"Do you have any guidance for me?"
Isis looked back, her starlight as cool and detached as ever, as though she were all ears.
It made Yan Fei go even more numb!
The shadows of high-pressure studying surged back like a tidal wave. Under that gaze, he trembled all over. "N-No, nothing, just... 0012... does that mean me?"
"Workshop registered employee number D0012, Yan Fei. Do you have any objections to your designation?"
"N-No objections."
"Very good." Isis nodded. "Unless you plan on waiting for me to enumerate all of your tactical blunders and flawed decisions, please proceed to the shelter together with 0011."
"Wait, hold on..." Yan Fei was dumbfounded. "Why is A-Chang a number ahead of me?!"
"Let's go, bro, hurry, hurry..."
Yan Chang obediently wheeled his wheelchair forward, grabbing his elder brother by the collar and dragging him toward the basement.
Then, Isis looked toward Tang Qian.
Tang Qian went completely limp, raising both hands. He even flipped over and squirmed away from the doorway, no longer blocking it.
*Please pretend I don't exist, thank you.*
And so, the doors swung open without a sound.
Revealing the gory streaks and severed limbs on the long street outside, alongside the distant wails and gunfire.
The wind that rushed in carried the stench of putrefaction and ash.
*Smack.*
Amid the excited screeches of giant carrion birds, a mangled corpse suddenly plummeted from the sky.
Blood splattered.
A ribbon of crimson spread outward until it stopped right by the starlit silhouette's feet.
Isis raised her head, looking up at the colossal tree that blanketed the heavens, and at the sky stained the color of blood.
"Such a world is an utter eyesore. What is there in it worthy of love or pity?"
No one replied.
She coldly withdrew her gaze and rummaged through the workshop's inventory. Surveying the shambles everywhere, she found it all even more of an eyesore.
Yet atop the completely untidied storeroom sat a box, tied with a rather haphazard ribbon.
Isis fell silent, her gaze lingering for a fraction of a second before opening the box.
Inside three amber crystals were the pre-prepared Blessings—[Masterwork Nature], [Primacy of Spirit], and [Sovereign Axis].
On the note resting on top, a smiley face was drawn that looked bizarre no matter how one looked at it, with a postscript: *Happy Birthday.*
Just like a long-prepared present.
Another meaningless sense of ceremony, doing nothing but wasting time.
She had said it countless times before.
"...Boring."
Isis quietly gazed at it, her lips parting slightly. Then, as if it were only natural, she reached out and took this presumptuous surprise into her hand.
Amid a crisp shattering sound, the seal was released in an instant.
In the flashing brilliance of countless stars blooming and dimming, a vibrant, shifting radiance rose straight into the sky, piercing through the storm and storm clouds into the pitch-black heavens. It looked down disdainfully upon all the turmoil and chaos, mocking everything.
The phantom glow of wondrous craft flashed and vanished.
Before anyone could even react, it was already gone.
Beneath the phantom radiance, Isis impassively scrutinized the Blessings in her hand. Her illusory fingers tightened, and the sound of cracking rang out as fissures spread across the amber crystals.
Driven by the Non-Offensive matrix, a Three-Phase Alchemy far more refined and precise than Ji Jue's began the spiritus transmutation—effortlessly shattering them, breaking down their structure, undoing their traces, cleansing impurities, and purifying their essence.
The Blessings, which had undergone a secondary metamorphosis, returned to their purest state in the blink of an eye.
Retaining those meaningless growths and imprints would serve no purpose whatsoever; their mastery wasn't even half of Ji Jue's, and they would only cause interference, possessing abysmal compatibility with Fluid Alchemy.
Better to wipe them completely clean and start anew!
With a series of crisp snaps, the radiant glimmers of the Blessings dissolved into the matrix, fusing into her soul and becoming part of the matrix.
As if it were always meant to be.
Just like that, modern alchemy's ironclad laws were broken with ease, growing autonomously through instinctual Fluid Alchemy. Without the need for a craftsman, the creation began to complete itself.
Following close behind was [Primacy of Spirit], and then [Sovereign Axis].
The three Blessings formed a chain within the matrix.
The Beckoning rank was crossed with effortless ease.
In fact, she still had plenty of strength to spare, feeling no heavy burden at all.
Given her current state, advancing naturally to the Transmutation rank was well within reach. After that, she would need to strengthen her internal structure and gradually invest materials to raise her upper limit.
