"Damn!"
Su Yu quickly ascended in height, watching as the Poisonous Toad was drained into a mere toad skin.
By this time, Zhuang Zhuo had already dealt with the black python and couldn't help but click his tongue when he saw this scene:
"What in the world is that? Doesn't look like an octopus."
Su Yu didn't know either. The creature hadn't fully appeared, and its attributes or name were unknown.
"It must be some kind of bug or insect."
"In normal swamps, there are lots of soft-bodied insects that become very strong upon cultivation."
This wasn't uncommon. Swamps are full of parasites, earthworms, leeches, and horsehair worms. These weak creatures hardly become monsters, but once they do, they're incredibly powerful.
"Let's mark this spot and report it to the base. Let the experienced ones handle it."
"Alright."
Both of them knew this was beyond what they could handle.
After sending the coordinates back, they changed direction and continued their sweep.
A four-meter long Swamp Poison Centipede, covered in a black carapace, crawled across the muddy ground. Its knife-like sharp legs left deep marks in the soft mud.
As it passed a murky puddle, it suddenly paused, raising its head. Its antennae waved back and forth as if exploring something.
Finding nothing, it continued forward. But as it passed the puddle, the water exploded open, and a bright red fleshy column shot out, wrapping around the centipede and dragging it into the puddle, disappearing.
Su Yu immediately launched an explosive Fireball, blasting it down. The puddle erupted, revealing a giant toad with a dark blue back.
Swamp Poisonous Toad (Common): Level 55, one of the Five Poisons.
Attributes: Qi and Blood 5000, Demonic Power 600, Attack 500, Speed 130 km/h, Magic: Leap, Tongue Roll, Devour, Savage Strength.
"Shall we go for it?"
"Let's!"
Su Yu pointed with his finger, and the Ice Soul Sword flashed over the toad's head.
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"Its defense is really high."
The attacked toad let out a loud 'croak,' opening its mouth to spit out the swallowed centipede, launching it like a cannonball over a hundred meters into the air.
Su Yu raised his hand and slammed down a purple qi palm, dealing a terrifying -3120 damage, shattering the centipede instantly.
Not far away, Zhuang Zhuo's eyes widened as he was casting a spell. Losing control, his spell dissipated completely.
"Holy shit, what kind of technique is that to erupt with such power?"
"A Dao technique derived from the Qi Refining Heart Skill."
"Does the Qi Refining Heart Skill derived Dao technique really have such power?"
He looked skeptical.
"Yes, indeed!"
Purple Essence Qi Strength: Derived from the tenth layer of Qi Refining Skill, it uses Mana to condense a qi strength to damage enemies. With talent bonuses, the basic damage is 200% of Qi Refining Skill's damage, consuming 120 points of Mana, with a 15-second cooldown.
His basic Magic Damage is 1600, which means one hit can deal up to 3200 damage. Regular monsters below level thirty are basically killed in one hit, making it his strongest explosive method right now.
Zhuang Zhuo was about to say something, but the Poisonous Toad had already leapt from the water, forcing him to maneuver the Green Wood Ship to evade.
"Bang!"
The airborne toad stretched its tongue, hitting the Green Wood Ship, and the immense force distorted the Flying Ship Shield, propelling the ship several meters away.
"Let's spread out to be more agile."
Su Yu leapt into the air from the Green Wood Ship, pointing with his sword finger as the Ice Soul soared into the sky, striking the descending giant toad.
He combined two fingers and twisted, causing the Ice Soul to orbit the toad's body, triggering three separate damage outputs.
One move, but three instances of damage.
This was a battle technique he recently developed. Normally, a sword move can only cause one instance of damage, but against large and cumbersome opponents, formalistic moves are too rigid, wasting the flying sword's agility.
So he had this wild idea: after causing damage with a sword move, he forcibly interrupts the move, using Sword Control to attack.
Not a sword move, but autonomous control of the flying sword to attack.
In this way, when facing large and heavy monsters, multiple damage can be dealt in a short time.
The sword move causes damage as the toad falls, the move is interrupted, and the flying sword slides down its body, causing further damage. Control the sword to make slight undulations, and a third damage instance appears.
He got inspired to think that if he moved faster and controlled his sword more precisely, could the flying sword cause multiple damage instances in the brief moment it grazes the target's body?
He found this idea very promising and has been experimenting ever since.
Reality proved that this idea was viable. He can now achieve up to three damage instances in one go.
In the same duration of one move, the damage output increased significantly.
The only drawback was that autonomous control didn't have the damage bonuses of formal sword moves, somewhat weakening the power.
However, the overall output indeed increased greatly, and as the technique became more refined, this bonus would only grow. If he could cause four or five instances or even more with just a flick of the sword, even without the bonuses from the sword moves, the total output would be at least double, if not more, of normal sword moves.
The falling toad opened its mouth for a fierce inhale, drawing air into its mouth, causing the flying sword to wobble and deform slightly.
The bright red tongue lashed out, hitting the flying sword with a crisp 'clang' and sending it shooting away.
But in the next second, it arched back up into the sky, returning before Su Yu. He reached up to recall the flying sword, reinfused Mana into it to restore its essence, then sent it out again.
On the other side, Zhuang Zhuo dared not summon the Red Flame Flying Centipede, instead deploying another Magical Treasure—a Flaming Saber that cleaved down, unleashing a three-meter-long Flame Saber Gang.
Against a toad with devouring capabilities, he couldn't risk summoning the Red Flame Flying Centipede. If it got swallowed, it would be instant death.
As a Cultivator on an unorthodox path focusing on Gu techniques, his greatest fear was instant-kill types like this.