Could they really act as if nothing had happened?

On the surface, everything was calm, but they knew a violent undercurrent was building beneath the water.

While it was calm, they could pretend nothing was wrong, but once swept into the undercurrent, there would be no escape.

But what could they do?

They couldn’t seek help from the Sovereign Country, nor did they have the power to do anything themselves.

Were they supposed to flee Lin Hua Continent and survive in the wilderness? 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Leaving human society to survive in the wilderness was definitely unrealistic, unless they went to another human settlement.

There were a total of three major human settlements on Blue Star, but they were separated by vast distances, and the paths between them were filled with high-level mutated beasts, making the journey incredibly dangerous.

Even a Saint-level supreme being wouldn’t dare claim they could travel freely between the three settlements.

It seemed the only thing they could do now was deceive themselves by praying that there was nothing wrong with the Bloodline Crystals, or that the so-called purple-skinned people and other alien life forms held no malice toward the humans of Blue Star.

Su Ze paced back and forth in front of Liou Wenxin, his mind racing as he considered what he could do.

Caught in this torrent, Su Ze didn’t believe he could remain unaffected.

If for no one else, he had to do his best to prepare for his own sake.

’My strength is insufficient right now. I can’t do anything on my own. I have to ask others for help, but who can help me?’

Su Ze thought for a long time before two candidates appeared in his mind: the Oasis Mother Tree and Chen Suifeng!

He wasn’t expecting them to solve his problems, but it would be good if they could help him gather even a little more information. Sometimes, a key piece of information could be life-saving.

If he could uncover the aliens’ plans in advance, he would be able to formulate the most appropriate response.

It was known that the Divine Dice were created by alien life. Since the purple-skinned people were aliens and the crystal people were also aliens, Su Ze made a bold guess: in the vast starry sky, there had to be more than just these two races. There must be countless life forms.

And as far as Su Ze knew, the Oasis Mother Tree was also very likely from the stars.

The Oasis Mother Tree had once claimed to be part of a strange object, but even a part of a Tier 6 strange object couldn’t possess such immense power—unless it was a Divine-grade strange object!

And since no Divine-grade life had yet been born on Blue Star, it followed that no Divine-grade strange objects existed there either.

Therefore, the Oasis Mother Tree could only have come from the stars.

A Mother Tree from the stars was bound to know many things about the cosmos. Perhaps it had heard of the purple-skinned people, or perhaps it knew the true purpose of the Divine Dice trials...

As for Chen Suifeng, Su Ze had just seen his name on that list. However, he had only participated in the Divine Dice trials and was not one of the final victors; he left the Dice after the fifth round.

This meant he hadn’t obtained a Bloodline Crystal, which made him relatively trustworthy.

Besides, Su Ze had spoken with Chen Suifeng before and had a good impression of the excessively handsome old man.

More importantly, Chen Suifeng was powerful and held a high position. If he could get his help, investigating and understanding many matters would become much easier.

The biggest concern, however, was that he had only met Chen Suifeng once. He didn’t know him well enough, and directly asking for help on such an important and sensitive matter was a bit risky.

’I’ll talk to the Mother Tree first.’ Su Ze made his decision and immediately contacted Ju Han, the president of the Oasis Commerce Association.

Su Ze briefly told Ju Han that he wanted to learn more about the Divine Dice and asked her to relay the message to the Mother Tree, without going into too much detail.

Before long, Ju Han replied with a message: "The Mother Tree says you should come see her after you complete your fourth evolution. She said that telling you certain things too early will only cause you unnecessary worry. You shouldn’t overthink anything; just focus on raising your evolution level."

The Mother Tree was unwilling to say anything, and there was nothing Su Ze could do about it. However, he could already glean some things from her reply.

’The Mother Tree clearly knows there’s a problem with the Divine Dice!’

’Do I only get the right to know the truth once I become a Saint-level? Then I have to work harder...’ Originally, after the Divine Dice trials ended, Su Ze’s tense nerves had begun to relax.

But now, all the fog, all the mysteries—the Shepherd King, the aliens, even the sovereign of Lin Hua Country... all of it gave Su Ze a renewed sense of urgency.

Ultimately, strength was the panacea for all problems.

’Saint-level... it’s not that far away.’

Su Ze reined in his thoughts and began to seriously and methodically plan how he would quickly advance to the Saint-level.

He had already absorbed two of the four extracts for the Butterfly Stage: the Liquid Turbellaria Extract and the Purple-skinned Kangaroo Extract.

Thanks to the reward from the Divine Dice, the Purple-skinned Kangaroo Extract was fully digested, and the Liquid Turbellaria Extract was mostly digested.

The Tier 4 S-rank extract was far harder to digest than the Tier 4 C-rank Iron-blooded Honey Badger Extract he had absorbed before. If he pushed himself, combining supplements with rigorous training, he could probably digest the remaining Liquid Turbellaria Extract in about a month.

But after that, he would have to worry about his next extract.

So, to save time, perhaps he should start planning for his next extract now.

First was the choice of extract. This time, he didn’t ask Liou Wenxin; he already had some ideas of his own.

