Chapter 2285: I am back (2)

Ye Zhongming still did not return to Cloud Peak immediately. Instead, he came to the edge of the Bering Strait.

This place was not far from where he had wiped out the organization hostile to Cloud Peak. As for what had been inside that destroyed base, Ye Zhongming no longer concerned himself with it.

With a different perspective, one's decisions naturally changed.

As he moved rapidly across the endless ice fields, Ye Zhongming felt the changes in his body.

Through this "smuggling" operation, he had come to understand some things.

Back on the Welcome Day, when he had gone up to the sky, his equipment was gone, his abilities were gone—only his bloodline, body, Lord equipment, and elemental spirits remained.

The explanation of the cosmic races of the universe was that the wheel was like an incredibly precise instrument, strictly controlling the proportions of various energies on every planet.

What belonged to you, what could be taken away, what was useless, what was useful—and so on.

It adhered to the principle of selecting the best warriors, nurturing you on your home planet, making you strong, and then, when you left, taking away everything it could.

No one knew exactly what the wheel was or where it came from. But everyone knew that the wheel's task for each planet was to have them fight parasites on their world, blocking the growth of the Slave Race.

On your home planet, as long as you had strength and luck, the wheel could give you everything, but once you left, much would be taken away.

From that perspective, the myriad races of the universe had, to some extent, stepped outside the wheel's control.

That was also why there were differences in how the myriad races treated the wheel.

Races led by the Huo'er Star people believed that although the wheel might currently provide great assistance to cosmic life, its ultimate purpose might be to control the myriad races—or even to be like the Slave Race.

They did not believe in unearned help, nor did they believe that such an omnipresent yet mysterious existence could be benevolent.

Races led by the Reina Star people, on the other hand, were more willing to believe in the wheel's benevolence, more inclined to fully accept and study wheel technology, and did not see the wheel as a threat—even if there were things they did not understand, it was only because circumstances compelled it.

Previously, Ye Zhongming's understanding of these things had been merely intellectual; now, he had a deep personal experience.

When he had gone from Earth to the universe, his abilities and equipment had been taken away, and little had remained.

Equipment was easy enough to understand—it was not that it could not be taken out, but that the cost of doing so was too high, the Moonspan Gold spent exceeding the equipment's own value. Moreover, on Earth, purple grade was already top-tier, but among the cosmic races, it was only middling, and among them, Furelai was what truly mattered.

Now, compared to when he had been taken up, after being teleported back, those abilities had not returned to him.

Ye Zhongming wondered whether those abilities, under some mysterious power, had been turned back into skill scrolls and appeared on some wheel.

As for equipment, of course, none had reappeared—they were probably still stored in the villa.

However, whether it was his former equipment or those abilities, neither mattered much to Ye Zhongming now.

After teleporting down, the equipment he had been wearing naturally remained on the ship outside Earth's orbit, beyond the Slave Race's controlled territory, under the watch of Jie Su, who wore the a11 mask.

In terms of Furelai, Ye Zhongming felt no change—this should be his own intrinsic energy, something that would not be stripped away under any circumstances except death.

None of this came without cost, of course. This one teleportation had cost him a round-trip fare comparable to first-class.

Ye Zhongming was crossing the Bering Strait to the American continent this time for the same reason—to eliminate another hidden threat.

Although the woman from Gold and Silver Island had not appeared since the Novice Battlefield, from what he understood, he knew she would not let things rest.

In the universe, Ye Zhongming was not afraid of her—his evolution speed should be enough to crush that woman, and the forces behind him were far superior to any Gold and Silver Island, which could not compare to supermajor races like the Huo'er Star people.

But he was afraid that that madwoman would strike at Cloud Peak, which was still on Earth.

He did not want to receive news from Earth that a companion who had fought alongside him for many years had died.

So he changed his plan on the spot, deciding to uproot Gold and Silver Island's proxy power on Earth completely.

Ye Zhongming was not far from the great-expert realm, and his movement speed was extremely fast. He would throw a couple of punches at any agile mutated lifeforms he encountered, using them as temporary transport.

Unfortunately, he had not found any level-nine lifeforms here, so by the time he reached the Bering Strait, half a day had already passed since he had returned to Earth.

Walking this path again, where he had once fought for the Sea King Crown, Ye Zhongming felt a slight nostalgia. But just after crossing the strait, he stopped.

His gaze pierced through the clouds and weapons above, spotting a dark shadow in the sky.

That shadow was diving toward him at high speed.

Seconds later, the shadow grew clearer.

"Long time no see, Superior Dragon."

The lifeform in the air abruptly halted, eyeing Ye Zhongming warily from a distance of over a hundred meters.

"Don't remember me?"

Ye Zhongming said to the serpent-bodied, bat-winged, single-horned level-nine lifeform before him.

This top-tier being was precisely the sea beast leader, Superior Dragon, whom he had encountered during the fight for the Ocean King Crown when it was still level eight.

Back then, after everything was settled, Ye Zhongming had even made some trades with Superior Dragon before they parted ways.

"You?" Superior Dragon had not been able to communicate mentally at the time, but now that it had reached the top-tier level, it could converse with humans.

It looked down at Ye Zhongming from above, sensing no energy fluctuations from this human at all. But this place was extremely harsh—ordinary people, no, even five- or six-star evolvers would find it nearly impossible to survive here, let alone alone.

That meant this human was strange. And connecting him to the Ocean King Crown's owner, Superior Dragon slowly descended to the ground.

"You've evolved to level nine—congratulations." Ye Zhongming said casually, though his eyes kept scanning Superior Dragon's two wings.

That creature's speed had seemed quite fast just now.

He needed to search once he reached America, and walking would be very tiring.

Superior Dragon instinctively took two steps back, hesitating. "What do you want?"

Ye Zhongming rubbed his chin. "Do you want to become a level-nine magic crystal and a pile of materials?"

Superior Dragon shook its head.

Ye Zhongming nodded. "Then be my mount for two days."

"A dragon never serves!"

"Boom!"

"Just... two days? You promise?" “