He paused, his voice now carrying a chilling undertone. "Those who surrender may live, those who hand over Chen Du may live, but those who continue to resist will be killed without exception."
From this day forward, for every day you hesitate, we will destroy one of your cities, until you hand over Chen Du yourself.
The phantom slowly dissipated, but those words, like poisonous fog, seeped into everyone's minds.
The internet exploded instantly, and the news spread like wildfire—via mobile push notifications, television news, and community radio—everyone was talking about the same thing.
"Did you hear that...? They have someone a hundred times stronger than that behemoth..."
"We're finished. Even nuclear weapons are useless; what else can they fight with?"
"How about... surrendering? At least you'll live..."
"Yes, hand over Chen Du! He's the one who caused this! Why should we die for him?"
"Isn't he some kind of god? Why didn't he come to save us? He just hid himself and made us take the blame!"
"Surrender... at least surrendering will save your life..."
The idea of surrender spread like wildfire; in the face of fear, the human heart is most easily broken.
Some people started an online petition demanding that the government hand over Chen Du.
Some people held up signs in the street, chanting for peace, not war.
Some people quietly packed their bags, preparing to flee to the more distant inland areas.
However, amidst this overwhelming despair and cries of surrender, the official communication channel of the Xia Kingdom suddenly lit up.
Meanwhile, Chen Du, far away in another world, was completely unaware of this.
The Lighthouse Nation president's speech was broadcast live across the entire internet.
He stood in the White House Situation Room, with a group of generals from the Joint Chiefs of Staff behind him, his face tired but resolute.
"I never imagined humanity would come to this." He began, his words slow but each one like a hammer blow. "Our weapons have failed, our cities have been destroyed, and our strongest trump card has been nothing more than a firework in the face of that behemoth. Some told us that surrender would save us."
But I have to ask, after we surrendered, what did they expect us to live as? As their slaves? As livestock they kept? As lambs they could slaughter at any time?
He paused, looking directly at the camera:
"The Lighthouse Nation will not surrender, the Xia Kingdom will not surrender, and everyone who has a breath left will not surrender, because the end of surrender is never peace, but enslavement, and the end of enslavement is only death."
The speech ended, and another wave of excitement swept across the internet.
Some people wept uncontrollably, while others pounded on the table and shouted, "Fuck him!"
The calls for surrender have subsided somewhat, but the underlying sense of despair remains strong.
Meanwhile, in space, aboard the dark starship, the Kema People watched the two speeches, their sneers rising and falling.
"Interesting." A Koma general, holding a wine glass, swirled it gently. "The speech was quite good. Unfortunately, it won't change anything. Do they think they can intimidate us by showing off? Do they think we don't know their true strength?"
The captain sat at the head of the ship, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest. "In just a few days, we have mastered the entire history, all the knowledge, and the entire social structure of humankind on Blue Star."
We know their language, their weaknesses, their way of thinking better than they do themselves; this is the difference in the level of civilization.
A higher civilization looks down on a lower civilization, just as a person looks down on an ant.
No matter how much they struggle, it's all within our calculations.
"Then why haven't you made a move yet?" a young Koma officer couldn't help but ask.
The captain glanced at him and said calmly, "Because of that native. That native killed Yinshi, killed all the vanguards we sent, and even slaughtered many of our spies."
He's the only Blue Star inhabitant of Earth who can threaten us. We've made such a big show of force to force him out. Once he's dead, the remaining natives are nothing more than lambs to the slaughter.
"But what if they really surrender?"
"Surrender?" The captain laughed, a laugh as cold as the deathly silence of space. "From the very beginning, we never intended for them to live. Not a single native of this planet will be spared."
But that native must die first. If he doesn't die, even if we wipe out all the natives, he can hide and slowly cultivate, and he will still be a threat in the future. Therefore, every step we take now is forcing him to his death."
He stood up, walked to the porthole, and looked down at the blue planet below. His tone was calm. "These speeches, this resistance, this so-called refusal to surrender, are just a last-ditch struggle. Once that native's head rolls off the ground, they won't even have a chance to struggle anymore."
This is the law of survival in the universe.
The strong prey on the weak; only the fittest survive.
What the Kema People did to the humans of Blue Star, even on a scale not considered the most cruel in the entire universe.
Some civilizations treat inferior races with such disdain that they find even extermination too troublesome; instead, they prefer to slowly drain them of everything.
To keep you alive is more painful than death; to make you watch helplessly as your race is drained, humiliated, and forgotten, until not even bones remain.
In the eyes of those advanced civilizations, inferior civilizations are no different from livestock, ores, or any exploitable resources.
Killing them outright would actually be a form of mercy.
In another distant and powerful realm, in the Red Sun Immortal Realm, such things happened far too often.
Inferior civilizations might even be raised in large numbers, like crops waiting to be harvested, generation after generation, without end.
Compared to this, the Kema People's practice of killing anyone who comes along can almost be described as "polite."
The series of crises experienced by humanity on Blue Star, from the arrival of the Koma Starship to the rampage of the giant beasts, took only a little over a day.
More than a day.
