Cosmic-Grade Star Vine! Everything... Is Under Control!

On the vast, crimson surface of Mars, wild winds whipped up a sky-filling haze of dust.

"This will do."

Lin Yuan surveyed the desolate red landscape, his thoughts shifting.

"Hummm--!!!"

Accompanied by a low, muffled tremor that seemed to threaten to collapse space itself, a colossal object materialized out of thin air and slammed into the hard Martian surface, carving out two massive craters with the sheer force of its impact.

It was an eighteen-meter-tall dark-gold mechanical puppet!

The gale-force winds buffeting its frame could not stir even a whisper of sound from it.

Merely standing there, the absolute coldness and violent metallic pressure it exuded were enough to suffocate an ordinary Universe-level powerhouse.

Lin Yuan tilted his head, his gaze burning as he appraised the masterpiece before him, his eyes filled with undisguised affection. "Damn, this looks incredible."

The mechanical puppet did not mimic human features; its head was a cold, sharp-lined inverted triangular helmet, with six blade-like metal horns extending from the back.

Its torso was impossibly robust, the chest cavity composed of eight massive, interlocking diamond-shaped dark-gold plates that formed an impenetrable defensive barrier.

Deep within the gaps of the armor, a faint, rhythmic azure light pulsed—the core power source embedded within, a priceless "F-Grade Mechanical Heart"!

Looking at its upper body, it featured a four-armed configuration designed for maximum lethality.

The two primary arms were as thick as pillars, ending in razor-sharp, tearing claws; the two secondary arms were built purely for destruction, their grim, deep muzzles housing the terrifying Miniature Annihilation Cannon!

"Perfect, simply too perfect." Lin Yuan circled the killing machine, unable to hold back his praise.

But immediately, he sighed helplessly. "It's just a pity that it's currently a hunk of iron that can be looked at but not moved."

The system had rewarded him with this top-tier mechanical puppet, yet it was stingy enough not to provide a single piece of Universe Crystal to power it up!

"No matter." Lin Yuan didn't dwell on it too much.

The "Thunder World" he would visit soon held a treasure trove of Universe Crystals spanning an entire world.

Using those as transitional energy would be more than enough.

After roughly planning his next moves in his mind, Lin Yuan looked back at the motionless dark-gold puppet, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth...

Rumble rumble rumble rumble~~~!!!

Mars, which had been deathly silent for billions of years, welcomed an unprecedented and terrifying commotion at this moment!

On the red earth, the naked eye could not track Lin Yuan's movements.

One could only see a blurred afterimage darting frantically around the mechanical puppet.

Accompanied by sharp sonic booms capable of tearing through the void, streaks of brilliant, extreme blade light slashed against the dark-gold armor like a torrential storm!

The Martian crust trembled, and the shockwaves from the blade light leveled the surrounding craters!

However, when Lin Yuan came to a halt, the mechanical puppet still stood quietly in place, not even a faint white mark left upon it.

"Again!"

Fighting spirit surged in Lin Yuan's eyes, and his spiritual consciousness erupted.

"Sun God Weapon, emerge!"

The dark-gold long staff instantly disintegrated, transforming into ten thousand streams of light.

Under Lin Yuan's control, the Sun God Weapon turned into a meteor storm surging toward the sky.

The explosive firelight illuminated this region of Mars as bright as day, and the terrifying shockwave kicked up a super sandstorm that swept across half the planet!

After ten full minutes of bombardment, the storm subsided.

The mechanical puppet remained completely unscathed!

Not even the dark-gold luster on its surface had dimmed in the slightest.

"Good! Good! Good!" Far from being discouraged, Lin Yuan threw his head back and laughed.

The next second, Lin Yuan's true body closed his eyes.

In the outer space above Mars, the phantom of a terrifying giant beast, large enough to obscure the stars, slowly coiled.

The beast opened its eyes, which resembled two scorching suns hanging in the void.

From its left eye, a beam of Candlelight possessing the "temperature of world-ending" transformed into a golden pillar of light that pierced the heavens and the earth, striking the mechanical puppet on the Martian surface directly from outer space!

The surrounding rocks and soil vaporized into nothingness the moment they touched the light.

The temperature of the entire planet began to climb rapidly!

When the destructive pillar of light dissipated, the dark-gold mechanical puppet still stood quietly in the center of the magma-churning crater, its surface temperature barely having risen at all.

"Phew..."

Lin Yuan's consciousness returned to his true body, and with a flash, he appeared in the center of the crater.

He reached out and gently patted the puppet's cold, hard armor, sighing with genuine admiration. "Tough enough! It truly lives up to being a monster forged entirely from F3-Grade Metal."

F3-Grade Metal—that was a top-tier material that even Immortal Gods would covet.

Lin Yuan calculated in his mind: if this puppet were fully powered up, relying on its impenetrable defense and F-grade energy source...

"I fear that even an undying god like Hu Yanbo, whose combat power barely reaches the level of a Marquis, would not necessarily be able to win if he attacked personally!"

"Store!"

Extremely satisfied, Lin Yuan waved his hand, tucking this future ultimate bodyguard into his space ring.

With the puppet test complete, it was time for the real main event of the day.

Lin Yuan flipped his wrist, and an archaic stone box appeared in his palm.

The surface of the stone box was covered in complex sealing runes, yet even so, one could faintly see a cyan glow leaking from the gaps.

