c2: Oral strike! Did I misunderstand?
At this moment, Wang Yue's heart brimmed with nothing but mockery.
He had just slaughtered an entire remote farming village men, women, and children alike. Not only had his spirit power not diminished, but by devouring the flesh and blood of his victims, he had replenished himself to overflowing. The grisly feast had even pushed his cultivation forward, smashing through a bottleneck and elevating him to Spirit Power Rank 29 one step away from becoming a Spirit Elder.
Tell him how could someone like that possibly lose to a half-starved child?
In truth, the thought of defeat had never once crossed his mind.
The boy before him barely emitted spirit power fluctuations equivalent to rank 3, a newborn Spirit Master's level.
What threat could he pose?
And yet… this kid's spirit power, though weak, carried an unusually tenacious vitality. He had evaded Wang Yue's pursuit far longer than a six-year-old should have been capable of.
But then Wang Yue's eyes narrowed.
A blood-red aura pulsed from his body, coalescing into a chestplate-like defense over his upper torso, the material seemingly forged from condensed, malevolent spirit power. Across it crawled jet-black patterns like living veins, radiating a nauseating evil.
From the grass ahead, a Blue Silver Grass spear as thick as an adult's arm exploded forth. It was a tightly wound spiral of countless vines rotating in unison, its tip honed to a vicious point.
Wang Yue's spirit instincts screamed at him: if not for the defensive spirit skill from his Two-Ring Martial Spirit, even as a Spirit Grandmaster, such a strike would have gouged deep into his flesh.
"Kid… I didn't expect you to manage this much right after awakening your Martial Spirit."
Wang Yue's lips curled, and he licked the corner of his mouth with serpentine slowness, a feverish madness gleaming in his eyes.
"But the more you surprise me… the more excited I get!"
"Hehehe!"
To torment a budding genius, to watch him fight with everything he had, only to see hope die in his eyes was a game far more pleasurable than simple slaughter.
Though a rank 3 Spirit Master was still trash in Wang Yue's view, the creativity in this boy's use of Blue Silver Grass already marked him as dangerous in the future. And that… made breaking him all the sweeter.
Then, in the midst of their tense stand-off, an almost invisible Blue Silver Grass seed drifted on the wind straight into Wang Yue's open mouth.
The instant it touched his tongue, the seed swelled with violent vitality.
Its tender tip morphed into a needle-like thorn, piercing the tender flesh inside his cheek.
"Chancery Art!"
Su Yu's lips curved into a sharp smile.
You kept grinning, so I found my opening, didn't I?
Wang Yue felt the faint sting inside his mouth but dismissed it immediately. For someone whose spirit power was steeped in blood and slaughter, the metallic tang was so subtle it barely registered.
But then…
"Explode!"
The Chancery Art was a self-created technique born from Su Yu's epiphany earlier. By planting even the smallest fragment of Blue Silver Grass inside an enemy, it could grow thorns instantly, each one branching repeatedly like a living sawblade, ripping apart flesh and tissue from within.
Its greatest strength was simple: once it pierced the target's body, the damage was inevitable. The spread was instantaneous, internal, and devastating.
In this moment, Su Yu's thorned grass exploded inside Wang Yue's mouth.
Vines sprouted with impossible speed, weaving through gums, tongue, and throat, puncturing upwards toward the brain and down into the windpipe.
The Evil Soul Master's eyes went wide, the arrogant madness replaced by naked terror.
No scream escaped him. His windpipe was shredded before he could even draw breath to cry out.
He simply collapsed lifeless.
A Spirit Grandmaster… killed in silence.
Su Yu waited for a full three seconds, making certain the Evil Soul Master's breath had ceased entirely, before letting his tense body sag. He collapsed to the ground, greedily gulping the cool air into his lungs.
The stench of blood still hung thick in the wilderness, but to Su Yu, it now carried the sweet taste of survival.
