Chapter 253 - 246: Pleasant Surprise, Terrifying Ability

Chapter 253: Chapter 246: Pleasant Surprise, Terrifying Ability

A few years ago, in the Daoist Talisman Holy Land Secret Realm, it took Jiang Zuo a mere four years to set up the grand array to extract a Spirit Vein.

Now, setting it up again, the time required was significantly reduced.

During his four years on Endless Island, he had already finished setting up the grand Spirit Vein extraction array.

The only reason he hadn’t acted yet was that he still hadn’t found a way off the Endless Sea.

By staying on the island to gather more information, Jiang Zuo could also conveniently dismantle more array materials, just in case.

But now that he had been exposed, he needed to act quickly.

He had set up the grand Spirit Vein extraction array with great stealth, but given a little more time, the two Array Masters might notice something was amiss.

「Night soon fell.」

The lights of Endless Island burned bright, and security had been heavily reinforced.

But unless Ren Yelin himself showed up, none of these people could discover Jiang Zuo.

Jiang Zuo snuck in quietly, arriving at the central hub of the array controlling the island’s Spirit Vein.

He slowly rose into midair.

"Intruder!"

Someone spotted Jiang Zuo at once and immediately shouted a warning.

"You audacious thief! How dare you return!"

In the distance, Ren Yelin’s figure shot into the sky, his furious roar carrying across the distance.

Unmoved, Jiang Zuo thrust the Array Flag in his hand straight down toward the array’s hub on the ground.

BOOM!

Pillars of light from the array erupted toward the heavens, illuminating the entire night sky.

The ground of Endless Island began to shake violently, and the Cultivators on the surface momentarily lost their balance.

"This is bad!"

"This is... a grand Spirit Vein extraction array!"

"Not only did he steal our array materials, but he also secretly set up such a massive array all by himself?"

Master Duan and Master Chen, the two Array Masters, had emerged.

As they watched the pillars of light shooting into the sky all around them and felt the island rumbling and shaking, the two instantly understood, and their faces turned pale.

’It was already incredible that this person escaped from Elder Ren. How could he have also set up a colossal array like the grand Spirit Vein extraction array all by himself?’

"Don’t even think about it!"

Ren Yelin also had some knowledge of arrays, and seeing this, he was filled with shock and fury.

He was already culpable for failing to set up the island’s defensive array.

If the island’s Spirit Vein was extracted as well, he would become a great sinner in the eyes of the Celestial Eye Black Pupil!

But unfortunately, no matter how unwilling he was, it was already too late.

Amidst the violent tremors, a colossal beam of white light, as bright as lightning, erupted from underground. Like a thunderclap piercing the white night, it whistled through the air and arrived before Jiang Zuo.

A medium-grade Spirit Vein!

What he had extracted from Endless Island was actually a medium-grade Spirit Vein!

Jiang Zuo’s spirits soared.

The materials used for the array this time were of slightly better quality than those in the Daoist Talisman Holy Land Secret Realm, and Jiang Zuo had found the setup process to be much smoother.

But he hadn’t expected to be able to extract the Spirit Vein completely intact.

The medium-grade Spirit Vein shot before Jiang Zuo and was instantly taken into his Pet Beast Spirit Garden.

BOOM!

Once the Spirit Vein was extracted, Endless Island instantly seemed to lose its vitality, becoming noticeably more desolate.

The once-abundant Spiritual Qi on the island began to dissipate at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Meanwhile, in the Pet Beast Spirit Garden...

As this medium-grade Spirit Vein entered and fused with the land, the concentration of Spiritual Qi within the Spirit Garden skyrocketed.

All the Pet Beasts inside the Spirit Garden roared with delight.

"You bastard, die!"

The island’s Spirit Vein was truly gone. Ren Yelin’s eyes looked ready to pop from their sockets as he roared through gritted teeth.

He gritted his teeth and, disregarding the damage to his body and lifeblood, executed a Blood Escape technique to charge murderously toward Jiang Zuo.

