The Law of the Jungle

Kasolo Empire, on the edge of a vast elliptical galaxy.

An irregular continent floated in the void, measuring tens of thousands of kilometers across.

At its center lay a silver lake shaped like a gourd.

This continent was Silver Lake Island, the Kasolo Empire's foremost Sacred Land.

The silver lake was dotted with islands. The largest spanned tens of thousands of kilometers, while even the smallest covered thousands. They were the stations of Silver Lake Island's powerful upper echelons.

Inside a grand hall on one of the islands, a gray-robed elder sat cross-legged in meditation. Suddenly, a middle-aged man hurried into the room.

"Teacher!"

The gray-robed elder opened his eyes and asked calmly, "What is it?"

The middle-aged man looked alarmed. "Senior Brother is dead!"

"What?" The gray-robed elder was shocked.

"Senior Brother and I were drinking in the Virtual Universe when his expression suddenly changed, as though he'd run into trouble. Then, after only a few more words, his consciousness just... just vanished."

The gray-robed elder's expression turned icy. "Tell me exactly what your Senior Brother said before he died."

The middle-aged man furrowed his brow. "Senior Brother's first ambush failed. He never expected the Domain Lord sent by Jiuyuan Holy Land to escort them to possess one of the eight superior divine abilities, the 'Jihan Horn.'"

The gray-robed elder's expression darkened further. The Jihan Horn was the strongest defensive ability among the Lingtong Race's eight superior divine abilities. It could even be called the strongest defensive ability among all 106 Bloodline Divine Abilities.

The great disciple he'd sent was a Domain Lord at the pinnacle, and had mastered both of Silver Lake Island's techniques related to the Origin Law of Wind. Ordinary World Lords might not even have been able to keep him there. He could attack or retreat with ease.

Still, the ideal outcome would have been to silence them with a single strike. For his great disciple, killing a Domain Lord instantly would have been no difficult feat. But he'd unexpectedly run into a Domain Lord of the Lingtong Race, whose defense was reputed to be the strongest of all. It was a grave miscalculation. Now Jiuyuan Holy Land would surely know the identity of the attacker.

The Lingtong Race had actually sent a Domain Lord like that to escort them. Was his great disciple simply unlucky, or...?

"Even if he couldn't deal with the Lingtong Race's Domain Lord, his abilities should have been enough to keep him alive. What else did your Senior Brother say afterward?"

The middle-aged man cautiously glanced at the gray-robed elder. "When Senior Brother's expression changed, I think I heard him say 'Wushen Thorn.' And it seemed something had gone wrong with the Moyun Vine, too."

Wushen Thorn?!

"Do you think... the Lingtong Race knew about Senior Brother's operation in advance and set a trap?"

The gray-robed elder's face was now as dark as still water. A Domain Lord with the strongest defensive ability, the Jihan Horn; a Wushen Thorn that even World Lords had to avoid; and some other means of dealing with the Moyun Vine.

One coincidence might be chance, but two or three were hard to explain that way.

He believed his great disciple should have been able to evade the Wushen Thorn. But if this was a trap, the other side must have prepared plenty of contingencies. His disciple hadn't died without reason.

Still, his anger at his great disciple's death and regret at failing to achieve his goal had only just surfaced before he pushed them down.

The gray-robed elder sighed. "If it comes, it's fortune; if it goes, it's fate. I only wanted to improve my chances a little. Since Heaven wouldn't grant me that, so be it."

Unlike his teacher, the middle-aged man wasn't so philosophical. The alarm on his face only intensified. "Teacher, Senior Brother's death is tragic, of course, but Jiuyuan Holy Land must now know the attacker was one of the core disciples of Silver Lake Island.

"Jiuyuan Holy Land and Silver Lake Island already had an agreement. Teacher, we... this risky operation violated the agreement between the two Sacred Lands. If the God Lord punishes us..."

The gray-robed elder's expression had returned to calm. "I'm nearing the end of my life. What do I have to fear from punishment?"

The middle-aged man cursed inwardly: Old bastard. You have nothing to fear, but I do!

The gray-robed elder seemed to see what his disciple was thinking. He glanced at him and smiled. "Don't worry. The God Lord won't punish us. Your junior brother will protect us."

After sending away his still-worried disciple, the old man sat down again and closed his eyes to cultivate. It seemed that nothing could disturb his practice.

The old man's consciousness had already entered his Inner World.

As a powerful being who had long since reached the ninth level of the World Lord realm, his Inner World spanned a full 10,000 kilometers. It was a vast continent,

and a World Lord's Inner World was already a real world, capable of sustaining life.