Achieving a Matrix Relic was exceedingly difficult; its growth and refinement were far more arduous and intricate than that of a Chosen, many times over.
The fact that someone like Ye Xian had managed to amass two Celestial-Human rank Matrix Relics before even becoming a Celestial-Human herself was no longer in the realm of the incredible or sensational—it was an outright horror story.
As a creation, Isis had been born from the circulation of countless phenomena within a marvel of wondrous craft approaching a Sovereign Virtue Implement, the Tower of Myriad Transformations. It had consumed astronomical resources, exacting a steep price even from Tianlu.
In terms of caliber and purity, her starting line was already at the very pinnacle of her kind.
Crossing the mere Beckoning rank was practically second nature.
It was only a pity that, bound by the nature and path of Non-Offensive itself, things would turn complicated starting from the Transmutation rank, requiring separate certification from Embers—an utter nuisance.
Still, her current level was more than enough to deal with the trouble at hand.
Isis raised her eyes, glancing at the innumerable raging aberrations, the monsters and calamity beasts catalyzed by wolf blood.
Neither joyful nor sorrowful, her gaze was as aloof as if looking upon stone and timber.
No matter how rampant or unbridled the games and struggles of fools and wretched beasts were, they were nothing more than a joke... Yet for them to be brazen to such an extent was, frankly, excessively irritating.
She reached out her hand toward everything before her and told them:
"Quiet."
At that instant, deathly stillness fell without warning.
Countless thousands of mercury threads rose into the sky, plunging into the storm clouds and instantly dyeing the lightning-wracked clouds silver-white.
Immediately after, a torrential silver rain descended from the tempest and turmoil.
Shrouding everything, blanketing all.
Heavy, cold, and cruel.
Mercury threads so fine they were nearly impossible to discern flickered under the scattered lights. In those minute glimmers, every aberration and monster noticeably froze.
Then, the hand woven from countless phantom lights curved, and she snapped her fingers.
*Snap!*
An invisible ripple expanded outward from her fingertips.
Everywhere it passed, whether giant insects, lizards, tigers, wolves, pythons, or even the strutting, screeching calamity beasts, all crumpled like straw before an invisible gale, prostrating upon the ground.
Through mouths, nostrils, eyes, ears, and even pores and gaps in their carapaces, gossamer threads of mercury slipped lightly inside. From the most fragile points within, they solidified and shifted, severing nerves, disrupting pulses, and naturally taking over everything.
In an instant, the countless monsters in sight were turned into raw materials for the taking.
Spiritus, flesh, life, and soul—none could remain master of itself.
"What... is..."
Covered in layers of gore, Liang Mo turned back in a daze, his finger still holding down the trigger. The glowing-red barrels spun futilely, the empty mechanism clicking without ammunition.
The wails, shrieks, and howls were all gone.
Leaving only a hair-raising silence.
And in that silence, popping and crackling sounds echoed continuously from the bodies of the immobilized monsters...
When those minute sounds coalesced, they turned into a grand resonance akin to falling torrential rain, making one's scalp tingle.
Right before Liang Mo's eyes, the sharks, giant insects, monsters, and whatever other grotesque things there were all spasmed, rapidly shriveling and withering.
As if everything within them had been devoured by an invisible entity.
Beneath their brittle, cracking bodies, a brilliant glimmer slowly emerged.
Rooted in flesh, blood, and soul, catalyzed by vapor alchemy, an insignificant wisp of a Spirit of Creation drew every bit of nourishment from blood and spirit, sprouting at breakneck speed.
Within the span of a breath, the shriveled corpses fell entirely silent, replaced by pure white flowers.
Amid the spreading crimson, among severed limbs and ruined, crumbling masonry, illusory white blossoms grew at a visible rate, immaculate and solitary, blooming on their own.
The outer perimeter of the base, reduced to rubble in the turmoil, had in an instant turned into a dreamlike sea of flowers—cool, magnificent, lonely, so breathtakingly beautiful it stole one's breath away, yet coldly devoid of all life.
Like a waking dream.
Rooted in death and gore, they expanded rapidly, filling everything. They established themselves as the masters of this domain, rendering everything else a presumptuous intruder.
The so-called [Beckoning].
This was Non-Offensive's first Blessing chain. Its effect allowed a craftsman's abilities and transmutations to break beyond the self, applied across any medium.
Under the intervention of Deus Ex Machina, Ji Jue's Beckoning could animate inanimate objects, granting life, turning machinery into beasts to be commanded at will.
