Devouring Stars: Master of Evolution

Chapter 555 The Strange Cosmic Sea

Rumbling--

Loud noises emanated from the main peak of Qingfengjie Mountain.

The giant rock-devouring beast's open, spiral-shaped mouth was as deep as a black hole in the universe, shredding and devouring massive amounts of shattered mountain rocks.

These extremely hard rocks are continuously transported backward along its segmented body.

After absorbing a large amount of mineral essence from the mountain rocks, the segments of the Rock Devouring Beast's carapace became visibly deeper and thicker.

Throughout this process, the giant rock-devouring beast's gaping maw never stopped.

It relentlessly gnaws at everything in its path, whether it be hard rock or complex mineral structures, all of which are reduced to nothing by its powerful chewing force.

Under the onslaught of the rock-devouring behemoth, large sections of the mountain began to collapse.

Countless boulders shattered and broke into countless tiny fragments, which drifted in the chaotic air currents.

The Nine-Headed Rock Devourer caused such a huge commotion that its efficiency was far greater than that of other Zerg units.

Through their efforts, they caused a massive collapse of the mountain that had existed in the Jianyan Cave for countless lifetimes.

As the mountain collapsed, the swarm of hundreds of billions of insects following the rock-devouring behemoth rapidly cut, crushed, and then devoured these boulders.

Even if there are a lot of collapsed rocks and debris, they will be quickly consumed by the swarm of insects.

This scene shocked and puzzled all the powerful beings in the cosmic sea who were secretly observing the swarm of insects.

Clearly, they couldn't understand why the swarm would do that.

However, this is just the beginning.

When the advance team had established a foothold in the Jianyan Cave without experiencing large-scale deaths and began to explore deeper into the cave...

The scene inside the Jianyan Cave also kept appearing before the insect swarm.

For example, a lava cave filled with flames, with its extremely high lava temperature and spewing magma, easily devoured a large number of swarm scout units.

Or perhaps some caves are extremely bright, containing countless strange crystals, but these crystals occasionally emit beams of cold light that shatter the space itself.

The unusual environment caused hundreds of millions of the swarm units that went ahead to scout to perish in just a few days.

Faced with this situation, Qin Mu was not surprised but rather pleased.

Because of these harsh conditions, many units in the swarm began to evolve!

One of the Zerg's talents is adaptive evolution!

This is one of the most powerful talents of the Zerg Swarm.

Although this evolution cannot allow the swarm to break through the 10081 level limit in a short period of time, it rapidly strengthens the swarm's resistance to various special environments.

This made Qin Mu sigh that the Peak Realm truly deserves to be one of the three great forbidden lands in the universe that has existed through countless cycles of reincarnation. The first dangerous place at the entrance alone allowed the insect swarm to reap a considerable harvest.

Once the vanguard of the insect swarm had established a foothold in the Jianyan Cave, hundreds of billions of insects surged into the outer edge of the Qingfeng Jieshan Mountain like a tidal wave.

The entire Jianyan Cave became extremely lively.

These swarm units either feed on the rocks in the caves and ravines, or enter special environments to evolve and mutate, or devour the energy within to cultivate more swarm units.

For example, the molten lava in those lava caves possesses incredibly powerful energy.

After waves of fire-attribute Zerg units plunged into the lava, some of them quickly adapted to the lava environment.

Even within this magma, a group of special energy-absorbing units evolved, continuously extracting energy from the magma to supply a nearby mother hive, allowing it to cultivate a large number of swarm units that venture deeper into the magma.

The unbridled exploitation by the insect swarm has made the entire Jianyan Cave lively and bustling.

But this unbridled behavior soon alarmed the original inhabitants of the Jianyan Cave!

These are strange, crocodile-like creatures, entirely fiery red in color, that live in lava caves.

They are not very large, only a few thousand kilometers in size, but their strength is exceptionally powerful. Especially with the support of magma, even the weakest one can reach the level of a third-order universe master.

The strongest of them is tens of thousands of kilometers long and its strength is comparable to that of a top-tier fifth-order universe lord.

"More than twenty Universe Lords—truly befitting one of the three most formidable regions of the Cosmic Sea?"

Qin Mu, who was constantly monitoring the situation inside the Jianyan Cave, immediately mobilized over a thousand Insect Nest Tyrants to attack, and even used the domain treasure Thunder Prison Spirit Locking Pool.

They eventually killed most of the strange crocodile creatures, but the strongest one managed to escape!

In fact, during battles, three-headed worm hive tyrants have even perished on the spot.

The power within that lava was so immense that even the most powerful treasures in the domain could not suppress it.

This is normal!

The most powerful treasures in a domain are not invincible, especially in the three forbidden zones. They are often used as detection tools to suppress the natural environment of the three forbidden zones.

It's so hard!

Qin Mu did not want to use combined attacks or self-destruction to kill those strange crocodile creatures.

He preferred to capture them alive, or at the very least, obtain their corpses.

Once the swarm obtains the genes of these life forms living in lava, it can freely devour the energy within, and even place the mother nest directly inside.

Ultimately, despite losing the three-headed tyrant of the hive and severely injuring more than a dozen others, Qin Mu still achieved his goal.

A strange crocodile was successfully captured alive.

This was just one of the strange life forms encountered in the Jianyan Cave.

Inside a cave filled with highly toxic gases, the insect swarm also discovered another unique life form.

It resembles a giant bat, except it has a ferocious head that looks like a dragon's head.

Let's just call it the Dragon-Headed Bat for now.

It's worth mentioning that there's a light screen inside this cave with the dragon-headed bat!

That's right!

It was the same light that the Lord of Chaos City encountered when he was deep within the core of the Peak Realm, at the Thunder Prison Spirit Locking Pool!

