Chapter 1 The Black Empress

Before them was a colossal black Empress Birdwing Butterfly, almost filling the suspended cave of the underground palace.

The Butterfly Queen!

And the millions of compound eyes meant...she was the true master of this underground realm. The entire clan's attributes of "light aversion" and "deep diving" must have been inherited from the Butterfly Queen!

"Rumble—"

Even with Gu Shen's Pure Land, he nearly lost his mind under this sudden, fierce attack!

Within the Pure Land Divine Realm.

Li Qingci and Tie Wu, among others, looked solemn.

This was a place directly connected to Gu Shen's spiritual sea...if Gu Shen's mind was disturbed, the Pure Land would be affected immediately. Last time, the divine thought of the Storm God Seat had flooded in like a tsunami, almost submerging the Pure Land!

But fortunately, the Pure Land world only trembled for a moment—

Relying on his extremely strong mental self-awakening ability, Gu Shen quickly realized he had been hit.

He bit his tongue, seizing the moment of clarity.

He took out the jade thumb ring, put on the ghost mask, and then drew his iron saber. Under this terrifying and fierce offensive, he was almost reflexively about to draw out the "Ruler of Truth" soaked in the Silver of Miracles...

But Bai Xiu was still here, so he would avoid using the ruler if possible.

Gu Shen unleashed all his methods except the ruler, and slashed out with his saber!

"Boom!!!"

The saber strike exploded within the cave!

The saber aura, nearly a hundred meters long, carrying the "Great Cold," swept through the cave, cutting through stone pillars, butterfly eggs, and the millions of compound eyes staring at Gu Shen...

In the next moment.

The world became quiet.

Gu Shen's eyes were bloodshot, still recovering from the mental shock. The cave world fell silent for dozens of seconds. He retracted the ring, took off the mask, and then rested his hands on the saber, exhaling turbid air with a gloomy expression...

Before him lay the mountain-like corpse, split in two.

"...Target is dead," Chu Ling said.

Dead.

Just like that?

Gu Shen frowned, feeling that something was wrong...The moment the Butterfly Queen appeared, his mind tensed instantly, and this terrifying transcendent creature brought him unprecedented pressure.

But he never expected...that with just one saber strike, the Butterfly Queen would be cut open.

Not far away, lightning surged, crackling.

The commotion had obviously attracted Bai Xiu's attention. The young sleeve quickly swept to the end of the cave, and then saw this scene. He first looked in surprise at the female butterfly, which was much larger than the Butterfly King.

The millions of compound eyes...even Bai Xiu felt the pressure.

He hurried over.

But he didn't expect Gu Shen to be unharmed. He had already moved at his fastest speed, but when he arrived, he only managed to see this corpse.

Then he glanced at Gu Shen with a complicated expression.

"You killed it?"

"Well...I think so..."

Gu Shen forced a smile. "There must be something wrong with this thing, otherwise it wouldn't have been unable to withstand a single strike."

In terms of size.

She was much larger than the male Butterfly King...the entire underground butterfly cave was procreated by her. With such a large size, even if her physical combat power was limited, she should at least be resistant to attacks.

"You only struck once?"

Bai Xiu narrowed his eyes and suddenly said, "It's injured, in more than one place."

Gu Shen calmed down and recovered from the mental attack.

"One, two, three, four..."

He also noticed.

The Butterfly Queen, split in two by him, was covered in dense lacerations, and was still bleeding. These were not created by him. There was only one saber aura containing the killing intent of the "Pure Land", but upon closer inspection, it could be seen that this strike could not be considered a truly "fatal wound."

Because the Butterfly Queen had countless injuries, as dense as her compound eyes.

"..."

This scene left Gu Shen and Bai Xiu in silence.

They were well aware of what this discovery meant.

The Butterfly Queen's size was not the top-tier "existence" in the Sangzhou Cave ecosystem.

"This was caused by other transcendent creatures...?"

Gu Shen's voice was hoarse. "So the Empress Birdwing Butterfly came to the outer edge of District F because it was forced...they failed in the struggle in the inland of Sangzhou Cave, and the weak can only migrate..."

"It's not known what kind of creature caused these dense wounds."

Bai Xiu said, "If your deduction is correct, then as the northern shore of Sangzhou Cave advances inland, there is likely to be a creature even more terrifying than the Empress Birdwing Butterfly."

Gu Shen thought of another possibility: "Perhaps it's not in the air because even more threatening transcendent species have emerged in the sky."

"It is said that nearly 100,000 'aborigines' live inside Sangzhou Cave. In this transcendent awakening experiment, the Storm Church has released all permissions, even allowing the [Deep Sea] to establish a spiritual link to the entire island."

