Chapter 1 Gods Vanish on a Cloudy Day

The scarlet pollen, as it erupted, enveloped Su Zhou completely and spread in all directions, dyeing the snowfield crimson. The surrounding demon soldiers scattered in haste, lest they be touched by even a speck.

Those who were too slow to escape, their auras immediately withered after exiting the pollen's range. One step, two steps, three steps, and they collapsed directly to the ground, unable even to twitch.

This was clearly a spiritual poison so potent it could kill even immortal demon soldiers, or at least completely rob them of their ability to resist!

"Crimson Earth Flower!"

In the rear, the Hundred Families' righteous army was entangled with other demon soldiers, the other two grandmasters were engaged in fierce combat, and Li Daoran was cutting his way through with a sword, intending to support Su Zhou. But upon seeing the crimson pollen, he was shocked. He immediately stirred his inner strength to control the surrounding atmosphere, spinning it into a vortex to blow the pollen away.

It was visible that after the surrounding snow mountain pines came into contact with the pollen, their needles began to wither and fall at a speed visible to the naked eye. If this poison were allowed to spread, although it could not scorch the land for miles, it could definitely leave a patch of earth barren.

"Little Brother Su?!"

However, before Li Daoran and the other righteous soldiers could worry about Su Zhou, a sound of inhaling arose from within the red pollen cloud... followed by a sound of retching!

"Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey—this pollen tastes awful!"

Within the poisonous pollen mist, Su Zhou's figure remained upright. He straightforwardly lifted a foot and fiercely kicked the Crimson Earth Demon General in the lumbar spine!

Su Zhou's angry kick truly had the force to send a small car rolling. Immediately, the Crimson Earth Demon General was sent flying and rolling ten meters away, the entire armored humanoid form completely falling apart—but there was no crisp sound of a spine breaking. Clearly, the Crimson Earth Demon General did not have such vital points.

"Hoo, hee, hee, hee..."

Accompanied by a bizarre sound from within the helmet, intertwined tree roots could be seen wriggling out of the cracks and crevices in the massive armor, then enveloping the entire armor into a humanoid shape.

When this armor stood up again in a way that completely violated the movements of human joints, what appeared before everyone's eyes was a shattered crimson armor covered by green wooden roots. Four crimson-yellow eyeballs hung in the center of the helmet, turning in different directions. And at the back of its head, a blood-red demon flower, as large as a basin and shaped like a human face, was blooming!

"This Crimson Earth Demon General originally only used the poison of the Crimson Earth Flower, coupled with yang-fire inner force, so he was called Crimson Earth. Now he has actually become a humanoid poisonous flower... the demon court's sorcery is truly terrifying!"

At this time, Li Daoran also arrived, standing shoulder to shoulder with Su Zhou. He did not seem to care about the Crimson Earth Demon General's new form, as if he had seen it before. This grandmaster originally wanted to hand Su Zhou a bottle of antidote pills, but found that the other party, other than seeming disgusted as if he had eaten something bad, did not appear weak at all.

"It's okay, I have a special constitution and am immune to all poisons... at least this kind. I originally thought this poisonous gas would be like the Blue Canopy Leaf poison, with a refreshing taste that I could sample, but I didn't expect it to be like bloody sludge, a rotten, disgusting stench!"

Su Zhou took several deep breaths. The strong wind at the summit conveniently dispersed the previous pollen. After spitting out the last bit of red powder, Su Zhou's expression was one of gritted teeth. "Grandmaster Li, could it be that every demon general has this second form?"

Having said that, he did not wait for an answer at all. He directly advanced, the light of the warding spiritual glow and the dark spiritual glow shining brightly on the cross-shaped spear blade, mixed with the qi blade that cut through the air. His whole person charged towards the strange wooden-root armor with a gust of malevolent wind!

"It must be those older generation demon generals who have abandoned their human bodies and annihilated their humanity... alas."

With no time to finish explaining, Li Daoran also advanced with his sword—behind him, Zhou Buyi, Fang Hui, and Liu Xizhao's trio also temporarily incapacitated several demon soldiers with a combined attack, and arrived at the forefront of the battlefield, wanting to help their master and friend.

"Master, Brother Su, I'm here to lend a hand... ah?"

But Zhou Buyi, in the lead, stared dumbfounded as he saw that the Crimson Earth Demon General, who had revealed its complete demon body and should have greatly increased in strength to launch a counterattack, was actually being suppressed from beginning to end...

He saw that Su Zhou's spirit-iron cross spear, weighing fifty kilograms, was being wielded like an ordinary tree branch or wooden stick, bringing up layers of phantoms. If a strike missed, the affected snowfield would immediately erupt with snow several zhang high, and the frozen soil would also directly shatter. If it hit, the armored humanoid would definitely be sent flying, not to mention counterattacking.

