Chapter 665: Return and On the Moon

“By the way, what exactly is the True Body Technique he’s cultivating?”

Having obtained information about the Divine Wood True Body from Zhou Buyi’s data, Shao Qiming was quite curious about Su Zhou’s Cultivation Technique, which allowed him to freely modify his own body parts. After all, in a typical True Body, every component and every Spiritual Power Organ was linked in an extremely complex network. Arbitrarily replacing or removing parts could lead to unpredictable effects.

Take his academy teammate Li Hanshan’s bloodline, for example. The Cultivation of their Chongming Bird lineage lacked the methods for the throat’s vocal organs and a portion of the lungs’ Spiritual Power Organs. As a result, not only was it difficult for them to produce the Phoenix Cry they theoretically should have been able to, but even speaking casually could cause their Spiritual Qi to reverse, leading to Qi deviation.

Of course, they had recently perfected their bloodline with the inheritance of another Chongming Bird Demon God from the Kunlun Secret Realm, so they no longer suffered from this side effect. But it still showed the consequences of arbitrary modification. Su Zhou’s True Body, on the other hand, was like a set of building blocks. As long as it was a reasonably good cultivation method for a Spiritual Power Organ, he could take it for his own use and, after a little adaptation, use it perfectly.

—’Your Spiritual Power Organ looks good. Now it’s mine.jpg.’

‘Even other Divine Woods have to communicate with each other, or else seize one another’s life information, to absorb the other’s strengths for their own use…’

Having already decided to walk the Divine Wood Dao, Shao Qiming couldn’t help but sigh. ‘I’ve heard that Dragon Serpents can mate with all things and produce offspring. Perhaps this kind of freewheeling bloodline style is what manifests in Su Zhou as such adaptability.’

As for Shao Qiming himself, he decided that in a little while, he would go to Su Zhou’s Personal Space to hang out with the Wisdom Tree. He’d also ask if the little guy was aware of the immense power it possessed.

If it was, he’d ask about it directly.

If not, then he would help it develop that power.

“Are you leaving, Su Zhou?”

At this time, Zhou Buyi’s voice came from within the secret base. He was far away, communicating with Su Zhou through the base’s internal loudspeaker. “It’s a shame. I’m busy right now and can’t see you off.”

Finding a way to the Moon was an extremely complex and enormous project. Even as a Commander Tier powerhouse, Zhou Buyi couldn’t accomplish it alone. He had to guide the power of an entire civilization for his own use… and at the same time, his power could be used by that civilization.

“Don’t be so sentimental. Coming back here is like coming home for me—we’ll just see each other next time.”

Su Zhou was extremely nonchalant about partings. He sheathed the Blade of Annihilation, which had been mostly cooled by his Spiritual Power, back into its original hilt and sword scabbard. Then he tossed it into his Personal Space. Amidst the Wisdom Tree’s cry of ‘It’s so hot!’, he closed his Personal Space again. “I hope that by the time I come back, I’ll hear news that you’ve gone up to heaven.”

“That doesn’t sound very nice—you should say ‘landed on the Moon.'”

“But it’s a blessing, and besides, you’re not a woman.”

With that, Su Zhou laughed and bid Zhou Buyi farewell. Then, he and Shao Qiming walked together down the long, underground tunnel leading outside, emerging on the coast of an island in the West Sea of the World Island.

Zhou Buyi had once made many pessimistic predictions about the world’s future, one of which was that he would be unable to control this massive collective, leading to a world war. He believed it would be difficult for him alone to calm the turbulent world, so his plan was that if a world war broke out, he would preserve the civilization’s data in shelters and bases scattered across the globe. Then, after the war, he would bring it out to rebuild civilization.

Of course, this worst-case scenario never came to pass, but those bases had already been built.

“It’s not so bad to take a vacation and relax once in a while.”

Standing on the upper half of a small mountain in the center of the island, Su Zhou looked around at the sparkling seascape of the Divine Wood World. He then reached into his clothes and touched the Celestial God Seal.

