Chapter 412 Who is the Hunter? (7100, Yesterday's Update)

When the Yuanwang (Far Gaze) was forced to crash-land in the towering mountains of Qingqiu Star, the ship entered its most urgent self-repair phase.

Immediately after the crash landing, dozens of experienced ship engineers from Talin, in cooperation with several maintenance personnel from Earth, worked together to comprehensively repair the damage and deficiencies that had occurred throughout the ship.

Naturally, the repair process also included restoring the most important, now completely extinguished, main engine of the ship to its original state.

"The engine stalled because of the collapse of the spiritual energy structure? You mean, if we want to restart the main engine, we need to find a batch of semi-solidified spiritual energy materials, that is, something similar to 'high-purity jade marrow,' to reshape it?"

"Yes, we need at least 20 units of grade-A solid spiritual energy aggregates to recreate the ignition components—of course, if we can find a Golden Crow bloodline cultivator at the Overlord (ruler) level, that would be the same, even better."

This was the result of Su Zhou's communication with the engineer representative—a Golden Crow Mimicry Dao cultivator was naturally impossible to find, so he could only look for materials.

The core power system of the Yuanwang was a semi-spiritual energy fusion engine that simulated the Golden Crow's core to ignite nuclear fusion—thanks to Su Zhou's power, even though the Yuanwang was shot down, its engine's mechanical parts were not damaged, only the spiritual energy structure collapsed. Repairing it didn't require manufacturing those extremely troublesome high-strength mechanical engine parts.

However, repairing the spiritual energy structure was also not easy.

The semi-solid spiritual energy materials needed to rebuild the spiritual energy structure could only be artificially manufactured on Earth through large-scale machinery and complex processes, or extracted from certain precious natural spiritual crystal mines.

If it weren't for the fact that the Yaochi system in the Kunlun Secret Realm had accumulated a large amount of spiritual energy reserves from the ancient immortals and gods, the Zheng Guo government probably wouldn't have been able to manufacture ship engines so easily.

But now, after all, this was an alien planet, and there was no Kunlun Secret Realm or Yaochi here.

Now, everyone on the Yuanwang was very anxious—because everyone knew that the enemy's arrival was only a matter of time.

Those evil beings that shot down the Yuanwang from outer space orbit would probably soon follow the trajectory of the ship's crash—this was beyond doubt.

In order to deal with those powerful enemies who were about to arrive, even if the Yuanwang could not be restarted and fly into the sky at that time, it had to at least restore some self-defense capabilities.

"However, simply being trapped in place and passively waiting for the enemy to attack is not a solution to the problem from the source."

This was the action tone set by Su Zhou, as the captain, after a brief emergency meeting.

Pure defense was meaningless. If they could not figure out what the 'evil beings' that occupied almost the entire planet were, and completely defeat them, then even if the Yuanwang took off again, it would be nothing more than being shot down a second time.

Therefore, Su Zhou decided that he would personally go to the Qingqiu people's shelter to find out what was going on, and obtain more resources and information from these local residents.

And the semi-solid spiritual energy materials used for repairs had corresponding uses in both artifact refining and alchemy, so the Qingqiu people should also have some reserves.

After determining the plan, Su Zhou began to summon all the core personnel on the Yuanwang, and then assigned tasks: "The personnel for this outing are me, Tang Yuan, and Mr. Gu Zechuan, who will lead the way. And Brother Lin, you and Brother Liu will stay on the ship together. When I'm not here, everyone will listen to your orders."

"Guarantee to complete the mission." Lin Chengde nodded solemnly, and Liu Wuxin had no objections.

After assigning the positions, before the real departure, Su Zhou also specially took out the Soul Abyss server and asked the Ice Fox Phantom, who was recuperating in the electronic underworld.

"Now we have 'arrived' at Qingqiu Star—although the process was not so pleasant."

Plunging his consciousness into the server, Su Zhou talked with the Ice Fox Phantom.

