Chapter 1 The Beginning

The exchange of threats had barely ended when the man and the beast simultaneously unleashed their power and collided violently.

*Boom!* The Demon Emperor's humanoid form stood over four meters tall, its hands composed of countless tree roots. Now, it swung its arms like two incredibly thick whips, one high and one low, lashing out fiercely at Su Zhou's lower body and throat!

At the same time, countless sharp wooden thorns protruded from the Demon Emperor's body, and it charged forward with a suffocating miasma and poisonous wind!

'Long Sleeve Whip' and 'Iron Mountain Lean'!

Although the Demon Emperor rarely fought and lacked the combat awareness of the Imperial Advisor or even some demon generals, it was still the ruler of a nation. It possessed both extraordinary and martial arts inheritances. Nearly a century of training had allowed it to use its skills with superb proficiency!

"Close combat?"

But at that moment, Su Zhou revealed a ferocious smile. The pores and hairs on his body all stood on end, stirred by the violent, rapidly blowing wind!

*Boom!* The Gale Shield activated, and four Gale Seeds lit up one by one at the crown of his head, throat, chest, and lower abdomen. With a powerful infusion of spiritual energy, an unprecedented gale tore apart Su Zhou's upper body clothing and solidified into a semi-transparent armor!

Gathering the strength of his entire body and activating the Gale Armor, Su Zhou didn't dodge the Demon Emperor's mountain-like onslaught. He directly opened his arms and embraced it, raising his left hand to block the whip strike and his right foot to block the kick, his whole body like a one-legged bronze statue!

*Crack! Shatter!*

In an instant, Su Zhou's left hand and right foot were swollen with blood from the Demon Emperor's high-speed whipping. Large chunks of skin were torn apart, and muscle tissue was beaten purple.

"Aaaah!"

But the Demon Emperor also roared in pain—because Su Zhou, who had already embraced it, was covered in swirling Gale Armor. The wooden thorns protruding from its body not only failed to harm Su Zhou, but were all cut off. The intense pain of being sliced by millions of tiny knives spread through its spirit, and its body was shaved down by a full three inches, sending dust flying everywhere!

*Boom!* The immense force of the collision rippled outwards, causing the air to explode. The violent wind, strong enough to tear apart ordinary flesh and blood, swept past, cutting cracks into the ground of the Heavenly Palace.

In that moment, the man and beast separated, both suffering considerable injuries—Su Zhou's hand and foot were still trembling, while a humanoid indentation had appeared in the middle and lower body of the Demon Emperor, where Su Zhou's body had acted like a chainsaw to scrape away its flesh!

But the next instant, both roared again and charged back into the fray!

*Boom!* This time, the Demon Emperor no longer attempted to harm Su Zhou with its body. It had realized that Su Zhou's physical strength was no less than that of its own innate-level divine tree kin… Could this be the talent of the Dragon Vein? How infuriating!

This jealousy turned into power. It thrust its arms forward, its five fingers gathered into points, transforming its limbs into two ironwood spears, stabbing down at Su Zhou's head and heart—this time, it had deliberately strengthened the hardness of its arms so they wouldn't be cut by the Gale Armor!

But Su Zhou also shouted, clenching his hands into fists and then violently shaking his arms. He took a big step forward, striking with his fists like hammers! He first raised his right hand to meet the Demon Emperor's spear aimed at his heart, and then swung his left hand upward, ignoring the attack aimed at his head and striking the Demon Emperor's arm in the middle!

*Bang bang bang bang!* The speed of the two was similar, and their attacks arrived simultaneously. The moment the spear tip met the iron hammer, it was like a thunderclap, and the ear-splitting sound waves caused both their eardrums to ache!

"Ah! That hurts!" "Aaaah, lowly fleshspawn!"

After the exchange, both man and beast screamed and retreated ten steps.

Su Zhou gritted his teeth and raised his right fist, his head throbbing. He could see a deep, bone-deep wound on his forehead, and a sizable bloody hole in the center of his clenched fist! The ring finger had been snapped off by the Demon Emperor's spear, and the bones of his entire hand had been bent out of shape by the force!

The Demon Emperor also trembled, its face contorted. The spear arm that had collided with Su Zhou's hammer fist was now twisted and distorted, like a tangled mess. The spear that had struck Su Zhou's head had been broken in half by Su Zhou's upward hammer fist, and the severed limb had flown off who knows where!

