CHAPTER 740: 680 RAID TWO

"Public opinion can melt gold," Daoist Tianhong’s body disintegrated, transforming into countless colors that merged into the huge Buddha behind him.

The giant Buddha rapidly took shape from the void, with the lotus platform resting within the crystal. Its size began to expand and grow rapidly.

In the cracking sounds, the Buddha’s head touched the crystal ceiling, emitting a crisp noise.

At the same time, countless tiny blood-colored mouths on his face emitted a new wave of transparent vibrational sound waves.

Where the sound waves passed, the crystal ground, the walls, everything transformed into a brilliant, pure golden color.

Crack.

At the same time, after briefly suppressing his opponent, Daoist Tianhong looked up and delivered a heavy palm strike towards the ceiling overhead.

Puh!

In an instant, his hand froze in its tracks.

Suspended in mid-air as if a statue, motionless and rigid.

A new, previously undetected terrifying force descended upon him in an instant, fixing him in place for a moment.

And it was during that moment.

Daoist Tianhong’s entire body shuddered.

Everything seemed to solidify completely.

He slowly lowered his head to look at his chest.

There, a massive broadsword shimmering with countless silver-blue starlights had pierced through from behind.

The blade was engraved with countless tiny floral patterns, with a faint scent of flowers emanating from it.

Whoosh...

Countless multicolored petals scattered and flew out of thin air within the crystal, gathering and piling up to form a human silhouette, standing right behind Daoist Tianhong.

With a rustling noise, the petals dispersed, and from them stood a figure in heavy golden armor.

The figure wore a thick, white cape with silver edges, and a faint rainbow light behind it converged into a magnificent disc, upon which one could vaguely see twelve segments representing the Divine Flower Positions.

If Li Chengyi were here, he would have recognized at a glance the origin of the Divine Flower Position, the external manifestation of Evil Flower.

"The time has come to end this," a solemn male voice emanated from beneath the helmet, "the era of Tian Ju Pavilion."

He grasped the hilt with one hand and exerted force sharply.

Puh.

The greatsword was yanked out of Daoist Tianhong, bringing with it a large spurt of Blackblood.

*

*

*

Earth-Moon.

The Royal Capital, at the very top of a dilapidated building.

Li Chengyi silently stood at the edge of the rooftop, gazing out over the city that had risen anew from ruins.

The black and white ruins had been cleared away, leaving only remnants, and a multitude of new, silver-white buildings sprung up like mountain peaks, cold and full of technological presence.

Among these peaks flew huge transport airships.

Sigh...

Li Chengyi sighed softly.

He reminisced about what Brother Lan Meng had said, that in times of peace, they fed on the Blind Spots, burning them completely to acquire the nourishment they needed.

And now, the silver lining was that the massive casualties brought by the war also ushered in an abundance of resources for future development, sparing them the need to chase after improvement materials as in times of peace.

"The battlefield, the ancestor has clearly stated, could be quite dangerous, and it is best not to go. It seems the only path left for me to continue advancing lies there..."

Li Chengyi’s thoughts were clear.

Now that Tian Ju Pavilion was in a state of disarray, having lost one of the Four Elders of Heaven’s Harvest, the great repercussions were becoming increasingly apparent.

No longer sending a steady stream of troops to the battlefield, a lot of masters were now retreating and holding their positions within Tian Ju Pavilion’s departments.

This, in turn, dramatically increased the pressure on Lian City.

After all, Tian Ju Pavilion might not care, but they, sharing borders with the void and Colossal Beasts, could not afford to ignore the situation.

Lian City meetings were held daily, but without finding Daoist Tianhong, everything seemed futile.

Taking a deep breath, Li Chengyi turned around and stepped forward.

The next second, he appeared in the Floral Cave of the underground base of Mingyuan Group.

This was where the Tower of Wisdom and the Root of Evil had been constructed.

Now, he was here not to build anything new, but to completely fill in the last Divine Flower Position and enter a fully Ultimate Form state.

In the dim underground space, Li Chengyi flicked his fingers lightly.

With a snap,

the entire cave suddenly brightened, and the automatic lighting system illuminated with white light.

Inside the cave stood two peculiarly short structures.

One was entirely blue, like stacked dishes on top of each other. That was the Root of Evil.

The other, a two-story high White Tower, looked unremarkable like a white obelisk, which was the Tower of Wisdom.

Li Chengyi went to the first floor of the Tower of Wisdom, glanced at the now randomly available book, a children’s fairy tale about kids, though the content seemed a bit odd.

It was written not from a human perspective but from that of animals writing about humans.

The cover recorded "Love and Forgiveness".

It was written in Black Sea Script.

Li Chengyi found the book somewhat interesting and decided to take it, keeping it for the time being.

Leaving the Tower of Wisdom, he went to have a look at the Root of Evil.

"Brother," a crisp female voice floated from the empty space on the first floor of the Root of Evil.

"Yserine?" Li Chengyi looked towards the voice, where there was only darkness. However, from within the darkness, one could see Yserine, wearing a pristine white gown with her hair over her shoulders, holding a silver short staff in one hand, walking towards him with a smile.

Her arm was still missing.

Li Chengyi sighed in his heart.

"Are you here to harmonize your body as well?"

