Chapter 41: Reshaping the Earth
In midair, the Demon King was forced to abandon most of the Haier Mu remnants it had collected, and the body of the Insect Demon Lord was left with nearly a third missing.
Although somewhat unexpected, the outcome was not bad.
"Tinkle..."
Within the Blood Moon, a small orb of light detached from the enormous Light Humanoid. It flew out from the colossal star-lifeform and landed on Joshua's shoulder. The orb emitted a slightly worried sound, and Joshua shook his head: "It's nothing. If an Abyss Lord is determined to launch a sneak attack in the Abyss, no one can stop them. This isn't your fault."
Joshua had long anticipated that the Gluttonous Demon King Goliath would make a move after the two Demon Lords failed. After all, there were only a few Demon Lords in the entire Sixth Abyss. To the Demon King, they were precious resources that could not be allowed to suffer losses—Haier Mu being directly killed by him was already an unexpected event. It naturally would not allow Saruka to die in his hands as well.
It was perfectly normal that Light had failed to stop it. In his previous life, an Abyss Lord could single-handedly contend with the gods within the Abyss. If the Mycroft legends hadn't discovered that its core at the core of the Tear Valley Fortress was unusually fragile, and dispatched an unprecedented elite legendary squad for a decapitation strike, the outcome of the war would have been uncertain. Moreover, even after the core avatar was destroyed, Goliath didn't seem to have died; it appeared only gravely wounded, still remotely controlling the Abyss campaign from behind.
Facing such an arrogant Demon King, forcing it to retreat injured and humiliated was already an acceptable outcome.
"Although it snatched away the cocoon formed by Saruka's avatar, it's meaningless. My Steel Force has deeply penetrated its body. Unless it spends a massive amount of resources to expel it, the Insect Demon Lord will be crippled, forced to rest in its lair for several years."
Standing in the air, Joshua spoke slowly. He looked at the small half of Saruka's cocoon floating in the air, a hint of disdain in his tone: "And we have plenty of time to analyze its body."
A few years later, who would care about an Insect Demon Lord that had made no progress in strength and had been thoroughly analyzed from every angle?
Joshua waved his hand, retrieving the remaining half of the Insect Demon Lord's cocoon. He sealed it in an airtight box, intending to analyze it later with Nostradamus and Baniel. He then turned to look at the still-not-fully-dispersed spiritual fragments of Haier Mu. Joshua frowned but ultimately waved his hand as well, collecting all those spiritual fragments.
Immediately, one could see the vast, brilliant light fragments in the air flowing like a waterfall in reverse, converging into a box in Joshua's hand.
The Abyss Lord Goliath had crossed the seal of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground and endured Light's sniping to snatch Haier Mu's remains and Saruka's cocoon. The latter was understandable—after recovery, it would still be a fully functional Demon Lord—but the former was somewhat strange. Haier Mu's soul had already scattered. Joshua didn't believe that an existence that had burned its own soul, using soul particles as ammunition, had any chance of surviving. It was already a miracle that it had left behind spiritual fragments.
This raised a question: why didn't Goliath just let Haier Mu's spiritual remnants turn to ash? Excluding the possibility of resurrection, there was only one answer: there must be information in its memories that it absolutely couldn't let the enemy know!
Although it was just a guess, Joshua understood that the most important thing in battle was to not let the enemy have its way. This applied during the fight and after it as well. Since the enemy had gone to great lengths to retrieve Haier Mu's remains, he would do the same—originally, Joshua had planned to completely destroy them, but since Goliath had come to snatch them, he was now unwilling to destroy them and instead wanted to see what was inside.
After finishing this, Joshua let out a long breath, a hint of undeniable fatigue appearing on his face.
Even when fighting millions of void monsters and mother beasts in the Starry World, he hadn't felt this exhausted. Being able to convert enemy corpses into fuel was one reason, but the main one was that killing those weak monsters was hardly exercise for a warrior. Only the final battle with the mother beast could be considered a true fight.
Just now, he had first engaged in a decisive battle with the Black Dragon King. The two legends had fought with the most resolute and frenzied attitude, showing no mercy until the very end. Neither had any defense; it was purely a contest of who could kill the other first, who could last longer. Although Joshua ultimately won, the battle was so arduous that it could rival a one-on-one duel with a void mother beast... The fight seemed to last only ten-odd minutes, but it burned the Black Dragon King's conviction, awareness, and its entire life.
