Chapter 43 - 35. Forest Wand

"Thunder Burst!" What goes around comes around. A searing pain shot across Yan Xujia’s face in an instant. Yan Xujia: "?" Audience: "??" Referee room, waiting room: "???" "Boom Boom Boom Boom—" Now it was Yan Xujia’s turn to be chased by a terrifying thunderstorm, caught off guard and slightly in disarray. The audience, which had calmed down, was in uproar once again. Chen Hangdao and Freya stood up, Freya’s beautiful eyes sparkling, muttering incessantly that she had indeed not misjudged. Chen Hangdao’s eyes narrowed slightly on his aquiline nose, his mouth also muttering strange words, "This boy is terrifying...." S~eaʀᴄh the Nôvel(F)ire.nёt website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality. Panda’s plump figure stood by the window, witnessing the scene on the battlefield with indifferent composure, showing little change in expression. "Aren’t you surprised?" Zhao Jie was shocked himself, and he looked at Panda somewhat curiously. Panda shook his head, "It’s unexpected, yet within reason. Xia Feng’s talent is indeed extremely high, but a genius who can’t grow will eventually become just one of the masses." Zhao Jie sat back down, understanding Panda’s point. Although Xia Feng’s talent was terrifyingly strong at the moment, in the face of the even more unreasonable Spiritual Artifacts, his talent was simply not enough. "It’s time to end the battle." Panda pushed his reflective glasses up, intending to use today’s battle to completely crush Xia Feng’s will, making him remember this humiliation and fear for life! Even if he was a genius, he would forever be dominated by today’s fear, making it very difficult for him to make any further progress. "Ding—" The match clock chimed for the fourth time. It was a reminder that one minute had passed in the duel. Some faces on the field turned pale, as they had bet on Xia Feng losing in 58 or 59 seconds, and now they were going to lose all their money. "Come on...." Mushroom, watching Xia Feng fight more and more bravely, excitedly clenched her fist in secret, especially enjoying the shock on the faces around her. "Boom—" With the final thunderclap, the Thunder Domain created by the Death Five Thunders completely dissipated, dust filled the air, and faint red electrical filaments still crackled in the sky. "Xia Feng, I must admit, you indeed possess some talent." Yan Xujia emerged from the haze. "But that’s all." He casually unbuttoned the top button of his collar as if feeling a bit stuffy, adjusted his collar, twisted his neck side to side and gave a devilish smile, "Warm-up is now over." "..." Xia Feng hung his head with a dead fish eye, silently observing Yan Xujia flaunt his slightly lame coolness. For some reason, it also felt a bit greasy. However, Xia Feng couldn’t be bothered to comment, nor did he take the opportunity to attack. He just stood there quietly. Because, judging by Yan Xujia’s demeanor, it seemed that he was finally about to deploy his Spiritual Artifact? Xia Feng had long heard that Yan Xujia’s Spiritual Artifact was Level C, but its power amplification was better than some Level B artifacts, which was the real reason behind his unrivaled status among his peers. Xia Feng couldn’t help but feel excited; this was the first Spiritual Artifact he was supposed to copy, and it was a rare Level C Spiritual Artifact at that. He wondered what abilities it would possess. The dust completely settled, and around a dozen miniature drones in the sky—likely products of Spirit Science—hovered unscathed in all directions, dutifully monitoring the battlefield situation. The audience, sensing something, widened their eyes and watched intently. On the screen above, the devilish nobleman raised his right hand and murmured in a solemn voice, "Forest Wand!" To unlock Spiritual Energy and construct a Spiritual Artifact, this was known as Spiritual Unsealing. In the etches of dark green light, a tree-like pattern suddenly emerged and shone brightly on the back of his hand. A green-brown wooden staff, inlaid with emeralds, appeared in his palm. "Summon soldiers!" At his command, the green light rippled out from the staff, instantly expanding and forming a vast domain across the arena. Crack, crack— It was the crisp sound of tree trunks snapping, one after another, incessantly. Xia Feng looked around, bewildered, only to see the ground, now covered by the flowing green light, bursting as brown wooden arms clawed their way out from beneath, firm fingers digging into the soil, cracking and snapping— A nearly two-meter-tall wooden soldier with a slumped head and stiff movements climbed out, and more rose behind it, standing upright. They were all faceless, a total of more than ten, expressionlessly staring at Xia Feng. "This..." Why did this scene feel eerily familiar? "Master, where is the enemy?" Beside Yan Xujia, there was a female wooden soldier dressed in general’s attire, also faceless, yet seemingly possessed of basic intelligence. Yan Xujia raised the staff and pointed it at Xia Feng. The female general’s eyes immediately glowed with a pair of crimson pupils and, with a definitive turn of the head, she gazed toward Xia Feng, filled with indifferent murderous intent. This was Yan Xujia’s Spiritual Artifact, the Forest Wand, with the power to turn wood into soldiers. These eleven soldiers were the result of years of painstaking efforts by Yan Xujia, transforming wood into warriors. Although they could not don Spiritual Clothes and were devoid of human intelligence, each wooden soldier was endowed with formidable defensive capabilities, combat instincts, and even Fighting Skills. These so-called Fighting Skills were not the ordinary martial arts of mortals, but supernatural skills like Instant Step, Bone Fist, and Inverted Mountain. As such, his combat strategy was to first engage the enemy with a major Spiritual Clothes technique, and when their Spiritual Pressure was nearly depleted, he would use Spiritual Unsealing to call forth his soldiers for an overwhelming close-quarters battle, often beating his opponents into a state of helplessness. "Form ranks!" Following the female general’s low shout, the ten wooden soldiers snapped to attention, standing ramrod straight without a hint of the wood’s natural rigidity. Xia Feng twitched nervously at the sight: "So, this is the Forest Wand... What kind of bizarre ability is this." The audience in the stands held their breath, for they understood Yan Xujia’s intent. "He’s going to beat Xia Feng to a pulp." "Tsk tsk~ This is getting interesting, let’s see how this guy copes now." "How can he cope? Unless he has a Level C Spiritual Artifact himself, heh~ but does he?" "Objective: Crush the enemy’s will." The female general’s voice was cold and mechanical. With a command and a sweep of her hand, she ordered, "Attack!" Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh— The ten faceless wooden soldiers vanished from their spots in an instant, appearing like ninjas around Xia Feng in the blink of an eye. Yan Xujia stood at a distance with his hands behind his back, smiling faintly with a hint of mocking glee in his eyes. What followed would be Xia Feng’s hellish moment! According to Yan Xujia’s plan, a wooden soldier would cover Xia Feng’s mouth and eyes, restrain his limbs, and thus prevent Xia Feng from being able to make any gesture, look, hand signal, or even foot movement to surrender. As long as none of the few special match rules were triggered, Xia Feng would be completely at his mercy. The duel was only five minutes long; he had three full minutes to torment Xia Feng, plenty of time to employ several ingenious methods of torment he had thought up. For instance, accidentally castrating this Mr. Xia... As the thought flashed through his mind, a thicker layer of mockery coated Yan Xujia’s gaze. Boom— Xia Feng had just managed to dodge a surrounding attack when, unexpectedly, a wooden soldier emerged behind him and kicked him high into the sky. Xia Feng was vulnerable in midair, wide open to attacks, and the other wooden soldiers all looked up. The breath of the onlookers outside the ring involuntarily hitched, and for a moment, the world seemed to hit the pause button. The corners of Yan Xujia’s lips curled up slowly. Xia Feng also revealed an excited smile. Duplicate trigger: Touch the target’s Spiritual Artifact, or get hit by the target’s Spiritual Artifact. Complete!