Chapter 30: Trapped Beast

“So that’s it, he was being controlled.”

Zuo Qingcang thought to himself, ‘Ordinary flame attacks seem useless too.’

Inside Zuo Qingcang’s mind, descriptions of what in Dao Arts was called the Leakless Realm flashed by.

Dao Arts began with cultivating the Life Grove, an organ similar to a nerve plexus. Like roots, it grew deep within the human body, spreading out from its initial position with each practice and stimulation. The so-called Leakless Realm referred to when the Life Grove’s tendrils had extended across the entire body.

In this state, any part of the body could freely absorb and release Spiritual Power that was once only absorbed by the Life Grove’s location, while the true position of the Life Grove became a storage place for Spiritual Power.

The ‘Old Man’ before him had reached the Leakless Realm, allowing him to absorb Spiritual Power through any part of his body. Because his ‘Flame Hole’ absorbed light and heat-based Spiritual Power, and flames, as a special entity, had no physical form and were entirely composed of radiation, he could directly absorb flames.

However, relying on his own Mental Force, he shouldn’t have been able to absorb flames at such high capacity as he just did, creating the phenomenon of moving freely through the fire sea. But the one controlling his body used powerful Mental Force to forcibly enhance his flame absorption ability.

This made ordinary flame attacks ineffective.

Thinking this, Zuo Qingcang suddenly crouched down, dodging a fire snake charging from behind him. At the same time, his left hand pulled out a small red bottle.

Zuo Qingcang scattered white metal powder into the approaching fire snake. The high temperature acted on the metal powder, releasing an unprecedented intense light.

The white metal powder was called Shining Gold, a Dao Arts material specially created and ground by Taoist Priests using Spiritual Power and metal. The instant intense light it could produce, though fleeting, was strong enough to instantly blind ordinary people, and in severe cases, could cause permanent vision deterioration.

But Zuo Qingcang, already prepared, had turned away from the light and closed his eyes before the intense light was generated, opening them again after the light vanished.

He saw the Old Man had closed his eyes, tears stimulated by the light continuously streaming from the corners of his eyes. The fire snake in mid-air, due to the Old Man’s inability to see, lost its accuracy completely, failing to pose any effective attack on Zuo Qingcang.

Seizing this opportunity, Zuo Qingcang’s feet pushed off with great force. His astonishing explosive power brought terrifying acceleration, and his whole body shot toward the Old Man like a sharp Jian.

Though the Old Man couldn’t see with his eyes, in his Spiritual Energy Vision, the suddenly explosive Zuo Qingcang appeared like a large fireball, radiating intense heat all over.

Unhurriedly, the Old Man pressed his palms together. The surrounding fire snakes, like moths to a flame, rushed toward the fireball in his Spiritual Energy Vision.

Boom boom boom boom! The successive impacts of the fire snakes stirred up waves of hot wind in front of the Old Man. In his Spiritual Energy Vision, Zuo Qingcang’s position was about to erupt with towering flames.

But facing the oncoming flames, Zuo Qingcang’s expression remained unchanged. He simply took out a third small blue bottle from his waist, aimed it at the flames ahead, and forcefully scattered its contents. The transparent liquid, meeting high temperature in the air, instantly expanded, deformed, turning into countless powders and bubbles, directly extinguishing the flames before him.

This fire suppressant called ‘Ice Lake Sea’ was clearly very effective. Unfortunately, the liquid in the small bottle was quite limited, and Zuo Qingcang didn’t know any ice or flame-type Dao Arts, so he could only use it directly, making the effect very average, only extinguishing a clump of flames in front of him.

But even that was enough. Without stopping at all, he broke through the Ice Lake Sea, his Dagger thrusting fiercely toward the Old Man’s head.

However, the Dagger was just a feint. Zuo Qingcang’s real goal was to use his explosive power and impact to push the Old Man into the lava below the cliff. He believed the Old Man’s strength couldn’t compare to his own; even if he could absorb flames, he couldn’t remain unharmed in lava, and falling from such a height would kill him from the impact alone.

But the Old Man seemed completely unaware, just foolishly standing there doing nothing.

Just as Zuo Qingcang was about to strike the Old Man, he suddenly halted his steps, stopping the attack. He looked somewhat surprised at the ground around him.

The Old Man’s eyes were still tightly shut. He snorted coldly and said, “I didn’t expect you to be somewhat clever. I originally planned to blow off one of your legs and have you obediently open the coffin for me.”

Zuo Qingcang narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at the black particles slowly floating on the ground and in the air, and said calmly, “Thunderbolt Powder?”

“Correct.” The Old Man said, “I told you, no matter how prepared you are, I will be even more prepared. Before Dao Arts reach the Cultivating Heavenly Palace stage and Martial Arts reach Void Training, in combat, external objects and preparation are still most important. Weapons, Dao Arts materials, Spiritual Power reserves, tactics, terrain, environment. You don’t have the advantage in any of these.”

Zuo Qingcang ignored him, simply covering his mouth and nose with one hand to prevent the particles in the air from being inhaled. This Dao Arts material called Thunderbolt Powder was somewhat similar to red phosphorus; it would explode under certain pressure, and through Taoist Priests’ adjustments, its explosions were even more violent.

‘Did he mix Thunderbolt Powder when releasing Ignition Powder just now and scatter it around?’

‘That requires very fine control; otherwise, the slightest misstep could injure himself.’

If he had actually charged over just now, stepping on or bumping into this Thunderbolt Powder would have severely injured him directly. Like countless heavy hammers hitting his body, causing serious internal bleeding.

Hearing what the Old Man said, he didn’t argue back, because he knew the Old Man was right. The opponent’s Dao Arts were profound; he could effortlessly use various Dao techniques and tactics, not to mention how many powerful Dao Arts materials he had collected in the Sacrificial Chamber. Located above lava, paired with strong Mental Force and the Life Grove ‘Flame Hole,’ he could freely absorb Spiritual Power and release Dao techniques.

Favorable conditions of time, place, and people all seemed to be held by the other side.

However, Zuo Qingcang’s face showed no sign of discouragement. He just calmly asked, “Who exactly are you? Earlier you said you controlled his body; are you not him?”

The Old Man laughed, “You came to my tomb, and you still don’t know who I am?”

“Shen Zong!” Zuo Qingcang looked at the Old Man in shock, denying it, “Impossible. Shen Zong died over two thousand years ago. You can’t be him.”

Whether he didn’t mind Zuo Qingcang stalling for time, or perhaps wanted Zuo Qingcang to completely despair, or maybe to persuade Zuo Qingcang to work for him.

The Old Man who called himself Shen Zong laughed heartily after hearing Zuo Qingcang’s words, “You think this is really my tomb? That this place was truly meant to seal me?”

“Haven’t you thought about it? How do you think you knew? How did this old man know? How did he determine it?”

“The so-called tomb, seal—all these were revealed from my own mouth, meaning I told you.”

“Did you just believe me so easily?”