Chapter 148, Zhou Chun’s First Foundation Building Battle

Translator: Raznick

 

A thunderous boom echoed across the sky.

 

From within a blaze of crimson-gold fire, Zhou Daoquan erupted, blood trickling from his lips, his face ashen.

 

Merely enduring two blows from his opponent had already wounded him!

 

This was a result he’d never imagined.

 

“As expected, cultivators like you, who waste their energy on spirit pets when you’re already lacking in inherent ability, are all show and no substance—pretty to look at, useless in practice!”

 

Looking at Zhou Daoquan, who was already injured by his attack, Su Qiang twisted his lips in a sneer, his face brimming with disdain.

 

Ever since he entered the mid Foundation Establishment stage, discovering his strength already surpassed many late Foundation Establishment cultivators, he developed a sense of superiority towards those whose cultivation surpassed his but whose strength didn’t measure up.

 

Although his cultivation speed was currently slow, and it seems unlikely he’s ever going to open the Violet Palace in this lifetime, within the Foundation Establishment Stage, there were few cultivators who could defeat him.

 

If he could cultivate to the late Foundation Establishment, unless he encountered those cultivators who also cultivate the Combat Method, he would find no enemy.

 

Therefore, right now, Su Qiang’s favorite thing to do was pick on the weak.

 

Looking at the expressions of shock and fear on those late Foundation Establishment cultivators after he defeated them, he felt an unparalleled sense of exhilaration.

 

Zhou Daoquan, diminished in such a way, felt a surge of shame and anger in his heart.

 

He was far from the pitiful state Su Qiang described, merely because it was his first time facing a cultivator who cultivated a battle art at the mid Foundation Establishment stage, and he’d been caught off guard.

 

At this moment, having weathered Su Qiang’s first two powerful axe blows, Zhou Daoquan, fueled by shame and anger, swiftly launched a counterattack.

 

He was seen repeatedly pinching seals and making hand gestures, pointing a finger towards his spirit pet, the Vermillion Flame Crane.

 

Suddenly, the Vermillion Flame Crane raised its head and let out a piercing crane cry, flames surging across its body, enveloping it in a spirit energy armor covered in mysterious flame patterns.

 

Then, with a flap of its wings, a torrent of raging flames erupted, condensing into a massive firebird that lunged towards Su Qiang.

 

At the same time, Zhou Daoquan slapped his waist, causing a round, gray-whitemirror artifact with a handle to appear before him.

 

He reached out and grasped the handle of the round mirror artifact, channeling spiritual power to direct it towards Su Qiang.

 

Suddenly, a stream of gray-white shimmering light shot forth from the mirror, directly towards Su Qiang.

 

Seeming to sense the danger within, Su Qiang didn’t dare to take the gray-white light hitting him, hastily let out a low shout, and waved his sleeve to conjure a crimson jade pearl artifact, releasing a swirl of red mist to protect himself within.

 

As a result, the red mists were instantly wiped out by the gray-white light, and even the jade pearl artifact trembled uncontrollably, its spiritual radiance dimming significantly.

 

Boom!

 

Another explosion echoed.

 

This time, it was the mystical art unleashed by the Vermillion Flame Crane that exploded in front of Su Qiang.

 

A moment later, Su Qiang’s figure burst out from the flames, his face devoid of any trace of smugness.

 

He glanced at the round mirror in Zhou Daoquan’s hand, his eyes filled with apprehension, and immediately let out a low shout before waving his sleeve to fling a crimson law flag.

 

With the urging of spiritual power, the flag fluttered and instantly swept out a series of massive fireballs, hurtling towards Zhou Daoquan.

 

The two sparred back and forth, unleashing every trick they knew in a fierce aerial battle.

 

Meanwhile, on the other side, Zhou Chun, protected by his spirit pet Earth Armored Bear, also engaged in a fierce battle with Wei Tong.

 

The Earth Armored Bear was merely an inferior second-grade demon beast, and Zhou Chun was in early Foundation Establishment cultivation, a roughly even match between two early Foundation Establishment cultivators battling a mid Foundation Establishment cultivator.

 

He saw the Earth armored. Bear let out a low growl, and the mud and stones on the ground converged towards it, forming a thick layer of armor that covered its entire body.

 

It stood directly in front of Zhou Chun, firmly shielding him.

 

Any mystical art or artifact aimed at Zhou Chun was intercepted by its body and its own mystical art.

 

Thanks to the protection of the Earth Armored Bear, Zhou Chun, apart from summoning the token artifact bestowed upon him by Grand Elder Zhou Mingde and releasing a yellow light shield to protect himself, focused entirely on urging the artifact and engaging in battle with Wei Tong.

 

He reached into his storage bag, and a crimson golden claw shot out, carrying sharp claw light towards Wei Tong.

 

This artifact, recovered from the relics of a Dragonized Sect cultivator over eight hundred years ago, finally had a use for him after he reached Foundation Establishment.

