Chapter 833: Killing an Immortal (IV)

Li Hao bellowed with determination and swept forward with his sword again!

Crunch!

Another segment of the great dao in the void snapped. The young man whipped his head back and snatched a long blade out of the air. “Lend me your weapon, Minister Chen!”

“Alright...” Chen Zhongtian wheezed back and relinquished his control over the blade. Truth be told, it was hard for him to maintain control over his weapon in his current state. Not to mention, the long blade had expended all of its energy and wasn’t of much use at the moment. It needed some time to recover.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

What did Li Hao want with it?

Chen Zhongtian spat out a mouthful of blood just when the question crossed his mind. His connection with the blade disappeared. Li Hao had switched from hacking the great dao running the blade through with his sword. Stellaris was furiously devouring the weapon!

The long blade struggled ferociously and a figure appeared over it. It seemed to sense something and dissipated slowly. A voice could be faintly heard, “How unlucky, all you know is to eat someone else’s weapon...”

Plainly, the shadow over the long blade recognized Stellaris as the Sword Sovereign’s weapon! The weapons of Saints possessed their own spirit, but there was no helping it. Stellaris could only be permitted to devour this weapon.

The little sword’s light intensified into resplendent splendor! This was the strongest weapon that Li Hao had ever fed it. Stellaris seemed exceedingly satisfied and burst forth with a killing sword intent that raced to the heavens. The young man swung the weapon once more!

Crunch!

The firmament ripped, the void shattered. Even the little tree jumped with shock and quickly moved away, taking the imperial palace projection with it. The coconut tree’s great dao completely fractured with the loud collision!

“AHH!” A ghastly scream echoed behind Li Hao. The big tree’s body was falling to pieces, its branches breaking apart. For a core origin cultivator, the backlash from their great dao being cut down was sufficient to kill them.

Thankfully, given the lack of core origin in the modern world, the backlash wasn’t as great as it would’ve been. Hence, the big tree didn’t immediately perish. Regardless, it suffered from heavy injuries and its mental strength was destroyed.

Its mind blank, the big tree seemed to see a figure flash in front of it. Water of Life surged within its body, churning toward its heart of life. It wanted to use the resource to forcefully heal the damaged core, but Li Hao plunged Stellaris into the exposed stone.

CRUNCH.

The heart of life completely split open, sending the big tree through a myriad of changes. It turned back into a tree, then humanoid shape, and continued flickering through the two. The coconut tree stared incredulously at Li Hao and unique ripples came to the fore of its body!

These ants have killed me??

the tree wondered with despair and incredulity.

Its core origin dao had been shattered and its heart of life smashed! This was the end of the road, one that had never occurred to it.

“Li Hao...” The coconut tree regained its calm and looked coolly at the young man. Energy fluctuated wildly throughout its body and leaked into the surroundings—a sign of self-detonation. It was an unparalleled powerhouse! These ants would never kill it! Even if it was to die, these bastards would be its burial goods!

Although it’d betrayed humanity, it had once lived in the New Martial era. In that age, death was greeted by self-detonation. Going out in a blaze of fiery glory to ensure mutual destruction with the enemy was the common consensus of all humans and monster spirits!

Therefore, Li Hao would accompany it in death!

The Black Armor had cautioned Li Hao about this possibility, so when the big tree gathered its energy and built up to the detonation point, the young man roared and deployed a powerful devouring force from Stellaris.

“Panth!”

The black dog stirred from its depths of unconsciousness, recalling Li Hao’s earlier instructions. But it viewed its memories with a tragic air. Again?? This would be the death of it! But... there was no helping it.

A giant maw yawned in the void and devoured everything that was the big tree like a black hole. The energy that it’d accumulated was instantly shaved off and the rampaging ripples quieted somewhat.

And yet, the big tree sneered. That was far from enough! It’d returned to tree form; its trunk was splitting open. The complete explosion of an Immortal would annihilate all of these people with it!

Li Hao chose to close his eyes at this moment. The big tree thought that the young man had given up the struggle and laughed, “Li Hao, it is your honor to die with me...”

BAM!

A massive blow sounded as something darted out of the tree’s body. It erupted onto the scene with domineering force, splintering the world and the tree’s trunk. An enormous mallet hammered heaven and earth!

Rumble!

The tree’s remaining mental strength was obliterated by the mallet. A shadow of a great tree manifested in the air. “How is this possible...” it begrudgingly murmured with disbelief.

Li Hao regarded it coldly.

How is it not possible?

“The eight families are one and the Lis is revered as the head. I can naturally control the mallet if I dared give it to you. If I can direct the Windchaser Boots, why can I not do the same for the mallet of the Hongs?”

