novelFlowerless Door 1
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Chapter 166: Flowerless Door (1)
Setting up and executing a successful sneak attack on someone required a lot of skill.
Most people had their own sensory techniques to suss out any hidden threats ahead of time.
In return, this sparked a type of arms race between those sensory techniques and the various kinds of concealment and avoidance techniques.
As a result of this race, there were many different ways of ambushing someone as well as ways to detect an ambush ahead of time. For instance, He Xu's disguise technique was very impressive, but Sark's Eagle Eye had been able to see right through him.
There really was no such thing as an invincible technique; there were only techniques that were extremely fitting for the situation. This was the case both for commoners and for Origin Qi Scholars.
Shi Mingfeng had tried to guess what kind of ambush Su Chen would set up if he were to try it. Many different possibilities had come to mind, but none of them were even close to what was unfolding before his eyes.
He could still clearly hear what Su Chen had told him before this.
"Although there isn't any Night Demon Cloud in Black Forest, there is an equally precious resource here known as the Uhayan Pool. I trust you've heard of it before, right? It's an extremely useless kind of earth essence. Even though its power is very great, there is no way to use it to refine a precious tool because the energy contained inside is extremely dirty; it'll ruin most treasures it's placed into. Even so, this resource contains a ton of energy, but it requires a unique method to tap its potential — you can only use it where it occurs naturally, and it can only be controlled by an Origin Qi Scholar who is talented in manipulating water-type Origin Energy......"
Coincidence? Luck? Shi Mingfeng was in fact an Origin Qi Scholar talented in controlling water-type Origin Energy. With the Uhayan Pool at his disposal, Shi Mingfeng's strength had multiplied tremendously.
The most obvious manifestation of this increase in power was the sheer strength that the mud colossus possessed. The energy rolling off of its body had almost materialized, and its iron-like fists whizzed through the air like missiles, wiping out any Ferocious Race soldiers unlucky enough to be caught in its path.
This, however, was only the beginning. A moment later, two more mud colossi appeared from the ground.
Under normal circumstances, forming just a single mud colossus would have been extremely taxing on Shi Mingfeng. Now, however, with the support of the Uhayan Pool, he was actually able to form three at once. The increase in strength was obvious, and even Shi Mingfeng himself was stunned.
What stunned him more, though, was how much control Su Chen had over the situation.
How had he seen through Astin?
And how had he known that himself and Astin weren't conspiring?
He had set the rendezvous point here as soon as he had discovered that something was off about Astin, meaning that he had managed to analyze the situation and sketch out a plan in mere seconds.
How had he done it?
A person with an extremely detailed thought process wasn't that scary; what was scary was that he had managed to process and absorb all of these minute details in such a short period of time.
Why had Astin fallen for his trap? Because he would never have imagined in a million years that Su Chen was this good at creating plans on the fly.
That was simply too inconceivable.
Thank goodness he hadn't sold Su Chen out. Otherwise......
Otherwise, what would have happened?
He didn't know.
But he knew that there was no way Su Chen didn't have some kind of backup plan in place.
This was obvious from the fact that Su Chen hadn't told him about the presence of the Uhayan Pool here until after he had tested Shi Mingfeng during his battle with Astin. Only once he had determined that Shi Mingfeng wasn't there to harm him did he inform Shi Mingfeng of the Uhayan Pool and the method to use it.
Everything he did had a deep meaning to it.
'This slippery guy, ' Shi Mingfeng thought to himself.
Up until this point, Su Chen had remained hidden in the shadows from the Ferocious Race. Shi Mingfeng didn't know what he was thinking, but as the person who had led his opponents straight to him, Shi Mingfeng was very clear that the best apology he could offer was to do his job well.
Boom, boom, boom!
Six massive stone fists hurled through the air, sending huge shockwaves of energy through the air. A gigantic dent was left behind in the formerly flat ground.
"DIE"! Bayan howled as he swung his flying axe madly.
A steady stream of flying axes whistled through the air as he threw them, intent on wiping out everything in their path.
The axes collided with the fists, producing a booming thunderclap; immediately afterwards, the arms of the colossi began to fragment and fall back into the marsh. Bayan pressed onwards, his flying axes glowing even more brightly than before, to the point that they were almost blindingly bright.
"Open!"
With a ferocious howl, one of the colossi cracked and fell apart back into the pool under Bayan's shockingly powerful axe strikes.
What frightening strength!
Even Shi Mingfeng had to admit that, under normal circumstances, his chances of winning against this Ferocious Race commander was only around 50%.
Even though he now had the assistance of the Uhayan Pool and could easily defeat Bayan one on one, Bayan also had the support of five hundred trusted subordinates, two of whom were only somewhat weaker than Bayan.
Three powerful experts plus five hundred warriors — this gap in strength was not something that just the support of the Uhayan Pool could make up for.
Thankfully, this was not all that Su Chen had left for him.
"The reason the Uhayan Pool even exists is because there is something even more terrifying lurking beneath the surface, " Shi Mingfeng sighed.
The Uhayan Pool was indeed powerful, but Su Chen had never planned on defeating the Ferocious Race just with that alone. After all, Su Chen could not possibly know how many soldiers would be present until he saw Bayan's group for himself!
In Su Chen's plan, he had accounted for dealing with thousands or even tens of thousands of Ferocious Race soldiers.
If that was the case, how could his arrangements possibly be so simple?
Shi Mingfeng's attacks' primary goal wasn't to use the Uhayan Pool to attack his opponents, but rather just to stir up the Uhayan Pool. Only by doing this would the frightening existence beneath the pool show itself.
Gurgle, gurgle.
Even more black mud began to spurt from the ground, the sludge seemingly never-ending.
Upon close inspection, it seemed as if the mud in the swamp was beginning to circle around, as if a vortex were forming.
No, it wasn't a vortex — it was a doorway!
A strange, sinister doorway was slowly opening.
"Attack!" The Ferocious Race soldiers were still charging forward excitedly, completely overlooking the vortex.
Only Kaska had noticed that something was wrong.
He stared wide-eyed at that vortex and yelled, "Bayan!"
"What do you want now?" Bayan yelled impatiently, his flying axes glowing brilliantly as he shattered another mud colossus. Another one immediately rose to take its place. However, the rate of destruction was higher than the rate of reformation, and Shi Mingfeng's brow was already covered in sweat, demonstrating the burden and difficulty that he was currently under.
"Look over there!" Kaska yelled as he pointed at the vortex forming in the swamp.
Bayan followed Kaska's finger and saw the vortex. He froze momentarily and asked, "What is that?"
"That's what I also want to know. Try and feel it out; hopefully you'll also tell me this time that it doesn't pose a threat to us, " Kaska replied.
Bayan's expression immediately changed.
This courageous, fearless Ferocious Race warrior who didn't know the meaning of death and was always charging forward recklessly suddenly displayed an expression of extreme fear.
He howled, his voice breaking, "Flowerless Door! It's the Flowerless Door! Hurry, get out of here!!!"
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