The subsequent battle with Haier Mu and Saruka was even more grueling. Neither of the two Demon Lords was weak. Under normal circumstances, Joshua wouldn't dare claim he could definitely defeat them. But because the battlefield was the inescapable Bloodmoon Abyss, the two Demon Lords, having lost the ability for strategic maneuvering, were forced into a direct confrontation with him, using their weaknesses against his strengths. That was why they were defeated so cleanly... Otherwise, in the vast void environment, the Insect Demon Lord would strike and retreat, while Haier Mu provided magical support from a distance. Even if they couldn't kill Joshua, dragging things out for ten-odd days wouldn't have been difficult.
Taking the light orb from his shoulder, Joshua held it in his arms and patted its 'head.' He surveyed the Bloodmoon Abyss, now a chaotic mess with large amounts of matter melted and vaporized, and said somewhat helplessly: "I didn't expect the fight to be this intense."
At this moment, one could see that the entire center of the Bloodmoon Abyss had turned into a spherical empty zone. Within this empty zone, there was almost no matter or air. Air from other parts of the Bloodmoon Abyss was now surging back in, creating violent vacuum currents and gales. In the distance, most of the original stone islands had also melted, forming floating spheres of magma.
The battle with the Black Dragon had shattered countless stone islands, and the fight with the two Demon Lords had completely destroyed even more. Joshua estimated that if this happened a few more times, there wouldn't be anything larger than a fingernail left in the entire Bloodmoon Abyss. At this, the light orb in the warrior's arms let out a somewhat dejected tinkle, and Joshua nodded: "It's okay. You've helped me so many times; this time, I'll help you."
"Besides, I happen to have a gift I've been planning to give you for a long time."
"Tinkle?"
This was the time after the battle. The power of the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground was still sealing every world, preventing any life inside from leaving. This was the arena Joshua had meticulously designed; it would last for two days and nights, trapping all powerful enemies that might threaten Boundless Heaven.
And now, with the enemies dead, Joshua could use this extra time to do something he had planned to do.
For example, planting a tree.
He took out a crystal orb from his bosom. Inside the orb, crystal-clear lake water rippled, and a green seedling floated within—Joshua's body itself was the best storage, and he always carried useful items with him. The gift from the Elf Clan, the seedling of the Mother Tree of Life, was no exception.
The next moment, Joshua raised his hand, and gravity began to twist and change around him.
The sky of the Bloodmoon Abyss was still covered by the smoke and energy turbulence from the legendary battle. The central empty zone was crisscrossed by vacuum currents. Although the air was rushing back quickly, it was a violent process. The gales it stirred up would continue for several days and nights before calming down.
But as the warrior raised his hand, everything became calm—the smoke began to move, the energy currents settled, and the violent vacuum and gales seemed to encounter a prehistoric beast, trembling in fear and not moving. The next instant, Joshua released terrifying gravity that could bend light. One could see the distant magma spheres and stone islands beginning to slowly move toward him—no, not just the distant ones; it was as if all the matter in the entire world was moving toward Joshua!
One could see that in the Bloodmoon Abyss, the stone islands of the entire world began to shift slowly. At first, the speed was slow, but gradually, it grew faster and faster. After tens of minutes, even the stone islands at the very edge began to move at speeds of tens of meters per second, hurtling toward the center of the world—toward that man!
Dust, stone chips, gravel, condensed mist... scattered heavy metals, still-uncooled magma, and thousands upon thousands of rocky islands—all felt the call. The call of mass. Under the gravitational pull that Joshua deliberately amplified and spread across the entire world, all matter in the Bloodmoon Abyss began to coalesce. In this short time, the world began to change.
"Boom!"
This was the sound of the first stone island collision. At this moment, at the center of the world, a breathtaking scene was unfolding: dozens of mountain-sized stone islands hurtled in from afar. Under Joshua's control, they collided head-on and were then merged into one by some immense force.
Then came a continuous series of massive tremors, like thousands of meteors crashing into the earth. The roar of rocks shattering and merging spread to every corner of the Bloodmoon Abyss. The Light floating high in the air watched in amazement. It saw shadows of black islands, ten times, a hundred times more numerous than the current ones, flying in from the edge of the world. They moved slowly, even trembling and breaking apart during the journey, but all that matter was gathered by a single person's power and formed a small continent before it.
Yes, a continent.