Bai Xiu said coldly, "However, judging from the evolutionary results of these things, how terrifying must the thing that eliminated the Empress Birdwing Butterfly be? Won't they devour the entire island?"

"Probably not."

Gu Shen shook his head. "Every year, the [Deep Sea] submits announcements to the Five Continents Council. The latest report mentioned that the mortality rate of the Sangzhou Cave natives is less than one in ten thousand...Vias, a native, returns to the cave regularly, which only shows that the Empress Birdwing Butterfly was hiding too well. Underground creatures desperately reproduce. If it weren't for this 'accident,' they could have remained dormant for a long time."

After the mutation.

The Empress Birdwing Butterfly mainly feeds on "Source Quality."

This is also the fundamental logic behind the [Deep Sea]'s proposal of the Awakening Act...If more and more creatures acquire transcendent power, then there will be less and less disordered Source Quality wandering in the void.

With less wandering Source Quality, the number of inland black spots will naturally decrease.

Over time, the crisis of the collapse of order can be greatly delayed.

However.

Is the decision made by [Deep Sea] really correct?

These things devour "Source Quality" to grow...When they reach a certain scale, won't they become another kind of disaster?

Perhaps compared to the extinction of mankind, these things are not so terrible. No matter how much the so-called "Empress Birdwing Butterfly" grows, there is a limit. The male butterfly grows to about sixty meters, which is probably the limit.

As for the female butterfly, there must also be a limit.

If it is a butterfly swarm of this level...a top-tier fourth-order, leading a team alone, can achieve annihilation.

But what if it is higher?

"The main system's idea may be to transfer the 'danger' that cannot be eliminated by non-God Seats," Chu Ling said calmly. "The threat of transcendent creatures can be resolved by transcendents. But the crisis of 'black spots' can basically only be solved by apostles."

"Only by going deep into Sangzhou Cave can we investigate the real reason for the Empress Birdwing Butterfly clan's migration."

Gu Shen looked at the Butterfly Queen in front of him and said calmly, "Now...the mission is basically completed. Let's return to the surface."

The fire and lightning had already burned down the cave.

The Empress Birdwing Butterfly's nest here was completely destroyed.

Both of them obtained a certain amount of Source Quality.

There was no point in staying any longer.

...

...

"I'm sorry, the test results of the group sample will take another ten days. If you want to know the specific information and transcendent characteristics of the 'butterfly swarm', you must wait patiently..."

"Also, Mr. Gu, forgive me for speaking frankly, but under controllable circumstances, you really shouldn't have killed the 'Butterfly Queen'. This might be of great help to the experiment..."

"What? You brought an eye..."

Adam's expression changed several times on the outer wall.

When he learned that Gu Shen and Bai Xiu had destroyed the Empress Birdwing Butterfly's underground palace, a huge regret appeared on his face.

This underground palace must contain a lot of information!

It's just that Adam didn't know...

Gu Shen and Bai Xiu had both independently collected the Source Quality of the butterfly eggs underground, so the underground palace had to be burned. Even if Gu Shen didn't burn it, Bai Xiu would have burned it.

After destroying the evidence, even if the transcendents from the Holy City Research Institute dive down to investigate again, they won't find any traces.

Fortunately...

Before leaving, Gu Shen cut off the compound eye of the "Butterfly Queen."

Before leaving, he froze part of the Butterfly Queen's body with Pure Land and used his authority to throw it into the Pure Land domain...This compound eye was just a part of the body.

When the underground palace was destroyed.

Every part of the Butterfly Queen's body was extremely precious.

If only one eye remained...then this eye was the most precious!

The size of the compound eye was close to that of an apple. At this moment, it was frozen into a pile of ice slag, suspended in Gu Shen's palm.

It could be seen that Adam was a research scholar who was obsessed with experiments.

"It's really a compound eye...Good heavens! That's great!" After hearing the news, he immediately smiled and subconsciously reached out to take the "Butterfly Queen's compound eye" from Gu Shen's hand.

However, Gu Shen smiled and took a step back.

"Sorry, Mr. Adam..."

He said lightly, "This is my 'trophy'."

Adam was stunned.

He asked anxiously, "Does the East Continent Transcendent need this compound eye for research? But you didn't even send a research team...Even if you send it back to East Continent, waiting for the results won't be as fast as it would be here. You might as well give it to me."

Gu Shen just looked at him with a smile.

Shen Li elbowed this idiot and quietly reminded, "There is no such thing as a free lunch in the world."

"Yes...I didn't consider it carefully. Mr. Gu, what do you want?" Adam said sincerely, "Just name your conditions, and I will definitely satisfy them if I can."

Ten minutes later.

