Plant VS Cultivation

Chapter 156: The Water Vein Is Destroyed

General Golden Claw's retaliation came even faster than Gu Mo had anticipated. Just one day after receiving information from Master Xuan Shui, Gu Mo sensed a powerful demonic aura surging in from the distance.

Such a massive display of force immediately drew the attention of other major sea demons in the surrounding waters. A top-tier demon like General Golden Claw—every movement of his would naturally stir up concern among his peers.

After all, this was someone capable of reshaping the entire power structure of a sea region.

Gu Mo gazed calmly at the demon clouds on the horizon. He had already anticipated General Golden Claw's arrival. Even if he hadn't, he still wouldn't have been afraid. In a battle on home ground, unless a Nascent Soul cultivator or a fourth-rank demon king descended, Gu Mo had nothing to fear.

As the demon clouds grew closer, Gu Mo saw a burly figure with a pair of golden pincers striding across the sea toward the island shore.

"Human cultivator…"

General Golden Claw had built up momentum all the way here. Just as he was about to speak, intending to use his imposing aura to intimidate the human Core cultivator—after all, anyone who could kill his underlings clearly wasn't weak—he didn't dare underestimate his opponent.

Boom!

Before he could finish his sentence, a wave of annihilating force swallowed him whole. Gu Mo had known not only that the enemy was coming, but also the direction he'd approach from. Naturally, he had laid down potato mines along the path—third-tier ones, no less—preparing to catch his enemy off guard.

"You dare court death, human!"

A furious roar tore through the smoke of the explosion. A giant crab emerged, one leg visibly shortened—blasted off by the annihilation energy of the third-tier potato mine. This proved the mines were fully capable of injuring General Golden Claw, even with his entire body armored in a tough shell.

The sudden ambush had completely blown away the momentum General Golden Claw had been gathering. Now, all he could do was charge furiously toward the heart of the island.

But beneath that rage, his heart grew heavy. His pride—the armored shell he was so confident in—had been breached. It was only his leg and not the toughest part of his body, but even so, it filled him with unease.

His shell was durable, yes—but once it was breached, his unprotected interior was left vulnerable. That was a limitation of his species.

Boom!

Just a few steps forward and another massive explosion erupted. The beach wasn't laid with just one potato mine.

This time, however, he took no damage. General Golden Claw had used his golden pincers to shield himself from the blast.

"These pincers are going to be troublesome."

Gu Mo narrowed his eyes at those glinting golden claws. Their toughness clearly exceeded expectations. Who knew what sort of fortuitous encounter the giant crab had experienced. But as long as Gu Mo could kill him, that opportunity would become his.

Once General Golden Claw entered the island interior, Gu Mo immediately ordered the third-tier Peashooters to attack—and this time, he even brought out the Torchwood.

The regular third-tier Peashooters didn't have the firepower to pierce General Golden Claw's defenses. Only flame peas ignited by the Torchwood could inflict damage.

"What?!"

As soon as General Golden Claw stepped into the central lake area, he was hit by over a dozen third-tier attacks. He was shocked—this human cultivator was stronger than he had expected.

That green energy barrage wasn't much of a threat, but the fireballs—those were seriously dangerous. Still, after getting burned once, he blocked all subsequent flame projectiles with his golden claws.

Although the human tried to trick him with regular fire talismans, General Golden Claw wasn't fazed. So long as he could close the distance, the human was as good as dead.

Close combat was General Golden Claw's forte. He was barely passable at ranged water-type spells, but at this level, such minor techniques were beneath him.

Splash!

He braved the assault and plunged into the lake, rapidly advancing toward the large formation within.

Inside the formation, Shi Yuwei was trembling from the oppressive presence of a top-tier demon at such close range. But she gritted her teeth and held back a scream.

"Ah!"

Until a massive golden pincer came crashing down—then she couldn't suppress her fear any longer and cried out.

Bang!

