Chapter 63: Babata's Clues

Not only did he deliberately use the Wood Child Crystal as bait to lure me here, but he also tried to interfere with my judgment using psychic power—no matter how you look at it, it's a trap. (T_T)

This is naturally why Jiang Jiang suddenly realized and bolted away.

As for why I ran back again……

Sigh, although but, this place should be the place Chu Chen wanted me to come to.

As for the current situation, according to the self-proclaimed intelligent life Babata, we still need to wait for one more person to come down.

According to Babata, he followed his master through a war spanning countless star systems fifty thousand years ago; the final outcome was naturally his death on Earth, leaving this spaceship and the several terrifying corpses inside.

Star systems, cosmic civilizations, endless starry skies… and even the planetary-level and higher ranks I had anticipated—many things are still very far away for me.

Jiang Jiang also secretly shook his head.

If the place Chu Chen said is here, then how did Chu Chen know about this place?

Chu Chen's fiancée won't be some Cosmic Divine Kingdom's saintess, right? I knock…

Jiang Jiang hadn't finished thinking when he saw Babata open the hidden hatch again, meaning another successor had arrived.

According to Babata's secret words, Moxing Star needs a successor of psychic cultivators, so the chosen ones will only be psychic cultivators; and in this Dragon Gate assessment, who will have the highest psychic talent?

Jiang Jiang had a flash of inspiration, recalling what Chu Chen had done before taking me to the warrior assessment, and what he had said that day.

"My brother is invincible under heaven."

His gaze shifted to the projection at the hatch entrance; the appearing figure overlapped with the figure Jiang Jiang had in mind—perhaps not a coincidence.

Babata still planned to let Luofeng first patrol around, then suddenly appear and prepare to recite his opening line…

"Luofeng, you finally came."

Jiang Jiang in the inner room rolled his eyes, deliberately sending himself inside just to perform this again—how obsessed is this guy with these few lines?

Using the corpses inside the spaceship as a catalyst, Babata then explained to Luofeng how he came to Earth, how large this world is, how powerful his master is, and how mighty.

After the introduction, Babata then brought Luofeng into the cabin of the spaceship.

"Jiang Jiang?" Luofeng exclaimed.

"Luofeng brother."

Luofeng didn't expect Jiang Jiang to also be a psychic cultivator, and to likewise possess the talent Babata said was the first seen in fifty thousand years.

"Alright, next is the time for you to make a choice—whether to join my Moxing Star lineage."

Babata didn't expect that, facing such a question, Luofeng and Jiang Jiang would both fall into thought.

Different experiences and circumstances bring different growth; Luofeng, who hasn't undergone the relic trial, still hasn't joined Moxing Star at this point.

The vast universe and starry sky gave Luofeng a considerable shock, but Luofeng still retains some doubt about this incoming information.

However, considering Babata took out a huge amount of Wood Child Crystal as bait, many concerns can be dispelled.

Seeing that neither person answered, Babata couldn't help but stomp his foot in anger.

"What's there to hesitate about! My master Huyan Bo… is an eternal existence! From birth to death over six thousand eras, he traversed the vast universe, a true supreme power in the cosmos—who knows how many want to take him as a teacher, yet you two are hesitating here."

"Six thousand plus eras?" Luofeng asked repeatedly.

"One era equals your Earth time… 10,081 years." Babata said.

"Then Senior Huyan Bo… hasn't he lived over sixty million years?" Luofeng was somewhat surprised.

Babata, on the contrary, became somewhat excited:

"Sixty million years is nothing—my master is an immortal, eternal existence! If not for the final battle… my master could live forever!"

Saying this, Babata's expression grew sorrowful again.

"In the vast cosmos, there are many who have lived over a hundred million years. Even some immortal beings have lifespans longer than Earth's existence!"

After saying that, Babata sighed again.

"Looks like I need to give you two country bumpkins a good blind‑sweep, to properly acquaint you with this universe."

The Milky Way Galaxy where Earth is located has over two thousand stars, and the number of planets is even more staggering; among countless planets, only over 210,000 have large human populations.

