Chapter 154: Stone Forest (2)
As the crystalline scorpion shattered, all of the stone beasts howled angrily in unison.
“It killed Laome!”
“How could it do that? Laome was so lovable. It never attacked anyone.”
“Laome, our pitiful Laome!”
“It was still small, and it couldn’t regenerate itself yet. But now it’s gone forever.”
“Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!”
The sheer volume of the yells and howls almost shattered Su Chen’s eardrums.
So the crystal hadn’t been the core of the forest, but rather a newborn of the forest. It was just a delicate newborn, a newborn that couldn’t even revive yet; was that why it had remained hidden in the forest and wasn’t willing to attack?
And he had destroyed it with a single Whitetower Teleportation and a Flaming Phoenix Theurgy Art?
This realization rendered Su Chen speechless.
Indeed, common sense wasn’t always reliable. The scorpion had seemed different from the other stone beasts, but that didn’t necessarily mean that it was the strongest; it could also mean that it was the weakest.
However, this was not particularly salient. More importantly, he had really angered those stone creatures this time.
All of the stone creatures howled mournfully as they flew into the air. A magnificent sight appeared before Su Chen’s eyes.
The beasts began to meld into each other as they fused before his very eyes.
Their tough stone bodies seemed to be as soft as mud as they combined with one another and took on a new form.
Su Chen knew that the situation wasn’t good. He wasn’t planning on waiting around to see what they would become. In any case, there was no chance that he would prefer fighting that creature more — even though common sense had failed him in this one instance, common sense was still useful most of the time.
He gestured, and a Flaming Phoenix Theurgy Art took flight. Not only that, but he immediately followed up with a Shadow Flame Claw. Even though his opponent was about to finish its fusion process, these attacks were noticeably stronger than before.
However, the situation progressed in a way he had not anticipated. The incompletely fused figure was like a mud shield, and it forcibly absorbed his powerful attack without changing shape at all. It continued to squirm and shapeshift, gradually taking on the form of a massive stone scorpion. It looked quite similar to the crystalline scorpion he had killed earlier, but it was much larger, and it almost looked like a stone castle floating in the air. Its tail alone was hundreds of feet long, which it swung at Su Chen immediately after it finished forming. It crashed down upon Su Chen with all the momentum of a raging torrent.
Su Chen knew that this stone tail wasn’t something that he could casually knock aside like before. The Primordial Blood Incarnation appeared, and dark flames immediately began to glow on its skin. He unsheathed the Mountain-Beheading Blade, exploding forth with an immense amount of power in only an instant.
Boom!
With a massive explosion, Su Chen was thrown backwards like a kite whose string had been cut. The Primordial Blood Incarnation flickered vigorously, and Su Chen was barely able to keep it active.
“Damn, that’s really powerful!” Su Chen exclaimed as he wiped away the traces of blood from the corner of his mouth. He didn’t feel fear; instead, the excitement in his eyes only grew thicker.
Now this was a real battle!
There was no fooling around this time, not like the weak trash that Su Chen had been fighting before.
The Primordial Blood Incarnation expanded from fifty feet to over a hundred fifty. As its figure grew, so too did its strength at the price of its defensive capabilities and duration.
Su Chen didn’t care about anything else now that he had finally encountered a powerful opponent. He raised his strength to the peak, and the Mountain-Beheading Blade also grew correspondingly larger as lightning began to flicker across its surface.
His body glowed with dark flames and his blade sparked with lightning dancing across its edge. The lightning and the flames mixed to produce a shocking luster, signifying that Su Chen had entered his most powerful state.
“Come!” Su Chen yelled as he stabbed out with his blade.
Plasma flowed across his blade and continued sweeping forwards in a razor-sharp arc that threatened to bisect his opponent.
The fused scorpion howled and clacked its two massive claws together, then jabbed them at Su Chen.
The blade and the pincers collided, causing a wave of energy to explode forth as sparks flew everywhere.
