Chapter 345: The Starry Sky Is Never Lonely

"Goodbye, Bai. Can I come find you again in the future?"

"Of course, you're welcome anytime. Goodbye, Jin."

Watching the desolate beast Jin Du leave, reluctant to part, taking three steps and turning back for one last look, Baichuan's feelings were complicated.

He had expected it to be like the previous Calamity—fight it, then take its corpse and turn it into a puppet.

He hadn't expected this desolate beast to be so different from the previous Calamity. She was exceptionally pure; although her appearance and the power she controlled looked extremely dangerous and lethal—one might even say vicious—her heart was utterly simple and guileless.

Thinking back to how, with just a few words, he had sweet-talked her until she couldn't find her bearings, and even coaxed out where she lived and who was in her family, Baichuan's expression now turned a little strange. It made him feel as though he were deceiving an innocent, naive girl who knew nothing of the world.

In this world, there really were such pure beings. No wonder—they were a race born in the extreme environment of the Eternal Permafrost after the stars went out. Too pure.

Watching her leave, Baichuan recalled what had happened a day ago.

One day ago, right in front of the great city's gates, Baichuan was staring at the golden, resplendent Desolate King Jin Du.

"Hello, are you the Desolate King that was just born?"

Just as Baichuan was thinking of striking first, a clear, pleasant, slightly timid voice drifted over, giving the impression of some shy young girl from a respectable household who had lost her way and, summoning her courage, haltingly asked for directions.

"Ah, if no one else has claimed it, then yes, I am." Baichuan, so used to fighting to the death that he automatically assumed any encounter meant a battle, was caught off guard and instinctively replied.

"Phew~ That's a relief." The other seemed to exhale, but still carefully continued, "Then have you seen a desolate beast that's all cyan and as fierce as a bull? His name is Calamity. We haven't seen him in a long time."

"Oh, and he should have come to find you earlier, so…"

"Also, my name is Jin… Du."

So she really did notice that guy was missing.

Hearing this, a glint flickered in Baichuan's eyes. He naturally couldn't say he had killed the other, so he prepared to play along and launch a surprise attack first, hoping to catch her off guard and extract a bit more useful information from her memories.

"The one you're asking about? Yes, he did come, but later he seemed to be drawn off by some commotion—that power that lit up the sky some time ago. Who are you? What do you want with me?"

While spouting nonsense he didn't even believe himself, Baichuan's power quietly extended underground, and he himself stepped closer bit by bit.

"Oh, okay, thank you." The golden figure seemed to believe him, then looked a little troubled at the approaching mechanical Bixian and kindly whispered a warning: "Newly born Desolate King sir, could you not come any closer? The toxic mist around me is terrifying. Your outer armor probably can't withstand its corrosion…"

Finally, the owner of that voice seemed afraid of being misunderstood, or perhaps such kindness had earned her unpleasant responses several times before, and in her panic added an explanation: "…Of course, I'm not saying you're weak, but you've only just completed your metamorphosis, so you should still be at Tier 3, while I'm already Tier 4. The purity of the Desolate Gold coating your body isn't enough yet; it probably can't withstand my toxic mist. My toxic mist is where my name comes from—it can even corrode Desolate Gold of the same tier…"

"…" Baichuan stopped in his tracks, staring blankly at this seemingly rather foolish Desolate King.

Desolate Gold? Is that the exotic metal that makes up a desolate beast's body?

No—he hadn't even started trying to pump her for information yet, so why was she already spilling everything?

And—she actually believed his earlier story?

Is this Desolate King really this easy to fool?!

Seeing the newly born Desolate King freeze, the Desolate King named Jin Du panicked inwardly, 'Oh no, did I say something wrong again? I knew I shouldn't have said so much. The more I say, the more mistakes I make. No! I shouldn't have come out and taken this mission in the first place. Wuu…'

As her heart churned violently, Jin Du's long, sleek, lethally beautiful scorpion tail began to sway slightly.

Sensing that this Desolate King might be easy to fool, Baichuan's eyes darted. Whether she was truly this gullible or just pretending, being able to extract information was good enough. So he temporarily shelved his plan to strike, his tone filled with "sincere" gratitude as he carefully chose his words: "Is that so? Thank you for the warning. You truly are a kind-hearted and beautiful King. You must be very popular and well-received on your home star."

Wasn't that obvious? From Calamity he had already learned that Zhenyu was a resource star belonging to some super civilization, so naturally not just any random nobody could enter.

But this was the start of building rapport, and for the sake of information, Baichuan was willing to go all out.

"Not at all, you're too kind." But unexpectedly, Baichuan's words seemed to touch something, and the voice from that figure actually carried a hint of shyness—and eagerness?