 

And although eight hundred years had passed, its power hadn’t.

 

The claw light it emitted was incredibly sharp, capable of breaking through anything, and Wei Tong’s pair of blades, after only a few clashes, sustained some minor cracks, causing him to roar in anger.

 

“Damn brat, die!”

 

He roared from his mouth, pinching his fingers to form seals, and a turquoise-white wind dragon flew out, sweeping towards Zhou Chun.

 

Roar!

 

Without Zhou Chun needing to react, the Earth Armored Bear suddenly let out a roar, a ball of concentrated yellow spiritual light erupting from its mouth, transforming into a yellow haze and rushing toward the wind dragon.

 

But at this moment, a flicker of triumph crossed Wei Tong’s eyes, and he suddenly made a gesture, causing the azure-white wind dragon to suddenly explode, transforming into a gust of wind sweeping towards Zhou Chun.

 

The yellow haze was instantly dispersed by the gust of wind, unable to form a coherent force.

 

And just at this moment, taking advantage of Zhou Chun and the Earth Armored Bear’s attention being drawn to the wind, a flash of light flew from Wei Tong’s hand, swiftly bypassing the front of the Earth Armored Bear and striking directly at Zhou Chun.

 

Zhou Chun’s Divine Sense swept across, and he discovered that the flash of light was, in fact, a serpent-shaped throwing knife.

 

Fortunately, he had also been prepared.

 

At this moment, he flicked his hand, and a beam of golden light shot out from his sleeve, colliding with the incoming flash of light ten meters behind them.

 

The golden light and the flash of light collided, and a golden nail was quickly knocked away.

 

Then, the throwing knife, still carrying residual force, was engulfed in flames and slammed hard against Zhou Chun’s yellow light shield.

 

Instantly, the shield appeared to be struck by lightning, spawning countless spiderweb-like cracks.

 

Boom!

 

Accompanied by an explosion, the shield, having reached its limit, finally could not hold on and shattered.

 

But the snake-shaped throwing knife had already exhausted its power and was recalled by its master.

 

At this time, the Earth Armored Bear, realizing it had been tricked, roared in anger after deflecting the gust of wind, directly condensing a stone the size of a house and hurling it towards Wei Tong.

 

Wei Tong merely flickered, effortlessly dodging the boulder’s impact, entirely dismissing the Earth Armored Bear’s paltry counterattack.

 

Then, his eyes widened in astonishment as he called out, “Impressive for a young one. I didn’t expect you to be so young, your cultivation unremarkable, yet possess such treasures!”

 

He spoke, revealing a greedy glint, and muttered, “Still, this is perfect. After I take you down, our gains will be even greater!”

 

As he spoke, he raised a hand and slapped his waist, summoning a black gourd artifact from his storage bag.

 

One could see that with a surge of spiritual power, a thick, charcoal-gray smoke billowed from the black gourd, sweeping towards Zhou Chun and the Earth Armored Bear.

 

Simultaneously, the flying blade was summoned again, hidden within the smoke as it charged towards Zhou Chun.

 

Zhou Chun dared not let the smoke approach, hastily summoning a whirlwind to blow it away.

 

But the smoke was not ordinary, utterly unaffected by the whirlwind he attempted to direct.

 

Witnessing the relentless surge of smoke, its momentum now unstoppable, Zhou Chun could only activate a token artifact to shield himself, simultaneously casting the Elemental Armor Art to create an additional layer of protection.

 

Soon, the rolling black smoke enveloped and completely submerged both the Earth Armored Bear and Zhou Chun.

 

Because of the protective shield, Zhou Chun initially failed to discern the smoke’s effect.

 

It was the serpent-shaped flying blade, concealed by the smoke, that he quickly detected, immediately summoning the long nail artifact bestowed upon him by Grand Elder Zhou Mingde to intercept it.

 

Although the quality of the long nail was noticeably inferior to the serpent-shaped flying blade, it could still serve a significant purpose in deflecting.

 

But as soon as he braced for the attack of the serpent-shaped flying blade, the Earth Armored Bear suddenly roared, a sound incredibly agitated, laced with a hint of distress.

 

This sparked a realization, and he exclaimed, “No, the smoke is poisonous!”

 

Then he hastily slapped his storage bag, intending to retrieve some pills to administer to the Earth Armored Bear.

 

But just then, a powerful mystical art fluctuation was suddenly sensed by Zhou Chun.

 

It turned out that Wei Tong had once again triggered a second-grade talisman from his hand, seemingly a precious, average second-grade talisman!

 

This caused Zhou Chun’s heart to sink, and he quickly took out a second-grade talisman and activated it.

 

A vividly rendered dragon suddenly lunged from beyond the black smoke and then collided with a sky-soaring golden light sword.

 

Golden light shimmered, and flames blazed.

