Qing'er's changes

"Soon. Very soon."

Raising his perspective to gaze over the mist-shrouded Hundred Thousand Mountains, Yu Ziyu was filled with deep anticipation.

Becoming a Third Order Transcendent was impossible for him in the short term.

After all, he was a tree, a spirit creature walking a path of pushing every aspect to its utmost. He needed to keep building his foundations in every area.

But other mutated beasts were different.

Ultimately, they were beasts lacking intelligence. Given certain opportunities, they might evolve wildly without knowing restraint, eventually forcing their way into the Third Order Transcendent through sheer accumulated power.

And once such a Third Order Transcendent creature emerged, the conflict between humans and mutated beasts would erupt in full.

At that point, a true transcendent era would fully descend.

Of course, even if such mutated monsters broke through to the Third Order Transcendent, their insufficient foundations would expose their shortcomings.

For instance, they might be left with a fatal weakness or an insufficient lifespan.

However, in either case, they would have sacrificed something essential to barely make up for the accumulation that required time, thus evolving.

Such mutated beasts posed no threat to Yu Ziyu, but to humanity, they were an enormous threat.

That was why Yu Ziyu was truly looking forward to it.

He was eagerly awaiting the emergence of such a "disaster-level" mutated beast.

Its existence alone would be enough to draw all of humanity's attention for a while.

The bird that stuck its head out was the one that got shot.

It was precisely that principle.

Given a choice, Yu Ziyu certainly did not want to become the first Third Order Transcendent creature.

After all, facing the entirety of humanity, Yu Ziyu believed that even the strongest Third Order Transcendent would fall and end up as their research material.

As for how humanity would know that a Third Order Transcendent had emerged...

There was no need to give that much thought.

Even when Yu Ziyu had merely broken through to the transcendent first order, humans had detected his spiritual energy fluctuations of seventeen or eighteen thousand.

Anyone who was not a fool should be able to detect those vast fluctuations of spiritual energy numbering in the millions.

Thus, a transcendent creature's breakthrough truly was perilous in the extreme. There was not only heavenly punishment to face, but human calamity as well.

With a bitter chuckle, Yu Ziyu thought of his own approaching breakthrough to the transcendent second order.

If he could not soon come up with a proper way to shield himself from humanity's spiritual energy detection...

Then a nuclear weapon might very well come down shortly after his breakthrough.

Of course, ordinary mutated beasts did not need to consider these things.

If they could not win a fight, could they not at least run?

But he...

"Heh, heh."

With an awkward chuckle, Yu Ziyu turned his gaze deep underground.

A moment later, what met his eyes was an enormous web woven from roots, stretching a thousand meters, reaching into cracks in the rock and squeezing deep into the earth.

This was also Yu Ziyu's greatest trump card.

If pushed too far, he could overturn several kilometers of land in an instant, truly making the "earth dragon turn over."

If he was driven into a corner, Yu Ziyu could even use his main tree root, which reached hundreds of meters underground, as a medium to stir the underground spiritual river, unleashing a "massive earthquake" that would sweep through countless mountains and even cities.

Of course, Yu Ziyu reckoned that doing so would leave him pretty much done for as well.

A trump card.

It certainly was a trump card.

And a truly terrifying one at that.

He estimated that its power would nearly rival an all-out strike from a peak transcendent second-order creature.

Yet it was also Yu Ziyu's greatest constraint.

Roots!

The very foundation that sustained a tree.

At that thought, Yu Ziyu felt the urge to cough up blood.

If he were a mutated beast, even an ordinary one, his life would certainly be much more comfortable than it was now.

He would not have to constantly consider the danger of being discovered by humans, as he did now.

"Ahem."

Yu Ziyu gave a dry cough, feeling rather helpless. But before he could say anything, a voice suddenly rang out nearby.

"Master, do you like snow?"

Looking toward the voice, he saw a long-haired girl standing quietly on an expanse of white snow.

She was dressed in red, her hazy figure like a phantom.

Her beautiful eyes gazed at the snow.

At a glance, this lovely figure in red held an indescribable allure amid her enchanting beauty.

He Qing'er.

Entry-level nine, only one step away from entering the transcendent first order.

Compared with before, her figure had become more solid, yet within that solidity was an ethereal quality, as though she could switch between the two at will.

Of course, most importantly, He Qing'er truly was rather captivating now.

It was not merely her figure, but her bearing as well.

In the north there is a beauty, whose charm could topple cities and kingdoms.

At this sight, Yu Ziyu could not help recalling those words.

"I don't particularly like snow."

As he spoke, Yu Ziyu gazed at the girl in the distance. After a moment's hesitation, he added, "As a plant, I suppose I wouldn't generally like winter."

"That's true."

Nodding slightly, He Qing'er gave a playful smile. Then she lifted her long red skirt and slowly approached Yu Ziyu's true body with small steps.

As always, she gently stroked Yu Ziyu's thick trunk.

Yet there was an indescribable "complexity" in her expression.

Respect, admiration, longing, and...

Unable to discern any more, Yu Ziyu felt rather helpless.

Over these months, he was not the only one who had been growing.

He Qing'er was growing as well.

But she was growing far too quickly, not only in strength, but in temperament as well.

Still, there was nothing to be done about that.

By day, she was not called He Qing'er, but "He Ling'er," one of the most renowned geniuses among the various Spiritual Energy Research Institutes.

At such a young age, she had already reached entry-level eight, making her a top-tier powerhouse even among all of humanity.

Some called her the "Flame Princess," while others called her "Flame Ji."

Behind each title lay the weighty reputation of a "genius."

And as her true form was a wisp of a wandering soul, she could only wear this mask named "Ling'er" more convincingly to avoid exposing her identity.

In Yu Ziyu's words, once a mask had been worn for too long, it could no longer be taken off.

As a result, He Qing'er's true personality had also been affected, giving her a trace of "humanity" now.

Yes, humanity.

In other words, her feelings had grown complicated, and she had more thoughts.

And when this kind of "humanity" appeared in a wisp of a wandering soul, there was something indescribably strange about it.

Perhaps Qing'er regarded Yu Ziyu as her only source of support.

So much so that her feelings toward Yu Ziyu were now growing increasingly complicated-complicated enough that even Yu Ziyu had noticed something odd.

Thank you all for your support. Thank you.

(Event period: June 12 to June 14)