Ashen God
Chapter 543 - 542: Earth Affinity

Chapter 543: Chapter 542: Earth Affinity

After fighting that tough battle, Zhao Yalan felt her fear had greatly diminished, although the frequency of the Spiritual Sense Warning had increased. Nevertheless, it wasn’t a big deal; it was probably just a minor glitch in today’s Spiritual Sense Warning.

Having forcibly shut down the malfunctioning Spiritual Sense Warning, Zhao Yalan turned her attention once again to Zhang Yanhang’s police boots. She thought that him standing there so stiffly made it rather difficult to remove his boots. Perhaps it would be better to knock him down first, then sit on him and slowly peel off his boots and snatch his head cover.

Thinking this, Zhao Yalan immediately stretched out a hand and shoved Zhang Yanhang’s chest hard. She thought this would knock him straight to the ground, but to her surprise, Zhang Yanhang’s body remained upright and unmoved.

"It looks like I need to get serious after all, good, it’s time to show you how much I’ve grown recently!" Zhao Yalan shook her neck, and her cervical vertebrae made a crisp sound, while she simultaneously stretched her muscles with arms crossed and palms out.

After warming up, Zhao Yalan filled her palms with Spiritual Energy and struck Zhang Yanhang’s chest. There was a muffled thud, and the violent air currents swept up dust and leaves on the mountain top. However, after the dust settled, Zhang Yanhang still stood there, completely unchanged.

"Damn it! I refuse to believe this!" Zhao Yalan yelled, exerting force with both arms while her body’s Spiritual Energy surged wildly. She pushed her straightened hands against Zhang Yanhang’s chest, and her leg muscles also continued to exert force, forming a right triangle slope with her body between the top rock and Zhang Yanhang.

After pushing relentlessly for a full minute without concern for energy consumption, Zhao Yalan looked at Zhang Yanhang, who still remained motionless and at her own rapidly depleted Energy Value. She felt that she couldn’t keep going like this and so she stopped pushing.

Moreover, Zhao Yalan had discovered another problem: not only could she not move Zhang Yanhang when she pushed, but her feet also kept moving backward due to friction and reaction force.

In fact, her rubber soles had even left two distinct black marks on the rock at the mountain top, emitting a strange rubbery smell.

"What’s going on here? He should be immobilized by my Human Immobilization Technique, so why can’t I push him at all? It makes no sense..." Zhao Yalan thought hard about the reasons, "Could it be that my pushing technique is wrong?"

"Yes, that’s right, it must be my technique. Maybe I should try to push him from behind." Zhao Yalan suddenly felt a breakthrough; it wasn’t that she wasn’t capable, but that her method was flawed.

Zhao Yalan moved behind Zhang Yanhang and looked at his knee joint or rather, the back of the knee joint, technically called the popliteal fossa but commonly referred to as the leg pit. She thought, if she exerted force from that spot, maybe Zhang Yanhang would kneel directly on the ground, making it also easier to remove his boots.

First, Zhao Yalan simulated the posture of directly striking the opponent’s leg pit with her knee, but it felt awkward and not very effective. So, she switched to another pose, which, although still strange, allowed smoother exertion of force.

After briefly simulating, Zhao Yalan turned around and with her Spiritual Energy-filled buttocks aimed directly at Zhang Yanhang’s leg pit, she crashed into it, then began to push back forcefully, trying to pressure Zhang Yanhang’s knee joint to force him to kneel.

What Zhao Yalan was thinking at that moment, Zhang Yanhang had no idea. He only knew that although he often scanned Zhao Yalan’s buttocks, he had underestimated its elasticity until he actually felt it himself—truly, being an Awakened does evolve one’s body in various ways.

About a minute later, Zhao Yalan finally moved away from Zhang Yanhang’s thigh because she felt like she was still making no progress, and emotionally, she couldn’t help feeling a sense of despair. No matter how hard she tried, Zhang Yanhang remained unmoved, and she gradually began to feel like giving up.

