Chapter 291 - 290: Venerable [Zuo Xuan]

The moment the image of a humanoid lizard with blue eyes, clad in strange black armor, appeared on the light screen, space itself seemed to writhe in fear.

"An Exotic Realm this remote can actually produce such abundant Life Element... Interesting. It was worth the Spiritual Energy I spent to open the Transmission Realm."

Zuo Xuan’s True Form was suspended inside a colossal aircraft. Tens of thousands of his kin, all resembling him, operated the shockingly massive vehicle. Each had their own duty, their Divine Thoughts intersecting like a web as all sorts of dao charms flickered.

Through the display screen, they could spy on the state of every living being on Blue Star. There were the Human Race, various clans of the Demon Race, and a jumble of Demon Beasts living in settlements of small, crisscrossing boxes, or deep within the forests and oceans.

Nearly every region was exposed. There was no such thing as privacy.

This planet wasn’t large—it was minuscule, even—but it had given birth to a rich diversity of life. Its value would not be low.

BZZZT—

The aircraft’s external Realm instantly cracked Blue Star’s network, deconstructing its topography and population framework as it absorbed a massive amount of local information—

"Blue Star... A century ago, its Secret Realms revived, giving birth to Spirit Charm and ushering in an age of Cultivation. Oh? A large number of world fragments from the Celestial Profound Great Realm... I feel like I’ve seen that world’s name somewhere before, but it was so long ago. There’s probably nothing but junk left..."

As he murmured, Zuo Xuan issued a directive to the races of Blue Star. "Natives of Blue Star, I am Zuo Xuan. You may address me as Venerable Zuo Xuan. I am one of the three Venerables of the Emperor Purple Lizard Clan from the Nine Venerable Great Realm, and I command the Eight-direction Teleportation Ship.

I recently detected the fluctuations of the Fusion Realm on Blue Star and crossed the void to come here. My purpose is singular: to take away all life forms with unique Talent!"

His voice leaped directly into the minds of all living beings, translating into an understandable language. Even the ants carrying grains of rice paused in confusion.

The meaning was clear: Zuo Xuan had come to plunder the talented geniuses of every race!

The moment he spoke, the upper echelons of Xia Country were shaken. The most powerful Grandmasters from every Province unleashed their Realms, ascending from their ancestral lands in an attempt to defend their nation.

These were all top-tier experts on par with Luo Beixing, the Martial Arts Peak powerhouses of each Province—their nuclear-level deterrents. On a normal day, they struck fear into the Demon Race and protected their territories. Now, they stepped forward to face the threat.

Including Wu Hong, the dean of the Soldier Cultivation Academy in the Northwest Province, there were nine supreme experts in total!

They erupted with their full power, resisting the suppressive pressure from the Eight-direction Teleportation Ship’s external Realm. They gathered the Spirit Charm from miles around and even activated Grand Arrays to launch an attack.

SWOOSH—

The figures of Xia Country’s nine supreme experts vanished in a flash, turning into motes of starlight that were absorbed into the Eight-direction Teleportation Ship. Their attacks shattered like water splashing against rock. One after another, beams of purple light erupted from Xia Country’s cities. People enveloped by the beams were sucked toward the Eight-direction Teleportation Ship like dust into a vacuum cleaner.

An unprecedented catastrophe was sweeping through Xia Country!

The leadership in the Capital City was still reeling from the shock of the nine supreme experts being utterly powerless when beams of purple light erupted from their own bodies. Unable to control their Spirit Charm, they were like lambs to the slaughter, ascending into the sky.

Across the provinces, anyone from the Military Department or Martial Education Department who had reached the Fusion Realm was being plundered at a visible rate. With their leaders gone, Xia Country was thrown into chaos!

The populace felt an unprecedented despair. They had never imagined they would face such a disaster. Before this Venerable who had appeared from nowhere, all living beings were but ants.

It was as if countless ants had suddenly looked up to see a towering human, whose single footstep could crush them en masse.

The nine Dao Entry Realm supreme experts who had launched the counterattack were abducted. A host of Grandmasters were not spared either. Even hiding in top-secret underground research facilities was useless; the purple beams pinpointed and captured them.

Even those hiding in some shattered Secret Realm were dragged out and instantly absorbed into the Eight-direction Teleportation Ship.

In a matter of moments, there were no Grandmasters left in Xia Country!

The neighboring Sang Island was not spared. The Grandmasters of the Sakai Family and the Demon Generals of the Sang Island Demon Clan, who had just been in the middle of a battle, were also swept away. Even hiding in their lair, the Sang Island Secret Realm, was no use—they were all rooted out.

Next came the West, America, the Arctic... Be it Human Race or Demon Race, anyone whose Realm was at the Fusion Realm or above was sucked away by a purple beam, completely powerless to resist.

The West’s Archbishops, the Knights of the Apocalypse, the Arctic Demon Marshal, the East Sea Demon Marshal—all of them were utterly useless!

Blue Star was in chaos!

Just as everyone thought the plunder might end now that the Fusion Realm and Dao Entry Realm experts had been taken, Zuo Xuan’s voice once again spread across the world. "Hmm, over four thousand at the Fusion Realm and more than three hundred at the Dao Entry Realm. Many of them are near the end of their lifespans—perfect for fuel. This will be enough to replenish a portion of my Spiritual Energy.

Now, begin absorbing life forms below the Fusion Realm that possess special growth potential."

...

Northwest Martial University, which had already descended into chaos, was now a place where everyone feared for their own safety. Many were terrified of being a chosen one, of being plundered by the Eight-direction Teleportation Ship.

But as it turned out, not even a prodigy at the Seventh Rank of Jade Sinews was necessarily qualified to be "bathed" in a purple beam. It seemed Zuo Xuan had his own standards for judging Talent.

The vast majority of people were not taken. Within a single Martial Arts University, perhaps only a thousand or so beams erupted, far fewer than expected.

Meanwhile, in Room 18 of the True Inheritance Apartment, Ice Lotus was curled up on the bed, wrapped in a blanket, clutching her head and her drooping wolf ears. The fear in her heart had reached its peak. Her innate danger-sensing Talent trembled nonstop, like a shrieking alarm.

Her vacant eyes reflected a snowy landscape. She was suddenly back more than a decade ago, to the days of scrounging for trash outside North Border City, feeling the same utter lack of safety, adrift and alone.

All her emotions welled up into tears that squeezed from her eyes and slid down her tender, flushed cheeks. Her pale lips parted slightly. "Brother Jiang..."

Before the sound of her voice could fade, her body was suddenly enveloped in a purple beam. SWOOSH— The bunched-up blanket fell onto the bedsheets, like a tiny, makeshift burrow suddenly collapsing.

Ice Lotus had been abducted.

...

In the Shangguan Family’s secret underground research lab in Jiangnan, the sound of footsteps echoed—TAP TAP TAP. Shangguan Yue rushed in, her short legs scrambling as she ran toward the glass pod protecting Liu Zili.

’How could a disaster like this be happening?’

’Is Zili okay?!’

She clenched her fists, biting her lower lip, her heart racing.

Liu Zili was already a poor soul suffering from an infestation by one of the Red Flame Spider Mother’s special larvae. She was completely immobile, relying on an external supply of Spirit Charm to suppress the curse and maintain her vital signs.

If she were taken away from this place by the suddenly-appeared Zuo Xuan, the Red Flame Spider Mother’s curse would no longer be suppressed. It was hard to imagine what would happen then!

But of course, the one thing she dreaded most was exactly what happened. Just as Shangguan Yue was about to touch the glass pod, a pillar of purple light shot toward the sky.

It engulfed her as well.