Isis's Beckoning, however, was not nearly so elaborate.
She simply eroded and restructured everything within sight, turning it into part of herself—transforming the living into the dead, dragging vitality into the realm of demise. Once the battered lifeforms vanished, only quiet flowers of death remained.
In an instant, every marked intruder was slaughtered, devoured, and converted.
Even the howling wind became faint and unnoticeable.
Innumerable flowers swayed in the breeze, petals rising and falling, as if a soft melody were drifting from them, though mortal ears and senses could not discern it.
"Now, that's finally a bit easier on the eyes."
Surrounded by boundless pure white, Isis looked around her, feeling the wind against her face—no longer carrying the stench of blood and filth.
Up in the heavens, even the torrential rain of blood came to an abrupt halt. Only behind the storm clouds did a colossal, menacing shadow serpentine through the dark, roaring and hissing.
The feast it had been gorging on had vanished, reduced to useless flowers.
To a calamity beast, such a terrifying and deathly vista was nothing more than an offensive void, completely devoid of value.
Enraged, its massive frame dove downward, repeatedly battering the frontline base's remaining Law of Tianyuan, causing spreading fissures to appear across the invisible defense, the tears widening with every strike.
Until finally, it shattered completely!
Amid the booming crash of collapse, triumphant wolf howls erupted from the inner base, while a sea of sharks and monsters rode the tempest, hurtling inward.
Foul blood and sludge splattered into the sea of pure white blossoms, leaving specks of black blemishes.
Causing a chill of disgust to gradually surface on that tranquil, illusory face...
"What a nuisance you all are."
Isis raised her eyes to the heavens, her expression devoid of emotion. "Why can't you simply die quietly, like vermin?"
Within the Doomsday Express, the Myriad Manifestations Engine roared to life. Amid a surging torrent of spiritus, the power supply engaged—six percent of the spiritus reserve was allocated, and the protocol initiated.
Brilliant light flared across the dense forest of the spiritus computing array.
Spiritus Intervention Sequence: [Crown of Isis], activate!
At that, heaven and earth shook.
Gale, earth, blood rain, dust haze—after a single tremor, the turbulent world froze.
All manifestations fell silent.
The dense cloud layer that had been boiling like a cauldron abruptly solidified, and then, amid the flow and spread of silver metallic sheen, froze entirely into iron.
Across the earth, countless white flowers seemed lifted by an unseen wind, defying gravity as they ascended into the heavens, rushing toward that pitch-black expanse of clouds.
Like a pale tide surging upward into the stars.
Above Isis's head, a pure white floral crown manifested for an instant. Meanwhile, amid the iron-hard storm clouds tens of thousands of feet in the air, a quicksilver radiance swirled, rose, and expanded, filling everything.
Petal-like bursts of radiance shot forth—hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands... innumerable blossoms blooming, closing, growing, and withering.
Drinking in the mutated vitality within the blood rain, they counter-eroded, converted, restructured, stripping away all grotesque forms of life to turn them into pure, cold death.
Bringing all things to peace and tranquility.
*BOOM!*
No one could see what truly happened. Only a shrill, agonized screech abruptly detonated, followed by copious viscous blood pouring down from midair like a torrential storm.
A waterfall of crimson spilled violently across the wasteland, yet on the earth doused by the giant serpent's blood, the very same flowers blossomed once more.
Pale white expanded.
The clouds shuddered violently, torn apart, only to knit back together shortly after.
Shattered again and again, recombined again and again—even when battered into ruin and torn to pieces, they still reformed, even grander than before!
There was no direct clash of offensive power; instead, she let the calamity beast vent its fury and attack wildly, utterly indifferent, simply letting the blossoms spread on their own.
Its mere presence gradually caused the frenzied calamity beast to recover the reason buried in its instincts.
It finally learned what fear meant!
Until the sea of corpses was thoroughly swallowed by the white floral ocean, the giant serpent in the sky let out a hysterical roar. Struggling madly, ignoring its heavy injuries, it gave a violent shudder, and then... fled at top speed with all its might!
It ran!
Massive amounts of blood continuously rained down from its fractured body, and upon that gigantic frame, white flowers had already sprouted, rooted deep in its flesh and blood, impossible to shake or tear off no matter how it thrashed.
The moment it tasted fear, the giant serpent bolted in blind panic without the slightest hesitation.
A cold snort echoed from the distant heavens.
A spear of light spanning heaven and earth materialized out of thin air, skewering the giant serpent and instantly reducing the merely lightly wounded calamity beast to ashes.
