When Liu Shu opened her eyes and realized 15 years had passed, she grew quite nervous. Thankfully, in terms of real-time years, only 5 had gone by. Even then, five years during the active period they were approaching could become lethal.
As she scanned the surroundings, Liu Shu spoke to Wisdom. "Summarize what happened, Wisdom."
[Wisdom: Understood.]
Then, instead of words, the period of fifteen years flashed in her mind like a quick-playing movie. She saw all the important developments, and she also got to know about the crucial documents, opinions, and plans.
"Huh…? What happened?"
When she came to herself, fifteen hours had passed. Wisdom answered.
[Wisdom: Now that your Anima and Willpower attributes are much higher, together with your processing ability, it is possible to share information this way.]
As an SSS Rank skill, Wisdom naturally had many functions that Liu Shu had yet to discover. One of them was information sharing. Wisdom could, even when she was subconscious, gather information like a sub-brain and then share it.
Hearing the explanation, Liu Shu asked, awed. "You are an information cheat…"
In truth, most of her strongest exploits were all thanks to Wisdom. Her
Then came the ability to basically absorb books and even filter inaccurate information. Later, Wisdom also allowed her to breach electronic data storage, and probably one of the strongest functions, Wisdom's ability to partially control her body when she was unconscious. If needed, Wisdom could take over and use part of her strength, which saved quite a few people in the past.
Wisdom was basically a cheat-like skill for everything related to
Shaking her head, Liu Shu refocused on everything she had learned. A piece of information that stood out for Liu Shu was… "Wow, my wives are so cool~!"
Liu Shu looked starry-eyed at the playback of that battle. 'So cool! So cool! Ah!'
Moreover, even by Liu Shu's own standards, her wives were strong. She could see that over the last fifteen years, her wives had truly poured their everything into strengthening themselves and Leveling Up. 'Seraphina and Obsidianis have fallen behind…'
In terms of pure combat power, she could sense that Obsidianis and Seraphina were a notch or two behind the rest. Her head tilted. "Why is that?"
No matter how she looked at it, she couldn't reach a conclusion. So, she shook her head. 'Well, they will catch up. Their talent is no less than the rest.'
"Still…"
Her eyes went from admiring to cold and indifferent. "Why are these people sneaking around my domain like bugs?"
Her eyes could see several "hidden" ships exploring the structure zone between her Solar System and that of the Covenant and Nexus.
"This… can be considered an attack."
With that notion, all her buffs activated.
Her base stats were all at around 19,000,000, while her willpower was 5,000,000. Her ternary essence stars also hovered around 610 without any buff applied.
However, as her buffs flowed into her, causing her strength to soar, those numbers skyrocketed.
***
Name: Tianlian Liu Shu
Level: 250
Aether Mana Stars: 3,539.41/3,539.41
Phoer Body Stars: 3,546.82/3,546.82
Anima Energy Stars: 3,535.7/3,535.7
Attributes: Aether 115,615,738 / Physique 115,732,074 / Anima 115,557,566 / Willpower 45,760,788 / Destiny 30,000
Overall Stars: 21 (SS- Tier)
***
The outrageous numbers across her System Page reflected her current strength. It was strength that could crush worlds. Liu Shu had already gone past the stage of feeling weak, and past the stage where she felt she needed to be passive and fearful of the Covenant.
"Now, you are all my experience points."
Thousands of Aether Mana stars flowed through Liu Shu's roots with a powerful pulse, covering the distance of several light years in less than an instant. To transmit energy for a World Tree, distance was nothing but a number dictating their root range. Everything within a World Tree's domain was a fair target.
Then, for the first time, the evolution S- Rank skill that came from
"
In the ships belonging to the Nexus and Covenant, alarms suddenly blared. Someone's face changed to one of utter terror as they shouted. "Energy signals approaching that of a
Yet, those words were their last words. The void around them screeched like a beast being crushed. The fabric of space, as if giant monstrous claws were tearing into them, ripped open and collapsed into a space maelstrom.
The hidden ships, the people inside, and every single structure several thousand kilometers around those ships were torn into particles. Only after several hours did space once more regain its stability, leaving several voids where structures previously cluttered the void like asteroids.
Liu Shu received zero experience from her attack due to the mix of high- and low-level individuals inside those ships. Having checked that there were no too low-level beings, she didn't feel surprised. In truth, she had expected to lose a few hundreds of thousands of experience points. So, the fact that the final result was zero was a pleasant surprise.
Looking away, Liu Shu once closed her real eyes and spread her
***
Meanwhile, those checking on the status of the spy starships couldn't help but blink in confusion. 'Hm? Did it malfunction?'
