The feast of slaughter had officially begun.
No Abominations could withstand even a single strike from them. Wherever the three figures passed, they proved utterly unstoppable.
The battle raged without pause, sweeping into every corner of the Desolate Planet. In the sky, on land, and across the ocean depths... wherever fluctuations of Abundance power stirred, the three would appear.
An unknown span of time passed. Eventually, the entire surface of the Desolate Planet and its seabeds lay covered in the remains of Abominations of Abundance.
Kanzaki crashed down to the ground, retracting the wings on his back. His gaze locked firmly onto the mountain ahead.
Without a word, he threw a punch through the air.
A deafening boom erupted. The mountain, thousands of meters tall, shook violently before crumbling into fine powder under the terrifying destructive force.
As the dust slowly settled, nothing remained beneath the debris.
Kanzaki narrowed his eyes and spoke in a cold voice.
"An old friend has lingered here long enough. Aren't you going to come out and catch up, Shuhu?"
As his words faded, movement finally stirred across the plain of accumulated powder. The ground trembled violently, splitting into a dense web of cracks.
Countless massive roots... so enormous they defied easy description... crawled forth from the fissures. Slowly, they revealed their full, horrifying form.
It was a giant tree root. Ignoring its colossal scale, it resembled the stump of an ordinary tree that had been sawn off and buried deep underground. The key difference lay in how these roots writhed continuously, linking the stump to the mass above, while countless eyes blinked open across its surface.
An ordinary person would likely faint from terror after a single glance, the sight forever scarring their mind.
Yet on the faces of Kanzaki, Xueyi, and Hanya, there was not the slightest trace of emotion.
"Hehe... So it really is you, Tomomu Kanzaki..."
"You knew the moment we stepped into this place. Why bother with the act?" Kanzaki replied, his voice indifferent.
"..."
Shuhu fell silent for a moment, seemingly surprised that its opponent showed no immediate intent to attack. Still, it welcomed the delay.
After sizing up Kanzaki for a long while, it suddenly smiled.
"To think you would accept The Self-Actualization Aspect granted by the blessing of the Ambrosial Arbor. All to take revenge on me... You did not hesitate to violate the Xianzhou taboos and fully step onto the Path of Abundance. How very interesting..."
"I am an Emanator of Abundance. Regardless of whether you can kill me, I must ask... What made you willing to walk this path?"
Before Kanzaki could respond, Hanya's expression darkened sharply.
"You disaster worse than a beast... You destroyed Cangcheng and everything we held dear. How dare a mere piece of bark like you ask a question you already know the answer to?"
"That's where you're wrong. Those words are far too unpleasant..."
Shuhu chuckled strangely, continuing in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I only wished to grant you all true immortality, yet none of you showed any gratitude. You foolishly view becoming part of my eternal body as death, wasting this rare opportunity that comes once in a thousand years."
"Ask yourselves... How many lives never even earn the qualification to obtain such supreme joy?"
"The Xianzhou is merely a cage that confines your future. Don't you see? I am helping you... bestowing salvation upon you."
"You lost Cangcheng and your families, but you still have me."
"Why deceive yourselves and ignore a great existence like me... one who can share eternal immortality with trillions of lives?"
"Look, you three. Those you care about are still living well to this day."
As the words fell, flowers and fruits bloomed rapidly across the surface of Shuhu's roots. Familiar faces took shape one after another.
Among them appeared Kanzaki's father and sister, along with friends of the Xueyi sisters and many others they had once known.
These faces spoke in turn, affectionately describing how happy their lives had become over the years. They spoke of attaining true endless lifespan, shining alongside the galaxy... eternal and undying.
"Xiao Mu... Sister misses you so much..."
"Mu'er, listen to your father. Embrace ultimate bliss and share eternal immortality with Lord Shuhu!"
Xueyi and Hanya clenched their fists tightly. A few of their teeth even cracked from the sheer pressure. If Kanzaki had not yet given the order, they would have attacked long ago.
"Have you said enough?"
No anger showed on Kanzaki's face. He appeared neither happy nor sad... only an indescribable expression lingered there.
He watched those two familiar yet strangely distant faces for a moment. Then the corners of his mouth curled into a mocking arc.
"Shuhu, there is a reason you have survived until now. As long as your roots remain, you can be reborn through nirvana countless times."