This was mainly due to his newly acquired "Strongest Punch" skill, which made him want to experiment a little.

This skill reminded him of Senior Ye Jin’s "All Dao Return to One," which could fuse the properties of three offensive skills together.

With his current skill combination, although he could scrape together three offensive skills, they weren’t a very good match.

Among all his skills, only "Needle Strike" was a perfect fit for "Strongest Punch," possessing the "Piercing" property, the Plague Poison, and an explosive effect.

The ground-damage bonus and Dizziness effect from "Furious Waves" were also decent, but they weren’t always applicable.

As for "Ant Power" and "Thunder God Body," these two skills could be used directly without being fused. He could activate "Ant Power" and "Thunder God Body" and then use "Strongest Punch," and his fist would still be enhanced by "Ant Power" and deliver an electric shock.

He planned to absorb some skills that had high synergy with "Strongest Punch."

The skills could be slightly weaker in power, as long as they had enough different effects.

Then, when he threw a punch, he could achieve an effect similar to Senior Ye Jin’s "All Dao Return to One" and inflict a whole host of negative statuses on his enemy.

He made this decision mainly because he was already quite versatile. As a melee-type evolver, he had no significant weaknesses, so it was time to focus on drastically boosting his strengths—specifically, his damage output.

Having decided on the type of skill he wanted next, he had to consider how to obtain the extract.

If he tried to buy it directly, he definitely didn’t have enough money.

Saving up money, earning enough Evolutionary Technology Points to hire people from Evolutionary Technology to hunt for him, or accumulating enough contribution points to ask the Guardian Gods of Dongli to act—these were also good options, but they were a bit slow.

Hunting it himself was another option, but Tier 4 S-rank mutated beasts were too strong. Su Ze only had one "free" fighter on his side: Mrs. Yun, who had just entered the Saint-level.

Relying on Mrs. Yun to hunt a Tier 4 S-rank mutated beast alone seemed a bit difficult; it felt like sending his old mother to her death.

If he and Mr. Ya assisted her, it wouldn’t be hopeless, but the risks would still be huge.

There was one other very safe option: Chen Suifeng had once promised to help him hunt once to obtain a necessary extract for his Butterfly Stage.

Su Ze actually wanted to save this opportunity for the fourth extract of his Butterfly Stage, because he planned to absorb a Tier 5 extract, skipping a tier. The difficulty of obtaining a Tier 5 extract was much greater than that of a Tier 4 S-rank one.

’But Chen Suifeng only promised to help me get an extract for my Butterfly Stage. How am I supposed to tell him I plan on absorbing a Tier 5 extract during my Butterfly Stage?’

After thinking it over and over, Su Ze decided to use the opportunity Chen Suifeng had given him.

Chen Suifeng had agreed to help Su Ze hunt once on a single condition: Su Ze had to go with him.

’I have no idea what that handsome old man is up to, insisting on taking me with him. Still, I can use this as an opportunity to sound him out before deciding whether to ask for his help.’

Su Ze wasn’t too worried that Chen Suifeng would harm him. If the man had wanted to harm him, he would have done it already; there was no need for such a roundabout plan.

He didn’t have Chen Suifeng’s contact information, so he took out his phone and contacted Chen Suifeng’s subordinate, Chen Xuejiao, asking her to pass on the message.

Chen Suifeng and Chen Xuejiao both had the surname Chen. ’Could they be related?’ Su Ze had only just noticed this.

Chen Xuejiao quickly replied, telling Su Ze to get ready. Minister Chen Suifeng would contact him within half a month to set out.

With another major matter settled, Su Ze felt much more at ease. He completely calmed his mind, cast aside all distracting thoughts, and focused on increasing his strength.

...

For the next ten-plus days, Su Ze did nothing but focus on digesting the remaining extract in his body.

During this time, he suddenly received a notice that his official rank had been promoted.

He had previously represented Dongli in the six-nation top university exchange tournament, achieving the best results in the history of Dongli University and, more importantly, securing three slots for the Dongli Kingdom in the Divine Dice trials.

He had brought glory to his country and secured benefits for it—both were considered contributions.

Subsequently, he had also performed exceptionally well in the Divine Dice, not only becoming the final victor himself but also protecting his other three teammates, ensuring their successful exit.

These two major contributions raised Su Ze’s official rank from B to A, and his clearance level increased accordingly.

In addition, the Dongli authorities rewarded him with a considerable sum of contribution points—a full five million!

With this, Su Ze now had a total of over seven million contribution points, almost catching up to Liou Wenxin.

「June 5th.」

Su Ze had digested another half of the extract remaining in his body. He estimated he could completely digest the rest in half a month at most.

On that very day, he finally received a notification from Chen Xuejiao, telling him to wait at the university. She said Chen Suifeng would come to pick him up.

’A dignified Saint-level supreme being is coming to pick me up personally? That’s some serious prestige.’

Su Ze considered whether to bring Mr. Ya and Mrs. Yun along. The two of them were willing to go, but he didn’t know if Chen Suifeng would agree.