allendalepharm Chapter 224 The Insurmountable Gap for Mortals
Chapter 224 The Insurmountable Gap for Mortals
"roar--!!!"
The roar of the second-tier mutated rock-armored bear was like a materialized shockwave of earth-elemental spiritual energy, which exploded in the abandoned mining area.
Several rocks weighing several tons nearby were instantly cracked by the sound waves and then shattered with a deafening roar. The violent turbulent flow of spiritual energy stirred up clouds of dust, making the five-meter-long beast, resembling a heavy main battle tank, appear even more ferocious and terrifying.
"Run! Get the hell out of here to the left! Draw this beast away!"
The captain roared hysterically. As he retreated, he pulled out several Lightness Talismans from his storage bag and slapped them onto his and his fellow cultivators' legs, preparing to retreat at any moment.
Those ordinary porters, bought with exorbitant settlement fees, were already terrified when faced with this terrifying beast beyond human comprehension. The boy carrying the metal basket collapsed onto the muddy ground, his legs giving way, his crotch reeking of urine, too exhausted to even crawl.
"Stop spacing out! Run into the woods!"
Old Ding grabbed the boy, ripped the heavy metal basket off his back and threw it to the ground, then used all his strength to push him away into the dense mutated bushes on the left.
The other mortals also seemed to wake from a dream, crying and scrambling to follow Old Ding as he ran wildly.
"Don't just stand there! Go into the woods!"
Old Ding grabbed the child, ripped the metal basket off his back, and shoved him toward the bushes on the left. The other mortals finally reacted and followed, crying and shouting.
The Beast Taming Collar around the Rock Armor Bear's neck flashed a blinding red light, and a subtle electric current stimulated its flesh, fully unleashing its ferocity. Its scarlet beastly eyes quickly locked onto the fleeing mortals, and its massive body leaped forward, pouncing towards Old Ding and the others.
It ran off to the porters!
A gaunt monk's voice trembled, his face revealing a hint of relief, as if he had survived a calamity.
But the captain's expression suddenly changed the next second.
Because the direction the rock-armored bear pounced was right in their path as they retreated towards the barrier rift.
It didn't buy them time; it directly blocked their only way out.
"Oh shit!"
The captain's eyelids twitched wildly, and he instantly understood the situation.
If they turn and run now, they will surely be intercepted by that beast from the side; but once it kills all those mortals first, it will have a free hand, and they will be the next to die.
"Form ranks! Force it back first!"
He finally stopped hesitating, quickly forming hand seals, and his inner energy surged forth.
"Earth Spikes, rise!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Three stone spikes, each over two meters long, suddenly burst from the ground and pierced the belly of the rock-armored bear.
however--
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
The stone spike struck the dark red rock armor as if it had hit a steel barrier, instantly shattering into countless fragments, leaving not even a shallow mark.
The captain's heart sank.
His move wasn't to save anyone; he just wanted to force the beast to veer off course so that he and the others could find a chance to escape.
But now it seems that they can't even break through the defenses, let alone force them back.
"How can it be so hard?!"
His voice tightened, and true fear finally showed in his eyes.
This completely enraged the Rock Armor Bear.
It abruptly stopped its attack on the mortals, slowly turned its head, and stared intently at the cultivators with its scarlet beast eyes.
In its rudimentary beastly instincts, these clumps of flesh and blood, pulsating with spiritual energy, were clearly more worthy of being eaten than those mortals.
"It's looking this way! Back off!"
Someone screamed.
But it was too late.
The Rock Armored Bear suddenly raised its right paw, and a surge of violent earth-elemental spiritual energy gathered before slamming it heavily onto the ground!
"Boom—!"
The ground within a radius of 100 meters undulated violently in an instant, as if it had turned into a rolling sea of mud.
The weasel-faced cultivator had barely turned around when he was violently thrown back by the shockwave. His internal organs were shattered on the spot, and blood mixed with fragments of his internal organs gushed out. He crashed heavily against the rock wall and instantly died.
"Second brother!" The burly man with a thick beard cried out, his eyes bloodshot, as he tried to rush to the rescue.
But the rock-armored bear's massive body already carried terrifying kinetic energy, like an out-of-control road roller, and it crashed over with a deafening roar.
"Snap!"
The burly man with the thick beard's protective aura, which he was so proud of, shattered instantly like paper under the impact of the rock-armored bear. He didn't even have time to scream before the bear's massive claws smashed him into a pulp.
massacre.
This was a one-sided massacre with no suspense whatsoever.
In less than half a minute, apart from the captain, who was at the peak of Qi Refining, barely managed to escape with his extremely fast movements, the other four low-level rogue cultivators all perished in the bear's claws.
Faced with absolute power, these lowly cultivators and the "mortal ants" in their eyes are not fundamentally different.
"Monster...monster!!!"
The surviving captain was completely terrified. He didn't even have the courage to look back. He frantically channeled his inner energy and ran towards the crack in the barrier.
On the other side...
Although Lao Ding and the other mortals temporarily escaped the pursuit of the rock-armored bear, they were now in dire straits.
Although the [Earthquake] attack was primarily aimed at cultivators, its aftershocks still affected the direction they were trying to escape. The violent earthquake caused a small-scale collapse in the abandoned mine ahead, with countless rocks tumbling down and blocking their path into the forest.