"A dignified Emanator of Abundance actually feels wary because of my arrival. Clearly, in your eyes, I should be nothing more than an ant who isn't even an Emanator."
As soon as these words left his lips, the expressions on the faces dotting Shuhu's roots slowly stiffened.
Kanzaki tilted his head slightly. His tone gradually turned freezing cold.
"There is no need for these pointless stalling tricks. As long as I do not deactivate the Imaginary Barrier, no transmission or contact of any thought... whether one-way or two-way... can escape."
Wanting to contact the Shuhu currently invading the Luofu? In your dreams.
"Have you heard the Xianzhou proverb? Where poisonous snakes roam, the antidote lies within seven paces."
"Over a thousand years ago, a new species of Abominations of Abundance appeared... called the Si Luo."
"They possessed very low intelligence, yet they held the ability to block any means of communication and could continuously evolve."
At this point, the flesh on Kanzaki's forehead writhed. A giant, pure white sharp horn slowly grew outward.
"No one knows that I killed the Si Luo Broodmother, hid the object that concentrated its abilities, absorbed it through The Self-Actualization Aspect, and strengthened it with the blessing of Abundance for over a thousand years."
"Have you ever considered that the blessings Yaoshi so freely bestows might actually give rise to a way to deal with you?"
"What made me willing to walk this path? Hehe... It was all for you, Shuhu... Do you know how much I have missed you over these thousand years...?"
The words sounded like an expression of deep longing, yet they dripped with a killing intent that chilled the body to the core.
"I once swore that in this life, I would kill you completely... eradicating you, this tumor that plagues the universe."
"Jie jie jie... This is getting more and more interesting..."
Shuhu fell silent for a moment. Realizing that the three before it could not be deluded, it set those thoughts aside.
"Since you possess such confidence, why not clear up another doubt for me?"
"You want to ask how I found the hiding place of your roots, how I knew you were the first Miracle of Abundance in the galaxy, and how I knew the reason you could never be completely killed... correct?"
"...Oh?" For the first time, an unmaskable note of surprise colored Shuhu's tone.
Kanzaki showed no worry about complications from speaking too much. He remained patient and calmly explained the reasons to Shuhu.
"One thousand seventy-nine years ago, you used branch thorns to pierce our limbs, leaving behind unique marks that were almost impossible to detect."
Hearing this, the expressions on several faces within Shuhu's shadows finally turned somewhat unsightly.
Clearly, it had not forgotten the scene from a thousand years ago, when it had prepared to devour the three of them in one go.
"Long ago, I discussed with Teng Xiao where your roots would be hidden if you truly were a tree, and why the Alliance had found nothing after thousands of years of searching."
"Thanks to the marks you left behind, I successfully located your nest through them."
"You attached these marks to different powerful Abominations. By piercing the flesh of the Cloud Knights and burrowing into their bodies to lie dormant, you obtained everything they saw and heard..."
"And these Cloud Knights, through certain contacts, would spread the virus-like marks to those around them."
"As time passed, the Xianzhou remained filled with your eyes and ears. You could even use the marks to silently manipulate people's minds, making it impossible for anyone to detect anything unusual."
As early as the moment he had completely cured Hanya's leg ailment and finished absorbing the residual power of Rahu through The Self-Actualization Aspect, Kanzaki had nearly detected the mark left by Shuhu.
The time he truly pinpointed the marks came on the day when the two sisters stood on the verge of death. He activated The Self-Actualization Aspect for them, completely remodeling their bodies.
It was also through the hidden dangers within their bodies that he thoroughly investigated himself and discovered the mark lurking in the most remote corner of his own form.
Without hesitation, he used the ability of the Si Luo to completely block it.
After refining it with The Self-Actualization Aspect over a long period, he actually found that he could vaguely sense the coordinates of its main body through the mark.
"The entire Xianzhou Alliance, including the Yueque Divination Commission, is not unable to accurately obtain information on the movements of you and the Abundant Alliance. Rather..."
"Through the marks lurking within countless Xianzhou people, you prevented the Xianzhou Alliance from knowing all of this."
"So, do you understand? The one who told me the hiding place of your roots... was you yourself..."
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Bonus chapters
200 - Stones
400 - Stones
600 - Stones
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