Chapter 277 Being Myself (7200)

While the Zheng Guo Task Force was on their surprise attack, heading towards the remains of the Shengzhu Great Tree…

The slow-to-react divine beasts of the Beast God Realm finally realized belatedly that the goal of these descendants of the Immortal Realm didn't seem to be simply exploring the surrounding environment and establishing a base camp—they had a more profound purpose, and they didn't even know what the other side was planning to do.

"They are heading straight ahead, seemingly intending to go to where Shengzhu-zun Shen (Shengzhu Supreme God) is located?!"

"How could this be? What exactly do they want to do?"

For a time, no matter which divine beast it was, they racked their brains but couldn't figure out the purpose of the humans. After all, in their understanding, Shengzhu-zun Shen was just a clay idol worshiped as a god by their ancestors. Except for that corpse proving how powerful the limit of a divine beast could reach, they had no sense of respect for its essence.

After all, they were too far removed from the era when the Shengzhu Great Tree still existed, so far that they had forgotten all history and respect.

But even so, they could sense that something was wrong. The instinctive premonition from the inherited memories in their bloodlines made these divine beasts determined to stop all the actions of the humans.

"Guiche, you should be occupying the main city of the Yu race now—then at least you are half the king of the Yu race."

Using the magical secret network between the venerable divine beasts, the king of the Lin race, a dragon that had perfectly transformed, and was revered as the 'Tianlong-zun Zhu (Sky Dragon Venerable Master)' by the light blue true dragon, was now sneering at the silent Guiche: "These descendants of the Immortal Realm all ran out of your territory. Can you dare to say that you don't know? Letting them go so easily, you want to divert the trouble eastward, right?"

"This time, we will also take action, after all, the opponents are those descendants of the Immortal Realm. The ancestors said that they are a great enemy that our Beast God Realm must deal with. But Guiche, you have to pay for our action."

Speaking these words was a divine tortoise who was chuckling. Mysterious rune hexagrams flickered on its back, constantly changing, as if simulating the surrounding natural environment. The old tortoise's tone was calm: "This time, we might have to borrow the power of the ancestors. How about this, you give me two million slave servants, Fengxian-zhong (offering breeds), as blood food, and another ten thousand production breeds. What do you think?"

The speakers were the leaders of the Lin and Kun races. The Mao race didn't participate this time, because the current Mao race king, the water Qilin (kylin), was stabbed in the back by his disciple. Now three generations of master, disciple, and grandson are fighting in chaos, and the divine elephant is licking its wounds because of the large population loss from the last Mao race internal strife and doesn't have the energy to participate.

The current beast king of the Ying race was a giant divine toad, but it was not the traditional moon-swallowing toad, but a descendant of a Lin race divine beast, the Huanbian Yinlong (illusionary hidden dragon), hybridized with a spirit beast, the Yueying Chan (moon shadow toad). After seizing the position of king of the Ying race, it had been suppressing the internal strife of those who didn't submit within the race. This time, it came to use this battle to solidify its power and completely establish its bloodline as a new type of divine beast.

This kind of thing was not uncommon. The hybridization of spirit beasts and divine beasts didn't mean that they were weaker than divine beasts. If a powerful alien species appeared, just like this divine toad, it might even be stronger than ordinary divine beasts.

This divine toad, whose skin color was constantly changing, stared at the still silent Guiche. Its emotionless eyes rotated irregularly, like a chameleon: "Don't be silent, Guiche. You can only agree, otherwise, there are other divine birds who are willing to agree to our conditions—but at that time, who will be the new king of the Yu race? And as the loser, what will happen to you?"

This was blatant coercion, and Guiche, who was extremely irritable due to a series of accidents, let out some sounds from its beak: "...I agree."

"That's all good things." The other three divine beast kings all laughed: "First, go and wipe out the descendants of the Immortal Realm at the Shengzhu-zun Shen's place. The enemy must not be allowed to complete what they want to do... As for those who are creating chaos in your Yu race's territory... Your Yu race is so powerful, you can definitely handle it on your own, right?"

