CHAPTER 69: CHAPTER 68: AS SPRING PASSES AND AUTUMN COMES

In the following two days, they attempted the challenge several more times, all ending in failure. This Foundation Establishment wood golem was particularly fond of kicking them in the butt, sending them flying into the lake multiple times!

After several tries, Lin Jing felt his butt had turned into a lotus flower, thinking he might not even need to sit on a lotus to transform into the Buddha in the future.

Aside from that, the wood golem possessed extraordinary combat experience. When they used the Flying Leaf Technique to soar, the golem would pick up stones from the ground to throw at them, both fast and accurate.

Lin Jing summoned the dragon carp, using the Fire Control Technique to manipulate flames, hoping to use the elemental advantage against it. The wood golem would counter by shaking out lake water to block the flames.

Wood golems are also made of grass and wood; the pine needle mouse attempted to use the Cyan Emperor Longevity Technique to balance it, but the golem only paused for a moment before breaking free.

As for ghost fire and Illusion Technique, they were nothing but jokes; the wood golem had no soul to burn and was immune to illusions.

Fortunately, the wood golem wasn’t a real enemy; otherwise, Lin Jing and his group would have died over a dozen times.

However, despite many failures, Lin Jing could still see hope for victory.

Based on the battle process, the wood golem seemed to fear fire; otherwise, it could have resisted attacks like the Flying Leaf Technique and Water Arrow Technique head-on without avoiding or using water to counter.

"Enhance Dragon Carp’s cultivation level."

"Improve my own cultivation level, as well as proficiency in the Fire Control Technique."

"On the pine needle mouse’s side, continue to cultivate the Cyan Emperor Longevity Technique. The technique indeed has a restraining effect on plants, but due to the current insufficient mana of the pine needle mouse, it can only control the golem for less than a second during battle. But if it achieves minor success, it might hold longer."

Lin Jing concluded that to defeat the wood golem, they needed significant improvement in their current mana and skills.

"Let’s cultivate."

Since food could be self-sufficient and the Spirit Stones were abundant, they immediately engaged in arduous cultivation, daily testing their training results against the wood golem. Losing track of time, Lin Jing regretted that the blood-sucking vine’s rank was too high for the current Glazed Immortal Pupil to merge with; otherwise, he wanted to see the effects of the mutated blood-sucking vine.

...

Spring came and went, and three months passed in a flash.

The state of battle between Lin Jing and the wood golem had escalated to an intense level, but even after so long, they still couldn’t defeat the golem.

By the lakeside, the wood golem was frozen in place, unable to move. Over the three months, the pine needle mouse had already reached the ninth level of Qi Cultivation, with the demonic technique achieving minor success.

After the Cyan Emperor Longevity Technique achieved minor success, its effect on devouring the blood-sucking vine diminished significantly, nearing ineffectiveness.

At this moment, the pine needle mouse no longer favored using the Mechanical Bamboo Spear as a weapon, opting instead for an ordinary tree branch!

Its robe fluttered as it used the minor-success demonic technique to momentarily immobilize the wood golem, while simultaneously using its Cyan Emperor True Qi to drive the branch to grow frantically and mutate, quickly turning into a thick trunk that bound the golem!

Plant manipulation!

As the wood golem struggled, Lin Jing, wielding the "Dragon Carp Zen Staff," was already executing a hand seal, controlling the flames spewed by the dragon carp to attack!

In those three months, the dragon carp’s cultivation reached the eighth level of Qi Cultivation, and Lin Jing’s reached the seventh level. This breakthrough in cultivation allowed the dragon carp’s flames to reach higher temperatures. The powerful flames, coupled with Lin Jing’s more precise control, were compressed into pellet-sized fireballs soon after leaving the dragon carp’s mouth, flying towards the wood golem!

With the cooperation of Lin Jing and the pine needle mouse, the fireballs followed the gaps among the tree binds, hitting the wood golem completely, causing it some damage with a few booming impacts.

However, the most frustrating thing for Lin Jing and the team was that after enduring a round of bombardment, the wood golem could still move while charred all over, and with the help of residual energy, it broke free from the tree binds and launched a counterattack.

This type of opponent, unaware of pain or fatigue, was indeed difficult to deal with.

After a round of fighting, the dragon carp, Lin Jing, and the pine needle mouse all ran low on True Qi, defeated, despite the wood golem bearing extensive burn injuries, having endured multiple attacks, and having half its head blown up, it was still capable of fighting.

