The rose vines were thick with sharp, purple thorns; the tendrils were as hard and resilient as forged alloy. The fragrance of the scattered rose petals, tumbling wildly in the whirlwind, was intoxicating. The pink mist arose from the pollen shed by the blossoms—a single breath inhaled by an ordinary person would mean instant death, and even an average innate-level fighter would be incapacitated for days by the petals and pollen.

Gu Yechen shot out jets of Gang Qi from within his body, forcing the myriad petals and pollen away so they could not approach. With a slight flick of his finger, just as a vine neared his sternum by about a centimeter, he batted it away. Clang! A heavy sound echoed as Gu Yechen’s finger went numb from the impact, while the vine, slicing the air with a blade-like whistle, was flung over ten meters away. Yet, in an instant, it coiled back, twisting around to ensnare Gu Yechen again.

The figure floating in the black whirlwind uttered a single, cold sound—a deep rumble like thunder, carrying the unique rushing tide sound of a gale sweeping across vast pine forests. The tall grasses within several hundred meters suddenly thrashed; the blades, tough as hardened reeds, tore loose from their roots and shot straight up into the air, descending upon Gu Yechen like thousands of flying swords.

The sky-full of grass blades shot toward Gu Yechen with frightening speed, while simultaneously shrinking rapidly. By the time the blades were about to pierce Gu Yechen’s body, they had condensed to the size of a palm. The long grass of the original Triangular Hell Island was already hard and sharp; compressed from over two meters long to palm-sized, these blades were now exquisitely keen, solid as metal.

Roaring in frustration, Gu Yechen swept his hands toward the ground, unleashing two torrents of Gang Qi that blasted the earth upwards in towering waves nearly a hundred meters high. Amidst the rising smoke and dust, Gu Yechen shot into the sky. He shook his hand, unleashing thirty-six strikes of the Cloud-Severing Palm toward the dark silhouette in the whirlwind. The palm force was erratic yet sharper than any blade; spurred by the invisible power, countless grass blades instantly pulverized into dust. The solid black column of the whirlwind suddenly bore thirty-six gaps, each the size of a washbasin. The dark figure hidden within the wind column grunted, staggering out while dragging a single rose vine.

This was a middle-aged man with dark green skin and intensely bright, crystalline light flashing in his eyes, like two polished emeralds. He had tightly curled hair and thick lips, clearly indicating he was not of pure native blood. However, the green skin and green eyes immediately reminded Gu Yechen of the Spirit Kin, the vassal race to the Roman people.

This man was Colonel Hurulu, the Operations Director of the Alps Integrated Defense Corporation, holding the title of "Wood Emissary."

Stamping his feet forcefully in mid-air, two wisps of cloud-light flashed and vanished from the combat boots formed by his Cloud Boots. Gu Yechen strode through the air as if walking on a solid avenue beneath his feet. In just a few leaps, he traversed nearly a thousand meters. The incredible speed and agility of his movement—his bizarre traversal of the void by stepping on nothing—startled Mayar, Sharu, and Hurulu.

He tilted his body down, diving into the undulating sea of tall grass and scrubland, and Gu Yechen barked fiercely, “Good, good, good! The three of you joining forces against just me?” Mayar and Sharu remained hidden in the distance, offering no response, only Hurulu gruffly called out, “Once we defeat you, we can divide that five percent development right… less talk, this way we can also retain the Gu Group’s shares. Rather than letting us fight amongst ourselves and allowing you to benefit greatly, we’d rather unite and eliminate you first!” He swung the nearly hundred-meter-long rose vine in his hand, and simultaneously, a massive wave of green mist spewed from the surrounding shrubs. Distinctly visible on his body were five palm prints, each an inch deep. Hurulu comfortably inhaled this large cloud of green mist; the palm prints on his body vanished without a trace, and his slightly trembling voice suddenly became robust and full of vigor.

“Excellent, truly despicable villains! I like it!” Gu Yechen poked his head out from a clump of tall grass, giving Hurulu a thumbs-up. “My estimation was the same; the four of your houses would surely band together against me. But where is Colonel Du Han, the ‘Wasteland Tyrant’ from the Leighton Corporation?” “I am here!” The ground beneath Gu Yechen suddenly trembled. Two massive, earth-yellow hands, each as thick as a foot, burst from the soil and clamped fiercely onto his ankles. The earth began to surge and ripple, becoming soft and swampy. An immense force pulled from underground, the two great hands yanking Gu Yechen’s body downward. In an instant, the wet, soft ground submerged him up to his waist.

Whoosh! At least fifty Cyclone Slashes roared in from a distance, snapping the tall grasses and shrubs along their path. Each Cyclone Slash was closely followed by a pellet-sized, bluish-black crystal. Under the cover of the terrifying momentum of the Cyclone Slashes, the movement of the crystals was perfectly concealed.

Hurulu’s body merged into a nearby thicket of shrubs. A moment later, he sprang out from a patch of tall grass a hundred meters away. Utilizing the dense island foliage, Hurulu crossed nearly two thousand meters in less than three seconds, lunging to within a hundred meters of Gu Yechen. He swept his hands, and his ten fingers shot open like sprouting seeds. Dozens of rose tendrils, as thick as little fingers, whistled out, flashing with cold purple light and tearing fine air currents with a harsh whistling sound, viciously stabbing toward Gu Yechen’s vital points.

