Chapter 361: I'm really curious~ Baichuan's acquaintance?

Next, Baichuan also leaned toward that Tongtian Jianmu.

Without Baichuan needing to speak, a wisp of shimmering light of vitality emerged from his body.

That was Lingxin, who had long been unable to wait any longer!

"My lord, I shall take my leave for now. Please be patient — the promise between us, I still remember it…"

The gentle, unhurried voice gradually faded into the distance.

Before long, Baichuan could no longer detect any trace of Lingxin's consciousness, leaving behind only that Biyu Seed.

What came with it was that the "tree" before him, now devoid of aura, seemed to have come alive, carrying a faint breath of life tinged with fire. Yet this thread of life was far too weak, even somewhat rotten — like a tender sprout suddenly pushing out from a withered, rotting log on the verge of decay, but under the deadly poison of that rot, ultimately powerless to turn the tide.

Baichuan did not think much of it; it was time to go find the little lizard.

At the thought, the nimble Biyan leaped up and headed toward the base platform deep at the top of the Tongtian Giant Tree.

Along the way, Baichuan truly saw just how terribly this tree — which should have resembled a slab of jade — had been ravaged by the Lingneng Clan.

Layer upon layer of platforms, like a honeycomb, had been built encircling the straight trunk, interspersed with all manner of mechanical instruments whose purposes he could not imagine nor understand, with personnel constantly moving to and fro. These platform bases were like malignant tumors on a human body that drag one to the brink of death, utterly devouring the once-magnificent jade-tree trunk into something hideous and unsightly.

He could sense that this tree was beyond saving; most of its power had been completely drained, its divinity gone.

Just looking at it, Baichuan felt a pang of discomfort all over at the thought that if one day his own body were occupied and reduced to such a state by a group of humans — that would absolutely be a fate worse than death.

At this moment, Baichuan felt a measure of sympathy for Lingxin.

A堂堂 True Immortal, a World Lord, had fallen to such a state. As the saying goes: when a dragon strays into the shallows, it is mocked by shrimps; when a tiger descends to the plains, it is bullied by dogs.

While pondering, he followed that faint thread of aura, passing through countless layers of platforms and evading countless guards, until he arrived at a vast platform that was clean and free of clutter. At the entrance, a large number of elite guards were visibly stationed in formation.

Baichuan stopped; he could already sense the little lizard's aura right before him.

Yet his expression was somewhat doubtful. He knew just how massive the little lizard's body was — tens of thousands of meters, no exaggeration. But this platform, though not small, could absolutely never possibly accommodate a body of tens of thousands of meters.

Could the little lizard have been dismembered? Or did the Lingneng Clan possess some special means of containment?

But since he had come all this way, Baichuan did not overthink it. Within a few breaths, he had dispatched all the guards and walked into the interior of this platform.

In an instant, Baichuan's pupils abruptly contracted. He had thought Lingxin's divine body was miserable enough, but compared to the scene before him, it paled by comparison.

What appeared before Baichuan were two transparent observation screens, like room windows. Looking through the left one, what met his eyes was a deep, blood-red corridor, its entire space carpeted with writhing, crimson flesh.

Countless tentacle-like pipes coiled and tangled around the little lizard's upper body, a straw-like object piercing through the heavy defenses of its chest and latching onto that ceaselessly beating crimson heart. With each beat of the heart, the tentacle-straw writhed in sync, continuously drawing out wisps of faintly glowing substance from the heart and channeling them toward an unknown destination.

If the left side was merely filled with a primitive parasitic style, then the right side was brimming with a cold, ruthless assembly-line style! Utterly trampling the dignity and face of a Star Beast descendant beneath its feet!

The outer defenses of its lower body and back, which should have been incomparably hard, had been completely breached, exposing the fresh red, tender flesh within. Under the control of machinery, gleaming blades rose and fell without pause; each fall, with its hum, marked another piece of tender, living flesh being sliced away.

And the Regeneration ability of the Earthly Immortal Realm, which already surpassed ordinary imagination, brought the creature only endless agony in this moment. The moment fresh flesh regrew from the blade's cut, the very next second it was sliced away again.

Over and over, in endless cycles. Like the finest, sustainably available meat-pig.

The scene before him reminded Baichuan of a story he had once heard: they say dragon meat in the heavens, donkey meat on earth. Boil donkey meat three times, and even immortals cannot stand steady. It is a delicacy comparable to dragon meat, and especially the tender flesh just grown on the buttocks is several times more delicious than ordinary meat.