The soil and rocks that had drifted aimlessly in the air for millennia heard the command of the strong. The floating mountains shook their rock layers, and the atmosphere echoed with rumbles—sounds that spread from near to far, constantly vibrating. This was the sound of countless stone islands colliding and merging. In just one hour, under the light of the Blood Moon, a crude continent over two hundred kilometers in diameter had appeared at the center of the Bloodmoon Abyss. Large stone islands crashing into it could no longer cause too violent a tremor. A ring of silver nebula enveloped this continent, penetrating deep into it, causing it to completely solidify into a single whole.
And when this situation reached a certain threshold, when the continent was large enough, Joshua took a deep breath.
The next instant, all the slowly drifting stone islands began to accelerate, and the silver glow enveloping the continent became several times brighter than before. All the energy in the entire world began to converge toward this continent—energy from Joshua himself, from the Five-Color Dragon God, from Haier Mu, Saruka, and even from the Abyss Lord. Even the energy left behind by the Abyss Demon Dragons from long ago surfaced in the air, transforming into thousands of strands of rainbow light in midair before plunging into the center of the continent. These magical energies would form a basic cycle deep within the continent, and the mana veins they created would further strengthen the continent's solidity.
A faint silver glow flickered at the center of the world. The Blood Moon illuminated everything, its light like the dawn, neither dazzling nor dim. Against this dawn-like backdrop, the barren land continued to expand. Stone islands merged one by one, and the rugged terrain gradually smoothed under the influence of Steel Force.
Finally, Joshua ended his gravitational manipulation. He landed on this land, entirely recreated by him, and nodded with satisfaction.
At this point, there was no need for him to continue. The more distant stone islands would continue to collide with this continent by inertia. In the foreseeable years, all the stone islands would gather around this largest rocky island, forming a complete continent. Anyone who saw this magnificent sight would inevitably gasp in admiration, for it was almost equivalent to recreating a world.
With a casual point of his finger, Joshua caused a circular pit about a kilometer in diameter to sink into the center of the continent. He looked up at the Blood Moon and said, "Hurry up and give me some water?"
Upon hearing this, although the Light Humanoid at the center of the Blood Moon didn't know what 'water' meant in Mycroft Common Tongue, Joshua's spirit explained everything clearly. Immediately, with a low hum, the Blood Moon separated a 'small piece' and flew toward the center of the continent. This 'small piece' landed in the pit Joshua had created, perfectly filling it and forming a rippling blood-colored lake.
Not bad. Joshua nodded as he watched this. He threw the crystal orb in his hand toward the blood-red lake. In midair, the crystal orb shattered, and the lake water and seedling within fell amidst the scattered crystal shards, landing precisely in the center of the lake.
The warrior watched with satisfaction as it drifted in the lake, quickly extending its roots to absorb nutrients. Soon, the Mother Tree, which had been kept in a seedling state due to environmental constraints, rapidly grew under the abundant energy and nutrients of the Blood Moon, like a balloon inflating. After just a few minutes, it was already about half a meter tall. Its trunk was taking shape, branches were sprouting, and leaves tinged with a hint of red among the green began to sway in the wind. Countless barely perceptible seeds spread in all directions.
A few minutes later, a breathtaking sight came into view: around the blood-colored lake, patches of green could already be seen! On the barren land, life called 'plants' was sprouting! These were the seeds sown by the Mother Tree of Life, fulfilling its mission to create an ecosystem suitable for life!
Although this process was difficult, and the Mother Tree of Life was destined to be unable to expand the ecosystem in the energy-deficient Abyss—after all, it was not the World Tree created by the Father of Nature, which had the power to take root and transform even a completely lifeless alien world—even so, one could foresee that the area around this blood-colored lake would become a rare oasis in the Abyss.
Joshua nodded with satisfaction. This seemingly shocking feat was not difficult for him. Then, he looked up at the Blood Moon and said, "Light, you've helped me so many times, and I can't remain indifferent. Look, this continent, and this seedling of the Mother Tree of Life."
"This is the gift I give you."
Light did not respond immediately. The entire Blood Moon hummed softly. It was surprised, overjoyed. Although the Light Humanoid didn't fully understand what all this meant, its instinct told it that this was, without a doubt, the best gift.
But just as this great being was feeling immense joy, suddenly, the Light Humanoid at the center of the Blood Moon turned its head, looking beyond the world, toward one side of the void. At the same time, Joshua also furrowed his brow sharply, looking toward the horizon.
They looked in the direction of the Mycroft World, both great beings frowning deeply.
There, a sound piercing through the world was coming.