High in the sky, a blurry figure tore through the air.
Pausing for a fraction of a second above the frontline base, the figure flicked a finger. Instantly, shrill screams erupted from within the base's inner sanctum.
Blades of razor-sharp, scorching light shot skyward, suspending the wolf corpses in midair as flames ignited from nothingness, incinerating them completely.
That distant gaze swept across the boundless sea of flowers and the phantom spirit within it, seemingly startled. Soon, the figure looked toward the cracked workshop behind her, and upon spotting the Association's insignia, seemed to understand, withdrawing their gaze.
Immediately after, the figure sped away.
Without a word or an instruction, having casually resolved an insignificant nuisance, the figure plunged deeper into the storm consuming the White Nation.
Almost simultaneously, to the north, another bolt of lightning streaked across the heavens, trailing a series of thunderous claps before vanishing into the storm clouds of the natural disaster.
As more and more figures plunged into the fray, the outline of the phantom colossal tree began to wobble beneath the shroud of storms and calamities.
Endless rumbles echoed.
The earth trembled faintly, the aftershocks refusing to die down.
Yet none of that concerned Isis anymore.
The Federation, the Empire, the Desolate Market, the White Nation—none of it had anything to do with her.
She coldly withdrew her gaze, looking not far away toward Little Niuma, which had stopped on the base's outskirts at some unknown point and was still shivering in place, and toward the figure blankly poking his head out of the driver's window.
"After watching for so long, why are you so heartless as to not spare a single word for a tool that has long fallen out of favor?"
Isis asked, 'curious':
"Sir?"
"..."
The corner of Ji Jue's eye twitched once, then twice. Jumping down from the vehicle, he coughed ostentatiously. "Y-You're back?"
"Yes." Isis nodded.
"Look at that, ah, how rushed! Why didn't you give me a heads-up? Look at this mess," Ji Jue said with deep regret. "I had the cake, the fruit, and the party ribbons all ready. Now they're completely wasted, aren't they?"
"I also unwrapped the surprise gift you didn't mention. On that note, once you leave the realm of technical drafting, your drawing skills remain as lamentable as ever."
Isis delivered a cold counter: "Besides, if not for this, how would I have seen what an eyesore the workshop I tidied up has turned into..."
"Hey, Little Niuma is still young and reckless, just fooling around!" Ji Jue shifted the blame without hesitation. "I already beat it!"
"...Whether you beat it or not, I wouldn't know, but I feel like you've missed the crucial point."
Isis gave Ji Jue a meaningful glance. "Still, it must have been hard on you all this time. I will take care of the subsequent chores, so please rest assured. However... you won't make a mess of it again, will you?"
Ji Jue wiped away cold sweat, not daring to make a peep.
"Regrettably, this workshop is about to undergo emergency overhaul and maintenance. We are temporarily unable to receive guests, and the reopening date will be announced separately."
Isis shifted her gaze toward the guests behind Ji Jue, curtsying slightly with her usual dignified elegance. "Now, please excuse me."
Her aloof gaze swept across them, pausing for a fraction of a second on An Ning.
An Ning froze.
A strand of hair atop her head stood upright in shock.
"Brother Ji Jue..."
She grabbed Ji Jue instinctively, gasping in shock: "Man and woman, man and man, I can accept either! Even one-on-many, I could try my best! But humans and machines are simply forbidden!!!"
"..."
The footsteps of the departing figure paused imperceptibly for a heartbeat.
*Smack!*
"What are you babbling about, kid!"
Ji Jue exasperatedly smacked An Ning on the head, helpless. "Watch fewer TV dramas and manga so you don't spend all day concocting nonsense."
And so, the paused figure continued forward, save for a contemptuous smile that surfaced as she casually turned her profile.
That fleeting moment reflected crystal-clear in the girl's eyes.
"Heh..."
[!]
An Ning's eyes widened, her entire body stiffening reflexively.
As if triggered into an aggressive stance, she wanted to hiss. The nonexistent romance radar in her head began wailing deafening alarms.
Wrong! Something was definitely wrong!
This woman—no, female robot—no, female AI... in any case, whatever she was, she was a hundred thousand percent suspicious!
Instantly, a hundred thousand similar plotlines from movies, TV shows, manga, and anime flooded her brain, diverse and varied, their only common thread being a distressing shade of green.
Panic set in!
Yet panic was useless...
