Chapter 521: Now, the Second Round Begins, Wooden Man

As expected, Zuo Fan was brutally defeated. He wasn’t dead yet, but his Pure Yang Fire Seed had been dug right out of him.

He was barely clinging to life by a thread, on the verge of death.

In the beginning, the Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao had only fought him with power equal to his own. The battle was difficult, but not without a glimmer of hope.

Then, with the help of his protagonist’s halo, he had a sudden power-up.

The result was self-evident. The power-up did indeed allow him to smoothly defeat the Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao.

But there was a problem: Zuo Fan had defeated an enemy who, under the influence of the protagonist’s halo, had become playful and hadn’t used their true strength.

This meant that the moment he won, the game was over.

The power gap between them was too vast; not even the protagonist’s halo could help Zuo Fan win.

At this moment, the blood-red flames on Zuo Fan’s body had dimmed to mere flickers of light.

On the brink of death, he couldn’t help but recall how it all began.

“This world… when did it all change?” he asked softly.

But there was no one to answer his question.

He couldn’t understand why any of this was happening. Before this, everything had been perfectly normal.

His consciousness faded and his thoughts grew stiff. In his final moments, he saw a figure standing before him.

Unfortunately, his vision was failing as death approached, so he could only make out a rough silhouette.

Even when he strained to open his eyes, he couldn’t see anything clearly.

‘Perhaps… it’s just an illusion.’ With that last regretful thought, he lost consciousness, still unable to see who the figure was.

The figure was, of course, Qi Suian. He looked at Zuo Fan’s now-cold body with great regret.

“Man, you died without managing to scope anything out at all.”

“Still, both you and your protagonist’s halo did your best. Especially your halo—it was always backing you up.”

“If the power gap between you two hadn’t been so ridiculously huge, you might have actually won.”

“This protagonist’s halo is really something else,” Qi Suian mused, watching it gradually dissipate.

This was the “failure” version; instead of retiring after fulfilling the protagonist’s duty, it just died.

However, as it dissipated, Qi Suian captured every last bit of it.

“Seeing as you’ve done so much for me, I imagine you won’t mind helping me out a little more, even in death.”

“And you’ll get to have your revenge, too. It’s killing two birds with one stone.”

Qi Suian looked at Zuo Fan’s corpse, deciding he would let this man continue to stir things up.

“From now on, there is only the Flame Demon.” As Qi Suian’s voice fell, dense fibrous matter surged into Zuo Fan’s corpse.

A terrifying heat began to emanate from the rapidly cooling corpse.

Suddenly, the corpse’s closed eyes snapped open. But this time, there was no trace of reason or self.

Its eyes were filled with the desire for destruction and slaughter.

The blood-red flames that had long since been extinguished on its body flared up once more. Its dragon-like form appeared even more monstrous and twisted.

The massive body rose, its movements slightly stiff.

What had been resurrected was not Zuo Fan, but a true Flame Demon.

A mad creation that knew only destruction and slaughter.

Especially after the infusion of fibrous matter, the Flame Demon had been transformed into a war machine.

As time passed, the flames on the Flame Demon burned brighter and brighter, until it resembled a roaring bonfire.

“Remember, when the passage between the five planets opens, lead your legion and destroy all life,” Qi Suian said.

The Flame Demon nodded indifferently, doing its utmost to restrain its lust for slaughter and destruction.

It even felt a conflicting urge to tear its own creator to shreds.

But Qi Suian was, after all, the Flame Demon’s creator. Even if it wanted to attack, the countermeasures he had embedded in its body would forcibly restrain it.

No matter how powerful the instinct and impulse, they could not override the creator’s authority.

“Now go. Create a legion of sufficient size,” Qi Suian said bluntly.

The Flame Demon turned and left. Every footstep left behind a burning, blood-red flame, scorching a blackened print onto the ground.

As for how to create a sufficient legion, that was also simple: through slaughter and destruction.

The Flame Demon was, in essence, a being akin to a conceptual entity.

Thus, it did not need to reproduce to create the Flame Demon Legion.

Although the created Flame Demons would be weaker than the one Qi Suian personally crafted, their combat power was not to be underestimated.

A single member of the Flame Demon Legion could defeat at least ten Heavenly Dao Wooden Men, and the Legion Commander itself was on par with the Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao.

Power creep? Qi Suian had personally intervened. If the Flame Demon still wasn’t up to snuff, what was the point of resurrecting it?

He didn’t do it out of boredom.

If its combat power wasn’t inflated, what would be the point?

Having been resurrected as a Flame Demon, it had lost its protagonist’s halo.

If its strength hadn’t changed at all, when facing the Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao, it would probably be instantly killed in a single move.