“Hahahaha!” Gu Yechen erupted in a series of laughter, loud and resounding like thunder. He had painstakingly rehearsed this exact scenario with Peng Huaran, Li An, and the others over a dozen times the previous night. The chest cavity was certainly no gentleman, and Siren was completely unrelated to gentlemen. Coupled with input from the wicked and monstrous elements of the Nine Nether Path, Gu Yechen was fully prepared psychologically to handle this siege.

He swung his right hand heavily toward the ground, and a barely visible purple light surged down his right arm and into the earth.

Several muffled thuds of physical impact sounded from beneath the ground, concluding with a tremendous explosion. A figure, impossibly stout and standing over two meters thirty tall, roared as he flew out of the earth, taking with him a slab of ground roughly fifteen meters square. Under Hurulu’s horrified gaze, this fifteen-meter-square section of earth suddenly solidified into five colossal boulders, each several meters in diameter, which then smashed and crushed down upon the robust body like giant millstones.

A thick arm wrapped around Gu Yechen’s waist. Just as he was about to be struck by Mayar, Sharu, and Hurulu, Gu Yechen was suddenly enveloped by a mass of earth-yellow vital energy. Everyone watched as Gu Yechen vanished within that earthy aura. Hurulu’s flower tendrils sliced through the air, plunging deep into the ground, followed immediately by the Cyclone Slashes and crystals slamming hard into the earth.

With a massive boom, a crater exceeding twenty meters in diameter appeared on Triangular Hell Island.

The center of Triangular Hell Island housed an active volcano, a direct conduit connecting to the magma lake beneath. Crimson lava churned and erupted from the great crater. The immense energy contained within the Cyclone Slashes and crystals detonated within the magma lake… The island’s central volcano suddenly spewed a stream of lava hundreds of meters high.

The entire island shuddered. The lava flow cooled rapidly in the high atmosphere, and blackish-red, semi-solid chunks of rock, the size of millstones and radiating rolling heatwaves, rained down from above.

The island instantly became a living hell; every falling stone punched a deep indentation into the ground, and a sea of fire consumed the entire… island.

Xin Jia rapidly traversed underground with Gu Yechen. Gu Yechen’s mental fluctuations had locked onto a powerful energy signature ahead.

Mayar, clad in the Four-Star Slayer combat suit, stood atop a volcanic rock stack over ten meters high. Before her, a circle of churning cyan wind spun rapidly. Thousands of ultra-fine wind threads flowed in from all directions, either surging into or shooting out from this core eye. The wind threads blanketed the entire Triangular Hell Island, allowing Mayar to sense every rustle of wind or movement on the island.

However, Gu Yechen had submerged and was tunneling underground—earth being the natural nemesis of wind-element abilities. Not a single wisp of wind could penetrate the ground to locate Gu Yechen’s trace.

A thousand meters to Mayar’s east, atop a huge boulder, stood the man clad in the Four-Star Slayer suit, covered by an opulent white velvet cape—as flamboyant as could be—the Purple Crystal Earl Sharu. Dozens of bluish-black crystals, the size of fists, spun rapidly around his body, creating a dull sound of air being ripped apart. Before the Purple Crystal Earl was a rhomboid light mirror, through which he could clearly see a tiny ant crawling over the tall grass thousands of meters away.

A strong wind blew from the front, and the raging fire slowly encroached upon Mayar and Sharu.

Whoosh! Hurulu burst out of the inferno, smelling heavily of char. By chance, Hurulu had been struck by a massive lava flow plummeting from the sky; large globs of molten rock still clung to him, radiating intense heat. He roared in a hoarse voice, “Did either of you spot that guy’s shadow? More than half the vegetation on the island is burned; my reconnaissance ability has been greatly weakened.”

A massive silhouette suddenly descended from the sky, landing heavily. His feet met the ground solidly, causing the surrounding earth to tremble. Colonel Du Han, imposing and towering, shrieked, “That guy broke the rules! There’s an earth-elementalist underground; he ambushed me! His physical power is even greater than mine—he was the one who blasted me into the sky!”

Mayar, Sharu, and Hurulu were stunned by the words. They simultaneously shouted, “Impossible! He would never dare violate the rules!”

The velvet cape around Sharu suddenly disintegrated into countless tiny shreds of fluff, scattering away. He screamed, “Damn it, that guy is a Jieshi (Realm Master)! In the intelligence recovered from the Hallsom family smuggling ship intercepted by the Hell Angel Mercenary Group, there was a rare Black Christo Crystal Sphere! Damnation, he’s a Jieshi! He’s an unregistered Jieshi!”

Mayar cried out in shock, “Damn it, no wonder the Special Management Committee these last few days… these bastards… they took our money and didn’t even tell us the truth!”

Before the words faded, a massive BOOM sounded. The volcanic rock beneath Sharu suddenly shattered into dust amidst a blinding yellow light. A straight, smooth stone spear, as thick as a foot, erupted from the broken boulder with the force of a thunderbolt. Sharp and hard, its tip wrapped in yellow lightning energy, it slammed brutally into Sharu’s body before he could even react.

“………………….”

I can only say, poor Sharu… Being blown up is not a pleasant experience… Comrades, smash those votes, or else someone will always get blown up!