So some wealthy landlords, to have a taste of that finest tender meat, would often keep a donkey and deliberately cut a wound on its buttocks. This wound would never be allowed to heal — the moment fresh flesh grew, before it could mend, the butcher would slice it right off the living donkey.

Ignoring the donkey's wails of agony, all for that one bite of exquisite flavor!

Whether this story was true or not, Baichuan did not know.

But the scene before him, compared to it, was even worse.

Blood-sucking and marrow-draining, the torment of being sliced into a thousand pieces — it was little different!

Baichuan stared at this scene, his throat feeling somewhat choked. Especially the little lizard Dadi's serene expression, as if dreaming some pleasant dream — it was nothing short of a mockery of him.

He could not even protect his own subordinate. If he had not brought it out from Yan Star, how would it have encountered such misfortune?

He still vaguely remembered how massive Dadi's body once was — tens of thousands of meters. But now, how much remained?

Less than three thousand meters!

Baichuan needed only a glance to estimate the length of this platform.

Lingneng Clan, you have committed every evil deed imaginable!

At this moment, Baichuan had never felt such disgust toward any civilization or race!

From just this glimpse through the tube, he could sense a whiff of decay within this civilization — having stood high and mighty in this Xingkong for far, far too long, with no natural enemies, they had run amok, recklessly and savagely!

Those who disrespect life shall in the end be abandoned by life.

"Boom!"

A terrifying explosion thundered, and for an instant the entire platform seemed to tremble.

It was a thick, ferocious claw!

The claw slammed abruptly against the transparent barrier, threads of lightning flashing out, yet the seemingly fragile barrier remained utterly unmoved.

Baichuan's icy gaze shifted; the claw moved, and the edge of the Spirit — Characteristic began to gather without cease…

……

"Wooooo—!"

Harsh alarms and crimson lights flashed without stop.

"Report! Anomaly detected in the raw-material warehouse. All stationed personnel have been wiped out. Confirmed hostile intrusion!"

"Nearby squads, please send reinforcements!"

Inside the Central Command Room of this platform, a string of voices rang out one after another.

It was the Lingneng Clan, who had finally noticed something was wrong, beginning to move.

"…What happened?"

A woman's voice drew near from afar.

"My lord, you've arrived. One minute twenty-three seconds ago, the raw-material warehouse…"

The commanding officer, still in the midst of issuing orders, turned his head. Seeing the newcomer, his expression sobered, and he briefly explained the situation. Finally, he opened a feed transmitted back at the last moment before the equipment on a fallen guard was destroyed: amid utter darkness, a pair of bone-white eyes, icy and incomparably majestic.

"Oh, is that so…" Arms crossed, gazing at those achingly familiar eyes, the woman's gaze flickered beneath her mask. She turned to the commander beside her and said, "Recall the soldiers who are about to head over…"

"?" Hearing the utterly unexpected order, the commander was stunned, snapping his head up and staring blankly at her. Then his expression changed — were it not for this lord's exceedingly high status, he would have suspected her of defecting to the enemy.

"You can't, my lord, the raw material warehouse—"

"Do. As. I. Say!" The woman's heavy tone fell, and a pair of dewy, shimmering eyes turned icy cold, as if they could freeze all things.

"Yes!" The commander could not help but jump in his heart, as if pinned by some fierce beast, and his body straightened.

Then the woman broke into a smile, "That's more like it."

Saying so, the woman left, leaving behind only a sentence that gradually faded into the distance:

"The enemy's strength is not something you can withstand—let me go…"

……

"Bang bang bang—!"

On the enormous platform, sounds like hammering iron rang out continuously, like a wild beast at the height of frenzy rampaging and destroying, causing the entire platform to tremble without cease.

Yet beneath such violent force, that seemingly fragile barrier remained absolutely unbreakable.

"It's useless," from behind, a somewhat familiar female voice reached Baichuan, followed by crisp footsteps drawing near from afar, "This is the most important raw material warehouse of the entire Lingneng Clan. The blood and flesh of that little whelp inside have long been reserved by those old gluttons of the Elder Group."

"Don't be fooled by how plain it looks here. To protect this place, those old things spent an enormous price to install a special material—even if a True Immortal came, it could still trap them for a time. It's the same material as the Sighing Wall of a certain Starry Sky divine clan! The meaning being—even a True Immortal must sigh and halt…"

"This great door—within the entire Lingneng Clan here, only one person can open it!"

