Stranger Danger

Strangely, the shattered vines swiftly sprouted and grew into thick brambles and even more vines after they landed on the ground. Even more plants were bursting out of the earth and rapidly growing to full maturity.

In just the matter of seconds, the area within a hundred meters of Ye Qing had turned into a jungle. Considering that this was Lu Tai Yuan, a barren, icy wasteland where nothing could live, it was unusual to say the least.

Standing at the center of the jungle, Ye Qing keenly sensed that every vine, every tree, every blade of grass was his enemy. In fact, they were all attacking him.

At first, Ye Qing paid them no heed. However, he soon realized that physical assault wasn’t the only thing he needed to be worried about.

The plants were plentiful, but they were utterly incapable of piercing the Profound Yellow Mother Qi. Therefore, he didn’t need to worry about that. No, the problem here was that the plants were releasing all sorts of bizarre toxins.

Some of the toxins were unbearably smelly, some numbed the nerves, some affected the sensory organs, some corroded the true qi, and some just killed upon contact.

Even worse, these toxins were impossible to defend against. Usually, just sealing off your senses was enough to keep many types of poison from seeping into your body. In this case though, just making contact with the toxin or even seeing it was enough for it to take effect.

Worse still, these plants were endless. No matter how many he killed, only more came. It was annoying to put it mildly.

“Tsk tsk. You’re pretty strong. Tell me your name. I, Su Bancheng, do not kill nameless nobodies.”

It was at this moment Su Bancheng’s face grew out of the vines, the grass, the trees and more. They were all watching Ye Qing and beaming at him. It was as if he wasn’t angry that Ye Qing had shattered his body at all.

Of course, that wasn’t the case. Anyone who was familiar with Su Bancheng would know that there were only two situations where Su Bancheng wore such a sunny smile. One, when he was seriously happy. Two, when he was seriously mad.

Obviously, Su Bancheng was angry as hell right now. Who could after their body was shattered by an enemy? He was so angry he wished nothing more than to slice and dice Ye Qing into countless pieces.

On the surface, it looked like Ye Qing’s earlier attack had done nothing to him. After all, he seemed fine and was even taking the upper hand, right? However, that wasn’t the case. Even if he managed to kill Ye Qing in the end, it would not make up for what he had lost.

Right now, the Magia he was using was named “The God of Spring”. One of the most powerful Magias in the “Qing Emperor Longevity Scripture”, it was a potent spell that could both save his life and kill his enemies.

Although the “Qing Emperor Longevity Scripture” was a body-tempering martial art, strength wasn’t its defining characteristic unlike most body-tempering arts. Instead, it was resilience.

By taking the vitality of plants into one’s body, the practitioner could become as resilient and long-lived as plants. At the adept level, the practitioner was not going to live for ten thousand years, but they could definitely live a thousand years without any problem whatsoever.

That was why he was still alive even though his body was shattered. On top of that, “The God of Spring” allowed him to sacrifice his body and vitality to conjure the “Kingdom of the God of Spring”.

As its name implied, the jungle trapping Ye Qing was the “Kingdom of the God of Spring”. Here in his kingdom, Su Bancheng was an almighty god where all life served his will. If he willed something to live, it would live. The opposite was equally true. While the Magia was active, both the practitioner and the “Kingdom of the God of Spring” would never die.

That said, every time he used “The God of Spring”, he would lose ten years of lifespan. Even considering his cultivation art, it was hardly an insignificant price.

That was why Su Bancheng was livid right now.

“Kill me?” Ye Qing calmly punched several vines that were assaulting them into oblivion while saying, “You really think you can do it?”

“You think you can live considering the circumstances?” Su Bancheng sneered. “It’s fine if you don’t want to tell me. This ends here!”

As soon as Su Bancheng finished, the plants began growing even faster than they already were. The vines rapidly entangled Ye Qing’s limbs, torso, and head despite his continuous efforts to kill them. He was overwhelmed in just the blink of an eye.

“It’s your honor to be able to die under the ‘Kingdom of the God of Spring’,” said Su Bancheng, but he didn’t even manage to finish his sentence before a loud explosion blasted the plants trapping Ye Qing to pieces. The next moment, Ye Qing stomped the ground and unleashed shockwaves that cut through every plant they passed through like the autumn wind.

