Integrating Realm Creatures

Bai Xue stood with her back to the snowstorm, calmly watching the three of them. "Students from the stars. Not bad combat skills."

"Who are you, exactly? You can't be a native. No native could crush the three of us—we're all elites from our respective academies!" one of them said in disbelief.

Bai Xue's bright eyes were more crystalline than diamonds. "Please mark the northeast in blue. I don't want anyone disturbing this place."

The student shut his eyes in pain and, as if resigned to his fate, activated his Personal terminal. Before long, the northeastern region had turned blue on the network.

Lu Yin set off that night with Granny. They traveled a hundred kilometers north of Jinling and rested for a while, then continued north.

Now, they had reached Wei County, Shandong.

"Huh, the northeast has turned blue," Granny said in surprise.

Lu Yin was astonished. Had Bai Xue been defeated?

Before he could think it through, a gigantic tree appeared ahead. It looked like a willow, its branches stretching over a thousand meters and covering the sky above the entire county. They spread even farther, blanketing the surrounding roads and villages.

Lu Yin and Granny stopped at once and instinctively checked its battle force.

"Four thousand two hundred and ninety!" they exclaimed. That was Integrating Realm battle force. The mutated giant tree before them was an Integrating Realm creature.

"Go around it!" Lu Yin decided immediately.

Suddenly, several branches reached up from the river below and whipped toward Lu Yin and Granny. Lu Yin shoved Granny aside and dodged himself. The branches lashed into the sky, tearing through the air with a deafening crack.

Granny shuddered at the thought of what might have happened. If Lu Yin hadn't pushed her away, she would have taken the Integrating Realm creature's attack head-on.

"Go around it! Get past it!" Lu Yin shouted.

As he spoke, countless branches appeared from every direction and lashed toward them. They were still quite far from the mutated tree, yet already within its range.

It would be difficult to get around the tree now. If they used the area within its reach as a radius, it would take them at least ten seconds to circle around it—and that was a conservative estimate. The tree wouldn't let them pass so easily. Granny, in particular, was too slow to make it around.

Lu Yin darted through the air. Seeing that Granny couldn't hold out much longer, he struck with a Void Splitting Palm, knocking a branch off course. Then he rushed to her side, grabbed her, and charged straight toward the mutated tree.

"Are you crazy?" Granny cried out. The tree loomed closer, its countless branches rising into the air like giant pythons. Below, the ground was littered with bones—a horrifying sight.

"Look behind us," Lu Yin said gravely.

Granny turned. Her face went deathly pale. Their way back was blocked by a wall of endless green branches. They had nowhere left to retreat.

"It's over. An Integrating Realm creature—we're done for," Granny said miserably.

Lu Yin's gaze swept coldly over their surroundings. Branch after branch whipped toward him, but he dodged nimbly, sometimes using their force to propel himself forward a great distance. He was now less than three thousand meters from the mutated tree's trunk. The closer he got, the more he could feel its immense, terrifying presence. Its energy distorted the air, and its canopy blotted out the sky.

Lu Yin was glad it wasn't an intelligent creature. The mutated tree was powerful, but it attacked purely on instinct. That was the only reason he could keep Granny safe. They wouldn't last much longer, though.

Granny took more than ten Flame Crystals from her Void Ring and threw them down. Flames spread across the ground.

Lu Yin was speechless. "You think you can burn it?"

Granny gave a bitter smile. "We can try. Maybe it's afraid of fire."

She wasn't wrong. Plants were naturally afraid of fire. But looking at the colossal tree blotting out the sky, it would take an erupting volcano to set it alight. Even the Flame Crystal deposits outside Jinling wouldn't be enough.

Lu Yin had no time to argue with Granny. His gaze sharpened. Was that... a person?

Beneath the mutated tree, a black dot darted from side to side, growing larger as it approached. It was a person, just like Lu Yin and the others.

That person was even closer to the tree than they were, and was now retreating while dodging the attacks of its branches.

"How strong!" Granny exclaimed. She knew she couldn't withstand the branches' attacks; without Lu Yin, she would already be dead. But the person in the distance was clearly at ease, dodging them effortlessly.

The moment Lu Yin made out who it was, his gaze turned cold. It was the Silver-haired man.