The magical communication network was withdrawn.

And the furious Guiche, its six eyes were almost spitting fire. It gnashed its teeth and said: "To put it bluntly, you just want to weaken my strength, and then get a share of the Yu race, right... Fine! I didn't see through those humans' abilities. I admit defeat this time, but there will be no next time!"

In the next moment, Guiche spread its wings and flew out of the center of the Divine Bird Hall, the secret area that only divine beasts could pass through.

When it came outside the hall, it saw several spirit birds趴伏 (pāfú - crouching prostrate) on the ground, waiting for it in fear.

"Guiche-zun (Guiche Venerable), Zun-zhu (Venerable Master)... we didn't stop those descendants of the Immortal Realm... We deserve to die..."

Speaking these words was the leader of the Yu race border troops, a transcendent high-level combat-type spirit beast, stationed on the border of the Yu race, attempting to intercept the Zheng Guo Task Force, but directly broken through by the Europa Task Force.

This was a fire-type spirit bird with reddish feathers, belonging to a lower-level Zhuque (Vermillion Bird). Usually, its status was respected, second only to the divine beasts, so it could control the border troops.

At this time, because it didn't complete the task issued by Guiche, it trembled with fear, but this was the reporting process. No matter how afraid it was, it had to come here and state its failure... Unlike the production breeds who had been brainwashed very seriously, and unlike the servants and offering breeds who had no wisdom, the combat breeds were spirit beasts with complete personalities. They naturally feared death, and, feared things even more terrible than death.

But even so, no matter how afraid it was, it could only pray for the mercy of the divine beast.

And Guiche was in a bad mood today.

"You know that you deserve to die? Then why didn't you commit suicide and offer your head?"

It said coldly. After saying that, it stretched out a head, opened its large beak filled with sharp teeth, and bit off the head of the border commander in one bite, causing its body to fall softly.

Amidst the splashing of blood, the furious divine beast chewed the head in its mouth to pieces. It forcibly suppressed its tone, and calmly said with its beak dripping with blood: "Lihuo Que (Dazzling Fire Sparrow) handled affairs poorly, causing the Yu race to suffer great losses. From now on, its family line will be demoted to a servant species, and its direct descendants will be demoted to an offering species."

In one word, it demoted a spirit beast family line to slave blood food.

And all the surrounding spirit beasts dared not have any objection, and didn't even dare to make a sound.

Because the divine beasts had the power of life and death over everything in this world.

And in the era of spiritual energy recovery, it was even more so.

A long time later.

At the location of the Shengzhu Great Tree, around the sensing array, there were lush green grasses and shrubs. After clearing a neat area of ground, Lin Chengde began to meditate in the array.

As a member of the escort, Su Zhou felt a strong sense of déjà vu the first time he saw the regular dodecagon releasing a cyan wood-qi glow.

"Isn't that the array I used to communicate with the Panrong Undying Tree in the past? It feels almost the same."

In his heart, he communicated with Yala in this way, his tone puzzled: "Does Zheng Guo also have this technology?"

Su Zhou was mainly worried that if the Zheng Guo side provoked a great existence for no reason, accidentally released it through some ritual, then the shattering of the great seal would be unavoidable, and the chain collapse of the multiverse would be even more inevitable.

Yala's reply to this was very simple: "Have you forgotten? Who are the derivatives of Jianmu and the Pan Tao (peach)? And how did your human immortals communicate with them in the past?"

"Last time you were able to connect with the Great Dao Tree because its incarnation was in the Divine Wood World and actively responded. Otherwise, how could that crude ritual summon its will?"

"I see." Su Zhou immediately understood that this array was probably just an ordinary divine wood communication array, and Lin Chengde, who had also transformed into the divine wood incarnation of 'Ruo Mu,' could resonate with the possible vitality of the Shengzhu Great Tree through his own frequency.

