Chapter 1 The Wood Centipede

The wood centipede was still struggling – the life force of such spiritual plants and exotic beasts was especially terrifying. Even the Red Earth Demonic Poison could only harm its fluid circulation and could not completely kill it in a short time.

But this did not prevent Su Zhou from prying open its carapace, taking out the spiritual fluid from its body and pouring it into a portable plastic bag, then hanging it on his waist as a trophy.

"No fiend crystal, huh... That's right, this is just an ordinary local creature, while fiends are the materialization of information projections from another world in the real world – according to a certain game theory, if the former is a human, the latter is at least a Heroic Spirit candidate."

Of course, even a Heroic Spirit is just that before it grows into its complete form. Su Zhou just felt sorry for missing out on an extra reward.

At this moment, he also noticed Zhou Buyi and the others approaching in the distance.

"Those demon wolves can't stop them? ...After all, they are the 'suspected protagonist group' of this world. Dealing with a demon general might be a bit difficult, but a few wood-armored gray wolves can't stop them."

Su Zhou paid a lot of attention to Zhou Buyi and the others.

Not only because they were the first locals he met in this world, and not only because of their ideals, but also because he could vaguely see that if he hadn't appeared, then this three-person team would be the center of the storm in this world, and should have had a 'plot' unique to them, and even the ultimate direction of this world would be related to their actions.

The relevant information of this plot might even be projected into the minds of some people on Earth, turning into inspiration for some games or the driving force for creation...

However, his arrival had completely messed up all the plots from the beginning... Heaven knows what impact it would have on the original Earth world.

"Maybe the 'Dark Wolf Series' will have a sequel?" Su Zhou said to Yala with a chuckle – he was just saying it casually, but he received an unexpectedly serious response from the Snake Spirit.

"Undoubtedly, your changes in this world will have a huge impact on your original world."

Yala slightly poked her head out from Su Zhou's hair, her tone very serious: "Not to mention anything else, if you really let the divine weapon be forged, and cut off the sacred tree inheritance of this world, then perhaps the vague connection between the 'Dark Wolf Series' and the 'Sacred Tree World' will probably come to an end directly."

"In other words, either the creator uses their own skill to continue writing their 'imagined plot world', or this series will end here – the Sacred Tree World will also get rid of the influence of the great existence, and become an ordinary member of the worlds, no longer connected to your world."

– Perhaps one day in the future, the world we are in will once again have a 'connection' with the changed Sacred Tree World, but that will be for other reasons, and no longer because of the 'sacred tree'.

How complex are the relationships between worlds? Su Zhou is still far from being able to understand these things, but he still nodded thoughtfully, seeming to understand something.

But now, the more important thing is not to think about these aspects. Su Zhou directly bent down and pulled the iron spear stained with green blood from the wound on the back of the dying demon general beastmaster. When he pulled out a series of wood fluids, he also pulled out the equally withered Undying Root from its body.

"Take this and find a chance to completely kill it later."

Saying this, he threw the Undying Root to Zhou Buyi and the others, who had finally caught up with a bewildered look on their faces, and asked them to handle it, while he took a deep breath, feeling the spiritual power in his body becoming more and more active.

"I'm about to advance to the peak of Awakening – that is, the realm of Grandmaster in this world."

Su Zhou was not surprised by this result. He was originally at the high level of Awakening after Yala's perfect Awakening ceremony, and then he devoted himself to cultivation for several months. If his foundation was not profound, it was definitely a solid and down-to-earth effort based on the foundation of 'excellent talent'.

Originally, Su Zhou would have needed some more time to reach the limit of his overly powerful body before advancing.

But after coming to the Sacred Tree World, he obtained many spiritual materials that were relatively rare on Earth, which had only recently recovered its spiritual energy... The rapid absorption ability brought by Refining Essence into Qi allowed him to reach this point now.

At this moment, in the snowy forest not far away, obvious spiritual energy fluctuations came from the Taibai Volcano area and the direction of the previous battle with the demon general beastmaster.

The second demon general 'Huntslife' participating in the siege, and the reinforcements from the mountaintop fortress, Grandmaster Li Daoran, arrived almost simultaneously.

To be honest, when Li Daoran led the team to attack, his heart was full of determination to die – he had already made up his mind that even if he was the only one to hold the line, he would definitely allow Su Zhou and his disciple Zhou Buyi to return safely to the mountain fortress.

Although Su Zhou's talent was the most genius he had ever seen... no, the most monstrous person, that was a special case among special cases, and there was no reason to see it at all.

But Zhou Buyi was a good disciple who had gathered the strength of many elites from a hundred schools and was educated jointly. He was a true genius who could theoretically reach the innate realm that no one had reached for hundreds of years – he was a product they had created with their own hands.

