Chapter 479: The Blue Root Man

　　Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

　　Shi Mu briskly scanned the surrounding the instance he appeared, his expression slightly shifting as he did.

　　He just faced a life-tethering encountered a Late-Earth rank demon beast earlier today. Even though he managed to prevail after a heated battle, he did so with a heavy toll on his own, which was why he came to this cave to rest. Unfortunately, luck was not on his side.

　　It did not take a long time for him to notice Ma Lie and his companion being engulfed by what appeared to be a puff of blue cloud.

　　Seeing them made him frowned. Cai, meanwhile, was even more upfront with his contempt, “Gah! It’s those jerks again!”

　　Seeing that it was Shi Mu who had appeared at this moment soured Ma Lie, though his pal obviously received Shi Mu’s appearance less hostilely.

　　“Rarrrghhh!”

　　The bizarro fashioned from blue roots bellowed furiously as soon as its sight set on Shi Mu. The blue puff of cloud in midair shimmered, and the blue icy crystals that had plummeted down from the cloud—as if suddenly gaining sentience—suddenly hurled towards Shi Mu with icy-cold lethality.

　　“Okay, into the pouch you go, Cai. It’s too dangerous for you now,” Shi Mu said, stuffing the parrot into his Spiritual Pet Pocket. Crimson flames erupted from his body then after to converged into his Crimson Ape Energy Construct, who had a pair of arms made out of flames crossed before its chest. As the flames roared and blazed, a gigantic wall of fire erected out from the ground before him and shielded Shi Mu from the incoming attacks.

　　Pwyyh, pwyyh!

　　The ice crystals were like a flood broken out of a dam crashing into the gigantic wall of fire, emitting tiny pops and sizzling sounds as the flames from the wall receded—as if it was about to be overwhelmed very soon!

　　Shi Mu yanked away the glove on his left hand and exposed his palm, which quickly turned scorched-black. He extended his left arm and white flames lit up on five of his fingers for a while before coursing into the gigantic wall before him.

　　New cracks of whiteness started to flare among the flames in the wall, stopping the red light on it to retreat under the bombardment of ice crystals.

　　It was then when blue roots from the surrounding flash-stepped to a spot close-by to form a circle. Then, a drove of blue light spilled from the roots and started to converge into a blue wall of light several hundred yards large, ensnaring the trio in its center.

　　Shi Mu’s body flashed before reappearing close to Ma Lie and his pal along with his Crimson Ape Energy Construct. “What’s going on here? What kind of demon beast is this blue root thing?”

　　“No, these are not your typical demon beasts. These are beings manifested by thousands and millions of The Sylvan King’s roots!” Ma Long replied very quickly. “Oh, but now’s not the time for explanation, right? What says we fight together to save ourselves from this enemy?”

　　Shi Mu’s brow creased a little at what minute information he got, but he admitted that the lady had a point—they could divulge in the details on this Sylvan King thing as much as they wanted later, but first, they had to survive this.

　　With that in mind, it didn’t take Shi Mu a long time to nod in agreement.

　　Ma Long was obviously overjoyed at gaining a new ally, but Ma Lie, standing next to him, did not seem too thrilled. Nonetheless, he didn’t protest or even say anything.

　　Ma Long’s beautiful eyes lit up briefly before announcing, “We can’t allow ourselves to be trapped here in this cave lest we’re in for an early grave. The only way we could live is to flee from here… and for that, we need to destroy this ice wall!”

　　Her words barely left their ears when another air-splitting sound rang all over the cave. Another barrage of ice crystal hailstorm had been unleashed!

　　Shi Mu swung both of his hands before his chest and assumed a handsign, commanding his Crimson Ape Energy Construct to erect yet another wall of fire to shield himself from the incoming ice crystals. With a low growl, his body scintillated in golden lights as a coat of golden scales jutted out from his skin as Shi Mu completed his Totem Transformation.

　　A flood of unbridled power immediately radiated from Shi Mu as soon as his transformation was completed—it actually resembled peak power of Late Earth-rank!

　　Seeing this, Ma Long’s ravishing eyes widened in awe. Meanwhile, sensing the brute power bursting out of Shi Mu’s body, Ma Lie looked downright aghast.

　　“If that is the plan, then I’ll lead the attack! The two of you—give me back up!”

