A Farmer's Journey To Immortality - Chapter 496

Chapter 496: Slaying the 3rd Order Verdant Elder
Aksai gritted his teeth and pushed off the beast’s head, barely dodging the first wave of vines.

A wood-element vine under his control threw the Flying Lian Sword it was holding just at the right time.

He landed on the Flying Lian Sword midair, wobbling for a moment before steadying himself. He tried to retreat quickly, but the demon’s vines chased him like living snakes.

Then, one thick vine managed to coil around his flying sword.

It yanked it downward violently, snapping the sword from under his feet. Aksai spun through the air, falling fast.

That was when the real attack came.

From all sides, glowing blue water-element Spirit Spears formed in midair. They spun rapidly, like drills, rotating with sharp howls of wind and pressure.

More vines shot up to act as their launchers, adding force to the spears and giving them terrifying piercing power.

“This beast… he is not holding back anymore.”

Aksai’s eyes widened. He knew that the beast wouldn’t exactly comply with his plan and let this fight drag on for a few more minutes. However, it still had been too soon for his estimation.

He was still falling.

He clenched his fists and summoned a burst of wood-element vines under his control, trying to change direction midair. The vines latched onto nearby rocks and swung him aside just in time to dodge the first spear. He twisted his body again, letting go of the vine to avoid the second one.

But the third spear cut through one of his vines and grazed his shoulder.

He shouted in pain as his body spun uncontrollably. The strike had torn a gash across his left shoulder, blood spraying out. The angle of his fall changed, and he slammed into the ground hard, back-first.

Before he could get up, more spears rained down on him.

One after another, they shot from the sky like falling stars. He rolled to the side, then again, then tried to crawl away. But the spears were too fast.

They slammed into the earth around him in rapid succession, each one creating a shockwave and shaking the ground.

Dust exploded everywhere.

A huge crater formed where he had fallen. Chunks of rock and dirt flew into the air. The sound of the impacts echoed across the field, drowning everything else in a thunderous roar.

The whole area was covered in a thick cloud of dust, making it hard to see anything inside. Aksai’s form was lost in the smoke.

The world went quiet for a moment—too quiet. Only the floating dust and the settling rubble gave any hint of the chaos that had just struck.

The Verdant Elder stood tall, his chest rising with pride as he looked down at the large crater he had just created. Dust swirled in the air, and rubble was still settling. His deep laughter echoed across the battlefield.

“Hahahaha!” he roared. “Impudent human, did you think you could attack me just because you caught me off guard? A mere ant trying to topple someone like me? Do you even have the qualifications?”

Amid the swirling dust, he could barely make out a figure lying in the center of the crater. Limbs twisted unnaturally. Blood soaked the ground beneath the broken body.

Several long water-element Spirit Spears had pierced through the figure’s torso and legs. One had even gone through half of the face.

Thick wood-element vines wrapped around the spear, slowly drilling into the flesh, as if stitching the body tighter into the earth. The figure didn’t move. It didn’t even flinch.

The Verdant Elder grinned wider, enjoying the sight of the motionless form.

“Hahahaha! A mere human trying to beat me using pathetic wood-element Spells? How can someone below my realm best me in use of wood-element spells? Do you even know how precious this Venerable’s bloodline is?

I don’t know what your plans were.

But all I can say is— uggggh!”

One had to say that the demon beast had learned to talk a lot after his 3rd Order breakthrough. It was as if the breakthrough had not only enhanced his Soul Space but also added a lot of words to his vocabulary.

Or rather, he learned to make better sense of all the experiences he had devoured from his earlier human prey after his breakthrough into the 3rd Spirit realm.

But before he could gloat any further, a sudden sting shot up from under his jaw. A sharp, biting pain. The beast flinched.

A split second later, another sharp pain hit the side of his skull where old injuries still lingered. The pain was brief, but it ran deep—too deep.

Then everything fell quiet.

No thoughts. No power. No breath.

The Verdant Elder was dead.

What he had thought to be Aksai’s corpse in the crater was actually the Scarecrow Fiend, disguised and covered in blood to sell the illusion.

He had used Night Wind to mask his presence and slip underground. With the help of an earth-element Spirit spell, he moved beneath the surface like a scorpion under the sand. He waited patiently for the right moment, hiding under the very spot where the Verdant Elder’s massive neck met the base of his shell.

