Xuanxingzi's Shock Attack You Before You Evolve

!!!

Shocking!!!!

As the Ninth Elder of the Starry Divine Palace in the Great Thousand World,

Xuan Xingzi hadn’t encountered anything so utterly shocking in a very, very, very long time.

But...

This time.

He was truly flabbergasted.

"What... what in the world is going on?"

Xuan Xingzi’s avatar stood in the sky of the minor world, calculating the fate of his [Game Piece].

Back in the Great Thousand World, his divination hadn’t been clear enough.

But now...

Here in this minor world, he could see everything with perfect clarity.

What he saw was a figure entangled with the aura of an Abomination.

An Abomination?!

Xuan Xingzi’s pupils contracted, his expression twisting gradually.

His Game Piece... might have gotten involved with an Abomination?!

What kind of joke is this?! What kind of joke is this?!

This is related to the struggle for providence!!

The battle for faith!!

This is the most crucial Game Piece that determines whether he himself can survive the next great conflict in the Great Thousand World!!

And yet?!

And yet he’s being told...

That the Game Piece he had scouted and invested in since ten thousand years ago... had actually...

Gone missing?!

Xuan Xingzi’s breathing grew increasingly ragged.

Finding another Game Piece now was clearly too late.

The next cycle of the providence struggle in the Great Thousand World was imminent.

He had no choice but to grit his teeth and locate his Game Piece in this minor world!

Damn it all...

Xuan Xingzi’s eyes darkened. He had poured so much into this Game Piece.

So many opportunities!?

And yet...

The other party hadn’t even left the "newbie village" before vanishing?!

No! Absolutely not!!

Xuan Xingzi formed hand seals, his gaze sharpening.

Though he didn’t know why an Abomination had appeared in this world...

Still...

As long as it wasn’t the [Gluttony]-type Abomination—the kind with infinite growth—he... could deal with it!!

But that was impossible anyway. Even the Great Thousand World hadn’t encountered a [Gluttony]-series Abomination in tens of thousands of years.

Let alone a minor world that was practically a speck of dust in comparison.

The priority now was to find his Game Piece!

With that thought—

BOOM—

Xuan Xingzi’s robes suddenly billowed like dragons, twelve starry projections manifesting around him.

"Star Trails Reverse!"

"Fate Wheel Sever!"

"By my name—"

His palms slammed together, and the stars erupted with blinding white light.

"Open the Heavenly Eye!!"

With that final roar, a third vertical eye split open on Xuan Xingzi’s forehead.

Within that pupil, the celestial trajectories of the entire minor world were reflected, countless threads of karma frantically rearranging themselves.

Then—

CRACK!

A single thread of karma shattered abruptly.

"Koff!!"

Xuan Xingzi grunted, blood trickling from all seven orifices.

His pupils trembled violently.

What the hell?!

How is this possible?!

Why can’t I find my Game Piece?!

What kind of Abomination did she run into?!

.....

.....

The evening sea breeze brushed gently against the beach of Tianhai City,

The sunset’s glow draped over Qin Luo and Su Muwan, stretching their shadows long.

"Crunch crunch crunch."

Su Muwan held a bag of original-flavored potato chips, glancing at Qin Luo, who was grinning beside her. "So the Sea Tribe’s (munch munch) first wave (munch munch) just ended like that?"

"That’s so lame."

She rolled her eyes, thoroughly unimpressed.

She had expected the Sea Tribe to launch attacks from all directions.

But what happened?

Aside from the assault on Tianhai City at dawn, the other sea regions were completely silent.

All that tension from the humans for nothing.

All bark and no bite—just one wave and done.

Qin Luo chuckled lightly. "No no no, the real show hasn’t even started yet."

Su Muwan stuffed another chip into her mouth, chewing loudly, her brows furrowing slightly. "You’re saying they’ve got more up their sleeves?"

Qin Luo slid his hands into his pockets, gazing distantly at the horizon, his lips still curled in that faint smile. "Their first wave was just a probe."

"My guess is, their original plan was to retreat after scouting."

"But then, their main force got wiped out by you, young miss."

"That’s where things got... interesting."

Hearing this,

Su Muwan pouted. "Seriously, I didn’t expect that show-off to be so useless."

"I just used the system’s built-in [Rule Denial] (3 daily forced interruptions of enemy rule activation) to ban his rule-based powers."

"He freaked out for a second when his [Divine Power] stopped working."

"Then, after a few seconds, it came back."

"But well..."

Su Muwan poured the rest of the chips into her mouth, mumbling, "Only an idiot would just stand there and let him keep using rule-based powers, right?"

"So I sliced that stupid trident in half in 0.0001 seconds."

"And then the loser just... froze."

Qin Luo couldn’t help but smile.

Truthfully, Su Muwan’s [Rule Denial] was just intimidating on paper.

The skill could only forcibly deny rules three times a day, with each denial lasting mere seconds.

After that, the enemy could try again—but it’d cost another denial charge.

But...

The one using this skill was Su Muwan.

So...

A few seconds? For Su Muwan, even one second was enough to break the rules and instantly obliterate the enemy.

Su Muwan, meanwhile, happily wiped her greasy fingers on Qin Luo’s palm, then looked up at him with big, blinking eyes. "Luo Luo, since the problem’s solved, let’s go back and sleep, yeah?"

"Not yet."

"?? What do you mean ‘not yet’?"

Su Muwan immediately pouted. It had been days—she was long overdue for her Luo Luo energy refill.

"Because..."

Qin Luo turned to her with a smile. "As you said, no sane person would just sit around waiting for the enemy to power up before defending."

"Only a lunatic would do that."

Su Muwan tilted her head. "Meaning?"

"What I mean is..."

Qin Luo took her hand, black mist beginning to bubble around him.

Meeting her curious gaze, he explained, "Before the enemy fully evolves, we’re going to preemptively drop a dimensional strike on them."

With that—

WHOOSH!

Their figures vanished.

....

....

East Sea, Palace.

"Gurgle gurgle! More! Not enough!"

The Abomination—a massive, fleshy sphere—growled in human speech.

Its body writhed violently in the center of the palace, a grotesque mountain of pulsating veins and gaping maws.

The stench of decay hung thick in the air, nauseating.

"More! I need more!"

The Abomination’s voice was hoarse and frenzied. Through continuous devouring and evolution,

Wisdom had begun to sprout in its mind.

It could feel it—just a little more, and it would break through its current shackles, ascending to the next stage.

Around the palace, countless sea creatures and marine life were drawn by Its power, surging into the halls and willingly throwing themselves into Its gaping maw, becoming fuel for Its evolution.

With each creature devoured, Its body swelled larger, the veins on Its surface growing ever more grotesque.

"Almost there! Almost! Just a little more time!!"

"Just—!"

Bzzzt—!

Before the words could fade—

Darkness. Bitter cold.

In an instant, the East Sea Dragon Palace was swallowed whole.