A Farmer's Journey To Immortality - Chapter 494: Wood-element User vs Wood-element User

The Druid Blessing—Night Wind.

It was one of the rare druid abilities that cloaked one’s body and presence under the cover of darkness. No scent. No sound. No Spirit or Qi signature. Just air and shadow.

If used optimally under the right conditions, even a weaker user of the ability would be able to fool the senses of stronger enemies.

“You… how… how did you…?”

The Verdant Elder’s voice trembled with pain and disbelief.

He was a 3rd Order demon beast now. How had Aksai—who was supposed to be weaker—sneaked up on him and landed such a devastating blow?

Even his Spirit Sense had been unable to get a read on the man.

And what kind of power was he using? It was definitely not an ability powered by Spirit essence alone. His skin should have been tougher. His natural 3rd Order barrier of Spirit essence should have stopped the blade.

But none of that had happened.

Aksai’s strike had gone straight through, as if the barrier had never existed. It was as if the strange power he used had the ability to cut through the Spirit essence barrier effectively.

Even though the demon beast was a bit weaker and unprepared due to the fact that he had just cleared the third trial, it was still shocking.

The dagger in Aksai’s hand gleamed faintly. It was black as midnight, its edge smooth and unnatural. It wasn’t a Spirit essence weapon. The Verdant Elder could tell that much.

It was made of something different.

Another weapon made of meteor stone. And it pulsed with Qi, not Spirit essence.

One had to say that Aksai had chosen the perfect time to strike at the Verdant Elder. He had been following the demon beast for quite some time, but he waited until the demon beast managed to clear the third trial.

Even though Aksai had been prepared to deal with the Verdant Elder while he was still a 2nd Order demon beast, he had observed that the latter was more than ready to handle him in every way. The demon beast was not only good at defending himself due to his strong defensive spells and shell, he also had the territorial advantage.

As such, Aksai dropped the idea of ambushing the Verdant Elder before his trial began.

He could have chosen to attack the demon beast while he was going through the trial. But thanks to Haitin, he learned that the Celestial Wrath didn’t take kindly to anyone interfering in the trial. It meant that the Celestial Wrath would have targeted Aksai if he had meddled during a crucial time.

Thus, the only optimal chance to attack the demon beast was right after his 3rd Order breakthrough. Even though the Verdant Elder was now a realm above Aksai, he had been exhausted after the trial. Not only was he physically fatigued, but also mentally strained.

If Aksai let go of this opportunity, he might never get the chance to target the Verdant Elder again. At least not until he himself became a Core Formation Lord. But would the Verdant Elder simply wait for Aksai to catch up?

Aksai had already spent months searching for the right Aether Beast for himself. Even though the Verdant Elder was more powerful than him at the moment, Aksai decided it was worth the risk to try and turn this damn turtle into his Aether Beast. Simply because the Verdant Elder was an oddity—a special kind of mutated demon beast full of surprises.

As such, Aksai weighed the pros and cons before deciding to act. He resolved to use all the trump cards he had gathered in order to bring the Verdant Elder down.

Aksai gripped the Celestial Stinger in his hand and looked at his opponent silently from a safe distance. It seemed the demon beast was still stunned by his actions.

The Verdant Elder pressed one clawed paw against the side of his face, blood still pouring. His entire torso heaved as pain coursed through him like fire. His eye was destroyed, his face half-ruined.

But his rage…

His rage was only growing.

“HUMAN!!!” he roared into the night, his voice cracking rocks and stirring birds from trees far away.

The ground trembled under the Verdant Elder’s feet as his rage exploded like a storm breaking free. The pain in his ruined eye only added fuel to the fire inside him.

He let out a furious roar, shaking the trees and cliffs nearby, and without wasting another moment, he struck.

Thick vines burst out from beneath the black rock mountain, twisting and whipping through the air with a speed and strength that hadn’t been there before.

The vines were sharper, faster, and covered a wider area than ever. The Spirit spells that the Verdant Elder used were a part of his bloodline, tied to his very being. Now that he had stepped into the 3rd Order Spirit realm, his powers had grown with him.

The vines surged toward Aksai, snaking through the ground and sky, forming walls and spears of living wood.