—Transformation doesn't increase weight, what's the use of a larger size and greater strength!

With a spear swung like a storm, Su Zhou delivered one blow to the left and one blow to the right, one thrust forward and one stab backward. From time to time, he would also pull out a few iron lumps from his belt and smash them at the enemy's wrist joints, forcing the opponent to repeatedly change moves, able only to defend most of the time—he and the demon general holding the broken half of a blade were fighting in a chaotic mess, extremely fiercely, sparks flying everywhere.

Zhou Buyi saw that his master had tried to join the battle several times with his sword, or to stir up a spiraling gale, intending to use inner-energy-formed air blades to injure the enemy from afar, but was always forced back by the Crimson Earth Demon Flower's pollen and the cross spear's wind, and after several back-and-forths, could only simply retreat.

"Don't worry about Grandmaster Su, let's go back and kill demon soldiers!"

With a chuckle, Li Daoran gave a shout, and it was impossible to tell whether he was happy or frustrated. Zhou Buyi and the others, who were watching in a daze, responded with a "hm" and went back to kill demon soldiers.

"Die!"

At this moment, Su Zhou was fighting with wild abandon, raising his spear like a knife, a 'Mount Hua Cleave' about to smash the demon general—he had not honed his spear techniques much, and his practice was mostly solitary due to his talent, with no one daring to spar with him, so in terms of finesse, he was indeed inferior to the demon general, and had been entangled by the opponent for a long time, unable to achieve success.

But one strength can overcome ten skills. With thousands of kilograms of force crashing down, even a human-sized stone sculpture would be smashed. No matter how high the Crimson Earth Demon General's martial arts were, how could it block it head-on?

The Crimson Earth Demon General could not block it, but it was not an ordinary human either. Originally, because of the seven-chi great spear's length advantage, it had always been unable to get close to Su Zhou, but since Su Zhou wanted to determine victory with one move, raising his hands to wield the spear, leaving himself wide open, it also had a trump card to counter!

"Hoo-ah!"

In an instant, the Crimson Earth Demon General's arm, originally the length of an ordinary person, suddenly swung out, and then the arm made of intertwined wood fibers immediately stretched out like a spring—it was actually turning its arm into a whip, rapidly flinging the broken knife at the end of the whip towards Su Zhou's neck!

As long as this strike could force this monster to defend, it could take advantage of the situation to escape!

The wind howled, and both sides revealed their inhuman sides.

Su Zhou's eyes flashed with spiritual light, and he could naturally see the flying broken knife—but he did not care at all, laughing loudly as he wielded the long spear with both hands, as if wielding a Green Dragon Crescent Blade, and regardless of the demon general's horizontal slash coming towards his neck, he raised the spear blade and simply cleaved down at the opponent's helmet.

This was clearly a stance of trading life for life, and even the Crimson Earth Demon General could not help but be shocked, unable to understand why Su Zhou would make such a choice.

—It was used to relying on its immortality to trade injuries for injuries, but it had not thought of one thing.

Pfft! Crack!

The first sound was the sound of the Crimson Earth Demon General's blade cutting one and a half inches into Su Zhou's neck—it was, after all, a grandmaster, and its strike imbued with yang-fire inner force could naturally break through Su Zhou's non-full-strength defense, but it could not sever the neck bones.

The second sound was the sound of Su Zhou's spear blade cleaving down, directly splitting open the Crimson Earth Demon General's helmet—even more than that, this force of several tons crashed down, directly splitting and smashing the demon general's four eyeballs, Crimson Earth Flower, and the armor on its body, splitting it from the head to the waist, cutting it into two sections, front to back!

For a time, the two of them stepped back together.

Although the Crimson Earth Demon General had been cut into two sections, before its upper body slid down, the wood roots at the two sections of the wound began to surge, directly connecting with the upper body. Although it was a bit crooked and misaligned, it should still be able to maintain a certain amount of combat power, at least enough to run away...

But for some reason, the wound cleaved open by the cross spear blade seemed to have suffered spiritual damage. A dark, extremely sinister spirit-devouring intent was killing the spirituality at the severed point, making its body weak, and its regeneration slow, unable to completely heal for a long time.

【Dark Earth Vein Crystal Spirit Infusion】!

In addition to confusion, when the Crimson Earth Demon General regenerated its eyeballs, preparing to see what the situation was with the wound, it could not help but feel terrified and dumbfounded.

That was because in front of it, Su Zhou, who should have been spurting blood and collapsing to the ground, was now grinning hideously and raising his hand, pressing it on his neck.

It could be seen that he simply reached out and touched the inch-deep cut on his neck that went straight to the bone, where even the carotid artery had been severed, and the wound disappeared as if by magic.

Not even half a drop of blood flowed!