In a forest hot spring illusion with bright sunshine, he asked the other party with some confusion: "But the local Qingqiu people don't know who the God of Soldiers (Bingzhu) is at all—just like you said, they are indeed fighting against some kind of evil being, but in my opinion, that has nothing to do with the God of Soldiers."

"How could it be?!"

Hearing Su Zhou's words, the Ice Fox Phantom, who was licking its tail in the hot spring, couldn't help but be slightly stunned. Its burning flame eyes were filled with great doubt: "This is impossible—although in Qingqiu, we have never deliberately promoted this point, the glory of guarding the tomb for the First Emperor and building the seal of the God of Soldiers, this is all our Qingqiu people's long-standing culture of more than 100,000 years, a great historical heritage!"

This couldn't help but shock the Ice Fox Phantom, after all, for the Qingqiu people, these two things didn't need to be deliberately promoted at all. It was a self-evident basic culture, just like how Zheng Guo people use chopsticks, and say 'Wo Cao' and 'Old Heaven' when shocked.

For them, it was such a basic thing.

But no matter how confused the Ice Fox Phantom was, the fact was that the Qingqiu people, at least this group of Qingqiu people like Gu Zechuan, had indeed forgotten the existence of the God of Soldiers.

In fact, how much traditional Qingqiu culture they still remembered was unknown.

"Thank you for your help." After confirming this, Su Zhou bid farewell to the Ice Fox Phantom. He already had a rather absurd, but not impossible, guess in his mind.

"Let's go."

After confirming all the steps and making all relevant preparations, it was time to set off.

The decisive Su Zhou left the ship with the sorrowful Tang Yuan and the pale-faced Gu Zechuan. He flew into the air, and then controlled the Lanjia (Storm Armor).

Immediately, thousands of Storm Seeds (lan zhong) swarmed out of Su Zhou's body, and interconnected in mid-air, forming a huge shuttle-shaped aircraft structure.

The almost substantial Storm Armor aircraft enveloped the three of them, and then accelerated to supersonic speed in a short moment. It left a sonic boom cloud, and disappeared from the sight of the people on the ship in a whistling sound.

"Uh..."

The surrounding scenery changed rapidly. Tang Yuan's complexion was still okay at this time. After all, when he was on Earth, he often acted with Su Zhou, sometimes driving, sometimes being taken flying like this now. He had long been accustomed to it—but Gu Zechuan didn't seem to adapt to Su Zhou's flying habits very well.

The fox-eared youth's face was green at this time. If he didn't have the foundation of extraordinary peak strength, and the injuries on his body had been roughly cured by Lin Chengde's superb medical skills, he would probably have died here from this burst of g-force.

But even so, he still endured the dizziness and pointed out the direction forward for Su Zhou.

"Your armor was too badly damaged, so when I brought you back, I abandoned it in place."

Su Zhou followed Gu Zechuan's guidance and continued to correct his direction towards the northeast. He asked the youth behind him casually: "We will pass by the previous battle location soon. Do you want to pick it up?"

"...Thank you, but no need."

At this time, Gu Zechuan, who had gradually adapted to this speed, shook his head slightly. He thanked Su Zhou for his kindness: "Although the Dao Armor (dao kai) is precious, I still have a spare replacement in the shelter... Now that time is tight, there is no need to pick up a set of scrap iron."

"Okay. But your Dao Armor design is pretty good."

The mountain scenery beside him flashed by rapidly. Su Zhou was quite interested in this topic: "I saw that even the evil beings are wearing similar armor, and their resistance to beatings is stronger than that of ordinary people of the same rank."

"Yes, the Dao Armor is a customized armor based on each person's individual data. It can amplify spiritual energy and greatly enhance defense. It can be regarded as an integrated magic weapon of offense and defense... The most important thing is that the Dao Armor can store a variety of combat Dao techniques, which can effectively make up for the weakness of us Qingqiu people who are not good at fighting."

