The feast of slaughter officially began.
No Abominations could withstand even a single one of their strikes; wherever they passed, they were unstoppable.
The battle never ceased for a moment, sweeping into every corner of the Desolate Planet.
In the sky, on land, and in the ocean—wherever there were fluctuations of Abundance power, three figures would appear.
An unknown amount of time passed, and the entire land and seabed of the Desolate Planet were covered with the remains of Abominations of Abundance.
Qi Zhimu crashed to the ground, retracted the wings on his back, and fixed his gaze firmly on the mountain ahead.
Without a word, he threw a punch through the air.
Boom!
The mountain, thousands of meters above sea level, was actually shaken into powder by the terrifying destructive power carried by that punch.
The dust settled, but there was nothing beneath the powder.
Qi Zhimu narrowed his eyes and spoke coldly.
"An old friend has been visiting for a long time; aren't you going to come out and catch up, Shuhu?"
As his voice fell, there was finally movement on the plain of accumulated powder.
The land shook violently, splitting into a dense web of cracks.
Countless roots, so massive they were hard to describe, crawled out from the cracks, slowly revealing their complete true form.
It was a giant tree root.
Ignoring its size, it looked like the stump of an ordinary tree that had been sawn off and buried deep underground.
The difference was that these roots were constantly writhing, connecting the stump to the area above it, with countless eyes opening on its surface.
An ordinary person would likely faint from fear at this horrific sight after just one glance, leaving a permanent shadow on their mind.
However, whether it was Qi Zhimu, Sleeping Snow, or Clear Cold, there was not a hint of emotion on their faces.
"Hehe... So it's you, Qi Zhimu..."
"You have known since we stepped into this place, so why put on an act?" Qi Zhimu's voice was indifferent.
"..."
Shuhu fell silent for a moment, feeling quite surprised to see that the opponent did not seem to intend to attack immediately.
However, it was also happy to see this.
After sizing up Qi Zhimu for a long time, it suddenly smiled.
"To think it's The Self-Actualization Aspect granted by the blessing of the Ambrosial Arbor. To take revenge on me, you didn't hesitate to violate the Xianzhou taboos and completely step onto the Path of Abundance. How interesting..."
"I am an Envoy of Abundance. Regardless of whether you can kill me, I really want to ask: what made you willing to walk this path?"
Before Qi Zhimu could speak, Clear Cold's face suddenly darkened.
"You disaster, worse than a beast, destroyed Azure City and everything we had. How can you, a mere piece of bark, have the nerve to ask what you already know?"
"That's where you're wrong; those words are far too unpleasant..."
Shuhu couldn't help but chuckle strangely, continuing in a matter-of-fact tone.
"I only wanted to grant you all true immortality, yet none of you were grateful. You foolishly view becoming a part of my eternal body as death, wasting this once-in-a-thousand-years opportunity."
"Ask yourselves: how many lives don't even have the qualification to obtain such supreme joy?"
"The Xianzhou is the cage that confines your future. Don't you realize that I am helping you, bestowing salvation upon you?"
"You lost Azure City and your families, but you still have me."
"Why bother deceiving yourselves and ignoring a great existence like me, who can share eternal immortality with trillions of lives?"
"Look, you three, those you care about are still living well to this day."
As the words fell, flowers and fruits rapidly bloomed on the surface of Shuhu's roots, forming familiar faces one after another.
Among them were Qi Zhimu's father and sister, friends of the Sleeping Snow sisters, and many others they had interacted with.
These faces spoke one by one, affectionately describing how happy their lives had been over the years, how they had obtained true endless lifespan, shining alongside the galaxy, eternal and immortal.
"Xiao Mu... Sister misses you so much..."
"Mu'er, listen to your father, embrace ultimate bliss, and share eternal immortality with Lord Shuhu!"
Sleeping Snow and Clear Cold's fists were clenched tightly, and a few of their teeth even shattered from the pressure.
If Qi Zhimu hadn't given the order yet, they would have attacked long ago.
"Have you said enough?"
There was no anger on Qi Zhimu's face; he was neither happy nor sad, only wearing an indescribable expression.
He watched those two familiar yet strange faces for a moment, and the corners of his mouth suddenly curled into a mocking arc.
