All of this happened in a way that left Chu Tian utterly bewildered.
However, that annoying little monk was finally gone.
Fearing the monk might turn back, Chu Tian quickly made his escape.
As for the monk's threat to find him later, Chu Tian couldn't care less.
Putting aside whether that guy would be struck dead by lightning, even if he survived, with a bunch of brothers around, they'd surely beat him to a pulp.
What good was his speed? He'd show him what… a gang beat-down was!
Chu Tian returned at a rapid pace.
He couldn't be bothered to fly and decided to activate his mecha instead.
After setting the coordinates, the humanoid mecha went into full acceleration.
He had simply hitched a ride.
Soon, he rendezvoused with Gao Kai and the others.
Chu Tian returned to find the place in ruins.
Judging by the scene, the battle they had just endured must have been fierce.
The moment he activated his mecha,
he had already contacted Gao Kai.
The fighting on their end had concluded.
When Chu Tian had left, they were merely testing the waters.
However, the members of Shenhai Hall were completely unsportsmanlike.
Everyone, including the higher-level cultivators, attacked simultaneously.
Gao Kai and his companions were originally fighting the lower-ranked goons from Shenhai Hall,
intending to hone their skills.
But then, the entire group from Shenhai Hall charged in.
They caught Gao Kai and the others completely off guard.
Fortunately, Old Yang and Old Li intervened simultaneously,
blocking two of the enemy's powerhouses.
The battle lasted for approximately half an hour.
The two experts from Shenhai Hall were no ordinary fighters.
One of them fought Old Yang to a near-stalemate,
but managed to hold on.
The other faced off against Old Li.
Their skills clashed head-on,
and neither could gain the upper hand.
After half an hour, Xiao Hei could no longer hold back.
Old Li was a wind cultivator.
The Shenhai Hall group were versatile, capable of both ranged and close-quarters combat,
and possessed strange weapons.
However, not everyone carried them.
The individual fighting Old Li had a device that projected an ionic shield.
Chu Tian had no idea where the Shenhai Hall members acquired such advanced high-tech protection.
Because of this, the opponent's cultivation base was clearly inferior to Old Li's,
yet he could withstand Old Li's relentless wind blades.
And at that moment,
Old Li conjured a massive tornado.
The opponent also unleashed a punch,
propelling a colossal fist imprint.
As the two attacks were about to collide,
Xiao Hei flicked its finger.
A spark, like a flying sword,
instantly shot into the whirlwind generated by Old Li.
Boom...
At that instant, energy surged.
Fiery energy erupted outward.
Old Li's tornado was instantly dyed crimson,
transforming into a fire tornado.
Old Li himself was momentarily stunned.
"My goodness..."
The next second,
the massive fist imprint met the fire tornado.
With a ripping sound,
it was torn into pieces as if nothing could stop it.
They had exchanged such blows multiple times before.
Each time, they ended in a draw, with their attacks canceling each other out.
Old Li, after fighting for half an hour, was slightly disoriented.
While the Shenhai Hall expert he fought was outmatched,
his aura remained extremely steady, as if he possessed an inexhaustible energy source.
At this point, the opponent hadn't taken it seriously.
He hadn't expected such an anomaly to occur.
By the time he reacted, it was too late to defend.
The fire tornado moved with incredible speed.
In the blink of an eye, it reached him.
The individual activated his ionic shield once more,
his entire body enveloped in the grid-like energy.
Instantly, he was engulfed by the fire tornado.
Tornado-type abilities were continuous.
However, the grid-like ionic shield was exceptionally durable.
The furiously swirling tornado, with its endless cutting force and scorching heat, had no effect on it.
The ionic shield was too strong. Chu Tian had no idea what was powering it.
It seemed inexhaustible…
Xiao Hei flicked its finger again.
A green spark flew out.
This time, everyone witnessed its action.
The green spark resembled an impossibly small leaf.
In an instant, it streaked across the sky and shot into the fire tornado.
The still-rotating fire tornado, at that precise moment, violently shuddered.
Flames erupted, and in appearance,
the fire tornado instantly expanded into a swirling fireball.
However, this state lasted only for a few seconds.
Then, it violently collapsed inward.
Thump…
With a muffled thud, the fireball, which had expanded to a hundred meters, grew darker and darker as it imploded.
By the time it shrunk to a few meters, its color had turned purple.
Finally, when it was about a person's height, it had become black and purple.
At this point, everyone heard a wail.
"Ah… no…"
The voice came from the black and purple fiery figure.
Pop…
With a sound like a bursting balloon,
the black and purple fiery figure shattered.
It disappeared with extreme suddenness. Apart from the suffocating heat lingering in the air and the scorched forest below, it was as if nothing had happened.
