Chapter 1 The Encounter

Meanwhile, in the land of the Yu race, deep within the mountains and forests surrounding the two-realm portal.

The Europa Expedition Team had already begun their advance, clearing the way, while the entire Zheng Guo Expedition Team followed closely behind.

The Zheng Guo Expedition Team consisted of ten members: Dao Sheng, Su Zhou, Jin Qiong, Bai Canglang, Tang Yuan, Zhang Fucheng, a member of the Wei Wu Liu family, two extraordinary individuals from the military, and a disciple of Nong Sheng.

The member of the Wei Wu Liu family was named Liu Wuxin. Su Zhou actually knew him because he was a well-known figure in the fitness world, possessing a top-notch physique that would make both young women and fitness enthusiasts scream with admiration. He also recognized Su Zhou, who was extremely famous in the Hong City fitness scene, and was even Senior Brother to Guan Wanjing. The two of them had a very pleasant conversation.

The two extraordinary individuals from the military were taciturn. One was named Wang Zhong, who was skilled in using water-based techniques and carried both a magic sword and a wine gourd. The other was named Li Jian, a practitioner of the ancient Daoist talisman school, skilled in talisman techniques. Both possessed extraordinary high-stage strength. They were originally members of the same military special forces unit, and working together, they could match an extraordinary peak expert.

And that disciple of Nong Sheng, named Lin Chengde, Su Zhou also knew—it was someone he'd met when he returned to his hometown once and ate with Chen Zhicheng, the former owner of the fruit store, one of his colleagues. Chen Zhicheng, who had cultivated a Flower Fairy, now held some sway in the Ministry of Agriculture, and Nong Sheng greatly appreciated him. Lin Chengde also wanted to know what kind of environment could cultivate a Flower Fairy, so he accompanied Chen Zhicheng home to take a look.

"This place actually has such a thick and pure wood spiritual energy... It's a pity that the source has been cut off, and it may have been taken away by someone." With just one glance, he saw some clues about the existence of the Wisdom Tree, but even Lin Chengde couldn't be sure of this and could only shake his head and sigh. "It is said that Hong City was also the first place where the Purified Water Centipede appeared. The wood energy here is truly very strong."

And She Ling almost asked in the spiritual space in confusion, "No, Su Zhou, how do you know so many acquaintances wherever you go? This is just not normal!"

Su Zhou: "I told you, I'm friendly to people. I don't act like a jerk when I shouldn't. Arguing is just an interest, not an instinct, so my social skills are better than yours!"

Now, the entire Zheng Guo Expedition Team presented a rather peculiar picture.

Jin Qiong, who had already advanced to the extraordinary peak stage, transformed into her true form, a Golden-Winged Great Peng bird, easily carrying the other nine people on her back, while Tang Yuan activated her ability to transform the entire Golden-Winged Great Peng, along with everyone else, into a spiritual body.

Immediately afterward, Li Jian, who was skilled in talismans, took action, casting a talisman to distort the spiritual energy with the Moon Concealment Technique, concealing the aura of the Great Peng bird. And as Jin Qiong delved deep into the clouds, Wang Zhong opened his wine gourd, spraying out a large amount of spiritual water, which transformed into clouds that lingered for a long time, completely covering all sight and aura.

Professor Zhang Fucheng and Bai Canglang seemed to have cooperated before. Professor Zhang was skilled in tracking techniques, and how to follow the movements of the Europa Expedition Team and communicate with them all depended on his use of Daoist techniques.

As for Dao Sheng, Su Zhou, and Liu Wuxin, as the three main combatants in the team, they were responsible for closing their eyes and conserving their energy. When there was a battle, they would need to strike and kill the opponents as quickly as possible.

And Nong Sheng's disciple, Lin Chengde, was a special talent who could use secret methods to determine whether the Shengzhu Great Tree (Life Master Great Tree) still had vitality after reaching the area where it was located. He was the person the group was protecting and the core of this mission.

In fact, Su Zhou could also do this. As long as he used the Wisdom Tree spirit to resonate with it, if the Shengzhu Great Tree still had even a glimmer of life, it would probably be awakened—but precisely because of this, he couldn't act. What if the Shengzhu Great Tree really hadn't completely died, and only a bit of spirituality remained, neither dead nor stiff, waiting to slowly dissipate? Using the Wisdom Tree spirit to resonate with it at that time would instead forcibly awaken it and restore its ability to act.

"According to the previous drone reconnaissance, there are many lives in the Beast God Realm. No matter what the environment, there are a large number of spirit beasts living there."

At this time, Dao Sheng was debugging his terminal, communicating with some drones that had already been released into the Beast God Realm. This old man was also a senior electrical engineer. It might be a bit difficult to create a computer out of thin air, but creating a circuit board was simply too easy.

If he advanced further, then even using a pile of sand to create a CPU would probably not be impossible.

At this time, he was analyzing the current situation of the Beast God Realm to everyone: "The Beast God Realm itself is not a planet, but a strange, flat world. Its continent presents an irregular disc shape, about the size of a World Island, and is a huge island in the sea. The more central it is, the higher the terrain is, which is where the remains of the Shengzhu Great Tree are located."

"The drones have confirmed that there are basically no areas in this world that can be called urban areas. They are basically small villages. We have not investigated the territories of other races in detail, but in the territory of the Yu race, there is a city that should be the main city, with about several million spirit beasts living around it—but we don't know the details because the drones are shot down as soon as they get close."

Dao Sheng pointed to a spot on the map, which was exactly where the main city of the Yu race was located, quite far from their current location, a full thousand kilometers away, but everyone present did not dare to be careless, because everyone knew that this distance was only two or three hours for an extraordinary divine bird. If it was a divine bird specializing in speed, it would definitely be faster.

