Chapter 41

In the end, Su Zhou dragged his half-destroyed body and led another charge – fortunately, the demonic army was also nearly crippled. Moreover, without much inner strength to use Qinggong (light body technique), their heavy bodies couldn't hide in the snow and had difficulty moving. Su Zhou mostly singled them out and killed them.

However, taking care of his own people was more important than chasing enemies, so after roughly killing a circle of them, he led the team back to the camp, dragging back the half-dead Shenmu (divine wood) Guards who were frozen in the snow, preparing to throw them into the lava to destroy them.

At this moment, even though the casualties were heavy, Li Daoran and the others were filled with joy. Most of the martial artists excitedly thanked Su Zhou after he returned to the city walls, and many were choked with sobs – most of them had volunteered to come here to guard the divine weapon and had long been prepared to die.

Naturally, the righteous army of the Hundred Schools had also long taken care of their families… actually, most of those willing to come here no longer had any family, which was why they were willing to fight the demonic dynasty to the death. Su Zhou leading them to defend the divine weapon gave meaning to all their sacrifices so far.

"But now is not the time to celebrate victory."

However, Su Zhou was not affected by the joy after this pyrrhic victory. He immediately instructed several craftsmen to fetch him a large cauldron, then filled it with snow water and heated it with a large fire – everyone didn't know what Su Zhou wanted to do for a moment, but since he wanted it, then so be it.

Then, Su Zhou also ordered everyone to gather most of the wounded around this cauldron… most of the wounded didn't have serious blood loss. After all, in this kind of weather, it was difficult to bleed continuously. Most people had exhausted their inner strength and suffered excessive frostbite, and were now in a state of shock and coma.

Without a grandmaster physician like Han, it would be difficult for physicians like Liu Xizhao to take care of so many wounded, and coupled with the lack of clean water and medicine, most of these people probably wouldn't survive tonight.

And that was the reason for Su Zhou's actions now – after starting to boil the water, he also collected a batch of spices, most of which were those he had traded away earlier for spiritual plants. Su Zhou couldn't help but sigh: "Fortunately, I had foresight and brought a lot of spices… alas, next time I go to another world, I must bring a full load of this stuff!"

As for what Su Zhou was going to do… he had already started boiling hot water and taking out spices, did he even need to ask?

Of course, he was going to brew holy water!

There was nothing he could do for the dead, but he would save those who could be saved – although he didn't say it, Su Zhou had already sworn in his heart that with him here, none of the wounded present would be allowed to die!

After a cauldron of snow water was heated, Su Zhou directly poured in the remaining half bottle of high-concentration holy water, along with the bag of Yimu (wood element) spiritual liquid he had obtained from killing the Beast Taming Demon General, and then sprinkled the spices, using holy words to bless it. This scene was so out of place with the local medical style, and coupled with the fact that the entire cauldron began to glow with pure white light, it immediately made all the martial artists who didn't quite understand what Su Zhou wanted to do shout 'Kunlun secret technique!' and 'Kunlun Divine Mountain divine art!' 'There's hope, Brother Xu and Second Brother are saved!'.

Even Zhou Buyi was moved to tears – the martial monk Fang Hui had been too brave during the battle, and a Shenmu Guard had broken a large hole in his chest and abdomen. Although he himself had sealed the wound with his inner Qi, preventing too much blood loss, his internal organs were exposed to the wind and snow and suffered from the cold, making his injuries too severe to save.

Zhou Buyi, who had thought he was going to lose another good brother, saw Su Zhou's 'Kunlun secret technique' at this moment, and thought of the 'potion' that could revive the half-dead and allow the severely injured Weilie Grandmaster to walk again within three minutes, and hope rekindled in his heart.

Hearing these extremely excited voices, Su Zhou was very frank: "I can't guarantee a one hundred percent survival rate – you've all seen it, a cauldron of water, half a bottle of holy water, and a jar of wood spiritual liquid. This degree of dilution probably only has a little therapeutic effect."

This was the truth, but everyone present was not ignorant and naturally knew this principle. Seeing that no one was clamoring, Su Zhou made up his mind.

"Yala, would you say my blood can also be considered 'holy blood'? If I use my blood as a sacrifice, how much healing power can I exchange for?"

The snake spirit chuckled: "That depends on how much these people trust you – if they believe, it will work; if they don't, it won't be effective. The power of belief depends on the user himself."

"However, looking at how grateful and eager these people are to give you all their possessions, the effect will probably be very good."

"Is that so?" Hearing this, Su Zhou also smiled: "Alas, who told me I was born mentally abnormal? Hearing someone sincerely thank me makes me feel so good?"

Teasing Yala like this, he bit open his own blood vessel and sprinkled some spiritual blood into the cauldron.

