Chapter 176 104: Spirit String Artisan, Insta-killing a Professional

"Let's begin."

Su Chen had activated Resonance just a moment before. Before him, the forest suddenly stirred without a breeze. Leaves rustled and fluttered, like thousands of soft voices whispering all at once.

Under the might of the Grand Elemental Master's Authority, the trees whispered their secrets to him.

Eighty meters away, an ancient tree relayed an unusual message, projecting the silhouette of a figure hidden within it directly into his mind.

The scan had alerted the enemy. The modified human hiding with Wood Escape burst from the tree trunk like a startled animal, its cover blown. It fled frantically, racing deeper into the forest.

Su Chen watched the clumsy escape with a look of indifference, summoning both of his beloved pets.

HUMMM!

Darkness roiled across the ground, and from it, a Soul-devouring Dog emerged.

An ice-blue radiance materialized in the air, followed by a clear, resounding cry. The Ice Feather Frost Bird circled overhead, its beating wings scattering specks of frost.

Xiaolin's sharp eyes immediately caught sight of an arrow arcing through the sky, plummeting toward the distant woods.

It was Yan Ruoruo's Echo Arrow, fired in a high arc.

A direct shot couldn't compare to the range of a high-arcing one. This arrow easily crossed over four hundred meters, falling like a meteor into a distant clearing.

The arrow landed silently.

The next moment, a ring of invisible Spiritual Waves erupted from the point of impact. It spread like a sonic boom, stripping away all camouflage in its path.

A figure buried in the earth was forcefully revealed.

Another, hidden between patches of light by optical refraction, shimmered like a shattered mirror to reveal a distorted human form.

A third was using Water Escape, hiding in a forest puddle. Ripples on the water's surface faintly revealed a savage face.

All three were exposed, with not a single one missed.

And all of these images, through the real-time link of Mind Transmission Lv. 5, were simultaneously projected into Su Chen's Sea of Consciousness.

'Map's wide open now.'

He moved!

His figure vanished in an instant.

His new Shadow Leap Lv. 5 allowed him to completely ignore all obstacles. He performed a point-to-point jump straight through a section of the forest, and with the 100% boost from Elemental Mastery, the leap covered a distance of 200 meters.

In less than a single breath, he executed two consecutive teleports, appearing in a clearing like a phantom.

"Ngh…"

Overwhelmed by the threat, the figure hiding in the puddle enveloped itself in water, transforming into a humanoid fluid that shot forward in a desperate escape.

But it was too late.

A wave of weightlessness erupted from beneath the target.

Its body suddenly became light, and it was flung into the air. With a single look from Su Chen, a remote Sun Flame detonated right on top of it.

Its protective film of water was instantly destroyed. Amidst a massive plume of scalding steam, the burning figure of the modified human fell to the ground, screaming in agony.

In a single instant, a being who very likely possessed a Water Element Authority had lost its ability to fight.

Just then, Su Chen seemed to sense something. His Weightless Gravity Field abruptly pulled him high into the air.

The next moment, the ground beneath where he had been standing cracked apart. A terrifying Earthquake Wave surged through, pulverizing the bedrock, soil, and bushes into fine dust.

This power was, without a doubt, from an Earth Element Authority.

As Su Chen hovered in midair, the black Rune Gloves on his left hand suddenly vibrated. The Rune on its palm lit up with a dim, purple glow.

Several pitch-black chains shot out from the Void, instantly wrapping around the figure that had transformed into a Thorn Giant. The next moment, the chains' surface began to shimmer, interwoven with the fiery light of Dark Red True Flame.

Fire and Dark merged without impediment, weaving together into dark red-striped chains that bound the Thorn Giant relentlessly.

"Your Dark Shackles Rune is pretty useful," Su Chen remarked. He wasn't lying; powerful, long-range crowd control was a tool he had been missing.

Evidently, the two Lv. 5 Dark Element Runes he'd obtained from the Bloodthirsty Fungus last night had been perfectly absorbed by the black Rune Gloves, which had exactly two Enchantment Slots.

In a matter of moments, the failed ambush by the Bloodthirsty Fungus's modified humans had been completely turned around into an overwhelming counter-assault by Su Chen.

"I thought you were going to take my life?"