Seven years after Liu Shu began conquering the <Origin Water Continent>, previously the <Abyssal Void Nexus Continent>, her roots finally covered the entire place. All land was covered in her roots, and the landscape had changed enough to be unrecognizable compared to before.

During the last year of her conquest, Liu Shu had been constantly summoning her purifying aurora, raining all around the continent for a straight year. Thanks to that and her many benefits and buffs towards flora and fauna, the previously barren lands sprouted life like no other.

Another benefit was that small Life Trees and World Trees began to grow on the large landmass—a total of 6 World Trees and 17 Life Trees.

Looking at the continent, Liu Shu was silent for a few moments. It felt… too sudden.

"This was… too easy."

After defeating Noxilva, there was no resistance. It felt as if all the high-level people of the continent had disappeared like a puff of smoke on a windy day.

The <Fourth Energy Cycles> that fought her numbered 13. Only thirteen. Of course, she fought and easily killed all 13 of them. Nevertheless, from what Skyflower told her before she started her fight against the Abyssal Void Nexus, there should have been over 200 powerhouses ready to fight her.

'Are they planning an ambush? Have they gone into hiding? Have they fled?'

Escaping her sight should've been impossible since, before starting her attack, Liu Shu made sure to surround the entire continent with her roots. Unless these people were flying at over 20,000 meters in height, Liu Shu would be able to sense their departure from the continent easily.

During these seven years, many people attempted to escape through land and sea, but, of course, none managed to succeed. The strongest among the groups that tried to escape was a group of 10,000 people led by 2,000 <Third Energy Cycles> and 3 <Fourth Energy Cycles>.

Of course, the result was as anticipated; all of them fell under Liu Shu's absolute strength, leaving absolutely no survivors.

A trace of doubt and unease clung to Liu Shu's heart. 'Annoying. This feeling of being unable to scratch that hidden itch because it is out of your reach… It's very annoying, ugh.'

After thinking for a while, Liu Shu decided to communicate with Skyflower.

During the last seven years, Liu Shu made sure to speak with all four <Fourth Energy Cycle> World Trees that had yet to fall under her domain. It's not that they were reluctant, but that they wanted Liu Shu to first prove herself. Therefore, they all came up with the same condition: The day Liu Shu conquered and defeated the Abyssal Void Nexus, they would accept Liu Shu's roots in their territories.

"Um… Big Sister Skyflower. There is something… odd."

"Odd?" The airy but gentle voice of the World Tree sounded confused, not understanding what Liu Shu was referring to. "What is odd, Little Liu Shu?"

Interacting with Liu Shu gave the four World Trees an idea of her personality. She was someone gentle and accepting, but simultaneously decisive and ruthless against those who went against her fundamental beliefs.

For World Trees and other similar societies, Liu Shu would always try to communicate and convince them first. She would spare no effort, even delaying her objectives for a while to show the other side her intentions. Warlya's case was such for different reasons.

Therefore, they all became close to Liu Shu and acted like her seniors. After all, her victory was almost guaranteed, so they could start developing their relationship early.

"Yeah. I've conquered the entire continent, and I can check that there are no intelligent species that have survived. However, I have not fought any large armies. The biggest one I fought was around 4,000 <Third Energy Cycles> and 7 <Fourth Energy Cycles>. No matter how I think about it, that army was too weak to be the strongest trump card of the Nexus, no?"

Skyflower was silent for a bit. 'In the end, they decided to give up completely. I guess that was their only choice. After all, even if they send all their top powers, they can at most defend one Corrupted World Tree city.'

After recalling the information about the Abyssal Void Nexus, Skyflower concluded, "They left."

"Huh?" Liu Shu was confused. "Where to? I've surrounded the entire continent. They can't escape."

Skyflower chuckled. "They escaped upwards beyond the sky. It seems that whatever feats of strength you showed scared them all off. As <Fourth Energy Cycles>, they are people whose lifespan is already quite high. So, fighting you to the death is not something that they want."

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Liu Shu became silent. "...They gave up?"

"Yes," Skyflower answered softly. She could hear the incredulity in Liu Shu's words, but Skyflower was quite sure that the other side escaped in their spatial ships. From her knowledge, the spatial ships were large enough to gather over 100,000 people. This number was more than enough for all relatives and important people to mount and leave.

"But…" Liu Shu felt lost. "That doesn't make sense… No? What about the <Fourth Energy Cycles> I've faced? Why didn't they leave, too?"

"They are probably natives with strong convictions. Weren't they speaking strange words while fighting you? They probably declared their loyalty and other precious values while fighting you to the death. Or, they were old and had exhausted their talent. Either way, they were people who decided to fight until the end for what they thought was right."

