Chapter 489 - Spoils of War
This was the stretch of a desolated mountain range, showing few signs of human habitation, with everywhere giving off a flavor of the wilderness.
Crackle!
Suddenly, at this moment, the space above this desolated mountain range started to wrap and distort, before transforming into a spatial fissure. As fluctuations rippled from it, numerous figures were being miserably thrown out from within, with one gigantic figure descending like a meteor to the ground, smashing a mountain peak apart as it landed.
Stabilising himself in the air, a shiver shook through Mu Chen as Spiritual Energy rapidly burst forth from within, while he started vigilantly looking around his surroundings.Only upon discovering no presence of danger did he take a breath of relief.
In his surroundings, Luo Li and the other three from his group had also stabilised their bodies while looking at the foreign stretch of land around them. Clearly, this wasn’t the place which they had took to enter the remnant they were in before.
“It seems that we’ve been tossed to somewhere unfamiliar by that spatial fissure,” said Xu Huang as he looked towards Mu Chen.
Nodding his head in agreement, Mu Chen retrieved his Academy Plaque to take a look. After confirming their location, he gave a smile and replied, “It’s alright. We’re still on the same piece of the shattered continent.”
“Let’s take a look at our spoils of battle.”
Shooting down, he descended before the Divine Wood Guard sitting within the rumble of the collapsed mountain peak. At this moment, it quietly sat at the top of the mountain, its withering wooden body sparkling with a faint luster. Faintly, one could discern a heart-palpitating feeling of power radiating from within. This Divine Wood Guard still possessed extremely strong energies within it.
“If we’re able to activate this Divine Wood Guard, only experts who have passed their Spiritual Energy Disaster would be able to defend against it.” A slightly solemn expression appeared on Luo Li’s beautiful face as she looked towards the Divine Wood Guard. If not for Mu Chen unleashing his special move to seal it, even if she collaborated with him, they might have had to pay a rather high price just to deal with it via normal attacks.
“Spiritual Energy Disaster…” Hearing that, Xu Huang, Zhao Qingshan and Mu Fengyang all quietly smacked their lips. Even within the Great Spiritual Academy Tournament, where crouching tigers and hidden dragons existed, people who possessed such strength would be an extreme rarity.
Mu Chen’s gaze had similarly turned slightly scorching hot. If he was truly able to control this Divine Wood Guard, it would absolutely become a huge assistance for them.
“However, this Divine Wood Guard seems to only be able to be control using that special rune. With that rune already having been refined by Zhen Qing, it wouldn’t be easy for us to gain control of it,” said Luo Li while slightly knitting her eyebrows.
“Since that rune has been refined by him, it naturally means that it can also be refined by us,” said Mu Chen with a smile. “However, the treasure of that remnant’s not only limited to this Divine Wood Guard.”
Hearing that, Luo Li and the rest nodded their heads in agreement. When they had set they eyes on the Divine Wood Guard for the first time, it was still wearing mysterious wooden armor that was sparkling with glowing patterns. However, it had vanished upon being controlled by Zhen Qing. Furthermore, it also seemed that the Divine Wood Guard was holding onto a wooden plaque in its hand.
With a shift, Mu Chen appeared right before the forehead of the Divine Wood Guard. Looking towards the tree leaf rune present there, he momentarily pondered, before making a sudden grab towards the rune.
Humm! Humm!
Seemingly sensing’s Mu Chen’s action, Spiritual Energy fluctuations immediately erupted from the rune, appearing to prevent Mu Chen from nearing it. However, its actions were clearly futile. With Zhen Qing not being here, and not being able to control the Divine Wood Guard to launch a counterattack, Mu Chen’s fingers smashed through each and every Spiritual Energy ripple coming from it. Grabbing onto the tree leaf rune, he pulled it straight out from the forehead of the Divine Wood Guard.
As the tree leaf rune radiating with an ancient aura appeared within Mu Chen’s hand, he sunk into deep thought as he stared towards it. He could faintly discern a Spiritual Energy brand present within the core of this rune. The Spiritual Energy fluctuations coming from it appeared to be Zhen Qing’s.
This was the brand that Zhen Qing had left within the rune. By precisely relying on this, he was able to control the Divine Wood Guard.
Upon sensing this Spiritual Energy brand, Mu Chen gave a faint smile. With a tap of his finger, a jet-black flame appeared on his finger tip, before drilling right into the tree leaf rune.
Crackle!
Crackling sounds instantly erupted from the tree leaf rune. The construct of the rune’s interior was exceedingly complicated. Nevertheless, being a Spiritual Array Master, Mu Chen’s ability for the detailed control of his power far exceeded that of any ordinary people. Therefore, as the black flame shot into the rune, it didn’t damage any of the complicated construction present within the rune. Heading straight towards the Spiritual Energy brand within, the black flame started to burn it up, bit by bit.
Wanting to remove the brand Zhen Qing had left behind wasn’t an easy task to accomplish. Even with Mu Chen’s ability, carefully burning it away bit-by-bit took him approximately half an hour before he was able to completely dispel Zhen Qing’s Spiritual Energy brand.
After dispelling Zhen Qing’s Spiritual Energy brand, the jet-black flame rapidly condensed together to form a Spiritual Energy brand, sticking right where the previous brand was.
This brand was condensed from the Nine Nether Flame. If this rune was snatched away by other people in the future, once they try to wipe this brand away, this clump of Nine Nether Flame would explode and completely destroy the rune.
Clearly, Mu Chen’s move was much more brilliant than Zhen Qing’s execution.