The Milky Way Galaxy, Beta Star System, and other neighboring eight star systems form the Silver‑Blue Empire, a primitive cosmic civilization.

And this unattainable existence, in Babata's mouth, is merely an ant‑like presence before his master.

Apprentice Level, Planet Level, Star Level, Cosmic Level, Domain Lord, Realm Lord—these five major tiers; surpassing Realm Lord… is Immortal.

Planet Level amounts to being able to wander the universe, barely enough to be a thug, servant, or cannon fodder.

Star Level means staying on a frontier planet in the universe, which counts as a big figure, but on some important planets one still needs to keep a low profile.

Cosmic Level—well, strong, barely counts as strong; after all, under normal conditions only one such being arises per star system. Joining the cosmic nation can easily yield dozens of planets as territory.

Domain Lord equals a hegemonic overlord; the primitive cosmic civilization dare not provoke him easily, and he can build his own power. In the vast cosmos, Domain Lord‑level powerhouses are fiercely courted by every cosmic nation.

Realm Lord can easily claim a star system as territory.

Above Realm Lord lies the immortal divine spirits.

"Don't think your talent is high—this universe is huge; your talent here is merely average. If it weren't for Earth people's talent being truly terrible, I could only pick the tallest among the short…"

"And even if you're a genius, you still need resource accumulation."

"Generally speaking, 1,000 star systems normally develop to produce one Realm Lord—this is both a talent difference and a resource gap."

"If one of you receives the master's inheritance and my help, becoming a Realm Lord in the future is not impossible."

Perhaps after fifty thousand years of waiting, Babata has grown exasperated with Earth people's talent, showing an urgency that shouldn't exist.

Meanwhile, Jiang Jiang deduced from Babata's words that, since resources needed to reach Realm Lord are limited, why choose two successors?

Thinking back to Babata's slightly differing attitudes before and after, Jiang Jiang had to make a reasonable guess.

"I want to ask you a question alone."

As an intelligent life, Babata can handle Jiang Jiang and Luofeng in different rooms without issue.

Luofeng didn't mind Jiang Jiang's request for a private question, after all everyone has their own secrets; but after repeated consideration, Luo Fei's heart already had a definite answer.

In the other room, Jiang Jiang got straight to the point.

Babata, do you know Chén Chén?

I know, he's your sweetheart; I've seen his data through your human network system.

Jiāng Jiāng's mouth corner slightly rose:

Have you seen him?

Seen him.

……

————

On the Shu Base City side, after the previous beast tide's stunning appearance, Chén Chén, with War God power, reverse-slew a King-level beast, and his fame spread throughout Shu Base City's streets and alleys.

After the Special-grade Beast was repelled, Shu Base City also fell into a brief peace, and no traces of monsters were found outside the defenses in any direction.

And the cause of all this stems from that earth-shaking roar on the day of the beast tide.

And the source of that roar is also the true source of this terrestrial beast uprising—the newly ascended Beast Emperor on land—Gulaton.

"The reason monsters on land have never formed a threat is first because the living space on land is indeed limited, and this great beast tide exceeded expectations in monster numbers, ninety percent of which came from underground."

This is also why this beast tide's intensity exceeded human expectations.

"Secondly, it's because no monster has ever appeared on land that can absolutely suppress all Beast Kings; although monster numbers are huge, they struggle to form a beast tide above level one."

The formation of a major beast tide is due not only to high-level monsters but also to countless low-level monsters.

And low-level monsters fear no death because they are under layer upon layer of suppression from King-level lord beast commanders.

In the past, the standard for a disaster-level beast tide was to include King-level monsters; this speaks not only to the King-level monsters' own strength but also to the number of monsters they bring.

The scale of a beast tide must rely on high-over-low strength suppression: beast commanders suppress beast soldiers, lords suppress beast commanders, Kings suppress lords, Emperors suppress Kings.

And since there has never been an Emperor-level on land, the various Kings split into several factions, and the beast tide level they can rally is limited to the King-level ceiling.

