"Excellent!"

Garuda was completely unfazed. A gale swirled around her, acting as a natural suit of armor. Facing Su Zhou’s claw strike, she didn’t dodge but instead thrust her head forward to meet it. With a headbutt concentrated with immense Spiritual Power, she brutally knocked his fingers aside. A CRACK resounded as his finger bones fractured slightly. Simultaneously, she gathered her power, her other hand forming a blade that chopped down at Su Zhou’s head like a mountain-splitting axe, as if to cleave him in two.

’Tough, indeed.’

But in the next instant, Su Zhou’s fingers had already regenerated. Facing Garuda’s counterattack—the hand-blade chopping down at him—he actually smiled. "As expected of a Golden-winged Roc, the very definition of power. Even in a human body, your durability is incredible."

"Gale Armor!"

Without hesitation, Su Zhou activated the seventy-eight Gale Seeds he had cultivated for so long.

Minor Achievement in the Whole-Body Gale Armor required only sixty-four Gale Seeds, a stage Su Zhou had already reached before completing his Heart of the Thunder Marsh. After refining his Spiritual Power circulation with his new heart, he had quickly cultivated the subsequent fourteen.

Now, all seventy-eight Gale Seeds activated at once. Plates of Gale Armor surged forth, instantly forming a translucent suit of gale-force armor that enveloped Su Zhou from head to toe. He looked like the very Dominator of the storm!

The next instant, he gathered his strength. Combined with the power of his Gale Armor at Minor Achievement, Su Zhou focused over a hundred tons of force into his arm and threw a punch. Garuda’s descending chop was deflected by the burst of power released as the Gale Armor took shape. With her momentum thrown off, Su Zhou’s fist squarely struck her collarbone!

BAM! A dull thud of flesh on flesh rang out. A hundred tons of force kicked up a gale-force shockwave. It was enough power to dent a bank vault door, yet the blow didn’t even dent the golden-haired girl’s collarbone. It merely sent her body flying backward!

THUMP! THUMP! Seeing Garuda knocked away, Su Zhou didn’t hesitate. Seizing the opening created by his Gale Armor’s explosive formation, he stomped down with all his might. The solid rock ground beside the Jade Pool spiderwebbed with cracks under his feet. Shards of rock flew out, piercing the flesh of nearby Evil Beasts and splattering crimson blood.

"Interesting. You have Wind Aid as well?"

At this, Garuda—who had taken a hundred-ton blow only to be knocked back seemingly unharmed—was finally fired up. She took a deep breath, and an equally dense gale erupted around her, raging through the area.

The Golden-winged Roc is a Demon Beast that represents power and durability. It has no obvious Attributes; its only celebrated traits are its immense strength and a defense that not even a Divine King could shatter.

The body of a Golden-winged Bird is so heavy that as a hatchling, it can barely move or even breathe. But the wind helps them, allowing them to spread their wings, soar, and breathe freely.

Therefore, even though Golden-winged Birds may possess different special powers depending on where they grow up and how they are born, they all share one thing in common: the power to control gales.

Now, seeing Su Zhou—who was clearly a Thunder Dragon but also possessed Wind Aid—Garuda found it utterly fascinating. "What kind of Dragon is your True Body? I can’t wait to find out!"

As she spoke, her golden hair whipped wildly behind her. Facing Su Zhou’s charge, her body began to surge with violent Spiritual Power. This explosive release of energy propelled her forward, and she too charged her enemy. The force of her takeoff blasted nearby rocks into the air, sending them crashing into a nearby Evil Beast.

Instantly, the Evil Beast’s chest and abdomen caved in, its ribs shattered. Blood gushed out as flesh, skin, and bone were crushed and broken!

BANG! BANG! BANG! As the two charged each other, every footstep was like a bomb detonating underground. This was a typical physical battle between those of the Extraordinary Tier. Even the rock around the Jade Pool, hardened like steel by infusions of Spiritual Qi, was crushed to dust beneath their feet.

And the intensity of their clashes far surpassed that of ordinary Cultivators.

Su Zhou thrust out a palm, parrying Garuda’s gale-wreathed claw as it aimed for his throat. His other hand balled into a fist and shot toward her unguarded flank. But after Su Zhou parried her attack, Garuda immediately kicked at his lower abdomen. This forced him to block, and she used the momentum to launch herself backward into the air. Dodging his follow-up, she casually unleashed a volley of crescent-shaped gale blades that sped toward him.

However, his Gale Armor easily deflected and neutralized the gale blades, which were sharp enough to slice through steel. The nearby Evil Beasts weren’t so lucky; some were shredded by the stray blades from the exchange.

The distance between them opened up once more.

’This one... her fighting style is methodical and quite skilled. Did she train by fighting local Demon Beasts, or does she have some inherited techniques? No, it’s probably both.’

As this thought about Garuda’s well-practiced combat skill passed through Su Zhou’s mind, he locked onto her position in mid-air. Without hesitation, he began to activate his Thunder Marsh Way and Divine Thunder True Skill.

THUMP, THUMP! The sound of a violent heartbeat echoed out. Blood full of Spiritual Qi surged through his Heart of the Thunder Marsh, erupting in a violent, cyan-blue Thunder Light. Blinding arcs of electricity, visible to the naked eye, traveled along his veins and meridians, converging in his hand to form a Thunder Spear!

WHOOSH! With a sharp whistle of displaced air, Su Zhou hurled the Thunder Spear—condensed from at least a hundred cycles of Spiritual Power—straight at Garuda. A serpent of lightning danced wildly, wreaking havoc in mid-air. After all, he had Spiritual Power to spare, so using an ultimate move as a basic attack was hardly an extravagance.

"It’s coming!"

Just seeing the prelude—Su Zhou’s heart pounding as it gathered Thunder Power—made Garuda’s heart sink. She knew the probing phase was over. The real fight was about to begin!

Fortunately, she had already figured out how to deal with a long-range Thunder Strike. A few strands of her long hair snapped off, and golden downy feathers floated in mid-air, forming a wispy shield that precisely intercepted Su Zhou’s Thunderbolt Spear!

KABOOM! The instant the solid Thunder Spear touched the golden down, its energy flowed directly into the feathers. They lit up with a brilliant glow, like the filament of a lightbulb. A moment later, a burst of spreading Flame erupted, forming a massive fireball over ten meters in radius! 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

The down of a Golden-winged Bird is a high-grade Extraordinary Material that conducts energy with extreme ease. When a Thunder Strike hits it, the energy is redirected, like water flowing into a high-speed pipe. If the energy momentarily exceeds its conductive capacity, the down simply combusts.

The great fire blazed in mid-air, instantly burning Garuda’s downy feathers to a crisp.

But as the flames died down, Garuda saw that Su Zhou had already taken the longbow from his back. His expression was solemn as he produced an Armor-Piercing Long Arrow covered in dense Runes and nocked it. A vast, ocean-like Spiritual Power began to gather!

Rigid Shooting Technique!