Having branded the rune, Mu Chen played around with it in his hand. After being controlled by him, the rune started to radiate with faint rays of brilliance. In its entirety, this brilliance appeared slightly dim. Furthermore, he was also able to sense that there seemed to be some damage present within this tree leaf rune.
“It was damaged by me, huh.”
Mu Chen muttered to himself. When Zhen Qing had snatched this tree leaf rune, it was attacked by Mu Chen himself. Clearly, the damage was dealt then. Due to that, this slightly damaged rune wasn’t able to perfectly control the Divine Wood Guard. If not, sealing the Divine Wood Guard wouldn’t be that easy as he had did before.
Feeling regretful, Mu Chen shook his head. From the looks of it, the only idea he could think of was to attempt to see if he could repair this rune. Furthermore, he had also discovered that this rune couldn’t be used forever. Every single time this rune was activated, it seemed as if some of the energies within it would get consumed. When all of those energies were drained dry, this rune should completely lose its use.
At that time, Mu Chen would not be able to control this Divine Wood Guard anymore.
Mu Chen gave a helpless smile. From the looks of it, even though he had obtained this Divine Wood Guard, he wouldn’t be able to use it brazenly without any fear.
After refining the rune, some changes once again appeared on the Divine Wood Guard before him. At this moment, rays of brilliance sparkled on its withering wooden body as a greenish-tinged wooden armor appeared. Exceedingly complicated glowing patterns appeared on the surface of the wooden armor as exceedingly powerful fluctuations could be faintly discerned as they started to radiate.
Clearly, this greenish wooden armor was a Peerless Rank Spiritual Artifact that possessed exceedingly tyrannical defensive capabilities.
Grasping her Luo God Sword, Luo Li sent a wave of Sword Aura shooting out that was thrust towards the wooden armor. However, this time, the incomparably fierce Sword Aura was only able to leave a faint scar on its surface. Furthermore, not long after its appearance, rays of brilliance blossomed from the greenish wooden armor, before the scar started to slowly get repaired.
Seeing this, astonishment and amazement appeared in the eyes of Mu Chen, Xu Huang and the rest. This greenish wooden armor actually possessed an auto-recovery capability…
“Truly worthy of a Peerless Rank Spiritual Artifact.” Xu Huan and the other two sighed in admiration. If they were able to possess such a formidable defensive Spiritual Item, even people who had passed their Human Body Disaster would not be able to harm them.
“If Zhen Qing was able to summon this greenish wooden armor when he was in control of the Divine Wood Guard, things wouldn’t have been as easy as before,” said Luo Li in shock. She was all too clear about the sharpness of her Luo God Sword. Although she still wasn’t able to truly activate her Luo God Sword, the defensive capability of this greenish wooden armor was truly exceedingly tyrannical.
Hearing that, Mu Chen nodded his head. From the looks of it, due to him having damaged the rune that controlled the Divine Wood Guard, Zhen Qing was unable to rely on it to unleash the greatest and strongest might of the Divine Wood Guard. In fact, he wasn’t even able to summon this greenish wooden armor out.
With a flick of his finger, the rune in his hand shot out once again towards the forehead of the Divine Wood Guard. As the rune slowly sunk in, a mysterious feeling of connection gushed into Mu Chen’s mind. At this moment, it appeared as if he was able to control the Divine Wood Guard with a single thought.
Staring at the greenish wooden armor present on the body of the Divine Wood Guard, a grin broke out from Mu Chen. With a thought, the greenish wooden armor transformed into a ray of light as it left the Divine Wood Guard, before finally landing on Mu Chen’s palm.
Since the rune was already damaged, even if he could control the Divine Wood Guard, there was no way for him to allow the Divine Wood Guard to use the armor to increase its combat prowess. Since that was the case, why not take it off, right?
“Let Luo Li have this greenish wooden armor. With her Luo God Sword, her offensive capability is above me, and it just so happend that she lacks a defensive Spiritual Item. Now, with her defense on par with her offense, it would provide the greatest rise in combat capability for our group,” explained Mu Chen as he looked towards Xu Huang and the other two. This wasn’t him being biased towards her. However, this greenish wooden armor was a defense Spiritual Artifact that reached the level of Peerless Rank, and indeed, Luo Li was the most suitable one to use it. As for himself, with his fleshly body being that tyrannical, and possessing astonishing defensive capabilities, this greenish wooden armor would only serve as a decorative ornament.
Hearing his explanation, Xu Huang and the other two smiled and nodded their heads, with all of them having no opinion towards that decision. That’s because they were extremely clear that as of now, Mu Chen and Luo Li possessed the strongest combat capabilities within their group. As long as nothing happened to the two of them, their group would be safe.
Blinking as she opened her eyes wide open, Luo Li looked over to see Mu Chen handing the greenish armor over to her. With a soul-stirringly gentle smile, she didn’t reject his offer, and extended her hand to accept it. As of now, she really needed a Spiritual Item with powerful defensive capabilities. Only with it would she be able to focus her attention on displaying the astonishingly powerful offensive capabilities of the Luo God Sword.
After handing the greenish wooden armor to Luo Li, Mu Chen’s gaze turned towards the other item held in the hand of the Divine Wood Guard.
That was a greenish wooden plaque approximately a foot long, with exceedingly complicated inscriptions covering its surface. At this moment, mysterious and abstruse fluctuations could be faintly discerned as they radiated from it.
Staring at the greenish wooden plaque, a peculiar sensation started to appear within his heart. Somehow, he felt that between the Divine Wood Guard, the greenish wooden armor and this greenish wooden plaque, it seemed like the latter was the most important treasure of the trio…