Star Gate

Chapter 538: Tree Spirit (II)

“Be careful!” Li Hao grunted. He waved his sword around and enveloped Liu Long within his range of attack. He cut through a dozen branches in one go; that marked the end of the ambush.

The young man remained wary and looked around him, seeing no further threats. He looked down to confirm if it was tree branches that attacked them. What he saw shook his heart!

There was nothing there!

He’d obviously shattered a lot of branch-like objects, but there was nothing on the ground. It was empty, the cotton-like surface devoid of anything. Li Hao’s expression shifted drastically. Did this ground eat people like Battle Heaven did?

In that case... he stomped down with an eruption of earth sword aura. Bam!

The ground shook, but he didn’t break through it!

Li Hao’s heart quailed—the ground was incredibly durable! It was a frightening prospect if his current strength couldn’t break through it. This tiny ruin had seemed much weaker than Battle Heaven, but his understanding was being turned on its head. Could there be even stronger existences here?

These tree branches weren’t weak, they were on par with Solars. He could handle a dozen, but even he would falter if there were more. No wonder Golden Spear had chosen to retreat. If more came at this level of intensity, it would be beyond Li Hao’s capabilities as well.

Liu Long looked solemnly at the young man’s findings. “This ground... is atypical. It’s incredibly durable, so we should be careful here.”

“I know.” Li Hao pressed forward.

Another series of clangs sounded before long as more vines or branches shot at him in the darkness. Li Hao cut some apart, then punched out with a fist that turned into a claw. He grabbed a vine and roared, ripping the end off.

The severed section in his hand writhed like it was alive. As it twisted, an enormous mental ripple undulated through the void. It seemed to be both a threat and intimidation!

Li Hao maintained a death grip on what he’d cut off. The attack ceased again moments later. His hand was lacerated by the broken vine’s struggles, but he could finally see what it was he held.

It seemed to be a crystalline stick, one that was clear and translucent. It went without saying that it was inordinately durable. The young man rivaled a Nova, but he’d barely managed to break off one. If he suffered a split second lapse in concentration, the thing would get away from him.

It seemed to possess strong battle capabilities even after it was severed.

“Is this... a tree branch?” Li Hao frowned at it upon closer inspection. It... didn’t really look like it, but if it wasn’t, what was it? And where did these attacks come from?

They came and left without a trace, shooting out from the darkness around them. But when he approached the fringes of the gloom earlier, he couldn’t see anything. The attacks came in waves, punctuated by a break in between. Even he would have to seriously consider running for his life if there wasn’t an end to them. Continuing on like this was a dangerous proposition for him too.

Li Hao glanced at the castle not too far away. These things seemed unwilling to let him into the castle. What was this place? The familial grounds of an ancient clan? A sect? A school? The more he couldn’t ascertain the situation, the more curious he became.

As he pondered over the possibilities, he and Liu Long started moving forward again. A peculiar ripple traveled through the void—not the vines from earlier.

BOOM!

A mental explosion detonated in their minds. Li Hao roared—Tiger Roar Through Mountain and Woods! His mind intent erupted and a keen light glinted in his eyes. A ferocious mind intent unleashed itself as a tiger breaking out of its cage!

RUMBLE!

The collision happened only in the mind and lasted for a while before a muffled grunt marked the end of that offensive. Li Hao swiftly looked in a certain direction—it was dark there too, but there seemed to be the outlines of certain objects there. One... two... three tiny balls of light appeared.

He hadn’t seen them before, but he did now. The last impact seemed to have broken some kind of seal. Li Hao could see what it was—mysterious power stones. Indeed, they were fully charged stones.

He could see the energy ripples of stones that were full; he hadn’t seen them earlier. He could now see that there was a large cache in the gloom, it’d just been concealed by the last mental ripple.

Grandmaster...

Was their assailant one of the grandmasters recorded in the ancient records? They said that only grandmasters could utilize mental strength—the equivalent of modern day mind intent. The two were slightly different, a fact that Li Hao verified in their last clash. His mind intent was less than the other’s in terms of amount, but his was much more lively.