Compared to Zhao Yalan’s complex emotions, Zhang Yanhang felt a momentary sense of inexplicable loss, which soon faded. After all, although Zhao Yalan’s buttocks as a First Tier Awakened were surprisingly comparable to those of Zhou Muxi, a Third Tier Awakened, it wasn’t worth any sentimental attachment, mainly because there was no need.

"No, I can’t give up yet. I’ve finally caught this guy, am I really going to let him go without achieving anything?"

Zhao Yalan’s pride wouldn’t allow her to act as though she were surrendering, especially not surrendering to Zhang Yanhang, her annoying younger brother—that was absolutely intolerable.

"I can’t push him forward, and I can’t push him backward either, what should I do? Wait, why do I even need to knock him over?"

Zhao Yalan’s eyes shifted, and she looked at the ground beneath Zhang Yanhang’s feet. She might not be able to handle Zhang Yanhang, but as an Awakened, couldn’t she handle a mere rock? If she dug out the ground under Zhang Yanhang’s feet, wouldn’t he still fall?

With a confident smile on her face, Zhao Yalan then took out a chisel and a hammer from the space Artifact she had exchanged with other Awakened.

"This is all your fault! I don’t have class this morning anyway, I’m going to stick with this today! I refuse to believe you won’t fall!"

Zhao Yalan positioned the chisel on the ground under Zhang Yanhang’s feet and hammered down hard. There was a clanging sound, but the ground beneath Zhang Yanhang’s feet showed no signs of damage, and instead, a small piece of metal flaked off the tip of the chisel.

"This... this is impossible!"

Zhao Yalan stared at the chisel in her hands, feeling that things were starting to move beyond her understanding. It was one thing for Zhang Yanhang to be tough since he was an Awakened, but why was the ground under his feet also so hard?

What was the rationale here? Could it be that he had some kind of passive ability like Rooted Feet or Earth Affinity?

"No, I still can’t give up! Even if the ground under your feet has become this hard due to some special ability, it can’t all be that hard, right?"

Zhao Yalan regained her confidence and began to slowly determine the boundaries of this hardened ground. Eventually, she found that about thirty centimeters away, the ground seemed as fragile as normal rock.

After confirming the boundary, Zhao Yalan began to quickly dig downward and, after reaching a certain depth, started digging beneath the surface directly under Zhang Yanhang’s feet. As she had anticipated, the rock beneath his feet seemed unprotected and she easily broke through it.

In the face of Zhang Yanhang she might have been timid, but against the rocks, she threw heavy punches. In just a few minutes, Zhao Yalan had managed to break the last supporting piece beneath Zhang Yanhang’s feet. She was eager to see the comical scene of him falling headfirst due to the tilting ground.

Bang!

With the sound of stones colliding, the ground beneath Zhang Yanhang dropped about twenty or thirty centimeters into the pit.

However, under Zhao Yalan’s astonished gaze, Zhang Yanhang still stood erect and unmoving. From beginning to end, neither his position nor his posture had changed; the only thing that changed was the object beneath his feet. Previously, he was standing on the ground, but now he hovered in the air.

"Something’s not right, something’s not right, what kind of ghostly ability is this that he can stand on thin air?"

Zhao Yalan grabbed at the air just beneath Zhang Yanhang’s feet but caught nothing but air. This confirmed that Zhang Yanhang was indeed standing on air, enough to make Newton turn in his grave.

Seeing the scene that frustrated Newton, Zhao Yalan felt her sense of desperation increase, "Is it really impossible to topple him? Although now, his posture almost allows me to start pulling off his shoes, but what was all my previous effort for if I give up now?"

"No, I can’t give up. It would have been fine if I had given up at the beginning, but if I give up now, wouldn’t that be admitting defeat?"

Zhao Yalan’s gaze shifted toward Zhang Yanhang’s crotch, the centerline of the human body, and her last hope. If she could just build up enough momentum using a burst of spiritual energy to sprint, then rely on the inertia and another burst of spiritual energy to deliver a super flying kick to his crotch, she could surely send him flying!