"Shuhu, there's a reason you've been able to live until now. As long as your roots remain, you can be reborn through nirvana countless times."
"A dignified Emanator of Abundance is actually feeling wary because of my arrival. Clearly, in your eyes, I should just be an ant who isn't even an Emanator."
As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions on the faces on Shuhu's roots slowly stiffened.
Qi Zhimu tilted his head slightly, his tone gradually turning freezing cold.
"There's no need to play these pointless stalling tricks. As long as I don't deactivate the Imaginary Barrier, no transmission or contact of any thought, whether one-way or two-way, can escape."
Wanting to contact the Shuhu that was currently invading the Luofu?
In your dreams.
"Have you heard a Xianzhou proverb? Where poisonous snakes roam, the antidote is within seven paces."
"Over a thousand years ago, there was a new species of Followers of Abundance called the Si Luo."
"They had very low intelligence, but they possessed the ability to block any means of communication and could continuously evolve."
Speaking to this point, the flesh on Qi Zhimu's forehead writhed, and a giant, pure white sharp horn slowly grew out.
"No one knows that I killed the Si Luo Broodmother, hid the object that concentrated its abilities, absorbed it with The Self-Actualization Aspect, and strengthened it with the blessing of abundance for over a thousand years."
"Have you ever thought that the blessings Yaoshi is never stingy with would actually give rise to a way to deal with you?"
"What made me willing to walk this path? Hehe... It was all for you, Shuhu... Do you know how much I've missed you over these thousand years..."
The words sounded like an expression of deep longing, but they were soaked in a killing intent that made one's whole body go cold.
"I once swore that I would kill you in this life and completely eradicate you, this tumor that plagues the universe."
"Jie jie jie... This is getting more and more interesting..."
Shuhu fell silent for a moment. Realizing that the three people in front of it could not be deluded at all, it put away those thoughts.
"Since you have such confidence, why not clear up another doubt for me?"
"You want to ask how I found the hiding place of your roots, how I knew you were the first Miracle of Abundance in the galaxy, and how I knew the reason why you could never be completely killed, right?"
"...Oh?" For the first time, there was an unmaskable surprise in Shuhu's tone.
Qi Zhimu didn't seem worried about complications from talking too much; he was very patient and calmly explained the reasons to Shuhu.
"1,079 years ago, you used branch thorns to pierce our limbs, leaving behind unique marks that were almost impossible to detect."
Hearing this, the expressions of several faces in Shuhu's shadows finally became somewhat unsightly.
Clearly, it had not forgotten the scene a thousand years ago when it prepared to devour the three people before it in one go.
"Long ago, I discussed with Teng Xiao where your roots would be hidden if you were a tree, and why the Alliance had found nothing for thousands of years, no matter how they searched."
"Thanks to the marks you left, I successfully located your nest through them."
"You attached these marks to different powerful Abominations. By piercing the flesh of the Cloud Knights and burrowing into their bodies to lie dormant, you obtained everything they saw and heard..."
"And these Cloud Knights, through some kind of contact, would spread these virus-like marks to those around them."
"As time passed, the Xianzhou was always filled with your eyes and ears. You could even use the marks to silently manipulate people's minds, making it impossible for anyone to detect anything unusual."
As early as the moment he completely cured Clear Cold's leg ailment and finished absorbing the residual power of Rahu through The Self-Actualization Aspect, Qi Zhimu had almost detected the mark left by Shuhu.
The time he truly found the marks was the day the two sisters were on the verge of death, and he activated The Self-Actualization Aspect for them, completely remodeling their bodies.
It was also through the hidden dangers in their bodies that he thoroughly investigated himself and found the mark lurking in the most remote corner of his body.
Without a second thought, he used the ability of the Si Luo to completely block it.
After refining it with The Self-Actualization Aspect over a long period, he actually found that he could vaguely sense the coordinates of its main body through the mark.
"The entire Xianzhou Alliance, including the Yueque Divination Commission, isn't unable to accurately obtain information on the movements of you and The Abundant Alliance, but rather—"
"Through the marks lurking within countless Xianzhou people, you prevented the Xianzhou Alliance from knowing all of this."
"So, do you understand? The one who told me the hiding place of your roots was you yourself..."