"Not doing it!" After months of fighting, Lin Jing and his companions changed their mindset, no longer thinking of winning by relying on stockpiled resources, but instead wanting to see if they could rely on their own mana to face the enemy.

Of course... the real reason was that the pine needle mouse didn’t want to waste its stockpile on daily training.

"Elder Mo Song, why do I feel like the wood golem’s strength has grown? You didn’t secretly adjust its settings, did you?"

"Weren’t you saying it was supposed to maintain early-stage Foundation Establishment power? It feels like... its defense has definitely increased."

Lin Jing lay on the ground, panting heavily, the pine needle mouse and dragon carp similarly sprawled out, shared this feeling.

"Did you guys figure it out? Your opponent gets stronger with time, just like you. It’s only reasonable that it’s progressing slowly."

"The path of Demon Cultivation requires not only being stronger than your opponent temporarily but also growing faster than them consistently; only then won’t you get beaten by the righteous path," Elder Mo Song did not deny it.

Lin Jing rolled his eyes, knowing something seemed off.

"Let me give you another lesson: as a Demon Cultivator, never believe what others say. Otherwise, you’d never have enough lives to spare. If I said something and you believed it, you’re too young."

"Understood." Lin Jing no longer wanted to argue that he wasn’t a Demon Cultivator.

"Give us a few more days, and we should be able to defeat it."

"Just by having the pine needle mouse grow trees to entangle the wood golem is not enough, as it can break free quickly! With the Divine Tree Seal, if I and the pine needle mouse could use the Divine Tree Seal taught by you in actual combat with ease, it could better restrict its movement and deal heavy damage!"

Divine Pine Dao responded: "The Divine Tree Seal preparation is cumbersome, and you both need to work together to execute it. To use it in combat, your opponent won’t give you time to prepare."

The Divine Tree Seal, a sealing magic to imprison Ice Soul Gu, fundamentally relies on Spiritual Power, needing spiritual power to brand bloodline-like divine patterns onto wood attribute creations, imbuing them with divinity, like one’s will attached to the divine wood, suppressing all.

Lin Jing was unable to control plants, but with two lifetimes of experience, his spiritual power was strong, as was his finesse in power manipulation, while the pine needle mouse focuses on plant control; its energy hasn’t reached the level to multitask and brand spiritual patterns yet, thus currently they can only perform the technique together.

However, as Divine Pine said, even then, it’s quite challenging, for Lin Jing alone, meditation to mobilize and externalize spiritual power required an extremely quiet environment, and the imprinting process was very difficult, previously taking several minutes during practice, even after his mind had been reinforced by Buddha’s light, showing that the Divine Tree Seal isn’t something Qi Cultivation cultivators can effortlessly handle.

Minutes in battle would mean the dragon carp would be down.

"Elder Mo Song, since the preparation can’t be done in battle, why not prepare dozens or hundreds of divine wood imprinted with divine patterns beforehand, to let the pine needle mouse control them?" Lin Jing proposed.

Mo Song asked: "Didn’t you guys say not to rely on stockpiled resources in battle?"

"Elder, as a Demon Cultivator, never believe what others say; I’ve changed my mind." Lin Jing applied his learning.

"Then I’ve changed my mind too, I won’t give you a chance to defeat the wood golem anymore. Now I’m going to change the test content, giving you another lesson: as a Demon Cultivator, don’t argue with the rule-makers; only fists make the real argument."

Lin Jing: ???

Alright, alright, alright, wisdom comes with age.

As Mo Song’s words ended, the pine needle mouse and dragon carp were like struck by a bolt from the blue, having been beaten for three months without any chance for revenge? Nasty demon tree!

"I sensed that a Spatial Spirit Plant is about to be birthed in the Great Wilderness, which should benefit that squirrel. You should go snatch it."

"Squeak?" The pine needle mouse, previously feeling hopeless, suddenly had its True Qi surge like a fountain, quickly scrambling up, eyes shining.

"Spatial Spirit Plant???" Lin Jing was stunned.

"Indeed, several Great Demons of the Demon Core Stage and Golden Core Cultivators are likely targeting that Spirit Plant. I won’t intervene, so you’ll have to figure it out yourselves. After pulling this off, you can head to the academy."

"Elder, perhaps we should continue fighting the wood golem."