Death of Wood, Tang San Shouldn't Have Chosen the Control Path

On the clearing, the wind stilled, and the forest fell silent.

"Holy Son, I'll make the first move."

Tang San moved first.

His right hand shot up, emerald-blue light surging from his palm. Countless Blue Silver Grass plants burst from the ground like furious dragons emerging from the sea, sweeping toward Li Qinglian at astonishing speed.

Each stalk of Blue Silver Grass was as thick as a finger, its surface flowing with crystalline soul power. They were supple yet powerful, clearly worlds apart from ordinary Blue Silver Grass.

"So this is Tang San's Blue Silver Grass?"

"The toughness of these vines really does far surpass ordinary Blue Silver Grass. Even their vitality is far more active than normal Blue Silver Grass."

"Blue Silver Grass is a useless martial soul. But a Blue Silver Grass martial soul with the Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline is no longer useless."

Li Qinglian watched the emerald-green vines flooding toward him and curled his lips slightly.

Using Tang San as an example, Yu Xiaogang had tried to prove that there were no useless martial souls, only useless soul masters.

But fundamentally, the premise of that argument had been wrong from the start.

"The essence of this Blue Silver Grass truly aligns with the Life Great Dao."

"Especially its trait of wildfire never burning it all away, while spring winds bring it back to life. The fact that A Yin could leave behind a seed containing her soul and memories even after her sacrifice proves that she had already found a path along the Life Great Dao. That was also the foundation that allowed A Yin, a weak soul beast like Blue Silver Grass, to survive the Hundred-Thousand-Year Tribulation and become the Blue Silver Emperor."

"And Tang San clearly hasn't realized this."

"His use of the Blue Silver Grass martial soul remains superficial. He is using the toughness and strength of grass blades and vines possessing the Blue Silver Emperor Bloodline to follow the control path. His path is still too narrow."

"Blue Silver Grass would be immensely powerful if it followed the life path. On the control path, it would ultimately be nothing more than slightly stronger grass."

Li Qinglian murmured inwardly, feeling a trace of regret.

"Among the creatures of Douluo Continent, only the Dark Demon Evil God Tiger possesses one of the five high-level attributes, the Evil God attribute. A Yin comprehended some of life's mysteries."

"Yet even that brought them endless benefits."

The Dark Demon Evil God Tiger was the only true beast on this continent that had nearly killed Tang San.

And the Tang San it faced had been at his peak, capable of severely injuring Angel God Qian Renxue with Guanyin's Tears.

As for A Yin, comprehending a trace of the mysteries of life allowed her to leave behind a Life Seed and give herself another chance.

These two examples alone revealed the immense gap between high-level and low-level attributes!

That gap was like an uncrossable chasm.

No wonder First-Level Gods could only obediently serve as subordinates when facing a God King.

"The five high-level attributes are already this powerful. The gap between low-level and high-level attributes is like a chasm. If I truly grasp the power of Reincarnation, then I should create a chasm-like gap between myself and the Five Supreme Gods as well."

As he watched Tang San, Li Qinglian's eyes gleamed as a new realization suddenly came to him.

For Tang San's Blue Silver Grass, taking one step back meant the wood attribute among the Five Elements, while taking one step forward meant the life attribute!

Unfortunately, Tang San had not realized this.

Otherwise, if Tang San had entered the God Realm with the foundation of controlling two high-level attributes and inheriting two god positions at once, he could have become the ruler of the God Realm without resorting to any schemes.

"Li Qinglian, at a time like this, you're actually distracted?"

A flicker of anger crossed Tang San's eyes.

From Ning Rongrong and the others' conversation, he had already learned how formidable Li Qinglian was!

But Tang San was no pushover either. This was the first time he had ever been so openly scorned by someone his own age.

On the battlefield, the slightest difference could lead to a thousand-mile loss!

At such close range, even a brief moment of distraction could determine victory or defeat!

"Defeating you will be effortless!"

He remained where he stood, not even taking half a step back.

He merely released his martial soul.

The phantom of a gigantic tree, black as dark jade, silently rose behind him. Its branches were twisted and gnarled, each line flowing with a dim, chilling luster.

An invisible aura of deathly stillness abruptly spread outward from him, like the coldest wind deep within a winter night, silently sweeping over the entire clearing.

In an instant, everyone present felt as though a gust of eerie wind had blown through the air, making their scalps tingle.

The already dense forest was suddenly filled with an icy, deathly aura. Everyone's faces paled somewhat, while Ning Rongrong, Zhu Zhuqing, and the other girls could not stop scenes from frightening stories they had read from surfacing in their minds, leaving their legs trembling in fear.

"What is this?"

Tang San's pupils suddenly contracted.

The instant those emerald-blue Blue Silver Grass plants came within ten feet of Li Qinglian, it was as though every trace of their vitality had been drained away.

The Blue Silver Grass visibly lost its luster, withering and curling. It changed from emerald green to withered yellow, then from withered yellow into gray, decayed fragments that rustled as they scattered across the ground.

Dozens of vines withered at once, as though a spring meadow had been covered by winter in a single instant.

Tang San's expression changed!

Refusing to believe it, he activated his soul power once more. More and denser Blue Silver Grass burst from beneath the earth, surging toward Li Qinglian from all directions like a green tide.

Yet the result did not change in the slightest.

No matter how much Blue Silver Grass approached, it met the same fate: withering, dying, and crumbling into dust.

It was as though an invisible Death Domain existed around Li Qinglian, stripping the vitality from any living thing that entered it.

A layer of gray-black grass and wood ashes piled up across the ground, forming a thick ring around Li Qinglian's feet.

Against those ashes, his ink-black hair appeared even more chilling and terrifying.

"...How is this possible?"

"This is insane!"

Tang San's voice carried a trace of fear.

He had never encountered such a situation before.

The Blue Silver Grass had not been torn apart, burned, or frozen. It had simply been silently killed.

It was as though an invisible hand had severed all of its vitality before it could even touch Li Qinglian.

At the edge of the clearing, everyone fell into stunned, deathly silence.

Ning Rongrong's eyes widened, her little mouth slightly open and unable to close for a long while. Dai Mubai clenched his fists, a layer of fine sweat appearing on his forehead.

"What terrifying power. It feels even colder than mine."

A faint, almost imperceptible chill flickered through Zhu Zhuqing's feline eyes as she instinctively took half a step back. The gold-white flecks deep within her pupils seemed to hold something that made people instinctively want to stay away.

"So this is Spirit Hall's Holy Son?"

Zhao Wuji, a Soul Saint-level powerhouse, wore an extremely grave expression as well.

He could sense the aura around Li Qinglian.

It was a kind of power he had never encountered before, carrying an ultimate, pure deathly stillness that made even this veteran Soul Saint, who had fought for half his life, feel his heart tremble involuntarily.

That aura was absolutely not one any living creature would like.

Xiao Wu silently watched everything unfold.

She was not surprised. She had long known what Li Qinglian was.

Back then, there had been no living creature around that tree! Even as a soul beast infinitely close to one hundred thousand years of cultivation, she had suffered greatly!

Death restrained all living beings that depended on vitality to maintain their existence!