"A truly worthy, most fortified place!"

When the words fell, a graceful figure stopped behind Baichuan.

Hearing this, the beast-shadow that had been trying to destroy the barrier also stopped its movements, turned its head, and cast an icy pale-white gaze over, brimming with surging malice.

"Why are you telling me so much?"

"As a member of the Lingneng Clan, you dare appear before me now—aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"

"Well," the woman did not respond, playing with an exquisite mask in her hand, occasionally teasing the little snake coiled before her, "I'm very curious about your relationship with that little whelp, that it would make you break in here and try to snatch what those old fellows have set their eyes on."

"You should know, beneath this stretch of starry sky, anything those old things value—even if a star is destroyed—will remain completely unharmed! In other words, touch what those old things value, and even a True Immortal must die!"

"Aren't. You. Afraid. Of. Death?"

At the end, Zixiu stared straight at the beast-shadow with violent aura before her, a light Baichuan could not understand flashing in her eyes.

Baichuan did not reply, turning around and closing in inch by inch. The violent aura now freely slapped everything around. With each step closer, a massive shadow began to shroud the other party, pinning her into a corner.

Then his pale-white eyes drew close to the woman's front, watching her. Scorching breath kept spilling from the great bloody maw and slapping against her, as if the next second could easily tear her apart. "Then I'll ask you too, Lingneng Clan creature—aren't. You. Afraid. Of. Death?!"

Under the slap of scorching breath, her whole body enveloped by the massive beast-shadow's aura, Zixiu—who had remained unruffled until now—under the pale-white beast-pupils' close stare, a trace of absent-mindedness flashed through her eyes, as if recalling something. Her legs tightened, and then a flush of red appeared on that flawless, fair face.

Only after several breaths did she come back to herself. Her hand unconsciously stroked the trembling little snake at her fingertip, and she retreated, averting her gaze, and said softly: "Even if you kill me, it still won't change anything about the matter at hand."

Baichuan's gaze dropped—he was well aware of this too.

Before this wall of special material, he felt for the first time a trace of helplessness. The Sighing Wall—even a True Immortal facing it must sigh and halt… truly worthy of its name.

"Tell me, where is the person who can open this place?"

"Is this a request?" Zixiu laughed. This woman, who seemed inexplicable in Baichuan's eyes, laughed—though her life and death hung on his single thought, she acted as one who cared nothing for life or death, tucking back a strand of fallen hair to reveal beneath it a crystalline, slender neck that made one want to take a bite.

Unfortunately, no one here could witness such a beautiful sight—the only one who saw it was Baichuan, the wild beast whose mind was elsewhere.

"I. Am. Threatening. You!"

Baichuan said word by word. The attitude of this woman he could not see through made his gaze grow ever more dangerous. "It's useless, you know. Even if you have some soul-searching method, or some power to read memories—it won't work."

As if sensing Baichuan's dangerous gaze, Zixiu explained softly, as if murmuring: "Under the protection of 'Ancestor's' power, unless one crushes 'Ancestor's' power, no one can touch my soul…"

"What exactly do you want?" Baichuan did not know if her words were true or false, but after studying her carefully for a while, he ultimately chose to believe her for now. With such an attitude, she must want something—he chose to ask.

"I already told you~" Zixiu narrowed her eyes with some satisfaction, and laughed lightly, "That little whelp's relationship with you—I'm very curious about it~"

"What on earth could it be, that you'd dare provoke such a colossal power… I seem to have warned you before—escaping was still in time."

At these words, Baichuan's gaze finally grew serious. He studied the other carefully, recalling her previous behavior, sifting through every memory in his mind, as if searching for any similar figure.

Clearly, this woman who acted like a curious baby—everything she did was undoubtedly well-intentioned toward him, even knowing him!

Even now, she was still trying to persuade him to leave, as if she could make the Lingneng Clan overlook this matter and thereby save him.

But when had he ever met such a person of no small status?!

After recalling for a long while, Baichuan shook his head helplessly—he had not the slightest impression of her.

Such a memorable, curious-baby-like crazy woman—if he had truly met her, his impression would naturally be deep.

He wanted to ask, but from the moment they met, her behavior had never suggested she intended to be frank—clearly, asking would be pointless.

He began to seriously consider her words—the little lizard's relationship with him?

Does that even need saying?

Baichuan raised his head, stared straight at her and said…

……

(End of this chapter)