If both were ordinary people, they would have been rendered unable to fight. But unfortunately, neither was. So, with a cold snort, the large hole in Su Zhou’s forehead twisted shut, the severed finger was pressed back into the wound, and the muscles and blood vessels wriggled like small worms, reconnecting and returning to normal. On the other side, the Demon Emperor’s twisted fingers and broken left arm returned to their original state with cracking sounds as the bones moved back into place, as if time were flowing in reverse!

*Boom!* This time, Su Zhou seized the initiative. He exerted force with his feet, stamping out a series of dents and cracks in the ground. His whole body seemed to shrink in size as he closed in on the Demon Emperor, reactivating his Gale Armor, seemingly wanting to recreate the previous scene!

The Demon Emperor's reaction was not slow either. How could it not see Su Zhou's plan? It immediately burst forth with wooden energy, using all its strength to stomp on the Heavenly Palace, causing the ground to shake. Countless protruding and recessed wooden roots and tumors hindered Su Zhou's footsteps, while it took several steps forward, kicking out at Su Zhou!

"Ha!"

But its reaction was fast, and Su Zhou's was even faster! At the first moment of the ground shaking, Su Zhou jumped directly, dodging the Demon Emperor's kick—in mid-air, he controlled the wind to accelerate, unleashing a flying kick at the Demon Emperor's head!

In a flash of lightning, the Demon Emperor also reacted instantly. It was now too late to gather too much power to defend, but it didn't need to defend anyway. The divine tree dragon simply turned its head slightly, and the two sharp dragon horns pointed towards Su Zhou's swift flying kick!

The Demon Emperor originally thought that Su Zhou would dodge, but it underestimated Su Zhou's ruthlessness—after seeing the dragon horns, Su Zhou didn't slow down at all. Instead, lightning bloomed around his body, and he was enveloped in electric current, becoming even faster!

*Crack!*

Su Zhou struck the dragon horns with his electrified flying kick. The sharp dragon horns pierced through Su Zhou's shoes and the flesh of the soles of his feet, inserting themselves between the bones of Su Zhou's foot—but Su Zhou didn't care. Gritting his teeth, his whole body spun rapidly, like a crocodile biting its prey, using the gaps in his bones as a large mouth to break off the Demon Emperor's dragon horns!

*Crack! Boom!*

Su Zhou's body landed on the ground at an angle, while the Demon Emperor's body went limp and fell to its knees… But even so, after suffering such heavy injuries, both sides, possessed of undying power, still roared at the same time and glared at each other with rage!

*Pfft!* Su Zhou endured the excruciating pain and pulled the broken dragon horn from the bottom of his foot, throwing it into the high sky beyond the Heavenly Palace. The Demon Emperor's eyes turned cyan, and it gritted its teeth and pressed its head, which was dizzy from the broken dragon horn.

Then… they charged at each other again!

*Boom,* the Demon Emperor reached forward, forcefully clapping its palms towards Su Zhou's temples and ears. Su Zhou leaped into the air, dodging the attack on his vital points, and kicked out with his feet, creating a sonic boom, striking fiercely at the Demon Emperor's chest, throat, and nose!

*Snap snap snap snap!* Su Zhou's leg power was so strong that even a security door would fly off its hinges and crash into the wall. The Demon Emperor's body was no exception. Its head was kicked in and its chest was caved in, and its throat was kicked into a concave shape—but as its hands grasped upwards, taking advantage of Su Zhou's attack, it grabbed Su Zhou's leg. With a furious roar, it swung Su Zhou around and slammed him into the ground!

*Boom!* Another large pit appeared in the Heavenly Palace, crisscrossed with cracks, the indentation formed by Su Zhou being used as a hammer! But the next instant, a violent electric current was transmitted along Su Zhou's body, charring the Demon Emperor's arm, forcing it to let go. A figure leaped from the pit, raising a palm like a spear and thrusting it towards the Demon Emperor's right eye!

The Demon Emperor couldn't dodge in time, but it wasn't without a counterattack. The moment Su Zhou's palm pierced its eye, shattering the eyeball and half its cheekbone, it endured the pain and clenched the muscles of its face—instantly, the Demon Emperor's twisted and shifting face transformed into a giant meat grinder. Su Zhou's attacking arm was sent into it, and all the flesh was scraped away. When it was pulled out again, it was nothing but bare bones!

"Gulp!" At this point, Su Zhou had no room to hide his trump cards. He opened his mouth and swallowed a demon general's vengeful soul that he had killed earlier, turning the pure spiritual power into his body and injecting it with the strength to fight again!