"According to the intelligence we've gathered so far, the current King of land monsters also lives underground, and is an earth dragon emperor over a thousand meters in size."

"It is precisely because of its appearance that it has prompted cooperation between sea beasts and land monsters, and simultaneously enabled land monsters to act in unison."

In Shu Base City's operations meeting room, the Special Task Force is reporting on the situation of the Shu battlefield. The report's content is precisely humanity's current grave concern, naturally the sole known Beast Emperor of land monsters.

Although humanity wants to swiftly deal with Gulaton, after the war restarted the monsters have become very clever; both Beast Emperors and Beast Kings hide in the rear, and Gulaton has yet to show himself.

Moreover, on the front battlefield, humanity would have to pay a heavy price to kill a Lord-level, let alone a King- or Emperor-level.

After all, not everyone can charge into a myriad-beast swarm and slay a King-level with a single sword; even councilor-level humans struggle to do so, and even if they succeed, they'd likely lose a layer of skin if they survive.

Saying this, the people in the meeting room couldn't help but glance toward the corner where Chén Chén stood.

"Next is the battle loss situation for the past two weeks."

"On the eight directions, the First Defense Line was destroyed seven times, the Second Defense Line was breached seven times and broken through twice, the Third Defense Line was breached twice, altogether losing 147 strategic formation sets, 750 firepower formation sets, 370 ranking general fighter jets, 340 fortress tanks…… 750 warriors of War Commander level or above, 7 War God level warriors, and 43,537 soldiers from each company unit."

And this is only the loss over two weeks.

Although the loss numbers sound not large, the amount of mechanical deployment losses already equals the entire Shu Base City's military factories' productivity for several years.

"With current reserves, how many times can the First Defense Line be rebuilt?"

The First Defense Line mainly serves for reconnaissance and obstruction, primarily composed of automatic machinery, and can strongly expand the strike range and precision of the Second and Third Defense Lines, while also having the ability to resist beast tides below level two.

"One month."

One month, including Shu Base City's own replenishment and also wartime support from other places.

"Give up the First Defense Line." proposed Section Chief Zhang of the Mechanical Strategic Defense Department.

"Section Chief Zhang, do you understand the consequences of completely abandoning the First Line?"

Contracting the defenses also means letting the beast tide creep one step closer; Shu Base City's satellite city and the 360 million troops of Shu Base City would face even greater threat.

The existence of the First Defense Line allows the rear to be covered by timely firepower; before close combat, it can eliminate as many low-level cannon fodder as possible, the benefit being a great reduction in ordinary soldiers' losses.

The cost of reducing the First Defense Line is to fill it with human lives, something everyone present understands.

"The First Defense Line cannot be abandoned."

The Operations Department's Chief Commander spoke angrily, then continued with resentment:

"Let's buy from the HR Alliance; anyway they don't need it."

"We can't just sacrifice our soldiers' lives for money."

Everyone present fell silent.

"Chén Chén" then took the opportunity to speak:

"For this need, I think not only the HR Alliance can provide."

Present at the meeting were all officers of the Shu Regional Military, the two legislators stationed in Shu Zhong Guo, the regiment leader of the World Tree aid force, and also several War Gods or councilor-level powerhouses from World Tree and Dragon Gate.

And the speaker was none other than Chén Chén, who had just arrived not long ago.

Only the two legislator powerhouses present knew Chén Chén's identity.

Everyone else knew his identity merely as a peerless genius who had recently gone to Dragon Gate for a few months, never expecting that the matter of arms trade would fall to Chén Chén to speak about.

The division of World Tree's departments is unknown to outsiders, but at the previous meeting the World Tree powerhouses said that even councilor-level powerhouses cannot overstep in this matter.

The Strategic Department's Section Chief Zhang looked with high emotional intelligence toward World Tree's regiment leader Chen Yang.

Chen Yang politely smiled, nodded at those present, and continued to say with a smile:

"I haven't yet introduced everyone; this is our World Tree's newly appointed Director of External Affairs."

After the introduction, Chen Yang again looked toward Chén Chén's direction.

Long time no see, Chief.