If the resonance was successful, then the Shengzhu Great Tree undoubtedly had vitality, and it was very likely that it would be completely resurrected with the accumulation of spiritual energy recovery—conversely, if there was no sense, then although it couldn't be said to be foolproof, theoretically speaking, the Shengzhu Great Tree would at least not have any major actions in a few hundred years.

As for what happens hundreds of years later, why care so much? Humans are not a long-lived species.

Lin Chengde was still carefully sensing the vitality of the Shengzhu Great Tree.

The so-called three hours referred to the time required to complete a complete communication spell and try all communication channels. In fact, simply sensing a single place only required a few seconds, or even less than a second.

"The portion of the Shengzhu Great Tree exposed above the ground has completely lost all activity and has completely transformed into a rocky mountain peak—that is an extremely solid Tianzhu (heaven pillar) rock mountain, and it will never be able to return to the appearance of a tree."

"Moreover, I sensed an extremely familiar Tianxing-sha Qi (Heavenly Punishment Evil Qi) from the crack in the treetop. This evil qi is completely harmless to me, but it can cut off the vitality of all divine woods—that is probably the remaining power of the Ximu Da Tianzun (Great Goddess of the West), and it can also recognize that I am a pseudo-Dao cultivator, not a true divine wood?"

After sensing this, Lin Chengde couldn't help but sigh: "This, is the power of the Tianzun (Heavenly Venerate)? Even a trace of residual power left for thousands of years seems to have life..."

Without thinking too much, this cultivator who had completely transformed into a small tree continued to sense the activity of the Shengzhu Great Tree's underground root system.

"There is no vitality in the crustal layer, it has also turned into rock."

"The root system of the Shengzhu Great Tree is indeed the cornerstone of this continent. The formation of the entire Beast God Realm's continent is completely reliant on the root system of the Shengzhu Great Tree to fix it..."

"Still nothing, there is no vitality in the mantle layer..."

Although it felt like only a few short steps, in reality, more than two hours had passed. Lin Chengde had tried most of the communication ports and communicated with every part of the Shengzhu Great Tree's body, but had not received any reaction.

"Could it be that the Shengzhu Great Tree has really completely died?"

Lin Chengde was not surprised by this, after all, when the immortals defeated the Shengzhu Great Tree in the past, in addition to the Ximu Da Tianzun, there were many heavenly immortals accompanying her. Even if the Shengzhu Great Tree was powerful, it couldn't withstand the attack of the entire Kunlun God System. It was normal for it to be completely beaten into silence and fall.

This result even made him breathe a sigh of relief: "At least, we don't have to worry... Next, we can also mobilize all our strength to deal with the affairs of the Beast God Realm."

However, just as Lin Chengde was slightly relieved, he suddenly sensed that a life remnant that seemed like 'residual warmth' had a very weak reaction in the deepest part of the Shengzhu Great Tree's root system.

This moment made the heart of this farmer saint's disciple almost jump out: "What?! Could it be..."

But after a while, Lin Chengde, who thought that the Shengzhu Great Tree still had activity, breathed a sigh of relief: "It turns out to be the residual warmth left from nearly a hundred years ago... Now, this place has also completely lost its activity."

"It seems that the Shengzhu Great Tree really didn't die completely in the past. It's a pity that it encountered the spiritual energy cut-off. Originally, the Tianzun was not afraid of the spiritual energy cut-off, but who told it to be seriously injured and dying by the Ximu Da Tianzun? Such a huge body needs more spiritual energy to support it. After forcibly supporting it for thousands of years, it finally ushered in complete death nearly a hundred years ago."

Although this was a great thing for humans, Lin Chengde still had a sense of instinctive regret: "It's a pity, if it could have survived for a few more decades, perhaps it could have eaten a round of human nuclear arsenal salvo now."

"No, it might not be a round, but at least seven or eight rounds."