When the moment came, Aksai struck.

Celestial Echo flashed in his grip. A thin, sharp weapon that acted like a needle. It slid up from below the beast’s jaw and pierced straight into his mouth, skewering the inside of his head before the Elder could react.

The weapon moved easily through the flesh and bone, because despite all the roaring and pride, the Verdant Elder was out of Spirit essence. He had poured everything he had into the last attack, determined to kill Aksai no matter the cost.

With no Spirit essence left in his newly formed 3rd Order Spirit Core, his natural protective layer was gone. His body was bare, weak, and vulnerable.

Even though a 3rd Order beast body was typically stronger for any Foundation Building Expert to hurt it even without the natural defence layer, Aksai had made use of the Qi-based attacks to overcome the hurdle. It also helped that the demon beast had been weakened to the extreme before he was dealt with such an attack.

That’s when Aksai moved again.

Three Celestial Shards had already been buried deep inside the Verdant Elder’s skull earlier during the fight. Aksai reached out with his mind using his Qi Sense and wrapped them with threads of Silver Qi.

The threads glowed faintly and linked the three weapons inside the beast’s head, forming a glowing triangle deep within his skull. The triangle pulsed once… and then the Verdant Elder’s brain collapsed.

His huge eyes rolled up. His breath caught. His limbs locked for a moment, then gave out completely.

Aksai took a deep breath and moved back from beneath the beast’s shell, staggering slightly from the effort. He wiped the blood from his face and stood still for a second, just breathing.

Then, with a slow and final crash, the Verdant Elder’s body fell to the ground. His head hit the dirt with a dull thud. The massive limbs twitched once, then stopped completely.

Silence returned to the battlefield.

Aksai turned around and looked at the body of Verdant Elder for a few seconds, saying nothing. His expression was hard to read—tired, yes, but not just from the fight.

His eyes held something deeper. A mix of relief and something close to guilt.

Slowly, he opened his right palm. A small wooden bead rested in the center.

It looked like any ordinary piece of carved wood now. Its surface was dull, and the faint glow it once held was gone.

Tiny etched lines, which had once formed a complex Essence Equation, were now faint like they had been washed away by rain. All that remained was a lifeless trinket.

He sighed.

This was the 3rd Order defensive artifact that Nuya had given him before he left Emerald Cove. A rare item that could create a powerful invisible shield around its user when activated.

It had done exactly that—blocked the final barrage of deadly attacks the Verdant Elder had thrown at him when the beast tried to end everything in one go.

If not for this bead, Aksai would have either been buried in that crater if he was careless. The beast’s overwhelming strength would have crushed his body long before he had a chance to strike back.

OR… he would have been forced to retreat to his last safe zone.

He would have had to flee back to Everwood Farm, hide his wounds, and live with the thought that the Verdant Elder was still out there—stronger, more cautious, and out of his reach.

He would have never been able to launch a successful sneak attack on a 3rd Order demon beast once he was fully recovered. Not unless he himself was a Core Formation Lord.

But now, the bead was spent.

He held it between his fingers, turning it slightly, as if hoping to see even a flicker of light in it. But it remained cold. Lifeless. The power once inside it had vanished the moment it had saved his life.

Aksai knew that for someone like a Core Formation Lord, the bead could have been recharged, restored, used again. It had that kind of potential.

But for him, a Foundation Building cultivator, it had been a one-time charm. A life-saving treasure that could never be used again.

He didn’t feel regret because he had used it to survive. He was grateful for that.

But he had promised Nuya he would bring it back intact.

He looked down at the dead bead again and sighed once more. It had been more than just a tool. It had been her protection. Something she had handed over without hesitation, trusting him with it.

As bold as Aksai was, there was a hint of regret in his chest—not because the artifact was lost, but because he had taken something from someone who had little to spare.

After all, Nuya probably only had this 3rd Order bead as her only capable trump card against a 3rd Order beast or Core Formation Lord. Without this bead, the planning of her explorations would be affected.

“Well…. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind me using it ,” he murmured under his breath.

“But I’ll be sure to make it up to her somehow.”

===

AN: Nuya gives the 3rd Order defensive bead to Aksai in chapter 256.