Although Jin Qiong was powerful, and the speed of the Great Peng bird was not slow, she had to carry nine big men on her back, which was very burdensome, and the speed could not be fast.

Thinking about it carefully, it seemed that this was indeed the case. The entire Zheng Guo Expedition Team only had one woman, Jin Qiong (although she was a Great Peng bird transformation), and she had to carry nine old men to move. Seeing this scene, anyone would probably be shaking with anger, covered in cold sweat on a hot day, with cold hands and feet, and couldn't help but sigh at what society had become...

Tears streamed, a question arose, I pondered deeply.

"But don't worry."

Seeing everyone's solemn expressions, Dao Sheng smiled and comforted everyone: "According to the information we have observed, the Yu race in the Beast God Realm is still fighting internally because of the death of the old Wang Peacock. Even if they haven't discovered us, they probably don't have the energy to deal with us for the time being, so the safety factor is very high—and for this, we must thank Professor Su."

The Beast God Realm was a very frequent place. According to Jin Qiong, even the other four races often fought internally. Divine beasts often fought each other for some inexplicable reasons. On the contrary, the period of time when the Yu race was ruled by the Peacock was the most stable period of time.

"Yes, it's me, that's right."

To this, Su Zhou was not at all modest, but unfortunately, everyone had an accustomed expression and did not show much shock—was there anything surprising about Professor Su killing a native divine bird? Wasn't that the same as killing a chicken—so Su Zhou didn't reap a wave of shock energy or negative emotions.

This made him click his tongue in his heart.

Because it was the territory of the Yu race, there were many spirit birds flying and patrolling in the sky and clouds. Some of them did not discover the Garuda, which was hidden by numerous secret methods, but some spirit birds seemed to possess spirit eyes that could see through illusions, so they could vaguely sense Jin Qiong's existence.

Many spirit birds were known for their good eyesight. If they were in the territory of the other four races, it would not be so easy to be discovered.

"They seem to be able to see me!"

Jin Qiong was a little nervous—it wasn't that she was afraid of fighting, she was nervous that if a fight broke out later, she might be affected by Su Zhou's aftermath, such as the other party subconsciously kicking his leg on her back to burst out with strength or something... Then, not to mention a spinal fracture, it would definitely hurt.

But not to mention that Su Zhou, this great philanthropist, wouldn't be so inconsiderate of his teammates, she was nervous too early—those divine birds with spirit eyes, after slightly sensing the extremely obvious divine beast aura of the Golden-Winged Great Peng bird, immediately retreated one after another, and even hurriedly lowered their flight altitude, placing themselves below Jin Qiong.

They knew that this divine beast probably wanted to act secretly, so they did not make a sound. Otherwise, they would probably shout praises.

This scene made Su Zhou nod slightly, as if he had thought of something.

Overall, in the early stages of the operation, the Zheng Guo Expedition Team was very smooth. Their speed depended entirely on the detection speed of the Europa Expedition Team ahead.

"Not bad, it seems that the civilization of the Beast God Realm is still very primitive. They don't have a strict monitoring system to discover us."

To this, Bai Canglang's tone was very relaxed. He had been holding his special sniper rifle and maintaining vigilance, but until now, he had not found an opportunity to take action: "We have overestimated the Beast God Realm—now it seems that this mission will probably not be too difficult."

Although Bai Canglang's words were a bit too full, no one else except Su Zhou had any objections to this. After all, the facts were like this. In a full three hours, they had traveled five hundred kilometers, and one-seventeenth of the journey had been completed, but they had not even discovered half a sign of encountering the enemy.

Among all the people, only Su Zhou, a true young man of the Internet age, warned: "Don't set a flag! Don't you know that after saying this sentence, you will immediately encounter the enemy?"

But he didn't know that this sentence itself was also a flag.

So, in the third hour and twenty-seven minutes of entering the Beast God Realm.

"Emergency situation."

Professor Zhang Fucheng, who had been using secret methods to track the signal of the Europa Expedition Team, suddenly frowned. He held a talisman in his hand, sensing the spiritual light transmitted by the other party: "The spirit ox controlled by the Europa Expedition Team has been discovered by local creatures and is being hunted as food. It has now been captured."

"Captured?"

After hearing this news, Su Zhou, who had ridiculed Bai Canglang for being a 'real jinx', and Bai Canglang, who retorted to Su Zhou, 'you're not much better', were both stunned, and then everyone else in the team asked in unison: "How is that possible!"

Raphael's strength was about the same as Dao Sheng's. Perhaps with their respective full equipment, wearing Daoist magic armor and carrying a sealed army, Dao Sheng might have a slight advantage, but that was only because Dao Sheng's exclusive equipment was the most powerful modern spiritual weapon, a full-spiritual exoskeletal armor.

Although in this operation, in order to avoid too much publicity, Dao Sheng did not carry the exoskeleton armor, and Raphael did not carry all of his sealed objects, even so, their strength was not something that ordinary divine beasts could defeat.

"Even if the local beast king takes action, it is impossible to capture Mr. Raphael—he alone is a small army!"

Su Zhou looked surprised, and Dao Sheng also felt strange: "Fucheng, is there anything special going on? Could it really be the Yu Master's divine beast beast king taking action? Do we need to go to help immediately?"

And Zhang Fucheng, who was rapidly decoding the spiritual code, wiped the sweat from his head and breathed a sigh of relief: "No, Mr. Raphael felt that the situation was strange, so he deliberately disguised himself as an ordinary beast and allowed the spirit ox to be captured. The Europa Expedition Team has not been discovered—as for why..."

Saying this, Professor Zhang Fucheng's expression became strange. He raised his head and said with some puzzlement: "Uh, according to Mr. Raphael, what they encountered was not the spirit birds of the Yu race."

"But the scale race." (Lin race)