Chapter 112: Bloomroot Warden II

Chapter 112: Bloomroot Warden II

Its Frenzy forced it to keep pulling more in. Its regeneration became wildly unstable; wooden flesh constantly grew and ruptured in a grotesque cycle of over-saturation.

The creature no longer looked like a controlled guardian. It was consuming everything. Including Lothe.

The Warden lunged forward blindly. Lothe dodged, but a jagged root pierced clean through his shoulder.

SHRRRK!

He gritted his teeth, swallowing a cry. Another root wrapped around his leg, dragging him closer. The Warden’s remaining roots pierced his robe, and his internal Qi began draining again.

[Qi: 71/400]

[Qi: 43/400]

Lothe’s breathing became ragged. His body was failing.

The Warden opened its massive, concentric-toothed maw above him. Lothe stared straight into the dark abyss inside.

Ten seconds. Maybe less.

His foundation trembled violently. Something deep inside his soul—the heavy, compressed barrier separating his cultivation realms—reached its absolute breaking point.

CRACK.

Lothe’s eyes widened.

Then—

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!

A massive, world-shaking wave of primordial Qi erupted outward from his body.

The roots holding him were instantly blown into dust. The Warden itself was shoved backward by the sheer concussive blast.

Golden and purple energy collided violently throughout the subterranean chamber.

Lothe stood alone in the center. His torn black travel robes fluttered wildly in the gale-force pressure. His cultivation surged upward like a roaring tide.

[Cultivation Breakthrough!]

• Foundation Establishment Realm — Tier 2.

The pressure didn’t stop. The bottleneck holding back his true potential cracked completely.

BOOM!

Another tidal wave of Qi erupted.

[Cultivation Breakthrough!]

• Foundation Establishment Realm — Tier 3.

The surrounding stone floor caved inward. Lothe slowly opened his eyes.

His pupils were no longer human. They were completely calm, ice-cold, and razor-sharp.

[Current Rank: Level 5, Tier 3 — Peak Stage.]

His newly expanded Qi surged through his meridians with terrifying velocity.

The Warden stared at him, its red eyes flickering in confusion and primal fear.

Then—it attacked anyway.

Even after Lothe’s double breakthrough. Even after his power had multiplied exponentially. The Level 6 Warden remained an absolute terror.

BOOOOOOM!

Its massive fist collided with Lothe’s crossed forearms.

Lothe slid backward across the stone, his boots carving two deep trenches into the bedrock. His arms trembled.

He looked up, a wild edge to his cold expression. "...Still that strong?"

The Warden roared, its roots erupting once more from the floor.

Lothe’s eyes narrowed. This time—he smiled.

"The Palace has already seen my breakthrough. There is no point in hiding anymore."

Purple-black Qi slowly gathered around his hands, swirling like an event horizon.

[System Notice: Palace Recognition Complete.]

[Void Attribute Confirmed.]

Lothe extended his right hand. Space twisted violently around his fingers, bending the ambient light.

"Then..."

A solid, abyssal-black spear manifested within his grasp, humming with high-torque spatial energy.

Void Spear.

"...let’s stop playing."

BOOM!

Lothe vanished instantly.

[Void Step!]

He reappeared directly behind the Warden. The creature spun around, but it was far too slow.

[Rift Thrust!]

The Void Spear pierced straight through the center of the Warden’s unstable, over-saturated chest core.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!

Spatial Qi erupted violently inside the Warden’s body. The creature froze mid-motion. The glowing flowers across its armor shattered one after another.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

The Warden staggered backward. Yet, remarkably, it still didn’t fall.

Lothe’s eyes narrowed. Even now... it refuses to die.

The Warden’s remaining roots surged toward him for one final, desperate attack. Lothe twisted through them.

Spatial Anchor.

He vanished, reappeared directly above its head, and drove the spear downward with both hands.

BOOOOOOOOOOM!!

The spear pierced completely through its skull, shattering the central processing node.

The Warden’s colossal body finally went limp. It collapsed heavily onto the stone floor with a deafening crash.

THUD.

Silence returned to the cavern.

The golden mist slowly dissipated into nothingness.

Lothe stood over the smoking corpse, breathing heavily. He slowly lowered the Void Spear.

"...Now you’re dead."

[Target Eliminated.]

EXP Acquired: +1,200

Elite-Grade Material Obtained: Bloomroot Core.

The Bloomroot Warden’s enormous body finally collapsed.

BOOOOOOM!

Its massive wooden frame struck the stone floor, sending shattered bark, crushed petals, and clouds of suffocating dust rolling through the chamber.

Lothe stood several meters away, his chest heaving with shallow, deliberate breaths. Blood trickled from the corner of his lips, and his travel robes were torn in several places, exposing flesh bruised purple from kinetic shock.

The battle had been troublesome—far more troublesome than he had anticipated.

He lowered his gaze.

The Veiled Identity Talisman pinned to his chest had burned through its runic matrices, its surface charred black. The violent shockwaves of his dual breakthrough had pushed it beyond its structural limit.

The illusion collapsed.

His scholarly disguise dissolved into thin air.

Dark purple robes, lined with subtle silver runes, replaced the plain scholar’s garb. His long black hair tumbled freely past his shoulders, floating gently on the fading currents of residual Qi.

Lothe frowned slightly. "Troublesome."

His true appearance was exposed.

There was no point dwelling on it in an empty room, but walking deeper into the palace looking like himself was suicide.

His gaze shifted toward the Warden’s shattered corpse.

With a thought, a pristine sheet of yellow Spirit Paper slipped into his fingers. His Soul Force surged outward.

CRACK!

From within the split chest of the wooden colossus, an emerald-green core floated into the air. It trembled under Lothe’s mental grasp.

Lothe raised one hand and clenched his fist.

CRACK! CRACK!

Fissures spiderwebbed across the gem before it detonated into a pure, concentrated river of Wood Qi.

Lothe’s Soul Force wrapped around the green torrent. He did not absorb it into his dantian. Instead, he treated the ancient botanical essence as raw pigment.

His fingers danced through the air like a weaver at a loom.

The Spirit Paper hovered before his chest.

One rune took shape.

Then another.

Then a third.

The raw energy of the Bloomroot Core was forcibly distilled into an intricate runic matrix. Lothe guided the strokes with razor-sharp precision, incorporating the spatial principles he had gained during his breakthrough.

He wasn’t merely replacing the old talisman.

He was evolving it.

HUMMM!

The paper trembled violently. A rich, golden-green luminescence flashed across the calligraphy before sinking deep into the grain.

[Veiled Identity Talisman — Enhanced]

• Quality: High-Grade Foundation Construct

• Concealment Efficiency: Greatly Increased

• Trait: Absorbs ambient environmental Qi to mask spiritual fluctuations.​