"Heh heh!"

With a low chuckle, Jiang Zuo summoned the Flying Sword he had snatched from Ren Yelin that day, leaped onto it, and shot forward.

In just one afternoon, he had already wiped all traces of Ren Yelin from the Flying Sword and refined it for his own use.

The first volume of the Taixu Sword Technique, Lingxu Swordsmanship, contained an Escape Technique for riding Flying Swords.

It was just that Jiang Zuo had used a Sword Pill before, so he’d had no use for a Flying Sword-based Escape Technique.

Now, with a fourth-rank Flying Sword at his command, Jiang Zuo’s escape speed increased dramatically.

Seeing this, Ren Yelin nearly ground his teeth to dust in fury. ℓ.

’This Jiang Zuo... I’ll make him die a miserable death!’

But Ren Yelin knew that revenge wasn’t the most important thing.

His top priority was to capture Jiang Zuo and retrieve the Spirit Vein.

Only then could he atone for his failure.

The two figures flashed through the night sky at an astonishing speed.

On Endless Island, all the Cultivators had been alerted.

However, as they watched the two distant figures, they hesitated, and only a handful gave chase.

For one, Ren Yelin hadn’t told them to pursue. For another, with Ren Yelin already giving chase, their help would likely be useless.

Jiang Zuo’s speed with Lingxu Swordsmanship was fast, but Ren Yelin, burning his own lifeblood, was even faster.

After chasing for some distance from Endless Island, Ren Yelin closed the gap enough to use his Divine Technique. He showed Jiang Zuo no courtesy and immediately unleashed his Dao Fruit’s Divine Technique.

"Divine Technique: Cyan Profound Divine Palm!"

As the Dao Fruit’s Divine Technique activated, Jiang Zuo’s figure came to an abrupt halt.

Just as it had that day, the Cyan Profound Divine Palm slammed viciously into Jiang Zuo.

However, Ren Yelin had learned his lesson from their earlier encounter. This time, he wasn’t about to knock Jiang Zuo into the sea and let him escape.

Jiang Zuo was again reduced to a bloody mist, sent flying forward like a cannonball.

Ren Yelin sped over, preparing to grab him before he fell into the sea.

’This guy... what kind of monster is he?!’

’He can recover this quickly after taking a direct hit from a Dao Fruit’s Divine Technique!’

’Even within the sect, there’s no one with regenerative abilities like his!’

This time, Ren Yelin finally witnessed Jiang Zuo’s astonishing regenerative ability with his own eyes.

Jiang Zuo’s body was still flying backward, but the blurry mass of flesh and blood had already begun to reform.

And even so, this was only because Jiang Zuo was holding back.

He was letting Ren Yelin see this on purpose.

As expected, Ren Yelin grew anxious at the sight.

He was only in the early stage of the Dao Fruit Realm, so he couldn’t use his Divine Technique consecutively.

If he let Jiang Zuo recover, and he couldn’t use his Dao Fruit’s Divine Technique again right away, Jiang Zuo might just slip away.

If he let this person slip away, he could forget about ever finding him again.

Ren Yelin would absolutely not allow that to happen.

Thankfully, he was still faster!

Ren Yelin flew before Jiang Zuo, seeing that his body was still regenerating rapidly.

However, it would still take some time for him to recover completely.

Ren Yelin reached out a hand, intending to grab Jiang Zuo and imprison him.

’A mere Three Flowers Realm Cultivator... once he’s in my grasp, no matter how capable, he’ll be nothing but my prisoner.’

"Rage!"

But at that very moment, a voice like a clap of thunder rang in Ren Yelin’s ears.

Ren Yelin was already in a state of extreme fury. Upon hearing that sound, his rage became utterly uncontrollable, his eyes turning crimson as he lost all reason.

With the great increase in Jiang Zuo’s Divine Sense, the power of his Beast Pattern Rune Technique had also grown immensely.

Even though Ren Yelin was an entire major realm above Jiang Zuo, he couldn’t escape the influence of the rune technique.

