Without Ning Rongrong and Oscar—the two noncombat Soul Masters who needed special protection—赵无极's burden eased all at once.
He stopped dead in his tracks, then whipped around. As the terrifying pressure bore down on him and the earth trembled, a look of grim resolve flashed across his eyes.
"Seventh Soul Skill, Martial Soul Avatar, Vajra Bear!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Zhao Wuji let out a low growl. The deep black Seventh Soul Ring around him suddenly erupted in a dazzling light.
His body swelled rapidly in the glow. His muscles bulged as if being inflated, and his bones cracked like firecrackers. In the blink of an eye, he had become a giant bear over five meters tall, its body covered in dark golden fur!
In his Martial Soul Avatar state, Zhao Wuji's aura surged. He unleashed the full pressure of a Soul Saint, briefly meeting the terrifying presence of the Titan Giant Ape in a fierce clash.
Although Zhao Wuji's aura was still utterly outmatched, he forcibly carved out a relatively stable area right in front of himself.
Zhao Wuji didn't charge straight at the Titan Giant Ape after completing his Martial Soul Avatar. That would have been tantamount to suicide.
His goal was to buy Xiao Qing and the others even one more second to escape.
His enormous bear paw slammed into the ground, and earth-yellow Soul Power surged into it.
"Third Soul Skill, Gravity Enhancement!"
"Fifth Soul Skill, Gravity Squeeze!"
Centered on Zhao Wuji, the gravity within a hundred-meter radius abruptly tripled!
At the same time, a powerful inward force converged from all sides toward the Titan Giant Ape's path, trying to slow its massive body and increase the resistance with every step it took.
The ground beneath Zhao Wuji groaned under the crushing weight of the combined forces and sank.
Then Zhao Wuji swung both paws in quick succession, sending solid dark golden palm shadows crashing into the roots of several towering trees along the Titan Giant Ape's inevitable path, as well as a few enormous rocks half-buried in the earth like small hills.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
Zhao Wuji didn't expect any of this to hurt the Titan Giant Ape. He only hoped to slightly obstruct its vision, disrupt its stride, and make it pause for even a moment or take a small detour.
After doing all this, Zhao Wuji didn't linger. His massive bear body burst into motion with a speed that belied its size, and he raced after Xiao Qing and the others.
He knew that, before a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast, the obstacles he had set were laughably fragile. The time they could buy was extremely limited.
Before the Titan Giant Ape broke through the obstacles and accelerated again, he had to put as much distance between them as possible—or... prepare to intercept it once more.
At the same time, up ahead, Xiao Qing, standing on Thunder Feather, shouted down to Dai Mubai, Tang San, and the others: "Everyone, follow my orders! Stop running in a straight line and switch to a zigzag pattern!"
Xiao Qing rode on Thunder Feather's back as the bird flew swiftly at low altitude, keeping to a speed just within the others' limits.
"Thirty steps ahead to the left—go around that boulder shaped like a crouching ox!"
"Those three Hemlocks on the right, arranged like the character 品—go through the middle!"
"There's a small stand of rocks ahead. Zigzag through it!"
Xiao Qing no longer chose a flat, easy route. Instead, he deliberately steered them toward areas dotted with huge boulders, dense old-growth trees, or rugged terrain.
For Soul Masters of their smaller stature and nimble build, these natural obstacles could be quickly bypassed or used to their advantage with the right technique.
But for a creature as huge as a mountain, like the Titan Giant Ape, they were natural speed bumps, forcing it to either expend energy smashing through them or adjust its stride to go around.
Dai Mubai, Tang San, Zhu Zhuqing, Xiao Wu, and Ma Hongjun had all pushed their Soul Power to the limit. With Ning Rongrong's speed boost, they followed Xiao Qing's route with every ounce of strength they had.
They trusted Xiao Qing's judgment. Though the zigzagging made them run farther, it let them make effective use of the terrain.
Even so, they had vastly underestimated the terrifying strength of a Hundred-Thousand-Year Soul Beast—especially the Titan Giant Ape, renowned for its power.
Behind them, the Gravity Domain and obstacles Zhao Wuji had laid down in his Martial Soul Avatar state bought them less than fifteen minutes to catch their breath.
"ROAR!!!"
A furious, impatient roar exploded behind them once more, closer than ever! There was no mistaking the restless fury in it.
The enraged Titan Giant Ape didn't even try to go around or destroy the obstacles. It seemed just as unfazed by Zhao Wuji's Gravity Squeeze; the triple gravity barely affected its impossibly powerful body.
It chose the simplest, crudest method—the one that best displayed its absolute strength: plow straight through!
Towering trees? Smashed down! Boulders in its way? Crushed underfoot! Gravity Squeeze? Ignored!
Anything daring to stand in its way—trees, rocks, or uneven ground—was doomed!
It didn't even bother to attack the obstacles. It simply barreled forward in a straight line, smashing a path open with its body.
Wherever it passed, it left a track over ten meters wide, as if a giant plow had furrowed through the earth.
And perhaps because those "little annoyances" had slowed it down ever so slightly, the Titan Giant Ape grew even more violent. Its charge surged to an even greater speed!
The rocks and trees Xiao Qing had pinned his hopes on to buy them time were no more than children's toys before the Titan Giant Ape.
It didn't even need to swing a fist. The impact of its body alone was enough to snap trees too thick for a person to wrap their arms around and shatter boulders the size of houses.
The gap was simply too great!
This wasn't a gap that skill or tactics could overcome. It was a chasm of life force and absolute power.
As the Titan Giant Ape's mountain-sized black silhouette rapidly grew before their eyes, Zhao Wuji finally caught up with the group and once again placed himself between them and the beast.
Zhao Wuji glanced back.
Dai Mubai and Ma Hongjun's faces were flushed red, the veins bulging on their foreheads. They breathed like broken bellows, and their Soul Power and stamina were on the verge of running dry. Tang San and Zhu Zhuqing were in slightly better shape, but their faces were pale and their breathing ragged.
Xiao Wu's expression was the most complicated: fear, anxiety, and an indescribable pain mingled in her eyes. Ning Rongrong and Oscar, who hadn't had to run on their own, were still breathing fairly evenly.
Zhao Wuji's heart sank. He knew the children were nearing their limits. Fleeing for their lives under the crushing pressure of the Titan Giant Ape's terrifying aura took an astonishing toll on both body and mind.
If they kept running, they would collapse before the Titan Giant Ape ever caught up.
There was no point in running anymore. They couldn't get away!
The Titan Giant Ape's huge black shadow was already right in front of them. Zhao Wuji could even clearly see the fur on its body.
A ruthless glint flashed through Zhao Wuji's eyes. He planted his huge bear body firmly and faced the charging Ferocious Beast. The light of his Seventh Soul Ring blazed once more as he drove the power of his Martial Soul Avatar to its utmost limit.
He was ready to stake his life on his strongest attack. Even if he could only stop the Titan Giant Ape for a moment, even if he could only win a faint glimmer of hope—so faint it was almost nonexistent—for these "Little Monsters," the ones who represented the future, he would do it.
He was a teacher at Shrek. He was Zhao Wuji.
Yet just as Zhao Wuji gathered all his Soul Power, preparing to launch a suicidal attack,
a figure wrapped in a wide, worn black robe suddenly appeared in Xiao Qing and the others' line of sight. The figure stood with their back to Zhao Wuji, Xiao Qing, and the others, facing the Titan Giant Ape.
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