Chapter 463: Breakthrough During Seclusion, The Emperor's Return (I)

From Xie Chen’s words, Chen Chu could sense the Federation’s high-ranking officials' growing attention toward him.

Naturally, the reason was his increasingly terrifying talent and the significant gains he had made from his inheritances. Although it might have sounded somewhat opportunistic, Chen Chu felt it was quite normal.

As top-level experts of the human race, these individuals were primarily focused on how to counter the alien races and eliminate their top-level experts. They had neither the time nor energy to pay attention to those below.

Therefore, only when a genius rose to prominence would they be noticed by the Federation’s upper echelons.

Moreover, the attention these experts gave to Chen Chu, along with the resources they allocated, was purely for the purpose of enhancing humanity’s overall strength, thereby boosting their high-end combat power.

Of course, the reason why the human race currently enjoyed such favorable conditions was actually due to external pressure.

Otherwise, according to the normal development of a "transcendent" society, these king-level experts, who were akin to human-shaped nuclear missiles, would have long since established their divine nations and divided the world among themselves.

To further consolidate their positions, those "gods" would have likely joined forces to block any passages, preventing other geniuses from rising and crushing any potential threats.

This was why Chen Chu had initially been cautious, fearing he might encounter such a situation.

It wasn’t until later, after realizing the Federation highly valued its geniuses and confirming that the cultivation environment in this world followed a positive structure, that he stopped holding back and swept through everything in his path.

As they approached the front base, Xie Chen said, “The logistics team at the base is already gathering resources for you. These god-level resources will help you break through to the Eighth Heavenly Realm and quickly advance to the peak of the Ninth.

“For example, there’s the Blood Abyss Dragon Fruit, which can help transform an Eighth Heavenly Realm body, and the Ninth Grade Black Lotus Seed, which greatly enhances the fusion of your domain and talents after reaching the Ninth Realm.

“Are there any other specific resource you need?”

Facing Xie Chen’s inquiry, Chen Chu pondered for a moment and responded, “Life Crystals, a large amount of Life Crystals.

“My physique has very low resistance to them, which makes the conversion rate much higher. After absorbing their energy, I can significantly enhance my overall physical strength.

“Moreover, the art I gained upon breaking through to the Fourth Heavenly Realm can allow me to unleash even more explosive combat power.”

With Chen Chu’s current status, some secrets could now be revealed. The explanation was conveniently attributed to his supposedly unique physique and talent.

However, this secret had long ceased to be a secret. When the officials reviewed Chen Chu’s past exchange records, they had already noticed this pattern.

They found that most of his contribution points before the Sixth Heavenly Realm had been spent on crystals. Apart from that, the only other things he exchanged for were the Tyrant Elephant and dragon essences, which were both necessary for his arts.

This was also why it was remarked in the notes section of his records that he had awakened a physical ability, as only someone with such an ability could quickly absorb crystal energy without resistance, which explained why his body was so powerful.

Xie Chen smiled faintly. “No problem. The crystals will be gathered in a few days.”

After finishing the conversation with Chen Chu, Xie Chen flew toward the distant Passage One base; his duty was to guard the passage, and he couldn’t be away for long.

In the office building at the base, Chen Chu uploaded the Taixu Nether Light Scripture and information about the Black Gale Crystals, then applied for a cultivation room.

As his strength improved and his soul underwent transformations, Chen Chu’s absorption rate of Tianyuan Stones also became much faster. Next, he planned to cultivate day and night, with the aim to break through to the Eighth Heavenly Realm within ten days.

Furthermore, there were many tasks waiting for him post-breakthrough, such as comprehending the wind-based essence of the Black Gale Crystal, the earth laws of the Profound Yellow Stone, and completing the final step of the War God Body.

By then, he would be able to fuse the bones of a level 9 colossal beast and obtain the essence of heaven and earth to construct a vast world. Once it grew to a certain extent, he would be able to gain the additional power of four illusory worlds.

While the power wouldn’t be as great as the laws of his former micro-world in the early stages, it would still serve to further enhance his strength. And by the late stages, when the four worlds transitioned from illusion to reality, then...