The golden claw smashed through the outer Stealth Formation, then slammed into the Wall-nut Barrier. The barrier's light screen shuddered violently, and cracks began to appear on the wall-nuts. But with ample spiritual energy, the wall-nuts quickly began repairing themselves.

While General Golden Claw was attacking, the Peashooters and Torchwoods launched a counterstrike, forcing him to defend himself and preventing any continuous assault.

As long as the wall-nuts had time to recover, General Golden Claw would never be able to break the formation—unless he was willing to risk injury and launch an all-out attack.

Even so, a formation powered by three third-tier wall-nuts could endure against a peak third-tier demon's onslaught for quite some time.

To do that, General Golden Claw would have to completely abandon his defense. And if he did that, Gu Mo would show him all the ways a crab could be cooked—steamed, fried, and more.

"What's going on?"

Seeing that his attacks couldn't break the formation, General Golden Claw was shocked. He'd fought many human cultivators and encountered many formations, but usually he could destroy the formation stones with one strike. Without those, even the most intricate formations would collapse.

That was the standard tactic demons used against human formations: brute force. Unless it was a top-tier formation, it usually worked.

But this defensive formation didn't seem particularly exceptional, and his attacks were being absorbed by the formation stones—yet nothing happened.

Unable to understand it, General Golden Claw prepared to try again. This time, he would have to take the hit from the attacks inside the formation—especially the fireballs, which were truly dangerous.

Now that the outer Stealth Formation was destroyed, General Golden Claw could sense over a dozen third-tier auras within the formation fog. He wasn't surprised—he had already guessed there were third-tier entities in there from the earlier attacks. But what did surprise him was that they were actually spirit plants.

That gave General Golden Claw ideas. Once he killed that human cultivator, he'd transplant all these third-tier plants into his own lair.

With that thought, he became even more determined to eliminate Gu Mo. But to do that, he had to first break this formation.

Even if it meant taking damage, General Golden Claw wasn't afraid. He'd been gravely wounded before, nearly dying on several occasions. But he had always survived—and ended up the last one standing.

If victory was within reach, he never lacked the courage to bet everything on one last fight.

Boom!

Once again, the golden claw crashed down. The barrier's light screen shook violently, but quickly returned to normal.

"Break! Break, damn you!"

Snarling, General Golden Claw attacked again and again, the golden claw smashing down with each strike.

Crack, crack, crack!

Every attack left new cracks on the wall-nuts. If he kept this up long enough, the formation would eventually collapse.

But Gu Mo remained calm. He knew General Golden Claw would wear out first. The Peashooters' attacks might not be enough to hurt him individually, but the sheer volume would drain his strength over time—especially the flame peas empowered by the Torchwood, which could inflict real damage.

All that damage would eventually accumulate—and turn the tide.

Boom!

A flame pea struck General Golden Claw's abdomen. A piece of his shell split open with a crisp crack—pulling him out of his rage and into alarm.

He knew then: he wouldn't be able to take down the human cultivator this time. He had to retreat and come back later with reinforcements.

"Trying to flee now? Isn't it a bit late for that?" Gu Mo said coolly.

If General Golden Claw had been at full strength, Gu Mo might not have been able to stop him. But now, with most of his power spent and his toughest shell breached—there was no way Gu Mo would let him escape.

"What the hell?!"

As General Golden Claw retreated, vines suddenly burst from the lake and wrapped around him—third-tier Entangling Water Grass that had been recovering in the lake.

"Get off me!"

With a furious roar, he slashed the vines with his golden claws. He knew full well—if he got trapped, he was finished.

Fortunately, the mysterious vines only managed to delay him slightly. He was confident he could break free.

"As expected, one Entangling Water Grass can't restrain a peak third-tier demon," Gu Mo observed, then sent in a second one.

In an instant, the number of vines doubled. Before long, General Golden Claw was trussed up like a dumpling.

"Fight me one-on-one if you've got the guts! What kind of cheap trick is this?!"

