"I... I'll hand it over. Please let us go."
A halting voice came from the European Union councilor.
"Mm."
Li Qingxu nodded calmly, and the golden sea instantly vanished.
Fortunately, he wasn't the sort of person who was quick to kill. Otherwise, the golden domain formed from the divine power of his sacred physique could have crushed all four of them to death in an instant.
"This is the Wood Bud Crystal."
Trembling, the European Union councilor took the Wood Bud Crystal they had stolen from his backpack and handed it over.
Li Qingxu waved a hand, and the Wood Bud Crystal flew into his sleeve from a hundred meters away.
Then his figure merged into the void, as if he had never appeared.
"Phew!"
As Li Qingxu left, the four European Union councilors let out a long breath.
Inside that golden sea, they'd felt as though they were drowning on the ocean floor under thousands of times the normal gravity. If they'd stayed there much longer, they would probably have been crushed to death.
"Let's go look somewhere else."
"Should we send out the information about this Wood Bud Crystal?"
"Of course! It's already come to this."
After sending out the information, the four councilors immediately left together.
"Dojo Master, this is Luo Feng."
After leaving, Luo Feng contacted the Dojo Master through his Communication Watch and reported what had just happened.
"You finally killed someone."
"Luo Feng, this is only the beginning. You need to be careful, too. This is a contest between countries, and even between countries and the dojos. It's utterly ruthless and bloody."
"If you find a Wood Bud Crystal on your own and can't beat the councilors who've teamed up, contact me or Councilor Li immediately."
"Especially Councilor Li. His true strength is far beyond what you usually see."
Hong's voice came through the Communication Watch. His last sentence carried a note of emotion.
"Understood."
Luo Feng replied thoughtfully, his gaze falling on the silver wrist guard on his left arm.
It was one of the rewards he'd obtained in Ruins No. 9: an Auxiliary Optical Computer. As long as he pointed it at someone, it could detect their strength.
Back in the cave, he'd pointed it at Li Qingxu.
He wanted to know what level Li Qingxu was at. He called the Dojo Master by name so casually, and a mere flash of golden light had left four councilors unable to resist.
But when Luo Feng looked at the words displayed on the Auxiliary Optical Computer, he froze.
Combat Strength: Spiritual Force (?) Gene Origin Energy (Suspected Stellar Level One)
"Hiss!"
Luo Feng sucked in a sharp breath, hardly able to believe what he was seeing.
The Auxiliary Optical Computer couldn't even detect Li Qingxu's exact combat strength. What little it could display was only a suspicion.
Strangest of all, his Spiritual Force was marked with a question mark.
"People really can make you feel miserable by comparison."
Luo Feng smiled helplessly.
They were barely a year or two apart in age, yet the gap in their strength was enormous.
No wonder Hong, the world's strongest fighter, was so approachable whenever he spoke of Li Qingxu.
He pushed those thoughts aside. Finding the Wood Bud Crystals was more important now.
At 11:47 p.m., the third Wood Bud Crystal was discovered. It was initially claimed by the European Union, but halfway through, Councilor Li of the Limit Dojo appeared out of nowhere and took it.
This was also the first time anyone had died. From then on, the various factions, which had still been somewhat restrained, stopped holding back. One by one, they became even more ruthless!
At 12:12 a.m., the fourth Wood Bud Crystal was discovered. In front of six councilors from America and Soviet Russia, a white-clad young man wreathed in golden light took it.
At 1:56 a.m., nearly two hours later, the fifth and sixth Wood Bud Crystals were discovered at the same time.
In a massive underground cavern blasted open through the earth, more than ten Planetary Level fighters stared at Thor, who stood in the center wearing a white robe.
He was reaching out to take the two Wood Bud Crystals.
But suddenly, a hazy golden light flashed around one of them.
Before anyone present could react, one of the Wood Bud Crystals vanished into thin air.
Even Thor hadn't reacted in time. His clenched left hand held only a crystal glowing with a white light.
"You even stole one from me!"
Thor roared in fury.
He didn't need to guess. The flash of golden light could only have come from Li Qingxu, whose strength was outrageously powerful.
When he'd visited the Limit Dojo headquarters to see Hong, he'd sparred with Li Qingxu once.
Li Qingxu had stood there holding a teacup without moving, while Thor had felt as if the space around him had imprisoned him. He couldn't move at all.
"Haha, he did leave you one. That's good enough."
Hong had just arrived. Seeing what had happened, he immediately understood and burst out laughing.
He'd thought Thor would have gained more than he had. But it seemed they were even after all: one each.
"That guy's a real freak. I'm out of here!"
Thor grumbled helplessly, then left at once.
There was nothing he could do. He really couldn't beat that man.
"Haha, let's go, too. We'll keep looking for Wood Bud Crystals."
Smiling, Hong turned and left.
The Limit Dojo fighters who'd arrived with him, Beast and Luo Feng, also turned around and continued their search.
About half an hour later.
More than four thousand meters underground, Luo Feng smashed through a rock. Beside a thin underground stream in the rock layer before him, three white points of light bobbed gently in midair.
But in an instant, a dim golden light swept away two of the white points.
"Th—"
Luo Feng's eyes had just lit up when they widened in shock.
He had no time to think. With a flick of his hand, his invisible Spiritual Force became a huge invisible hand, quickly sweeping up the Wood Bud Crystal more than twenty meters away and drawing it back to him.
"Come on, why are you stealing from your own side, too?"
He tucked the lone crystal into the inner layer of the vest formed by his Black God Set, feeling like he could cry.
Now he understood how Thor must have felt: surprised, but helpless.
"At least he left me one."
Luo Feng sighed.
"Boom!"
Suddenly, a rumble rang out.
Three figures in the distance smashed through the rocks one after another. They'd barely caught sight of a Wood Bud Crystal before Luo Feng took it into his hand.
"This one's mine!"
Luo Feng's gaze was sharper than ever.
If they tried to take it by force, he could at least use the chance to vent his frustration.
After a few seconds of facing off, Luo Feng swept his cold gaze over them, then instantly turned into a streak of black light and burrowed into the rock.
"What do we do?"
"Send out the information. We can't let Luo Feng have it too easy."
The three councilors exchanged glances, then quickly left.
Almost immediately, every faction learned that Luo Feng had obtained the seventh Wood Bud Crystal.
Deep underground, the air was thick with decay.
"Luo Feng."
A voice came through his Communication Watch. Luo Feng recognized it and answered at once, "Dojo Master."
"You got a Wood Bud Crystal?"
The Dojo Master's voice came through the Communication Watch.
"Heh. There were three, but Councilor Li swept two of them away."
Luo Feng gave a bitter smile.
"Well... sigh. Protect the one you have. There's nothing we can do about him."
Hong was at a loss for words. He reminded Luo Feng to stay safe, then ended the call.
This was a frantic scramble for treasure that had sent every faction on Earth into a frenzy!
Soon, evening came the next day.
Nearly twenty hours had passed. Humanity had discovered a total of sixteen Wood Bud Crystals.
A King-level monster had eaten one, but the other fifteen had all been claimed. Of course, these sixteen were only the ones that had been publicly reported.
Some individuals found Wood Bud Crystals on their own and quietly kept them. Nobody else even knew.
There was one exception. No—"person" wasn't quite the right word.
Inside the spacecraft more than ten thousand meters underground, Babata was so furious he didn't even want to speak.
Before you continue