CHAPTER 142: 142-2ND ROUND [2]

The four stars slammed home in rapid succession.

Gu Lanyue’s barrier of shimmering, poison silk met the first stellar impact head-on.

It was a thunderclap that shook the earth beneath them, the silk rippling violently like disturbed water, but holding firm, deflecting the raw force outwards in a spray of corrosive green light.

The second star struck moments later.

A deeper, groaning CRACK echoed as the shield visibly dented inward.

The silk strands groaned under the strain, their luminous sheen flickering erratically.

Gu Lanyue gritted his teeth, a thin line of blood trickling from the corner of his mouth.

The third star hit the dent.

The sound was the shriek of rending metal.

Hairline fractures, glowing with the contained fury of the star, spiderwebbed across the barrier’s surface.

Gu Lanyue gasped, stumbling back half a step as the impact reverberated through his bones, the transferred force making his internal organs churn.

Blood now stained his lips freely.

The fourth star hammered into the weakened point.

The barrier didn’t just crack; it shattered.

A deafening BOOM erupted as the poison silk shield exploded inward in a storm of dissolving, venomous threads and stellar energy.

Gu Lanyue was flung backwards like a ragdoll, a choked cry escaping him as he coughed up a gout of arterial blood, his face instantly ashen.

He hit the ground hard, skidding through the dirt, the defensive formation obliterated.

But the true horror was reserved for Fang Yuan.

The attack that had landed on Gu Lanyue poison silk returned with a reflected power of his own four stars, amplified by the poison silk’s insidious nature, damaged back at him with double the ferocity.

The sheer blunt force was catastrophic. His surging ocean of qi churned violently within him, forced to absorb an impossible shockwave.

Bones groaned, muscles screamed, and blood erupted from his mouth and nose as his golden shell armor’s passive defense flared desperately.

He was driven backwards, feet carving deep trenches in the earth, the landscape around him shredded by the uncontrolled backlash.

He had no time to recover.

As the dust and dissipating stellar light swirled, the counterattack was already upon him.

"NOW!" Gu Jian roared, a blur of motion leaving his father’s side.

His hands wove through intricate seals, the air crackling with condensed, jade-green qi.

"Jade Serpent’s Coil!"

Tendrils of solidified emerald energy, sharp as razors and quick as striking vipers, lashed towards Fang Yuan from multiple angles, seeking to bind and pierce.

"Heaven-Piercing Talon."

Simultaneously, Gu Jian’s right hand formed a claw, unleashing a massive, translucent talon of force aimed to crush Fang Yuan’s torso.

Lin Xukong, face grim, channeled his qi through his staff.

Heavenly Timber First Form - Wood Explosions: The ground beneath Fang Yuan’s feet erupted.

Not with earth, but with violently sprouting, hardened roots and trunks that detonated outwards the instant they breached the surface, showering him with shrapnel-like splinters carrying potent, numbing toxins.

Lin Pe, moving in eerie synchronicity, swirled her hands.

Heavenly Timber Second Form - Sleep Dust: A shimmering, almost invisible cloud of fine golden pollen, deceptively beautiful, billowed towards Fang Yuan on an unnatural wind.

Battered, bleeding, and with his internal qi still roiling from the reflected stars, Fang Yuan faced the onslaught.

His mind, however, was a blade honed in countless battles.

Golden light flared not as a full-body shell, but as a single, intensely concentrated disc – the Second Form: Bravery, refined and improvised.

It wasn’t the safe, encompassing dome his father had taught him, deemed too risky for its single point of failure.

This was pure, desperate efficiency.

The improvised shield moved with flickering speed, a flickering golden afterimage.

It snapped into place just as Gu Jian’s Heaven-Piercing Talon descended, absorbing the crushing force with a resounding GONG, the golden light flaring bright.

Instantly, it vanished and reappeared below, intercepting the worst of the Wood Explosions’ shrapnel storm in a series of rapid, percussive PING-PING-PINGs.

A micro-shift deflected the lashing tip of a Jade Serpent’s Coil.

A final, desperate sweep tried to disperse the encroaching Sleep Dust cloud.

He moved like a phantom, the single shield a blur of golden defiance, blocking only where the lethal force converged.

It was a breathtaking, terrifying display of control and reaction speed, born from necessity and forbidden refinement.

He conserved qi fiercely, but the strain was immense; each block sent fresh jolts of pain through his already battered body, his golden light flickering precariously under the relentless, coordinated assault.

The clang of steel ripped through the chaos.

Gu Jian, seeing his qi techniques partially thwarted, materialized his weapon, a six-foot staff of deep, shimmering Verdant Ironwood, capped with jade-tipped points.

It hummed with condensed poison qi.

"Enough dancing! Crush him!" Gu Jian roared, becoming a whirlwind of emerald death. His staff became a blur.

"Autumn Cicada Thrust!"

A lightning-fast, piercing stab aimed straight for Fang Yuan’s heart, the jade tip leaving a trail of virulent mist.

Lin Xukong, staff already in hand, amplified his assault.

Heavenly Timber Third Form: Vine Lash!

Swinging his staff overhead, he summoned thick, whip-like vines, barbed and dripping paralytic sap, lashing out to bind and tear.

Lin Pe, graceful yet deadly, unsheathed twin daggers seemingly carved from living heartwood, their edges gleaming with Sleep Dust residue.

He flowed around Fang Yuan’s flank, daggers a stinging blur aiming for joints and pressure points, each cut releasing a puff of golden pollen.

And with a stomp, he triggered localized root bursts directly under Fang Yuan’s shifting feet.

Fang Yuan danced a deadly ballet.

His sword, became an extension of his desperate will.

He parried Gu Jian’s crushing sweeps with angled deflections, sparks flying as steel met Verdant Ironwood.

He sidestepped the Cicada Thrust by a hair’s breadth, feeling the poison mist sting his skin.

He severed snapping vines with precise cuts and used swift, low kicks infused with qi to shatter entangling roots before they fully formed.

His Second Form: Bravery shield was a frantic golden flicker.

It snapped to block a cluster of Lin Xukong’s thorns aimed at his eyes.