Chapter 377: Chapter 286: Unexpected Gains (3)
This third Self-Destructive Seed came from a tier-five Desperate Flower and was more powerful than the previous two tier-four seeds.
This time, Su Ze had made ample preparations, using all three Self-Destructive Seeds.
Since he didn’t know which of his two bodies contained the insect egg, he placed a tier-four Self-Destructive Seed in each one.
He placed the most powerful one, the tier-five Self-Destructive Seed, inside his headless duplicate.
The tier-five Self-Destructive Seed was so powerful that not even the Pope and the King of Mu, in their Soul Body states, were immune. The Pope’s Sub-Soul and the King of Mu’s Consciousness Body could only cling to life within the sole remaining head.
Su Ze’s duplicate pulled the head closer, then pressed the jade stone in his hand against it.
Inside the jade stone was a faint, illusory image of a Thought Race Divine Spirit. It was a Divine Residual Soul that had once slumbered within a Bloodline Crystal before being transferred into the jade stone by the Mother Tree.
The Divine Residual Soul was too weak and remained in a deep slumber. Awakening it required feeding it high-quality Soul Bodies.
The Pope’s Sub-Soul and the King of Mu’s Consciousness Body were both excellent options.
This was also why Su Ze had repaired the head of his headless duplicate—to lure out the Pope’s Sub-Soul. The King of Mu’s Consciousness Body alone was likely not enough to awaken the Divine Residual Soul.
The multitude of recent events and the clues he had gathered filled Su Ze with an ever-growing sense of crisis.
The internal strife and external threats facing the Lin Hua Continent, the alien invasion, the infiltration by the Evolution Divine Teachings and the Filth Earth Organization, the incursions of the mutated beasts...
Furthermore, Mr. Ke’s re-emergence and the subsequent investigation and countermeasures against the aliens could very well be the spark that ignites the conflict.
And once the conflict erupted, they would have to face three major enemies simultaneously: the aliens, the Filth Earth Organization, and the mutated beasts.
Winter is coming.
The Lin Hua Continent’s five hundred years of peace and stability could be shattered at any moment.
’Our enemies are strong and we are weak. A steady, step-by-step approach might be safe, but it would rob us of any chance for a breakthrough.’
’When the odds of victory are already so low, playing it safe is the same as waiting to die. I have to do something... like figuring out why the Nian Race is invading Blue Star.’
’And this Divine Residual Soul of the Thought Race Divine Spirit I’m holding is the perfect key.’
’Awakening a Divine Residual Soul like this carries certain risks, but risk and opportunity have always been two sides of the same coin.’
After the jade was pressed against the head, the illusory image of the Thought Race Divine Spirit within stirred, emitting faint motes of purple light.
The jade stone seemed to exert a magnetic pull, drawing the wounded Consciousness Body of the King of Mu and the Sub-Soul of the Pope completely inside.
The purple phantom on the jade opened its maw, swallowing the two soul forms in a single gulp before falling back into a deep slumber.
’Does it need to digest them?’
Su Ze placed the jade in a box that could insulate it from energy fluctuations, then put the box by itself into a separate storage artifact.
After finishing, his Perception Tentacles spread out, blanketing the ruins. They probed deep beneath the rubble, searching for what he needed.
The entire Muguo Imperial Palace was gone, reduced to a field of rubble surrounded by shattered bricks and tiles.
The explosion had been so powerful that Su Ze didn’t even need to clean up the scene; every clue that could be traced back to him had been obliterated.
This included his first body that had self-destructed, the head that was left over, the King of Mu’s corpse, and everything else—all had been turned to dust in the two explosions.
All Su Ze had to do was take the head that had survived the second explosion.
Suddenly, he strode over to a pile of rubble and bent down to dig. With just a few quick motions, he unearthed a purple crystal!
A Bloodline Crystal!
This was not the Golden Bloodline Crystal that contained the ’Divine Grace of Evolution’ skill; it was a purple one.
This was the King of Mu’s Bloodline Crystal!
’Since the King of Mu was possessed by the Thought Race Divine Spirit, it meant he must have absorbed a Bloodline Crystal.’
’And Bloodline Crystals can’t be destroyed. The King of Mu’s body was annihilated in the blast, so the crystal must have naturally re-formed.’
’So it seems this was the Bloodline Crystal the King of Mu obtained from the Divine Dice all those years ago. He must have absorbed it after becoming a Saint-rank Overlord, which is when the Thought Race Divine Spirit possessed him.’
’As for that Golden Bloodline Crystal with the ’Divine Grace of Evolution’ skill... I have no idea where he got that one.’
Su Ze put away the Purple Bloodline Crystal, then moved to two other spots, quickly unearthing the Golden Bloodline Crystal and a Storage Ring that had belonged to the King of Mu.
After gathering all the spoils and grabbing the head of his bald duplicate, Su Ze said to Mr. Ya, "Let’s go."
’The second explosion was too loud. The massive mushroom cloud was visible from all over Qinggu City. The Mu Country Saint Emissary and a crowd of their Overlords will surely be here any minute.’
’After a commotion this big, Chen Suifeng won’t be able to stall them for long.’
Mr. Ya grabbed Su Ze, and in an instant, the two of them sank into the ground and vanished.
...
Shortly after Su Ze and Mr. Ya left, five people arrived in a frantic rush at the former site of the Muguo Imperial Palace.
Staring at the ruins before them, the Mu Country Saint Emissary’s expression instantly turned grim.
Chen Suifeng’s face was also a mask of fury. "Who would be so audacious!"
A Mu Country Overlord specializing in Spiritual Power scanned the entire ruin with his abilities. "There are very few casualties," he reported. "I haven’t found the King of Mu’s..."
He had wanted to say "corpse," but swallowed the word.
It was still unclear whether the King of Mu was alive or dead.
"Investigate this! Find out exactly who is responsible!" the Saint Emissary ordered coldly. The other Overlords hastily complied.
In a few moments, one of the Mu Country Overlords returned with several maids and guards. "Your Excellency," he said, "these are all maids and guards from the palace. They claim that before the explosion, they encountered a half-tree, half-human monster..."