No, she couldn't psych herself out. Losing her footing now would only give her rival an opening to exploit. Countless tragic cautionary tales of protagonists and side characters surged into her mind.
As a hunter, how could she stand by and watch her prey get stolen away by another predator?!
Before firing the shot, she had to mark her target!
"Brother Ji Jue..."
In that moment of hesitation, she tugged pitifully at Ji Jue's sleeve. When Ji Jue turned back in bewilderment, her face was already inches away, pressing close.
*Chomp!*
Completely caught off guard.
Before Ji Jue could even react, two faint rows of tooth marks were left behind.
Then, before Ji Jue could ask, she hopped back a step and gave a sweet smile:
"Thank you for the gift, Brother Ji Jue. I'll definitely take good care of it!"
With that, clutching the souvenir she had plundered from Ji Jue, she cast a seemingly careless glance to the side, her smile turning even more radiant.
Giving no opportunity for retaliation, she waved goodbye:
"I'm off then~"
"..."
Ji Jue's raised hand froze in midair. Stunned, he reflexively looked toward Tong Shan, who was still in shock beside him, only to see Tong Shan take a step back as well.
A huge step!
"Uh, yeah, phone call coming in. I'm off too, won't intrude, bye!"
Tong Shan whipped out his phone, not even caring whether anyone was actually calling, pressed it to his ear, and turned on his heel.
He moved like lightning!
Though he didn't quite grasp what had just transpired, his Aether heritage warned him that staying would lead to no good end!
Time to bail!
In the dead silence, Ji Jue turned back dumbly, spotting Old Tom sliding down like liquid from the stairs by the entrance. Squirming along, Old Tom noticed Ji Jue's gaze, abruptly accelerated, and with a swift *whoosh*, vanished without a trace.
"...What the hell?"
Baffled, Ji Jue stepped into the temporary workshop. Looking at the gradually repairing iron walls, he realized the Yan brothers were nowhere to be seen either.
Leaving only Isis sitting in his office chair.
Free from material constraints, her spiritual projection maintained its previous appearance, yet unlike the ethereal emptiness of the past, she now possessed more or less a tangible sense of presence.
Ji Jue couldn't help but feel regretful.
He hadn't been able to witness the completion of the Matrix Relic with his own eyes; what a shame.
Still, since the Matrix Relic's metamorphosis was complete, the leyline acting as both vessel and consumable had likely been drained dry. Even if it could be sustained, it would never recover its original scale and stability.
He casually took over the repairs of the spiritus circuits and asked curiously, "How is Punabantu doing?"
"Thanks to me, a major earthquake was triggered. In terms of surface area, it lost over half."
Isis assisted at his side, handling secondary tasks with effortless skill. "However, because the industrial park had taken precautions, it was not affected and resumed production two hours after the incident."
"Mm, as expected."
Ji Jue nodded. Then, sensing something amiss, he turned back in bewilderment. "Wait... in the workshop reports, the last earthquake... wasn't that half a month ago?"
"Yes." Isis nodded, looking at him.
Ji Jue stiffened, swallowing hard. "For the past half-month..."
"Yes." Isis nodded, not even waiting for him to finish.
"You've been..."
"Yes." Isis nodded once more.
At that, Ji Jue's formerly upright posture slowly slouched. He subconsciously raised a hand to wipe his sweat, hesitating. "You..."
"Recorded it all."
As though clairvoyant, Isis answered the question he hadn't yet asked, adding: "That's right, everything."
"Wh-What everything?"
Ji Jue turned his head stiffly, staring at the bare wall. "Don't speak in riddles that I can't—"
"Including the precious footage of you having nothing better to do last week than putting your arm around the Riot Cat to sing Yunzhou folk songs."
At Isis's words, the dark screen suddenly flickered to life. In the workshop footage, a craftsman in boxers and bare-chested, having solved a difficult problem, excitedly put his arm around the cat functioning as a temporary janitor, dancing and singing: *"Hajime no nanbei lüdou, ashi ga naru hayaku..."*
*Crack!*
The screen shattered.
"Enough, that's enough!" Drenched in cold sweat, Ji Jue grabbed her spiritus hand and pleaded humbly: "Miss Isis, please don't play any more!"
"Why?" Isis asked in confusion. "There are two more clips after that: 'A mere Isis is nothing to worry about' and 'When Isis gets back, just tell her you killed this flower.' I'm particularly fond of them. Don't you plan on enjoying them with me?"
"No, no! I'm busy, next time! Definitely next time!"