A narrow escape…
While his body slowly recovered from the strain, Su Yu finally had the chance to calmly assess his circumstances.
Douluo Continent. Peerless Tang Sect era.
"The Peerless Tang Sect era, huh? I just don't know exactly which point in time."
If he could avoid the period of Huo Yuhao's rise, then there would be no need to worry about attracting the notice of that God King.
It was instinct deep, bone-deep that made him cautious. He didn't know what petty schemes or unseen grudges he might have with that God King, but his first thought was still to evade the other party's gaze entirely.
Huo Yuhao, the so-called Son of Fortune, had started with an absurd foundation his first spirit ring was a million-year ring from the Skydream Iceworm. Even so, after enduring countless trials, he had only managed to reach the level of a First-Class God.
Don't even start with whether that God position was "enough" look at Tang San. He'd ascended and immediately obtained two God Positions: the Sea God and the Asura God, one being a full God King position and the other a Quasi-God King.
A God Position like Sea God's, which could rival the Asura God for an heir and refuse to yield even an inch, was absolutely not some ordinary First-Class God. If anyone believed otherwise, they were a fool.
And that whole business with the Emotion God? If Huo Yuhao had inherited it naturally, fine but in truth, Rong Nianbing had been manipulated, tangled in the schemes of that very God King.
No, Su Yu couldn't trust him. Not in the slightest.
"If I do end up in Huo Yuhao's time, it's still acceptable."
At least then the events would roughly follow the story he knew.
With his Heaven-Defying Comprehension, Su Yu believed he had the capital to rise to the top in this world, no matter the backdrop.
"Forget it. One step at a time."
Right now, there was no point overthinking the timeline. That was something he'd have to investigate, and sitting here wouldn't answer anything.
From the single clue he had—"Peerless Tang Sect era" he could only narrow it down so far.
"First, let's see if this Evil Soul Master has anything useful."
He had arrived in this world with nothing. If there was any chance to gear himself up, it would be from the corpse in front of him.
But he was no fool, he wasn't about to touch the body directly. Who knew what kind of poisonous tricks an Evil Soul Master might carry? Summoning his Blue Silver Grass, Su Yu probed the body from a safe distance.
"Ten gold coins. Not bad."
In his current state, coin was the most valuable resource gold meant food, shelter, and the ability to move without being treated like a beggar.
Beyond that, the man had a storage ring, several books, and a pile of strange items.
A small leather whip that clearly wasn't made for combat.
A length of coarse hemp rope, long enough to bind a person entirely.
A set of candles, and other… oddities.
As a six-year-old child, Su Yu had no clue what these were actually for.
"Is this a spirit tool?"
His eyes landed on something that looked like a grip. Pulling it out, he found a dense lattice of engraved patterns on its surface. In the grip's center was a small metallic orb.
"Let's try it."
Channeling his spirit power into the grip, the carved patterns flared faintly. Above the metallic core, light condensed into the faint outline of a dagger the signature sign of a spirit tool projection.
A mid-grade offensive spirit tool, if he wasn't mistaken.
"My spirit power's too low to fully activate it."
The instant he stopped the flow of power, the dagger's projection vanished, the metal orb's light dimming.
He slipped the grip back into the storage ring.
"What's this… a 'training manual'? And…"
Flipping through the rest, Su Yu wrinkled his nose in disgust.
Just as he was about to shove the rest back and be done with it, something caught his eye.
"Finally, something worth keeping Intermediate Meditation Method."
Even though his predecessor had only been a village child whose mother had taught him a few characters, Su Yu could clearly recognize the title.
He flipped through it curiously
"Eh…?"
It was surprisingly easy to understand.
He had assumed that a cultivation method from this world would be profound and cryptic, but this one was… simple. Too simple.
Even with his half-learned literacy, Su Yu could grasp the core principles.
"Is this seriously the Douluo Continent's Meditation Method?"
He'd expected a detailed, systematic technique, but this…
It was almost insulting.
"Did I… misunderstand?"
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