Everyone was stunned. Xiao Hei must have been responsible for turning Old Li's tornado into a fire tornado.
It could interfere with others' attacks, not by destroying them, but by enhancing them.
Such an ability was terrifying.
What level of understanding of elemental forces did it take to achieve this?
Everyone was even more curious about the green leaf Xiao Hei had flicked out later.
It carried a strong scent of wood attribute.
When did Xiao Hei gain the wood attribute?
Didn't it only possess wind, fire, water, and lightning attributes?
From this, it seemed Xiao Hei now possessed at least five elemental attributes.
It had clearly awakened them at some point.
With Xiao Hei's intervention, one expert was eliminated in an instant.
Old Li didn't stand idle either. He unleashed a massive wind blade towards Old Yang's opponent.
That individual, already suppressed by Old Yang and relying on a strange pistol to fire powerful energy beams,
was immediately impaled by Old Yang after Old Li's distraction.
He was lifted onto Old Yang's spear.
"Urgh… useless. Shenhai Hall is immortal… we have eternal life!"
The man, spitting blood, snarled at Old Yang through gritted teeth.
"Die…"
Old Yang shook his spear.
Bang…
He shattered the man into a mist of blood.
"Pah, immortal? I'll make sure you die a horrible death!"
The man's blood mist splattered all over Old Yang,
who, like a blood-soaked war god, spat in defiance.
With the defeat of the Shenhai Hall experts, the remaining Shenhai Hall underlings scattered like panicked monkeys.
Chu Tian's order was to kill them all.
Therefore, at this moment, as the enemy tried to escape,
Old Yang, who had yet to act, raised his palm.
Xiao Long Nu also flashed forward, soaring into the sky.
Her body vanished, transforming into a massive water curtain,
enveloping the entire area.
Those fleeing found themselves with nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
In an instant, they were all annihilated.
After everything was settled, Old Yang and the others did not approach the spiritual energy sphere.
This was also Chu Tian's instruction.
He had a lingering feeling that the spiritual energy sphere was peculiar.
He told them to wait there and that he would discuss it upon his return.
When Chu Tian met up with them, his first command was for everyone to stay put.
He then approached the spiritual energy sphere alone.
He was still carrying the Moon God's Wrath,
as he couldn't put it away.
He had no choice but to hold it like this.
Upon reaching the sphere, he slung the Moon God's Wrath over his shoulder.
He first reached out to touch it.
However, there was no tactile sensation.
This spiritual energy sphere was like a projection,
lacking any physical substance.
He then scanned it with his divine sense.
Indeed, his divine sense detected nothing.
The surge of spiritual energy emanating from it was genuine.
The rate at which the spiritual energy dispersed was like a gush.
Chu Tian stood beside it,
as if being buffeted by a hurricane.
His clothes flapped noisily.
The spiritual energy also surged towards Chu Tian,
attempting to enter his body through his pores.
However, Chu Tian, having long suspected this thing was not good,
had already used his spiritual power to seal all his pores.
The spiritual energy that failed to enter Chu Tian's body continued to surge, wave after wave.
But it seemed to possess intelligence.
After the first wave was rejected,
the spiritual energy flowed past Chu Tian like a gentle breeze,
no longer attempting to surge into him.
Wave after wave passed by like this.
Although there was no break in the flow,
ordinary people would have failed to notice.
Chu Tian, with his powerful divine soul, however, could perceive it clearly.
The spiritual energy surging towards him was definitely not the same wave.
Each time the spiritual energy discovered it couldn't enter,
it was like a bee encountering honey.
It would approach, only to find no way in, and then depart disheartened!
"It really isn't good stuff! This thing, upon seeing humans, is like a school of sharks smelling blood!
Where does this spiritual energy originate from?
Disguised as spiritual energy for people to absorb, what is its purpose?"
Chu Tian narrowed his eyes, gazing at the massive spiritual energy sphere.
He suspected that even the sphere itself might be an illusion.
Then, what was the true source…
He looked down at his feet.
"Could it be underground?"
His divine sense surged, probing the earth below.
After extensive investigation, reaching depths of a thousand meters,
he found no results.
This truly stumped Chu Tian.
Where did this thing come from? It couldn't possibly have appeared out of thin air, could it?
With no other recourse, Chu Tian slowly retreated.
After reaching a certain distance,
his body made creaking sounds.
His mecha covered him once more.
"Shattered Star… I'm going to transmit a segment of data to you. Help me analyze what this is!"
As he spoke, the mecha's eyes lit up with blue light.
The scanning mode activated.
From bottom to top, it scanned the entire spiritual energy sphere, including the ground.
