Volume Three: Rising Fame - Chapter Eighty-One: Combat

A bizarre mountain, followed by a descent through a grassy cavern, led to an equally bizarre cavernous water pool. Not to mention the strange island nestled within it—no matter how cautious Li Yu was in such a situation, it could never be considered excessive!

If he thought back carefully, the duration of Li Yu's flight just now would have been more than enough to cross the horizontal diameter of the small hill he had seen before entering. Yet, having flown for so long, if he looked past this island and further ahead, there was still only a tranquil expanse of water, seemingly devoid of any end.

"Could this be the very heart of the mountain?" Li Yu mused, a sense of shock welling up in his heart.

"What should we do now?" Can Yishuang asked, bewildered.

Having chased their way all the way here, they now found themselves in a dead end where advancing was impossible.

"..."

Li Yu felt somewhat conflicted. If he were to retreat, and the Soul-Devouring Golden Wave Tiger happened to still be alive, it would likely only cause trouble for him again. However, if he were to venture forward onto the island to explore, his heart began to beat with apprehension.

Curiosity killed the cat.

This was the world of cultivation; the more bizarre a place was, the greater the hidden dangers within it.

A peak rank-five Soul-Devouring Golden Wave Tiger had stepped onto this island and vanished without a sound. What kind of danger was lurking here?

Had it hidden itself voluntarily, or had it been...

"Forget it, let's leave for now. Perhaps by noon tomorrow, the misty zone will dissipate!"

With his mind made up, Li Yu did not linger. He turned his head and flew away.

What he failed to notice was that after he turned around, the breeze on the island grew more frequent, rustling with a whistling sound that caused the undersides of the island's foliage to reflect an increasingly bright glow onto the cavern ceiling.

"Swish, swish, swish!"

The plants trembled in the wind, shaking off glowing powder that subsequently merged into the breeze.

Meanwhile, the branches and leaves trailing in the water swayed in the wind, looking as though they were extending deeper into the water.

"Why does the wind feel even colder?"

Li Yu felt a trace of doubt. He touched the back of his neck and finally turned to look at the island, which was now becoming increasingly indistinct. "Speaking of which, where is the wind on this island coming from? Could there be an opening to the outside on the other side?"

That didn't seem right either, because when he had been on the opposite side earlier, the wind had also been blowing from the direction of the island!

"Should we go over and take a look?" Can Yishuang blinked her eyes, turning her head toward the back at his words. Her gaze drifted toward the large tree on the island, and she murmured, "How beautiful."

"What's beautiful?"

"That tree, it's so pretty! I wish I could take it back with me!" Can Yishuang said softly.

Not only that, but she actually turned around and began walking toward the island.

"Splash!"

She possessed no innate ability for prolonged levitation. Entering the cavern had relied entirely on Li Yu condensing spiritual energy platforms beneath her feet to support her. Thus, with this movement of hers, she plunged directly into the water pool.

"What's wrong with you? It's just a nice-looking tree, why the rush?" Li Yu was somewhat speechless. He smiled, lowered his altitude, and prepared to catch Can Yishuang as she fell into the water.

"Why is your foot growing hair?" Li Yu squinted, looking toward her ankle.

A patch of tiny, pitch-black, hair-like things was there, spreading toward the depths of the water.

"That's not right, how is this even growing right now?" Li Yu rubbed his eyes, watching as the hairy area continuously expanded.

Not only that, but right before his very eyes, the hair on Can Yishuang's legs kept spreading. In the blink of an eye, it wrapped around one of her feet and began creeping up toward her waist.

"Whoosh!"

Right before Li Yu's eyes, those hair-like strands extending into the depths of the water suddenly exerted force, violently dragging Can Yishuang down into the depths.

Splashing water droplets struck Li Yu's body, leaving him soaked.

It was precisely because of this that a cool sensation slid across his entire body. Li Yu shivered, and clarity instantly returned to his eyes.

"Roots?"

Li Yu's gaze fell into the deep pool. The water here was emerald green, and Can Yishuang, who had just fallen in, was already completely out of sight.

What had just grown on Can Yishuang's legs was no body hair at all; those were clearly black roots extending from the water and entangling her feet!

It was these roots that had dragged the entranced Can Yishuang into the water, causing her to vanish without a trace.

"There really is something strange going on! Something was carried over in the wind and got the better of me!" Li Yu gazed at the island, the gravity in his heart deepening by a fraction. The only thing that had changed earlier was the wind he had mentioned.

Clearly, the unknown creature here possessed some kind of "hallucinogenic" effect.

Had it not been for the immaculate and flawless Thunder Bloodline that Li Yu had acquired through sign-in, which possessed a certain degree of resistance to poison, he would have already plunged into the water alongside Can Yishuang, bound and captured by the roots!

"No, it feels like there is something else mixed into this poison, otherwise it wouldn't have affected me like that!"

Li Yu looked toward the isolated island. At this moment, in his eyes, the island no longer held any breathtaking beauty; instead, it had transformed into a man-eating fierce beast!

Furthermore, within his perception, Can Yishuang, who still possessed a thunder seed within her body, was hurtling at high speed through the water toward that island. In the time it took him to think this over, she was already close to reaching it.

I suppose that Soul-Devouring Golden Wave Tiger had fallen victim in the exact same way, captured by this island?!

