48: Chapter 48: The Creator Cannot Be Refused, Forcefully Suppressing the Demon Tree's Functions!

Lin Yuan flipped his right hand.

A stone stele, gray-white throughout and covered in cracks and ancient array patterns, appeared in his palm.

He threw it casually.

The ten-meter-tall [star spirit gene monolith] crashed onto the open ground in the very center of the Blood Abyss Sea.

As the monolith landed, it was devoid of life, resembling a massive tombstone.

Lin Yuan turned his head, his gaze locking onto the sky-shading [Liquid Metal Blood-Devouring Demon Tree] not far away.

"Connect to it," Lin Yuan issued a divine decree.

The Demon Tree's massive trunk shuddered.

Tens of thousands of liquid metal roots rooted in the Blood Abyss Sea stopped writhing.

The leaves rustled with a sound of resistance.

As the hegemon within the Wasteland Divine Domain, the Demon Tree possessed an instinct to seek advantages and avoid harm.

It greedily devoured geothermal fire poison and Blood Abyss Sea energy to nurture the high-energy meat cocoons on its branches.

Now, being asked to divert pure bio-electrical energy to a broken rock, it instinctively felt repulsion.

Several thick roots even shrank backward.

"Are you refusing me?"

Lin Yuan hovered in mid-air, his tone devoid of any fluctuation.

The next second, the laws of the entire Wasteland Divine Domain descended.

Lin Yuan's eyes lit up with blinding dark golden divine radiance.

The supreme, cold, and unyielding will of a deity transformed into tangible pressure, slamming down onto the Demon Tree's main trunk.

"Crack!"

The space around the Demon Tree shattered inch by inch.

The seawater of the Blood Abyss Sea abruptly stopped churning, forcibly flattened.

The radiation storm raging in the sky was brought to a dead halt.

The Creator's will was unquestionable.

The Demon Tree emitted a painful hum, its canopy trembling violently as if pleading.

It finally reined in its trace of greedy instinct.

Thousands of thick liquid metal roots broke through the soil from underground and rapidly wrapped around the monolith's base.

The ends of the roots transformed into probes, piercing into the dry energy circuits of the monolith.

"Boom!"

A massive amount of bio-electrical energy flowed along the Demon Tree's roots, pouring into the star spirit gene monolith.

On the surface of the previously dead gray-white stele, ancient and complex star spirit array patterns lit up layer by layer.

A deep blue light dispelled the surrounding blood-colored mist.

At the top of the monolith, a diamond-shaped energy crystal re-condensed, releasing visible ripples of a gene-guiding force field.

The monolith was activated.

Lin Yuan dispersed the pressure.

He raised his hand and directly pressed the two blueprints gifted by Commander Xiao Lie—the [Titan Behemoth Gene Blueprint] and the [Void Shadow Lurker Gene Blueprint]—into the crystal at the top of the monolith.

"Hum—!"

The deep blue light split into two.

On the left side of the stele, a dark golden mountain phantom emerged.

It was heavy, violent, and filled with a sense of absolute power.

This was the "Titan" path for physical defense.

The right side of the stele was shrouded in a layer of deep black shadow.

It was void-like, eerie, and seemed capable of devouring all light.

This was the "Shadow Lurker" path for assassination and stealth.

The gene-guiding force field took shape, covering the entire Tyrant Demon territory.

All Tyrant Demons that felt this fluctuation stopped fighting.

They raised their heads, their eyes revealing a yearning fanaticism.

The evolutionary instinct carved into their genes drove them to approach the monolith.

Lin Yuan looked down from above, his voice echoing in the mind of every member of his kin.

"My kin."

"Those who touch the monolith shall receive the supreme method of evolution!"

"Follow your hearts and choose your path!"

The divine decree descended.

A Tyrant standing six meters tall charged out from the depths of the gladiatorial cage.

The dozen or so Tyrant Demons blocking its charge path had their bones shattered by a single kick and were sent flying.

The Tyrant rushed to the front of the monolith, occupying the best position with the most core and concentrated energy.

It pressed its metal arms against the dark golden glowing "Titan" side of the stele.

With the king's demonstration, the army of fifty thousand Tyrant Demons went completely wild, rushing toward the monolith.

The differentiation had begun.

Tyrant Demons that were already large and preferred head-on combat threw themselves toward the "Titan" path on the left.

Bathing in the dark golden light, their bodies expanded, and the liquid metal on their skin condensed into thicker, more exaggerated tower shield shapes.

