Chapter 200: Stealing Grass
With the deal done, Tang Jie and Cai Junyang separated, Cai Junyang going north to find Wei Tianchong while Tang Jie went to Thunderbird Cliff.
He didn’t charge straight into Thunderbird Cliff. He circled around it, carefully avoiding the warning line of the Thunderbirds and making his way around to the rear of the cliff.
After making his way through a thick forest, Tang Jie finally arrived at a spacious valley that was awash in blue grass.
This blue grass was found throughout this valley and grew to a height of half a meter. Each blade of grass had a little blue flower, and when they danced in the wind, it appeared like the waves of the ocean. Occasionally, a spark of electricity would jump out from the flowers.
Once night fell, the sparks would be particularly dazzling in this field, weaving an enchanting tapestry.
Tang Jie chuckled and muttered, “Thunderspirit grass… It really is thunderspirit grass!”
Thunderspirit grass was a special kind of lightning spirit plant. It didn’t have much medicinal use, but it was very important to Thunderbirds. This was because Thunderbirds drew their lightning powers from the thunderspirit grass. This was precisely why thunderspirit grass had to exist wherever Thunderbirds lived.
For Tang Jie, taking on so many Thunderbirds on his own clearly wasn’t a smart idea. But with this thunderspirit grass, everything changed.
This was because if he picked enough thunderspirit grass and used it to refine himself, he could nurture a resistance to electricity.
As he cultivated the Parting Classic, he deepened his understanding of it.
The growth provided by the Parting Classic depended not only on how he trained after taking the bath, but also on the medicinal materials he used, as different ingredients would lead to different directions.
In the past, he had bought all sorts of ingredients, so he had developed in a balanced fashion and had become unable to see the difference that came from different types of baths.
But this time, things were going to be different.
To kill the Thunderbirds, Tang Jie needed to improve his resistance to electricity, and this thunderspirit grass was his best choice.
Vast swaths of thunderspirit grass grew before him, and what Tang Jie needed to do was take them and bathe in them.
This was the greatest problem famous fiend beasts faced: because they were famous, much of the information about them wasn’t a secret.
While the areas the maps had marked all played host to fiend beasts that were extremely difficult to deal with, they were also the most exposed fiend beasts. Anyone with the intention and sufficient conditions could develop countermeasures against them.
Fiend beasts like the Quadeye Mantipede, which nobody knew about, were far more difficult to target in comparison.
Of course, stealing thunderspirit grass from under the Thunderbirds was itself a major test.
Fortunately, Tang Jie was ready for this.
He didn’t immediately pick the grass. He first retreated to the forest and began to look around.
Fortunately, after looking around, he managed to find what he was looking for: an unlucky large turtle that had just emerged from a small river nearby.
The turtle had lived for some time, but its progress was extremely slow. For it, the rule that fiend beasts that lived one hundred years would reach Mind Opening didn’t seem to apply. Even after three hundred years, it was still at Spirit Sensing’s lower grade, and an extremely awful lower grade at that. When Tang Jie grabbed it, it immediately drew its head into its shell in fear.
Raising the turtle, Tang Jie tested the toughness of its shell using the Heartbreak Saber. He estimated that it was about as tough as him when he used the Formless Golden Body, which was perhaps the only praiseworthy thing to be said about this old turtle.
Tang Jie carried the turtle back to the thunderspirit grass field. Glancing at the distant Thunderbird Cliff, he chuckled and then threw the old turtle with all the strength he had.
This full-strength toss had the turtle sailing like a shot ball toward Thunderbird Cliff.
Although it was late at night, the electricity of the thunderspirit grass lit up the place as brightly as day, and the turtle itself wasn’t small. As it flew over, it immediately drew the attention of the Thunderbirds. With a shriek, ten-some Thunderbirds flew at the turtle.
The turtle stopped hiding in its shell, its head and feet emerging and flailing around in the air to no avail.
Lightning gathered in the air, and then flashed as it slammed down on the turtle.
Tang Jie focused his vision and watched as the lightning struck the turtle, producing a shower of sparks. The electricity hissed as it traveled through the turtle’s body, roasting its flesh. The turtle’s neck extended as it hissed in pain. It wanted to draw its exposed limbs back into its shell, but the electricity had completely paralyzed it.
More lightning soon fell, and with a rumble, the old turtle was blasted into chunks of flesh that rained down on the area.
The Thunderbirds rushed up and began to peck at the turtle’s flesh, and there was soon nothing left. The birds cried out as if they were announcing that this was their territory before returning to their nests.
Thirty-four bolts, Tang Jie silently counted. Their strength is average, but that paralyzing effect of the electricity is very annoying…
The Thunderbirds weren’t particularly powerful. Twelve Thunderbirds had flown out, and they had made three attacks in a row, and the turtle had shattered in between the last two salvos.
While the turtle shell was tough, it didn’t have any recovery ability. This meant that if he had been in its place, he would probably be able to endure fifty bolts. These attacks were far less powerful than he had thought. Of course, this was only for Tang Jie. Anyone else probably couldn’t even last through twenty.
The real headache was the paralyzing effect of the lightning bolts.
After being struck by lightning, the turtle had stiffened up, becoming incapable of even drawing back its head. As a result, it had died before its shell had even shattered.
Tang Jie knew that with his constitution, he wouldn’t be as affected by the lightning as the turtle, but even being slightly slowed down would have severe consequences.
Worst of all was that his Aquagel Shroud only had a weakening effect and couldn’t completely block an attack. In this aspect, it was much worse than other defensive spells.
Another student could rely on spell arts to take the attacks. So long as their barrier didn’t break, the electricity would find it difficult to paralyze him. But Tang Jie couldn’t do that.