 

The golden light sword was quickly extinguished and scattered by the dragon.

 

However, at this moment, a massive figure suddenly leaped upwards, his palms radiating a yellow spiritual light, and slammed down on the dragon.

 

Boom!

 

Amidst a roaring explosion, a wave of soaring flames instantly annihilated most of the black smoke.

 

And the Earth Armored Bear’s massive body, which had been blasted away, also crashed into the ground, creating a huge pit.

 

But this behemoth was, after all, a second-grade demon beast and quickly clambered back to its feet.

 

However, unlike its previous ferocious and domineering appearance, its fur was now charred, and numerous cracks ran across its body, oozing blood, making it look somewhat disheveled.

 

“That damn beast!”

 

In the sky, Wei Tong couldn’t help but reveal a frustrated expression and cursed.

 

He just now, with that one strike, if not for being blocked by the Earth Armored Bear, combined with his subsequent skill, even if unable to instantly kill Zhou Chun, certainly could have wounded him.

 

But he couldn’t have wanted the Earth Armored Bear to prefer injuring itself over Zhou Chun receiving even the slightest harm.

 

This infuriated Wei Tong.

 

“I’m going to kill you, beast!”

 

With a roar of anger from his mouth, he again cast an art, unleashing the very technique he’d used before, the Wind Dragon Art.

 

Then he incorporated the black smoke that erupted from the gourd artifact into the Wind Dragon, transforming its original greenish-white hue to a dark greenish-black.

 

“Go!”

 

Accompanied by a low growl from his mouth, the dark greenish-black Wind Dragon lunged towards the Earth Armored Bear.

 

And on the ground, the Earth Armored Bear once again coalesced mud into armor, re-donning thick battle armor.

 

Then it opened its mouth and expelled a sphere of yellow spiritual light that transformed into swirling clouds enveloping its neck and above, like a towel shielding its neck and head.

 

It was because after suffering from that poisonous smoke, it already harbored defenses, knowing to use this skill to isolate the smoke’s invasion.

 

Truly a demon beast instructed by experienced cultivators!

 

Then it was seen that the dark greenish-black Wind Dragon and the Earth Armored Bear’s palms, striking out, collided, the powerful energy shockwave crushing and blowing away all the grass and plants surrounding the ground.

 

Even the Earth Armored Bear’s massive body, weighing tens of thousands of pounds, ultimately couldn’t withstand the powerful impact force, rolling on the ground for dozens of zhang before stopping.

 

And precisely when the Earth Armored Bear’s body came to a halt, the snake-shaped flying blade that Wei Tong used to attack Zhou Chun suddenly shot towards its eyes.

 

Zhou Chun couldn’t allow such a sneak attack to succeed.

 

He once again summoned the long nail to block the incoming throwing blade, allowing the Earth Armored Bear the reaction time to swing its paw and swat the subsequent throwing blades.

 

Under this coordinated teamwork, Wei Tong found himself momentarily at a loss against them—one person and one bear.

 

This situation quickly drew the displeasure of Su Qiang’s side.

 

Immediately, he roared across the fifteen miles, “Second Wei, what in the hell are you doing? Can’t you handle even a kid and a beast?”

 

Su Qiang couldn’t help but be angry.

 

Because he realized that without Wei Tong’s assistance, he himself would likely only be able to fight Zhou Daoquan to a standstill.

 

A solo kill was completely unrealistic.

 

This grated on him, who was accustomed to holding himself in high regard.

 

Just then, a quarter of an hour had already passed since the battle began, and Wei Tong’s side hadn’t shown any signs of victory.

 

This naturally provided an outlet for his pent-up anger, and he began to berate them.

 

And on Wei Tong’s side, after being berated, although he was annoyed by Su Qiang’s harsh words, he dared not offend him and retorted instead.

 

He could only vent his anger on Zhou Chun and the Earth Armored Bear.

 

“Damned beast, damned little brat, you’re making me waste so much effort! I’m going to skin you both and grind you to dust!”

 

He roared insults, then reached into his storage bag and pulled out an average second-grade talisman, raising his hand to activate it.

 

The talisman was flung to the ground, instantly splitting the earth and unleashing a rock dragon, stretching over sixty feet, that lunged toward the Earth Armored Bear.

 

The Rock Dragon wasn’t merely incredibly durable and possessed immense strength; it could also shatter and reform the earth itself.

 

Though it didn’t unleash the same instantaneous and overwhelming power as the fire dragon previously, it nevertheless subjected the Earth Armored Bear to immense pressure and threat, forcing it to fight with all its strength.

 

This shift in the battle also sparked a flicker of opportunity within Wei Tong, and he immediately turned his attention to Zhou Chun.

 

Then, his expression abruptly changed.

 

He saw, with a start, that Zhou Chun now held a long white bow in his hand, the bow drawn and an arrow aimed directly at him.