Chapter 164: Motherfucker...
"Gu Lin, stop! Do not touch that tree!" Gu Chen roared at the absolute top of his lungs in panic as he moved like a blur and reached his hand out to the disciple.
But his desperate warning was exactly one millisecond too late, as Gu Lin had already pressed his palm against the dead, black bark of the massive trunk.
And the very next second his skin touched the wood, the deadly Earth-Grade Slaughter Array instantly activated with a deafening, earth-shattering hum that shook the entire forest.
Thousands of hidden crimson veins erupted out from beneath the dirt into blinding pillars of thick blood-red light, shooting straight up into the gloomy sky, instantly forming a massive, impenetrable dome of spiritual energy that enclosed the entire clear ground in a single breath.
The Gu Clan disciples were thrown in a disorientated state as the massive spatial array twisted their immediate surroundings, warping the reality around them such that their stomachs churned with intense nausea as the thick green fog and dead trees completely melted away in front of their eyes.
When the spatial distortion finally settled, Gu Chen gasped for air, gripping his silver sword as he rapidly blinked his strained eyes to clear the blinding spots, but the surrounding environment had entirely transformed.
The highly toxic green forest from the Miasma Woods was gone, and replaced by a massive, terrifyingly hot, red volcanic wasteland.
The burning hot wasteland was filled with jagged black rocks and bubbling pools of boiling lava. The bluish black sky above him had totally changed into a suffocating, deeply oppressive shade of dark crimson, raining down tiny flakes of burning grey ash that sizzled against his white robes.
"Gu Lin! Gu Fan?! Anyone?!" Gu Chen yelled out loud, spinning around in a full circle, but his eyes frowned in shock because he was completely alone in the massive volcanic wasteland.
The entire squad of Gu Clan disciples, including the shamelessly whining Gu Fan, had vanished from his sight.
’What has happened? Did that array teleport us to this place?" Gu Chen thought to himself in confusion, "Did they trap us in a spatial transportation array?"
"Damn this can’t happen?" Gu Chen cursed. What if they had been thrown thousands of miles away from the Miasma Woods? If there is no teleportation array to send them back, they might have to spend days getting back.
But before Gu Chen could even properly calculate a logical escape route, a deep guttural growl aggressively echoed from directly behind a large, jagged boulder right in front of him.
Gu Chen instantly dropped into a defensive stance, channelling his Spiritual Qi into his silver blade as a massive, heavily mutated demonic beast slowly stepped completely out from behind the black rock.
The creature was an absolute nightmare of ugliness. It had dark fur, and resembled a massive overgrown wolf that was dripping with corrosive, bubbling saliva.
But what confused Gu Chen was that the massive beast was currently standing completely still, its glowing red eyes violently darting around the volcanic landscape in confusion, heavily panting and drooling as if it were wondering where the hell this human had just suddenly appeared from.
But the beast’s momentary confusion didn’t last long, as the scent of Gu Chen’s sweat instantly triggered its hunger.
And just exactly as the first beast bared its massive, razor-sharp fangs, another mutated beast walked straight out from behind a bubbling lava pool to his left.
Then another beast jumped down from a tall black ridge to his right, and then three more massive hounds violently stalked out from behind a heavy rock formation directly behind him.
Within a mere dozen seconds, Gu Chen was completely and completely surrounded by a circle of roughly two dozen massive, drooling demonic beasts, their terrifyingly dense, deeply murderous killing intent locking directly onto him as they slowly closed the circle.
"Huh? Is that all?" Gu Chen simply let out an arrogant and contemptuous scoff.
"You cowardly bandits honestly think you can effortlessly trap me by teleporting me into a hidden pocket dimension filled with a few pathetic, mindless mutts?"
Gu Chen sneered loudly, a highly confident, deeply arrogant smirk spreading perfectly across his handsome face as he raised his glowing silver sword to point directly at the massive pack of drooling beasts.
"I will slaughter every single one of you foul creatures, roast your heavy carcasses over these lava pools, and happily throw a massive feast for my loyal Gu Clan brothers."
And before the beasts could move, the tense standoff in the volcanic wasteland shattered in a millisecond as Gu Chen decided to seize the absolute initiative, refusing to wait for the mutated beasts to swarm him all at once.
"Die! You Ugly beasts!" Gu Chen roared kicking heavily off the jagged black earth with earth-shattering force as he lunged directly toward the massive wolf standing directly in front of him, "Radiant Lotus Sword Art! The Three strikes"
Gu Chen channelled his Spiritual Qi directly into his silver blade, instantly releasing a highly condensed, blindingly bright spinning lotus flower of pure sword energy that tore straight through the hot, ash-filled air directly toward the beast’s thick neck.
But exactly as the lethal sword Qi was about to violently sever the beast’s head completely off, the massive creature made an incredibly unnatural movement that entirely defied common logic.
Instead of trying to dodge or mindlessly charging forward to bite, the massive beast completely dropped its heavy centre of gravity, raising both of its thick clawed front paws in a perfectly crossed, highly calculated defensive block exactly like a trained human martial artist raising a heavy shield.
CLANG!
The heavy, incredibly loud metallic clash violently echoed across the lava pools as the blinding sword Qi violently smashed directly into the beast’s thick claws, failing to instantly slice completely through the bone as the massive kinetic force aggressively pushed the heavy beast sliding backward across the jagged rocks.
"How?!" Gu Chen looked at the sword in his hand and then at the beast with his face full of confusion.
"How did you do that?"