Liu Shu hummed, her thoughts unknown to Skyflower.

After a while, our World Tree spoke with a sigh. "I see… I guess it makes sense. They are not natives to this world, and they always had the option to just… leave. Why would they destroy their future for a lost battle?"

Liu Shu understood, even if she couldn't relate. While the other side had twisted views, in the end, they were other intelligent species. The fact that they wanted to destroy and control nature didn't deprive them of the fact that they were humans, beastkin, and Sylvans.

A sigh that echoed throughout her entire domain escaped Liu Shu. Then, tiredness came to her mind. All the tension that she had accumulated during the last 10 years of war against the Abyssal Void Nexus continent came crashing down.

Even as a World Tree, this war was mentally exhausting and draining. "I want… to sleep."

Skyflower smiled in her heart. She could feel the tiredness on the other side. "Go rest, Little Liu Shu. When you wake up, we will become part of your domain, as promised. Also… Congratulations. You've managed to cleanse evil from the world."

Liu Shu laughed twice. "Well… Nothing like that. The Nexus is gone, but their ideas remain. There will be people who are born in my domain who think that the Nexus was right. For an idea to die… I would need to bury it with the Nexus."

"Why not do it?" Skyflower asked.

"How do I do it?" Liu Shu asked back, smiling wryly. "Everyone knows about them. Do I have to impose a ban on knowledge about the Nexus? I feel that it would be counterproductive. After all, it's not like they are gone. My schools need to teach about the fact that there is still a threat beyond the sky, so that we don't fall behind—" Liu Shu paused before blurting loudly. "HA!?"

"W-What's wrong?" Skyflower stuttered, startled by Liu Shu's scream.

"N-No. Nothing." Liu Shu answered, somewhat flustered. "Either way, Big Sister Skyflower, I'll go rest now. Thank you for listening to my thoughts."

Skyflower didn't pry further and answered back. "Okay, Liu Shu. Go rest."

Liu Shu, meanwhile, was looking ahead with a baffled expression.

[<Destiny Blessing> activates!]

[<Dungeon System> detects an unusual energy.]

[Scanning…]

[<Dungeon System> has detected a suitable <Dungeon> location.]

[Do you want to create a <Dungeon> in the middle of the <Origin Water Continent>?]

Liu Shu re-examined the message, thinking she had misread it. However, it was clearly what she understood.

"Um… Tell me more. How big an area are we speaking about?"

[The <Dungeon> would be an <Open Dungeon> style. <Dungeon System> has noticed a large source of corrupted energy in the middle of the continent. Would you like to absorb it and transform it?]

Liu Shu quickly shifted her gaze towards the middle of the continent. She was quite tired, so she was not really paying much attention besides her detection of living intelligent creatures.

Once she focused, she finally saw a hidden Runic Field right in the middle. "What are you hiding here…?"

Her affinity and ability to manipulate runes were only second to Mariane's. Even compared with the super rune genius mothkin, Liu Shu surpassed her in terms of speed and quantity thanks to her ridiculous processing speed.

So, while examining the runic field, she quickly devised a solution to pierce through it and see behind whatever it was hiding.

It took around two days before her gaze finally pierced through, and the interior was revealed. When she saw what was hidden, her core thumped. "I almost messed it up right at the very end!"

What Liu Shu was currently looking at was revealed in front of her.

<Corruption Engine (A+ Tier)>: A corruption engine that will affect its surroundings every fifty years, creating corruption events in an area of 1,000,000 square kilometers. All creatures within the terrain will be corrupted. (Cooldown remaining [year/month/hour/minute/second]):

31: 07: 17: 54: 60

31: 07: 17: 54: 59

31: 07: 17: 54: 58

Liu Shu was slightly scared. This kind of artifact was powerful and something she didn't dare mess with. Even with her current strength, once it was activated, it would be quite catastrophic.

"Thankfully, my <Dungeon System> detected it."

Now she needed to think about what to do with it. Her first option was to create the <Dungeon>. If she did so, the large-scale super dungeon would become the center of the <Origin Water Continent>. The surroundings would also be affected, probably becoming a dangerous continent.

The other option was to destroy the thing and repopulate the continent. Being one of the largest continents, the number of people it could hold was not a joke.

Nevertheless, Liu Shu eventually shook her head. "A world is hard to develop because Experience Points are limited. While my current <Dungeons> and the ones in the other continents are nice, there is nothing that [Everyone] can use. If I transform the <Origin Water Continent> into the new <Wild Continent>, that would give all creatures in the world a place to hunt and increase their strength."

Liu Shu's eyes were determined as she nodded. "Let's do that. <Dungeon System>, take over the <Corruption Engine>."

[Taking over.]

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