　　Shi Mu let out a low growl. The flames behind him flashed and spread out into a pair of flame wings, allowing him to zip into the air as a single trail of red.

　　Under such a pressing situation, Shi Mu completely discarded the use of courtesy languages with Ma Long and Ma Lie anymore.

　　The Blue Root Man shrieked furiously and the blue cloud hovering in midair reacted with an explosive display of blue light. In a blink of an eye, every single icicle had changed direction, aiming right at Shi Mu before hurtling towards him.

　　Shi Mu was too cognizant of the powers of these icicles to brace them head-on. He waved and commanded the Crimson Ape Energy Construct to shield him from it.

　　The Crimson Ape opened its mouth wide and exhaled a large drove of pure inferno mixed with tiny streams of white lights. It was the Primordial Inferno—now mixed with the white flame—and it collided with the ice crystals directly.

　　Thwoom boom boom! Sparks and flames were sputtering in every direction!

　　The Primordial Inferno successfully mitigated the terrifying cold of the ice crystals and swallowed every single ice crystal into its flames. Then, it elongated into a pillar of red flames laced with white boring straight into the blue puff of cloud.

　　Kaboommmmm!

　　The inside of the blue puff of cloud stirred and tumbled. Sparks and sometimes licks of white flames escaped from the puff occasionally, as if the flames were about to knock the cloud apart.

　　“Awwrghh!” The Blue Root Man shrieked lividly, its eyes flashing brightly as it tossed its head backward and let out another long howl.

　　The scream was unnaturally stinging—it was like having a stream of needles pouring all over one’s eardrums and into their brain!

　　Ma Long and Ma Lie were quick to make a few hand signs to conjure the necessary protective measures around their body. Shi Mu, on the other hand, stopped on his track and slammed his two hands onto his ears, his skin scintillating in protective lights of red and gold.

　　Hearing this strange call made the sinister blue light from the roots surrounding Shi Mu to suddenly vanish within milliseconds. Even the wall of blue around them faded into thin air.

　　The puff of blue cloud in the air broke, turning into a single surge of blue fog which coursed back into the Blue Root Man’s body. At the same time, every single blue root started to lunge into the creature’s body and sank into its body.

　　A few seconds later, every single root had merged completely with the Blue Root Man. By this point, the abomination had swelled into at least twice its original size, its face now spotting realistic, substantiated facial features while its previously zanily-proportioned limbs had lengthened and buffed up.

　　What looked like a caricature of a man coming to life had now assumed a form that actually looked like a real person, except that its entire body was glowing in blue while chilling mists swirled around him. Worse of all, its aura had surged—right into Heaven-rank!

　　Ma Long and Ma Lie were beyond frightened. Their powers at this moment—even if they included any kind of secret techniques—would only be enough for them to stand their ground against Peak Earth-stage.

　　But against Heaven-rank opponent? That would require massive luck to even survive!

　　Shi Mu’s eyes narrowed a little at his newly upgraded opponent. He exhaled slowly, his expression remained unchanged as he unsheathed the Meteorite Iron Blade and rod.

　　Unlike the other two, he had experience dealing with a few Heaven-rank opponents before. This Blue Root Man before him only had the power of an Early Heaven-rank fighter—which was why Shi Mu could still remain calm enough.

　　He didn’t give the Blue Root Man a chance for his next move. The flaming wings behind him started to tumble and roll as small streams of white coursed through the wing spans; They flapped, and he was gone.

　　He reappeared behind the Blue Root Man like a phantom in the very next millisecond, the Black Meteorite Iron Blade already coated in a lustrous black glow. He yanked the edge of the blade across the Blue Root Man hard—and the creature did not even seem to move.

　　An expression of glee crossed Shi Mu’s visage—before his heart sank.

　　“Pwwh!” His blade sank into the Blue Root Man’s skin, yet he quickly noticed that there was a thick coat of blue light emerging from the Blue Root Man’s skin blocking the blade from harming it. In other words, Shi Mu did not manage to even make a single shallow cut on its skin!

　　The Blue Root Man let out a low growl and swung its arm backward with the force of a sweeping iron pillar. It was fast, with an ear-splitting screech—and it was executed almost at the same time Shi Mu’s blade landed on its body.