As Chen Chu entered seclusion to break through to the Eighth Heavenly Realm, beneath the Arctic Ocean, an awakened colossal black-and-red beast was voraciously feeding.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The thick, tough scales of a level 9 colossal beast were torn apart by the massive teeth in its jaws. Even in death, its muscles, dozens of times more resilient than alloy, ripped apart with a sharp, ear-splitting sound, like metal shattering.

As the Thunder Fiery Dragon Emperor chewed, its teeth crushed the flesh and scales, producing explosive roars. High-energy blood dispersed through the seawater, creating a gruesome scene.

Devouring a level 9 colossal beast was nearly equivalent to consuming an entire metal mine, except that this mine was composed of flesh and contained abundant biological energy.

After being crushed into a few-meter-long small chunks, the flesh entered the Dragon Emperor’s furnace-like stomach, where it was quickly digested into scorching biological energy.

This energy was then madly absorbed by the cells throughout the Thunder Emperor's body, causing them to self-divide and compress.

In the beast’s perception, its muscle cells had already shrunk to hundreds of times smaller than their original size, and their shape no longer resembled conventional biological cells, having transformed into thirty-six-sided polyhedrons.

Moreover, the cell walls appeared crystalline, emitting a black and golden glow while radiating intense energy waves from within. These were the source of its Strength ability and the energy for the Golden Flames.

With ample biological energy, the Dragon Emperor's body emitted a cracking sound as its bones and tendons grew, muscles expanded, and its scales stretched and simultaneously increased in size.

From a distance, it appeared as though the entire creature was being magnified proportionally, a sight that filled the eyes of the colossal red Zhulong with growing shock.

During this period, Zhulong had accompanied the Dragon Emperor in killing many level 8 and 9 colossal beasts, witnessing first hand its rapid growth from over 160 meters to its current size.

This monstrous growth rate was something Zhulong had never seen in all these years.

Don't we just eat a little, take a nap, eat some more, and slowly grow as we absorb the energy of the world?

Boom!

When the Dragon Emperor’s body length surpassed two hundred meters, a more violent aura erupted from it, shaking the depths of the sea and forming white ring after ring of water explosions.

Breaking through to the middle stage of level 9, the Dragon Emperor seemed to undergo a mini-evolution, shattering a previous limit. Its entire body—muscles, bones, and flesh—underwent significant transformation, becoming even more powerful.

At the same time, its eight abilities also strengthened as its body grew. The Sky-Scorching Golden Flames increased in destructive temperature, radiating searing waves in all directions.

Between the three rows of coral-like dorsal fins on its back, the blue-black thunderbolts danced even more fiercely, resembling giant serpentine lightning strikes.

As bolts of Destructive True Lightning exploded outward, large swathes of blue electricity spread in all directions, turning an area spanning several kilometers into a deadly zone.

Simultaneously, inside the cultivation room, where Chen Chu sat cross-legged in seclusion, an equally terrifying aura emanated from his body. The increasing power fluctuations caused the entire cultivation room to tremble slightly.

It had finally reached the middle stage of level 9.

Standing amid golden flames and the roaring thunderbolts, feeling the even greater strength surging within it, the Dragon Emperor's lips curled into a sinister smile, looking more ferocious than ever.

In truth, it had only been a little over half a month since its breakthrough to level 9. For many colossal beasts, this amount of time was equivalent to a short nap.

Similar to human cultivators, most colossal beasts would experience slower growth rates after breaking through to level 7. Occasionally, they would eat or sleep, gradually absorbing energy to evolve and grow.

Only a few top-level colossal beasts, either occupying resource points or possessing superior talents, grew at faster rates. This was particularly true for those who had awakened king-level or lord-level bloodlines.

Even so, for these colossal beasts to grow a single level still took years—unless they had a stroke of luck.

For example, by following the Dragon Emperor, the Deep Sea Dragon Turtle and the Single-Horned Kun had enjoyed access to the combined resources of several level 9 colossal beasts' territories.

They were also able to devour the flesh of king-level colossal beasts at the beginning and middle stages of level 9, which supplemented their evolutionary genetic factors, allowing them to grow at an astonishing rate.