At first, Gu Zechuan's tone was quite proud, but then, he seemed to have remembered something, and the white-haired fox-eared youth lowered his eyes and said quietly: "If it weren't for the Dao Armor, the Qingqiu people would probably have been extinct long ago, but the evil beings are not without wisdom... We can make it, and they can also make it, so the technological advantage in this area will soon disappear—even, with the technological development of the evil beings, their Dao Armor is even more developed and advanced than ours."

"Moreover, although the Dao Armor is strong, most Dao Armor is limited by materials, and the effect on Human Immortal (Ren Xian) experts is not great."

Speaking of this, Gu Zechuan raised his head and looked at Su Zhou's back. Of course, he could see that this seemingly young powerhouse was at least at the high-level Human Immortal stage, the 'divine power self-sufficiency' stage.

Even the 'ascension' stage of the Human Immortal peak was very likely.

Guiding Qi into the body, shattering the barriers of the flesh, stepping into the Acquired realm, then cultivating both internally and externally, nurturing the divine soul, transforming from Acquired to Innate, and ascending from Innate to Human Immortal.

Reaching this step, one has already begun to transcend mortal life and possess some of the characteristics of an 'immortal,' but at the Human Immortal stage, the cultivator still has 'human' components and cannot be considered a true immortal.

However, as the cultivator gradually awakens divine powers in the Human Immortal realm, improves divine powers, and then combines divine powers with their cultivation insights along the way to form a system, making all divine power changes 'completely self-sufficient, without relying on external sources,' they can enter the 'ascension' stage.

Then, they should begin to prepare to reshape their foundation, and then ascend to immortality, achieve a complete transformation, obtain the position of Earth Immortal (Di Xian), and become a member of the true immortals.

"I don't know how old Captain Su is now—I can feel that his soul is very young, probably not even two hundred years old."

Gu Zechuan thought that the captain was a special position similar to the Dragon King or Heavenly General, so except for the Dragon King, he generally called Su Zhou captain.

He thought in his heart: "After the spiritual energy is cut off, a Human Immortal peak who is at most a little over a hundred years old will definitely be a true Dragon King in the future... This kind of talent, even among the immortals and gods, can be considered to have a limitless future."

"If the Central Divine Court sends a few more immortals and gods like this, even if it's this evil being that has swept the entire planet..."

Just as Gu Zechuan couldn't help but start thinking about this possibility.

Suddenly, Su Zhou opened his mouth and said: "Speaking of which, I wanted to ask from the beginning."

"Mr. Gu, why... don't you show your tail?"

"Huh?"

As soon as this was said, even Tang Yuan, who was recording the terrain along the way with a proxy terminal, turned his head with a curious expression—he also wanted to know.

Su Zhou actually wanted to ask this question the first time he met Gu Zechuan—why, as a Qingqiu person, did he only show the characteristics of fox ears, but not a tail?

Su Zhou thought that all Qingqiu people were like Elder Ice Fox, and would have tails even when they turned into human form.

"This... uh..."

However, neither Su Zhou nor Tang Yuan expected that when this question was asked, Gu Zechuan's originally bloodless face turned slightly red.

At first, he seemed to be a little hesitant, but in the end, he still replied in a low voice: "Isn't the tail only revealed during courtship... Slightly more serious Qingqiu people don't usually show their tails..."

——Oh.

Su Zhou and Tang Yuan both looked enlightened—it seemed that for Qingqiu foxes, tails were similar to peacock feathers.

Recalling the Mimicry Dao friends on Earth, especially people like Li Hanshan, Su Zhou couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Mimicry Dao customs are really complicated."

Gu's Shelter was about 1,100 kilometers away from the Yuanwang's crash site in a straight line. Gu Zechuan usually walked in the mountains to avoid being discovered by the evil beings, and it would take more than a day to walk intermittently.

However, with Su Zhou's speed, even if he wanted to take care of Gu Zechuan, this wounded person, it would not take an hour.

"How many shelters are there on Qingqiu Star?"

