"Yes, Brother Su!"
Though Tang San had no idea who this Da Gu was, Su Yun's words had utterly ignited his spirit.
He drew a deep breath, his gaze more resolute than ever.
He even unconsciously imitated Su Yun's earlier gesture, raising his right hand high as if he truly held some divine transformation artifact.
"I'll prove it to you... the power of light!"
Tang San gave a low shout and moved with Ghost Shadow Perplexing Track, shooting straight toward the Golden Sun Crown Sunflower in the heart of the sea of flowers, its petals seeming to be cast from pure red gold.
However, the instant Tang San stepped into the sea of flowers...
"Watch out!"
Su Yun's hand paused mid-snack. He didn't even have time to spit out the sunflower seed shells before he let out a sharp warning.
The Golden Sun Crown Sunflower, towering three meters high, seemed to sense the killing intent emanating from Tang San.
Its enormous red-gold flower head shuddered, and its petals, which had been stretching toward the sun, snapped shut.
Golden flames surged along the edge of its flower head, accompanied by a shrill whine.
"Eee—!!!"
With that furious roar, the picturesque, romantic sea of flowers around them instantly dropped its disguise!
"Puff! Puff! Puff!"
Soil flew and turf exploded!
Dozens of emerald-green plants shaped like trumpet flowers, their openings as wide as bowls, burst from the ground. Their verdant muzzles all turned toward the group.
Among them were several strange plants with icy-blue leaves that radiated bone-chilling cold.
At the very front, the ground heaved violently. Five or six giant, metallic-looking objects shaped like nuts burst from the earth, standing like iron walls and blocking Tang San's way forward.
"W-what kind of formation is this?!"
Red Hair, who had been ready to enjoy the show, was so startled that he nearly dropped the fire poker in his hand. His eyes almost popped out of their sockets.
"It's one thing for sunflowers to become monsters, but how did these weeds become monsters too? That's just cheating!"
Yu Xiaogang was even more dumbfounded. He gripped his notes so tightly that they crumpled, overwhelmed by confusion.
"Jade Marble Flower? Frost Breath Grass? And Iron-Skin Nuts, famous for their defenses?!"
Grandmaster's voice trembled as he pointed shakily at the plants.
"Impossible! Plant-type Soul Beasts are usually fiercely territorial. They don't obey one another, let alone have a complex social structure! How could these different kinds of plant Soul Beasts fight together like an army? This completely defies Soul Beast ecology!"
"Puff, puff, puff, puff, puff!"
A dense barrage of whistling shots rang out.
Countless emerald seeds mixed with ice balls rained down on the group like a torrential storm.
"Not good! Xiaosan, fall back!" Yu Xiaogang shouted in alarm.
But Tang San had already charged to the front line, and the dense barrage had blocked every route he could take to dodge.
"This is our cue!"
At that critical moment, Red Hair let out a roar.
He called to the brothers behind him: "Yellow Hair, Blue Hair, Green Hair! Form up! Human-shield charge!"
"On it, big brother!"
The four oddball brothers, each with a different hair color, actually managed to form a proper-looking charge formation.
"Charge! For our godfather's glory!"
Three seconds later...
"Ow! My head!"
"Ow, ow, ow! Why do these beans hurt so much?! I think I've got a concussion!"
"Stop shooting! Stop! My legs are frozen! We're going to shatter!"
The group of four went down even faster than they had charged.
The seeds fired by the Jade Marble Flowers had tremendous force. They clanged against the iron wok, making Yellow Hair's hand split open at the thumb and turning the wok into a sieve.
The cold air exhaled by the Frost Breath Grass was even nastier, slowing all four of them down.
Red Hair had it worst. He slammed into an Iron-Skin Nut, and the rebound left him dazed. Before he could get back up, a Purple Demon Big-Mouth Flower suddenly burst from the ground behind him and nearly swallowed him whole.
Tang San had no choice but to retreat. He weaved through the dense barrage like a phantom, flinging out several Bone-Piercing Nails in an attempt to counterattack.
But to Tang San's despair, his Bone-Piercing Nails struck the Iron-Skin Nuts blocking the front line and only threw off a few sparks. They couldn't even pierce the shells.
"Interesting."
Su Yun, who hadn't moved yet, looked at the familiar scene before him and casually flicked away the sunflower seed shells in his hand.
"Since you like fighting trench warfare so much..."
Su Yun reached up to adjust his sunglasses. The space behind him rippled, and the pure-white Star Gate burst open.
"Then let me teach you what modern warfare and covering fire look like."
Su Yun lightly tapped his brow, his voice cool and clear:
"First Soul Skill, Jixia Academy: Academy Gate."
Vmmm—
As Su Yun's voice fell, the pure-white Star Gate suddenly shuddered violently, erupting in dazzling light.
A sudden change took place!