There was no more room for threats. The battle between the two undying beings was more brutal than any scene that humans could describe, so unbearable that any sentient mortal would avert their gaze. They pierced each other's internal organs, cut off flesh, inserted fleshless fingers into each other's ears and temples, and used arms that had mutated into large axes to shatter each other's shoulder blades.

But even so, neither could kill the other. Flesh wriggled and regenerated, bones returned to their places with the help of spiritual power, and tree roots scattered green sap, then intertwined again, transforming into unblemished faces.

*Boom!* The Demon Emperor punched Su Zhou's throat without hesitation, while Su Zhou raised his hand to block and bit the Demon Emperor's arm without hesitation. With the sound of wood tearing, a large piece of tree root was torn off by Su Zhou and swallowed, while his arm was bent backwards by the Demon Emperor's punch!

Flesh and blood splattered. Later in the fight, both sides even completely abandoned their defenses—Su Zhou roared and tore out the Demon Emperor's left cheekbone along with half of its gums and tooth roots, and used violent electric current to char the Demon Emperor's remaining teeth and tongue. The Demon Emperor shattered Su Zhou's right lung along with his ribs with a palm strike, the resulting concave shape resembling a thin sheet of flesh and blood!

Su Zhou stretched out a palm, his five fingers gripping the Demon Emperor's ribs and pulling downwards from top to bottom. With a series of continuous bone-cracking explosions, seven of the Demon Emperor's ribs snapped, and he followed up with a punch, shattering the Demon Emperor's stomach—he had originally wanted to hit the heart, but during the previous attacks Su Zhou had realized that the Demon Emperor didn't have a heart, it didn't have anything like blood circulation. The Demon Emperor let out a piercing screech and tore off Su Zhou's right hand, throwing it high into the sky!

*Boom!* The Demon Emperor retaliated furiously, punching Su Zhou's left eye socket, blasting his eyeball out of its socket, but Su Zhou laughed hideously in the dizziness brought on by the concussion, opening his mouth and swallowing his own eyeball, swallowing it into his stomach!

"Got any more tricks, you dog emperor?!"

Swallowing another vengeful soul to prolong his life, Su Zhou laughed wildly and used his one arm to form a hand blade, slicing downwards in a kasaya cut, shattering one of the Demon Emperor's shoulders and half its chest!

"Madman, monster!"

Only now did the Demon Emperor finally roar in disbelief. It was, after all, an emperor, and when had it ever fought so brutally with a person, with a lowly junior it looked down upon? It had never experienced such painful injuries, never had such an experience!

It kicked out, forcing Su Zhou back, and retreated continuously, its furious voice tinged with fear: "There's no reason to fight like this—there's no way to fight like this!"

"Aaaah! Die!"

Retreating to the edge of the altar, the Demon Emperor uttered a fragmented dragon roar. Instantly, the Heavenly Palace shook violently, and tendrils grew out of the Heavenly Palace—but because the Jade Pillar was still pierced by the Blade of Annihilation, the power of the divine tree was weakened at the very top. In addition, the poison of the spirit iron spear that Su Zhou had previously inserted into the ground had already spread. These toxins hindered the generation and movement of the tendrils, so the speed at which these tendrils were generated slowed down considerably.

"Is that so? You can't take it anymore? The Imperial Advisor fought me to the very end."

The one-armed, one-eyed Su Zhou stood unsteadily in place, his expression calm, slightly disappointed. But then, he took a small ball from his waist and threw it into the air.

*Boom!* A brilliant rainbow firework exploded at the top of the Heavenly Palace—immediately followed by a roar! Within the rain clouds that had enveloped the entire Heavenly Palace, crisscrossing lightning was roaring!

At the same time, at the edge of the divine tree, Zhou Buyi's team.

"Saw the signal!"

Zhou Buyi, who had been watching the movements at the top of the Heavenly Palace and working with the others to kill the swarming root tendrils of the divine tree, shouted loudly as soon as he saw the signal: "Quick, launch the kite!"

"Yes!"

Following Zhou Buyi's instructions, a martial artist immediately took out a strange square mechanism box from the backpack behind him—he adjusted the direction and pressed the mechanism button. Instantly, a silver kite, humming with true energy, soared into the sky, carrying a long copper wire towards the top of the Heavenly Palace in the clouds.

At this moment, as the tendrils summoned by the Demon Emperor were generated, Su Zhou had already grabbed the spirit iron spear he had stuck to the side, constantly swallowing the vengeful souls of the demon generals.

*Buzz—* Under the infusion of spiritual power, the nearly depleted organs in his body began to regain their vitality.

*Rumble!*

Once again, there was another howling thunder!