At least, that was the best he could describe it. A martial master’s mind intent sometimes appeared to be alive—such as the Five Styles technique manifesting as all sorts of beasts and animals that moved like living representations.

As Li Hao’s mind intent was livelier, he found it easier to overcome his more sluggish opponent. The young man looked around alertly and transmitted to Liu Long next to him, “There’s something ahead... Be careful, chief.”

Liu Long nodded slightly, he’d been affected by the mental attack earlier as well. Since it’d been primarily aimed at Li Hao, he could fend off whatever spilled over to him. The two changed direction for that corner of the darkness instead of continuing to the castle.

......

Another strong burst of mental strength struck when Li Hao drew close. It swept over with a fury!

BOOM!

Collision!

A stunned Li Hao almost wanted to vomit blood. This one seemed to be stronger than the previous attack! He wanted to retreat! These attacks would be the death of him since they were so strong!

His eyes had darted to the small balls of light when the attack struck. They seemed to be breaking apart and disappearing. What was left glowed dimly. The young man’s eyes widened when he realized something.

Energy!

The thing in the dark was absorbing energy to erupt in an offensive, hoping to expel him from the ruins! It wasn’t that their attacker didn’t want to deliver one fatal blow or sought to torment Li Hao to death, but that it seemed to lack sufficient energy. It could only absorb the mysterious power stones and attack one step at a time.

An interval of rest marked each attack. However, not only did the unknown attacker not scare off Li Hao, but the young man saw through to the truth of things. They didn’t have many mysterious power stones left!

Just as they were about to gather strength for another attempt, Li Hao sent out ripples of his own. “Stop! I am a troop leader of the Reserve Defenders in the army of Battle Heaven!” His silver armor sparkled with light. “I am one of the eight guardian clans here to prospect the land. Cease your actions immediately!”

He communicated in the ancient language and referenced another location from the same period of time as he did so. If this thing really was a product of ancient heritage, it should understand his words. This was how the Gold and Silver Amors of Battle Heaven communicated.

The darkness remained silent, but Li Hao could see that the balls of light continued to dwindle. That represented that his attacker was still absorbing the energy; it hadn’t given up resisting just because he was a Battle Heaven Army member.

If it was Golden Spear present, he could only retreat in the face of repeated barrages since he couldn’t see the truth of the situation. But Li Hao was different, he could see the balls of light.

“Stop drawing on the mysterious power stones,” he sent to the unknown entity again. “There aren’t many here and they will be fully depleted if you keep consuming them. You might completely die then!

“You cannot intimidate me as I am here under orders to investigate whether there are remnants from the New Martial era remaining. If you can understand me, you’ll know that the Battle Heaven Army was on the side of good back in the day. Unless... you were part of the traitors’ camp?”

“Trai... tors...”

Li Hao’s words provoked a response out of the existence; a faint ripple slowly rose into the air. Light dazzled his eyes as illumination brightened the surroundings. There was a tree not too far away that looked to be shriveling. A big tree had collapsed, leaving one of its branches to regrow from its root system.

The old tree seemed to be dead, but its roots had given rise to a new tree! A tree spirit!

As he thought, there was a tree spirit here. That’d been Li Hao’s earlier guess, one that was now proven. A dead tree had returned to life in these ruins.

It brightened the gloom like it was a piece of crystal. As small as it was, it threw light in all directions.

“Trai... tor... Battle... Heaven... City...” came slow ripples from the small tree. Li Hao saw that it was entangled with the dead tree, that its root system seemed to be of one body. The roots were exposed as they were what’d attacked them earlier. One of them was broken, likely the one that Li Hao had snapped off. The other broken segments seemed to have recovered after they landed on the ground. This tree could heal itself.

“Battle Heaven!” he repeated. “The city of the Wangs, part of the eight guardian clans! It was named by His Imperial Majesty himself!”

Something seemed to recover in the little tree and it shook its slightly withered branches. “His... Imperial... Majesty... But not... even... His Imperial Majesty... can... barge into... the palace...”

The palace? Li Hao’s eyebrows shot up.