On the way, Su Zhou happened to see traces of a battle—it seemed to be the entrance to a shelter, a secret cave hidden in the mountains leading to the ground.

But it had been discovered. Many bodies scattered around the entrance after a fierce fight, and the ground was covered in blood. It was impossible to tell whether they were Qingqiu people or evil beings.

This scene flashed by, but Su Zhou couldn't help but frown slightly: "Do you just hide underground like this? It's easy to be caught in a瓮中捉鳖 (weng zhong zhuo bie - catch a turtle in a jar; trap someone)."

"I don't know."

Regarding Su Zhou's question, Gu Zechuan frowned slightly, and a light of memory flickered in his green eyes: "But ten years ago, during the first large-scale encirclement and suppression by the evil beings, I heard the elders say that nearly a hundred shelters were destroyed in the southwest coastal area of our continent alone, and more than 600,000 people died."

"As for underground, there is no way. The evil beings have some kind of heavenly eye-like ability, and surface gathering places are easily discovered and encircled... So in order to escape the evil beings, some shelters have even begun to dig deep into the earth's crust, and have decided not to return to the surface of the earth, preparing to permanently settle underground and completely abandon the world where our ancestors lived."

Speaking of this, although Gu Zechuan's tone was calm, he still subconsciously clenched his fists. He was very unwilling to do so: "But our Gu family, and most of the Qingqiu people, don't. No matter how great the cost, we must drive out the evil beings and take back our homeland!"

Listening to Gu Zechuan's words, Su Zhou nodded thoughtfully, and then said calmly: "In that case, most Qingqiu people hate evil beings?"

"Of course."

Gu Zechuan's answer did not contain a trace of hesitation, but when explaining, his tone was slightly hesitant: "But how should I say... Compared to hatred, it's actually more confusion."

"War has a reason, and so does slaughter... Why do the evil beings have to fight us? They should have a purpose, and we know nothing about it—whether it is to negotiate, surrender, or fight to the end, most Qingqiu people find it difficult to choose. After all, even if they are sent to the Soul Suppression Tower (zhen ling ta), they will not die directly. Who knows what is going on inside?"

Speaking of this, the originally somewhat excited Gu Zechuan calmed down at this time.

The heavy rain was still continuing, but the rainwater could not drip on the supersonic Storm Armor shell at all. It could only be pulled out of a long string of vacuum zones and the hazy water mist surrounding the vacuum zones.

Wrapped in this water mist, Gu Zechuan turned his head and looked at the mountains and dense forests that were constantly flying past on his side. The youth's tone returned to peace: "But I am different. Even if it is only to see the blue sky and run freely with my sister in the sunny fields, I must defeat them."

"Very good."

Su Zhou nodded slightly and smiled.

——It seems that in the past thousand years, even if they have lost their culture, the Qingqiu people have not lost their most basic spirit of resistance.

In that case, it is meaningful for him to help.

Next, there was nothing to say along the way.

Dozens of minutes later, the group had arrived near the Gu Clan Shelter.

However, just as Gu Zechuan was preparing to continue guiding Su Zhou, Su Zhou narrowed his eyes and frowned.

"Stop."

He suddenly stopped the Storm Armor shuttle, causing the sudden stop of the gale to stir up the surrounding atmosphere, forming visible shock waves that pressed down the surrounding trees and leaves dancing wildly in the rain: "There are traps ahead."

"What?"

Gu Zechuan didn't feel it at first, but a few seconds later, his face changed: "Wait, this aura... It's a Human Immortal? And there are many of them!"

Before he could finish speaking.

Along with a series of suddenly emerging spiritual energy fluctuations stirring and condensing, rippling, within a short two seconds, as many as twenty black figures walked out from the surrounding trees, the ground, and the shadows.

All twenty people were wearing uniform black Xuan armor. Although their figures were different, tall, short, fat, and thin, their temperament was surprisingly consistent, as if they were one person.

