Martial Ascent to Divinity-Chapter 696 - 675: Mission

The mother insect, over a thousand meters long, was like an aircraft carrier, crashing into the mother tree at several times the speed of sound.

Rustling...

The ground split open, and the slightly black tree roots, like giant python magical beasts with a diameter of over ten meters, shot out from the surface.

The dense mass, numbering in tens of thousands, rose up like a forest.

The protective Qi that even demigods couldn’t break was as fragile as if it didn’t exist in front of the mother tree’s roots.

The flexible tree roots were like dragons, wrapping around the mother insect’s legs and body.

A moment later, the mother insect let out a low roar, emitting a white shockwave from its body.

Accompanied by a thunderous boom, it spread out three kilometers away.

Where the shockwave passed, whether demons or tree-men, anything below demigod level was pulverized to dust.

Demigods were blasted away, their bodies cracking open.

The shockwave lifted large swathes of the ground.

Those pieces of land, dozens of meters wide and over ten meters thick, disintegrated in the sky, exploding into dust scattered everywhere.

As the dust settled, a super gigantic black tree root cage appeared on the ground, trapping the mother insect.

The dense tree roots within the enormous cage launched an attack.

Sometimes flexible as silk, sometimes hard as steel, sometimes sharp as a blade, sometimes piercing as an arrow...

The tree roots transformed into a multitude of weapons, wrapping, twisting, whipping, stabbing, colliding, pushing...

Each movement of the tree roots was at over fifty times the speed of sound.

Far beyond the reflex limits of a demigod.

The sound of massive explosions echoed incessantly.

The mother insect’s body was too huge to avoid all the tree roots’ attacks.

Yet its skin was thick and tough, enduring the roots’ attacks, its large mouth opening wide.

Ordinary giant insects typically have two pairs of mandibles: a pair of large mandibles and a pair of small mandibles for tearing apart enemies.

Within the mother insect’s mouth, from top to bottom, from large to small, nine pairs of mandibles were arranged in layers, resembling pairs of sharp blades.

When it opened its mouth, the nine pairs of mandibles separated layer by layer, expanding outward like massive scythes, their razor-sharp edges glinting with a steel sheen.

As the nine layers of giant mandibles extended to their limits, they trembled slightly and abruptly grew larger and longer.

The nine pairs of blades, each five hundred meters long, spread out like scythes.

Eighteen flashes of cold light, the blades crossed and cut through, and in only a blink, all the giant mandibles returned to its mouth.

Even a Grandmaster couldn’t see what had happened.

In front of it, all the tree roots within five hundred meters broke and scattered.

Every root was cut into slices less than half a meter thick; the roots, hundreds of meters tall, were sliced hundreds of times in an instant.

whoosh...

A massive trumpet-shaped mouthpart suddenly shot out from the mother insect’s mouth, and with a gentle suck, fragments of tree roots scattered on the ground flew into its mouth at an incredible speed.

Suddenly, dense masses of tree roots burst from the ground, whipping towards the insect’s mouthpart, simultaneously sweeping away large amounts of root fragments. 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

Clang... Clang... Clang...

The edges of the giant insect’s abdominal shell emitted clanging metallic sounds.

Then, blade-like limbs emerged layer by layer, each over a hundred meters long.

From head to tail, they numbered in the hundreds.

The edges of the carapace bristled with blades like centipede legs.

The mother insect roared, speeding through the root cage, flashes of cold light everywhere it went.

Massive swathes of tree roots were chopped into pieces.

The souls of people on both sides trembled, distancing themselves, occasionally glancing back.

They couldn’t fathom the terror of the battle.

A single root from the mother tree could mash a demigod into pulp, yet here, thousands of roots were being dealt with like a farmer harvesting wheat by the mother insect.

Rustling...

The mother tree’s canopy gently shook, and the branches grew rapidly.

Hundreds and thousands of giant branches drilled into the root cage, descending onto the mother insect.

Thousands of roots pushed upwards, colliding.

Countless branches turned into large hands, suddenly flipping over from above.

Rumble...

With a gigantic sound, the several-thousand-meter-long massive mother insect was flipped over by the roots and branches, like a turtle turned on its back.

The densely packed branches and roots lashed at the insect’s carapace.

Bam! Bam! Bam! Bam!

In the blink of an eye, more than a hundred thousand strikes landed.

The carapace invulnerable even to demigods was covered in dense cracks.

The mother insect roared loudly, despite being overturned, suddenly accelerating, crashing directly into the massive tree root cage, blades flying, cutting the roots, continuously gnawing at them.

The root cage was the mother tree’s innate ability, no matter how much the mother insect bit, it could instantly regrow and mend.

Inside the cage, the two gigantic creatures battled.

Terrifying explosions sounded one after another, with vast white shockwaves everywhere, weaving into thick air walls.

In a more distant place, the dispersed power changed the weather, forming massive dust storm tornadoes, revolving around the battlefield, like gigantic black pillars.

Below demigod level, no one could see what was happening inside, only the dark dust tornado was visible.

The demigod demons, seeing this scene, completely abandoned any plans to attack the mother tree.

All the demigods of the world combined wouldn’t suffice against the mother tree’s roots.

The demigod tree-man alliance watched the mother insect in silence.

The mandibles that extended hundreds of meters, those limbs bristling with blades, even a touch would be fatal.

Only at this moment did the experts on both sides realize the sheer power of the mother tree and the mother insect.

They also understood what it means to be a Void God.

As powerful as the mother insect and the mother tree are, they possess only Void God level combat strength, lacking the divine techniques of a Void God.

On the trunk of the mother tree,

the light shone down, and a crown of branches landed on Zhou Leng’s head.

Together descending from the sky was a bright green tree branch.