The gray-robed elder's Inner World, however, contained a staggering number of living beings!

A massive basin lay on the continent, ringed by mountains over ten thousand meters tall. Countless humans lived in the basin. Strangely, they all seemed to be adolescents or young adults; there were very few middle-aged or elderly people.

Anyone who saw these humans would recognize them as members of the Lingtong Race, one of the six great Sacred Lands of the Kasolo Empire!

On the other side of the continent lay a vast ocean.

A deep-red ocean.

An ocean of blood.

An intent filled with rage, hatred, and savagery stirred up waves of blood-scented air above the sea, as though it wanted to shatter the world.

If any member of the Lingtong Race saw this scene, they would never rest until Silver Lake Island was destroyed. Yet the gray-robed elder appeared to take it for granted, as if it were only a breeze brushing past him.

"Alas." The gray-robed elder sighed. "Only the final step remains."

Though he was one of Silver Lake Island's rulers, and in the absence of the God Lords—who rarely concerned themselves with mundane affairs—he stood above hundreds of millions, other World Lords might surpass him in power, but none could surpass him in status. Only the lofty, undying beings stood above him.

Yet even a ninth-level World Lord, a being envied by countless lives throughout the universe, was no more than a shooting star. In the end, no one could escape inevitable death.

And he was already perilously close to it.

Given his talent, his chances of becoming undying had once been vanishingly small. He couldn't compare to that peerless Silver Lake Island genius born in the same era, who had created two great techniques and had now become an undying being.

But nothing was impossible in the universe. Opportunities capable of overturning the impossible arose in the Primal Universe every moment.

The gray-robed elder had once been just one of countless World Lords with no hope, who went to the Outer-Region Battlefield to gamble on a slender chance. Yet there, he had indeed found an opportunity of his own.

It was a precious treasure discovered on the corpse of a powerful being from the Tumen Race, an ally of the Monster Race.

It could raise his Gene Level to twice that of most members of the Human Race. Not only would it double his combat power and greatly enhance his potential, most importantly, it would double his lifespan and give him another thousand eras to reach the undying realm.

By the time one became a World Lord, one's bodily genes had already been raised to their utmost limit. Even upon becoming undying, one could no longer improve them.

How precious must a treasure be if it could strengthen one's body even after its genes had reached the limit?

The Tianlang Race, one of the Eighteen Royal Clans of the Demon Race, had a Gene Level only six times that of humans!

Of course, possessing the treasure didn't mean he could put it to use easily.

The races whose Gene Levels were twice or more than twice that of humans were all beyond the reach of either him or Silver Lake Island.

So he had naturally turned his attention to the Lingtong Race.

The Lingtong Race's Gene Level was the same as that of most other human races, but the origins of the many divine abilities hidden in their bloodlines included ferocious beasts and monstrous beasts with twice the Gene Level of humans.

This required him to extract vast quantities of the Lingtong Race's bloodline essence. With the treasure's help, he could map out and complete the genetic sequences of the ancient beasts buried in their bloodlines. Then, with the treasure's power and the resources he had accumulated over hundreds of eras by fair means or foul, he would have a chance to raise his Gene Level.

That was why, not long after returning from the Outer-Region Battlefield, he had secretly backed Longshan Company and established the Longshan Federation, which included the Lingtong Race's Yanhe Branch.

After all, the Lingtong Race's Main Sect was a Sacred Land, making it difficult to tamper with. He could only target a branch.

Under the guise of the slave trade, he had spent hundreds of eras provoking conflict with the Lingtong Race's Yanhe Branch. He only stopped a few eras ago, when he felt he had gathered enough members of the Lingtong Race to continue breeding in his Inner World and steadily expand their numbers.

The fact that he'd spent so long secretly abducting members of the Lingtong Race showed just how cautious the gray-robed elder was.

Even though Jiang Yao's appearance had caused his final risky operation to fail, he wasn't particularly troubled. After all, hundreds of eras of preparations had reached the point where they had to be put into action.

The old man felt neither fear nor pity. To reach the end of the path to undying existence, any sacrifice was worthwhile.

After all, where had all those Bloodline Divine Abilities of the Lingtong Race come from?

He felt no different from the Lingtong Race's ancestors. The only difference was that their ancestors had targeted the ferocious beasts and monstrous beasts of the Alien Races, while he targeted those so-called kin who belonged to the same Human Race.

But in the end, it was all the law of the jungle. Everyone followed that law, so how different were they, really?