The dots that had been moving slowly along the edges of the structures and approaching Ceperet had suddenly disappeared. Moving the screen with their fingers and using a holographic keyboard, along with some voice commands, the person checking tried to reset the signal receiver while also inspecting the program.
"No signal?"
Of course, reaching the conclusion that the spy starships had been instantly crushed by a supreme force didn't really cross his mind. How could it? These ships had been active for a while, and there had been no major changes. So, there was no reason for them to be either discovered or destroyed.
This would remain a mystery for quite a long time, puzzling even the higher-ups on both sides who received the reports.
***
Flor was checking some documents with a frown when a very familiar yet different presence descended into her room. "Mom, I am awake~!"
Flor blinked and smiled. "Good morning, you sleepyhead. I expected it when I felt that faint yet monstrous pulse of energy, but you truly awoke. What did you do, love?"
Liu Shu used her roots to hug Flor and huffed. "Some bugs were roaming between our stars, so I crushed them! Also, I've noticed a small army approaching and lingering at the edge of my domain. They seem to be from the Nexus. Do we do anything about them?"
Flor picked the teacup, taking a gentle sip with a smile. "I see. Thank you for cleaning up. Did you check what force they belonged to?"
"Nexus and Covenant."
"Hm?" The teacup paused, a gentle frown appearing between her brows. Caressing the roots, she asked. "Did you get rid of those from the Covenant as well?"
"Mhm. I did so instantly. So, they won't know it was me. The only way to discover my activity is through guesswork."
Her frown relaxed. "I see. Then that's good. There are quite a few reports for you."
Flor pointed at the corner of the room, where a large box with stacks of paper taller than Flor was gathered. "Eat."
Liu Shu obediently manifested a root large enough to devour that and opened it. Seeing the somewhat warm, moist interior of the root made Flor look away. '...Why did that look quite lewd?'
A few moments later, Liu Shu spoke softly. "Alright, I digested the information. Thank you for preparing it, Mom."
Flor smiled gently, her eyes dripping with love and care. "No need to thank me, love. So, what do you think?"
"Let them come."
That answer was somewhat different from what Flor expected. She asked, a touch worried. "Are you sure it is okay?"
"If it was just me defending, I wouldn't be so aggressive. However, I've seen the strength of my Apostles~, hehe. Together, defending the nearby Solar Systems is not a dream. I believe that we have enough military strength to protect ten Solar Systems. Ours, and the nine surrounding our star."
Hearing her words, Flor rubbed her chin. "Explain."
"Seraphina and the other girls have become very strong. In a defensive battle, they have strength above an average Level 299 powerhouse."
She recalled Leafara's aura back when the Skill Merchants were here, and the current transformed Cinderielle felt stronger. As for whether they were stronger than Flamar, the
"Hm… I see. But that's just six Solar Systems, right?"
"Warlya and the other Big sisters can protect one by themselves perfectly fine as well."
"That's seven."
"Mommy Ignatia and Flor can protect another!"
"That's eight."
"I can perfectly take care of the remaining two myself until Etheria and Elyne gain enough strength to protect one each!"
"Well, that's nine still. I don't believe Elyne and Etheria can protect one each. Both of them might be able to guard one, though."
"Well, the tenth one is the Ceperet Solar System, so I am here!"
"That's… true."
Convinced, Flor nodded. "Alright. So, we are starting our expansion now at full force, right?"
Liu Shu spoke confidently. "We will get the nearest nine Solar Systems, and then move toward Xakira's and the other two's domains."
As non
After all, once you took over, the majority of powers would need to go through a cleansing. The resources to massacre most of the world's population without destroying the ecosystem and making it uninhabitable were far too much. Therefore, only those at the same level as them and with only a desire for terrain would target them.
However, that was not a problem for Liu Shu. Her society could perfectly naturalize most species, insectoid included. This had been proved by the hornetkin, cicadakin, and mantiskin that arrived in the past. Now, they had plenty of children and filled around 0.5% of the total population. The percentage sounded low, but with tens of billions, their numbers were in the tens of millions.
"Hm… Got it. So, we have around 50 Solar Systems waiting for us to conquer. However, to advance in their direction, we need to pierce through Nexus territory or make a tremendous deviation."
Liu Shu glanced at the starmap and spoke with a chuckle. "Well, the Nexus is in bad luck, then. Once we deal with the Covenant and Nexus's offensives, we will have to ask them to politely move away."
Flor sighed, gently tapping the roots as a light scolding. "Let's wait and see if they are so weak that you can act this arrogantly, love. Remember what you felt when Xakira scolded you? Don't get too arrogant!"
Liu Shu blinked and smiled. "Alright. Let's take it slow, then. Once I confirm my suspicions, we can talk more in length."