"What monster?!"

It could not help but exclaim in surprise. The Crimson Earth Demon General, who had killed and injured many opponents by relying on super-regeneration, really could not have imagined this—that the enemy also had super-regeneration!

And the regeneration speed was even faster than its!

"It hurts a bit—but I'm energized!"

Su Zhou revealed eight teeth, laughing as he twisted his head. He felt that the feeling of having his head cut in half was quite refreshing. The intense pain could actually sharpen his spirits, allowing him to concentrate more—Su Zhou even faintly felt that if his head was cut off, then he could use his soul spirituality to control his body, pick up his head, and reattach it, without losing any combat power.

—He heard that in ancient times, there were also humans who could do this, so his actions must also be very normal.

As for the blood, it was actually supposed to flow. The environment of the snow mountain was freezing, and Su Zhou's regenerative power originating from the snake spirit Yala's perfect body had indeed decreased a lot. This was a weakness brought about by the fact that his spiritual cultivation realm had not yet reached a certain level. But who told the Crimson Earth Demon General's spiritual energy to be of the yang-fire type? The air around them had become as hot as summer after their fight for so long.

Not giving the Crimson Earth Demon General more time to think of countermeasures, Su Zhou once again charged forward with his spear. The demon general's courage and will to fight had been completely lost. With a whoosh, it threw out its knife, smashing it towards Su Zhou, and then turned around, running away downhill with all its strength.

"Still want to run?!"

After Su Zhou used his spear to deflect the thrown broken knife, he saw that the Crimson Earth Demon General's speed had increased again after transforming, and that he might not be able to catch up. He calculated for about one-tenth of a second, and then immediately made a decision.

"Go!"

Holding the spear over his shoulder, Su Zhou struck a javelin-throwing pose from the Olympics. He contracted his muscles, condensed all his strength, and then rotated his waist and abdomen to exert force, and violently swung his arm, throwing his fifty-kilogram cross spear like a missile rocket.

Boom!!

The long spear, shining with spiritual light, cut through the gale, shook away the snowflakes, and issued a muffled roar, hitting the Crimson Earth Demon General's back. Then, like a nail, with a pfft sound, it firmly pinned it to the ground!

It was naturally not dead yet, but the evil-warding blade and the dark spiritual energy had severely damaged its spirituality and soul. At this time, it could not say anything begging for mercy or any harsh words, but could only wail incessantly.

With Su Zhou's character, he naturally would not listen to the wailing for even half a second. He walked to the Crimson Earth Demon General's side, grabbed the great spear with one hand, and rotated it fiercely—it could be seen that the crimson red armor had been completely shattered. What appeared before him was a mass of intertwined green immortal-root humanoid, and the cross-shaped spear's special structure was just like a cross, pressing it to the ground, sealing it so it could not move.

Without speaking, Su Zhou squatted down, with blue-purple demon fire burning in his hand. He pressed it onto the other party's roots... Spiritual fire had no temperature, but it could also kill spirituality, and was more painful and cruel compared to the scorching of real flames.

Su Zhou, of course, had the ability to directly kill the Crimson Earth Demon General who had lost the ability to resist, but he just wouldn't. He just wanted to little by little, use spiritual fire to sweep over the other party's whole body of roots, burning the other party to death with the most ruthless and cruel methods.

So by the time that they occupied a complete advantage, the Hundred Families' righteous army had crushed the seventy-odd demon soldiers without injury, killing sixty-two of them, and everyone had gathered around, Su Zhou had not yet killed Crimson Earth.

"Let's stop for now, Grandmaster Su."

The one who spoke was Zhou Buyi. He placed one hand on Su Zhou's shoulder, signaling him to stop the torment in his hands.

And Su Zhou, who was concentrating on burning the other party's wooden-root spirituality amidst Crimson Earth's screams, raised his head a little strangely. He wanted to ask the other party why he said that, but he heard Zhou Buyi's next sentence: "The divine blade materials are complete, before the Annihilation Blade is forged, there is still a need for an object to open the furnace and consecrate the blade—why not use this fiend?"

"Good!"

Hearing this, Su Zhou's eyes lit up. He recalled the divine weapon forging ground, the pool of golden-red molten iron surrounding the earth-vein flame iron. In his heart, he imagined the Crimson Earth being submerged into the molten iron bit by bit.

Afterwards, he extinguished the demon fire in his hand amidst Crimson Earth's despairing and resentful expression, and used his spear to lift up its entire demon body, carrying it on his shoulder.

Su Zhou surveyed the surrounding Hundred Families martial artists, all with smiles on their faces, and then he also laughed heartily.

"Good!"

And so, by the time Su Zhou obtained the evil soul belonging to that Crimson Earth Demon General, it was already several hours later, at the volcanic forging ground in the camp.