Among them, three people had the strongest momentum. Their spiritual energy fluctuations even affected the weather, causing the surrounding rain to become cold and biting. The heavy rain began to gradually turn into hail and frost,夹杂着 (jia za zhe - mixed with) biting cold wind blowing, as if to completely freeze everything in the world.

"Three Human Immortals, and the rest are all Innate?!"

Gu Zechuan identified the strength of these evil beings in front of him at the first time. He even identified the identities of some evil beings through the vaguely familiar aura. His eyes were full of disbelief: "Most of them are from the Liu, Su, and Bo families—aren't these all cultivators from the surrounding shelters?"

"Wait, could it be?!"

After realizing this, Gu Zechuan's face suddenly turned a bloodless pale—since so many evil being powerhouses have appeared around the shelter, and the surrounding shelters have also been defeated, and the cultivators in them have been eroded by the evil beings...

Then the Gu Clan Shelter... his home...

The three Human Immortal-level evil beings did not speak. Their strength was about Overlord middle-to-high-level, that is, their divine powers had already been developed completely. These three strongest evil beings maintained a triangular formation, faintly confronting Su Zhou.

The other weaker evil beings retreated far away, seemingly intending to use long-range attacks to support.

Now, the evil beings have surrounded the three people, forming a formation—and in the forest in front, there seems to be a hidden trap magic array. If Su Zhou accidentally stepped into it before, he would definitely suffer.

"—Confirmed, the extraterrestrial flying ship comes from the Central Divine Court."

"—Threat number one possesses extremely powerful dragon might."

"—Unable to identify the race, alert! Its strength is Human Immortal peak!"

"—According to the spiritual energy fluctuations, it is determined to be the strongest one in the extraterrestrial flying ship."

"—Confirmed, the individual code-named 'Threat Number One' has left the flying ship, and team two can begin to act."

"—Start hunting 'Threat Number One'."

Relying on the Silent One's 'Heart of No Thought' divine power, Su Zhou, who narrowed his eyes, could vaguely hear the stiff and mechanical communication and dialogue between the many evil beings in front of him.

Even some conversations, these strange guys did not hide at all, but openly exchanged them.

At the same time, whether it was Su Zhou, Tang Yuan, or Gu Zechuan, they all felt at this time that in the distance in the direction they came from, the area where the Yuanwang was located, there were faint and violent spiritual energy fluctuations.

Just as the evil beings who intercepted the three people said, their team two had now launched an attack on the Yuanwang.

"Interesting."

However, compared to Gu Zechuan, who had a serious face and had already begun to lift his spiritual energy, seemingly preparing to break through, Su Zhou showed a rather intriguing smile.

"I guessed your actions a long time ago—you think you can attack the ship when I'm not here?"

Standing in place, lightning began to spread under his feet, and Su Zhou sighed and shook his head: "Don't underestimate the people who stay behind too much."

——Boom boom boom!

At this moment, an even more violent shock than before, a huge amount of wood-type spiritual energy erupted in the distant distance.

Turning his head and looking distantly at the end of the horizon, the emerald light reflected in the sky, and the shadowy silhouettes of vines and tentacles faintly flashing in the sky, Su Zhou chuckled softly: "The amount of spiritual energy in the Divine Tree (shen mu), even I can't compare to it at the same rank, and Lin Chengde is a cultivator from a professional class. Putting aside combat experience, his amount of spiritual energy is at least 0.7 Great Cycles (da zhou)."

"This is an amount of spiritual energy that ordinary Overlord-level people cannot have."

Then, there was another burst of pure spiritual energy, as if someone was roaring in a vague and thick voice from afar, and Su Zhou sneered even more: "And Liu Wuxin, he can suppress Lin Chengde in a frontal battle."

"This is the first mission of the New World Exploration Department, officially designated to be selected, how could the people selected be easy to deal with?"

At this moment, even if his face was covered by a helmet, and he could not see his expression clearly, Su Zhou could clearly sense the wavering of the many evil beings in front of him through their heart voices.

"Number 28 was destroyed."

"Number 31 was destroyed."

