Chapter 162: Chapter 513: Innate Coiling Dragon

"...Petty tricks."

The Demon Emperor’s figure faltered for a moment, its voice tinged with annoyance. In the next instant, it raised a hand and swiped at Su Zhou from afar. Vast Wood Qi mixed with Gray Mist swirled around its palm, and a condensed blast of crimson poison gas shot toward Su Zhou like an air cannon.

Su Zhou, however, was unfazed. He simply turned slightly to the side, letting the crimson ball of poison gas graze past him and slam into the ground, leaving a crater in the wooden floor of the Celestial Palace far behind.

"You’re in a humanoid form yourself, you know. Look at you. You think having a few Dragon Scales makes you a Dragon?"

He turned his head back, his face full of malice as he spoke in the nitpicking tone of a demanding client. "A Dragon should have a Dragon’s majesty, a Dragon’s presence, a Dragon’s sense of power! This look of yours—all tangled-up wood roots with a couple of horns slapped on... You’ve clearly never studied design, have you? You call that a Dragon? A ball of earthworms is better looking than you!"

—Clearly, the Demon Emperor was not the contractor.

It had probably never been so insulted in its entire life.

A furious snort echoed out. The twisted, wooden humanoid flared with a gray-brown Spiritual Light, then dissolved into a cloud of mist and vanished before Su Zhou’s eyes.

The next instant, a series of sonic booms erupted!

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! In a flash, over a dozen enormous wooden roots erupted from the top of the Yongning Celestial Palace, at the Celestial Altar. Each root was nearly a meter thick and over ten meters long. At a glance, they looked like huge, slender ’fingers’. All dozen-or-so fingers whipped through the air, creating sonic booms as they hammered down toward Su Zhou in the center of the altar, like a deformed hand rapidly clenching into a fist!

But Su Zhou was unhurried. He did a backflip, retreating along the path he had just charged in on, and dodged the majority of the tentacles’ bombardment.

Strangely, another wooden root seemed to be forming in the direction Su Zhou had dodged. If it had formed properly, he would never have been able to evade the combined attack of so many roots so easily. But its writhing movements were incredibly slow, and every time it raised itself halfway, it would droop back down as if exhausted.

And on this tentacle’s trunk, a crimson fissure was gradually widening. A Dark Spirit Attachment potent enough to harm Spiritual Energy and a bloody Demon Poison were spreading within it.

That was precisely the mark his spear had left when Su Zhou dragged it across the ground earlier!

’Just as I thought. The entire Celestial Palace, including that Gray Mist, is a living thing. I knew something was wrong when I looked with my Spiritual Vision earlier.’

Casually dodging the dozen-odd roots’ assault, Su Zhou landed on the only relatively flat patch of ground left on the Celestial Altar. He didn’t stop. The moment all the roots slowly lifted, as if gathering power for another strike, he smiled faintly. Then, with his right hand on his blade’s hilt, he took a proactive step forward.

BANG! Kicking up a cloud of wood chips, Su Zhou became a phantom.

CRACK!

With a crisp cracking sound, a flash of lightning and fire erupted. The dazzling blade left a bright arc in midair that could burn itself onto one’s retinas as Su Zhou severed a massive wooden tentacle with his Blade of Annihilation. Great gouts of green Wood Liquid spewed out, only to be vaporized into mist by the raging fire that ignited at the stump!

"AARGH!"

A cry of pain could be heard from an unknown source. At the stump of the wooden tentacle, countless fine rootlets were spreading, trying to suppress the flames and begin regenerating. But the Blade of Annihilation didn’t just sever flesh; it severed the mind and spirit as well. That single slash had already driven the Spiritual Soul on that wooden root to complete Silent Extinction. Until that part of the soul could be regrown, the root-tentacle had no chance of Rebirth.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! In response to the Demon Emperor’s rage—wherever it was now located—the other tentacles, now fully charged, began lashing at Su Zhou once more. The force of each wooden tentacle was enough to instantly demolish an entire mansion. If they struck the ground, they could create a small earthquake. Their current frenzy was making the entire Yongning Celestial Palace shake. The air was churned by violent shockwaves, even forming vacuum vortexes between the thrashing tentacles!

