NOVPUB
Chapter 730: Chapter 736: Resolution
"Hmph!"
Bai Haoyuan snorted coldly and said, "Fellow Daoist is perhaps too confident!"
Yet, he was on high alert inside, ready to flee at the slightest hint of trouble. After all, he had already obtained what he came for, and saw no need to entangle with others.
"Words are useless, you won’t believe me anyway, so let’s just let the truth speak for itself!"
Li Zhirui cut the chitchat, his life-bound magic treasure moved with his will, and, together with the vines he summoned with his spell, they formed an enormous, airtight cage, reminiscent of a gladiator’s arena, trapping both of them inside.
This had become a habit for him. Whenever he fought a cultivator of the same realm, Li Zhirui’s first move was always to cast a spell to trap the opponent, leaving them no chance to escape.
After all, if a Nascent Soul cultivator was determined to flee for their life, he wasn’t necessarily able to catch up.
Mysteriously, a gentle rain began to fall from the sky, and the immense number of vines, nourished by the rain, grew frenziedly once more, like a mass of green pythons, rearing and menacing with their fangs and claws.
The pythons swiftly slithered, all pouncing towards Bai Haoyuan.
"Child’s play!"
He didn’t take these vines seriously at all, casually releasing a handful of spiritual fire to burn the encroaching vines to ashes, but unexpectedly, the spiritual fire wouldn’t ignite at all!
"How is this possible?" Bai Haoyuan cried out in astonishment, his spiritual fire was no ordinary fire, but one of the heavenly spiritual fires!
In past battles, it might not have been invincible, but at least it never failed to ignite something as trivial as a few vines.
Only then did he realize that the moisture in the air had become extremely dense, which clearly wasn’t natural and was surely one of Li Zhirui’s tricks.
As someone with water-wood dual spiritual roots, Li Zhirui didn’t have a particular advantage in spellcasting like other cultivators. Instead, he took a different approach, combining the advantages of both, which resulted in his current combat style.
With carefully cultivated vines as the spell’s foundation, combined with the booming vitality of the wood spirit root and the endless continuity of the water spirit root, Li Zhirui was incredibly difficult to deal with among cultivators of the same realm.
Add to that Da Qing’s solid defense and Xiaoqing’s sharp attacks, and he wouldn’t necessarily lose even when facing three to five Nascent Soul cultivators at the same time!
And once Cang broke through to the fourth rank, his combat power would increase even further.
However, by the time that happened, it might not be long before he made his own breakthrough to Divine Transformation. At that point, his opportunities to take action would definitely be much rarer than now.
It was mainly because it was hard to encounter Nascent Soul cultivators in the outside world. Fighting with other cultivators couldn’t really be called a proper fight since they could be dealt with in just a couple of moves.
But back to the matter at hand!
The moment Bai Haoyuan realized his divine powers weren’t effective, he changed his strategy. Unfortunately, it was already a step too late. Countless vines swarmed him, mercilessly lashing his body.
If not for the timely activation of a fourth-rank defensive talisman, just that attack would have left him seriously injured!
The greatest advantage of talismans lies in their ability to be activated instantly, which is also the main reason they are listed among the four great cultivation skills.
But the disadvantage is just as clear, the higher the rank of the talisman, the more expensive it is to create, and paradoxically, they can only be used a few times—most of them would be discarded after just one use.
If this downside could be mitigated, the art of talisman making would immediately witness a huge surge in popularity and become the most sought-after skill among cultivators.
Alas, for countless years, endless talisman makers strove one after another but were unable to change this flaw, at best only managing to increase the number of uses for talismans slightly.
"I’m going to kill you!" Bai Haoyuan roared in rage.
He had paid a great price to obtain the fourth-order defensive talisman, and if it weren’t for having only one last chance to use it, he might not have been able to acquire it at all.
But because of a moment of carelessness, it was wasted here in vain!
He never considered that the fault lay with himself and instead directed all blame onto Li Zhirui.
"With your strength, I fear you won’t have that opportunity."
He replied contemptuously, but he became secretly vigilant in his heart, knowing that a Nascent Soul cultivator gone mad was not easy to deal with!
At the same time, Li Zhirui also found it strange that a Nascent Soul cultivator could be so mentally unstable.
Boom!
Deeply provoked, Bai Haoyuan completely lost his reason and, disregarding his own injuries, spurred his Spiritual Fire with all his might, intending to burn everything before him to ashes.
A great number of vines were ignited, turning into sections of pitch-black char, and the fire continued to spread unabated, soon capable of completely destroying the cage.
Li Zhirui’s brows furrowed slightly, and he quickly formed hand seals, causing the moisture in the air to swiftly gather and turning the entire cage into a lake exuding a chilling mist. Frost also formed on the vines protruding above the water’s surface.
But the fully unleashed Spiritual Fire was not so easily extinguished, stubbornly scorching the vines.
Left with no choice, Li Zhirui had to circulate his mana again, condensing the cold water into several Water Dragons, which finally managed to completely extinguish the Spiritual Fire.
However, by that point, there were hardly any vines left.
"If you have any more tricks up your sleeve, feel free to use them!" Bai Haoyuan declared arrogantly.
Li Zhirui gave him a cold glance and didn’t say a word. In the next moment, rain of bamboo leaves began to fall within the cage. This beautiful sight, however, concealed a terrifying lethality!
Each bamboo leaf was a miniature Spirit Sword, carrying Li Zhirui’s own Sword Qi.
Although he had never formally cultivated the Sword Dao, as a Nascent Soul cultivator, mere Sword Qi was not something that required much attention, not being as profound as Sword Intent or Sword Heart.
Moreover, he had a sister, Li Zhixuan, who was extraordinarily gifted in the Sword Dao. She had once left her insights on sword mastery and cultivation techniques with the family.
Li Zhirui, having nothing better to do, had glanced through them occasionally. Even though he had not learned much and many aspects remained half-understood, he had managed to enhance his own Sword Qi, significantly increasing its lethality and ensuring it was no longer as flashy but ineffective as before.
At the same time, he scattered a handful of fourth-order vine Spirit Seeds once more. This time, however, the sprouted vines did not grow large but hid within the cold lake, ready to deliver a fatal blow to Bai Haoyuan!
Li Zhirui, who possessed the Mysterious Space, might run short of other Spiritual Objects, but he would never run out of vine Spirit Seeds, as they were his primary method of attack!
For this reason, he had set aside a mountain within the space specifically to grow fourth-order vines. Even without using Spirit Stones to stimulate their growth, the vines grew exceedingly fast, able to produce tens of thousands of Spirit Seeds for him in just a few years.
Bai Haoyuan, already wounded and weakened after a burst of exertion, was quickly defeated by Li Zhirui’s full-force assault.
"If you have to blame something, blame your bad luck for carelessly encountering me." Facing his venomous glare, Li Zhirui decisively took the life of the Nascent Soul cultivator.