Others, relatively smaller in size and more reliant on speed and technique in combat, moved toward the "Shadow Lurker" path on the right.

When they touched the shadow-covered stele, their forms did not expand; instead, they began to elongate and thin out.

The black metal on their skin gradually lost its luster, turning into a matte material capable of absorbing light.

Their presence gradually blended into the surrounding blood-colored mist; if one didn't look carefully, it would be impossible to discover their existence.

Extreme heavy-armored warriors and extreme faceless assassins.

Lin Yuan hovered high in the sky, looking at the two distinct evolutionary chains below, a corner of his mouth curling upward.

The resources had been invested, and the direction had been set.

All that remained was to let these monsters fill these two genetic chains through endless slaughter.

"The mid-term exam..." Lin Yuan whispered to himself.

After confirming that the monolith was operating stably, his consciousness returned to reality.

Lin Yuan rubbed his brow.

Just as he was about to pour a glass of water, the personal terminal on the table began to vibrate.

The indicator light in the top right corner lit up with a blinding red glow.

Lin Yuan opened the screen.

That virtual chat group—[Star Ring Truth Salon].

The entire public screen had been spammed, all with messages from one person.

[Provincial City Xiao Family - Xiao Ting]: @ Jiang City - Commoner Sequence - Lin Yuan.

Where are you? Took two hundred million in resources from the military district and now playing dead, right?

[Provincial City Xiao Family - Xiao Ting]: @ Jiang City - Commoner Sequence - Lin Yuan.

Speak up! The big exam is coming soon. What's wrong, shrinking in your trash heap and too afraid to show your face?

Xiao Ting not only frantically @-ed Lin Yuan but also threw a screenshot directly into the group.

It was the rankings for the province's senior year elites—[provincial rising star rankings].

On the rankings, various gold-stamped names were listed.

Xiao Ting's name was prominently ranked in the top 100, followed by a long string of dazzling battle records and Divine Domain resource assessments.

Xiao Ting continued to output in the group.

[Provincial City Xiao Family - Xiao Ting]: Open your dog eyes and look clearly; this is the true tier of strength.

[Provincial City Xiao Family - Xiao Ting]: I scrolled through two thousand names and didn't even see yours.

A piece of trash who relied on loopholes in the actual-combat assessment mechanism to farm points with low-level cannon fodder, you deserve an S-rank spot?

[Provincial City Xiao Family - Xiao Ting]: When the provincial mid-term streaming exam collision happens, I will let you understand how deep the chasm is between commoners and noble families.

Everyone else in the group was lurking and watching the show; Murong Bai, Chu Yunxuan, and others occasionally posted emojis of watching the fun.

No one spoke up to interrupt Xiao Ting's performance.

Su Yueying did not speak again either, seemingly waiting for Lin Yuan's reaction.

Lin Yuan sat in his chair, only thinking that this person had a mental illness.

A greenhouse flower who valued vanity and relied on family background to brush up his sense of presence seemed quite childish in Lin Yuan's eyes.

Lin Yuan swiped his finger, setting the group chat to "Deep Do Not Disturb" mode.

Xiao Ting's frantic barking was blocked.

However, that "provincial rising star rankings" in Xiao Ting's screenshot did pique a bit of Lin Yuan's interest.

He opened the military intranet and entered the search term.

Soon, he understood the origin of this thing.

It was a virtual platform based on the military and all federal colleges: [starry sky war chess].

Lin Yuan clicked on the section introduction.

The interface dimmed, and lines of text burning with the flames of war emerged.

[starry sky war chess: Jointly created by the Federal Supreme Military Academy and the mainframes of major star sectors.]

[100% full-truth law simulation. Contains data on millions of Abyssal Monsters and deity troop types in the star sea.]

[Here, there is no loss of life in Divine Kingdom wars. You can deduce military strategy in extreme desperation; this is the highest holy land for all federal deities to hone their killing arts.]

"No loss of life? Full-truth simulation?" Lin Yuan muttered.

He slid his finger and clicked on the overall leaderboard of the "starry sky war chess."

Unlike the "rising star rankings" that Xiao Ting posted earlier, which only targeted high school students, this was the overall leaderboard open to the entire federation.

As soon as he opened it, a sense of oppression rushed at him through the screen.

None of the names ranked at the top of the list were nobodies.

[Top 1: Tianhai Province Governor - Lei Zhentian.]

[Top 4: Spark Legion Vice Legion Commander - Pojun.]

[Top 12: Honorary Dean of the War Department at the Federal First Academy - Gu Cang.]