"Mmm... I recently harvested quite a bit of Evil Thoughts from those snails. Those pesky snails actually dared to defy me, but I suppressed them all!" Yserine revealed a fierce smile.

"How did you suppress them?" Li Chengyi also remembered the snail merchant he had first seen.

"I made them many new snail shells, far better than the shells they carry, then I used discounted prices to press their supply channels, hehehe... Now they can only work for me, trafficking goods in various Blind Spots. I take a ten percent cut," Yserine said with a laugh.

"..." What kind of suppression is this?

Li Chengyi was at a loss for words.

"Have you found the coordinates I need?"

"Yes, I’ve found them. I’ve been wandering around and got them a while ago," Yserine chuckled. "Three-ball Silk Floss Flower, Snow Lotus, Green Fleece Mugwort. All at major gathering points. So what about the Evil Thoughts? Don’t you still lack a lot of Evil Thoughts?"

"Evil Thoughts are actually quite easy now..." Li Chengyi sighed.

That he could still stand here calmly was thanks to the large amount of Evil Thoughts he harvested initially, which played a key role.

However, he intended to completely perfect all Flower Language Techniques, which would require even more Evil Thoughts.

After all, among the remaining three types of Flower Language Techniques, that of the Green Fleece Mugwort was the most dangerous.

Because his vitality had reached a terrifying level beyond calculation.

If he were to double it forcefully with the Green Fleece Mugwort... that total amount...

"Also, Rainbow Candy is researching the formation of the Ultimate Form from fundamental substances. If you have time, you could help them gather some special materials," Li Chengyi instructed.

"Got it," Yserine nodded.

She took out a folded piece of paper from the small pocket in her skirt and handed it to Li Chengyi.

Li Chengyi took the paper and could see the three coordinates recorded inside without even unfolding it.

"Thanks. This should quickly resolve the issue with your other hand," he said.

"I’m fine, really. I’ve gotten used to it," Yserine said with a smile.

Li Chengyi reached out to touch her hair, thinking he could simply ask Brother Lan Meng if it was possible to recover it.

After all, he could freeload at Brother Lan Meng’s, while the application quota saved by the sect could be kept for later use.

"Soon, very soon, I will resolve it for you. Don’t worry," Li Chengyi comforted her.

Once the coordinates were confirmed, he and Yserine exchanged greetings.

In a flash, his figure vanished from the spot.

When he reappeared, before him was a vast spread of Three-ball Silk Floss Flowers.

Countless small white flowers, amidst the trees and green leaves, continuously swayed in the wind.

This place was a mountainous area, beneath the blue sky and white clouds, on a slope where all varieties of Firmiana simplex mutations were densely planted.

At this moment, with proper cultivation and maintenance, almost all of the trees had blossomed.

Without hesitation, Li Chengyi quickly approached to absorb the Flowers.

Shortly after, the Flower aura was complete, and Li Chengyi also took out an Evil Bead to absorb the Evil Thoughts within.

In a short while, the Evil Thoughts were complete.

A clear inquiry message entered his mind.

’Do you want to proceed with the Ultimate Evolution of the Three-ball Silk Floss Flower?’

This main flower could evolve only twice. He had already evolved it once before, and this second time would be the Ultimate Form.

But, even though it was just twice, Li Chengyi still didn’t feel any regret over this Flower Language Technique.

After all, being able to directly seek knowledge from the entire Black Sea and demand the information he needed was essentially an early enjoyment of Omniscient powers.

’Yes.’ Li Chengyi reaffirmed his desired knowledge content in his heart.

With his current Consciousness Power and information absorption speed, this time he could take in much more.

The response had just been given.

In the woods, Li Chengyi stood silently, his eyes slightly narrowed.

He had adjusted his entire body to its most perfect state.

’Do you want to use the Flower Language Technique, Talented and Brilliant?’ the Evil Flower inquired again.

’Yes!’ Li Chengyi confirmed once more.

’Please confirm the direction of traction, and use: I designate... as the traction format.’ The Evil Flower prompted again.

Li Chengyi steadied himself and took a deep breath.

"I designate...."

Countless thoughts, hesitations, doubts, at this moment passed through his mind.

But no matter the hesitation, he suppressed it all.

"I designate the attraction to the Omniscient achievement method of the Eternal Vitality System!"

Crack.

For a moment, it seemed he heard a faint cracking sound as if something had split.

’What’s happening...??’ Before his thought could form,

A tide of memories, vast as an ocean, madly surged into his consciousness from the Void in all directions.

The images, memories of myriad inheritors who had failed to achieve Eternal Vitality, flowed rapidly into Li Chengyi’s mind.

Surprisingly, he found that Eternal Vitality did not originate from Tian Ju Pavilion, but in a much more ancient era with inheritors in non-humanoid forms, who kept trying, failing, and building upon precious information through their shattered remains.

The strong post of the Evil Flower, at a level higher than Eternal Vitality, forcibly converged an immense stream of related information into Li Chengyi’s mind.

Memories of over a thousand failed inheritors flooded into his mind, becoming his precious resource.

Which paths to take, what attempts to make, what kinds of methods to contemplate, thousands of memories of failure gave Li Chengyi a sudden vast and comprehensive understanding of Eternal Vitality.

From this moment on, nobody understood Eternal Vitality better than he did. Even the Omniscient, due to restrictions on forbidden knowledge, could not surpass him.