“Your wood is still usable despite being contaminated by the unknown gray mist. They can be used as firewood for the expert!” said Jiang Liu, ever the expert when it came to matters of wood. Even until now, all he could think about was providing the best wood for the expert.
“Firewood? Who do you think you are!” The Sunberry Chief who was in his tree form was contorting itself in anger. The green leaves on his branches had all turned red while a ruthless and tyrannical aura exploded from his trunk.
He hated it the most when other people looked down on him. This was related to his background as in the beginning, he was only an ordinary Spiritual Root. It was through the contamination of the unknown gray mist that he became an Origins Spiritual Root, and he had always felt like he was not a thoroughbred. Being called firewood was the worst insult anyone could say to him in this situation.
“Behold, feel the boundless wrath of the Sunberry Clan!”
Jiang Liu was in the middle of the sunberry forest. The surrounding sunberry trees shot up, blocking the sky while they laughed maniacally. The terrifying oppressive force caused the air to crack, forming an isolated space as visions flashed in the sky.
Jiang Liu calmly pushed up the sleeve on one of his arms and wrapped the half-opened shirt around his body. This style was the epitome of a stereotypical traditional woodcutter.
He raised his sword slightly and there was a kind of primitive simplicity in his eyes. To him, the sunberry trees were neither tree demons nor Spiritual Roots, but ordinary trees. Anything could be chopped with his woodchopping technique, especially the sunberry trees which were wood to begin with.
The Sunberry Chief became even more hellbent on annihilating Jiang Liu when he sensed Jiang Liu’s disdain. “Die!” he roared.
The entire forest began to shake. Countless branches flew up in the air and their roots rose from the ground. Bathed in Wisdom, they each had the potential of razing a planet to the ground.
Countless roots intertwined and transformed into a colossal hand, blotting out the sky as it came down at Jiang Liu. The hand was not the only thing he had to worry about as the other roots were snaking toward him with enough whip power to rip the air apart. The whole area had turned into their playground and even the ground had been upturned, leaving nowhere to stand.
“Lift me up!” said Jiang Liu to the young sunberry behind him.
“Y—yes,” stuttered the young sunberry fearfully.
It began to wrap its branches around Jiang Liu and lifted him up high in the sky.
“What unimaginable power! It’s plant versus Jiang Liu!”
Yang Jing and the others had rushed over and their faces became solemn when they saw what was happening in front of them.
“All these fruits are so powerful! We need to attack together!” said Lord Angel. He was stopped by Cultivator Junjun just when he was taking a step forward.
“This is a matter between Jiang Liu and the firewood. A fight between nemesis. We shouldn’t meddle. This is the least we can do to preserve the pride of a woodcutter,” said Cultivator Junjun.
Hearing this, everyone remained standing where they were as they looked anxiously at the battlefield.
At that moment, all the attacks of the Sunberry Chief were closing in on Jiang Liu, whose eyes were getting more and more serious. He squatted down a little and raised his sword, adopting the stance of chopping a tree. He had already reached a state of flow. “One should put their heart into chopping wood!”
Then, he swung his sword.
With him as the center, the endless blade storm overflowed madly, sweeping up like a tornado and shrouding everything in boundless sword intent. The entire world had been turned into a sword, slashing everything in its path! The sword light shone and the terrifying sword intent pierced through everything, cutting off all the surrounding branches!
“Ah—! Die!” Amid the endless sword aura, the roar of the Sunberry Chief sounded, and countless roots flew around, annihilating and reorganizing the time and space around them.
In the visions, there was the sound of roaring explosions, and Yang Jing and others could only catch a glimpse of what was really going on amidst the storm.
Xiao Chengfeng held the sword hilt in both hands. His eyes were red and he said in utter grief, “D*mn it, he stole my spotlight again!”
Gradually, the visions disappeared. Jiang Liu stood proudly on the branch of the young sunberry tree, his sword still held high as he scanned the surroundings. He looked a little weak but that did not diminish his imposing demeanor.
Under his feet, there were countless broken branches. On closer inspection, they seemed to be in uniform size and shape. Not to mention there was only smoothness from where the cut was made. It was safe to say that these branches were not branches but firewood!
The Heavenly Palace people were deeply impressed. “Well down! You can tell that he’s been cutting wood for a long time!”
“His skill is certainly superb! What an exciting battle! Let’s all give him a round of applause!”
The sound of clapping could be heard all around.
Jiang Liu smiled, waved at everyone, and said modestly, “You’re all too kind. This is nothing. I need to work harder to ensure that I don’t let the expert down.”
In terms of power, his mana was not even as profound as that of the Sunberry Chief. Not to mention he had to battle against the whole forest. Fortunately, the woodcutting technique he had cultivated was the perfect antithesis to the sunberry trees. He had gotten a lot out of this battle.
“I won’t forgive you for calling me firewood!” shouted the Sunberry Chief, his voice trembling with extreme anger. Almost all of his branches had been chopped off and his near-baldness made him look pathetic.
“Die! You must die!” His voice turned shrill and was mingled with another voice that did not belong to him. The unknown gray mist transformed into a gray face and was looking coldly at Jiang Liu.
“You people from the seventh dimension have foiled my plans again and again. Today’s the day you pay for it!” said the gray face majestically. The unknown gray mist circulated the Sunberry Chief, re-growing his broken branches and its aura became strange and frightening. It did not stop until the Sunberry Chief had been enveloped in a thick layer of gray mist.
“One sword to end the long night!” Jiang Liu pulled out his sword and brought it down on the Sunberry Chief. However, the sword light bounced off the Sunberry Chief like it was nothing. His face stiffened at the sight of this.