It then sent this data to the Shattered Star main system.
Soon, the system provided a response.
[Analyzing...]
[Beep...]
[Analysis complete!]
A string of data was transmitted to Chu Tian's terminal.
Shattered Star didn't offer a direct explanation.
Chu Tian opened the information.
It contained the video he had scanned.
However, the video had been modified,
with annotations added.
The entire spiritual energy sphere was circled.
It was labeled as… a phantasmal projection.
Upon seeing these four words, Chu Tian's eyes narrowed.
It was as he had suspected.
Visible but intangible, and undetectable by divine sense.
Only a projection could be like that.
But was this projection being cast from somewhere?
What was it trying to hide by casting this phantom image?
Chu Tian couldn't figure this out.
He continued to look. The spiritual energy was also labeled.
It read: Void God Realm, invading substance!
Following this was a data file that could be opened below.
"Void God Realm? This spiritual energy… is related to the Void God Realm?"
This substance, equivalent to spiritual energy, was labeled as an invading substance by Shattered Star!
Chu Tian quickly opened the file below.
The file contained a video.
In that video,
a vast expanse of starfield.
Suddenly, space began to vibrate.
The boundaries of the starfield seemed to be pierced by something!
Following this, black gas began to spread.
The gas emerged in billows,
spreading in all directions the moment it appeared.
Endless, like a locust plague.
The subsequent scene depicted the interior of a planet.
The inhabitants here were not much different from those on Blue Star.
However, they had diverse appearances.
There were normal humans.
There were round creatures with antennae on their heads, resembling snails.
There were also those with purple skin,
and green skin.
Various humanoid creatures, all manner of strange forms.
However, they shared one commonality.
Every single one of them was equipped with a mecha.
Some had partial mechas.
Others had full-body mechas like Chu Tian's.
But this was not the crucial point Chu Tian was focused on.
He was concerned with the chaotic scene in the footage.
The black gas he had seen before,
seemed to possess a life of its own.
It attacked every human present.
They swarmed,
but not in a disorganized manner.
Only the humans seemed to be in disarray.
Each wisp of black gas targeted a single person.
Upon catching up,
it would enter the victim's seven orifices.
Moments later, the fallen person would stand up again.
However, their eyes had all turned pitch black.
Without whites or pupils,
these individuals, like zombie wraiths,
lined up and departed one by one.
As for where they went,
the video did not show.
Because at this point, the video abruptly ended.
Clearly, the person filming the video had also been attacked.
"What is this footage?"
Chu Tian asked.
[This footage was uploaded from a remote edge of the First Universe, on an underdeveloped planet!
It was precisely because of this footage that the First Universe initiated its defense plan. However, the Phase 1 defense plan was destroyed within a mere few hours.
The Phase 2 defense plan was subsequently activated, which led to my creation!]
Shattered Star answered Chu Tian's question.
"Is this the invading substance from the Void God Realm you mentioned? How is it different from what we see here?"
Chu Tian continued to press.
[The current spiritual energy surge does contain this substance. The proportion within it is approximately one in ten thousand! Extremely dilute.]
Shattered Star finished its explanation.
After hearing this, Chu Tian
gazed at the surging spiritual energy before him.
Genuine spiritual energy had already permeated every space of Blue Star.
This dilute substance entering the body
had not shown any problems so far.
But once it reached a certain concentration,
it would inevitably lead to the same fate as the people in the video.
Those people seemed to be under some form of control.
As for where they went, no one knew.
Within Shattered Star's database, there was only data from before its departure.
After leaving, it had never contacted the First Universe again.
It had also crashed in the Second Universe, and over a thousand years,
Chu Tian was unsure about the time difference between the First and Second Universes.
It was possible that the current universe had already been completely invaded by this substance.
The people there…
were likely in dire straits.
The life forms of an entire universe, what an immense number that would be.
"Void God Realm…"
A hint of anger surfaced in Chu Tian's heart.
What did this Void God Realm intend to achieve?
Those people were not directly killed.
Could it be…
Chu Tian thought of the invasions and colonization on Blue Star throughout history!
Perhaps the Void God Realm lacked population?
Was it using this method of invasion
to fill the desolation of the Void God Realm?
Could the 'void' in Void God Realm mean emptiness?
He shook his head, dismissing these thoughts.
The most pressing matter now was how to plug this furiously surging spiritual energy.
Without the spray of spiritual energy,
he presumed this substance wouldn't come, right?
Or perhaps this spiritual energy originally belonged to the Void God Realm.
Could the spiritual energy of the Void God Realm be so vast?
With this thought, Chu Tian's gaze returned to the video.
He checked if Shattered Star had annotated how to shut it down.