Chapter 80 - Mutated Abyss Earth Tyrant
The damp, green-shadowed light of the deep southern wilderness pine forest swallowed Su Ming as he drifted silently beneath the ancient canopy. Skimming a few inches above the wet moss, he relied on refined control rather than a flying sword, keeping his presence entirely hidden from the surrounding woods. The air here was heavy and stagnant, thick with the scent of decaying leaves, wild spiritual herbs, and the sharp, copper tinge of beast-Qi.
The fortress wall was miles behind him now, the distant shouts of General Lu’s soldiers completely muted by the massive, towering pines that blocked out the sky.
Su Ming extended his divine sense across the dense, primeval terrain. Normally, his Golden Core perception mapped every leaf, insect, and breathing creature within a three-mile radius with absolute clarity. Yet, as his sense pushed deeper into a mist-shrouded valley, it hit a strange stretch of interference.
A signature of spiritual energy was pulsing erratically two miles ahead. One moment it registered as a heavy, immovable mountain of earthen Qi; the next, it vanished entirely, only to resettle a breath later with a cold, violet light. It was like trying to track a reflection through a hall of mirrors, flickering between presence and absence.
Su Ming landed lightly on a damp pine branch, his white robes settling without sound. Deactivating his normal perception, he focused his Essence Sight to peer through the forest. The physical world faded into a canvas of glowing spiritual flows. Ancient pines appeared as veins of green wood-Qi, while the damp earth below rippled with brown earthen threads. In the center of the valley clearing ahead, the source of the chaotic signal lay clear.
The Mutated Abyss Earth Tyrant lay resting in a clearing, its massive body slowly rising and falling with each heavy breath. But the energy pathways inside its colossal frame were a volatile, tangled storm. Erratic, unformed currents of chaotic energy clashed violently with heavy, dark-brown earth-Qi, twisting and spinning in a way that defied the natural meridian paths of any normal beast. The conflict inside its meridians looked like two swirling vortices tearing at each other.
Su Ming’s eyes narrowed, studying the turbulent vortex. He could not yet identify the specific lineage, but the corruption was clear.
A closer focus revealed a thin, foreign thread of deep, violent purple Qi coiled tightly around the spiritual core. It was a foreign catalyst, burning like an alchemical spark, that forcefully ignited the beast’s dormant, hidden bloodline.
’This is not normal,’ Su Ming thought, his expression turning cold. ’Something has forcefully evolved this beast, and the chaotic waves radiating from this beast are what drove the other beasts in this sector into a frenzy. In a way, this might be the true culprit behind the tide here.’
Su Ming stepped down to the damp earth and walked forward, stopping a hundred paces away. The Mutated Abyss Earth Tyrant did not rise. It simply turned its heavy, armored head, its movements slow and deliberate. Its mismatched body of scales, heavy bone plates, and asymmetric wings, one feathered in dark blue, the other of skeletal bone, remained still. It locked its mismatched crimson-amber and violet-blue eyes onto him with cold, calculating intelligence.
Su Ming extended his Golden Core sense to gauge its strength. The moment his pressure touched the scales, the beast’s aura slipped away like smoke escaping a clutched hand, only to resettle heavier and more oppressive than before. It was hiding its true depth, testing his own presence.
Knowing he needed to test its limits, Su Ming raised his sword, the edge tracing a swift, vertical line in the air. He launched the Sovereign’s Gaze. The First Move of the Sky Sovereign Sword Technique. The move projected immense, invisible sword pressure to lock down the target’s spiritual sense, freezing the air so the opponent could neither move nor dodge. It was a lock that could hold such a beast fast.
To his surprise, the Tyrant did not struggle against the spiritual lock. As the lock closed, its physical form passively slipped away. Like water escaping a clenched fist, its chaotic essence flowed right out of the compressed coordinates. The space locked with a dull crack, but the Tyrant sat two feet to the left, unaffected.
’Its chaotic nature lacks a fixed form,’ Su Ming noted, his analytical mind recording the phenomenon. ’Since chaos has no boundaries, it cannot be pinned by spatial coordinates.’
Mid-strike, Su Ming swept his sleeve, throwing a yellow talisman drawn with silver ink. "Form the cage," he whispered. The Earth Binding Hexagram Array Talisman ignited in mid-air, forming a glowing, golden runic matrix beneath the Tyrant that projected solid spiritual chains and runic locks of light to bind its thick limbs.
Yet, the chains simply slid off its scales and dissolved into harmless sparks, the runes collapsing under the beast’s shifting weight. The beast’s chaotic essence rejected the very concept of restraint.
Su Ming’s eyes flashed with recognition. ’An absolute rejection of spatial definition and form. Nothing can lock it down, because its nature exists outside its boundaries. This is the ancient, dormant Hundun lineage, the representation of the primordial chaos itself. And that violet energy has ignited it.’
The Tyrant rose, its massive bulk humming with a low, heavy vibration that shook the damp earth. Su Ming did not hesitate. He drew the Dragon Emperor Sword. Gripping the bone-white hilt, he channeled his soul energy into the blade.
The dragon remains embedded within the blade resonated, producing a low, draconic hum that multiplied the potency and sharpness of his Qi, making the edges glow with a brilliant golden light.
With a soft step, Su Ming vanished. Using Stage 5 Body Cultivation speed, his body became a white blur, the air cracking like thunder. In a fraction of a breath, he appeared at the Tyrant’s flank, his blade flashing in a horizontal sweep toward a gap in its shoulder plates.
CLANG!
The massive, bone-plated wing rose precisely to meet his blade, a calculated block, predicting the exact angle of his strike before the blade had even arrived. The steel and bone clash sent a violent shockwave ripping through the valley, instantly flattening a ring of ancient pines as moss, mud, and dust erupted in a perfect circle around them.