merely another cycle of Spiritual Power through his meridians. His rate of consumption could barely keep up with his rate of recovery!
"How is this possible... Is your Spiritual Power endless?!"
Fear finally gripped Black Sheep. He realized that although he could heal instantly, each regeneration consumed a massive amount of his Essence Blood and the Earth Vein’s Yin Qi.
His opponent’s Magic Techniques, however, were like a blade that never dulled, slowly, methodically carving away his very Origin.
"I don’t believe it! Just die!"
Knowing he couldn’t just wait to be killed, Black Sheep let out a piercing roar. Countless roots shot up from the ground, becoming a sky-full of vine-whips that tried to drag Chu Bai down from the air into the Abyss.
Another hundred breaths passed.
The ruins of Chaotic Bone Ridge had been sheared down by three feet, worn away by Chu Bai’s relentless assault of Magic Techniques.
Black Sheep’s mountain-like wooden body was now riddled with holes.
The once grayish-black bark was charred black, large swathes of woody tissue shredded to splinters by the Geng Metal Qi Force. Even the roots connecting him to the Earth Vein were being corroded, infiltrated by Chu Bai’s Micro Level Water Technique.
Black Sheep screamed in agony. The defensive power he was so proud of was on the verge of collapse under Chu Bai’s continuous barrage.
"Such terrifying destructive power... What kind of monster are you?!"
Despair flooded Black Sheep’s heart.
He had planned to rely on his superior Realm and defense to wear his opponent out. He never imagined that his form, like that of an ancient, malevolent tree, would be ground into dust by a boy at the Qi Cultivation Eighth Layer using nothing but the simplest Basic Techniques, shattering every last bit of his life force.
Chu Bai hovered in the air, the Jade Treasure Gourd at his waist glowing with a soft, verdant light. His eyes remained as calm as a frozen lake.
"Nothing more than this."

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