Yefutidaolu

Chapter 414: Rapid Chase
Wang Gang's earth-shattering roar seemed not to originate from his throat, but rather from every inch of his flesh and bones, which were as vast as the sea and as boiling as molten lava!

He slammed his fists together in front of his chest, like two out-of-control stars colliding violently! The terrifying blood and energy surging like the sea and burning like the sun around him was compressed inward at an unprecedented speed!

He seemed to transform into an abyss that devoured everything in an instant!

The light was distorted and sucked into it, the sound completely disappeared, and even the raging energy of the surrounding Thunder Pool seemed to be torn into strands and flowed into that invisible collapse point!

A terrifying aura that caused all things to fall silent and return to chaos spread, even temporarily overshadowing the majestic power of the Five Thunder Orthodox Law!

Immediately—

boom! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
This explosion cannot be described by any known sound in the world!

An indescribable, pure, and destructive energy, centered on Wang Gang, swept outwards indiscriminately and violently in all directions!
Wherever this terrifying power passed, bizarre and grotesque phenomena appeared, which were extremely frightening!

First, an endless sea appeared out of nowhere, its waves surging and raging, instantly engulfing everything in sight! But what surged in that sea was not ordinary water, but martial arts internal energy that was completely boiling and extremely violent!
These martial arts internal energies tore through the crimson sky above the sea, intertwining to form countless dazzling, ever-expanding sparks! These sparks were not static, but were burning and fluttering wildly, expanding rapidly at an illogical speed, as if miniature suns were being born!
The fire reached its peak in an instant, the light so intensely white that it could blind anyone who dared to look directly at it!
Within these rapidly expanding concentric circles of energy, light and shadow distorted violently, as if countless lives were being born, evolving, flourishing, and then instantly decaying and collapsing! Everything was churning and colliding wildly; plants withered and flourished in an instant, and mountains and rivers were overturned in a moment!

If a celestial being were here, they would surely be able to see through the true nature of this terrifying phenomenon at a glance—the towering seawater is not real water, the dazzling flames are not real fire, and all the forms of those many life forms are merely appearances.

To be honest, it's just a strange phenomenon brought about by martial arts internal energy, without any special effects. This martial arts internal energy, which devours and evolves everything, is just like that.

But in reality, peeling back the layers of this grand spectacle that is enough to terrify ordinary people, its core and essential principle is not as mysterious, lofty, or incomprehensible as it seems...

This earth-shattering explosion, in essence, was Wang Gang using his superhuman physical strength, which was beyond comprehension, as a furnace to ignite the substances he absorbed and devoured—air, dust, and even diffused energy—under extreme compression. The enormous energy released by the ignited substances instantly ignited even more surrounding matter, creating a terrifying chain reaction. After being further compressed and accelerated by his physical strength, it ultimately resulted in a man-made, controllable, yet incredibly powerful super explosion.
It can't be described as some profound and mysterious divine power or transformation involving the laws of the Dao; it's more like a kind of violence that pushes physical force to its extreme!
However! Wang Gang's physical body was simply too powerful! Powerful enough to support and control this level of energy release! This explosive power, in the instant he exerted his full strength, was accelerated and directed to an unbelievable extreme!

Under heaven, the instantaneous burst speed of most flying swords, escape lights, and spatial teleportation techniques is probably far less than the expansion speed of this explosive energy!

Of course, even a brilliant mind can't do that! No matter how fast his movements are or how high his skills are, he can't outpace this kind of spread!

As we all know, the so-called skills, deflection, maneuvering, and using minimal force to overcome great strength... all depend on your reaction speed and movement speed being able to keep up with the speed at which the opponent's force is coming!

This time, I couldn't keep up with the insightful comments.

He didn't even have time to fully react! The destructive light and shockwave were already upon him!

When his eyes were stung by the light that was enough to burn his primordial spirit, and he was squeezed so hard by the destructive air pressure that he could not breathe, his entire physical body had already been completely swept away and swallowed up by the nuclear explosion-like blazing white divine light!

This move can truly be called 'annihilation of all directions'!
Nonsense! It's like a nuclear explosion! If it weren't for the Thunder Pool and the special properties of the Hell Space, the surrounding area of ​​several miles would have been completely vaporized instantly and then melted into a crystalline glassy ruin by the high temperature!
"Well……"

Gao Jian only had time to let out a short, painful groan! The sudden, severe injury dealt an unimaginable and devastating blow to his already weakened body, which was already weakened by a series of fierce battles!

