Chapter 136: Never Making Things Easy

The meteor shower in the Eastern Domain had finally come to a stop, but there were certainly still plenty of aberrant creatures that had landed beyond the main encirclement.

The encirclement had been planned around the landing sites of most of the silver-ranked aberrant creatures and expanded as far as possible.

Although the alchemical beast legions at hand were by no means small, they were still woefully inadequate compared with the vastness of the land.

Once all the prey within the encirclement had been cleared out, and no new meteorites appeared for three days, the rare meteor shower—clearly visible from many places in the native world—finally ended.

Wu You had no idea how many aberrant creatures remained scattered throughout the Eastern Domain. He could not even be sure whether any silver-ranked creatures were still lurking there.

Over the past few days, some flying alchemical beasts had discovered several remote towns that had been destroyed.

Not a single corpse could be found, and there were scarcely any traces of blood.

It was easy to imagine that if the people there had not received warning in time and retreated to a major city or elsewhere, most of them had probably already become food for the aberrant creatures.

The major cities were not absolutely safe, of course. They were more like enormous food stores. Their advantage, however, was that they housed imperial troops as well as large numbers of martial artists.

With military formations supplemented by the strength of martial experts, they could deal with a certain number of aberrant creatures—provided those creatures were not too bizarre or too highly ranked.

If they could hold out for a while, then word might reach Wu You’s subordinates through the martial world’s networks or the patrols of alchemical beasts. Perhaps the people could then be rescued.

By now, the “immortal-divine faction,” Myriad Beasts Manor, had gradually become known to all the major powers.

They also understood that the meteor shower from beyond the heavens had been the beginning of the calamity.

Some of their top experts had already experienced the power of the celestial monsters firsthand. Apart from a few exceptions, the others had suffered devastating losses.

The imperial court and the Liu Family were among the few forces that could truly contact Myriad Beasts Manor, with “liaisons” stationed there on a long-term basis.

They had also obtained Myriad Beasts Manor’s promise that assistance would be provided when necessary.

By cooperating with the native powers, Wu You could both expand the search and protect the people here more effectively.

Abandoning ordinary civilians was not merely a matter of conscience and morality. It would also amount to strengthening the enemy.

In a private room on the top floor of the Immortal Drunk Pavilion, Wu You—who had not closed his eyes for nearly a full week—stretched lazily.

“Leave the Lion-Faced Vajra, Qiongqi, and Kun here. If any silver-ranked creatures slip through the net, have them deal with them.”

“Oh, and keep the corpses somewhere safe, as usual.”

Wang Fugui bowed slightly.

“I shall obey, my lord.”

Wu You nodded, then seemed to remember something.

“Send some men from the gemstone mine on the other side to begin excavation.”

As he spoke, Wu You yawned.

With his current physical constitution, going without sleep for a long time would normally have little effect on him. But his mind had remained intensely focused throughout the past few days.

He had also been serving as a central dispatch system, so the mental expenditure was far greater than he had imagined. He needed a proper rest.

“I’m leaving this place to you. If anything urgent happens, contact me by the usual method.”

The moment Wang Fugui heard this, he immediately thought of the two remaining rainbow coral worms hidden in his sleeve—two creatures prepared to die without hesitation.

Once Wu You vanished from sight, the remaining alchemical beasts dispersed.

In terms of strength, the Lie-Beast Wang Fugui’s iron rank was insignificant among the many alchemical beasts.

Yet even Saraso would never look down on him.

The smiling Lie-Beast had been placed in charge of coordinating everything related to Myriad Beasts Manor in the Eastern Domain. It was certainly not merely because he was senior in rank.

…

A flash of black radiance passed, and Wu You returned to Earth.

His phone signal had come back as well.

In the Eastern Domain, there had been solar batteries available to charge his phone, but all he could really do with it was play simple games or take photographs and videos.

Several text-message notifications popped up.

He checked the number. There were only three.

Wu You felt a little sad. The number alone showed that not many people were concerned about him.

He opened them.

The first was from his father. He said that he had originally planned to return after visiting Paris, but had suddenly decided to travel around all of Europe instead, and told Wu You not to worry about him.

The second and third had both been sent by Wang Hui.

They said that the gigantic sea monster Kraken had been filmed and that the footage had been uploaded to the internet.

Damn it. Were they deliberately trying to stop him from resting?

Wu You first entered observation mode through Kraken.

What greeted his eyes was a stretch of ocean currents and a vast submarine trench. The creature was leisurely strolling along the seafloor at a depth of nearly two thousand meters.

Wu You asked what had happened, but Kraken seemed completely unaware that it had become famous.

To be honest, it had never paid any attention to that fishing boat at the time.

All right. Asking it was clearly a waste of time.

Wu You opened an internet search. Although domestic websites had also carried gossip about the incident, the reports seemed rather incomplete and had been embellished by netizens in every possible way.

The unscrupulous editors of sites like UC in particular had already fabricated countless versions of the story. The images remained the same while the content changed completely.

There was no way Wu You could believe any of it.

He had no choice but to pay for a VPN and browse foreign websites.

After searching for a while, he still could not find the video. Instead, he came across another piece of news related to the alchemical beasts.

It concerned a terrorist attack during an operation to “capture a vampire.”

Wu You recognized the research institute at a glance. It was the same place the vampires had previously “reported in” to him.

“Smack…”

Wu You covered his face with one hand.

Could these people not give him a moment’s peace?

Although somewhat exasperated, Wu You knew that the vampires did everything according to a set of rules. They certainly would not cause trouble without reason.

The internet overseas was now caught up in another craze for mythology. Not only had the vampire-worshipping groups that had quieted down for a while begun resurfacing, but Norse mythology had also become wildly popular.

Online cults of every variety were springing up, while traditional religions were making their presence felt in all sorts of ways. Even doomsday theories had once again become a hot topic.

Strictly speaking, none of this could cause Wu You any real trouble. The ones who should be having headaches were the governments of various countries.

Looking at the matter from another angle, perhaps he should allow himself to be “accidentally” discovered a few more times.

Perhaps that would be for the best.

…

After reaching that conclusion, Wu You stopped paying attention to the other matters and went straight to bed.

Although there were several ways to replenish his mental energy now, sleeping was undoubtedly the most comfortable and enjoyable of them all.

When Wu You woke again, fifteen hours had passed.

Bai Yanxi had not yet returned. Perhaps his search for his younger son and his family had not gone smoothly.

Wu You first went to inspect the structure built on the mountain tree.

The project had now entered the decorating phase. The wiring and layout were progressing normally, and it would probably be ready for use before long.

After offering a few words of encouragement, he left.

Wu You had come up with two new ideas—ideas that excited him somewhat.

He needed to verify them one by one.

The first had occurred to him in the Eastern Domain when he saw a group of martial experts attacking two bronze-ranked aberrant creatures.

Those experts were agile, their reactions sharp, and both their combat instincts and martial techniques had been honed through countless battles.

Unfortunately, they lacked sufficient strength, and their defensive abilities were also poor.

They had to strike the same spot repeatedly before they could inflict meaningful damage. But if they were hit even once, they would almost certainly be either gravely wounded or left on the brink of death.