Standing opposite him, Sun Wukong no longer looked as relaxed as before.
From the moment Tara appeared, he had already examined him with his Fiery Eyes and Golden Gaze.
Although he could not discern Tara's true capabilities, he could clearly feel the oppressive aura radiating from him even from over a dozen meters away.
This was definitely someone far beyond his current strength.
Without activating Heaven and Earth Manifestation, he had no confidence that he could defeat him.
But with the Taotie invasion imminent, he did not want to waste his trump card here.
What was more, behind Tara stood Qin Feng, who had yet to make a move. That kid was even harder for him to see through.
"Hey, kid."
Sun Wukong drew back his Golden Cudgel and rested it on his shoulder, lifting his chin toward Qin Feng. "Old Sun just remembered that the bananas back home haven't been harvested yet. I'll leave those ten sets of Dark Alloy Armor with you for now."
With that, he turned to slip away.
"Stop."
Tara's voice was not loud, but it struck Sun Wukong's spine like a nail.
Sun Wukong stopped in his tracks.
He turned his head, a glint of wariness flashing through his Fiery Eyes and Golden Gaze as his lips curved into a faint, indifferent smile.
"What, you insist on trading a few blows with your Grandpa Sun? If Old Sun didn't have urgent business, I'd..."
Before he could finish, Tara vanished from where he stood.
Sun Wukong's pupils contracted sharply. Almost instinctively, he swung the Golden Cudgel in a sweep behind him.
The cudgel traced a semicircular golden arc, striking precisely at the shadow he sensed.
But the Golden Cudgel stopped abruptly in midair. A dark red hand had clamped firmly around its shaft.
Sun Wukong pulled back with both hands, veins bulging and clenched teeth grinding.
His toes dug two shallow pits into the ground, a fine sheen of sweat beaded on his forehead, and his furry monkey face flushed bright red with exertion.
Yet the Golden Cudgel did not budge, as though welded to Tara's palm.
Tara stood before him, holding the Golden Cudgel in one hand. His golden, slit-pupiled eyes watched him calmly, as though watching a grasshopper kicking its legs with all its might.
"Good reaction speed. Unfortunately, you lack strength."
He gave his wrist a slight flick.
An immense force traveled down the shaft of the Golden Cudgel. Sun Wukong felt a sudden numbness in the webs of his hands, and his grip involuntarily loosened.
The Golden Cudgel flew from his grasp. He staggered two steps backward before barely steadying himself. Looking down at his palms, he saw that the impact had split the skin and fur at the webs of his hands, leaving two fine cuts that seeped faint traces of blood.
The Golden Cudgel was now in Tara's hands.
Tara turned the Golden Cudgel over to inspect it, then slowly applied force with both hands. A piercing crack of breaking metal rang through the dense forest.
He had actually snapped the Golden Cudgel in two!
Tara hefted the two broken halves, his golden, slit-pupiled eyes showing no flicker of emotion.
Then, with a casual flick, he sent the broken pieces hurtling straight at Sun Wukong with a howl of wind.
"Squelch!"
The two broken pieces struck one after the other, lodging diagonally in Sun Wukong's chest. His Golden Chainmail was pierced through, and blood dripped down the shafts.
Sun Wukong looked down at the two broken pieces in his chest, fury and humiliation churning in his Fiery Eyes and Golden Gaze.
But he also knew that fighting on would accomplish nothing.
So he took a deep breath, pulled out the broken pieces, and threw them to the ground.
Then he somersaulted into the air. A white cloud condensed out of the void beneath his feet and carried him away into the depths of the clouds.
"Where do you think you're going!"
Tara lowered his body and pushed off, about to launch into the air in pursuit, when Qin Feng's voice suddenly drifted over from behind him.
"That's enough, Tara. Don't chase him. We have other things to do."
Tara stopped.
He looked back, a trace of confusion in his golden, slit-pupiled eyes. "My king, isn't letting that monkey go like this too easy on him? He kept calling you 'kid' and came here to provoke you. If we don't teach him a lesson he won't forget, I fear he'll only become more insolent."
In his eyes, Sun Wukong had already given them cause to kill him.
After all, Qin Feng was the king of the Shadowkhan Army. Was treating him with such contempt not a slap in all their faces?
Moreover, the most important thing was that Sun Wukong was no weakling.
If they allowed someone like him to leave, Tara feared that Sun Wukong would become a potential enemy of Qin Feng's in the future.
"You only know part of the story."
With his hands in his pockets, Qin Feng walked slowly over to Tara and glanced in the direction where Sun Wukong had disappeared. "Sun Wukong's strength goes far beyond this. If you truly drove him into a corner, you might not be able to defeat him."
He paused, a deeper significance entering his tone.
"Besides, certain people wouldn't stand by and watch us destroy him. This piece holds a far more important position on Blue Star's chessboard than you think."
Tara's brow shifted slightly. He lowered his head thoughtfully and asked no further questions.
Qin Feng patted his shoulder. "Come on. Come meet an old friend with me."
He raised a hand, opened a black passage, and stepped inside.
Tara followed behind him. Before entering, he turned his head to glance at Ika beside him.
"General Ika, return to the Kingdom and recuperate. Improve your strength while you're at it. I don't want to see a repeat of what happened today."
Ika lowered his head, a trace of shame in his voice. "Yes, Commander."
Tara said nothing more and turned to disappear into the darkness.
Ika stood there for two seconds, watching the two figures vanish, then sank into the shadow beneath his feet as well.
Silence returned to the dense forest, leaving only wreckage strewn across the ground.
The wind passed through the treetops, sweeping up a few fallen leaves and sending them swirling around the clearing.
About two or three minutes later, a patch of space at the edge of the clearing suddenly rippled slightly.
A figure stepped out of it.
Ryze wore a dark robe, his calm face carrying a trace of helplessness he could not conceal.
He walked into the center of the clearing, which had been battered beyond recognition, bent down to pick up the two broken halves of the Golden Cudgel, and turned them over in his hands to inspect them.
"Ah, troubled times indeed."
Ryze sighed.
He had only intended for Sun Wukong to probe Qin Feng's attitude toward Blue Star and see where this Galaxy Power, who had appeared out of nowhere, actually stood.
He had never expected Sun Wukong's fiery temper to flare up and turn things into such a mess over ten sets of Dark Alloy Armor.
Now, not only had he lost his Golden Cudgel, but one of Qin Feng's men had also beaten him into a panicked retreat, dragging the Super God Academy into a feud with Qin Feng's side in the process.
"I wonder whether this will affect Ge Xiaolun's growth..."
Ryze murmured to himself.
"Forget it, forget it. We'll take things as they come."
He put the broken cudgel into the Dark Plane, then turned and vanished into the shadows of the dense forest as well.
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