Aksai narrowed his eyes and quickly formed hand signs. A smaller forest of vines rose in front of him in response—his own wood-element Spirit spell.

The two forces met with a loud crash. The impact sent wooden splinters flying in all directions. But the difference in strength was clear.

Aksai’s vines were pushed back. They snapped under pressure. His spell held only for a moment before it shattered, unable to keep up with the might of the Verdant Elder’s enhanced 3rd Order spell.

Still, Aksai didn’t seem surprised.

He had already started moving, his body flickering like a shadow in the moonlight. He hadn’t planned to overpower the demon beast’s spell in the first place. All he needed was a short window, a single breath of time to reposition himself.

The broken vines and flying debris gave him just that.

He rolled to the side, moving across the black stone cliff like a snake. He took advantage of the gaps between the attacking vines and circled to the left, his black robe blending with the night.

The Verdant Elder turned his head, his one good eye blazing with fury. He sent out more vines, but Aksai was already gone from that spot. The Spirit farmer didn’t fight head-on. He aimed for the cracks in his enemy’s defense.

And right now, even with the Verdant Elder’s massive Spirit power, there were still cracks—small moments of delay between his attacks, slight stiffness from the trial’s toll, and of course, the burning pain from the dagger wound.

Aksai moved quickly, his footsteps light and his breath calm. He didn’t dare take the next hit head-on. He needed to strike fast and dodge again.

But the Verdant Elder had no plans to let him. Another roar escaped his throat, and the vines behind Aksai surged forward once more, faster than before, now twisting like blades.

The Verdant Elder growled low as his vines missed their target again. His one good eye followed Aksai, narrowing as he realized the human wasn’t going to fight him face-to-face.

Aksai was quick, cunning, and knew how to use every advantage he had. He also understood that Aksai was trying to exhaust him by prolonging the fight. After all, he was already in a poor condition to begin with at this point due to his recent breakthrough.

But the Verdant Elder was no fool.

He stomped one of his thick front legs onto the rocky cliff. The ground shook.

A deep rumble echoed from beneath the earth as thick walls of soil began to rise around the battlefield. Boulders shifted, and the cracked surface of the cliff twisted and coiled, forming jagged barriers and pits meant to trap Aksai’s movements.

At the same time, the air turned cold and heavy. Moisture gathered in the sky above them. A wave of water burst forth from the cliffside, rushing toward Aksai like a living tide.

The Verdant Elder was done holding back. Now that he had stepped into the 3rd Order, he had access to stronger versions of his bloodline’s water and earth spells. They were larger, heavier, and much more difficult to dodge.

‘Damn…. Battling with a 3rd Order demon beast is not really a good idea when I think about it. I… I need to use everything I have in this fight.’

Aksai took a deep breath. He reached into his inner robe and pulled out a slender silver sword. It shimmered faintly in the moonlight.

The Lian Flying Sword.

He dropped it under his feet and stepped onto it. A flash of Spirit essence passed through his soles, and the sword carried him up into the air with a whoosh, just as the flood of water slammed into the spot he had been standing on.

Rocks and waves collided below, but Aksai was already airborne, gliding through the sky with his robes fluttering behind him.

“Trying to bury me alive?” he muttered with a faint smirk.

This was one of the biggest advantages the Spirit cultivators had over land and water-based demon beasts. The ability to fly using the artifacts.

Even though a 3rd Order Spirit cultivation could technically allow any demon beast to fly as well, the Verdant Elder was still yet to learn and master such abilities.

The Verdant Elder snorted and summoned more earth pillars to rise. Some reached up, trying to grab or block Aksai mid-air. Others exploded into the sky as chunks of stone flew like arrows.

But Aksai was prepared.

While flying in wide loops around the cliff’s edge, he sent his Spirit Sense into the storage ring and pulled out a massive weapon—Celestial Fang.

The broadsword was nearly as long as he was tall, wide and dark, forged from the same meteor stone as his dagger.

Aksai swung it in a wide arc, cutting through a chunk of flying rock that came his way.

Then, without slowing down, he circled behind the Verdant Elder.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by novlove.com