With the influence of a protagonist’s halo, the opponent would play a game of cat and mouse. Without that influence, when facing an enemy, most would just kill you in the most efficient way possible.

After handling matters, Qi Suian’s figure slowly faded away again.

He needed to go back and continue his research.

His world-traveling technology and concealment-protection technology had advanced greatly. In another three to five days, his research would be complete.

Once testing was complete and there were no issues, Qi Suian could act without any lingering worries.

For now, he could only use Fei and the Flame Demon to start a proxy war.

The main issue was his inability to make a quick getaway, which left him feeling insecure. That’s why he chose to prioritize his own survival.

After all, with his meager constitution—which was like a grand tonic to any world—once exposed, he would have to fight an entire world.

Therefore, it was natural to act indirectly whenever possible.

Once he reached the next world, his situation would be much better.

All beginnings are difficult, and as it happened, Qi Suian was in the midst of his.

After returning to his safe zone, Qi Suian reached out and gave the Doomsday Game two more slaps.

The acceleration of the doomsday had in turn accelerated the Doomsday Game’s recovery speed. So, to keep the Doomsday Game from constantly getting back up, Qi Suian could only tearfully slap it back down.

The Doomsday Game could be breathing its last, it could be on the brink of death, but it absolutely could not be healthy and robust.

So, to prevent it from becoming something he didn’t like, Qi Suian had no choice but to “debug” it himself.

After all, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

After doing all this, he finally looked out into the cosmos and whispered, “It’s beginning.”

—————–

Having obtained the last of the Five Elements Spiritual Treasures, the Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao returned to its former home planet. Its original husk remained there—a key piece of equipment for the plan.

At this moment, the space between his brows no longer shone with the light of the spiritual treasures.

Instead, it bore five strange, tattoo-like marks.

These five marks were intertwined, each head meeting a tail in an endless loop.

They symbolized the cycle of generation and subjugation among the five elements.

This represented that he now possessed not only the power of the Ginseng Fruit Tree clan, but also the Power of the Five Elements controlled by Spirit Masters.

The two powers merged within the Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao to become a new, even more powerful and pure force.

The Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao called it the Power of All Things—a brand new and unique force existing somewhere between idealism and materialism.

“The ‘me’ on Red Meteor seems to have been influenced by something, to actually play such a childish game with a native.” The Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao couldn’t help but sneer at its previous self.

Fortunately, it was just a minor hiccup along the way. As long as the final outcome remained unchanged, it was fine.

He returned to the top of his remnant husk, to the spot where the flower bud he once inhabited was located.

The bud had long since bloomed into a full flower, but it held no trace of life. Instead, it looked completely dead and stagnant.

He sat back down. Five colored auras—white, cyan, black, red, and yellow—appeared behind him, each corresponding to one of the five planets of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth.

The next moment, the Ginseng Fruit Tree’s roots, which had extended into the sun, slowly withdrew. This made the entire planet seem to bare its fangs and brandish its claws.

But soon, the surrounding space was completely torn apart. In an instant, the five planets from the edge of the small universe were dragged over.

The space around them shattered completely, and the five planets were pulled into orbit without any resistance.

Even the largest of the five elemental planets was but a tiny marble before the sheer size of the Ginseng Fruit Tree.

Its immense gravity pulled at the five planets, dragging them down.

Following the gravitational pull, the five planets plummeted down and were installed in their predetermined positions.

At this moment, the five planets were no longer merely connected; they were now situated upon a single planet.

Planets embedded within a planet—it was an extremely bizarre sight.

But soon, the Spiritual Power of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth began to be released by the Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao.

At the same time, using spatial technology, it created a direct channel to the sun.

It had already used its roots to open and stabilize these channels, drawing energy from the sun to maintain them.

Otherwise, why would the Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao have bothered to extend its roots into the sun? It was all in preparation, of course.

If it had to open the channels now, what if something went wrong? The plan couldn’t very well wait for it.

“Red Meteor… what’s gone wrong now?” The Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao suddenly noticed a blood-red Flame spreading rapidly across Red Meteor, beginning to surge outward.

The other four planets were quietly subdued, offering no resistance. Why was it always Red Meteor that caused so much trouble?

“It seems the mastermind behind the scenes can no longer resist making a move.”

“In that case, I’ll just deal with it all at once…” Before the Ginseng Fruit Tree·Celestial Dao could finish his sentence, a tidal wave of blood-red flame rushed toward him.

“Now, round two begins, Wooden Man.” A tyrannical and crazed voice echoed from within the bloody tide, shamelessly unleashing its desire for destruction and slaughter.