Chapter 38: Explosion Mode! Instant Kill!

At that moment, a loud shout rang out. Everyone looked over and saw the captured Tian Not Returned. Tian Not Returned burst into hearty laughter, "Little Roc Prince can't match Uncle Master's speed, nor can he stand up to him head-on. We have hope!" Only now did Tian Not Returned feel that things were finally looking up.

Upon hearing Tian Not Returned, Kong Cheng broke down, "Little Roc Prince! You must win!!!" His sharp, piercing cries made the ears of nearby cultivators ache, "I don't want to die!" Little Roc Prince's face changed, inwardly cursing: This wretch, wailing and making a scene—what a disgrace to our Hundred Thousand Monster Mountain.

Little Roc Prince was deeply irritated. His speed was inferior to Lu Wu's, and he had lost in direct confrontation…

"Lu Wu, you're strong," he said. "I never expected someone of your age to have mastered the signature secret technique of the Grand Void Palace—the Swimming Dragon Sword—to such a degree." "But your physical strength is too weak; otherwise, I would already be dead." Not to mention mastery; even mere proficiency, the Swimming Dragon Sword alone, at the Book of Knowledge's adept level, would be enough to overwhelm him.

But that strike merely left Little Roc Prince's palm bloody and mangled—a minor injury. This confirmed to him that Lu Wu's strength was not high, at most at the Foundation Establishment level: much stronger than ordinary mortals, but far inferior to the Qi Gathering realm.

Lu Wu's Swimming Dragon Sword lacked the support of primal true essence; relying solely on physical strength, it was already astonishingly powerful. Still, the fundamental weakness was clear.

Little Roc Prince had an idea: "In that case, let's see if you can withstand this move." He soared into the air, transforming into a giant roc, wings folded across his chest, then suddenly sweeping downward: "Grand Roc Gale!"

The cultivation methods of demon cultivators differed from those of the Grand Void Palace. For example, Yi Ya had begun tempering a sword blank from the start of his training, forging it ever stronger through continuous cultivation. The sword technique merged with the sword blank, producing sword energy. Ordinary Qi Gathering cultivators couldn't release sword energy from the blade.

But Yi Ya, having practiced the Grand Void Sword, could unleash sword energy several yards long. Little Roc Prince couldn't use a spear to release energy, but as a true roc commanding the winds, he could unleash a wide-area attack: the Grand Roc Gale!

The Grand Roc Gale wasn't particularly powerful, but it swept across an enormous area. Under his wings, the gale whipped sand and stones into a frenzy, roaring across the crude arena.

"How will you block this?" Little Roc Prince shouted, "Use speed? Then fly out of the ring!" "Do you think… I can't block it?" Lu Wu smiled. His slender insect legs formed an odd-looking seal, but a soul aura was gathering.

"‘Myriad Beasts Diagram’—Soul Tower!" Lu Wu's soul force coalesced into a tower, anchoring his body.

Little Roc Prince was stunned by the words Myriad Beasts Diagram. "What?!!"

"Impossible!!!" "You, only forty-eight days since birth, have mastered the Swimming Dragon Sword—I could hardly believe it. Yet you’ve also cultivated the Myriad Beasts Diagram?!"

Below the stage, Little Ape King watched the raging gale helpless against the tower, puzzled: "Myriad Beasts Diagram? What technique is that? The Grand Void Palace doesn’t have such a signature technique, right?"

Little Flood Dragon King replied, "That's not a Grand Void Palace secret, but a soul-type technique among human cultivators, imitating the beast path."

"It's said every soul-type technique is at least ten times harder to cultivate than a comparable primal technique," he explained.

Little Ape King was dumbfounded, "Impossible. The Swimming Dragon Sword of the Grand Void Palace is already impossibly difficult. I’ve never heard of anyone reaching mastery in Qi Gathering." "Lu Wu’s not only mastered the Swimming Dragon Sword, but has also cultivated a soul secret that's ten times harder?!"

"How could he have trained so many powerful techniques and skills in forty-eight days?" "It’s absolutely impossible!"

Little Flood Dragon King hesitated, lowering his voice: "Perhaps his soul is unusually strong from birth, allowing him to practice soul techniques twice as fast, as if water flowing naturally." "And the Grand Void Sword… maybe his sword talent is a once-in-a-century rarity… I can’t explain it any further…"

On stage, the gale dissipated, and Lu Wu retracted his Soul Tower.

Little Roc Prince circled overhead, shrieking, "Impossible! You must have cultivated some kind of illusion—no one could master two top-tier Qi Gathering techniques and skills in just forty-eight days!"

"Absolutely! Impossible!"