Upon the branch grew ten bright green leaves.

Beside it, the Grandmaster Tree-man hurriedly caught the mother tree branch and waited quietly.

Inside the tree hole, the rich power of the mother tree receded.

Zhou Leng opened his eyes, feeling the blood in his body rushing like a flood, his heart beating like a giant drum.

His muscle strength rose to a new level, but strangely, it carried an illusion of extreme softness.

He extended his hand and pressed lightly on the swelling biceps of his upper left arm.

At the same time, he sensed a completely opposite feeling—both hard and soft, creating a clear rebound force.

"Light has a dual wave-particle nature; do muscles have soft-hard duality?"

Zhou Leng thought to himself and lightly leaped, jumping out of the tree hole.

The entire tree branch gently shook.

The three Grandmaster Tree-men were surprised. This was the main branch of the mother tree; a Grandmaster, let alone a light jump, wouldn’t even be able to move it with a full-force strike.

"This is a gift from the mother tree," said a Tree-man Grandmaster, handing the mother tree branch to Zhou Leng.

Zhou Leng took the mother tree branch and recalled what the Demigod Tree-man had said earlier.

So, he silently used martial arts perception.

Originally, in his perception, he only had clan divine power and national divine techniques.

Now, he sensed personal divine techniques.

They were respectively the Light Chasing Body, Growth Power, Self-healing Power, and Tree God Doppelgänger.

The Light Chasing Body allowed the body to absorb any light and heat power like a Tree-man.

Growth Power endowed a unique life characteristic, significantly enhancing both longevity and all related power.

All cultivation effects, pill effects, and anything related to growth would receive multiplied or even more substantial augmentation.

Self-healing Power was simple yet had incredibly strong healing abilities.

The Tree God Doppelgänger was the most direct and forceful.

Using a Tree God’s branch, this doppelgänger would possess whatever power the Tree God had.

No need to worry; plant it, and soon, it would possess a Demigod Mother Tree doppelgänger.

Furthermore, the realm of the doppelgänger could grow alongside Zhou Leng until reaching the Tree God’s limit.

To surpass the limits, higher realm Tree God branches would need to be fused.

Within perception, the branch’s limit was True God level.

Because the direct ancestor of this mother tree had once been a True God.

While looking at the mother tree’s branch, Zhou Leng recalled another tree.

If only...

Just the thought filled his heart with anticipation.

Putting away the mother tree branch, Zhou Leng thanked the Grandmaster Tree-man, about to inquire what had happened when Xu Qingjin came running over from a distance.

"Zhou Leng!"

Zhou Leng sensed Xu Qingjin’s emotional fluctuation and smiled as he walked up, pulling her into his arms.

Xu Qingjin quieted down instantly.

The three Grandmaster Tree-men explained the past few days’ events to Xu Qingjin.

Zhou Leng looked into the distance, but nothing could be seen through the tree leaves.

Only dense explosion sounds could be heard.

The three Grandmaster Tree-men looked at Zhou Leng with expectation.

Zhou Leng had initially thought coming here was just ordinary cultivation, but now he had received four types of divine techniques and immense power.

Even someone less perceptive could sense unprecedented high treatment from the mother tree.

Before this, it had never been heard of that a mother tree would grant humans divine techniques; not even a Martial Saint had them.

After pondering briefly, Zhou Leng said, "I will take Qing Jin back to Shuizhou Base. Once she’s safe, I’ll return to aid the battle. I can’t promise anything, but I will do my best."

The three Grandmaster Tree-men breathed a sigh of relief.

"Thank you, great... Zhou Leng. There is a teleportation array beside the mother tree that leads directly to the Tree-man Base. Both of you can teleport there, but when returning, you must go back alone."

"No problem," Zhou Leng said, looking up and down at Xu Qingjin.

Xu Qingjin looked up, smiling and asked, "What’s up?"

"You’ve improved so quickly?"

"Thanks to the mother tree, I feel changes within my body, hopeful for grandmaster," replied Xu Qingjin.

"You are belittling the mother tree..."

Zhou Leng joked partially as he followed the Tree-men away from the mother tree, heading toward the teleportation array.

With a flash of light, Zhou Leng and Xu Qingjin appeared at the Tree-man Base.

The Tree-man guarding the teleportation array froze upon seeing them, then made a grand salute to Zhou Leng.

To avoid detection and attack, the two took a Demon Spirit carriage out of the Tree-man Base into Shuizhou Demon City.

After a long journey, they arrived at Shuizhou Base.

Still concerned, Zhou Leng escorted Xu Qingjin back to Guhe Research Institute, watching her wave from the door before turning to ride the Demon Spirit carriage back to the Tree-man Base.

Sitting in the Demon Spirit carriage, Zhou Leng checked the messages and notes from these past days.

Molten Hammer had visited the human world, babbling about many things, mainly advising Zhou Leng to be careful; the Tree-man World was doomed, so avoid going.

Other friends left individual messages.

Lastly, he received a note from Wang Boxiong.

"The Tree-man World is extremely dangerous. I’m going to support, but may not be able to return unharmed."

"Your task has been reported. Once your cultivation is complete, don’t worry about the Tree-men battle, head straight to Elephant Country."

"Remember Zhaolian Shuo? Saint Zhao gave him the Broken Sword, then Zhao Family tricked it back."

"He has an adoptive son, a comrade’s child, named Lu Weiqu who also practices East Wind Fist."

"He’s infiltrated the Demon Worship Sect in Elephant Country, collaborating with... some insiders, to conduct an operation named ’Weeding Out.’"

"Cooperate with him to complete this task. He is crucial, try your best to protect him."

"After completing the Weeding Out operation, you can manage your time, either traveling Elephant Country or cultivating under the Bodhi Tree."