This immediately piqued Qin Mu's interest.

However, the Dragon-Headed Bat was exceptionally powerful, still reaching the level of the strongest being in the universe. In the end, it was the Giant Axe Founder who intervened and killed it.

After refining numerous supreme treasures, the founder of the giant axe had reached a terrifying level of power.

With the blessing of the Winged Treasure, his speed had become unbelievably fast. He rushed forward and killed the dragon-headed bat in just a few moves.

Even after slaying the dragon-headed bat, the creator of the giant axe was still somewhat unsatisfied.

Clearly, they did not perform to their full potential.

Unfortunately, the light barrier guarded by the dragon-headed bat is only one layer, containing only one top-grade, peak-level treasure armor.

"How strange! In a desolate place like the Peak Realm, discovering the light barrier can bring opportunities."

Even in some dangerous places, precious treasures appear periodically.

Qin Mu sighed.

This situation is clearly abnormal.

Logically speaking, exploring various dangerous places might allow one to obtain the treasures of the dead powerful figures, or the treasures they left behind.

Under normal circumstances, one should be able to obtain some rare resources within dangerous areas, which can then be refined into treasures by skilled craftsmen.

Unlike in the Cosmic Sea, where treasures are directly born in the three forbidden zones and other dangerous places.

In some areas, treasures even fly out at regular intervals, which seems very strange.

No matter how you look at it, it seems like there's some behind-the-scenes manipulator pulling the strings.

"This is definitely not normal! When we first entered the Cosmic Sea, we also felt it was very strange, as if there was an invisible hand manipulating things from the shadows."

The Empress spoke.

Such light screens do not only contain priceless treasures; sometimes they may also contain rare and wondrous objects from heaven and earth.

The only thing that can be confirmed is that the more layers of light curtain there are, the more precious the treasure will be.

It shows very obvious signs of human intervention.

"I have also had my doubts, that I have been to many places in the cosmic ocean."

If it were only the three most dangerous places, it might just be a coincidence.

For example, the spaceship was obviously man-made, so it's normal for it to have all sorts of trials. But outside the three forbidden zones, some seemingly ordinary rivers and lakes can also nurture treasures!

Moreover, those treasures were clearly artificially crafted.

Just like a primordial star!

The founder of the giant axe also whispered.

It was like some kind of trial that made them constantly stronger.

The original ancestor had once discussed this topic with him; there were simply too many unsolved mysteries in the cosmic sea.

How big is the cosmic ocean?

How many miniature universes are there in the cosmic ocean?

How many dangerous places are there? How many perilous locations?

Are there really only three forbidden zones? Is it possible that there is a fourth forbidden zone in unexplored areas that can rival the Peak Realm, Flowing Mountain, and Universe Boat?

Why did the Peak Realm collapse? Who forged the Cosmic Ship?

Is it an ancient civilization that has disappeared?

There are too many questions!

"The primordial will of the universe? Or the supreme rule?"

Qin Mu looked in one direction in the endless void, which was the location of the primordial universe, the largest celestial body in the cosmic sea.

Compared to the founders of the Giant Axe, Qin Mu knew more.

For example, he knew that the purpose of the Three Thousand Universe Seas was actually to cultivate strong individuals.

Even the Beasts of the Realm are merely products born from the supreme rules.

One of its purposes is to clean up the cosmic sea.

Otherwise, how could there only be two holy sites in the universe after countless cycles of reincarnation?

They are still two Void Gods.

This is clearly illogical.

The secrets buried deep within the cosmic ocean are likely to be quite astonishing.

Even a powerful god-king like the Mountain-Sitting Guest, who returned against the tide with a god-king weapon, would perish in the face of the primordial universe empowered by supreme rules.

Throughout countless cycles of reincarnation, has only one god-king, the Mountain-Sitting Guest, entered this cosmic sea?

That possibility is too small.

"No rush. My strength is still too weak. Exploring the inner domain of the Peak Realm is already a bit of a stretch, let alone exploring the unknown areas of the Cosmic Sea."

In a few more years, the swarm will have completed its transformation, and my strength will have increased further. Perhaps then it will be time to consider exploring.

"The Flowing Mountains and the Spaceship—that's where the Zerg swarm's next target will be!"

Qin Mu smiled.

Although the swarm of insects has begun to devour the Peak Realm in a large-scale manner, the speed is actually very slow. For the main peak of the Peak Realm, it is like scraping off a layer of skin.

However, the growth of insect swarms is exponential.

Especially when sufficient resources are available, rapid fission is possible.

Inside the Jianyan Cave, a large number of insects die every moment due to the exploration of the unknown.

The resources within the Kejian Rock Cave are also extremely abundant. Large areas of fungal carpet are spreading, with mother nests rising up and breeding even more insect swarms.

The number of dead insects is far less than the number that hatch.

Even if they die, most of the swarm's corpses can be recovered.

Qin Mu was very curious whether the primordial cosmic will, or the legendary supreme rules, would intervene when the swarm of insects devoured a certain amount and truly began to threaten the main body of the Peak Realm.

The Beast of the Realm is one of the forbidden areas, the Dark Land, deep within the core of the Peak Realm.

If the entire Peak Realm is devoured by the insect swarm, can the Dark Land still survive?

Can the many world beasts still be conceived?

Of course, this is just an assumption.

Qin Mu knew that there were probably already world beasts gestating in the Dark Land, since in the original timeline, the giant axe would have fallen in the Dark Land in tens of thousands of years.

"Devour! Grow! Let's see if the swarm of insects is stronger, or the Beast of the Realm is stronger!"

A light gleamed in Qin Mu's eyes.

(End of this chapter)