Under the moonlight, a beautiful Butterfly knife had deflected his full-force Heavenly Star Palm. Lu Yin would never forget that moment. At Gaze Realm, he had been able to badly injure Teres with the Heavenly Star Palm. Yet after reaching Probe Realm and unleashing the technique at full force, the Silver-haired man had still deflected it. And Lu Yin hadn't even struck first. His opponent's killing intent had forced him to attack with all his might. He had been completely on the defensive, unable even to gauge his opponent's strength.

"Well, classmate. We meet again." The Silver-haired man spotted Lu Yin and greeted him with a cheerful smile.

Granny looked puzzled. Did they know each other?

Lu Yin dodged a branch and said calmly, "What a coincidence."

The Silver-haired man nimbly avoided another branch. "Not really. I've been trapped here for a while. If you were heading north, there was a good chance you'd run into me. Fate, huh?"

"You knew we were going north?" Lu Yin raised an eyebrow.

"Of course. I even know your destination. You're headed to the Capital City, right?"

Lu Yin narrowed his eyes, wondering who this man was. Was he one of the strongest students from an academy, like Ye Ge had mentioned?

"Look out!" Granny cried. Dozens of branches whipped at the Silver-haired man from every direction. He smiled pleasantly at Granny, and a beautiful Butterfly knife appeared in his right hand as if from nowhere. Spinning it in a dazzling flourish, he charged straight at the branches. With a soft whoosh, the knife pierced through them, and the Silver-haired man emerged unscathed. He looked back at Granny with another smile, then glanced at Lu Yin as if to provoke him.

Lu Yin tightened his hold on Granny. Under her horrified gaze, he raised his palm and struck the oncoming branches. Stars appeared with the strike. The branches exploded beneath his palm, and Lu Yin emerged unscathed as well.

"I didn't sleep well last night. That was only thirty percent of my strength," Lu Yin said calmly.

The Silver-haired man curled his lip. "I only used twenty percent."

"Must've been mistaken. I used ten percent," Lu Yin replied, not backing down.

The Silver-haired man snorted. "I used five percent."

Granny was speechless. Were these two trying to outdo each other? At a time like this?

For some reason, Lu Yin always felt an indescribable sense of danger around the Silver-haired man. It was as if that Butterfly knife hung over his head, ready to fall at any moment. Without thinking, he tried to make the man wary of him. As long as his opponent couldn't figure him out, he wouldn't attack recklessly.

Countless branches appeared from every direction again, sealing off the space.

"Let's join forces," Lu Yin said to the Silver-haired man. "Attack the trunk, or this will never end."

The Silver-haired man nodded. "I played too hard these past few days. Otherwise, I could've dealt with it on my own."

"if I weren't in a hurry, I'd want to test my palm against it," Lu Yin said calmly.

The Silver-haired man grinned, stepped onto a branch as it whipped toward him, and used it to launch himself at the tree's trunk.

Lu Yin tossed Granny toward the flames on the ground. "Watch yourself." Then he charged at the trunk as well.

They were both close to the tree's trunk and reached it in the blink of an eye.

The Integrating Realm surpassed the Probe Realm. Reaching it marked a major step in cultivation and proved that one had begun to grow truly strong, touching the limits of the human body. Cultivators remained at this realm for a long time, until they broke through those limits and advanced to the next realm.

Most elite students were in the Probe Realm, and few had reached the Integrating Realm. Fewer still could face an Integrating Realm creature while in the Probe Realm. The tree wasn't intelligent, but it was enormous, and its energy was vast. Defeating it was even harder than defeating an ordinary Integrating Realm creature.

The Silver-haired man's Butterfly knife flashed with white light as he streaked toward the tree like a meteor.

Lu Yin unleashed the full power of his Heavenly Star Palm. Faintly, the outline of another star appeared. This was the second star, and once it formed, his power would surge again.

They struck the tree's trunk at almost the same moment. The Butterfly knife and Heavenly Star Palm hit the same spot. The tree's tough surface gradually split apart, then, with a bang, both men pierced through it and flew hundreds of meters beyond, hovering in midair as they turned to look back.

The enormous mutated tree slowly toppled. Countless branches crashed down, crushing the ground and covering the river.

Lu Yin and the Silver-haired man turned to look at each other at the same time. In the instant they had attacked, both had sensed how powerful the other was. This time, the impression was clearer than before.

He's grown stronger. The same thought crossed both their minds.

On the other side, Granny was the most shocked of all. Mutated plants were easy to evade but hard to kill because their defenses were so strong. Although she had never fought Willow, she was certain he couldn't have hurt this tree. Yet those two had managed it. They were on par with—or even stronger than—the strongest students in their academies.