The exquisite Bai Ze relief, which had been motionless atop the lintel, seemed to have been infused with a soul.
Its tightly shut stone eyes snapped open, shooting out two soul-piercing golden beams, as if they could see through every illusion in the world.
Then Bai Ze lifted its proud head and opened its mouth, releasing an ancient roar that was neither a lion's nor a dragon's.
"Roar—!!!"
The roar was filled with the dignity of an Auspicious Beast suppressing the heavens. It drowned out the Golden Sun Crown Sunflower's shrill alarm, and the chaotic battlefield fell silent for a moment.
All the plant Soul Beasts froze for an instant. It was the instinctive fear of lower life-forms in the presence of a divine beast above them.
As the Auspicious Beast awoke and the gate chimed, the two-meter-tall pure-white Star Gate swung open.
The scene beyond was no longer a deep, boundless sea of stars. In an instant, it shifted to a vast, independent ancient world.
Mist billowed as magnificent, ancient buildings rose into view—terraced towers and soaring eaves, suspended in the void like a mirage and bearing the weight of countless ages.
It was a supreme academy that gathered the wisdom of the Hundred Schools of Thought.
Jixia Academy.
The resonant voices of ancient sages, reciting their texts, pierced the barriers of time and space. Mingled with the harmonies of the Great Dao, they echoed clearly in everyone's ears, washing away the battlefield's bloodlust.
Then, just beyond the academy gates, three hazy scholar spirits in coarse robes floated out. Faint traces of ink and righteous qi swirled around them as they drifted slowly to Su Yun's side.
Though Su Yun's Soul Power was only enough to reach the outermost part of the academy and summon the spirits of a few outer disciples, that was already enough.
They hovered beside Su Yun like guardian spirits.
One on his left sat cross-legged in midair, bamboo slips flipping rapidly in his hands.
One on his right held a writing brush and traced lines through the air above the battlefield.
The one behind him sat with eyes closed, lost in thought.
The moment the spirits appeared, Su Yun felt his mind clear.
Those scholar spirits were his external brains.
They instantly handled countless complex calculations—bullet trajectories, wind adjustments, and weakness analysis—then turned them into pure combat instinct that quietly flowed into Su Yun's heart.
He didn't need to think. The answers were already there.
Su Yun slowly raised both hands. In the next moment, a huge black beast with an oversized barrel appeared in his grasp.
An AA-12 automatic shotgun!
A close-combat meat grinder!
"Too slow."
With the wisdom of sages bolstering him, Su Yun saw the world as nothing but black-and-white lines and red weak points.
The scholar spirit at his side lightly tapped the air with a finger.
A set of coordinates surfaced in Su Yun's mind.
Bang!
Su Yun pulled the trigger, and the AA-12 let out its characteristic, deep roar.
A huge muzzle flash erupted as a high-explosive armor-piercing 12-gauge round whistled out.
It headed straight for a giant ice ball falling through the air.
Boom!
The bullet exploded the instant it hit the ice ball!
The high explosives and buckshot blew the ice ball apart in midair. The shattered ice crystals swept back like a shotgun blast, riddling the Frost Breath Grass with holes.
Bang, bang, bang, bang!
Su Yun started walking forward.
The AA-12 in his hands spat out a continuous stream of fire, the lethal weapon steady as a rock in his grip.
Each time the scholar spirit's brush moved, Su Yun's aim adjusted with it.
He didn't need to aim. Instinct guided his bullets.
Ahead, an Iron-Skin Nut blocked his view.
The corner of Su Yun's mouth lifted. He slapped his waist with his left hand, and two round, green objects appeared in his palm.
M67 Delayed Fragmentation Grenades.
Su Yun pulled the pins with his teeth.
The scholar spirit beside him flipped through its bamboo slips. A perfect red arc formed in Su Yun's mind, accounting even for how far the grenades would roll after landing and when they would detonate.
Whoosh!
The two grenades traced strange, high arcs over the Nut Wall and landed precisely among the dense plants in the rear ranks.
Boom—!!!
Two orange-red fireballs rose from the sea of flowers.
The enormous shock wave, packed with shrapnel, flipped the supposedly impenetrable Nut Wall over from behind!
"W-what kind of weapon is that?!"
Red Hair, sprawled on the ground, watched with burning excitement. A moment ago, he'd thought that iron wall was impenetrable, but in the blink of an eye, his godfather had blown it sky-high!
"Art! This is the art of explosions!"
The smoke had yet to clear.
Su Yun held the gun in one hand and strode across the scorched earth.
The scholar spirits hovered quietly at his side, untouched by a speck of dust.
He adjusted his sunglasses. His cold gaze cut through the layers of smoke and locked onto the Golden Sun Crown Sunflower in the depths of the sea of flowers, trembling with fury, its flower head now a fiery red.
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