Muttering such cold jokes in his heart, Lin Chengde slowly opened his eyes. The cultivator who had transformed into a tree also began to gradually return to his original form.

Three hours had passed. Throughout the entire process, because of the activity of the Europa Task Force and the Americas and Russia Task Force, as well as the final decision to accelerate the surprise attack, all the forces of the Beast God Realm had not reacted and came to stop them.

Now, most of the Beast God Realm's power was still trying to find the traces of the Zheng Guo Task Force and determine where they were. But no one thought that they had already completed their purpose.

"The Shengzhu Great Tree has completely died." Lin Chengde said, looking around at all the task force members who were looking at him with expectant eyes: "I felt the last life wave from a hundred years ago in the deepest part of its root system—it still failed to survive the spiritual energy cut-off."

"Very good." Hearing this news, even Dao Sheng (Dao Sage) breathed a sigh of relief, his expression relaxed a lot.

When in doubt, don't use people, when you use people, don't doubt. Lin Chengde was a disciple of the Farmer Sage, and his political review and mental review had passed. His words were highly credible, and this divine wood communication array, which had been passed down to this day, had already been used on Pan Tao several times, proving its effectiveness.

"The mission has been completed, prepare to return."

While everyone was breathing a sigh of relief, their expressions relaxed a lot, and even began to stretch, Dao Sheng glanced at the terminal on his wrist. He said solemnly: "I have already sent the coordinates. After a delay of about fifteen minutes, the transfer array will directly teleport us back to the entrance and exit of the Beast God Realm."

Surprise attack all the way to the center of the Beast God Realm, and then fight back from the center of the Beast God Realm? Earthlings are not so stupid to set such a crude plan.

Early on, the Zheng Guo side had made complete preparations. They had prepared a complete set of ultra-large transfer arrays in the Kunlun Secret Realm, just to be able to successfully recall all the members of the task force at a critical moment.

After all, this was an exploration operation, not an extermination operation. There was no need to fight the beasts of the Beast God Realm head-on.

Knowing this, Jin Qiong transformed into human form. She rubbed her shoulders comfortably, unable to help but smile: "Ah, I finally don't have to be a means of transportation anymore. Life is getting better!"

Tang Yuan secretly breathed a sigh of relief in his heart—fortunately, there were no restrictions and barriers that he needed to pass through this time. Originally, the Zheng Guo side thought that the Beast God Realm would definitely set up some array rituals as gatekeepers at the Shengzhu Great Tree's side, but they didn't expect them to be so lax. The defense was not even as good as the boundary-breaking array that the peacock had deployed back then.

But this was not surprising, after all, with the size of the Shengzhu Great Tree's remains, it was impossible to defend against enemies who might attack from all directions.

"Although I was just a spectator for a while, at least it was safe." Summarizing so happily, Tang Yuan couldn't help but imagine the future: "This time's citizen point reward is directly 100,000, combined with what I accumulated when performing missions in the past two years, it's almost a set of immortal god inheritance."

"Let me think about which one to exchange for..."

"Not bad, this operation was simply seamless, without any flaws."

As for the others, they also felt that this trip was very smooth. Although the strength of the Beast God Realm couldn't be said to be very weak, its reaction speed was too primitive, and it couldn't be compared with the fully informatized Zheng Guo at all—maybe those divine beasts that attacked and blocked them were just setting off now, or they had only walked halfway.

And now, they were about to pat their butts and leave!

"What's wrong, Su Zhou?"

But at this time, Bai Canglang, who was somewhat depressed because he didn't get many kills, noticed Su Zhou, who was gazing into the distance and was neither excited by the 'death' of the Shengzhu Great Tree, nor happy because he could finally complete the mission and return.

The young man was just staring into the distance, his gaze seemed to penetrate space, and he was gazing at the extremely distant end of this world.

So, Bai Canglang asked with some wonder: "Are you thinking about something?"

"...There is indeed something I'm thinking about."

Facing the inquiry of this acquaintance and friend, Su Zhou just took a long breath.