The circulation of Qi and blood is completely disrupted, and the meridians are like a circuit that has been burned out, instantly turning black and breaking!
The strong skeleton groaned under the strain, countless cracks appearing on its surface, as if it would crumble into dust at any moment! Its internal organs were as if thrown into a steel furnace, instantly carbonizing and dying! The last bit of vital energy that was used to maintain its life force was like a drop in the ocean in the face of this destructive torrent, utterly insufficient to support its rebirth from the ashes!

Less than a second after being hit by the nuclear explosion's light, perhaps only a few milliseconds, Gao Jian clearly felt the chill of death!

Both body and soul were wailing, as if they were about to completely disintegrate and turn into dust in the next second.

To be honest, Gao Jian felt... he probably wouldn't survive.

In two or three seconds, or even less, his battered body will be completely destroyed and vaporized by this man-made nuclear explosion!
For a martial artist, the physical body is fundamental, the vessel, the raft for navigating the world. Without a physical body, no matter how strong the soul, in this perilous hell, one is like a rootless duckweed, likely facing only death.

However, at this moment of despair, just when he felt he was about to completely melt away—

The endless, destructive nuclear energy surge all around suddenly weakened for a moment!
It was like a massive, roaring waterfall, powerful enough to destroy everything, suddenly being forcibly cut off upstream for a fleeting moment! Although it was only for an extremely brief instant, the destructive pressure visibly decreased! This instant was not due to Wang Gang's exhaustion, nor was it some miracle. Rather, it was because outside the Thunder Pool, Shui Wuyai's eyes flashed with a sharp light, and he intervened without hesitation!

His hands moved rapidly, forming hand seals, and he chanted incantations, forcibly mobilizing a portion of the Thunder Pool's power! Countless earthen-yellow lightning runes suddenly lit up on the ground around Gao Jian, forming a relatively gentle barrier. It didn't completely block the attack, but rather cleverly deflected and absorbed a portion of the most lethal nuclear explosion's impact!

With so many earth-shattering secrets surrounding Gao Jian, how could we let him be wiped out by a single punch from Wang Gang, this brute?! If we let Gao Jian be obliterated by this "Ten Directions Annihilation," wouldn't all the secrets, all the possibilities, and all the treasures vanish into thin air? Wouldn't the greatest gain of this trip be lost?

Therefore, Shui Wuyai did not hesitate to manipulate the Thunder Pool, willing to suffer some of the energy backlash, just to give Gao Jian that moment of respite! What he wanted was a living Gao Jian, someone who could be interrogated to extract his secrets, not a charred corpse!
Gao Jian knows this.

To be honest, his current state is very strange.

His mind, tempered by the "Heart Lamp Illumination Sutra" and the meaning of life and death, had become incredibly powerful! Under the illumination of the Heart Lamp, his mind was exceptionally clear, and his thinking speed was beyond imagination. He could perceive the subtle changes and flow of all the energy around him, and even vaguely grasp some of the laws governing the power contained in the grand explosion! It was precisely because of this mental cultivation and insight that far exceeded his own level that he was able to withstand Wang Gang's fierce attacks time and time again, and even occasionally use skill to break through force, causing his opponent to suffer some minor losses.

To put it bluntly, Gao Jian's current level of insight has actually surpassed Wang Gang, who is approaching the eleventh level, in terms of the intensity of his divine will, his observational ability, and his subtle control over his own power!

But the problem is that he is too weak right now.

His physical body was already severely injured and exhausted. After fighting this monster continuously, his physical hardware simply couldn't keep up with the commands of his super software!

It's like cramming a super AI SkyNet, capable of billions of calculations per second, into a landline phone. It has the skills to slay dragons, but no hardware foundation to unleash them!

That's why he was constantly on the defensive. Many times, his divine sense had already foreseen the situation and thought of the perfect countermeasures, but his body was like a rusty gear, unable to react or keep up with those lightning-fast thoughts!
Even so, thanks to this extraordinary divine will, his on-the-spot reaction speed has reached a terrifying level, which allows him to make up for the gap in absolute strength to a certain extent in terms of skill, and even occasionally suppress Wang Gang.