Merely holding it in his hand, a life force so vast it made his very soul tremble began to permeate outward from the box.

This was the legendary treasure of the universe—the Life Fruit!

If this were taken to an auction in the starry skies of the universe, countless sector lords would offer an entire galaxy as a bargaining chip to exchange for it.

"Hiss—"

Seeming to sense this extremely pure and vast life energy...

A vine, dark purple in color and dotted with specks of starlight, slithered out from Lin Yuan's wrist like a spirit snake, rapidly coiling around his arm.

The Star Vine!

This plant life, in which Lin Yuan had placed such high hopes, was currently holding its tip high, emitting an incredibly human-like emotional fluctuation of longing and excitement toward the stone box.

"Don't be impatient, this is prepared just for you." Lin Yuan soothingly stroked the cold surface of the Star Vine.

"The Thunder World is a world ring belonging to a powerful sector lord; it is by no means ordinary, and all sorts of factions are mixed together there. To clear the trials perfectly and swallow all the benefits, I must be prepared for every eventuality."

Lin Yuan looked at the Star Vine, his eyes flashing with ambition.

The first thing to do was to let the Star Vine undergo a qualitative transformation! He needed an absolute universe-level trump card that would allow him to walk sideways through the Thunder World!

The bloodline and potential of the Star Vine were far superior to the common Cloud-Touching Vine found on the market.

Once it devoured the Life Fruit and successfully stepped into the universe level, then, combined with its incredibly tough defense and strangulation ability, as long as domain lord-level powerhouses did not intervene...

No one in the Thunder World would be able to pose a fatal threat to Lin Yuan ever again!

"A soldier is raised for a thousand days to be used for a single moment. Come, little one, begin your evolution!"

Lin Yuan did not hesitate; his fingertip surged with origin energy, instantly breaking the seal on the stone box.

Click.

The stone box opened.

BOOM!!!

A cyan life energy, as tangible as a physical substance, surged out like a burst dam, instantly forming a visible sea of cyan energy mist on the surface of Mars!

"Hiss-roar—!!!"

The Star Vine let out a shriek of extreme excitement, and the vine, which had only been the thickness of an arm, instantly ballooned in size!

It transformed into a dark purple giant net that blotted out the sky, plunging headfirst into that sea of cyan life mist and beginning to devour it with extreme greed and frenzy!

The violent energy tide made the environment on the surface of Mars extremely harsh, and Lin Yuan had long since retreated inside the Starship.

Time ticked away, second by second.

Lin Yuan sat in the comfortable command chair, focusing his attention on the main control screen of the ship to observe the Star Vine's transformation process.

"This little guy is truly ferocious." Lin Yuan couldn't help but click his tongue as he looked at the data on the screen.

The more powerful the potential of a plant life, the more domineering it was when absorbing energy.

The Star Vine had no intention of taking things step by step; it was like a black hole that could never be filled, crazily tearing apart and digesting the vast energy of the Life Fruit in the most violent way possible.

In just two or three hours, the volume of the Star Vine had expanded to an inconceivable degree.

Looking down through the screen, the once desolate, crimson surface of Mars was now covered in a thick, dark purple "carpet."

The Star Vine now had 108 main vines split off!

Each main vine had reached a staggering length of five hundred kilometers!

They were like 108 ancient dragons coiled on the surface of the planet; a single roll of their bodies could easily destroy a large mountain range.

This data was more than double that of a Cloud-Touching Vine of the same level!

The transformation continued.

Lin Yuan watched with his own eyes as the main vines of the Star Vine expanded, burst, shed, and were reborn...

Every second, the Star Vine was experiencing tearing pain, but at the same time, it was undergoing a frantic leap in its life level!

This intense transformation lasted for a full five hours.

Finally!

"Woo—!!!"

A cheer that struck directly at the soul traveled through the mental contract between master and servant, instantly echoing deep within Lin Yuan's mind.

That voice was filled with boundless excitement and the absolute pride befitting a high-level plant lifeform!

On the screen, the overwhelming sight of 108 gargantuan vines, each five hundred kilometers long, raised their heads in unison, pointing straight toward the starry sky.

A terrifying pressure, unique to a Universe-level powerhouse, swept across the entire Mars like a storm!

It had officially broken through... to the Universe level!

"It's done!"

Lin Yuan stood up abruptly from the command chair, his eyes erupting with a light of wild joy. Without a moment's hesitation, he turned and strode out of the spaceship's hatch, stepping onto the surface of Mars once again.

"Return!" Lin Yuan spread his arms wide.

"Rumble~~~"

The massive Star Vine, which had covered the mountains and plains and even extended to the edge of the Martian atmosphere, instantly retracted like a receding tide upon hearing its master's call.

Its colossal body transformed into streaks of dark purple light, surging frantically toward Lin Yuan's body.

In the blink of an eye, the plant behemoth that had been capable of covering a small portion of the planet vanished.

In its place was a suit of armor that fit Lin Yuan's frame perfectly—a dark purple suit with mysterious stellar patterns flowing across its surface: the Star Armor!

Armor formed from a Universe-level plant lifeform!

Lin Yuan clenched his fists, feeling the terrifying power that seemed inexhaustible flowing back from the Star Vine, saturating every cell in his body.

This sensation of holding absolute power and absolute defense in his hands was simply magnificent!

Lin Yuan was extremely satisfied.

"With this, everything is prepared."

"The Thunder World is now within my grasp!"