He stared at the Beast God Realm continent in the distance and said in a deep voice: "A very serious question... I haven't made a decision yet."

"Is that so? Then I won't disturb you."

Knowing that the other party might be troubled by something now, Bai Canglang tactfully stepped back and didn't disturb Su Zhou's contemplation.

Soon, fifteen minutes passed.

The transfer array was about to start.

The range of the teleportation was a spherical field with a radius of fifteen meters centered on Dao Sheng. This was very large for the ten members of the task force, and it was absolutely impossible to say that it would not be able to teleport all the personnel.

Everyone was approaching Dao Sheng, and Su Zhou was doing the same.

But for some reason, he suddenly stopped halfway.

This immediately attracted everyone's attention.

"Su Zhou?" Dao Sheng held up the terminal in his hand, which was the base point for the teleportation of the transfer array. The old man asked with some puzzlement: "What's wrong with you? Come over quickly, the mission has been completed."

These words were ordinary, and normal to the extreme.

But, it was precisely because the mission had been successfully completed.

Therefore, Su Zhou stopped.

At this time, he finally made up his mind.

"Su Zhou, why have you stopped?"

At the same time, in his heart, Yala was also asking Su Zhou the reason in a soft voice. It smiled meaningfully: "What do you want to do now?"

"Be myself."

And Su Zhou simply replied, he smiled slightly: "Now, I am no longer the 'deputy captain of the Zheng Guo's Beast God Realm Shengzhu Great Tree reconnaissance task force', I am 'Su Zhou'."

Saying so, he turned his head again and looked at the place where his party had flown from, and, everything that he had seen with his own eyes and cared about.

How do ordinary beasts and ordinary spirit beasts of the Beast God Realm live?

What do they think of this twisted world?

Those spirit beasts who mutilate themselves to please the divine beasts, and even think that being eaten is a blessing, do they really like this kind of life, really think that all of this is correct, and are willing to continue living like this?

Su Zhou wanted to know these things.

He wanted to know now, he couldn't wait to know.

He absolutely couldn't tolerate even a second.

"I'm sorry."

Therefore, he slowly shook his head towards Dao Sheng and the direction of the task force teammates.

"You go first." The young man said calmly: "You don't have to wait for me, and you don't have to worry."

"I'm going to kill a few divine beasts, ask a few questions, and then I'll be right back."

The words he spoke were extremely simple, and this statement, which should have been extraordinarily shocking, was considered by everyone present to be natural because the speaker was Su Zhou.

—Speaking of which, it was him after all. Such a smooth mission must not satisfy his appetite, right?

"This guy, isn't he still not killed enough? His demonic nature is astonishing, he's simply a demon!" Jin Qiong muttered in a low voice, but thinking that Su Zhou had already advanced to the leader level, his hearing was probably so good that he could hear earthworms wriggling in the ground, she immediately covered her mouth in horror.

But Su Zhou didn't care about this. He had known for a long time that Jin Qiong would occasionally use a small Weibo account to complain about him, but what was that? The other party had no malice, just telling the truth, just that sometimes, the truth looked like a black spot.

Therefore, he just smiled and said goodbye to the temporary teammates in turn.

"The divine beasts of the Beast God Realm have the power of a temporary leader level."

To this, the old man said with some helplessness: "Although you said that you can fight five alone, but if you really fight, even you will be in danger, right... Ah, forget it."

Halfway through the words of advice, Dao Sheng was a little uninspired—if Su Zhou was a guy who could be persuaded by such words, then why would he have painstakingly guided him into the Zheng Guo system so carefully in the past two years?

Now, he could clearly see that the beast hidden in Su Zhou's heart was showing its fangs towards this twisted Beast God Realm.

—How can we control this beast so that it can be used for our country, for our civilization, for our human race?

—No, don't ask for it to be used... Just hope that the person who holds this talent and power will not become the kind of tyrant who wants to distort the entire world and rule the entire world.