The spiritual blood, as thick as mercury, shone with a purplish-blue light and merged into the holy water, once again stirring up a wave of divine ripples. Seeing this scene, most of the people present didn't understand why for a moment, and Su Zhou himself didn't intend to explain, but Zhou Buyi, after a moment of愣(leng,stunned), remembered something and stepped forward, loudly saying on Su Zhou's behalf: "This is Grandmaster Su using his own dragon blood to treat all the brothers present!"

"A bunch of idiots – Grandmaster Su is righteous and chivalrous. After coming down from Kunlun, he helped the righteous with righteousness, killed demon generals, broke through demon armies, and beheaded the demon dynasty's national teacher here, to the point of being covered in wounds and even losing an arm – you bastards, what are you standing there for, not even saying a word of thanks?!"

He directly defaulted to Su Zhou's dragon bloodline identity – some people had heard the national teacher's words, and no one questioned it now.

"Grandmaster Su, we will definitely repay your great kindness!"

Immediately, all the martial artists present suddenly understood, and then bowed in unison – those with injured friends and brothers even knelt on one knee, sincerely clasping their fists and bowing to Su Zhou, lowering their heads: "Grandmaster Su is truly a hero of the world, risking his life for the sake of all living beings and the people. What noble righteousness!"

"We are willing to follow Grandmaster Su, even if it means going through fire and water!"

Even elders like Li Daoran and Weilie clasped their fists and bowed to Su Zhou in gratitude – not for themselves, but for Su Zhou, who spared no effort to fight the national teacher to such an extent in order to protect the divine weapon, and for this truly meaningful act of righteousness.

If humanity could continue, this act of righteousness would surely be remembered and sung in poems and legends even after hundreds or thousands of years!

"Hahahaha!"

And Su Zhou, seeing everyone kneeling and bowing to him, offering their most sincere thanks and gratitude, watched the holy water in the cauldron once again stir up holy and gentle waves, and couldn't help but laugh heartily: "It is not I who saves you, but you who save yourselves!"

"Enough talk, help the injured brothers up!"

Late at night, Su Zhou, whose wounds had fully regenerated, who had received a large pile of semi-spiritual plants and pills as thank-you gifts, and who had even replenished his nutritional reserves by eating and drinking heartily again, told Zhou Buyi and Li Daoran that he was going to sit quietly on the top of the snow mountain for a while, and then went alone to the peak of a mountain in the Taihang Mountains.

The golden-red firelight overflowing from the volcanic crater illuminated the clouds in the dark night. Amidst the churning dark clouds, the seemingly endless snow fell between heaven and earth. Su Zhou stood alone on the deserted peak, looking into the distance at the winding Jade River rising from the foot of the mountain and entering the snowy plains beyond the horizon.

At this time, Su Zhou's mind was unprecedentedly calm. He looked around at this world and smiled softly.

Then, Su Zhou stretched out his hand, and a cyan jade-colored light ball appeared in his palm. Without hesitation, he directly swallowed the light ball, then closed his eyes and stood with his hands behind his back on the mountaintop.

In an instant, the feeling that made every organ in his body, from his tongue down, vibrate was like an electric current, a more intense version of cola, as well as the life of the national teacher.

Countless memories flashed by and disappeared like a revolving lantern. Su Zhou calmly watched these memories, but was somewhat regretful to find that he could not clearly see every detail of them. All he could see was every idea, every inspiration that the Daoist had summarized about his lightning method, and the joy of finally turning it into a legacy.

"This is my Dao, surpassing the methods of the sages!"

This was a very unusual, but also very joyful feeling… Su Zhou felt as if he was the national teacher at the time, with every idea, every detail of thought that had appeared in his mind at that time… of course, the most dangerous part was also here. If his mind was restless, his mode of thinking would be changed by the national teacher's mode of thinking.

But Su Zhou had long been mentally prepared, and the strength of his heart, which had defeated the national teacher's will in a head-on battle, was not something that a defeated opponent could change.

So, he felt the 'lightning' that was everywhere between heaven and earth.

[——The yin and yang of the four seasons are the foundation of all things.]

[Jia wood, yang. Lightning is the sigh of yang energy, so take the Qi (energy) of the divine wood, condense the innate lightning image, use yang to nourish lightning, and use lightning to nourish the divine, so as to obtain the supreme yang deity, cross the sea of bitterness, control the five poles, control the six Qi of heaven and earth, control the change of all things, and the movement of gods and humans.]

The essence of the 'Imperial Five Extremes Divine Lightning True Method' was the culmination of the national teacher's research on the Banyan Immortal Tree and his own attainments in lightning methods. Among them, what was most important to the national teacher was to 'borrow the pure wood Qi life force of the divine wood' to transform it into an innate extremely yang true Qi, and then use this innate true Qi to nourish his lightning true spirit and soul, and finally transform the entire person into an 'innate lightning spirit yang deity' and step into the innate realm.

This step was essentially even more powerful and difficult than the Demon Emperor's transformation into a Banyan Dragon by borrowing the power of the Undying Divine Tree – the latter was merely transforming himself into a dependent of the divine wood, becoming subordinate to the divine tree, while the national teacher was using the power of the divine tree to walk his own path of life sublimation, and he had even walked through this path and was about to complete it!

