A World Worth Protecting

Chapter 798: Stone Spirit Civilization!

Something must have happened here… Wang Baole didn’t act rashly and instead scanned his surroundings carefully first. He unleashed his locust’s cultivation and allowed its False Immortal realm power to sweep across the terrain. After ensuring that the area was safe, he turned his eyes towards the ruins around him.

He had no knowledge of the culture of this civilization and hence was unable to assess the period the bodies were from based on the clothes they were wearing. There was a strange power within this galaxy that was working against his Divine Sense. It appeared to be able to freeze time, preserving the bodies the way they appeared right before their deaths. The clothes and accessories on the bodies fell under this strange power’s influence as well, showing no signs of degradation or decomposition.

Wang Baole couldn’t imagine the power that was required to achieve something like that. He couldn’t tell if it originated from a cultivator or if it was a strange power that existed inherently in this galaxy.

Logically speaking, even though this galaxy may be located in a rather distant and deserted location, someone should have come across it during its long years of existence. But if they had… it doesn’t make sense that the bodies and ruins would still remain untouched. Wang Baole narrowed his eyes and remained on guard, setting his greed aside and not immediately conducting an inspection of the bodies and ruins floating around him. He was concerned that some unknown danger that was beyond the compass’ detection remained hidden in their midst.

With a wave of his hand, he sent more than ten thousand puppets out into the area, maneuvering them and scattering them across the wide expanse of space. Through their eyes, he performed a detailed investigation of the area. He pulled less than a dozen wisps of his Divine Sense out from the avatar form that he was dwelling in and injected them into some puppets so that he could see with clearer eyes through them.

More than ten thousand puppets surrounded his Dharmic Battleship and spread outwards. They sped past the sea of bodies, granting Wang Baole an increasingly widened range of vision. Half an hour later, as the puppets reached a considerable distance away from Wang Baole, the latter’s eyes suddenly flashed.

Amidst the sea of countless corpses and ruins were some bodies that were dressed in a distinctively different fashion. These corpses weren’t congregated in a single area but spread across multiple locations. Wang Baole perceived as many as seven to eight spots from his current range of vision.

These groups of bodies don’t belong to the same time period as the original bodies… The discovery heightened the sense of wariness that Wang Baole had been feeling. Thoughts and guesses flashed across his mind. In his head, he could see cultivators from other civilizations who had come across this region in the past. They had entered the galaxy and then come to some accidental demise.

Maybe the bodies that were originally here hide some kind of unknown danger? Wang Baole narrowed his eyes and assessed the situation. He was reluctant to just turn tail and leave. Therefore, he pulled out another batch of puppets, which sped past the sea of bodies and headed for the four planets.

He intended to use his puppets to find out if there was anything strange about the planets. Based on what he was able to find out, he would determine whether to continue searching the area.

With a plan in place, Wang Baole continued releasing puppets. A group of these puppets arrived at one planet just as the number of released puppets reached thirty thousand. The planet was completely black and resembled an enormous meteoroid from afar. When the puppets landed on the planet, they too saw nothing but black all around them.

There was no plant life and no source of water. There were only mountain ranges snaking across the planet’s surface and their numerous mountain peaks. The planet was deathly silent. The arrival of Wang Baole’s puppets had broken that silence. However, nothing alive came to greet them.

Wang Baole decided to wait instead of instructing his puppets to start a search of the planet. After his remaining puppets had landed on the other three planets, he finally initiated a simultaneous search of all four planets. Wang Baole’s eyes grew wider as the search unfolded. Then, he wrestled control over one puppet and turned its eyes towards a black bamboo shoot growing on a small hill on one of the planets!

The bamboo was made out of stone despite looking like a plant. Its leaves were also made of stone. Adding to the bizarre discovery was the sight of liquid emerging from the bamboo’s skin and slowly dripping down the shoot.

There was no scent to the bamboo and no presence of spirit energy. Regardless, Wang Baole felt as if he had been struck by lightning by the discovery. His heart started pumping rapidly.

A Stone Bamboo!

Wang Baole could barely believe his eyes. He had read about it in the Divine Eye civilization’s literature. Its name might sound ordinary, but its worth was immense. Stone Bamboo had gone extinct in the Divine Eye civilization. To get a hold of it, one had to get it from other civilizations and pay an absurd sum for it.

Stone Bamboo was a key component in building and upgrading Dharmic Battleships. It was extremely rare, and demand for it vastly exceeded supply. As a result, even a bit of Stone Bamboo the length of one’s finger could spark an intense fight to the death. As for the Stone Bamboo that currently stood before Wang Baole… while bringing it back wouldn’t spark an outright war between two greater sects, it would definitely create chaos and madness amongst some armies.