Even so, two months had passed, and they had yet to reach the peak of level 8.

After breaking through to the middle stage of level 9, the Dragon Emperor continued its feast, taking about two more hours to completely devour the level 9 colossal beast, leaving behind only a massive skeleton.

The Dragon Emperor had grown to 205 meters in length, and the aura it emitted became even more terrifying.

With its hunger sated, it was time to get to business.

The Dragon Emperor glanced at Zhulong, who was lying on the seabed in the distance, and let out a low roar.

Roar! Zhulong, take these bones and follow me back to the Dragon Palace.

Over the past ten days, the orcas should have collected a good number of Life Crystals. When the Gigantification ability was further enhanced to top-level, its combat strength would be enough to step into the mythical realm.

Although it would only compare to an ordinary mythical-level beast, it would at least have some ability to fight back against the mythical colossal beast.

Besides, its strategy was to fight and grow stronger through battle, hunting the outer forces of the colossal beast empire in the area without immediately confronting that mythical colossal beast.

Once it had devoured a few more middle-stage level 9 colossal beasts and further enhanced its strength—along with the crystals that Chen Chu was acquiring to enhance top-level abilities—by that time...

Boom!

With a burst of golden flames from behind its shoulders, the Dragon Emperor shot off like a massive underwater fighter jet, creating violent waves in its wake as it sped into the distance.

The red colossal beast, over three hundred meters in length, followed closely behind. In its claws were three skeletons, each over a hundred meters long.

These skeletons were top-level resources that couldn’t be wasted, as Chen Chu planned to forge the essence of the four worlds from them.

Back at the same strait, over ten days had passed, and the surface of the sea was once again covered by two to three meters of thick ice, resembling a white, frigid continent.

On the ice layer, just a hundred meters from the shore, a group of researchers studying mutated creatures in the sea was busy at work. They had cut a ten-meter hole in the ice and were placing underwater detection equipment into it.

At that moment, however, the station's alarm system suddenly blared with red lights.

[Alert! A strong level 9 energy fluctuation has been detected approaching from the direction of the Arctic Sea, moving at high speed toward the Krol Strait.

[Warning! This entity is powerful enough to destroy the ice surface and cause a tsunami. Coastal teams must immediately evacuate the shoreline... evacuate immediately...]

"Damn! Another level 9 colossal beast! Run!"

This time, the staff reacted quickly, dropping their equipment and using movement arts to rush toward the distant hillside.

Just as they reached the hill, the sea surface in the distance rose abruptly by dozens of meters. Amid the violent waves, the dorsal fins of a black-and-red colossal beast emerged, resembling reefs.

"It's the same beast from ten days ago! Be careful!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The ice covering the shallow strait, only a few dozen meters deep, shattered under the beast's force, followed by a hundred-meter-high tsunami caused by the beast’s rapid passage.

The sheer force was overwhelming. Just as everyone heaved a sigh of relief, one person cried out in terror. "Wait! There's another beast! This one is even bigger!"

Boom!

As the even larger red colossal beast charged into the strait, it triggered an even more violent wave, sending curtains of seawater crashing toward both sides.

Amid the violent waters, a row of sharp dorsal fins, over a dozen meters long and resembling red armor, sliced through the waves. These fins stretched for hundreds of meters, exuding a frightening aura.

"The beast that passed by after... it's terrifying."

"Yeah, it seems stronger than the black one. Just the aura it emitted almost made my legs give out... I nearly wet myself."

"Nearly? You did wet yourself, look at your pants."

Once the two colossal beasts had passed, the coast on either side lay in ruins. A few kilometers of land had been turned into a waterlogged wasteland by the tsunamis, and countless ordinary mutated fish lay stranded, flopping on the ground as the waters receded.

However, this place was a desolate polar region, devoid of inhabitants save for the researchers, so the Dragon Emperor had no concerns about harming the innocent.

It had reduced its speed to near supersonic as it entered the strait, giving the humans time to flee, after which it no longer cared.

Meanwhile, news of the two level 9 colossal beasts entering the Pacific region was sent to the ocean monitoring center, which began mobilizing satellite surveillance to track them.