Yun City. The Main Star-Sucking Tree towered into the clouds, its branches spreading for miles.
Now it had stopped producing monsters.
More than two million seventh- and eighth-order Star-Sucking Monsters had surrounded the entire Main Star-Sucking Tree, leaving no gaps.
Even the trunk was crawling with Star-Sucking Monsters. Not even a single bug could get in.
The corpses of the Mutated Creatures that had been drained dry had all been eaten by the more than two million Star-Sucking Monsters.
At the top of the tree,
a colossal black cocoon throbbed like a heart. It seemed to be nurturing an extremely terrifying monster.
Nearly all the land in Yun City was covered by the roots of the Main Star-Sucking Tree.
Powered by the blood of tens of millions of Mutated Creatures, hundreds of thousands of black roots had already pierced into the planet's core, continuously drawing on the planet's stellar energy.
As dusk approached,
whoosh!!
Gu Qijue came from the distant sky, riding a bolt of lightning.
Facing the sunset, he stood beyond the area covered by the Main Star-Sucking Tree, his gaze fixed on the enormous black cocoon at its crown.
Roar! Grr—
As soon as Gu Qijue appeared, the Star-Sucking Monsters in the tree and on the ground glared at him and roared.
White-Haired Blood Eyes wore a black suit and kept a blank expression as he raised his hand.
Roar!!
A seventh-order Star-Sucking Monster in the tree was instantly seized and pulled toward him from afar.
Then a black dragon soul surged out from behind him with a roar, swelling as it rode the wind. It opened its jaws and swallowed the Star-Sucking Monster whole before returning to Gu Qijue's body.
At the same time, a warm current swept through him, like he had swallowed a Star Fruit.
Gu Qijue had already advanced to the seventh order, and he had consumed ten thousand Star Fruits...
Even he found it absurd.
Aberrant Creatures definitely didn't need that many.
Gu Qijue suspected the reason lay with him personally.
After advancing to the seventh order, Gu Qijue had gained a divine ability from his inherited memories—the Black Dragon Soul!!
His power had also leaped several levels.
He could now fight eighth-order monsters or Super Martial Artists, and might even kill them.
Gu Qijue didn't linger. He pierced through the clouds and arrived above Mu Qingxue's shelter.
Ye Zhanguo and the others had already sent ten Super Martial Artist teams to turn the shelter into farmland and other usable land.
The Super Martial Artist squads in Yun City had ten members each, and each team was led by an Emperor-Tier Super Martial Artist.
Outside the walls, third- and fourth-order Star-Sucking Monsters prowled, watching them hungrily.
Gu Qijue also spotted Ji Shang talking to a beautiful girl of around sixteen or seventeen, who appeared to be heartbroken. He seemed to be trying to comfort her.
"Chu Yue, it's not that our boss is cruel. Your dad and sister brought this on themselves. I could only save you and your mother from the boss..."
Looking at her grief-stricken face, Ji Shang sighed helplessly.
"Ji Shang..."
Chu Yue suddenly looked at him with great seriousness.
"What is it?" Her gaze made Ji Shang hesitate.
"Could you... help me kill... him?" Chu Yue bit her lip, her eyes brimming with tears as she looked at him.
"What did you say?"
At her words, Ji Shang narrowed his eyes slightly.
Chu Yue clenched her teeth. "If you can kill him for me, I... I'll do anything you want... You're one of the people closest to him. You can definitely do it..."
Don't call her foolish.
Her father and sister had both died, indirectly, at Gu Qijue's hands.
Even if they had been in the wrong,
did family care about right and wrong?
Who could lose their closest relatives and feel no hatred at all?
"Ah... What a shame. Why would you think that way?"
Ji Shang sighed, a trace of murderous intent appearing in his eyes.
"Chu Yue, I know you only pitied me before. You didn't like me at all. But I still risked getting a lecture from the boss to save you and your mother."
"But in the end, you can't let go of your hatred. You have no way to take revenge, but... now that you've dared to tell me what you really feel, I can't let you go."
As he finished speaking, Ji Shang suddenly grabbed Chu Yue by the throat. He shook his head and said, "I'm sorry!!"
Crack—
As Chu Yue looked at him with despair and hatred, Ji Shang decisively crushed her neck.
Even without their Super Martial Armor, Super Martial Artists were far stronger than ordinary people.
After killing Chu Yue, Ji Shang had someone dispose of her body, then headed straight for her mother.
Watching Ji Shang act so decisively, Gu Qijue nodded in satisfaction. If Ji Shang hadn't killed her, Gu Qijue would have done it himself.
Gu Qijue had come here to see whether Ji Shang was a lovesick fool.
Now it seemed he wasn't.
"I should head to Lingjiang City. Should I kill Mu Yuxin or not? And had Xiao Yao already left me the first time I approached the Mutation Tree, merging into it and causing it to become a Star Tree several years ahead of schedule...?"
Gu Qijue murmured to himself before soaring away.
Xiao Yao's words couldn't be fully trusted, but he couldn't dismiss them either.
Gu Qijue had already pieced together some of the truth.
Xiao Yao definitely wasn't with him anymore.
The most likely possibility was that Xiao Yao was inside that Star Tree.
Killing Mu Yuxin would be easy, but Gu Qijue would always leave himself a way out.
Bermuda Sea Area.
The sea here had turned black.
Furious waves surged, crashing high into the sky.
A gigantic turtle was diving into the depths of the Bermuda Sea with a rumbling roar.
Soon, the light disappeared. In the darkness, the Great Turtle quickly descended toward its destination.
No one knew how long it had been diving, or how deep it had gone.
The Great Turtle stopped at a seabed canyon that seemed to cut through the Star Blue Continent.
"Esteemed seniors, the Star Blue Continent is on the brink of ruin... I beg you to intervene."
The Great Turtle transformed into a half-human, half-turtle form and bowed toward the abyss-like canyon below. It recounted the whole story truthfully.
After a very long time, a rumbling voice came from below. "Little Turtle, if this is true, then so be it. But if we intervene and you've misread your divination, and that tree has nothing to do with the Black Dragon Emperor, you will die!"
The terrifying voice boomed through the sea, shaking the waves and stirring the entire Great Triangle Sea Area.
"I stake my life on it..." Old Turtle said earnestly.
The vast voice replied faintly, "Very well. We'll trust you this once. We'll reach the land in half a month!"
"Half a month?" Old Turtle asked hesitantly.
"We're at a critical point in our breakthrough. We need at least half a month, perhaps a month. This is no place for you to linger!"
Rumble—
As the booming voice rang out, a colossal waterspout wrapped around Old Turtle and sent him away.
In an instant, Old Turtle was back on the surface.
"Damn it, I've busted my ass for this planet."
After surfacing, Old Turtle cursed under his breath before leaving.
Before you continue