As long as this beast doesn't show its fangs to humans...that's enough.

For this reason...if you occasionally want to be willful, just let him, just like a tiger, no matter how docile it is, occasionally wants to roar in the mountains and forests.

"Su Zhou."

Dao Sheng opened his mouth, he wanted to tell the other party a few words, but the words were only half said, but he was stuck in place again.

—Don't die? Don't be ridiculous, who will die if Su Zhou fights with the divine beasts of the Beast God Realm? Anyway, he guessed it wasn't Su Zhou.

—Kill less? Even more ridiculous, he, Zhang Qingyun, was not stupid. The divine beasts of the Beast God Realm were all great enemies of mankind. He couldn't wait for Su Zhou to kill a few more, it would be best to kill them all.

—Pay attention to yourself, be careful of safety?

What was the difference between this and advising people to drink more hot water? Wasn't it all nonsense!

The old man opened his mouth, then slowly closed it again. After being silent for more than ten seconds, he could only shake his head and sigh with a smile: "Although I don't know what you're going to do...but good luck. Also, take this."

Saying so, Dao Sheng took out a miniature camera from his pocket: "If there is anything worth taking pictures of, take pictures of it. We still need to collect data and study this world more."

"Yeah, no problem."

Responding so, Su Zhou smiled, his smile was sunny, cheerful, as always, only, you couldn't see what he was thinking in his heart.

At this moment, the dawn of the Beast God Realm arrived.

The bright sunlight rose from the distant sea level, reflecting orange-red brilliance. Su Zhou stood in the shadow of the Shengzhu Great Tree, stepping on the black earth, and the transfer array had already begun to take effect. The dark blue teleportation brilliance was enveloping Dao Sheng and his party little by little.

Then, accompanied by bursts of bright spiritual light, Dao Sheng and Jin Qiong and others saw in shock.

Su Zhou's body was rapidly growing, expanding, and transforming in the dazzling cyan-purple brilliance... They saw that in just a few seconds, in the howling of the raging wind and the overflowing magic fire spiritual light, a dragon beast that was nearly thirty meters tall, incomparably thick and majestic, appeared on the earth.

It was a great dragon that walked upright, with thick and powerful legs, covered with pale and smooth scales, and crystal patterns emitting cyan-purple fluorescence spread throughout the body. This wingless great dragon had an incomparably thick tail, and where the four giant wings should have been on the back, there were four huge holes, and those structures that looked like cannon barrels or rocket nozzles extended from there, emitting a cold metallic chill.

"This, what kind of dragon is this?!"

Liu Wu, who felt that his body surface began to tingle in bursts just by approaching it, as if the flesh and blood was about to be crushed by the spiritual pressure, was immediately surprised because he had tempered his body to the extreme so he was extremely sensitive: "Is it Su Zhou's true body?! That is Su Zhou's tr—"

—So powerful!

And the others also exclaimed in unison: "Su Zhou has revealed his true body?!"

"I thought he hadn't fixed it..."

"I've never seen this dragon, but it feels a bit like Ying (a mythical dragon)..."

A sound of exclamation, abruptly cut off.

The teleportation began—the teleportation ended again.

Before they could express all their emotions, the group of the Zheng Guo Task Force had all teleported away.

And Su Zhou, who had revealed his true form, closed his eyes, listening to the distant, extremely distant humming, and the few huge and intense life spiritual lights that were more obvious than the humming.

"They are coming."

Su Zhou opened his eyes again. He raised the corners of the great dragon's mouth, revealing a smile that was either a sneer or a cold smile: "It's about time."

Saying so, the giant dragon moved forward, and took the first step towards the direction the divine beasts were attacking from.

The earth was shaking, proclaiming the arrival of the behemoth.

He set off.

Everyone, guess whether the Shengzhu Great Tree is dead or not~

Yesterday's update was too long, and it was only finished now.

There will be a long update tomorrow as well, it may be a little late.