With all those lightning bolts coming down, there was simply no way he would be able to endure.
Understanding this point, Tang Jie completely gave up on the idea of using his body to take all the attacks. “I’ll just have to sharpen my spear right before battle. Fortunately, I still have this.”
Tang Jie flipped his hand over, and a light floated up from his palm. It was none other than the copy of the Divine Firmament Sword Classic he had made.
This copying spell was something he had learned from the Divine Firmament Sword Classic. It stored the copy in the body, allowing it to be hidden and used at any time. It was truly an exquisite spell art.
As the night deepened, the Thunderbirds gradually fell asleep.
The world was quiet and serene, the occasional flash from the thunderspirit grass casting shadows nearby.
A figure furtively crept toward the thunderspirit grass field.
Cautiously glancing at the distant cliff, Tang Jie didn’t immediately take action. He first carefully released some spiritual energy to lay down a minor bewildering formation.
Minor bewildering formations were too low of a level to fool the Thunderbirds, but it was late at night and they were far away, so the Thunderbirds would already have a difficult time noticing him. With the help of this minor bewildering formation, he would be able to hide from the Thunderbirds.
Once he was done with the formation, Tang Jie slowly extended a hand toward a nearby thunderspirit grass.
Bzzt! A flash of electricity struck his hand.
Tang Jie seemed to not notice as his fingers landed on the little blue flower. He pinched his two fingers, plucking the flower, and with a flick of the wrist, he threw it into his bag.
The thunderspirit grass immediately dimmed.
Tang Jie continued forward, carefully moving around the field and plucking the flowers of the thunderspirit grass. Just when he had picked his twelfth flower, an animal suddenly popped out of the ground. It looked like a small squirrel, with a large pair of eyes. It glared at Tang Jie and then let out a loud shriek.
It was so plaintive that it instantly tore through the night sky.
Thunderbird Cliff instantly erupted with electricity.
“Damn it!” Tang Jie cursed.
This squirrel was known as the Warning Mouse. It had little ability of its own, but it was an expert at noticing movement and sending out warning signals, and it was naturally born with the ability to see through illusion spells. By relying on this talent, Warning Mice were able to collaborate with all kinds of fiend beasts. The fiend beasts protected the Warning Mice, and the Warning Mice would serve as sentries. It was a classic example of a symbiotic fiend beast.
Tang Jie hadn’t expected there to be a Warning Mouse here. He crushed the little squirrel to death, and then a golden light flashed out of his hand as he cut down a large swath of the thunderspirit grass, sweeping up their flowers with the golden thread and bringing them back.
Tang Jie opened his bag to receive them, and then, heedless of whether he had managed to get all the flowers or not, he turned and ran.
Shrieks came from Thunderbird Cliff as two squads of Thunderbirds went after him.
Lightning was already flashing in the skies.
Tang Jie activated the Violet Lightning Lunge and rushed into the forest, using the trees to obstruct the vision of the Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds continued to chase him down, lightning bolts cracking down at Tang Jie as they screeched.
Tang Jie continued to desperately sprint forward as pillar after pillar of lightning slammed down behind him. As he ran, a wall of lightning was laid out behind him.
Tang Jie felt like he was a soldier fleeing amid bombers and machine guns. Lightning struck down all around him, tossing up dirt and felling trees.
At the very front of the chase were two middle-grade Thunderbirds. They both screeched and flapped their wings, and the plumes on their heads flashed. Two thick lightning bolts appeared in the sky and cracked down.
Just when they were about to strike Tang Jie, Tang Jie leaped, brushing past a tree. One lightning bolt struck the tree, instantly chopping it in half, while the other struck him.
At this moment, Tang Jie’s body flashed with light, and he managed to block the lightning bolt.
The Darkice Barrier!
This was a defensive spell recorded in the Divine Firmament Sword Classic, and the strongest. It excelled in defending against all attributes and persisted the longest.
Tang Jie had naturally never learned it before, but there was no harm in learning it on the spot and using it.
Ad-hoc learning like this would soon vanish if it were not trained any more, but it was just like cheating to get the answer on the test. Even if these answers wouldn’t become knowledge that the student would keep for the rest of their life, it was fine for passing the test.
Before stealing the grass, Tang Jie had wasted a significant amount of time following the diagrams and learning the Darkice Barrier, and he wouldn’t even be able to cast it once without looking at the copy. But at least his Darkice Barrier was real and had succeeded in blocking the thunderbolt.
After enduring this vicious blow, Tang Jie continued forward. He specifically sought out forests to hide, using the trees as cover as he rushed forward, his Darkice Barrier occasionally flashing.
As the Thunderbirds continued their assault, the Darkice Barrier began to reach its breaking point.
Finally, a small river appeared in front of him.
Tang Jie jumped out of the forest and flipped into the river. At the same time, several thick lightning bolts came down, making direct contact with Tang Jie. This time, there was no dodging. The Darkice Barrier shattered, and then Tang Jie’s body went stiff.
A moment later, he dropped into the water and disappeared.
The flock of Thunderbirds circled in the air, but they couldn’t find any sign of that damned human. They vented their rage by firing a salvo of thunderbolts at the river and throwing up vast waves before leaving.
After a little while, Tang Jie appeared at the other end of the river.
Letting out a long breath, Tang Jie looked up at the sky and muttered, “The numbing time is a little less than two seconds. Pretty good.”
Tang Jie had intentionally taken that attack to test his ability.
Massaging his sore body, Tang Jie walked over to a nearby tree.
He now needed to bathe his body using the thunderspirit grass to increase his resistance to lightning. Even though he still had far too little thunderspirit grass to resist the attacks of the Thunderbirds, Tang Jie didn’t care.
So long as he persevered, many little things would add up to something great.
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