The wind itself should have been fine; therefore, there must have been something wrong hidden within the wind.

With a thought, Li Yu expanded his spiritual domain, maintaining a space of a full ten meters around him. At the edge of these ten meters, violent thunder spiritual energy raged, ensuring that even powdered toxins would find it difficult to cross this thunderous boundary.

After observing for a moment and seeing that it was indeed effective, Li Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief. With his safety surging, he spun around and charged back toward the island!

Whether the Soul-Devouring Golden Wave Tiger lived or died did not matter much, but Can Yishuang was different. If not for the latter's assistance, he would have had to expend considerably more effort to subdue the Snow Fox Demon Vine.

Moreover, judging by the old white fox's craftiness, if time were delayed, there was a high possibility that the old white fox would relocate the Snow Fox Demon Vine, given how much it prized the vine! Therefore, by comparison, Can Yishuang's safety held even more weight in Li Yu's eyes than Xiong Xiuer's!

"Boom!"

Li Yu flicked a small thunderball from his hand, hurling it toward the island. It instantly blasted out a crater four or five meters wide, and the contained heat and other destructive forces scorched the surrounding luminescent plants black.

Li Yu did not hesitate. Since a single strike proved effective, more small thunderballs immediately condensed in the void around him.

This could be considered his standard offensive method. When the power of thunder gathered together and made contact with a target, it would detonate fiercely, unleashing a rampaging thunder force whose destructive power exceeded ordinary explosives, accompanied by intense thermal energy.

Yet this time, the attacks of the small thunderballs failed to work.

The low, stunted tree emitted a rustling sound, and the branches trailing in the water danced wildly across the sky, forcefully intercepting the small thunderballs.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

Before the individual thunderballs could even approach the island, they were struck and detonated in mid-air.

The resulting shockwaves ruffled the surrounding water surface.

"It's alive? A plant-type mutated beast?!"

A shock went through Li Yu's heart. This was truly a rare mutated beast.

"Crack, snap!"

Many of the primary contact branches were blasted apart by the small thunderballs and fell into the water. Under Li Yu's gaze, those broken branches immediately grew back densely upon the tree trunk.

"It seems its defense isn't high, but its regenerative capacity is formidable!"

Li Yu pondered, though his mind remained completely unfazed. "Another mutated beast with extremely high intelligence?!"

He had clearly seen that the black roots dragging Can Yishuang away had resembled vines, yet this large tree had not displayed them. Was it trying to conceal its true strength, or were there certain restrictions preventing it from using them?

On top of that, it had even attempted to disguise itself as an ordinary plant just moments ago!

Harboring doubts, Li Yu did not rush forward. Instead, thunder was continuously generated within the void.

Since the opponent possessed strong vitality, he would just have to see how strong it truly was!

"Boom!"

The small thunderballs persistently failed to break through the branches of the large tree.

With a sudden thought, Li Yu actively halted his offensive. Standing suspended in the void, he sensed that Can Yishuang's position seemed to be located deep underground, and the corners of his mouth curved upward slightly.

What he had feared most was her being nearby, which would have left him bound by hesitation. Now that he had determined she was not around, he had plenty of effortless methods at his disposal.

"Swish!"

Thunderballs materialized in both of Li Yu's hands.

The tree's branches immediately began to flail frantically, preparing for interception. To its disappointment, however, this time the thunderballs did not fly straight toward it, but instead remained lingering in the youth's hands.

As time passed, the thunder spiritual energy contained within the thunderballs grew increasingly dense and majestic.

Only then did the tree react, but during the battle, Li Yu had been cautiously maintaining his spiritual domain all around him, rendering the toxins from its companion plants completely useless.

No longer hesitating, the main trunk—which had previously only been used for defensive branch-interceptions—suddenly lashed out through the air, hurtling toward Li Yu to launch a lethal strike.

"I was expecting that! It really does have a hidden trump card!"

As if anticipating this, Li Yu retreated swiftly while executing a thunderball formed from a hollowed-out thunder node, launching it defiantly toward the island.

Through his earlier observations, he had discovered that the large tree's branches were exceptionally agile, and it was likely that this sweeping trunk would be the same.

However, who said he had to hit the tree trunk itself?

A smile curved the corners of Li Yu's mouth. "Since you value this island so much, you certainly won't just stand by and watch me destroy it, right?!"

Sure enough, under his watchful gaze, the sweeping trunk abandoned its attack on him, instead whipping backward to fiercely smash into the incoming large thunderball.

"Boom!"

A brilliant white light erupted, instantly illuminating the underground cavern.

Li Yu squinted slightly. When the white light subsided, he saw that the thunderball was continuously expanding, while the stunted large tree had sprouted dense layers of branches that wrapped around and bound the thunderball!

Endless and overlapping layers.

In an instant, they managed to forcefully suppress the expanding thunderball.

Li Yu took a deep breath. This was not something an ordinary mutated beast could pull off; to put it bluntly, even standard rank-five mutated beasts lacked this kind of capability.

"Just what kind of mutated beast is this?"

Li Yu muttered softly, his words filled with bewilderment. The very next moment, however, a blinding light pierced through the encirclement of branches, shooting out in all directions.

His attention was instantly drawn right back to it!