Normally, a typhoon wouldn't even have passed through, but on Blue Star where Spiritual Qi Revival, a little over a day would be enough to send humanity from barely standing firm to the brink of extinction.
And Chen Du finally returned.
He appeared deep within Mount Tai, his figure stepping out of the void. The moment his feet touched the ground, he felt an extremely heavy aura pressing down from the sky.
That was the oppressive aura of the Koma Starship —cold, massive, and unyielding, as if the entire sky had been replaced with an iron plate.
He suddenly looked up, his gaze piercing through the layers of clouds, staring at the faintly visible dark figure on the horizon, his face instantly turning ashen.
The Kema People have arrived.
A surge of anger and regret welled up within him.
That day, the news was a scam; he fell for it.
But he had no choice but to make this trip.
In order to bring back the Heavenly Master Divine Seal, he chose the most extreme method.
He committed suicide in the Celestial Master Realm, using Inherited Body talent for Hundred-Lifetime Reincarnations to start a new life. He then inherited the Heavenly Master Divine Seal and dealt with a series of matters before returning to Blue Star.
After all, there were matters to attend to at the Celestial Master’s Mansion of Mount Longhu, matters to deal with from the demonic path, and matters to deal with from the demons themselves, so things were delayed without us realizing it.
Only in this way could he escape and return after only one day in the Celestial Master Realm.
Otherwise, he should have spent several more decades cultivating in the Celestial Master Realm, thoroughly consolidating his Ninth Realm and completely refining the Heavenly Master Divine Seal.
But he dared not gamble. A deep intuition kept warning him that if he didn't return soon, Blue Star might not last until he came back.
He won the bet, but he also almost lost.
Chen Du suppressed his surging emotions, and with a flash, he sped away towards the outside of the mountain.
He needs to find Xiaokui first and figure out what exactly happened on Blue Star during the day or so he was away.
Halfway there, a dark figure darted out from the woods to the side and pounced on his shoulder.
It's Xiaokui!
The black cat's four tails were tightly wrapped around his neck, its whole body trembling, and its voice was so urgent it was almost unrecognizable. "You're finally out! Something terrible has happened!"
It rattled off the details: the Koma Starship had landed, and an Eighth Stage War Behemoth had been unleashed on the ground, slaughtering everything in its path.
Several cities have been destroyed and millions of people have died.
Humanity has tried every weapon imaginable, not even a 500-megaton nuclear bomb could kill it.
The Kema People even projected their message globally, forcing humanity to surrender and demanding that you come out by name.
The whole world is now oscillating between despair and surrender. Although both Xia Kingdom and the Lighthouse Nation have given speeches to hold on, everyone knows that they can't hold on for long.
Chen Du listened without saying a word.
His eyes darkened, and he quickened his pace.
Thousands of miles away, the behemoth was still wreaking havoc.
It rampaged at speeds exceeding ten times the speed of sound, crushing urban areas with every step and turning entire streets into scorched earth with each breath.
The cries of people, the sounds of collapsing buildings, and the roar of explosions blended into a symphony of despair.
Countless people knelt on the ground, praying to the sky, but the sky was empty, and God did not come.
Then, without any warning, countless streaks of purple-gold lightning suddenly lit up the sky, as if the sky had been torn open in countless ways.
The lightning bolts struck simultaneously, hitting the giant beast with pinpoint accuracy.
Lightning flashed like rain, like a waterfall, like divine punishment, engulfing the colossal creature, hundreds of meters tall.
The behemoth didn't even have time to let out a complete roar before it was bombarded by billions of divine lightning bolts and blasted into a sky full of black ash.
The lightning lasted for several breaths. When it dissipated, all that remained on the ground was a bottomless, charred crater and a few withered leaves that had been shaken to the ground.
The behemoth is gone!
The whole world witnessed this.
Satellite footage, drone footage, and trembling cell phone videos from survivors—everyone saw the billions of divine lightning bolts descending from the sky, and the seemingly invincible behemoth that turned to ashes in an instant.
In the United Nations conference room, the representatives from various countries who had been in despair just a moment ago all stood up and stared intently at the screen.
Someone cried out, "It's him! He's back!"
The president of the Lighthouse Nation stood there with his mouth agape, unable to utter a single word for a long time.
The Xia Kingdom representative's eyes reddened, and his clenched fists finally relaxed.
The despair on the internet was instantly transformed into a boiling fervor, as if doused with a bucket of boiling water.
"God is back! God is back!"
"I knew he didn't run away; he must have gone to break through to a higher level!"
"What kind of power was that just now? That behemoth couldn't be killed even by a nuclear bomb, yet it was wiped out in a single blow!"
"Where's Kema People? Didn't you say you were going to force him out? He's here, but where are you all?!"
Meanwhile, inside the Koma Starship in space, all was deathly silent.
The captain stood by the porthole, looking at the scorched earth on the screen, plowed by billions of divine lightning bolts, then at the figure that had just appeared, whose face he hadn't even had a chance to see clearly. A look of wild joy immediately spread across his face:
"You've finally shown yourself!"
For them, their goal has been achieved.
Chen Du must die, that's what the Kema People say.