Survival of the Fittest

On the edge of a massive elliptical galaxy lies the Kasolo Empire.

An irregular continent stands in the void, spanning approximately several hundred thousand kilometers in diameter.

At the center of this continent lies a gourd-shaped silver lake.

This continent is the primary holy land of the Kasolo Empire—Yinhu Island.

Within the silver lake are numerous scattered islands, the largest spanning tens of thousands of kilometers and the smallest over a thousand, serving as the residences for the high-level powerhouses of Yinhu Island.

Inside a massive palace on one of these islands, an old man in gray robes sat in meditation when a middle-aged man hurried into the room.

"Teacher!"

The old man in gray opened his eyes and said indifferently, "What is it?"

The middle-aged man looked panicked: "Senior brother is dead!"

"What?" The old man in gray was shocked.

"I was drinking with senior brother in the Virtual Universe when his expression suddenly changed, as if he had encountered trouble. Shortly after, he didn't say more than a few words before... before his consciousness simply dissipated."

The old man in gray's expression turned cold: "Tell me exactly what your senior brother said before he died, every single detail."

The middle-aged man frowned deeply: "Senior brother's first ambush failed. I didn't expect the Domain Lord sent by the Jiuyuan Holy Land to protect the target to possess the 'Jihan Horn', one of the eight supreme divine abilities."

The old man in gray's expression darkened further. The "Jihan Horn" was the strongest defensive ability among the eight supreme divine abilities of the Lingtong Race, and could even be considered the strongest defense among all 106 types of Bloodline Divine Abilities.

By all accounts, his eldest disciple was a powerhouse at the peak of the Domain Lord level, and having mastered two of Yinhu Island's unique arts related to the origin laws of wind, even ordinary World Lords would struggle to hold him back. He was capable of both offense and defense.

However, the ideal scenario was to silence the target in one strike—it was not difficult for his eldest disciple to kill a Domain Lord instantly. He had not expected to encounter a Lingtong Race Domain Lord with the strongest defense, a massive miscalculation. With this, the Jiuyuan Holy Land would inevitably know the identity of the attacker.

The fact that the Lingtong Race had dispatched such a Domain Lord for protection—was it just his eldest disciple's bad luck, or...

"Even if he couldn't overcome the Lingtong Race Domain Lord, with his skills, he shouldn't have been in mortal danger. What else did your senior brother say?"

The middle-aged man glanced cautiously at the old man in gray: "When senior brother's expression changed, I think I heard him mention the Wushen Thorn, and it seemed like there was a problem with the Moyun Vine as well."

Wushen Thorn?!

"Disciple thinks, could it be... that the Lingtong Race knew about senior brother's operation in advance and set a trap?"

The old man in gray's face was now ashen. A Domain Lord with the strongest defensive ability, the "Jihan Horn", plus the Wushen Thorn that even World Lords feared, and other means to counter the Moyun Vine.

Once might be a coincidence, but twice or three times could hardly be called a coincidence.

Although he believed his eldest disciple should have been able to dodge the Wushen Thorn's attack, if this were a trap, the opponent would have certainly prepared sufficient contingencies. His death was not entirely unjust.

But the anger over his eldest disciple's death and the regret of failing his goal were suppressed as soon as they surfaced.

The old man in gray sighed: "To gain is my fortune, to lose is my fate. I originally only wanted to increase the probability of success; since the heavens do not grant it, so be it."

The middle-aged man was not as broad-minded as his teacher; instead, the panic on his face intensified: "Teacher, while senior brother's death is lamentable, the Jiuyuan Holy Land must now know that the attacker was a core disciple of Yinhu Island.

This... there was already an agreement between the Jiuyuan Holy Land and our Yinhu Island. Teacher, you... our risk-taking has violated the agreement between the two holy lands. If the God Lord descends to punish us..."

The old man in gray's expression had returned to calm: "My lifespan is coming to an end; what is there to fear from punishment?"

The middle-aged man cursed the old immortal in his heart. You aren't afraid, but I am terrified!

The old man in gray seemed to see through his disciple's thoughts, glanced at him, and smiled: "Rest assured, the God Lord will not punish us. Your junior brother will protect us."

After dismissing his still-anxious disciple, the old man sat back down and closed his eyes to cultivate, as if nothing could affect his practice.

The old man's consciousness had already sunk into his internal world.

As a powerhouse who had long reached the ninth stage of the World Lord level, his internal world was 10,000 kilometers in diameter, a vast continent.

A World Lord's internal world is considered a real world, naturally allowing life to survive within it.