Despite this, the plants renewed their assault in no time. Not only that, they were merging together and forming divine beings that were over hundreds of meters tall.

The divine beings were wearing golden armor and wielding long sabers made of plants. They all swung their weapons at Ye Qing.

Bang!

Ye Qing lifted his arm and blocked the attack. The dark yellow light were as thick as heavy as mountains, shattering the sabers of plants easily. However, the impact was such that Ye Qing was thrown back several steps, and by the time he arrested his momentum, new plants were entangling his body and stopping him from taking a step.

“How is my ‘Kingdom of the God of Spring’?”

Su Bancheng laughed loudly. His laughter resounded throughout the jungle and caused the plants to become even crazier.

“The ‘Kingdom of the God of Spring’? That’s a good name!”

Right arm hanging loosely beside his waist, Ye Qing calmly sucked in a deep breath and clenched his right fist.

“It is a good name, and it is an even better grave. Why don’t you give it a try?” Su Bancheng chuckled.

“You should save the grave for yourself. I don’t need it.”

When Ye Qing’s fingers were fully clenched, the growing trees and spreading vines abruptly froze for an instant.

Then, Ye Qing slowly, very slowly raised his fist. The ground around his feet shattered inch by inch almost as if he was lifting a mountain.

For a moment, every plant was trembling as if sensing a life-threatening crisis. Then, they attacked Ye Qing with wild abandon. Unfortunately, they could not even get within one meter of ye Qing before dissolving into powder.

When Ye Qing had raised his fist to shoulder level, and he threw out a straight punch, heaven and earth fell still. For a moment, nothing was moving, and everything was silent as if time itself had frozen.

“This is all your ‘Kingdom of the God of Spring’ got!” Ye Qing remarked, and every single plant dissolved into powder and scattered into the wind.

New plants were sprouting on the earth, but Ye Qing did not give it time. He abruptly dropped to one knee and buried his fist so deep that the earth went up to his elbow.

His fist entered the ground without a sound, but the tremors shaking the underground was a different story. Thunder was rumbling where the eyes could not see, and the ears could not hear.

When Ye Qing finally removed his arm from the ground, the earth within three hundred meters of him dissolved into fine powder before falling downward into a deep pit.

The wild growth had finally come to a stop.

One punch to wither all plants, and another to shatter the God of Spring.

“Cough! Cough…”

Suddenly, Ye Qing clamped a hand over his mouth and coughed softly. Blood was seeping through his fingers.

He made it sound of-so-simple, but the fact was that “The God of Spring” was an exceedingly profound art. It didn’t just contain the miracles of plants, but also the power of rebirth through death. It was so, so difficult to defeat it with force only.

If he was in top shape, then this wouldn’t have been a problem. There was nothing “Break Hammer” could not break, and if one punch wasn’t enough, then a second punch would do it.

However, he had suffered major mental damage earlier, and his spirit was dry. As a result, he was unable to unleash the power of the “Three Origin Hammers” in full. That was why he had to stall out the fight until he recovered enough spirit to unleash the punch that broke the God of Spring.

It wasn’t without a cost, of course. The damage to his mind was compounded after executing the attack.

“Huh? He’s still alive?”

Suddenly, Ye Qing felt a hidden wisp of energies escaping toward the distance deep under the ground. “Tenacious bastard…”

Footsteps following the arc of stars, Ye Qing raced after the energy with seemingly light footsteps. In reality, it was the opposite. His footsteps made no sound whatsoever on the surface, but under ground, it was like a river of thunder was gathering.

“Show me your ugly mug, bud!”

Several steps later, Ye Qing raised his foot one-sixth of a meter before bringing it down hard.

Thunder could exist in just the span of an inch.

Rumble!

There was a loud rumble, and a man was pushed out of the underground. It was Su Bancheng.

Right now, Su Bancheng was covered in all sorts of plants. They were withering non-stop as he tried to run away from Ye Qing.

In the air, Ye Qing aimed a punch straight at him.