Chapter 121: It Couldn't Possibly Be Any Cooler!

Upon hearing the explosions echoing from the woods, Xiang Nan and Xu Jiya both froze in unison.

"That's not right. Why does this sound so familiar?" Xiang Nan frowned, searching his memory.

"It’s Yaoyao’s Thunder Beads! She really is in the woods!" Xu Jiya nearly shrieked. "She must be in danger; she wouldn't be using them so frequently otherwise..."

Before Xu Jiya could finish, she felt her weight lighten as Xiang Nan scooped her up with one arm and vaulted into the forest.

"Damn it! That big wildcat’s intelligence is truly something else! Let’s hurry and back her up!"

Bolstering his body with spiritual energy and navigating through the formations of the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, Xiang Nan moved like the wind. With Xu Jiya in tow, he raced toward Su Yao at a speed rivaling teleportation.

"Big wildcat, you’d better be okay!" he muttered, his pace unyielding.

Deep in the dark woods, another massive web of vines swept toward Su Yao, its countless sharp thorns pointed directly at her. On the ground, deadly vines writhed like serpents, having long since cordoned off the area.

Her supply of Thunder Beads had run dry, and these vines, like an endless swarm of locusts, turned the already dim night into absolute blackness. With no other choice, Su Yao cast out her golden needle net, hoping to fend off the lethal foliage. Meanwhile, her cat-like eyes darted around, searching for a weak point—she had to break out!

The golden needle net successfully halted one wave of vines, but it only slowed them down. Since the needles didn't explode, they simply sank into the eerie, resilient vines, causing minimal damage. Only the steel-cable network provided any real resistance, the two forces locking in a stalemate. However, the vines were incredibly agile; finding gaps in the steel mesh, thinner, newer tendrils grew toward Su Yao with frenzied speed.

Su Yao darted back and forth within the trapped space, dodging the aggressive vines. As more and more tendrils slipped through the net, she grew exhausted. A moment of carelessness proved costly: a vine wrapped around her waist and yanked, throwing her toward the ground. The vine was covered in sharp barbs, and even though Su Yao wore a suit of black iron soft armor, she was pierced in several places.

"Damn it!" Su Yao’s heart sank. "Am I really going to be trapped here and become plant food?"

"This is so humiliating. Not eaten by a demonic beast, but by a pile of weeds. People would laugh themselves to death if they heard about this."

She quickly shoved a prepared Resuscitation Herb into her mouth. "No! I absolutely will not die like this!"

She hacked wildly at the vines around her waist with her dagger, her tail lashing out like a whip until she finally forced them back. Exhausted and on the verge of collapse, she scrambled up an old tree and gasped for air.

"Oh, goodness, that nearly strangled me!"

Before she could catch her breath, the vines began crawling up the trunk. "It never ends!"

Helpless, Su Yao abandoned the tree and leaped in another direction. Her heart plummeted—more vines were surging toward her path. It was too late to dodge.

"I, Su Yao, am finished today!" she thought, filled with despair. Even with the Resuscitation Herb, recovery took time, and these accursed vines wouldn't give her a second before tearing her apart. As the tendrils closed in, the faces of Xiang Nan and Xu Jiya flashed through her mind.

"Goodbye, Xiao Nan, Yaya!"

But the next second, the sensation of being constricted by vines never came. A powerful surge of sword energy roared past, narrowly missing her and shattering the grasping vines into pieces.

"It’s Xiang Nan!" Su Yao’s heart leaped with joy.

Turning back, she saw the terrifyingly powerful sword energy tearing through both the vine web and her own net. Through the gap, Xiang Nan charged in like a cannonball. In the blink of an eye, he had pulled her into his arms, even giving her cat ears a casual, comforting stroke.

"Big wildcat, I’m sorry, I’m a little late!"

Seeing that Su Yao’s usually rosy, pretty face had turned deathly pale, Xiang Nan felt a pang of heartache.

"You timed that perfectly—you’re just like the male lead in a movie, showing up at the critical moment. Isn't this romantic?" The gloom in Su Yao’s heart vanished, replaced by pure joy.

Seeing her in the mood to joke, Xiang Nan’s spirits lifted. "How was that? Was the entrance cool enough?"

"It couldn't have been cooler. You're so cool it's unfair, you know that?" Su Yao hugged his neck and nuzzled her head against his chin.

Just then, the vines, severed by the sword energy, began to regroup. This time, they seemed truly enraged, swarming in from all directions with frantic intensity.

"Damn it, come and get it, let's see how you like being roasted, you vine-monsters!"

Xiang Nan channeled his spiritual energy, his hands sweeping in every direction. "Scorching Flame Wave!"

Blindingly bright, searing waves of fire erupted in a radial blast toward the surrounding vines. Upon contact, the immense impact shredded the plants before igniting them into a roaring inferno. The entire forest was suddenly bathed in towering flames and thick, billowing smoke, dragging the surrounding trees into the sea of fire.

"Squeak! Squeak!" The vines shriveled, emitting piercing, unnatural cries.

Xiang Nan, feeling they hadn't suffered enough, condensed sword energy in his hands and unleashed a flurry of horizontal and vertical slashes. Each strike carved gaps over ten meters wide through the forest, the very ground trembling as if it were cracking open. Other creatures dwelling in the woods were obliterated in the wake. Disgusted by these persistent vines, Xiang Nan killed with such fervor he didn't care about collateral damage, destroying half the forest until it looked like a scene from purgatory.

In the middle of the night, squads resting elsewhere in the forest were jolted awake.

"What's going on? Was the forest struck by lightning? How did such a huge fire start?"

"The sky is clear and full of stars; where would lightning come from? This is clearly human-made!"

"Did you hear that? Is someone using explosives in there? That’s brutal. If I find out who it is, I’m staying far away from them."

"Well, it's a good thing they blew it up. I accidentally wandered into that part of the woods during the day and was almost finished off by the Soul-Dark Trees. They just avenged our team."

Meanwhile, the national audience still glued to the live streams late at night gasped in awe.

"Xiang Nan looked so cute selling war camel meat, but he’s so ruthless now! To kill the Soul-Dark Trees, he destroyed the entire Lingxu forest!"

"Holy crap, the explosive power of that spiritual discharge—is he really only at the second stage?"

"You have to give it to that cat-girl, too. She was almost dead, yet she refused to trigger the rescue signal!"

"It’s so exciting in the middle of the night, how is anyone supposed to sleep?"

"No wonder he’s the man who can go head-to-head with the Mad Yama of Supreme Academy. I love it!"

Inside and outside the Lingxu, the once-peaceful night had been set into a restless, fiery frenzy.