Lu Wu, too, hovered in the air, wings beating steadily: "The truth is right before your eyes." "Is this all you’ve got?"

Little Roc Prince grew furious. "I refuse to believe you have no weakness, or that the Soul Tower can be used repeatedly." "When your soul energy is exhausted, you’ll still lose!"

The roc suddenly dove, wingspan over a yard, golden steam rising from his feathers as though ignited.

"Roc Dragon-Grabbing Technique!" "Heaven-Splitting Claw!"

Lu Wu raised his disproportionately large mandibles: "Swimming Dragon Sword—True Dragon Patrols the Skies!"

One side wielded the Dragon-Grabbing Technique, the other the Swimming Dragon Sword. It seemed Lu Wu was at a disadvantage. Yet Lu Wu had mastered the Swimming Dragon Sword, while Little Roc Prince's Dragon-Grabbing Technique was only at minor proficiency.

The two collided—Lu Wu flew back six yards, the roc retreated one.

Little Roc Prince howled, "Your body is indeed your weakness. You don’t cultivate primal essence, have no ranged attacks, and don’t strengthen your flesh. Relying solely on your innate strength and soul arts, how can you compete with me!"

Lu Wu had no intention of revealing the secrets of his evolutionary path and physical strength. But to have honed his body to this level was no small feat.

Indeed, it was impossible to gain an advantage by brute force against Little Roc Prince. If not for mastering the Swimming Dragon Sword, even thirty times his strength would be no match for a single blow from Little Roc Prince. To have compensated for such a vast disparity through sheer skill was already remarkable.

Lu Wu said, "You can’t do anything to me, and my strength doesn't seem enough to deal with you either."

Little Roc Prince flapped his wings, blood staining the feathers of his right wing: "You wounded me with one strike—do you want to end it as a draw? I’d like to see how many more collisions you can withstand!"

His palm had been torn when he shifted forms, and now, in his true shape, even flying was somewhat affected.

To say he wasn’t angry would be a lie. Yet Little Roc Prince refused to give up: When your soul is depleted, I will kill you…

But Lu Wu was no mere forty-eight-day-old larva; he possessed a mature soul. He felt Little Roc Prince's gloomy gaze, "You want to kill me?"

Little Roc Prince didn’t answer, but kept staring, wings beating to maintain his position.

Below, Yi Ya suddenly noticed something: "Uncle Master, he’s using demon essence to control scattered feathers and set up a barrier!"

"Hmm?" Lu Wu glanced around and immediately tried to fly out.

‘Bang!’ Lu Wu crashed into an invisible wall.

Now Little Roc Prince revealed his true demonic nature, wings flaring as he laughed wildly: "Born into this world so recently, yet already this strong. Give you five years… no, three—and you’d sweep the Hundred Thousand Monster Mountain!" "But a dead genius is meaningless." "I wonder what consuming your flesh and blood will do for me?"

Always appearing meek and gentle, Little Roc Prince was still a demon at heart.

Lu Wu said, "You want to eat me? Are you sure?"

Little Roc Prince sneered, "I’ve figured out all your abilities—you can’t escape." "This barrier will keep shrinking; your speed is useless." "A confined space is normally my weakness, but I’ve trained myself with this barrier for years. Today it finally pays off."

"If you’re going for the kill," Lu Wu smiled, "then so am I." "Ten seconds of ultimate power—I call it Explosion Mode!"

Ant-strength multiplied, bee-wing frequency at the extreme, pigeon wing distance, turtle defense multiplied, water snake flexibility, rhinoceros beetle mimetic exoskeleton, mantis limb speed, soul blood force foundation, coffin nail mandible strength!

"Boom!"

This was Lu Wu’s first time unleashing all his abilities to their fullest, across every dimension!

Over eight hundred kilometers per hour, three thousand times the strength of a human, a body reinforced to the utmost by Dao resonance!

"Boom!" In an instant, Lu Wu was already at Little Roc Prince's head.

In Little Roc Prince's pupils, that tiny insect had arrived before him in a flash. The pain in his eyes and head barely registered before his consciousness went dark.

Lights out—kill!

Lu Wu flipped over, grabbed Little Roc Prince’s corpse—dead beyond recovery, not even beginning to fall—and tossed it into his Sumeru Belt, to slowly absorb blood and evolve later.

A moment later, both demon and Grand Void Palace disciples were stunned. On the arena, Little Roc Prince had vanished.

"What… happened…"

"It looks like he was put into a spatial pouch…"

"How can a living being be stored in a spatial… What?!!!!"

Little Roc Prince!!! Dead? Instant kill?!!!