Chapter 748: Like Clouds
"Fifty-fifty!"
The rat demon, not much bigger than a cup, showed no sign of being intimidated by Tom's imposing aura.
After awakening their innate demonic arts, size was often no longer the decisive factor in battles between demons. It wasn't uncommon for mice to thoroughly thrash cats.
"You... excellent! I'll remember you." Recalling his past experiences, Tom knew he would almost certainly lose against that damned rat.
In fact, if it weren't for the fact that he was a special rubber cat, incapable of dying even when flattened or stretched into noodles, Jerry the mouse would have played him to death countless times over.
The fact that it was willing to split it fifty-fifty meant it didn't want a cat-and-mouse game to the bitter end.
After a staring contest, the cat and the mouse each took a cup and went their separate ways.
Back in his lair, Tom hugged one of the cups he'd taken. It didn't take long for him to discover that, with the cup's help, his cultivation speed had nearly doubled.
But this only made him feel worse. Such a miraculous item, and that cursed rat had taken one of them...
What's more, he was a male cat. Even if he could transform, he couldn't exactly play the role of "the cat's repayment."
...
"Everyone, get off the ship immediately!"
The journey to the Execution Planet was unusually smooth, with none of the incidents Mira had anticipated. The group arrived at their destination without a hitch.
She immediately, and with the utmost speed, got this hot potato of a group off the ship.
"Miss Mira, why the rush?" A young man in military uniform approached, followed by over a dozen guards wearing A-grade power armor.
These hulking figures, over three meters tall and equipped with knight's blades, could, in a calm and composed state, easily slide and cut a fierce tiger in half.
They could also punch through five-centimeter thick heavy armor steel plates with their equipped shock gauntlets.
According to the Federation's grading standards, humans equipped with A-grade power armor had an average combat power of level 37, which meant late third-tier.
Purely in terms of destructive power, A-grade power armor was entirely on par with fourth-tier capabilities. However, its combat mode was simply too energy-intensive, lasting at most an hour under full load, which significantly lowered its overall rating.
...
"Deputy Commander Li? They're all yours." Mira clearly didn't want to waste any more time with him, even if he was indeed handsome and to her liking.
After all, handsome men and beautiful women were everywhere in the Federation, especially among middle and high-tier cultivators. Aside from a very few with unique preferences, almost no one had a low attractiveness score.
Facial modification technology was too advanced. For a sum of money, one could acquire a decent appearance with virtually no side effects.
Of course, the amount of money required would probably take an ordinary Federation citizen about two lifetimes to earn.
"Ten million Federation Credits for guaranteed seven-out-of-ten looks" was the direct advertising slogan of the Federation's largest medical aesthetics group.
Powerful cosmetic surgery had completely transformed ugliness into a trait exclusive to the poor.
...
"Why are so many people being sent here to die?" Mira's pendant, for the first time, spoke.
Rushing to leave, she paused upon hearing the voice.
"Reporting, Warden, I don't know."
"Mira?" The wind spirit also stopped, looking in confusion at her companion who had suddenly clutched her pendant.
"The Warden is looking for me."
"Aha, your prison's Warden. I've been with you for so many years and never met them once..." She was also very curious about this elusive, legendary figure.
"Let's talk as we go. If we don't leave now, it'll be too late." But despite her curiosity, the wind spirit knew even better that they had to leave this place of trouble and strife as quickly as possible.
"Too late." This time, the pendant replied.
Three dark figures appeared in the sky above the Execution Planet.
"It is indeed too late..." Mira received an intranet message on her communication terminal, indicating that the protective grand array within the Execution Planet had been activated, prohibiting all entry and exit.
She gazed towards the sacrificial altar, where over a dozen tightly bound young people were lined up in a single row. Behind them were three seats, and the faces of the people in them were indistinguishable, or rather, she saw them, but forgot them the next second.
One was a man almost entirely covered by a robe, only his face visible.
One was an unknown entity completely covered by a robe, not even its face showing.
And the third was the Grand Marshal, openly wearing a Federation military uniform, possessing the highest military rank, capable of mobilizing the three armies with a single word.
"There are three True Immortals on the altar... and those three dark figures in the sky..." She found it hard to imagine that six True Immortal-level figures were gathered simultaneously on this tiny Execution Planet.
The Federation possessed tens of thousands of Great Thousand Flagships. Most ordinary people would, at best, spend their entire lives revolving around a few of them. Even cultivators couldn't visit them all. And among these tens of thousands of flagships, the number of True Immortals she knew to exist was certainly no more than a handful.
...
"Green Wizard King, Grand Marshal, and Speaker." The leading dark figure paused in mid-air, identifying the three True Immortals on the altar one by one.
"Divine Lord, Ye family head, and Yun family head." The Speaker, clad in a colossal cloak, responded with the same formality.
The two sides, much like the ceremonial wars of millennia past, openly exchanged names with dignity.
Of course, this was under the premise that surprise attacks or similar tactics were simply impossible to execute.
"There is no Yun family anymore." Yun Jie was the first to reveal his figure from the darkness, no longer restraining his aura in the slightest. "I am myself, Yun Jie."
"With our capabilities, rebuilding a Yun family would be as easy as turning one's hand."
"Ye De Xian, you have your Dao, and I have mine." Yun Jie, instead, refuted the one standing beside him.
"There's no need to waste time with pleasantries. I'm sure the Green Wizard King and the Divine Lord are no longer willing to wait."
...
"Ning Yan Huo!"
"Ramdo!"
"And, I am not Ning Yan Huo, I am Ying Huo!"
The Green Wizard King, completely shrouded by his robe, now undid his fastenings.
Inside was only a cluster of green light, like a seed.
The next second, this seed began to take root and sprout at an insane speed, rapidly transforming into a tree.
Its growth did not stop after becoming a tree.
One became two.
Two became four.
Four became eight.
...
The tree, into which the Green Wizard King had transformed, instantly grew countless branches and rapidly swelled in volume, soon surpassing the size of a skyscraper.
But this was still not the end.
The single tree, already the size of a skyscraper, continued to expand at an unimaginable speed.
A few seconds later, most of the sky above the Execution Planet was already shrouded in its shadow.
Its canopy like clouds.
PS: No flaking out! If I haven't slept, it's still today!
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