Seeing there was a chance, Baichuan pressed on…

And so, the situation before him came to be. Relying on his experience of living who-knows-how-long, the old fox had almost tricked every bit of information the little girl knew out of her—her real name, her home star's plight, a young girl's worries and troubles… everything, down to whether she'd wet the bed before a certain age…

If even such secrets were known, let alone the bigger picture.

Although Jin Yun'er—that was this Desolate King's real name—and her home star's civilization wasn't highly advanced, and she didn't know much, it was enough to give him a rough understanding of part of the current starry sky situation, as well as the specific circumstances of the world he was in.

Zhenyu is one of the most important resource stars of a super civilization—the Spirit Energy Clan—under this starry sky (the exact extent is still unclear; this is beyond what Jin Yun'er could know), and the only world open to outsiders.

And "they," these outsiders, after paying some resources, were allowed by the Spirit Energy Clan to enter this Zhenyu, attaching a portion of their consciousness to those desolate beasts to experience the beasts' growth process.

Because these desolate beasts had extraordinary origins and possessed very special bloodlines, as long as they devoured each other, or consumed the bloodline of some powerful kin, they could break through without limit. This allowed beings from ordinary civilizations, constrained by resources and talent, to truly experience the power of the next realm they could never otherwise reach.

After having such an experience, especially if part of their consciousness underwent metamorphosis, it would greatly aid their subsequent true breakthrough. Some lucky ones might even directly carry a portion of that realm's nature within their souls!

Moreover, most importantly, during the desolate beast experience, the Spirit Energy Clan allowed them to take away one-twentieth of the various resources they gathered.

This was undoubtedly a huge reward. One had to know that the most precious thing about desolate beasts was that precious metal called Desolate Gold, and during their metamorphosis, desolate beasts would shed a portion of this metal.

Even if it was only one-twentieth, converted down it might be only the size of a human fingernail, it was still extraordinarily precious. In some chaotic, lawless Dark Stars, it was often priceless—once it appeared, it would be snatched up in an instant.

Of course, in Baichuan's view, the Spirit Energy Clan was undoubtedly the true vampire.

He truly understood the specific uses of desolate beasts—ready-made, fully automated, self-breeding powerful biological mecha swarms. Baichuan even suspected that some larger, powerful desolate beasts could not only be modified into mechas, but also into biological warships, land war fortresses, tanks, and the like.

For example, the Camel Dragon he had once seen—though only Tier 3, due to its extraordinary talent and enormous size, its shell alone had created a life oasis in the Desert. Ordinary Tier 4 beings wouldn't necessarily provoke it without good reason.

This kind of desolate beast, once slain and slightly modified, might become a land war fortress! Or a walking palace!

Of course, relying on those true desolate beasts to breed themselves, it was hard to breed particularly strong ones in nature. After all, only a tiny minority sat at the top of the pyramid, and the lack of intelligence in desolate beasts' early stages was a fatal weakness.

So to breed extremely powerful biological mechas and other mechanical creations, one either had their own species manually breed them, or let others do it for them. For example, the current Spirit Energy Clan had opened up this Zhenyu, prettily claiming to give beings from ordinary civilizations a chance to experience higher-realm power, but wasn't the essence still making others rush to work for them for free—not only unpaid, but actually paying them for the privilege?

This kind of thing—don't like it? Then don't come. There were plenty of people willing to pay to work for free!

It was simply outrageous. The more beings paid to experience it, the stronger and more numerous the mature desolate beasts the Spirit Energy Clan bred, and once modified, the stronger the Spirit Energy Clan became. This was simply a business with infinite returns—good fortune you couldn't find even if you searched with a lantern.

Even capitalists weren't this outrageous.

As for this Spirit Energy Clan, Baichuan could only say it was truly an eye-opener.

However, he now finally understood who the true master of this world was—the super civilization, the Spirit Energy Clan! Presumably the little lizard had been captured by them. As for the means by which they trapped an entire Star System so he couldn't leave, Baichuan guessed it was the Spirit Energy Clan's countermeasure against those unregistered bandits who secretly snuck over.

In other words, he had to prepare to treat this Spirit Energy Clan as an enemy.

Not to mention anything else, could he just give up the body of the desolate beast Bixian he had cultivated for so long?

Given the Spirit Energy Clan's skin-flaying nature, a top-tier special desolate beast like that contained at least several unique abilities of other races that Baichuan guessed were no inferior to the little lizard's race. Expecting them to give it up was a fool's dream. And since they had captured the little lizard, they must covet some aspect of it. Without equal power, how could a civilization easily release someone?