Was there a need to ask such a stupid question?

You stored it inside yourself? You seriously had a death wish! You can’t use it, so what’s the point of hiding it in your body?

Li Hao hadn’t called upon the mallet all this time, no matter how dangerous the situation got. He’d been waiting for this moment to deliver a truly fatal blow. The mallet of the Hongs attacked mental strength. What could the coconut tree use to detonate its energy with once it lacked that? Panther’s and Stellaris’ actions were feints!

The young man knew that neither of the two could erase the might of an Immortal’s final self-detonation. Only the mallet of the Hongs could prevent the explosion by eradicating the Immortal’s mental strength!

Thank goodness the Black Armor had reminded him of this possibility; Li Hao wouldn’t have considered it otherwise. He wouldn’t have thought either that New Martial existences always kept self-detonation in their back pocket.

The coconut tree’s shadow filled the vicinity. Although reluctant, it suddenly smiled with acceptance. “What a pity...”

A pity about what?

That the world had changed.

Otherwise, it was a right and proper Immortal. It would cause more of a disturbance with its death. Back in its day, the skies would rain blood to honor the fall of an Immortal. What a pity that they could not return to the past. What a pity that the times really had changed. What a pity that it’d died to a bunch of weaklings.

“Do humans... really enjoy such favoritism from the heavens?” Its shadow smiled at Li Hao. “Your kind can still muster such feats even in this era...

“New Martial... is no more... As I am... no more... This is my end despite years of struggle...”

Some relief filled its sigh as the shadow completely broke apart. And so marked the end of an Immortal plant spirit!

Li Hao himself crashed to the ground, joining the pile of prone figures already on it. The little tree quickly coalesced Water of Life and scattered it on the group. It enveloped the fracturing tree at the same time, preventing the remaining ripples from exploding.

Everyone looked unblinkingly at the sky, resting with their own thoughts. They’d won!

“So this is all there is to them!” someone murmured among the toppled group.

So that was all there was to them. As it turned out, the ancient powerhouses weren’t invincible. They died all the same. So what of the Immortal level?

Although this plant spirit hadn’t fully recovered and had previously severed part of its core origin, dead was dead. No one of the modern age had dared resist these existences before because they were widely held as invincible, but some modern humans killed one today!

Li Hao didn’t say a word. While his body continued to fracture, the ferocious tiger aura slowly disappeared with the fire supernatural character. His body swiftly recovered as sword energy surged through it, but the young man remained staring at the sky.

He suddenly smiled as he noted that his various auras were growing vigorously. His auras had fallen behind his improvement in other areas, but they seemed to break free from the shackles of cultivation in this moment and develop rapidly.

Whether it was the ferocious tiger or mountain peak, all were growing swiftly. The loot from killing the plant spirit was of secondary importance. The boost to everyone’s confidence was the main focus.

The aura was their dao, and their dao came from themselves. Such had been the aura of invincibility from the ancients. They thought themselves as the strongest, that there was nothing they could not do. This was the sensation that everyone present today felt as well.

We are very strong! We can kill even heavyweights from the ancient civilization!

Huang Yu had spent the entire battle doggedly grappling with their target. He suddenly said softly, “All of us in Silver Moon, including even Ole Zhao, think that only those of the ancient civilization can withstand the ancient civilization when the second awakening takes place.

“Our thoughts were to borrow the ancient civilization to strengthen ourselves and defy modern powerhouses. We’d never thought of killing ancient powerhouses!

“Although Ole Zhao is dedicated to safeguarding Silver Moon, he also knows that it’ll be very hard to!” Huang Yu smiled as he laid on the ground. “He probably didn’t consider the possibility that we’d move against ancient heavyweights before the second awakening.”

No one in the modern world had ever spoken of such an idea. Whether it was the nine ministries or royal family, their first thought was to borrow plant spirit strength in their rise and break the restrictions of heaven and earth after the second awakening. Perhaps they could all ascend then and scrabble for some safety.

No one thought of killing the ancient powerhouses because everyone relied on their strength. And today, someone had accomplished the impossible.

No one spoke of dividing the spoils and they ignored the coconut tree’s corpse. They laid on the ground and stared up at the sky, beaming brightly despite their injuries. They were as innocent and carefree as children. Even the overcast gloom seemed particularly radiant. The world was clear and bright to them in this moment.

So we really can create miracles, so the ancient civilization isn’t that frightening. They have their ultimate heavyweights, but it took only a few decades for us to be able to kill an Immortal. A crippled or withered Immortal is still an Immortal. Is there a need for us to be so wary or fearful of the ancient civilization anymore?