The unknown gray mist was flowing like water. It laughed and said, “Your power is futile under the power of Heaven! I’m going to turn you all into white-haired monsters!”
This did not worry Jiang Liu. He smiled evenly and said, “Haha, you’ve finally appeared, snow globe!”
‘What? Snow globe?’ Heaven was taken aback but soon came the rage. ‘What’s wrong with you people? It’s not enough for you to call the Sunberry Chief firewood? Now, you’re calling me, Heaven, a snow globe!? Don’t you know it’s rude to label people?’
Heaven locked his gaze on Jiang Liu and coldly said, “You’ve just earned the right to be first in line of being turned into a white-haired monster.”
It began to extend its branches toward Jiang Liu who was actually at the end of his limits. There was no way he was a match for Heaven right now. Cultivator Junjun and the others wanted to save him but they were trapped by the sunberry forest. They could only watch helplessly as the unknown gray mist with unparalleled power continued to make its way toward Jiang Liu.
“You’re one of the reasons we came here, so do you really think that we didn’t prepare any backup plan?” said Jiang Liu suddenly with a smirk. He calmly performed a series of hand signs and then brought down his sword lightly on the void in front of him.
The space ripped open like paper and from the deep opening came a calm and weird aura. Then, it revealed a scene of demons in the woods and a tall man working in a cesspit with a manure fork in his hand.
The man must have sensed them for he turned his gaze toward the unknown gray mist and said, “Oh, hey! Seems like you guys have found the unknown gray mist.”
“He’s your backup plan? Hahaha, he doesn’t seem that strong to me,” said Heaven. He ignored the Elite King and continued to charge toward Jiang Liu.
However, just then, the Elite King also made a move. He slowly picked up the manure bucket by his feet and chucked it through the opening.
The void rippled and a mysterious aura blanketed the sky, attracting boundless Wisdom to gather as a monstrous coercive force shot down from the endless space.
All of Heaven’s attacks were instantly neutralized while the manure bucket continued to float in the sky, surging with power.
“Impossible! What kind of Ultimate Treasure is this?” shouted Heaven frantically. The unknown gray mist began to pull back for an escape.
“Take him down,” ordered the Elite King.
The manure bucket turned itself upside down and began to suck in the unknown gray mist.
“No! Who are you?! What are you doing?” The unknown gray mist twisted itself into various shapes in a bid to resist the manure bucket’s suction force.
“I’m a simple gong farmer and this is my manure bucket.”
Hearing this, Heaven nearly puked blood. It looked like the weird labels they liked to give out to their enemies extended to themselves, too.
One called himself a woodcutter, and the other went even a step further and called himself a simple gong farmer.
“You… You’re not humans! I’m not the weirdest one around here! That title belongs to you people from the seventh dimension!” shouted Heaven before he was completely sucked into the manure bucket.
The Elite King beckoned and the manure bucket crossed the border and went flying back into his hand. “I’ll keep the snow globe here for safekeeping. Remember to get it from me once you’re back.”
The gloomy sunberry forest was instantly restored to its previous glory.
The Heavenly Palace people’s eyes nearly popped out and it took a long time for them to process what had just happened. ‘Did the Elite King suppress Heaven just like that? C’mon, spare some thought for the rest of us people who don’t have the good fortune of working for the expert.’
It was as if they were only extras on set, what with Jiang Liu the woodcutter and the Elite King the gong farmer having control of the whole situation.
“Gah! I’m so jealous they can work for the expert. How I wish I could get my hands on a manure bucket, too!” said Xiao Chengfeng.
“Sigh, we need to work harder to not be left behind by them,” said Cultivator Junjun.
“The expert treats us well, too! Remember the morning exercise we did? We would do well to practice it more, for it’s a supreme ultimate spell!” said Yang Jing with determination in his eyes.
Being the supplier of angel feathers, Lord Angel and War Angel’s faces were flashing with excitement as well.
“We’ll make sure we grow beautiful feathers and become the best supplier of angel feathers in all of the seven dimensions! This way, the expert’s bound to be happy!” said Lord Angel.
War Angel nodded vigorously and said, “You’re right, father! Growing feathers is just as technical as any skill!”
As for Jiang Liu, he was already cleaning up the aftermath of the battle. He smiled and said, “This has certainly been a worthwhile trip! We got an uncontaminated young sunberry tree, plenty of firewood, and a snow globe!”
“Should we go back now?” asked Yang Jing.
Cultivator Junjun shook his head and said, “We should get more snow globes before going back!”
“Do you think the expert meant for us to get all of the unknown gray mist?” asked Lord Angel.
Cultivator Junjun was taken aback. “Yes! That’s it! We might as well capture all of the gray mist. I should’ve thought of that.”
“Brother Tianhua, tell us all of the places the unknown gray mist has appeared and we’ll capture them all in one go,” said Xiao Chengfeng.
“It’s easy to know where it has appeared since all those who have been contaminated with the unknown gray mist would surely do everything they can to extract the Origins of their dimensions. However, some of them have become a force to be reckoned with, so it’s best if we take some time to come up with a plan,” said Lord Angel seriously.
“Well, in that case, we should send people to scout around before things get out of hand,” said Yang Jing.
“We should get some information about the other fruits, too,” reminded Cultivator Junjun.
In the following days, the people from the Heavenly Palace began to come and go into the fourth and fifth dimensions frequently. Each time, a battle would surely occur for their target was the unknown gray mist.
This had made the reputation of the seventh dimension to be feared for all of them had first-hand experience of their monstrous combat power. Since then, those who had been contaminated with the unknown gray mist never had a good night’s sleep.