By nature, there was no possibility of coexistence with them.

Don't joke—ignoring him and directly stealing his subordinate, did they really think Baichuan was a sick cat?!

It seemed he needed to speed up his erosion.

Thinking of this, Baichuan watched the figure of Jin Yun'er that had already vanished, and likewise returned to the giant city.

He had a lot to be busy with next — not only did the matter of the merchant caravan need handling, his own Radiation Absorption ability had yet to be generated, and there was also the Mysterious Heavenly Dew deep within the Forbidden Forest that Jin Yun'er had mentioned, which could cause wild beasts to undergo metamorphosis.

That was the reason this group of Wild Kings had appeared here. Their earlier invitation to him was simply because they had seen him suddenly release a powerful aura, and assumed he was an outsider of status like themselves. After learning the information about the Mysterious Heavenly Dew, they had come over specifically — that released aura was what told them.

Regarding this, Baichuan could only say it was all a misunderstanding, but this misunderstanding had come at just the right time; otherwise he would not have known how long he would have been fumbling about.

It had to be said, Jin Yun'er's appearance had truly helped him out greatly, saving him a great deal of effort.

It turned out that Xingkong had never been lonely; it was simply that his previous position had been too remote. Now, he had finally gained a preliminary understanding of this Xingkong he found himself in — a mere fraction of the whole.

……

Elsewhere, along the merchant caravan's route.

Having accepted Baichuan's task, Gu Ying, who was piloting Disaster, likewise arrived at the location where the Wild Seed squad had last vanished.

What appeared before him was a scene of utter devastation. The lush, verdant trees on both sides were gone, the river had changed course, the road that should have been perfectly flat had abruptly split apart, revealing an enormous crater — as if ravaged by some colossal entity, or perhaps smashed open by some living being. Wisps of strange aura, like emerald-green wind spirals, continuously rose from the soil on the ground. This place had clearly become a basin!

"…What terrifying power."

Even though he was piloting Disaster, the powerful Tier 4 Wild King, whose strength seemed inexhaustible and ever brewing, capable of shattering the earth with a single strike, Gu Ying's heart could not help but turn cold.

Even if he wanted to achieve this level of terrifying destructive power right now, he would still need Disaster's full effort to barely accomplish it, and visually it absolutely could not compare to this exaggerated scene before him.

Was this where the Wild Seed squad had gone missing before? What kind of powerful enemy had they actually encountered?

While pondering, Gu Ying continuously searched this enormous "basin" for useful information. As a powerful Wild King, Disaster still possessed the most basic aura-capturing and tracking abilities.

A pale-white aura began to spread out continuously, extending into the surrounding soil, attempting to capture some lingering auras. However, not long after, Gu Ying encountered a powerful counterattack — it was the backlash produced when the extremely violent emerald-green wind spirals lingering in the soil came into contact with the foreign power!

At the same time, within just a few breaths after Gu Ying appeared piloting Disaster, several thousand meters high in the sky above this basin, the eyes of a bird-like wild beast that had appeared here at some unknown time suddenly lit up, locking onto that tiny figure below, and immediately began to dive rapidly.

"…Does it seem like some kind of sound is ringing? Some beast's roar in the forest? Or a bird's cry? Or perhaps the wind in the woods?"

On the ground, Gu Ying, who was still forcefully attempting to strip away the various foreign auras, suddenly stopped his actions. He raised his head and kept looking around, as if he had detected some abnormal sound, but this sound was exceptionally faint, to the point that he could not locate its specific position.

He had wanted to ignore it, but there was always an uneasy, heart-pounding sense of dread within him, as if a great calamity was about to befall him.

But, he was currently piloting an immensely powerful Wild King, capable of fighting even the clan's former Spirit God — unless what he was encountering now was a powerful being comparable to Lord Bai Hu?

What on earth was that sound?

Gu Ying muttered inwardly, and the piercing shriek also began to grow clearer and clearer, approaching continuously from far to near.

"Screeeech—!"

Suddenly, as if blessed with a flash of inspiration, Gu Ying raised his head. His pupils first rapidly dilated, then abruptly contracted — that was—

A massive shadow was rapidly approaching — it was a giant bird, its entire body pale blue? Or perhaps silver, entwined with emerald-green, nearly transparent astral wind!

It was diving at an extremely terrifying speed, so fast that its entire body trailed blurred afterimages. Seen from afar, the giant bird, surrounded by astral wind, resembled an emerald-green light arrow, descending from the heavens to purify all!

So that was how the crater had appeared!

Suddenly, at this critical moment, this single thought flashed through Gu Ying's mind.

……

(End of this chapter)