Ji Jue's eyes went vacant, his already crooked back slumping entirely, until Isis's voice chimed in again: "On that note, this part is being recorded too..."
With a *snap*, everything vanished.
In order to minimize his already excessive black history as much as possible, Ji Jue acted as though nothing had happened and began busily repairing the building.
He only felt that the world was upside down...
A dignified craftsman was being held by the throat by his own creation. How disgraceful.
If word got out...
Wouldn't I get another Golden Ribbon?
At least!
Such a stable state, such staggering completion, and the capability of self-upgrading and iterating—she had completely achieved the level Ji Jue had envisioned, and even exceeded it.
Mediocre craftsmen might despise their own lack of talent, but what craftsman would ever resent their creation being too outstanding?
"Speaking of which, how does it feel to become a Matrix Relic?"
"Good, very good," Isis replied respectfully. "As a slave, having been granted such exquisite shackles by you, I already feel immensely satisfied."
"...You know I'm not talking about strength or difference in power. I'm just curious about the process and experience of the transformation."
Ji Jue sighed. "An old woman once taught me that what a craftsman assumes is good might not necessarily suit the creation. For you, Isis, is taking this step forward a good thing or a bad thing? If your current state brings you pain..."
"—Then I shall eliminate the source of the pain myself. Please rest assured."
Isis lowered her gaze, examining her spiritus hand as she answered: "As for the process, there wasn't much tangible sensation. To use human terms, it was probably 'just like taking a nap.' There was no pain, but neither was there any so-called joy or excitement."
Hearing this, Ji Jue shrugged. "That's a shame."
"Sir..." Isis said, "I think I had a dream."
"Hmm?"
Puzzled, Ji Jue turned around and met the pair of eyes gazing back at him.
"Was it a good dream?"
"I don't know," she said. "Because I dreamed of you."
"Well, that doesn't sound like a good dream."
"Indeed," Isis sighed softly, murmuring with emotion. "Things in dreams are always ethereal and baseless, and unprompted occurrences are displeasing. As it turns out, the world upon waking doesn't seem any different from a nightmare. The hateful aspects remain unchanged, and clumsy things still put on their grotesque displays. However, knowing that even if this is hell, I still have a scumbag like you cushioning beneath me makes me feel it's not half bad."
A trace of what seemed like a smile surfaced as she said with conviction, "I imagine this is probably what you refer to as 'happiness.'"
"...No matter how you look at it, that can't be it!"
Ji Jue sighed numbly. "Can't you think about something else?"
"Fantasizing about how to torture you for amusement?"
"Forget I said anything."
For the sake of his personal safety, Ji Jue terminated the topic.
He repaired the final fissure on the wall.
Job done.
He raised his head to look at the sky.
Outside the workshop, howling tempests and turbulence struck once more. Deep within the bizarre colossal tree out in the wasteland beyond the frontline base, a high-pitched roar sounded once again.
Amid sounds akin to screeching birds, a beam of light like an exploding sun shot across the heavens like an arrow, carving a straight tear spanning a thousand miles wherever it passed.
Like a scar, it drove deep into the domain of Shangri-La, creating a fissure across the colossal tree.
Wolf howls erupted again, shaking the heavens.
Endless rumbles like falling stars echoed. Occasionally, fragments of frying pans, spatulas, and cupboards could be seen tumbling from the sky alongside broken boughs of the colossal tree, dissipating into nothingness...
It was impossible to discern what was happening inside.
Just the aftershocks reaching the outside world left the entire frontline base trembling and uneasy.
Soon, a crimson hue gradually surfaced upon the withered branches of the colossal tree, like sprouting leaf spores.
It began expanding outward once more.
Yet soon, beams of blazing light rose from the ground like spears, piercing from earth to sky!
Countless spears of light stood upon the wasteland of the White Nation like palisades, firmly arresting Shangri-La's expansion and locking the colossal tree within an invisible cage.
Under the joint efforts of both the Federation and the Empire, the encirclement was finally completed on all sides.
Not only did they halt the deterioration of the situation, they also shackled the transforming Forest Country and the Wolf within the cage in one fell swoop!
This series of actions showed none of the sluggish, bloated posturing of past days; it was decisive, swift, and resolute!
Such was the might of the dignified Tianyuan—instilling peace of mind, awe, and admiration!
There was only one tiny, insignificant detail that made Ji Jue curious...
Was this decisive action, or had they prepared for it all along?
Chapter 625