And in the old man in gray's internal world, the number of lives was shockingly high!

In the center of the continent was a massive basin surrounded by mountains ten thousand meters high. Countless humans lived in the basin, and strangely, these humans all appeared to be teenagers or young adults, with very few middle-aged or elderly people.

If an outsider were to see these humans, they would surely recognize them as members of the Lingtong Race, one of the six great holy lands of the Kasolo Empire!

On the other side of the continent, there was also a vast ocean.

A deep red ocean.

An ocean of blood.

A will filled with anger, hatred, and ferocity stirred up the sky above the blood sea, as if trying to shatter this world.

Facing a scene that would cause the Lingtong Race to fight Yinhu Island to the death if they ever saw it, the old man in gray seemed accustomed to it, as if it were a gentle breeze.

"Sigh," the old man in gray sighed softly. "Only the final step remains."

Although he was one of the masters of Yinhu Island and, in times when the God Lords ignored worldly affairs, stood above hundreds of millions, there were other World Lord powerhouses who could surpass him in power, but none could surpass him in status, except for those high and mighty Immortal existences.

But even for a ninth-stage World Lord, a level countless lives in the universe dreamed of, he was merely a shooting star, ultimately unable to escape the inevitability of death.

And he was now incredibly close to that death.

Originally, the probability of him becoming an Immortal with his talent could be said to be negligible, far inferior to that peerless genius of Yinhu Island who was born in the same era, created two unique arts, and had already become an Immortal.

But there is nothing impossible in the universe; opportunities that break all kinds of impossibilities occur in the Primal Universe every moment.

The old man in gray was once just one of the many World Lords who, in despair, wanted to go to the outer battlefields to gamble for a glimmer of hope, but he had indeed encountered his own opportunity on the outer battlefield.

It was a precious treasure discovered on the corpse of a powerful expert from the Tumen Race within the Monster Alliance.

It had the means to raise his gene level to twice that of the vast majority of the human race, which would not only double his combat power and greatly enhance his potential, but most importantly, it would double his lifespan, granting him another thousand epochs to touch the realm of Immortality.

By the time one reached the World Lord level, they were considered to have pushed their own physical genes to the limit; even upon reaching Immortality, one could no longer improve their physical genes.

To be able to continue strengthening oneself even after the physical genes had reached their limit—how precious must such a treasure be?

Even the Tianlang Race, one of the eighteen royal families of the Monster Alliance, only had a gene level six times that of humans!

Of course, having the treasure was one thing, but truly realizing its potential was fraught with difficulties.

None of the races with gene levels twice that of humans or higher were ones that he or Yinhu Island could afford to provoke.

Therefore, he naturally cast his gaze upon the Lingtong Race.

Although the Lingtong Race had the same gene level as most other human races, the source of the numerous Bloodline Divine Abilities hidden within their bloodline was none other than monster beasts and ferocious beasts with twice the human gene level.

However, this required extracting a massive amount of essence from the Lingtong bloodline, using the treasure to assist in outlining and completing the genetic map of the ancient monster beasts hidden deep within the Lingtong bloodline, and then, with the power of the treasure and the accumulation he had plundered over hundreds of epochs, he would have a chance to complete the leap in his gene level.

It was for this reason that, shortly after returning from the Outer Battlefield, he secretly supported Longshan Company and established the Longshan Federation, which included the Yanhe branch of the Lingtong Race.

After all, the main sect of the Lingtong Race was a holy land, making it difficult to meddle with; he could only set his sights on the branch clans.

Using the guise of the slave trade, he had friction with the Yanhe branch of the Lingtong Race for hundreds of epochs, only stopping a few epochs ago when he felt he had collected enough Lingtong clansmen—enough to continue multiplying and expanding their numbers indefinitely within his internal world.

The fact that he spent such a long time secretly abducting members of the Lingtong Race showed just how cautious the gray-robed old man was.

Even though his final risky operation failed due to the appearance of Jiang Yao, he did not dwell on it; the preparations of hundreds of epochs had reached a point where they had to be unleashed.

There was no fear in the old man's heart, nor any reluctance; in order to reach the destination of the path to Immortality, any sacrifice was worth it.

After all, when it came down to it, where did those Bloodline Divine Abilities of the Lingtong Race come from?

He felt that he was no different from the ancestors of the Lingtong Race; the only difference was that the ancestors of the Lingtong Race targeted alien monster beasts and ferocious beasts, while his targets were his so-called fellow humans.

But in the end, it was all about the law of the jungle, and since everyone followed this rule, how much difference was there really?