My SSS-Rank Skill and System is too OP in Modern Cultivation world

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A single eye of emerald flame opened in the "face." A bass voice reverberated without lips, "Intruders… severed the sentinel chain… You would pluck the Heartseed?"

Kent swallowed. "Tree‑people aren't supposed to talk that menacingly."

System notifications pop‑up:

[Ding! Guardian Awakens: Ruinsong Elderwood

Rank: Level‑B (early)

Sub‑Affinities: Wood / Life‑Drain / Entropic Sap

Intelligence: High]

Ruinsong Elderwood. Kent's grin twitched. "Great. Level‑B tree. Now we have to fight this tree."

Without warning, a volley of root‑spears shot from the floor. Nexus Yang Li danced sideways, blade flashing; splinters burst where steel sliced wood. Kent vaulted over a stabbing tendril, landing beside Nima.

"Support position," Yang Li gave the order. His aura erupted: translucent dragon scales rippled across his shoulders, a martial manifestation of Azure Submerging Draconic‑Style. With a bellow he charged, sword poised to hew trunk from root.

Kent flicked Soul Slasher into a reverse grip. "Nima, support me!" Kent said with a loud voice.

Nima answered with a snap: Raka blurred forward, her soul chains extending to bind an exposed root; Lumo with his battle form lumbered opposite, spectral claws glowing. Auri spiraled above, keeping out of melee but ready to dive‑bomb with his claws.

The rune core guardian responded by slamming both root and hands together. A shock ring of lime‑green pollen exploded outward. Yang Li skidded, raising a spiritual energy barrier. Kent coughed as a prickling itch crawled over his skin, poison spores trying to leech vitality. Frost‑Flame flared reflexively along his arms, neutralizing the invasive motes with sub zero burn.

"Frost fire field! Now!" he yelled. Icy cold flames fanned from his palms, blanketing an oncoming briar‑wall in rime and halting its advance. Steam hissed as vines tried to thaw.

Yang Li vaulted up the ice ramp Kent created, spinning overhead to deliver a descending arc. His sword, wreathed in glacial spiritual energy, cleaved a limb clean away. Sappy ichor splattered the stones, sizzling like acid.

SP nonfiction Popup from the system:

Ding! +400 SP copied from Elderwood (frustration).

Ding! +750 SP copied from Elderwood (pain).

Kent's SSS-Rank skill Copy Spiritual Energy, loved sap suffering. The guardian shrieked, its timbre like creaking glaciers. Severed limb convulsed, growing side‑shoots that speared toward Yang Li's flank. Nima whistled; Lumo barreled in, intercepting the shoots with a cross‑swipe, spectral bear‑claws shattering them.

Nima's soul chains wrapped another root, yank‑snapping it aside. But woody fibers resisted when Raka attacked, his arm blurred as he channeled more soulforce.

Meanwhile Kent conjured his Hellfire, inky black flames streaked with fire around his soul Slasher dagger. "Let's see if you're kiln‑dried!" He lunged, performing an exaggerated cartwheel halfway to throw off root tracking, then slashed a diagonal across the trunk.

Hellfire bit deep, carving a charred groove that glowed ember bright. Where typical flames might feed the wood, Hellfire consumed spiritual integrity, eroding essence.

System notifications comes:

Ding! +999 SP copied from Elderwood (terror). Ding! +999 SP copied from Elderwood (terror). Ding! +999 SP copied from Elderwood (terror).

The guardian reeled, but planted talons into the floor, channeling luminous sap into the wound. In seconds char coalesced to fresh bark; the groove sealed. Regeneration… exactly what Yang Li had warned of.

"Kid," the older cultivator called mid‑leap, "we must rupture its Heartseed simultaneously, too much healing otherwise!"

Kent's eyes flicked to the orb still suspended as a "heart" at the trunk's core, pulsing behind lattice vines. "Copy that!"

At Kent's latest slash, the Elderwood roared. Glyphs along its leaves ignited. All around the dais, shattered masonry shifted, rooting into earthen bulges. Six satellite tree‑stumps sprang up, each extruding a blossom that unfurled into wooden effigies a mini‑Guardians, Level‑C puppets drawing from the main trunk's vitality.

Nima groaned. "Mini‑bosses? Really?"

Yang Li's aura brightened; veins of spiritual energy crackled around his blade. "I'll keep the minis busy," he said. "Kid… prepare your strongest attack. Your fire seems to be the weakness of this tree. When I pin the trunk, you smash the Heartseed."

"Roger that!" Kent called. He skidded back, palms gathering twin fires. On his left palm seethed black‑red Hellfire, on his right palm spiralled cold icy Frost‑Flame. Their opposing temperatures distorted the air. Sweat froze on his right sleeve while smoke curled off the left.

Nima repositioned behind Kent. "Raka, stall one puppet. Lumo, guard Kent." She whistled. Auri and Fatty Li were watching from the sidelines. The watchers were also fighting with the Level-C mini bosses.

