Mist Island Incident

"Venina!"

Li Yao stared at Venina's corpse and closed his eyes in pain.

An intense unwillingness and hatred consumed Li Yao's mind, but Shen Mu had completely frozen his body. With his strength, he simply could not break free.

Suddenly, Li Yao's entire body trembled slightly as a peculiar fluctuation of genetic energy surged out from within him.

Buzz!

The light around Li Yao instantly warped as a tremendous force swept outward, breaking Shen Mu's ice seal in an instant.

Whoosh!

In the next moment, thirteen streaks of golden light burst from Shen Mu's throwing-knife pouch, piercing Li Yao's heart, throat, dantian, and other vital points in the blink of an eye.

"Urgh..."

Li Yao's expression froze in the delight he had felt at his breakthrough. An overwhelming weakness instantly swept through his body, while the miniature genetic energy planet he had just condensed was utterly shredded by Shen Mu's throwing knives.

As a transmigrator, Shen Mu naturally knew that once he killed Venina, Li Yao might break through on the spot. He had been watching him all along.

If Li Yao had broken through right in front of Shen Mu and still managed to escape, Shen Mu might as well find a block of tofu and smash his head into it.

"You should have recorded what just happened. Li Yao broke free from my ice seal and showed intent to attack me. Under the War God Palace regulations, I had the right to kill him."

Shen Mu looked at the middle-aged man from the security department in a Tang suit and explained the grounds for his actions.

"I understand the situation. Li Yao was dissatisfied with the general lawfully executing Venina and intended to attack the general. He was killed on the spot."

Through the exchange between Shen Mu and the middle-aged man in the Tang suit, Li Yao's attempt to break free from Shen Mu's ice seal and flee was directly classified as a failed assault on a War God Palace councilor.

Only then did Shen Mu look at Luo Feng beside him with a stern expression. "Inspector Luo, you openly fought a War God-level martial artist within the base city, violating Limit Martial Hall's internal regulations. As an Inspector, I will hold you accountable."

Upon hearing Shen Mu's words, the middle-aged man in the Tang suit wanted to point out that Inspector Luo Feng had not only violated Limit Martial Hall's internal rules, but had also broken the laws of the War God Palace.

However, he could tell that Councilor Shen Mu was clearly protecting his own. Moreover, the strength Inspector Luo Feng had displayed was not that of an ordinary advanced War God, so he naturally said nothing further.

By then, Luo Feng had already looked up Shen Mu's information online. After seeing the rise of Councilor Shen Mu, he immediately felt a sense of kinship, because Shen Mu was far too much like him.

"Yes, Inspector Shen. I am willing to accept any accountability imposed by the martial hall."

Luo Feng was no fool. The martial hall's accountability would be little more than a formality; it was clearly meant to preserve procedural justice.

Half an hour later.

In a private room at an upscale restaurant in the main urban district of Jiangnan Base City, Shen Mu was "holding Luo Feng accountable" according to the rules.

"Thank you for stepping in, Inspector Shen. Otherwise, I might really have caused a disaster and implicated ordinary people."

Luo Feng had calmed down by then. Raising his glass, he sincerely thanked Shen Mu.

"No need to be so polite. I heard about your exploits back when I was at the training camp. Just call me Shen Mu."

"Besides, your strength is no weaker than that of an ordinary first-level Planet-Level martial artist. Since there were no substantial consequences, the War God Palace will only turn a blind eye."

"First-level Planet-Level?"

Although Luo Feng had learned about the division of realms at Ancient Civilization Ruin No. 9, he began putting on an act as well.

Shen Mu played along and took the opportunity to explain the realm divisions to him.

After some casual conversation, Luo Feng drank three penalty cups as punishment, marking the end of this accountability process.

"You only just narrowly escaped the ancient civilization ruin, so I won't keep you any longer. Go reunite with your family," Shen Mu said with a smile.

Luo Feng rose to his feet and nodded, saying sincerely, "Thank you, Brother Shen. I'll head back first, then."

After Luo Feng left, a strange expression appeared on Shen Mu's face. This was the legendary situation where I marry your sister, you call me brother, and we each go by our own seniority.

After that brief interlude, Shen Mu continued his journey of comprehending heaven and earth.

Over the past few months, Shen Mu had endured the elements and slept in the wild, drawing closer to nature than ever before. His understanding of heaven and earth had also grown deeper.

At the same time, his realm of Harmony of Man and Nature had changed. His body, soul, and energy had become more harmonious, and his resonance with heaven and earth had grown ever stronger.

Faintly, Shen Mu had already sensed the barrier between Harmony of Man and Nature and the domain realm.

It was this very barrier that had trapped Thunder God for decades. Only under the pressure of crisis had he barely crossed it and stepped into the domain realm.

While Shen Mu comprehended heaven and earth and accumulated his foundation, the Azure Dragon Avatar in Bohai Bay was also undergoing a transformation.

Roar!

Beneath the surface of Bohai Bay, dragon roars echoed one after another.

Within the boundless seawater, the ferocious blue-scaled dragon underwent a transformation. Its body, already over 120 meters long, continued growing until it finally reached the threshold of 130 meters.

Within East Sea Azure Dragon's sea of consciousness, its two former miniature planets shone with unusual brilliance as immense spiritual power poured forth from the two stars.

In just a few breaths, the two miniature planets abruptly shrank by a full circle, while giving birth to a third, newly formed psychic star.

Over the past half year, Shen Mu had killed several King-Level Monsters. After devouring and digesting their corpses, he successfully broke through to the third level of Planet-Level.

Just as East Sea Azure Dragon broke through, in a region of the Pacific Ocean.

An oval black giant egg roughly twelve meters in diameter rested quietly on the seabed, covered in silt and seaweed. Since falling into Earth's oceans from outer space, it had remained there for more than a year.

At first, Oceanic Beasts in the surrounding waters had tried to bite through and devour the giant egg. But after shattering many of their teeth, no monster dared try again.

The giant egg suddenly began to tremble violently. Ever since several days ago, it had seemed to possess intelligence and had been trying to break free from within.

The vibrations grew stronger and stronger, shaking away the seaweed to reveal strange golden patterns on the eggshell.

Crack!

A fissure suddenly split open on the eggshell, and a claw covered in jet-black scales stretched out through the crack!

The greatest crisis in Earth's history had begun to brew, yet not a single person noticed. Only Shen Mu roughly knew that this was the time when the Golden Horned Beast was born.

But Shen Mu was powerless now. With the Azure Dragon Avatar's strength, if it attempted to scour the oceans for the Golden Horned Beast, it would inevitably die first at the hands of the two Beast Emperors.

Time came to January 5, 2059. Luo Feng, who had only recently returned, was recognized as possessing Councilor-level strength and became Limit Martial Hall's seventh Inspector. His inauguration ceremony was being held.

That day, Shen Mu also received a communication from Hong. However, it was not an invitation to attend Luo Feng's Inspector inauguration ceremony, but news that something had happened at Mist Island.

Just a few days earlier, the Limit Martial Hall staff stationed at Mist Island had detected intense life-energy fluctuations within Mist Island's central lake using monitoring instruments.

The data from those powerful life-energy fluctuations stunned every staff member, because their intensity far surpassed all of humanity's experts, including Hong and Thunder God. They were on the same level as the two Beast Emperors.

On Earth, the highest realms were not held by Hong and Thunder God, but by the two Beast Emperors.

Otherwise, no matter how the two Beast Emperors hid in the ocean, they would have long since died at the hands of Hong, who possessed a domain.