Chapter 650: The Man Who Wants to Be a Hero

Chapter 650: Chapter 11: The Man Who Wants to Be a Hero

The deputy director sighed again. “This proves he’s already on his way… Alas, to think we still need the Director’s protection even now. We successors are truly unqualified.”

In New Southern Celestial Capital, the populace was being evacuated in an orderly fashion. Supervised by Martial Artist units, they moved quietly toward the shelters. Although no one had ever attacked the heartland of the Tianzheng Alliance in its more than one-hundred-year history, its cautious founders had planned shelters capable of holding over three million people from the city’s very inception.

As New Southern Celestial Capital expanded, so too did the number of shelters. Even now, while they couldn’t accommodate everyone, they could at least guarantee full capacity for the most densely populated areas.

Just as an Innate Martial Artist was releasing his aura to calm the panicked citizens and guide them into the underground shelters, he faintly sensed something. He raised his head and looked toward the nearby Divine Wood. Though leafless, it still seemed to prop up the heavens, soaring into the clouds. His jaw slowly dropped, his eyes glazed over.

For at the apex of the Divine Wood, a pale cyan radiance was igniting. It grew brighter and more intense, blazing like a small sun at its peak, high above the clouds.

Then, a speck of violet-blue light began to descend from the distant horizon. A swath of pale purple light suddenly appeared in the gray-blue evening sky. The Innate Expert watching this scene paled, for the aura it emanated was not only on par with, but even surpassed, the pale orb of light atop the Divine Wood.

At that moment, the sky was split in two. One half was pale cyan, carrying a life-nourishing Wood Qi; the other was violet-blue, radiating a bone-chilling, malevolent intent.

In the next instant.

A violet-blue meteor tore through the streaking clouds. Moving at a speed imperceptible to the naked eye, leaving only a searing afterimage on the retina, it slammed directly into the apex of the pale cyan light.

Then, the horizon flashed incandescent white.

Seconds later, the thunderous BOOM of the explosion finally arrived, sound waves rolling across the land. In the distance, the clouds around the Divine Wood’s peak had been blasted away, revealing a perfectly circular hole that was constantly expanding. The red light of the setting sun poured through the opening, draping the entire Divine Wood and the surrounding land in a scarlet veil.

“Th-that’s…”

Lowering the hand that had shielded his eyes, the Innate Expert held his breath. He stared at the point where the incandescent light had originated—at two figures, faintly visible atop the Divine Wood, thousands of meters in the air.

A massive, cyan wooden statue stood atop the Divine Wood, its head tilted up toward the sky. Opposite it, a small human figure hovered in midair, looking down upon the earth.

Without a single word, the battle had begun.

Meanwhile, five thousand meters away, Shao Qiming dangled one-handed from a drone, filming the scene with a specialized camera. ‘What a couple of stubborn fools,’ he thought. ‘This is the kind of thing you resolve over drinks and a barbecue, but no, they have to have a knock-down, drag-out fight… Still, I guess I can see why this Zhou Buyi is Azhou’s friend.’

Atop the withered Divine Wood, a blazing Spiritual Light suddenly flared. Now that he understood Zhou Buyi’s intentions, Su Zhou wouldn’t hold back. He had confirmed that the giant wooden statue before him was Zhou Buyi’s true Divine Wood Body—and also the ‘Seed’ for a new Divine Wood to come. Without hesitation, he unleashed his full power. The Spiritual Power of four elements—fire, thunder, water, and wind—erupted and fused violently, staining the entire sky a gloomy, rain-cloud black.

BOOM! The air cracked as Su Zhou accelerated to Mach 3. He used the Gale Shield as wings, propelling himself with water vapor. He reinforced his body with the Fire Element and wielded Thunder Light as a spear, concentrating it all into his clenched right fist. In a single frame the camera could barely capture, he threw a simple, unadorned punch straight for the center of Zhou Buyi’s forehead.

But Zhou Buyi was a veteran of a hundred battles over the past one hundred and forty years. He completely ignored the heavy punch aimed at his vitals. Instead, his right hand formed a blade-edge and chopped straight for Su Zhou’s waist. Given the scale of the giant wooden statue, his hand-chop was like the great blade of the Dragon-slaying Platform, meant to slice Su Zhou clean in two.

The giant wooden statue’s forehead instantly shattered, splintering layer by layer under the force of the punch. Even the incredibly sturdy fibers of the Divine Wood couldn’t withstand a blow imbued with so much Spiritual Power. The immense force twisted and crushed the wood, blasting a huge hole. A bulge even appeared on the back of its head, as if the punch had gone straight through.

But Su Zhou was also struck by the hand-chop. His entire spine seemed to snap as he was sent flying back several thousand meters.

For two beings who possessed Divine Wood Power and Undying Blood, however, such an injury was less than a scratch. In the next instant, the young man’s spine snapped back into place. He curved through the air and once again became a meteor, rocketing toward the wooden giant. The hole in the statue’s head healed as if time itself were reversing, and it too threw a punch to meet him.

Only then did the deafening roar from their initial exchange begin to spread in all directions, erupting in ring-shaped sonic booms and shockwaves. But their second clash had already begun—and this time, neither would yield an inch.

Although Su Zhou had not drawn his Blade of Annihilation, his own fists and feet were weapons of the Commander Tier. When he kicked, the immense force created a vacuum, and the resulting heat ignited the very air. Each of his attacks was like a Hellfire Rain descending from the heavens.