Shao Qiming, who was beside him, couldn’t help but retort, “Your idea of a vacation and relaxing is to trade blows with another Commander Tier Divine Wood Cultivator, causing the whole world to shake?”

“It’s the spirit of the thing!”

As a vast amount of Spiritual Power—enough to knock an ordinary Commander Tier Cultivator unconscious—was drawn out, a Space-Time Ball leading to the Earth World appeared before Su Zhou and Shao Qiming.

They touched the ball, and a screen of silver light flashed past.

In the next instant, they were back on Earth, inside the Shao Family’s Old Mansion in the suburbs of Hongcheng.

“…The gains from the Divine Wood World are truly substantial.”

The first thing Shao Qiming did after returning to Earth was pick up his phone, which he had deliberately left there. He turned on the screen and stared at the time. After confirming that not a single second had passed, he couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. “And it can even interfere with time… Such incredible power…”

As he said this, he subconsciously glanced at the top of Su Zhou’s head, at the seemingly unremarkable half-cap.

The Snake Spirit did not reply.

“By the way, Su Zhou.” Shao Qiming turned to look at the young man, who was still stretching. He asked with great interest, “Didn’t you go to another world as well? What about that world? Are there any technologies or information worth collecting? Is it worth a trip for us…”

“The Reincarnation World? Everything is just beginning there. The New Era was born not long ago. I don’t think there’s any point in going.”

Twisting his body and stretching his bones, Su Zhou sounded a bit lazy. “Besides, there’s a derivative of a Great Being there. Although the Silent Lord theoretically won’t intervene, it’s better not to go back and get involved with It… Whether it’s love or hate, we can’t bear the will that comes from Them.”

“Is that so…”

Shao Qiming was smart. He could hear the sentiment behind Su Zhou’s words, so he didn’t press the matter. Instead, he sat back down on the sofa, maneuvered the drone that had already filmed a great deal of data to fly in front of him, and took out the memory card. “Let’s not talk about that then. Su Zhou, what are you going to do next? Continue to cooperate with the government on the moon landing experiments, or…”

Su Zhou thought for a moment, then patted his head. “A while ago, the government said they wanted me to do a documentary and a show about the moon landing. I was eating at the time, so I just casually agreed…”

“That habit of yours of agreeing to things while you’re eating is really not good…”

“It’s not like it’s a bad thing, anyway…”

The spoils from the Divine Wood World couldn’t just be handed over. It would take some time, whether for the two of them to fabricate a backstory for their haul from the so-called Immortal God Ruins, or to rehearse their lines.

And as Su Zhou and Shao Qiming rested, concocting a cover story for their findings…

Earth World, the Solar System.

On the Moon.

On the side of the Moon illuminated by the sun, the temperature was as high as nearly two hundred degrees Celsius. Although the vacuum couldn’t conduct heat, the powerful thermal radiation could still accelerate molecular motion.

Without an atmosphere, there was no air pressure; with the extremely high thermal radiation, there was no liquid water… The surface of the Moon was a desert where all life struggled to survive.

But now…

A boot formed from a condensed chitinous shell stamped down with great force onto the gray Moon Soil, leaving behind an extremely deep footprint.

A massive, humanoid silhouette cast a long shadow under the sunlight.

Dust and sand were swept away by a powerful surge of Spiritual Power, as if by a Gale. The brilliant sunlight shone down, revealing a silver-gray humanoid figure standing silently on the Moon Surface.

This silver-gray humanoid had the features of a Western human, but he had no hair, only an exoskeleton shell in a shape resembling hair.

This exoskeleton was incredibly sturdy, with flickering silver Spirit Patterns on it that created layers of invisible shields around its body, used to absorb radiation and convert it into usable energy.

Bathing in the golden radiance, the humanoid figure raised its head and gazed forward, staring at the planet covered in azure and white.

Then, it opened its mouth and soundlessly exhaled.

“Earth…”