Ten mortals were trapped in a narrow, dead-end corner of a rock wall.
"roar……"
Having dealt with the cultivators, the Rock Armored Bear slowly turned its massive body. Its scarlet eyes held a cruel mockery as it approached Old Ding and the others step by step, exuding a suffocating sense of oppression.
"We're doomed...we're dead..."
The boy, barely a teenager, clutched his head in despair, his body trembling like a leaf. The other mortals also knelt down, some even beginning to pray frantically to the non-existent gods in the sky.
Old Ding leaned against the cold rock wall, panting heavily.
He neither knelt nor prayed. Because amidst the piles of corpses in the initial calamity, he had long ago come to understand a truth—in this world, no god will come to save you except the knife in your own hand.
He took a deep breath and drew a military-grade multi-purpose dagger from his waist. This old-fashioned weapon, which had accompanied him through countless life-and-death experiences, seemed utterly laughable and powerless in the face of this second-tier demonic beast.
Old Ding looked down at his crude mechanical prosthetic leg.
"If I could draw qi into my body... if I weren't a useless person..."
A deep sense of despair and resentment flashed in Old Ding's eyes. He wasn't afraid of death; he just hated that he died so meaninglessly, without even the right to leave a trace of resistance in this world.
Because he has no spiritual root.
In this world dominated by the cultivation civilization, an insurmountable chasm exists between mortals and cultivators. This chasm is called spiritual root.
No matter how hard you train your muscles, or how proficient you are in combat techniques, you can't compare to a talisman casually drawn by a cultivator; no matter how high your intelligence, you can't understand the profound laws governing the flow of true energy in your meridians.
"Spiritual root..."
Old Ding gripped the dagger tightly; the blade cut his palm, but he felt no pain.
All he wanted was power! A power that, even if it meant burning his life force or enduring excruciating torture, would give him the right to resist!
Just as the rock-armored bear opened its blood-red maw, preparing to swallow this group of desperate mortals whole.
A sudden change has occurred!
"You beast, cease your arrogance!"
A clear, cold, and authoritative female voice, like a thunderclap from the heavens, instantly resounded over the abandoned mining area.
Immediately afterwards, an extremely dazzling ice-blue sword light, like an aurora piercing the night sky, rushed from the direction of the main peak of Jiuhua Mountain!
"boom--!!!"
The sword light, carrying an extremely terrifying, chilling sword intent, struck the rock bear's indestructible dark red rock armor with perfect accuracy.
The temperature in the air plummeted to below zero degrees Celsius in an instant. The arrogant second-tier demonic beast didn't even have time to scream before its massive body was cleaved in two by this terrifying sword intent. Not a single drop of blood flowed from the wound, because all the blood and internal organs were instantly frozen into ice shards by the extremely domineering ice-type spiritual power!
Sold out instantly!
With a single sword strike, he instantly killed a second-tier mutated demon beast comparable to the mid-stage Foundation Establishment realm!
Old Ding and the surviving mortals stared blankly at the scene, their minds completely blank.
In mid-air, a woman dressed in a white Taoist robe, with a cold and ethereal appearance, slowly descended, stepping on a crystal-clear ice-blue flying sword.
She was surrounded by an extremely solid protective aura, almost solidified into ice crystals. The terrifying pressure that belonged to the Great Perfection of the Foundation Establishment stage, or even had one foot in the Golden Core stage, made all the mortals present feel an urge to prostrate themselves in worship.
"Greetings, Immortal Master... Thank you for saving our lives, Immortal Master..." The mortals knelt down and kowtowed incoherently.
However, the aloof female cultivator merely glanced at them indifferently, her eyes showing neither pity nor anger, only the indifference one would show when looking at roadside weeds.
"This place is a strategic forbidden zone of the Alliance's spiritual veins. You mere mortal ants dare to be misled and trespass into this forbidden area."
The female cultivator's voice was icy cold and devoid of any emotion. "Considering that you were used by rogue cultivators, you will be spared the death penalty. But while you may be spared the death penalty, you cannot escape punishment. From this day forward, you will all be sent to the Jiuhua Mountain Spirit Mine Mining Team for ten years to atone for your sins."
Ten years of hard labor! To be a laborer in a mining area surrounded by such high concentrations of spiritual energy and remnants of demonic beasts is no different from a death sentence for ordinary people.
But no one cared about their protests. In this world, the words of cultivators were the laws of mortals.
"I'm not going to the mining area..."
The boy suddenly broke down in tears, crying, "Master, please let me go back! My sister is waiting for me at home to buy medicine to save her life. She will die if I don't go back..."
He struggled to crawl toward the female cultivator, but before he could get close...
The female cultivator merely frowned slightly and casually waved her hand.
An invisible wave of spiritual energy instantly sent the child flying, crashing heavily to the ground and knocking him unconscious on the spot.
"Noisy." The female cultivator coldly uttered two words.
Old Ding gritted his teeth, looking at the child lying in a pool of blood, then looked up at the high and mighty female cultivator, who seemed as unapproachable as a god.
At that moment, he felt no awe, only a profound hatred and madness that seemed to burn his very soul to ashes.
"Spiritual root... spiritual root..."
Old Ding roared silently in his heart like a wild beast.
"Are we mortals truly destined to be slaves and stepping stones for you cultivators, generation after generation?!"