Chapter 622
Chapter 622 - 602: Growth
1,476 words
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8 min read
Behind him, the familiar sound of iron striking rang out, and Lu Ping’an didn’t even look back.
With a casual backhand slap, he sent the Animated Armor, which was only slightly shorter than himself, flying apart.
Then, right in front of everyone’s eyes, it turned into a pile of fragments.
As the debris slammed against the wall and then fell heavily to the ground, Lu Ping’an had already stepped into the next level... the sixteenth level that had been so difficult to reach on that day, the critical point where he had to start facing a large number of third-tier Magic Monsters.
And yet, this third-tier BOSS elite monster that served as a test for the fifteenth level couldn’t even slow down Lu Ping’an’s progress.
Lu Ping’an was an Armored Knight, and this third-tier Animated Armor Magical Beast was also an Armored Knight. When two similar opponents clashed, the weaker one had no room for resistance.
"...You can’t even be solid. What do you have to challenge me?"
Before, when Lu Ping’an encountered Animated Armor, it was like facing a moving fortress, a colossal steel body that was immune to most slashing and impact attacks.
However, when Lu Ping’an himself became an "Armor," his own armor was more robust, and his strength was even more astounding. When there was such a huge gap between the two, crushing the opponent was just a matter of a casual slap.
The metallic body collided with Lu Ping’an, and the "solid" Lu Ping’an remained unshakable while the opponent’s hollow armor felt somewhat "floating" and empty at that moment.
"Four of them, huh..."
Even when surrounded by a forest of Animated Armors, the towering silver knight did not stop.
It was at this point that he finally took out his weapon.
The Giant’s Lance clashed and smashed, breaking through the steel walls... At this moment, Lu Ping’an felt a twinge of regret.
"...It’s still not enough." Disappointed, he put away his lance.
The monsters in front of him were mostly 2-tier Animated Armor and Puppet creatures. Without the bonus of professional templates, the hardness of their armor was nothing but paper-thin in front of Zhi Xi.
[Congratulations, Host! You have gained a small amount of Active Weapon Specialization combat experience, a small amount of All Weapon Specialization experience, and a small amount of armor usage tips.]
Along the way, this kind of prompt was constantly appearing, providing the only consolation.
On this journey, Lu Ping’an’s actions were essentially controlling "Zhi Xi" and his own "Magic Vine."
Each of his steps was actually using his own "weapon," and each of his impacts involved several types of manipulation... After Lu Ping’an abandoned flames and explosions, this pursuit of simplicity and efficiency in actions and battle became a means of improving his control abilities.
Finally, when he reached the nineteenth level, he encountered some different interceptions.
Some ghostly creatures appeared in front of him. These intangible Magical Beasts of the Secret Realm were the hardest opponents to deal with, and their telekinetic power and penetration ability were hard to defend against... When resistance became unrealistic, the Secret Realm naturally changed its tactics.
"Honey, come out and watch God!"
As Lu Ping’an calmly started his training, he naturally logged onto the live streaming platform in the external world.
He was too fast.
He passed level after level, only taking the time it took to walk upstairs.
As before, following the rules, he naturally went from a small window to a larger window, attracting more viewers.
When he reached the fifteenth level and slapped the guarding BOSS to pieces with a single palm, he naturally became the focus and stepped onto the largest stage.
Generally, only outstanding performances after the 20th floor have a chance to get onto the main stage.
However, Lu Ping’an was just too relaxed, his performance on every floor was overwhelmingly superior, naturally evaluated as excellent by Secret Realm’s mechanism, and immediately became the focus of attention.
His dominance naturally attracted a lot of attention and discussion.
"...who exactly is the BOSS here?"
"Isn’t this Animated Armor fighting Animated Armor? Tsk, there are even some similarities. Did that guy get his armor materials from this place?"
"Is he a Heavy Armor Warrior? This level...I’ve never heard of it before, it’s a bit abnormal."
In the beginning, the discussions were still normal, but when Lu Ping’an easily tore apart the third-tier Animated Armor and knocked down the giant Minotaur with one punch, the knowledgeable people finally realized something was wrong.
"...This strength, it’s a bit off."
"Isn’t it? Normally, even a 2-tier or 3-tier professional wouldn’t be able to tear off the same-tier Animated Armor."
"This power...so exaggerated, it’s Decree-level!"
Even the strongest technique needs power to display. When a reckless battle-profession abandons all techniques and simply relies on overwhelming strength to slay enemies, it becomes even more awe-inspiring.
No matter how fancy or fast you are, when I slap away everything with a single blow...this simple and efficient way of fighting makes people feel helpless, even desperate.
"Maybe, it’s just that his current opponent isn’t strong enough for him to show his martial skills."
"Yeah, a warrior at this level shouldn’t have no techniques at all. You can see he still has weapons, just took them back...does he think they’re not worthy?"
At this point, no one regarded him as a "newcomer" anymore.
This level of dominance made people doubt if he was even human, wondering if he was a powerful being from another domain, coming here for training. Otherwise, with this strength, there should have been some news about him.
Of course, this was also related to Lu Ping’an’s short experience. Perhaps in the eyes of many forces, Lu Ping’an’s information was still at the level from two months ago, when he was just a barely 2-tier Gardener.
Now, the Lu Ping’an in front of the world indeed demonstrated Decree-level combat power.
For a battle-profession, Qi and Physique are the foundation of everything. With the help of the unreadable "Sun Bloodvine," Lu Ping’an’s artificial muscle strength was astonishing...and what stunned people even more was that it was still growing. Lu Ping’an could feel it increasing slowly every day.
"Originally, I thought the escalating destructive power was just an illusion..."
The terrifying strength exhibited by the magical armor was partly due to Zhi Xi’s power, but mostly due to the inherent strength of the Sun Bloodvine as "muscle groups." It walked with the armor, becoming its real flesh... At this moment, Lu Ping’an’s Parasitic Tree profession demonstrated a bizarre power: his half-body symbiotic Demon Plant replaced him as the armor’s Power Source.
What was his limit? No one could say for sure, but its potential as a seed was assessed at "Lower Gold" in Life Bank.
Moreover, the symbiotic magical plants would grow infinitely along with the growth of the Parasitic Tree Gardener, which was a basic rule of this line.
It can be said that he merely used its basic ability as a high-level magical plant, without using the "flame properties" that Lu Ping’an originally desired the most. It showed the strength of high-level symbiotic magical plants.
The Magical Vine had formed a "network," covering the entire armor and turning it into a real pseudo-"solid" creature.
Perhaps there wasn’t much change in weight, but once the internal web-like structure was laid down, the strength was entirely different.
Borrowing the control over it, Lu Ping’an’s Active Weapon Specialization and Armor Mastery kept growing. When he stopped releasing fire recklessly, he could feel the wriggling and dominance of the "artificial muscle" even more.
"Thankfully, this is considered my limb, controlled by my thoughts. Otherwise, I would have been crushed on the spot..."
The fleshy symbiotic magical plant, if separated from the host, would just be an "close combat monster" with enormous strength, and its threat would be very limited... It would be just an enhanced version of Lu Ping’an’s previous "Magical Vines," an immobile, senseless natural weakness that could only act as landmines in actual combat.
But now that it served as Lu Ping’an’s limb and was put into the mobile combat platform Zhi Xi, it naturally displayed tremendous power.
What stood in his way was originally a cluster of Animated Armor, but now it had become a pile of debris on the ground.
The audience outside had gone numb. Why did such a high-level boss come to this small Secret Realm? Shouldn’t he be slaying dragons in the military district?
— End of Chapter 622 —