"Flesh Burst!"

At almost the same instant, Jiang Zuo chose to unleash the power within his Primordial Flesh and Blood.

Jiang Zuo’s still-blurry form of flesh and blood recovered completely in an instant.

Not only that, but his flesh and blood also expanded wildly in that same instant, transforming Jiang Zuo into a crimson giant.

A terrifying aura radiated from every muscle in Jiang Zuo’s body.

Arcs of purple lightning even coiled around him.

Seeing Jiang Zuo’s transformation, even in his blind rage, Ren Yelin felt a sense of extreme danger, and his mind instantly cleared.

He scrambled to retreat, but after Jiang Zuo unleashed the power of his Primordial Flesh and Blood, both his strength and speed had increased to a terrifying degree.

Like a phantom, Jiang Zuo appeared at Ren Yelin’s side.

Although Ren Yelin’s mind had cleared considerably, he was still slightly under the influence of the Anger Rune Technique.

This slight influence caused his movements to be a beat too slow.

Jiang Zuo shot out his arms and locked Ren Yelin in a powerful grip.

"Get off me!"

Since beginning his path of Cultivation, when had Ren Yelin ever encountered such a brutish, brawling fighting style?

But an ever-intensifying sense of danger made him desperate to break free from Jiang Zuo.

He furiously circulated his techniques, unleashing all the Spiritual Power in his body like a bomb in an attempt to blast Jiang Zuo away.

At the very least, he had to force Jiang Zuo to let go.

But despite the explosion of Spiritual Power, Jiang Zuo remained unmoved.

Ren Yelin only felt Jiang Zuo’s arms, like iron bands, squeezing ever tighter.

Then, Ren Yelin could only watch as a Sword Pill appeared out of nowhere, right before his eyes.

"No!"

Seeing the Sword Pill stabbing toward him, able only to watch, completely unable to dodge, Ren Yelin roared in terror and fury.

But Jiang Zuo had already used his Primordial Flesh and Blood Burst; he would enter a weakened state immediately after, so he wasn’t about to waste any more words on Ren Yelin.

In a flash, the Sword Pill was upon him.

"If I’m going to die, you’re coming with me!"

Knowing that he was about to die by the Sword Pill, Ren Yelin let out a furious roar.

The next instant, Jiang Zuo sensed something amiss. He hurriedly released Ren Yelin and shot backward.

BOOM!

Jiang Zuo hadn’t gotten far before Ren Yelin’s body exploded.

Knowing death was certain, Ren Yelin had chosen to self-detonate his Dao Fruit.

Although Jiang Zuo could restrain him and prevent him from moving, there was nothing Jiang Zuo could do to stop Ren Yelin from self-detonating his Dao Fruit.

The power of a self-detonating Dao Fruit was immense; Ren Yelin was instantly annihilated, turned to dust and smoke.

Although Jiang Zuo had retreated at the first possible moment, his speed was no match for the blast from a self-detonating Dao Fruit.

Jiang Zuo only felt an incomparably terrifying force surging toward him. He instinctively raised his arms to shield his face.

It felt as if he’d been slammed by a massive truck.

Even in his Flesh Burst state, Jiang Zuo couldn’t help but let out a great GUSH as he violently spat out a mouthful of fresh blood.

But what was even more terrifying was that Jiang Zuo’s hands, feet, and a portion of the front of his body were instantly obliterated in the shockwave from Ren Yelin’s self-detonating Dao Fruit.

Suspended in midair, Jiang Zuo had become a mutilated figure with no hands or feet, and with a large part of his torso gone.

Anyone else in his condition would be dead, or crippled for life if they survived.

But in the next instant, Jiang Zuo’s hands and feet grew back at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The missing muscles on the front of his body regenerated at the same time.

It was as if Jiang Zuo hadn’t been harmed at all.

However, upon closer inspection, one could see that the color in Jiang Zuo’s face had drained, leaving it considerably paler.