Just as Zhao Yalan began to plot something perilous, Zhang Yanhang, who had remained still like a statue for a long time, suddenly moved his body. Although not very tired, standing motionless was indeed slightly uncomfortable.

Biological Immobilization Technique!

To prevent Zhao Yalan from going further and doing something unpleasant, Zhang Yanhang, tired of playing statue, simply lifted a finger, and a golden energy ray, as thick as a finger, shot straight into Zhao Yalan’s body.

Zhao Yalan, who had been gathering spiritual energy, ready to kick Zhang Yanhang down and then slowly remove his boots while sitting on him and simultaneously spanking him, blinked, suddenly finding that her body from the neck down had become stiff and unresponsive. No matter how she tried to motivate it, she could only stand rigidly in place.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yanhang, who Zhao Yalan thought had been immobilized by the Human Immobilization Technique, stood calmly in place, watching her. "What gave you the confidence to think that using a Second Ring Magic like Human Immobilization Technique would hold me, a Second Tier Awakened? You’re really underestimating people, aren’t you?

Under normal circumstances, at least a Third Tier or even a Fourth Tier Magic would be needed; although for me, even an Eighth Circle Control Magic from the Third Tier would still be useless."

Because Zhang Yanhang had already elevated his Supreme Will to LV.MAX, as long as his opponents’ Intelligence was not over thirty points higher than his, he could reduce 90% of the effects, effectively rounding up to complete immunity.

And as a Third Tier Awakened has Intelligence at most seventy-five points, his immunity to Third Tier control capabilities is indeed a big truth, not at all boastful; rather, it’s rather humble.

After all, besides this, he could also reduce the effects of Fourth Tier control abilities by 75% and Fifth Tier control capabilities by 50%, akin to possessing a Super Dominator body. There are only a very few scenarios where he might be limited in mobility and attack power, such as being surrounded suddenly by a plethora of Fifth Tier Awakened, each possessing related capabilities.

But in such a situation, to be honest, resistance would already be futile. Regardless, whether controlled or not didn’t really make much of a difference, after all, could Zhang Yanhang really counter and defeat a mass of Fifth Tier Awakened? Unlikely.

"What have you done to me? Why can’t I move all of a sudden? And how did you advance to the Second Tier so quickly?"

Zhao Yalan, having previously distracted by alerts from her Spiritual Sense, had not paid attention to this matter. But now, trying her best to perceive Zhang Yanhang’s power, she shockingly discovered that he indeed seemed to have become a Second Tier Awakened.

She distinctly remembered that the last few times she had encountered him, he was still a First Tier Awakened. It had been just over a week since they had last seen each other, how had he ascended to the Second Tier, and even seemed to have reached the Second Tier Peak? This was too illogical.

"You ask what I did to you—it’s quite impolite to use a Human Immobilization Spell on an unhostile junior the moment you see them, isn’t it? I merely returned what I received."

Zhang Yanhang, looking at Zhao Yalan’s face displaying an indignant expression, couldn’t help flicking her forehead, of course, without infusing it with spiritual energy, and had already moderated his strength. Otherwise, the scene would immediately witness the creation of a stiff, headless corpse.

Snap!

A crisp sound resounded, Zhao Yalan instantly felt a severe pain from her forehead, and this accursed force seemed to spread throughout her body due to some special reason. In just one to two seconds, Zhao Yalan was in so much pain that she couldn’t help but shed tears, her face flushing red.

But curiously, the severe pain arrived swiftly and disappeared just as quickly, vanishing within about five seconds.

The reason, naturally, was due to the prowess in close combat provided by Zhang Yanhang’s Master LV.MAX, which, though completely unnecessary when hunting monsters, truly matched the title of ’Master.’

Even if competing purely in combat skills with those real martial masters from before the revival of spiritual energy, he would undoubtedly overwhelm them easily, not to mention those special forces kings who effortlessly dominate the urban scenes.