Stone Bamboo was something Wang Baole needed as well, and something that he had been searching for. He had something half as powerful as a Dharmic Battleship now—his locust. If he were to refine it with sufficient Stone Bamboo, there was a great chance of evolving it into a full-fledged Dharmic Battleship!

A Stone Bamboo shoot… Wang Baole’s heart raced. The pervasive sense of danger surrounding him made him hesitant, though. It was then, during that exact moment of hesitation, while his puppets were scattered and doing a sweep of the four planets, that Stone Bamboos began springing from the ground like daisies. In fact, more than a hundred Stone Bamboos had popped up on the third planet!

The other planets only had a few dozen shoots. The excitement of seeing these shoots spring forth from the ground turned Wang Baole’s eyes red and caused his breathing to quicken. The donkey and Little Wu couldn’t see what was going on and had no idea what was happening with Wang Baole. But Little Wu quickly realized what had just happened. They had found something valuable.

The donkey had no idea what Wang Baole was thinking. But the galaxy held great temptation for the creature, one that was as strong as the hold that the Stone Bamboo had on Wang Baole. After all… scattered in the cosmic area before it were countless ruins and shards of Dharmic treasures. They were all food in the donkey’s eyes!

Some of them looked extremely yummy…

Both Wang Baole and the donkey’s breathing sped up at the same time. Little Wu watched the two fearfully, the gears in his head spinning furiously. He decided to follow their lead and forcefully quickened his breathing too.

That’s a lot of Stone Bamboo. Let’s just wing it! After a moment of contemplation, Wang Baole gritted his teeth and made up his mind. He pulled out his compass and did a detailed scan. The results didn’t show any colored energy signatures on the planets. He hesitated no longer, barking out an order to his puppets and commanding them to harvest the bamboo. He pulled out thousands of battleships and sent them towards the planets so that the puppets could load the battleships with their harvest!

Wang Baole was hedging a bet here. He kept his guard up and his cultivation churning. The locust was fully activated as well. After all, he was currently at the edge of the galaxy. Should anything dangerous happen, he was confident that he would be able to get to safety in time.

Time crawled past while he stewed in anxiety and remained on high alert. The puppets had the difficult task of digging Stone Bamboos from the ground. The planets’ rocky ground was extremely hard. The puppets often had to hit the same spot at the same time in order to loosen a bit of rock in the ground. Even though Wang Baole had countless puppets at his disposal, they only managed to dig out one Stone Bamboo after a long time and have it ferried to the battleship, which then delivered it to Wang Baole.

There’s no rush. We can take our time… Despite the anxiety and nervousness plaguing Wang Baole, he knew that haste made waste. Any oversight or negligence might lead to an adverse outcome. As he consoled himself, he looked at the galaxy ahead of him with a heated stare.

It was then that one of the planets suddenly shuddered faintly. Wang Baole sensed the tremors immediately. Before he could examine the phenomenon, the tremors began to intensify. The other three planets began to shake as well. The ground shifted violently, undulating as if a serpent was moving underground.

As the ground shook, an overwhelming power erupted from the boulders, mountain peaks, and mountain ranges on the surface of the planets. The skies trembled, the clouds rolled back, and the winds started lashing. The entire galaxy appeared to be affected. It was then that these boulders, mountain peaks, and mountain ranges… stood up!

They weren’t boulders or mountain peaks or mountain ranges at all, they were… stone golems… of different sizes!

It was as if they had been sleeping earlier and had just been awoken by the ruckus that Wang Baole’s puppets had caused. They seemed to be in a foul mood. They opened and revealed their crimson eyes, then turned those red eyes towards the puppets around them. Then, they turned skywards and let loose raging howls that stirred the entire galaxy!

Shock flashed across Wang Baole’s face. He tried to summon his puppets back, but the roars of these stone golems were too powerful. They were like tornadoes that swept across space, unleashing a series of thunderous booms without a moment’s respite. Half of the thirty-thousand strong puppet army was swept away by the tornadoes, disintegrating into dust instantly!

That wasn’t the end of it. Something else that sent Wang Baole, the donkey, and Little Wu shuddering in fear soon followed. As numerous stone golems awoke from their slumber on the four planets, seven to eight Spirit Immortal realm auras were unleashed from each planet’s core and erupted into being!

Is this a joke? Wang Baole moaned. Without hesitation, he turned his locust around, ready to make a run for it.