Chapter 722: Got You!

Any vine that touches the edge of that Light Curtain will be cut into fragments immediately.

Those fragments, after falling onto the Ground, also begin to sprout.

The newly sprouted vines also rush toward Jiang Feng, are cut into fragments in the same way, and continue to sprout likewise.

This is a completely meaningless consumption.

The vines increase endlessly, while the rotation speed of Jiang Feng's Qi Blade remains unchanged.

Jiang Feng stands in the center of the Light Curtain, his eyes already closed.

His ears capture the sound of each vine breaking the soil, the sound of each drop of sap corroding the sand and gravel, and the extremely subtle friction emitted when each severed end spawns new Organization.

One incense stick passed.

The vines in the valley have become so numerous that they are beyond imagination.

They layer upon layer, vine upon vine, and the entire valley seems lifted from its base by the vines, the Ground now a full zhang higher than before.

Yet Jiang Feng still stands in place.

The Light Curtain of the Qi Blade continues to rotate.

Within three chi of him, everything is spotless; not even a fragment of vine debris can be seen.

Then he opened his eyes.

"Found the root."

His voice is very low, low enough to sound like he is talking to himself.

But the moment his words fell, the rotation of that Qi Blade suddenly stopped.

The Qi Blade hovers before Jiang Feng, its tip pointing down, entirely transparent, like a solidified crystal needle.

Jiang Feng extends his hand and grasps the Qi Blade.

In the instant he grasps the Qi Blade, the three-chi-long Qi Blade suddenly changes.

It no longer retains the shape of a Qi Blade, but transforms into countless white Light Needles finer than a hair, densely hovering around Jiang Feng.

Each Light Needle is only as thin as a cowhair, yet each tip concentrates a force that makes the air itself Trembling.

Jiang Feng flips his palm.

The Light Needles, in that same instant, all shoot into the Ground.

The Light Needles pierce vines, sand and gravel, soil and rock layers, like a silent downpour, shooting down to a depth of a hundred zhang beneath the Ground.

Then they disperse.

Each Light Needle enters a vine's underground root junction.

Those junctions are the bonds between the vines and the subterranean force, the source that allows all vines to continuously sprout and grow.

And at this moment, those bonds are all pierced by the Light Needles.

The vines in the valley cease their writhing in that same instant.

It is like a troupe of marionettes whose strings are all cut with a single slash.

The overwhelming vines all fall from the air, crashing onto the Ground and onto each other, emitting a deep, thunderous roar.

Then they begin to wither.

Starting from the ghostly green spines, the spines lose their luster, turning from the tip toward the root into a gray‑white hue, and then the entire vine shrivels at a visibly rapid rate.

The moisture is drawn out at an incredible speed, the vine's surface sprouting dense cracks, like a riverbed dried for centuries.

Three breaths.

From stopping to withering, it took only three breaths.

In the valley spanning a hundred zhang in radius, those overwhelming vines all turn into gray‑white powder, piled into a thick layer covering the black sand and gravel.

A gust of wind from an unknown source sweeps across the valley, lifting the gray‑white powder.

The powder drifts in the air, like a pale snowfall.

Jiang Feng stands in the snow.

The Qi Blade has returned to his Fingers, reshaping into a three-chi-long transparent Light Blade.

He does not look at the withered vines.

His gaze remains locked on the deep underground from start to finish.

It is locked onto that force which has fully awakened.

Then the Earth begins to Tremble.

It is not the previous surface‑originating vibration, but a violent Trembling that starts from the deepest underground and propagates upward layer by layer.

It feels as if something is crawling upward from the deep underground.

The valley's Ground begins to bulge.

At first it is only a slight drum bulge, as if something underground gently nudged it.

Then that drum bulge grows larger.

So large that the entire valley's bottom is lifted, and the gray‑white powder covering the Ground slides outward like water.

Jiang Feng steps back one step.

The Ground bulges to its limit.

And then it cracks.

A fissure tears open from the valley's exact center, spreading along the valley's central axis toward both ends, widening and deepening as it splits.

What erupts from that fissure is neither magma nor hot air.

It is a denser, heavier, more ancient breath.

The moment that breath surges out, the cloud layers in the sky are all pushed aside.

It is not the wind that disperses them, but the breath itself that repels them.

With the area above the Mountain valley as the center, the cloud layer spanning dozens of li rolled outward, exposing a Pure sky nearly transparent.

Dawn's light fell straight down from the sky, shining into the cracked fissure.

A body rose up from the fissure.

Like a Mountain that grew from the earth's depths, it rose upward slowly and inexorably.

That body was enormous.

So huge that the Mountain walls on both sides of the valley appeared like two low walls before it, and so huge that half of the dawn sky was obscured.

It was entirely jet black, its Surface not skin but a bark‑like shell.

The shell was covered with interlacing patterns, each line embedded with dark‑red light, as if magma flowed beneath.

It had no legs.

At least no legs could be seen.

Its lower half remained buried deep underground, only the upper half exposed.

Yet even just its upper half was already taller than a mountain peak.

It had a massive skull, with two curved giant horns on its crown, the horns' Surface also covered with dark‑red cracks.

Its face bore five eyes.

Two were in normal positions, the other three were arranged in a three‑square pattern on its forehead.

At this moment, all five eyes were open.

In each eye burned a dark‑red flame.

It was a truly burning flame.

The flames flickered, scorching enough to warp the surrounding air.

Then it opened its mouth.

The sound did not come from a throat; it resonated simultaneously from every inch of its shell, every pattern, every crack.

The voice was low to an extreme, like Ten Thousand bronze bells being struck simultaneously deep underground, and like a Mountain speaking.

Each word was as heavy as a Mountain pressing down.

"Who..."

Two characters, and all the broken stones of the entire Mountain valley sprang up from the ground.

"Dare to disturb..."

Four characters, and the Mountain walls on both sides of the valley began to shed stones; those stones, before hitting the ground, were shattered into powder midair by that voice.

"My pure cultivation..."

Six characters, Jiang Feng's white robe was suddenly yanked backward by an invisible force, the hem rustling in the air like standing at the eye of a hurricane.

Its five eyes locked onto Jiang Feng.

That gaze was so heavy it could make any Martial Saint kneel.

It was a higher‑level being's natural contempt for lower‑level creatures.

Like a person lowering their head to look at an ant by their Foot.

Under that gaze, the gray‑white powder on the ground rose, coalescing in the air into countless gray‑white Silk threads, encircling its massive skull, as if placing a crown woven from dead matter upon it.

It looked at Jiang Feng.

Jiang Feng also looked at it.

Jiang Feng stood at the edge of the fissure, standing before that being as a towering mountain.

His white robe was battered wildly by the gusts generated by those six characters, as if it might be torn at any moment.

Yet he did not retreat a step.

His back stood perfectly straight.

He lifted his head, gazing up at the five eyes burning dark‑red flames.

Then he opened his mouth.

His voice was not loud, yet it pierced all the resonating sounds emanating from the Giant Shadow's body, pierced the gray‑white Silk threads in the air, pierced the heavy air that had slept for Ten Thousand years, and rang clearly throughout the Mountain valley.

"Still sleeping..."

Two characters, and the three eyes on the Giant Shadow's forehead simultaneously narrowed.

"Got you..."

As the words fell, the Qi Blade in Jiang Feng's hand suddenly flared brilliantly, illuminating the entire Mountain valley, illuminating the Giant Shadow's jet‑black shell, illuminating the dark‑red flames burning in its five eyes.

Then he moved……