Adam got what he wanted...the "only remaining" compound eye after the Butterfly Queen's death.

And Gu Shen and his party successfully arrived at the secret interior of the Holy City Research Institute. Top transcendent scholars from the three continents were gathered here, working together to conduct research on the "Awakening Act". A large amount of data samples were analyzed here every day.

"The transcendent link in the inland of Sangzhou Cave has been fully completed..."

"A total of 97,831 people, with a link success rate of 99.5%..."

Gu Shen, Bai Xiu, and Shen Li looked at the information from the Holy City Research Institute, looked at each other, and all found something wrong.

These data seemed to be different from the public version uploaded by [Deep Sea] to the Five Continents Council.

"Adam, the link success rate announced by [Deep Sea] is 99.9%."

Gu Shen said calmly, "Why is it 99.5% here?"

"99.9%...is the [Deep Sea]'s algorithm..."

Adam was thawing the compound eye.

He glanced at Gu Shen and said, "Under the Lion's Roar technique, the awakening of transcendents only takes a short few minutes, and at most an hour...But the [Deep Sea]'s stimulation of the Sangzhou Cave experimenters sometimes lasts for days, even dozens of days."

"...?"

"Transcendental awakening is a matter of probability. Not everyone can 'Lion's Roar'." He said calmly, as if he were talking about a trivial matter, "If it fails, then let's do it again...Under this kind of stimulation, the experimenter will be in a critical state of repeatedly gaining and losing abilities, so is he considered an awakened person or a non-awakened person?"

"However, according to the data from the Holy City Research Institute, only one 'lucky person', or rather a 'unlucky person', is more suitable, with a probability of five in a thousand will be in the 'critical value'." Adam said lightly, "Of course, little by little, the total number is close to 100,000, so there are 500 such people. For these people, [Deep Sea] will continue to give constant stimulation. So there is the 99.9% data, and we don't think this is effective awakening data, so the report to the upper city says that the link success rate is 99.5%."

"Then...what about the remaining one in a thousand?"

Shen Li asked blankly.

Adam looked at Shen Li like an idiot, and he slowly opened his mouth: "I don't know. You can guess."

"Dead?"

Shen Li was stunned for two seconds and looked at Gu Shen.

The latter's eyes gave him the answer.

The answer was simple and already obvious—

Dead, of course they were dead.

Being forcibly awakened and repeatedly stimulated, if evolution fails, how could the spirit still be preserved? Gu Shen had seen a whole ship of corpses in Rhein City. Those people were the products of [Deep Sea]'s repeated stimulation!

The soul is shattered, leaving only the body.

For the human race, a death rate of one in a thousand is actually acceptable.

It's just...

Is this data real?

Gu Shen hasn't seen the situation inside Sangzhou Cave with his own eyes.

As for the report given by [Deep Sea], he doesn't believe it at all.

After the main system's first "upgrade", it began to manage everything in the Five Continents...It had obviously developed its own "consciousness", at least it knew how to use the rules to reassure the Five Continents Council. The difference in the numbers in this report was 0.4%, but the real [Deep Sea] shouldn't have even a one in a million error.

It knows everything!

What's more, it knows that this report...is meant for the upper echelons of the Five Continents!

"Mr. Adam, actually, aside from these data, what I find interesting is...your wording just now."

Gu Shen looked at the man in front of him.

"You just said 'Lion's Roar'."

Lion's Roar is a technology from East Continent. This act originated from Lu Cheng's research.

Old Lu is dead.

The Lion's Roar technology was taken away by Qin Ye.

When it arrived at the Tower of Origin, this technology was restarted, but after so many years of secret research...its name was no longer Lion's Roar. The scholars in Middle Continent plainly called it "Transcendent Awakening Technology".

It was really strange for a Middle Continent person to call it "Lion's Roar".

"Oh? Is there anything wrong with calling it 'Lion's Roar'?"

Adam said, "This was originally developed by East Continent, and the original name was 'Lion's Roar'...It's just a pity that after studying 80% of it, the creator died, so there was the dog-tailing by the Middle Continent Academy."

The entire laboratory was full of transcendent scholars from the Middle Continent Academy.

As soon as this was said.

The atmosphere in the entire laboratory was very strange...but everyone was already used to Adam's style, and after a little embarrassment on their faces, they pretended that nothing had happened.

"My understanding of 'Lion's Roar Technology' is limited, so I can't help much."

Adam smiled regretfully and said, "But what I know is that if the talented creator was still alive, the link success rate of transcendent awakening would have been improved, and there shouldn't be that so-called 0.5%, perhaps not even 0.1%."

"Everyone can be successfully awakened by [Deep Sea]!"