Chapter 100: The Limit

Without the slightest pause, Chen Xian moved like a specter, slipping past the panicked scouts at their sides.
Slash. Slash.
With a series of crisp, splitting sounds, a head flew into the air.
In the blink of an eye, every scout lay dead on the ground, their lives extinguished.
Chen Xian cast a detached glance over the corpses strewn across the earth, over the severed heads whose terrified expressions had frozen forever, then lifted his arm slightly. A dim green light flickered from the storage ring, and every headless body and severed head was drawn into it without exception.
For killing these men, Chen Xian felt not the slightest guilt; instead, a fierce exhilaration rose in him.
The members of the Savage Wolf Mercenary Corps were all wicked to the core. Murder, kidnapping, drug trafficking, robbery, rape... there was no crime they would not commit. So long as it brought money, so long as it stirred their appetite for evil, they would do it.
To kill them was to carry out justice on behalf of heaven.
At this moment, he finally began to understand why the righteous heroes of old loved to rid the world of tyranny and travel the land with sword in hand. So this was what it felt like: unrestrained and intoxicating freedom.

After collecting the bodies, Chen Xian’s eyes flashed with cold light as he looked toward the brightly lit military fortress in the night.

Within the Savage Wolf Mercenary Corps’ lair, a sharp-eyed, thin man with a crafty face hurried before Li Xiong and said, “Captain, both reconnaissance squads we sent out have lost contact.”
“This Chen Xian is definitely a martial grandmaster-level expert. Otherwise, dozens of grenades would have blown him to pieces. The scouts you sent must have been killed by Chen Xian!” Li Xiong’s face was as dark as water, and he ground his teeth. “Even if he is a grandmaster, if he wants to wipe out my Savage Wolf Mercenary Corps, he’ll have to pay for it.”
Earlier, from the reports brought back by the scouts, Li Xiong had already learned that Chen Xian was unharmed by bullets and grenades. Combined with the death of the one-eyed old witch, he had thus deduced that Chen Xian must be a martial grandmaster.
“Everyone, stay on full alert. Send the helicopters up. Load the tanks and artillery... The moment anyone enters firing range, strike without hesitation. Spare no ammunition!” Li Xiong ordered decisively.
As soon as the order was given, tanks turned their barrels with mechanical clanks, their tracks grinding into motion; one armed helicopter after another spun up its rotors to deafening speed and rose into the air, the wind they stirred making the surrounding barracks tremble slightly...

Outside the military fortress, after Chen Xian had killed dozens of scouts, he did not pause for a moment and continued toward the bright lights, like a reaper from the depths of hell carrying a scythe.
As he walked, he turned his mind inward and saw that there were still many places within the strange tree in his consciousness that had not yet solidified or turned red, much less the eighth treasure fruit.
“So many bullets and dozens of grenades, and they only solidified the mysterious strange tree by so little. The eighth fruit really is hard to bring to completion,” Chen Xian sighed inwardly.
At the same time, he felt even more certain that coming here to wipe out the Savage Wolf Mercenary Corps had been the right decision. Only a force with such formidable firepower could help him rapidly solidify the eighth, perhaps even the ninth, fruit.

After checking the state of the strange tree in his mind, Chen Xian continued striding forward.

More than ten minutes later.
When Chen Xian was less than a kilometer from the Savage Wolf’s lair, a blazing searchlight shone on him, leaving him completely exposed beneath the muzzles of tanks, artillery, and armed helicopters.
“Captain, that man has appeared!”
“Captain...”
The men operating the heavy weapons reported to their captain at once.
“Fire at him! Blast Chen Xian into dust!” Li Xiong roared with murderous intent.
Tank gunners, artillery crews, and helicopter pilots all pressed their firing switches at once.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
One shell after another, carrying horrifying destructive power and blazing with searing fire, burst from the muzzles. The tremendous recoil made the artillery, tanks, and helicopters all shudder.
Shells tore through the frigid night sky like falling stars, hurtling toward Chen Xian in a saturation strike that almost completely enveloped the hundred-meter area around him.
Chen Xian raised his eyes to the whistling shells, and his whole body trembled with excitement as his fists clenched.
He was tense, and yet incomparably thrilled and expectant.
This was the first time Chen Xian had ever faced incoming shells head-on, and in such numbers at once. Before this, the most he had endured was the bombardment of dozens of grenades. Compared with shells, grenades were as different as clouds and mud. The gap between them was vast.
Chen Xian did not know whether he could endure this entire saturation bombardment, and that uncertainty was the source of his tension.
What thrilled him was the question of whether, after the mysterious strange tree absorbed the power of these shells, the eighth treasure fruit would finally succeed in taking shape.
Although there was danger in facing so many shells, Chen Xian still chose not to evade.
He stood there like a lifeless human target, lifting his head to watch the shells as they rapidly swelled in his vision...

Boom! Boom!
All the shells burst around Chen Xian in full bloom. The sea of fire swallowed him in an instant, the scene extraordinarily magnificent.
From the watchtower, Li Xiong clearly saw this and a cruel smile curved his lips. He muttered with excitement, “Good! That’s what happens when you’re arrogant enough to place yourself beneath the muzzles of my guns. Even if you are a grandmaster, these dozens of shells may not kill you outright, but they’ll peel a layer of skin off you and leave you badly wounded!”
Li Xiong had seen martial grandmasters before, and he had even witnessed grandmaster-level battles.
Thus, he understood very well what such experts could withstand. A few shells could be faced head-on by a grandmaster, but when confronted with dozens of destructive shells, even a grandmaster would have to retreat.

At the center of the explosions, Chen Xian wore an expression of pure ecstasy. With his eyes closed, he could clearly see vast streams of red energy surging into the mysterious strange tree like a tide, rapidly solidifying and turning crimson.
Very soon, after absorbing all the power of the first wave of dozens of shells, the mysterious strange tree had completely solidified, and even the eighth transparent fruit hanging from its branch had begun to turn red, if only by the slightest trace.
A look of delight appeared on his face as he prepared to receive the second wave of shells.
Chen Xian believed that if another wave of shells were absorbed, the eighth treasure fruit should be able to fully solidify.

Inside the military fortress, Li Xiong, standing on the watchtower, saw that Chen Xian had actually walked out of the sea of fire unscathed, and he was astonished beyond measure. “How... how can he be unhurt?!”
After a brief moment of stunned silence, Li Xiong roared again, “Fire! Blow him to death!!!”
He did not believe that even after all the shells had been fired, the other man still could not be gravely wounded.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
At his command, the artillery, tanks, and armed helicopters fired off dozens more shells.
Chen Xian looked up at the shells streaking across the night sky, and a smile unconsciously crept onto his lips.
However, at that moment, a strand of consciousness suddenly burst forth from the mysterious strange tree and spoke in his mind: “Because your cultivation is still too weak, and you have only condensed three spirit wheels, the super-divine treasure tree has already absorbed the daily limit of external attack energy today. It can continue absorbing only tomorrow.”