Level Up in Martial World

325  One of us

Lu Zhen used the trident-shaped mark on his hand to retract his five fingers. His muscles strained to the limit, with blood and Qi pushed to the extreme, as the invisible intent on his body began to glow.

Boom!

A terrifying shockwave erupted, destroying everything in its path almost instantly. The chess pieces crumbled away as if they had never existed, vanishing in an instant, as the shockwave landed squarely on the guardian.

"Damn it," the guardian muttered, narrowing his eyes. "I'll run out of energy soon if this continues, but I can kill this brat by collapsing this inheritance cave afterward."

As he spoke, he had already made his move, forming a clawing motion with his hand, causing the punch force to stop momentarily.

The earth seemed to collapse, creating a deep ravine as the entire cave trembled under the power of the fist. However, this force could only be halted for a moment before it resumed its course, landing squarely on the guardian.

"What?"

The guardian's eyes widened in shock as he was launched into the air, hurtling through the cave and crashing into countless obstacles without mercy digging even deeper into the ground, almost reaching the place where gravity could instantly crush a normal person.

He wasn't given a chance to retaliate, being flung an unknown distance.

After a brief moment, the guardian suddenly stopped in midair, a small crack appearing on his face. With rage burning in his mind, he shot up from the ground and charged back into the cave.

"You're going to die, you bastard!" the guardian roared in fury.

The entire cave became distorted as the guardian finally became serious, intending to use the full power of the inheritance cave to kill Lu Zhen.

With the power of the entire cave at his disposal, there was virtually no chance for anyone, even at the peak of the First-stage Martial Realm, to survive.

But when the guardian looked around, the place was empty—nothing remained except for the destruction from before.

There was no sign of Lu Zhen. The area was completely barren, and a faint breeze blew through the cave.

"Lu Zhen!"

The guardian roared, causing the cave to tremble as he hurled one last kunai in a specific direction.

Lu Zhen was racing through the narrow cave, and in the distance, he could clearly see the light ahead.

Suddenly, a shudder of fright ran through him, and he looked back with terror in his eyes.

This was a life-threatening danger that he instinctively sensed.

Before he could react, reality itself seemed to shatter like fragments of a mirror, as if the world around him had been nothing more than an illusion.

"No, this isn't an illusion," Lu Zhen muttered through gritted teeth.

He had some understanding of the space element from the Qi pattern he had comprehended. Though limited, it was enough for him to glimpse the space elements around him.

Indeed, the entire cave was rapidly collapsing around him.

"If I don't escape, I might really die," Lu Zhen thought, pushing his body to its limits as he ran with all his strength.

But the place began to disintegrate instantly, not even giving him the chance to take a few more steps.

"Damn it," Lu Zhen growled, and in that moment, all the surroundings began to converge and gather inside his mouth.

Then he started visualising a catapult in his mind. The slither amount of mana hidden in his heart slowly started to move in place as a rock structure gradually formed in front of Lu Zhen.

"It's too slow." Lu Zhen's eyes flashed with an indescribable light as he fully focused on the construction of this.

The mana had the power to bend nature as it liked, and this was very possible. If Lu Zhen were a stronger mage, he could very well create a castle out of thin air and other things.

In just the blink of an eye, the catapult was built even higher than Lu Zhen. He then strung himself to the rubber part of it and with one forceful pull, he launched himself from the small hole that was left outside the place.

Lu Zhen's mind raced, instinctively calculating the distance to the cave's exit as his eyes narrowed in determination. The tunnel ahead was dark and twisted, with jagged stone walls closing in like the jaws of a predator. The ground beneath his feet trembled with each step, dust falling from the ceiling as the entire cave seemed on the verge of collapsing.

"I can't make it."

In that moment, a sudden, bone-chilling sensation washed over him, his heart skipping a beat. Instinctively, he glanced over his shoulder and his blood ran cold. Behind him, a wall of fire and debris, a violent explosion, tore through the cave, consuming everything in its path.

"Damn it!" Lu Zhen cursed under his breath, his heart pounding in his chest as he gritted his teeth and pushed himself forward. His legs burned as he sprinted faster than ever before, the walls of the cave blurring around him. Just as he was about to reach the exit and the cave was about to collapse, he turned around and braced for the impact, crossing his arms to shield himself.

Boom!

The ground seemed to collapse instantly, leaving nothing intact. Lu Zhen's body was thrown like a ragdoll, his small, battered form tossed through the air as if weightless. His clothes were shredded, and his skin was torn and bruised, blood trailing in the wind as he flew towards the cave's entrance. Every bone in his body screamed in agony, but his mind remained focused on one thing: I must survive. As expected because of the propelling force he instantly got out as the cave was destroyed behind him.

"This brat withstood the strike of my master just to get out of that place." The guardian squinted his eyes and then chuckled with an amused smile, knowing there was no way for Lu Zhen to survive.

It was the strike of a Union and Separation expert. Although countless centuries had passed, weakening the power significantly, killing a first-stage martial artist was still as easy as crushing a bug. Lu Zhen's entire body was broken, and even if he were an ancient martial artist, there was absolutely no way to recover.

"Finally, I can have my freedom."

A red light flickered in the guardian's eyes, glowing from the darkness as he fell into sleep once again, waiting for others to come. But if anyone had the chance to become his master, he would kill them without hesitation.

Lu Zhen appeared in the outside world, completely tattered and broken, lying in an unknown lush forest.

His arms and legs were almost entirely scorched, his bones shattered to the point where they felt like dust.

All his internal organs were either destroyed or severely burned, even his heart had been obliterated.

He lay in a completely deflated state, his vacant eyes staring up at the sky. There seemed to be no life left in Lu Zhen.

Though numerous prompts from his level-ups and skills flashed in his mind, they offered no help in this near-death state.

Yet, there was still a faint trace of his Plant Qi that lingered in his body, glowing with a strange resonance.

"He… is… one… of… us…"

"One… of… us…"

"One… of… us…"

"Let's… help… him…"

The voices were numerous however all of them were very hoarse and extremely slow, like that of an old man, only audible to Lu Zhen, who had long fallen unconscious.

Slowly, vines began to extend from the trees and wrap around Lu Zhen, covering him and shielding him from the outside.

One of the vines bore a peach fruit, which was crushed, and the juice flowed into Lu Zhen's mouth.

An incredible miracle occurred as Lu Zhen's shattered internal organs began to regenerate and his wounds healed at a rapid pace. His condition improved within moments.