Yang Li blurred, dragon‑scaled aura tackling a puppet, then he stepped across to sever another's neck. Emerald sap geysered. He used the recoil to launch skyward, sword overhead.

Up high, he roared "Azure Sky‑Cleft!" A draconic howl echoed; his blade discharged a crescent wave of condensed chi, splitting the main trunk down its centerline. Bark parted, revealing the glowing ruin Core Orb, the Heartseed nestled in woody ventricles.

"Now!" He yelled.

Kent slammed his palms together. Hellfire and Frost‑Flame coalesced into a swirling yin‑yang like disc: center black‑crimson, rim icy blue. He hurled it like a discus. As it flew, the disc shrieked, spewing sparks and snowflakes.

The Heartseed tried to seal its vines by knitting, but Yang Li jabbed his blade into the split, forcing it to keep open. The fire disc hit on the spot.

BOOOOM!

A blast of super‑heated steam and black cinders erupted. The entire guardian convulsed. It's branches thrashing, puppets freezing mid‑attack. Emerald eyes shattered, green energy extinguished.

Kent skidded backward from the shockwave, sliding on rubble, chest heaving. SP numbers cascaded like slot‑machine payouts.

Ding! +1999 SP copied from Elderwood (agony).

Ding! +2000SP copied from Elderwood (Fear).

But the Elderwood didn't fall. From the gaping hole sprouted a lattice of root‑flesh, forming a half‑dome shielding the Heartseed, now cracked but glowing brighter. The wooden ruins core guardian let out a guttural groan and slammed a hand into the floor.

Roots radiated in a circle, weaving upwards to form a Root Cage of ten metre tall woody bars that encircled Kent, Nima, Yang Li, and a few Watchers, effectively trapping them in an arena within the hall. Outside the cage, surviving puppets withdrew, bowing heads as they channelled energy into the main body. Bark knitted at terrifying speed.

Kent wiped soot from his cheek. "It's regenerating even faster. Nexus Yang Li now, What should we do?"

Yang Li planted his sword, aura flickering. "This cage isolates us. If it finishes healing, we're in trouble. It will become very difficult to defeat the rune core guardian."

Nima stepped between two bars, testing them; spectral sparks zapped her hand. "Root wall is alive, it's paralyzing upon touch." She glanced at Kent. "Got any idea?"

He flexed his fingers, feeling frostburn prickling nerves. "I can merge Hellfire and Frost again, but it will take some time."

Yang Li exhaled. "Then I'll cut a breach for as long as I can. Kid, condense your flames in that gap." He glanced at Nima. "My future disciple, you make sure Kent doesn't get attacked by any vines."

Nima scowled at being ordered, but nodded, too much at stake. "Raka, soul‑lock the core on my mark. Lumo, you defend Kent if he gets attacked."

Outside the cage, Fatty Li shook the bars, wailing, "Grandpa—be careful!"

Kent inhaled, pulling both flames again, but this time compressing into a tight comet the size of a grapefruit. Power screamed inside his body. Blood vessels flared under skin. Vision tunneled red.

The guardian reared, raising a trunk‑thick arm, bark now plated with jade‑hard sap. Yang Li burst forward, his spiritual energy glowing white‑hot. He impaled his blade into the arm joint, pivoted off it, and executed a buzz‑saw spin, severing the limb at the elbow. Sap geysered but the limb regrew like a hydra neck. Nevertheless, the interruption destabilized the cage; a two‑metre section fizzled.

"Now, brat!"

Nima snapped: "Raka!"

The soul‑servant and Nima's chains shot from the ground, phasing through bark to coil around the exposed Heartseed, hampering its self‑sealing. Raka attacked with some strong punches.

Kent roared, hurling the compressed Hell‑Frost fire comet through the breach. The ball detonated inside the trunk, temperature extremes imploding into a thermo‑spiritual like nova.

A soundless white flash erased detail. A furnace wind blasted outward. Bars withered, crumbling to ash. Puppets outside staggered, sap lines turning to ice crystals before collapsing.

When sight returned, the Ruin core guardian Elderwood stood like a statue‑still, trunk blackened and rimmed. A jagged hole gaped where its core had been; obsidian frost coated the cavity. Cracks ran up its body, branching like lightning scars.

It took a wobbling step… and shattered. Segments fell, dissolving mid‑air into motes of withered leaves that drifted to the stones before vanishing altogether.

Silence was broken only by Kent's ragged breathing and the distant echo of falling rubble.

System windows flooded:

[Ding! System notifications Guardian defeated.

Many SP notifications of the Guardian dying emotion.]

Kent managed a weary chuckle. "Nice… tree‑hugger therapy session." Then his knees buckled. Nima darted in, catching him under one arm. Frostbite veined his right forearm; Hellfire scorch marbled his left.