Bound tightly, General Golden Claw roared in fury. It was the only way to suppress the growing dread inside him—this time, he truly sensed death.

"Don't like it? Try using it yourself."

Gu Mo had no intention of falling for the bait. It was only with the help of his plant army that he could stand against a peak third-tier demon. On his own, his strength barely measured up to an early-stage Golden Core cultivator.

Although achieving Golden Core-level combat power while still at the Foundation Establishment stage was already remarkable, against someone like General Golden Claw, it wasn't nearly enough.

Besides, the crab was already in the pot—only a fool would fight him head-on now.

Gu Mo ordered the Peashooters to concentrate fire on the crack in General Golden Claw's abdominal shell. After blasting open a larger hole, a blood-red cherry appeared in Gu Mo's hand.

This would be the final, decisive blow.

Wrapped in spiritual energy, the Cherry Bomb was hurled by Gu Mo into the rupture in General Golden Claw s abdomen. Detonating it from the outside might not be enough to kill General Golden Claw, but blowing it up from within would leave him with absolutely no chance of survival.

"Human, if you want me dead, then we die together!"

General Golden Claw's eyes burned with savage fury as he stared at Gu Mo within the formation. He knew he'd been bested this time, but he wouldn't let his enemy have the last laugh. At the very least, he, General Golden Claw, would never let this body, this demon core, be turned into materials for a human cultivator.

"Damn it!"

Sensing the violently surging energy within General Golden Claw, Gu Mo's expression changed. The enemy was trying to self-detonate his demon core. Although General Golden Claw's demon core was late-stage Tier 3 and hadn't reached the peak of Tier 3—since most of his combat strength came from his golden pincers—the situation was still dire. Now, it wasn't just a demon core about to explode; there was also the Cherry Bomb Gu Mo had thrown in.

The two forces combined meant General Golden Claw was guaranteed to be utterly obliterated, but the problem was that the explosive power would also multiply exponentially.

RUMBLE!!!

Before Gu Mo could react, a terrifying explosion engulfed the entire island.

BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

The protective barrier of the Nut Formation, which faced the explosion head-on, roiled like stormy waves. One after another, high-grade Tier 2 Spirit Nuts shattered. Fortunately, the three Tier 3 Spirit Nuts held strong through the cataclysm, preventing the plants within the formation from being caught in the blast.

The plants had survived unscathed—but Gu Mo's face was grim. The Tier 3 water vein in this location had taken a severe hit from the massive explosion.

The spiritual energy within the water vein was now rapidly dissipating. Its grade had already dropped to high-grade Tier 2, and it was still declining. Gu Mo estimated that the once Tier 3 water vein would eventually degrade to a low-grade Tier 2 vein.

And that was with the core part of the water vein protected by his Nut Formation. Otherwise, they'd be lucky to end up with a Tier 1 water vein.

A damaged water vein was incredibly difficult to restore. Unless Gu Mo possessed a treasure like a Water Vein Pearl, the only option would be to wait hundreds of years for it to slowly regenerate on its own.

But Gu Mo clearly didn't have that kind of time. Though he had successfully eliminated General Golden Pincer, the valuable demon core, carapace, and other critical materials had all been destroyed. Only the pair of golden pincers remained intact.

And in exchange, Gu Mo had lost a Tier 3 water vein—an enormous loss.

Without a Tier 3 water vein, many of Gu Mo's future plans would come to a grinding halt. That was something he absolutely couldn't accept.

"If that's how it is… then I'll just have to take a risk."

Taking a deep breath, Gu Mo made his decision. Since General Golden Pincer had possessed the combat power of a peak Tier 3 great demon, his lair was likely a Tier 3 spiritual land. Now that the demon was dead, Gu Mo intended to claim it for himself.

With that thought, Gu Mo quickly stored the plants into the Black Mist Space and began preparations to relocate. He would seize General Golden Pincer's territory before the other great demons had time to react.

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