The former was certainly powerful, but they could not expect him to fight bloody battles for the peace of the world, and they did not have the face to tell a person they had only known for a short time about righteousness... But the latter was different. He was the direct descendant of the hundred schools, and after the three sages of Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, he was the designated future leader of the hundred schools!

The thirty-five swordsmen led by Li Daoran were all Taoist swordsmen, and they practiced the Wind-Riding Sword Technique of Li Daoran's lineage. When such a group of people came galloping from afar with a strong wind, the momentum was like an entire cavalry unit was charging, bringing up ice crystals flying all over the snowy mountains, which was spectacular and with a hint of determination.

However, when the high-spirited Grandmaster Li, with a group of swordsmen who also had the intention of dying generously, found Su Zhou and Zhou Buyi and others, who should have been rescued by them, in the snowy forest at the foot of the mountain, the young people who should have been running away in embarrassment were laughing loudly in front of the demon army who was rushing over, and abruptly burned the spirituality in the Undying Root of a demon general with the fire of internal energy and medicinal fire, and then burned it to ashes!

"What's going on?!"

"Why is the Beastmaster dead?!"

Not only Li Daoran didn't understand, but the demon army was also puzzled.

The demon general Huntslife, who had been chasing Su Zhou and the Beastmaster's battle marks all the way, was a tall, three-armed general who was good at using iron cannons and longbows. He was fully two meters tall, one left hand was modified into a true qi cannon, and the second left hand and right hand could easily draw a ten-stone bow. The previous true qi cannon troops were under his command.

When Huntslife arrived with hundreds of demon soldiers, and saw Li Daoran and Su Zhou and others beginning to gather, he decisively ordered to fire arrows, and fired three volleys of true qi cannons – but the thirty-five swordsmen, led by Li Daoran, directly condensed a semi-circular internal energy formation with a radius of fifteen meters!

Whether it was arrows or shells, they were all deflected to the sides by the suddenly emerging violent wind shield, stirring up large amounts of snow dust and steam.

This was actually a derivative application from 'Innate Art: Whole Body Storm Armor'!

Of course, both Huntslife and Li Daoran knew very well that as long as the true qi cannon continued to suppress, then this storm armor formation would soon be broken, but in that case, the high-end martial force of the righteous army might take advantage of the true qi cannon's charging time and directly fly over and chop him up.

As for the demon soldiers... It was true that there were many demon soldiers, but who could expect the artillery troops to chase after lightly armored swordsmen who knew light kung fu? Even if the former also knew light kung fu, it wouldn't work. They were used to attack the Taibai Volcano Fortress, not to fight light kung fu practitioners who jumped high and low.

Therefore, even with most of the demon army, Huntslife could only watch as the Undying Root of the demon general Beastmaster was burned by Su Zhou and others with medicinal fire. Then, Fang Hui recited chaotic Buddhist mantras such as 'I am not a Buddha, I will not save you, go to hell and find Kshitigarbha Bodhisattva' and directly crushed it into a thin layer of gray mud with an iron rod and snow water...

Seriously, Huntslife felt a chill when he saw this scene, and tried his best to hide in the demon soldier team, not daring to come out.

Even if he was facing 'only' a young Grandmaster with a spear, three young people who had not yet reached the Grandmaster level, and a Grandmaster and thirty or so good players who had just rushed over from the mountain and were not very strong, he still did not dare to take the initiative to attack.

Both sides were facing each other, both were afraid of each other – one side was afraid of the established true qi cannon troops, and the other side was afraid of the other side's chaotic personal martial force.

Then, in this way, both sides retreated backwards while facing each other.

– The purpose of the righteous army of the hundred schools was to forge divine weapons, not to kill these remaining Undying Demon Generals... Even if they were to fight, it would be better to fight in the fortress. Why bother to fight the true qi cannon troops in the wild?

So, the demon general Huntslife could only listen with a gloomy face to the laughter of the young boy who called himself Su Zhou, and watch the other party leave, as if mocking his weakness and cowardice.

"This is to preserve living strength... Damn it, wasn't it said to be a Grandmaster? This strength is obviously at the Grand Grandmaster level!"

"Where did he come from?! Red Earth and the Beastmaster were both defeated by him – it can even be said that they were sent to their deaths for nothing! How many times have I said to wait for everyone to be together, don't be impulsive, everyone thinks they have everything under control, and insist on fighting for credit, they deserve to die!"

No matter how much he scolded, he could not reverse the defeat. Looking up at the Taibai Volcano area from afar, the demon general Huntslife murmured with an annoyed and helpless face: "I can't solve this matter – the troops have completely lost the ability to attack the mountaintop fortress."

"I must inform the Heavenly Palace."