"Too slow, way too slow!"

But Su Zhou paid it no mind. Laughing heartily, he carried his Spirit Iron Long Spear on his back and wielded his Blade of Annihilation, leaping back and forth between the rapidly coiling tendrils. It was as if he were dancing with the giant tentacles, a close and intimate waltz.

But dancing with Su Zhou came at a steep price. Every few leaps, he would find an opening to slash fiercely with his blade or thrust with his spear, leaving behind huge, flaming gashes or a spreading, crimson poison on the wooden roots!

Merely a few dozen seconds later, when Su Zhou leaped down from a wooden tentacle once again, all fourteen giant wooden roots had been neutralized. They were either severed, paralyzed by poison and lying limp on the roof of the Celestial Palace, or still writhing in agony amidst the flames, unable to be controlled or launch any effective attacks.

"Any other tricks, Demon Emperor?"

he said.

"...Hmph."

The entire Celestial Palace seemed to vibrate as a man’s deep, furious snort resounded. "Mortal whelp of a dragon, do you really think this is the full extent of my power? Don’t be so naive."

BOOM!

As he spoke, the entire Yongning Celestial Palace began to shake again. Even before the original wooden roots had completely died, new ’slender fingers’—far more numerous than before—sprouted from the walls and floor of the palace!

This time, however, they didn’t lash out at Su Zhou. Instead, as if drawn by something, they converged on the azure wooden pillar in the center of the Celestial Altar—the one formed from the Divine Wood Tree Top!

"I merely wanted to experience the power of a so-called Divine Soldier—the Blade of Annihilation, which is famed for being able to slay the undying."

An incredibly dense Gray Mist gathered, transforming the top of the Celestial Palace into an unfathomable, abyssal fog.

KSHHH... KSHHH... KSHHH... The sound of branches and bark scraping against each other arose, and a deep, sinister male voice echoed through the mist.

Then, from within the dense fog that was like a lightless night, a dragon’s claw made entirely of wooden branches and burls extended, then retracted. The gray-black mist dissipated as quickly as it had gathered, revealing to all a monstrous wooden dragon coiling around the pillar, half of its body rooted in the Celestial Palace itself!

—The Divine Wood Dragon · Coiling Dragon!

’As I expected.’

Seeing this, even though he was mentally prepared and held the Divine Blade in his hand, Su Zhou’s smile couldn’t help but stiffen slightly.

’This form, this Life Force, this Spiritual Power... there’s no longer any doubt—’

’The Demon Emperor has succeeded in its transformation into a dragon—’

’It has reached the Innate Realm!’

"And as for the power of this Divine Soldier—my conclusion is—it’s nothing special!"

The Wood God Dragon, coiled around the azure wooden pillar, fixed its eyes on the human who was utterly insignificant in its sight. It opened its great maw, filled with sharp, azure wooden stakes, and revealed a ferocious ’smile’. "But even so, it is a weapon that can harm me. And this world has no need for a second dragon."

"Die."

Without another word, the giant wooden dragon raised its head and opened its mouth. The tips of its twin horns lit up with a blinding azure Spiritual Light, forming a triangular pattern of light between the horns and its open maw.

Then, with a ripple that shook the very air, the Coiling Dragon spat out an incredibly condensed ball of azure Wood Qi. It hung high in the air, radiating a brilliant light!

"Not good!"

At that moment, a chill ran down Su Zhou’s spine. He looked up, his heart filled with a sense of foreboding. ’It’s an area-of-effect attack!’

The next instant, streams of light burst forth from the ball of Wood Qi, raining down upon the entire Cloud Summit Celestial Altar!

In an instant, the entire Celestial Altar was inundated by a surging tide of detonating Wood Qi!