"Numbers 23, 24, and 29 were destroyed."

Even a heart voice with a trace of shock sounded: "Number 21 was destroyed—how is this possible, why can't even Human Immortals defeat two Innate peaks?!"

——The elite from the entire southwest of the continent were urgently transferred, but they couldn't even defeat the ship's defenders who didn't have the strongest?! In addition to being incredible, the evil being had no other thoughts in its heart.

But now is not the time to be shocked.

——Puchi.

The sound of a sharp blade cutting off a head sounded, and then a sky of blood spurted out, and a headless corpse fell from mid-air.

Along with a barely visible phantom change, Tang Yuan, who had disappeared from the beginning, materialized and hid aside, took advantage of the shock of many evil beings to violently rise up,斩断 (zhan duan - beheaded) the head of an extraordinary high-level evil being—at the same time, he also shattered the soul of this evil being with one palm, completely cutting off the other party's life.

Without any hesitation, after the assassination, Tang Yuan once again turned into a spirit body and disappeared completely, as experienced as the most skilled assassin.

If it were normal, it would definitely cause a panic and exclamation.

But now, no one noticed this unprovoked and almost impossible to stop dangerous assassination.

Because, Su Zhou, made a move.

Rumble——Originally, the gloomy clouds that had transformed into a sky of heavy snow because of the three Overlord-level evil beings suddenly rang with a clear thunder.

Then, accompanied by阵阵 (zhen zhen - gusts of) hot wind, the heavy snow suddenly turned into heavy rain, causing the icy aura to clear up.

The wind and rain were shaky, and the weather was changing. Wrapped in the wind and thunder, Su Zhou, standing in mid-air,吐出 (tu chu - spat out) a mouthful of white gas with cyan electric arcs.

He calmly raised his hand to the front, spread his five fingers, and held a metal bullet between the fingers of his index finger and ring finger. From it, he could also see the three Overlord-level evil beings whose faces had suddenly changed.

"Be careful!"

Immediately, all the evil beings' scalps tingled. An even larger amount of spiritual energy than they had imagined was condensing and maintaining in the human's body in front of them. The spiritual energy all over their bodies also began to gather and urge like an explosion. They even used a crazy level of strength that extremely damaged their foundation, using their bodies as disposable items, and made a final burst.

In the next moment, Su Zhou silently urged his spiritual energy—even in the heavy rain, one could see red sparks flashing in the atmosphere, which was the light of the dust in the air being ignited by excessively powerful electromagnetism.

In this instant, the bullet in the youth's hand disappeared, and a dazzling light erupted. A dazzling cyan light stream suddenly appeared in the atmosphere.

At the same time, the head of an Overlord-level evil being exploded, and in a crisp sound, its helmet was pierced, and scarlet blood burst out, mixed into the rain.

But伴随着 (ban sui zhe - along with) a roar and shout, the other two Overlord-level evil beings broke out with the power they had frantically accumulated before at the moment their companion was headshot—one of them held a long sword, and the other held a big bow, and they both suddenly rose up, intending to launch an attack on Su Zhou.

But in the next instant, before their power erupted, a series of thunder rang out.

Boom boom boom boom——

Dozens of lightning bolts fell like rain. It swept the surrounding earth. Whether it was the evil beings, Tang Yuan, or Gu Zechuan, at this moment, they could only see dazzling lightning, as if it was a pool of water that was shimmering and dense.

The lightning dissipated, and the two Overlord-level evil beings, who had not been attacked in any way for some reason, regained their vision. Then, they stared blankly at the surroundings—at this time, the other dozen or so evil beings had been completely turned into ashes in the thunderstorm just now, and the smell of ozone permeated the air.

And Su Zhou, standing in place with his hands behind his back, didn't even change his expression.

He just stared at the monsters in front of him with calm and cold eyes, and then shook his head slightly.

He accidentally used too much force and tore one apart.

Then, the remaining two need to be studied carefully.

A bit of writer's block... Yesterday's update, please give me a monthly ticket.