Clang, clang, clang!
Su Chen slashed out a countless number of times, each blade strike filled with the power of thunder and lightning. The explosive power of the strikes could not be stopped as it burst forth and built on itself one after the other into an immense pressure. The massive stone scorpion howled in shock; gone was the cacophony of howls, as they had been replaced by a single primal and barbaric cry. Its massive claw came crashing down again with all the momentum of a tidal wave.
Another massive clash took place as sparks flew everywhere and the very fabric of space itself seemed to be rent apart. Waves of dangerous energy pulsed in all directions.
Su Chen was like a peerlessly dominant warrior. At this moment, he didn’t back off in the slightest; instead, he increased his strength to its peak. The massive scorpion cried out with a piercing shriek as it unleashed wild attack after wild attack.
Neither side was holding back in the slightest or showing mercy. Whoever could hold on until the very end was the winner.
In terms of pure strength, the massive stone scorpion was actually a tier higher. Even though Su Chen’s Primordial Blood Incarnation was already a hundred fifty feet tall, it was still a bit smaller than the massive scorpion. However, in terms of endurance, Su Chen was far superior to the stone scorpion.
Su Chen possessed the Immaculate Cultivation Technique, and his Origin Energy was much denser than anyone else’s of the same cultivation level. The Thread Coral Algae Robe also helped disperse the impact of any hits he took, decreasing Su Chen’s use of Origin Energy. And Su Chen also had countless recovery-type medicines to heal his wounds and an endless supply of Origin Stones to supplement his Origin Energy. As such, he constantly maintained himself at peak strength.
If he wanted to, he could fight like this for another seven days and seven nights without even breaking a sweat, and the only price he had to pay was a few resources.
And resources were something that he lacked the least.
Wealthy people didn’t fear long, drawn-out battles. This was a rule commonly observed in the Primordial Continent.
And without question, Su Chen was at the top of this world in terms of wealth.
As such, he wasn’t afraid of drawing out the battle with his opponent; actually, he was more than happy to do so.
However, the stone scorpion obviously did not have this intention.
It had very quickly discovered that even though it was a bit stronger than Su Chen, the opponent’s resilience and endurance was many times greater than its own. As such, if they were to continue to fight, it would be the one to suffer the ultimate loss.
With this realization, the stone scorpion finally began regretting its choice and wanted to retreat.
However, Su Chen had no intention of letting it run away like that.
That was because he had already pulled out another item.
“After you fused, you lost your ability to regenerate, right? And if you separate, you won’t be able to ignore my attacks like before, right? Which means that you are actually the most vulnerable in your strongest form…… Even though I don’t really like that saying, it really is fitting when applied to you.”
“Hiss!” the stone scorpion spat menacingly as a warning.
“I like that behavior of yours. You should know that everyone about to lose acts like that,” Su Chen replied with a slight smile.
The more his opponent acted like this, the more it meant that its back was against the walls.
Very good!
The blade in Su Chen’s hands began to move even more sharply.
Half an hour later, the massive scorpion had expended all of its strength and had no way of continuing to fight. Unlike humans, who had many ways of recovering their strength, the relatively simple and primal lifeforms lost their ability to fight once their energy ran out.
Bang!
Su Chen’s blade viciously slashed through the air, splitting the stone scorpion in two. It toppled to the ground, never to crawl back onto its legs again.
This time, it didn’t regenerate. An unassuming round, black stone rolled out of the remains of the scorpion.
Just by sensing the Origin Energy contained in this stone, Su Chen could tell that this stone was a treasure.
“Very good! The Stone Heart belongs to me now too.” Su Chen continued to irresponsibly name his findings. Tacking on a ‘heart’ at the end of everything he found was truly an efficient way of naming things.
However, just as he was about to walk over and pick up the Stone Heart, a bandaged hand suddenly emerged from the ground and snatched it before disappearing back into the ground.