If the transformation of wood Qi into extremely yang true Qi had not been much slower than the Demon Emperor's direct absorption of wood Qi, the national teacher would have achieved the innate realm decades earlier, swept across this world, and achieved the terrestrial immortal realm!

"This guy is truly a genius among mortals."

Even Yala affirmed the national teacher's talent: "This is equivalent to using his own power to carry out 'life essence sublimation' at the 'Awakening Stage' that can only be started at the 'Chief Stage' – if it succeeds, then his achievements will not only be at the 'Extraordinary Stage', but even reaching above the 'Chief Stage' is not impossible."

"Coincidentally, Su Zhou, don't you have the Tree of Wisdom? You don't need to completely transform into an innate lightning spirit, you just need to use the power of the Tree of Wisdom to strengthen your soul with this method and control lightning… my secret methods are definitely stronger? Su Zhou, what I need is not a second 'me', but you who walks your own path!"

"If you really gave it to me, I wouldn't feel at ease. Who knows what kind of backup plans there are." Lightly bickering with Yala, Su Zhou smiled and continued to focus on the national teacher's legacy.

Yala's praise was considered a very high affirmation, and in addition to this set of methods for achieving the innate lightning spirit yang deity, the Imperial Five Extremes Divine Lightning True Method also contained various lightning method cultivation methods and usage methods, and most of them were insightful and brilliant. Su Zhou didn't know how this compared to the 'Five Thunders Orthodox Method' in his hometown, but even if it was inferior, it must be connected in essence, and could be called a fundamental secret method!

"Lightning is the weakness of the 'Undying Wood', because both fire and lightning can completely change the 'water' structure inside the Undying Wood root. That complex water structure achieved with spiritual Qi is the truly important key point inside the Undying Root, as important as the human brain."

"And simple cutting, crushing, and freezing cannot completely destroy this structure, leaving room for 'regeneration' and 'immortality'."

"I already know the key!"

At the peak of the mountain, Su Zhou exhaled a long breath. He opened his eyes, and lightning bloomed in his purplish-blue eyes.

And the next moment, he raised his hand and pointed a finger at the sky!

Boom!

Amidst the churning dark clouds, a thunderclap immediately exploded! Between the layers of gray clouds, cyan electric light flickered!

Although Su Zhou quickly retracted his finger, causing the thunder to subside, cyan arcs of electricity were still wrapped around his finger. Su Zhou stared at this finger of his, the entire finger was already charred black, but he still laughed heartily with joy.

"So that's how it is – no wonder even the national teacher had to use a magic sword to summon lightning – so that's how it is, why the national teacher was able to obtain more than a thousand years of data accumulated by predecessors in two hundred years!"

"An undying body is truly an excellent tool for researching lightning methods, easy to use, easy to use!"

It could be seen that at Su Zhou's charred wound, the charcoal-like outer shell peeled off layer by layer, and what was revealed again was a slender, white finger as before, and he also gained some of the experiences and information that many lightning method cultivators needed to be extremely cautious in their experiments to obtain.

Moreover, because he experienced it personally, his memory was even more profound.

"Good, good!" Even though the wound was extremely painful, Su Zhou still felt joy for it, but then he thought of the millions, even tens of millions, of people's blood and tears behind this legacy of the national teacher, and a sense of injustice arose in his heart.

"Undying, undying – is this undying that all living beings crave truly worth such a great price?"

The young man, who hated evil like an enemy, muttered to himself: "If undying really drives people mad, then can I cut off all paths to undying, so that all living beings must have life and death, and all gods, humans, and ghosts must have an end? Would that be much better?"

——Shocking.

At this time, Yala couldn't help but think in her heart: "This kid is indeed a born demon lord. How twisted does the thinking logic have to be to be able to turn to the demonic thought of 'all beings must perish'? Even ordinary villains possessed by heavenly demons wouldn't have this kind of thought, but this guy easily did it with 'good intentions'!"

But fortunately, in the end, Su Zhou still shook his head regretfully: "No, that's not possible. This way, it's impossible to stop people's madness. Without undying, there's still longevity, and extending life. It's not treating the root cause. The problem is not with 'undying', but with the desires and madness of people's hearts. Rather than cutting off undying, it's better for everyone to be undying – but is that really good?"

After being silent for a moment, Su Zhou did not become depressed because of this. He just raised his hand again, the tip of his finger leaping with cyan lightning, and pointed it far to the south.

Su Zhou stared at the distant end of this snowy white world, the place where 'Southern Heavenly Capital' was located, the Demon Emperor's residence, and the hunter made a vow with the most determined tone.

"—I will sweep away the heavens and earth with this lightning, and return a bright and clear world to this world!"

Between the mountaintop heavens and earth, thunder rumbled, as if in response.

And at noon the next day.

The Blade of Annihilation, the divine weapon was forged!