Chapter 533: One-on-One Duel

Hearing that Su Che wanted to fight him alone, the Hidden Extreme Wood Ancestor seemed momentarily stunned. Hesitantly, he asked, “Tian Yu, what do you mean by this?”
“Even if that Survival Order is in my possession, why should I give up the hard-earned chance at survival just to hand it over to you and face death myself?” Su Che replied coldly. “If you want me to hand over the Survival Order, you must defeat me fairly and convincingly. Otherwise, even if we both die, you won’t get anything from me.”
After hearing Su Che’s words, the Hidden Extreme Wood Ancestor remained silent for a long time, clearly unable to figure out his true intentions. In his mind, as someone at the Great Vehicle stage—even if his cultivation was sealed—he believed Su Che should know his limits and couldn’t possibly defeat him in a one-on-one duel. Not even his own invisibility technique could be broken by Su Che…
Then why did Su Che challenge him in the first place?
With this doubt, the Hidden Extreme Wood Ancestor asked gravely, “Tian Yu, are you sure that if you lose in a one-on-one fight, you’ll willingly hand over the Survival Order?”
“Yes, that’s exactly it,” Su Che replied firmly. In truth, this decision came from Shadow. He himself wasn’t sure if he could defeat the Hidden Extreme Wood Ancestor, but out of trust in Shadow, he agreed without hesitation.
“Very well!” The Hidden Extreme Wood Ancestor finally responded. “I’ll make you lose convincingly and hand over the Survival Order willingly. At the same time, I’ll show you that the gap in cultivation levels cannot be bridged through petty tricks, schemes, or external help.”
Su Che remained expressionless and didn’t respond, but inwardly he said to Lao He, “This old guy talks so much nonsense!”
Yet, despite disdaining him in his heart, Su Che knew clearly that to fight the Hidden Extreme Wood Ancestor, he first had to break through his invisibility technique. Otherwise, if the other man sneaked up close and launched a powerful attack, even if he wasn’t injured, he would be sent flying, which would be death equivalent.
“Su Che, I’m going over. Watch out for the shadow on the ground,” Shadow said before leaving Su Che’s side and disappearing.
Just two breaths later, Lao He warned, “To the left!”
Su Che immediately looked to the left and saw a clear shadow of a person on the ground about a hundred feet away—that was the Hidden Extreme Wood Ancestor.

Normally, the invisibility technique of Patriarch Ji Mu, though not one of the great invisibility arts, was still quite sophisticated—It will not cast a shadow on the ground under strong light.。 However, his invisibility technique had already been exposed by Shadow. At this moment, Shadow clung to him, casting a shadow on the ground, which served as an extremely obvious mark. Su Che only needed to attack the location of that shadow.

“Shadow?”

Ji Mu immediately noticed this and was utterly astonished. He didn’t realize it was Su Che’s shadow; he thought his invisibility technique had been broken by Su Che using some kind of light and shadow technique, forcing a shadow to appear. Amidst his shock, he secretly admired Su Che’s tactics—this move was indeed ingenious. With the constraint of not being able to leave the ground, his own invisibility technique was effectively rendered useless.

Spatial Slash!

Acting first, Su Che unleashed his great slashing technique, firing over a hundred spatial blades that converged on Patriarch Ji Mu’s location.

Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh…

With the limitation of not being able to lift both feet off the ground at the same time, their evasion speed was as slow as a turtle’s. Neither Su Che nor Patriarch Ji Mu could dodge their opponent’s attacks and could only brace themselves.

Almost all of the hundred spatial blades hit Patriarch Ji Mu, cutting through his protective energy field to create translucent gaps, completely exposing his figure. These spatial blades didn’t strike him all at once but in sequence. Each blade created a small spatial crack in his protective energy field, followed by the next blade hitting the same spot and expanding that crack further. Then came the third, fourth, and so on, each strike expanding the crack. After perhaps a hundred strikes, it might be possible to break through Patriarch Ji Mu’s extremely strong protective energy field and split his body in two…

“This seems to be…”

Patriarch Ji Mu, being an expert, immediately recognized that the blades Su Che had unleashed were nothing ordinary—they seemed to be a form of spatial power that even ordinary cultivators found difficult to control.

“Could this be another great art he possesses? How many great arts does he actually know?”

Patriarch Ji Mu’s mind raced with thoughts. He couldn’t help but think that Su Che must have relied on some special effect of that pagoda to master great arts that only true immortals in the immortal realm could understand, despite being just an ordinary person.

“If I can obtain that pagoda, once I ascend to the immortal realm in the future, won’t I be able to master even more great arts? I will then be the greatest among immortals…” At this moment, Ji Mu Laozu, who had originally given up on the pagoda and only wanted to leave alive, became extremely greedy—desiring both the Survival Order and the pagoda. “Capture him alive! Taking advantage of this chance of fighting him alone, I can capture Tian Yu alive. Both the Survival Order and the pagoda will belong to me… Haha, perhaps this encounter, which seems like a disaster on the surface, is actually a great fortune and opportunity for me, Ji Mu Laozu!” The more he thought about it, the more excited and agitated he became. Ji Mu Laozu believed that the greatest opportunity of his life was right before him—in Tian Yu standing across from him. These thoughts flashed through his mind in an instant. In terms of action, he still had to dodge left and right, trying to avoid the successive spatial blades. Yet, while hopes were bright, reality was cruel. As soon as Ji Mu Laozu took a small step to the left, he was shocked to find that his feet seemed rooted to the ground, giving him a strange feeling of being unable to move an inch. It seemed as though each foot was firmly held by an invisible hand, forcing him to exert all his strength just to take a step. “What’s going on? Could it be that I’ve fallen victim to Tian Yu’s Great Paralysis Art again?” Ji Mu Laozu had a highly imaginative mind, and in his shock, he immediately thought of another great art—the Great Paralysis Art. Legend said that the highest level of this art could not only freeze a person in place but also control their thoughts, soul, and spirit, making them forget everything, just like being completely unconscious, leaving them at the mercy of their opponent. Since Ji Mu Laozu had been pondering how Su Che knew so many great arts, he naturally came to such a misunderstanding. In fact, Su Che knew nothing about the Great Paralysis Art; it was purely the work of the shadow by Ji Mu Laozu’s feet. The shadow, attached to Ji Mu Laozu’s feet, might not have the power to kill him directly, but it could certainly cause trouble in secret. Although Ji Mu Laozu was at the Mahayana stage and currently had the combat strength of a late Yuan Ying stage, the shadow could easily hinder his movement by gripping his feet. After all, shadows were rare creatures in the entire universe. As that “Shadow God Clone” had once said, in hundreds of millions of years, he had only encountered Su Che’s shadow as another of its kind.

For this very reason, Patriarch Jimu never imagined that the problem would lie with the shadow at his feet. Who would go so far as to suspiciously doubt their own shadow?