　　Shi Mu grimaced in horror as he watched a large blue arm sweeping towards him while expanding in action.

　　He couldn’t dodge it at this moment, so he let out a low cry, his right fist shining I bright gold, and rammed his fist into the blue arm forcefully.

　　Bwooom!

　　A surge of untamed force shocked through Shi Mu’s body from the blue arm. With his face now completely wrought in apprehension, his body rocked and shot out of the melee like a single straw in a gale, sending him onto some low-growing shrubs on the earth.

　　The Blue Root Man let out another angry scream and its body shimmered brightly again. Then suddenly, it appeared on top of the grove where Shi Mu had landed as if he had just teleported there.

　　The Blue Root Man raised its arms. Floods of blue light spilled from its two hands and formed two gigantic sabers of ice.

　　It crossed it before its chest—and dove towards Shi Mu.

　　As Shi Mu and the Blue Root Man were locked in a deadly struggle within the span of a few seconds, Ma Lie and Ma Long could only watch at a side, gobsmacked.

　　Ma Lie’s eyes glinted as he tugged on Ma Long gently.

　　“Sister Long! Now that the monster is completely engaged with that Shi Mu—” Ma Lie’s lips moved slightly, “Let’s bail, now!”

　　Ma Long shook her head as if to take herself out of a daze and replied with a mirthless chuckle, “Are you serious? Did you see how fast that thing is? We won’t make it.”

　　“What the—what do you suggest?! We stay here and wait for our death?!” Ma Lie cried frantically.

　　Ma Long hesitated, her expression unfathomable.

　　It was then when a loud racket exploded out from beyond where a single golden figure emerged from the grove and hung in midair. It was none other than Shi Mu.

　　He did not seem to be hurt badly at all. Instead, the golden aura around him only flared even brighter as he stared at the Blue Root Man with eyes like dagger.

　　Admittedly, Shi Mu had looked down on this little monster just now, which caused him to get a little bit knocked out. He made a silent note to himself that the creature standing before him was, at the very least, a Heaven-rank opponent…

　　The Blue Root Man returned a malicious glare at him. Then, its body turned into a flock of blue lights of all kinds of sizes hurtling straight at Shi Mu. It balled its two fists and shove them forward into a barrage!

　　A storm of blue fist apparitions surfaced into the air and pelted towards Shi Mu in an ear-splitting racket.

　　Shi Mu’s eyes flashed and sheathed his blade; He let out a battle cry with his arms glowing in dazzling gold before amplifying into one size larger, his fists radiating blinding golden light like the sun.

　　His hands blurred and a tide of golden fist apparitions appeared before him and swarmed towards the Blue Root Man.

　　Shi Mu had decided to fight brawn with brawn—this Blue Root Man was the weakest Heaven-rank fighter he had ever met, so he was very curious if he could actually overwhelm a fighter of that caliber with brute strength alone.

　　Boom boom booom!

　　The blue and the golden clashed together, erupting into a cacophony of thunderous rumbles. As they clashed together, the apparition exploded into showers of lights and sparks—it would have been quite a beautiful sight to behold if it weren’t for how dangerous the situation was.

　　Shi Mu’s golden fists seemed to be slightly more inferior in power—as it took two or three golden fists to completely nullify a single blue fist. Nonetheless, it did seem that Shi Mu had a winning chance, as he managed to stop the Blue Root Man from approaching closer.

　　“Ha!” Shi Mu beamed and let out another battle cry, his arms swinging even faster—so much so that one may not even be able to catch the afterimages of his movement.

　　The golden fist apparitions began to clump together like a tightly-knitted deluge swarming towards the Blue Root Man—this time, it managed to overwhelm the flood of blue fists!

　　The Blue Root Man let out an angry snarl and opened its jaw wide as it dished out barrages after barrages of fists. Blue lights swirled in its mouth—as if it was about to execute some sort of powerful secret technique.

　　It was then when a flash of red light appeared on the air above the Blue Root Man. Within it was a single broad saber with a crimson ogre head expanding into ten-odd yards long, which proceeded to rend downwards onto the Blue Root Man’s head.

　　Bwhamm!

　　A tide of crimson-black flames hurled out of the ogre head broad saber and drowned the Blue Root Man from the top.