Enlightenment

The Blue Silver Emperor surged out, weaving layer upon layer into a net of vines.

The Wind Ape's claws plunged into the vine net with an ear-piercing tearing sound.

The Blue Silver Emperor kept regenerating, only to be torn apart again.

The impact sent Jiang Che flying backward into another tree. His back slammed hard against the trunk, nearly knocking the breath out of his chest.

The Wind Ape shook the scraps of vine off its claws and advanced again.

It moved more slowly than before. Blood streamed from the wounds on its shoulder and flank, and its movements were noticeably stiff.

But those injuries were nowhere near fatal to it. At most, they made it more irritable.

Jiang Che stood against the tree, his chest heaving violently, a trickle of blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.

"Fucking unbelievable." Jiang Che wiped the blood from his mouth and stared at the slowly approaching Wind Ape, his mind racing.

He could neither beat it head-on nor escape.

"Then I'll just have to take it head-on!"

The Wind Ape had already come within ten paces. Its back was hunched, its foreclaws hanging in front of it.

The Blue Silver Longsword swept in at close quarters, wreathed in blade force!

The longsword collided with the Wind Ape's foreclaw!

The blade force coating it left a deep slash across the Wind Ape's foreclaw.

Jiang Che fared no better, blasted dozens of meters away by the Wind Ape's terrifying strength.

The Wind Ape pounced on Jiang Che again, giving him no chance to catch his breath and utterly disregarding the wound on its foreclaw.

Jiang Che gritted his teeth and traded wounds with it again.

He knew full well that if he kept fighting this way, he would be the one to die in the end.

Under the Wind Ape's reckless, frenzied pounding, Jiang Che was beaten back step by step.

The Wind Ape's foreclaw struck at Jiang Che again, already covered in wounds.

Once again, Jiang Che mustered all his strength and used the Blue Silver Longsword wrapped in blade force to trade wounds.

This time, however, the blade force did not cling to the longsword as it had before. Instead, it flew out like a Water Blade.

Once again, the tremendous force hurled Jiang Che away, but he distinctly felt that it was much weaker this time.

It was not because the Wind Ape had been weakened by its injuries, but because of the blade force that had just flown out.

What had just happened made everything click for Jiang Che.

Blade force swept up a sky full of flying flowers.

When Jiang Che had practiced before, he had kept wondering what these flying flowers were!

Without flying flowers, what was the blade force supposed to carry as it flew out?

Now, a bold idea formed in Jiang Che's mind.

There were no flying flowers, only blade force. The blade force itself was the flying flowers.

Once that idea occurred to him, Jiang Che immediately began to test it.

Now, with life and death hanging in the balance, all those old rules and restrictions suddenly ceased to matter.

The Wind Ape moved.

Jiang Che moved with it.

This time, Jiang Che swung earlier than he had on any previous strike.

When he was still ten meters from the Wind Ape, Jiang Che unleashed his slash.

After delivering the slash, Jiang Che hurriedly retreated.

This time, the Wind Ape took the full brunt of the damage, while Jiang Che was merely driven back several steps by the fierce wind.

The exhaustion in Jiang Che's body vanished like smoke at that moment. Adrenaline now ruled his body!

The Wind Ape also sensed that the situation seemed to have undergone a subtle change.

"Now the scales of victory should tip toward me!"

Rather than defending passively, Jiang Che took the offensive!

"ROAR!"

The Wind Ape's furious roar thundered through the ancient forest, and red light slowly appeared in its mouth.

Jiang Che closed his eyes and circulated the True Qi within him at full power.

The Wind Ape's move that fired red light should only be usable once within a short period, and its consumption was enormous.

"ROAR!"

The Wind Ape roared again. Red light illuminated the entire ancient forest as it shot toward Jiang Che.

The True Qi and Soul Power within Jiang Che circulated at full power!

Jiang Che felt all the Soul Power and True Qi throughout his body surge into the longsword in his hand, as though he were being drained dry.

The surrounding air began to spin. Countless tiny fragments of leaves, grass stems, and broken vines were swept up by the blade force, actually forming a small tornado within five meters around him.

The Wind Ape's red light shot toward Jiang Che.

Blade force accompanied a Water Blade as they slashed out from the Blue Silver Longsword.

The blade force spread outward from Jiang Che, covering a fan-shaped area with a radius of ten meters.

The blade force collided with the red light, causing an explosion.

The blade force sliced straight through the mass of red light and flew toward the Wind Ape.

The Wind Ape roared and retreated.

But the blade force was simply too fast.

The blade force actually split into countless pieces within the explosion.

The Wind Ape's fur was sliced open and its muscles severed, wound after wound appearing across its body.

Countless wounds covered the Wind Ape's body, and it let out heart-rending screams.

Before long, the Wind Ape's cries abruptly stopped.

[Ding-!]

[Killed a 3,012-year-old Mutated Wind Ape. Gained 15 skill points.]

[Current skill points: 556]

Its enormous body froze in place, both claws still shielding its head, but it no longer moved.

Jiang Che stood frozen too, his hands extended, still holding the posture of the slash he had just unleashed.

Debris fluttered down like falling leaves after a sudden rain, carpeting the ground.

The Wind Ape's body began to tilt, pitching forward and hitting the ground with a dull thud.

The ground shook.

Its back, shoulders, and even its face were densely covered in wounds, the deepest of which exposed bone.

Jiang Che's knees buckled, and he dropped straight to the ground.

Only then did exhaustion wash over him.

Having overdrafted both his Soul Power and True Qi felt awful.

Suddenly!

Cracks appeared across the ground from the explosion moments before.

Very soon, the ground collapsed with a crash like fragile glass, revealing an enormous, bottomless dark hole below that gave off a cold, sinister aura.

Alarmed, Jiang Che tried to use his Soul Power to fly away from the collapsing black hole.

But Jiang Che did not even have any strength left now. How could he possibly have Soul Power and True Qi left to fly?

He fell!

Icy wind scraped across his cheeks like knives.

Endless darkness swallowed his vision.

Exhaustion and searing pain throughout his body gradually blurred Jiang Che's consciousness.

Splash...

The sound of flowing water surrounded him.

A cold wind blew over Jiang Che, making him shiver all over.

Jiang Che opened his heavy eyes.

The Profound Water Turtle emerged from somewhere, slowly crawled over to him, and nudged his arm with its head.

"Don't... don't nudge me." Jiang Che's voice was hoarse, his throat feeling as though it held a handful of sand. "Let me rest a while."

Jiang Che was now in an underground cavern. It was not completely dark: strange fungi giving off a faint glow grew on the uncollapsed rock overhead, and some firefly-like creatures circled around him.

A pool lay at the bottom of the cavern.

Jiang Che felt nothing but relief. If not for this bottomless pool, he reckoned he would have been smashed into pulp.

Jiang Che rested for a long while before he could barely manage to sit up.

He glanced at the Profound Water Turtle beside him and asked weakly, "Did you save me?"

The Profound Water Turtle raised its head and nodded proudly.

Jiang Che was somewhat surprised. He had not expected this turtle to have such a sense of loyalty.

"In my current condition, if I use my flight skill, I'm afraid I'll fall out of the air halfway up."

Jiang Che got up and looked around, discovering a narrow path along the cavern wide enough for three people to walk abreast.

Jiang Che leaned forward and peered inside. Glowing moss covered the stone walls, allowing him to just make out the conditions within.

"What's that smell?"

A gust of wind blew out from inside the cave, carrying wafts of delicate fragrance.