The European Union, Paris Base City.
Inside a secluded villa.
An old man with graying hair sat cross-legged in a quiet room. His long, loose hair reached his waist, and he was like a withered tree, utterly devoid of vitality.
A screen stood before him.
On it was information about Su Zhe!
When Zhuge Tao reported the information to his superiors, he had naturally considered keeping it secret. But the Devourer Beast battle had only just ended, and every country was busy rebuilding. Even the Extreme Martial Arts Hall had no time to deal with its own moles.
The HR Alliance had naturally planted its own people inside the Extreme Martial Arts Hall.
And so, information about Su Zhe had been leaked with surprising ease, eventually landing in Yan Hai's hands.
Yan Hai was an honored council member of the HR Alliance, and his strength was formidable.
Before Luo Feng rose to prominence, Yan Hai had been a candidate to become the Fifth Speaker.
Now that all the powerhouses ahead of him had died, Hong and Thunder God had become vegetative, and Luo Feng had perished alongside the Devourer Beast... Yan Hai had become one of the most powerful humans on Earth.
Of course, the Devourer Beast battle had only ended recently, and no one could say for certain whether Luo Feng was truly dead.
Otherwise, Yan Hai would have long since given in to his ambition and begun maneuvering behind the scenes.
And so,
after receiving the information from the HR Alliance, Yan Hai fell into deep hesitation.
"To rise from Intermediate Warrior to War God in a single day... That's a hundred times more bizarre than Luo Feng's rise!" Yan Hai's voice was hoarse, like the creak of dead wood.
"Luo Feng's only just gone quiet, and now another even stranger one, Su Zhe, has appeared? Hmph. Is it a plant spirit, or an inheritance from an Ancient Civilization Ruin?"
"Luo Feng became so powerful because he obtained an inheritance from an Ancient Civilization."
"But even he took three or four years to go from an ordinary martial artist to an Invincible War God, and then to Planetary Level."
"Just what kind of treasure did this Su Zhe get?" Yan Hai murmured.
In Yan Hai's view, Luo Feng's strength had everything to do with the inheritance from an Ancient Civilization.
And Su Zhe had simply been lucky, like Luo Feng, and happened to obtain some treasure or inheritance.
Greed and curiosity gleamed ever more brightly in Yan Hai's cloudy eyes.
He didn't care whether Su Zhe was a genius. What mattered to him was the secret behind this "genius"—the secret that could let someone advance by leaps and bounds in a single day.
"He's worth looking into." Yan Hai finally made up his mind. "Pull up Su Zhe's battle footage."
As an honored member of the HR Alliance, Yan Hai naturally had permission to use its satellites. He could search through satellite recordings to obtain footage of Su Zhe's battles.
Soon,
after directing a satellite passing over Jiangnan Base City, Yan Hai obtained recordings of Su Zhe in battle.
"Hiss!!!"
Yan Hai sucked in a sharp breath when he saw the footage.
On the screen, Su Zhe's hands had become claws. He easily slaughtered beast-soldier-level monsters one after another, leaving nothing but bodies in his wake—all of them devoured by Su Zhe!
Yan Hai had never seen anything so bizarre.
Was this human?
"Devouring monsters? Mutating his body? No ordinary genius could do this! Those idiots at the Extreme Martial Arts Hall think he's just another 'Luo Feng.' Heh..."
Yan Hai gave a cold laugh. His shriveled lips curved into an icy smile, and undisguised greed and wariness gleamed in his eyes.
So that was it.
He could rapidly grow stronger by devouring things? And it seemed to let his body evolve, too?
From scattered fragments of information in the Ancient Civilization Ruins, Yan Hai knew that some extremely unusual life-forms existed in the universe, possessing extraordinary natural gifts. The Devourer Beast was one such example.
Yan Hai's interest in Su Zhe grew.
At first, he had thought that if Su Zhe really was a genius, he would find a way to recruit him; if Su Zhe relied on some treasure, he would find a way to take it...
But now, it was clear that Su Zhe's ability to grow stronger by devouring things was exactly what Yan Hai needed to obtain!
"Looks like it's time to pay Su Zhe a visit."
Yan Hai rose to his feet, deciding to go to Huaxia in person and meet Su Zhe.
He didn't trust anyone else to handle it.
Su Zhe made him feel even more threatened than Luo Feng had. In Yan Hai's mind, Su Zhe was on a level with the Devourer Beast. If he didn't nip Su Zhe in the bud, Su Zhe would surpass him at an astonishing pace.
"Jia Yi is dead, too."
"Come to think of it, I haven't been back to Huaxia in decades."
A trace of resentment flashed in Yan Hai's eyes. It was all Jia Yi's fault!
Back then, he and Jia Yi had been the two strongest people in Huaxia, and their strength had been about equal.
But in the end, their conflicting ideals had driven Yan Hai from his homeland. He had been forced to leave Huaxia and hide in the distant European Continent, not daring to set foot there for decades.
But now,
four Speakers had fallen, and Luo Feng was gone, too. No one would be able to stop him anymore.
City 003.
At the top of an abandoned shopping center downtown,
Su Zhe's figure swept across the observation deck like a ghost.
On the street below, several Iron-Armored Bulls at the beast-general level were wandering about. Before they could even let out a terrified bellow, several flying knives pierced their brains. Psychic Power then dragged them to Su Zhe, where he devoured them.
[Devoured a sixth-tier Apprentice Level monster. Gained 0.6 Devour Points] [Devoured a fifth-tier Apprentice Level monster. Gained 0.5 Devour Points] [Devour Points: 9993.5 (10000)]
The cold notifications flashed before Su Zhe's eyes.
He was just one point short.
After several hours of hunting, Su Zhe had devoured numerous Lord-level Monsters, and his strength had reached the threshold of an Intermediate War God. He could break through at any moment.
He had also cleared out nearly all the monsters nearby.
This area was close to the center of City 003. Beast-soldier-level monsters were already quite rare; most of the monsters here were beast-generals and Lord-level Monsters.
Su Zhe had already located a High-Level Overlord.
All he had to do was kill it and its guards. Then he would meet the requirements and receive the second reward from the panel!
Su Zhe didn't hesitate.
"Whoosh—"
He spread his wings and flew back the way he had come. In the distance stood the enormous sign of a bathhouse. Decades had passed, and it had fallen into ruin.
The monster occupying the bathhouse was a High-Level Overlord called a Shadow Dragon.
Any monster with "dragon" in its name was among the strongest of its level.
The Shadow Dragon Su Zhe had found was over sixty meters long. Its strength was already close to that of a King Level Beast—in other words, Planetary Level. By human standards, it was fully equal to an "Invincible War God."
Killing it would give Su Zhe enough Devour Points to redeem his reward, and let him break through to Intermediate War God at the same time!
Before you continue