At this moment, Shui Wuyai "sent" this brief respite—

In the face of life and death, any hesitation is a luxury! Insightful thinking, illuminated by the light of the mind, operates at the speed of light!
With this in mind, Gao Jian made the only possible choice for survival without hesitation—to run away!
He instantly controlled all the remaining qi and blood in his body, sending them rushing wildly to his limbs and bones like the last fuel, especially his arms and legs! His brain instantly felt a violent emptiness and dizziness as his qi and blood were drained, but he held fast to a sliver of clarity in his mind, discarding all distracting thoughts, leaving only one unwavering idea—dig! Dig down! Dig forward!

He held the rusty knife in his hand behind his back, using it as a hoe.

puff!

With a rusty knife breaking through the ground, Gao Jian vanished instantly like a bunker-buster missile, leaving only an inconspicuous crater! He plunged headfirst into the earth and then frantically dug forward and deeper!

They continued downwards, digging several miles underground, then changed direction and desperately dug further away from the battlefield!

No stopping, no looking back.

Halfway through the excavation, their divine senses detected a powerful energy barrier ahead—as thick as the earth, yet containing a raging torrent of lightning! It was none other than the Earth Thunder from Shui Wuyai's Five Thunder Technique!
This earth mine, like a giant eggshell covering all directions, completely sealed off the underground area!
But as I just said, Gao Jian's intellect far surpasses his current level! It far exceeds Shui Wuyai's expectations.

The energy barrier formed by earth and lightning before him, though seemingly perfectly round and flawless, actually contained extremely subtle and ever-changing flaws between the energy flow points. However, if Shui Wuyai were to maintain the lightning pool with all his might, these flaws would disappear at an extremely rapid pace under his focused mental energy. Even if Gao Jian could see them, he might not be able to seize the opportunity. This lightning pool indeed had the ability to seal him off.

But just a moment ago, in order to save Gao Jian's life, Shui Wuyai was distracted and manipulated the Thunder Pool, mobilizing the power of the earth's thunder to shield him from the most violent nuclear explosion impact! Because the landmines were the closest and could be mobilized the fastest!
When the power of the earth mines came into contact with the destructive nuclear explosion power of Wang Gang outside, the two completely different yet extremely violent energies collided, annihilated, and interfered with each other. Instantly, many larger and more stable flaws were torn out on the originally perfect earth mine barrier that did not exist before!
Before Shui Wuyai hurriedly adjusted the Thunder Pool and tried to mend it, these flaws were crystal clear under Gao Jian's inner light, like a lighthouse in the dark!
Gao Jian then fiercely drilled and tore at the largest energy rift he sensed!
Tsk-!
A soft sound, like tearing cloth, echoed from the ground! He had actually managed to forcefully tear a hole in the thick earthen mine barrier!
Without a second thought, Gao Jian darted forward like an eel! Then he continued digging frantically forward! This digging was done with all his might, and his speed was comparable to some specialized earth-遁神通 (earth-遁神通 is a type of magical technique)!
Gao Jian was even a little impressed with himself; in this state, he had actually managed to dig several miles underground! The will to survive truly can unleash boundless potential!
After traveling several miles, he felt that the suffocating pressure behind him seemed to have receded a bit, so he quickly peered upwards and popped out of the scorched ground like a groundhog!
He turned around and looked—

At the epicenter of the nuclear explosion in the distance, Wang Gang was still standing in the same spot, his arms trembling slightly, his blood and qi churning like boiling water, as he tried his best to restrain and suppress the terrifying power that was still raging from the nuclear explosion!
Clearly, unleashing such a move was a huge burden for him and could not be used casually. It would take some time to completely quell its aftereffects.

Meanwhile, Shui Wuyai had already discovered that Gao Jian had actually torn through the earth mine and escaped! A look of shock and anger flashed across his face as he rapidly changed his hand seals to retract the lightning pool! The vast sea of ​​lightning was shrinking and thinning at a visible speed, clearly indicating that he was preparing to withdraw the lightning pool and personally pursue Gao Jian!

But the most dangerous were the experts from the Cangzhou aristocratic families who had been watching from afar! The dozen or so eighth and ninth realm cultivators had already reacted, like sharks smelling blood, transforming into streaks of light and rushing towards the spot where Gao Jian had appeared! The lights of various magical treasures had begun to shine, and the premonitions of spells were already being felt!
"Grass!"

(End of this chapter)