Chapter 163: The Blemish of the Monster

What the hell... What is going on?!
Where are those plant-like lifeform saplings that I painstakingly brought back from the misty space? They are all gone.
In order to evolve into a Tier 7 fierce beast as quickly as possible, Lu Chen’s attention during this period had been primarily focused on devouring spirit stones.
Coupled with distributing spirit stones to his saltwater crocodile subjects and patrolling his territory, he simply hadn't paid any attention to the situation inside his internal space.
It wasn't until today, when he had some spare time, that Lu Chen suddenly remembered those plant-like lifeforms.
As a result, when he searched the entire internal space with his consciousness, apart from A-Mu, not a single one of the others was to be found.
A-Mu was the first demon-devouring tree sapling that Lu Chen had planted.
After all, since this fellow had already acknowledged him as its master, it deserved to have a name to facilitate their future communication.
It was just that he had always been terrible at naming things, and this name was as awful as ever.
Did those plant-like lifeforms fail to adapt to the environment of the internal space and thus rot and wither away? That shouldn't be the case.
Lu Chen remembered that he had transplanted quite a few demon-devouring tree saplings back then.
Since A-Mu could survive, it stood to reason that the other saplings could as well.
In addition, the internal space was controlled by his own consciousness, making it impossible for any other creatures to enter.
Ruling out all impossibilities, there was only one truth!
In the end... Lu Chen cast a suspicious gaze toward A-Mu.
Nine times out of ten, this fellow was the culprit.
After a careful search, he indeed found numerous withered branches beside the tree roots, which had completely lost all vitality.
It seemed he had underestimated A-Mu; this fellow possessed an extremely strong sense of territoriality and must have wanted to monopolize the internal space entirely.
No wonder no other plants were to be seen around the demon-devouring tree in the misty space. Lu Chen had been somewhat puzzled at the time, but as it turned out, they had all been strangled and devoured by it.
Regarding this, Lu Chen felt quite helpless. His original plan to cultivate plant-like lifeforms on a large scale within the internal space had to be temporarily shelved.
As he was pondering this, he suddenly saw Little Spot flying close while squeaking.
Wasn't this fellow hanging out in the Blue Star world? Why had it suddenly returned?
Ever since Lu Chen brought those new communication devices back into the space, these fellows had been more excited than if they had received spirit stones.
One by one, they had transformed into deep Internet addicts, running outside the spatial rift whenever they had free time to go online on Blue Star, watching videos and binge-watching TV shows.
Of course, Big Croc was the exception.
This fellow had recently been busy overseeing the construction of the Crocodile King's Palace, with a mountain of miscellaneous matters every day, leaving no time to go out.
As for Little Spot, Second Croc, and the others fiddling with the communication devices, Lu Chen had always maintained a supportive attitude. He hoped these fellows could constantly broaden their horizons and learn more about the Blue Star world, because after all, dealings with humans would be inevitable in the future.

To Lu Chen's surprise, Little Spot had actually learned the language of the Xia Country through videos, and its Mandarin was even more standard than his own.
Even more absurdly, it had recently found a language tutorial and started learning how to write using its claws.
When Lu Chen saw the crooked handwriting on the sandy ground a few days ago, he couldn't help but exclaim that it was a freak of nature.
However, after calming down, he felt it was acceptable.
After all, many ordinary birds in his past life could learn human language after a period of training.
Of course, these fellows were merely engaging in simple mimicry and didn't truly understand the meaning conveyed by the words.
Little Spot was different; it possessed a very high intelligence to begin with. Although no formal tests had been conducted, Lu Chen estimated that this fellow's intelligence was now no different from that of an ordinary human.
Therefore, learning the Xia Country language was entirely normal.
"Dragon King, there are humans looking for you outside..." Little Spot rushed to his front and said.
"Looking for me?"
A trace of doubt surfaced in Lu Chen's reptilian pupils, and he silently guessed to himself: Could the Xia Country be suffering an invasion by Kaiju beasts once more?
He hurriedly summoned his flying boat and flew toward the spatial rift.
Upon entering the Blue Star world, he discovered that they were not people from the Xia Country, but rather a few blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners.
"Respected Dragon King, we are humans from the Northern Snowfield Country..."
Lu Chen had never expected that the visitors from the Merigan Country a few days ago were just the beginning. Now, representatives from the Northern Snowfield Country had appeared as well.
The other party similarly presented spirit stones as a greeting gift, and the conditions they proposed were similar to those of the Merigan people, wishing to establish a close partnership with the Dragon King.
Moreover, they were far more generous in their offerings than the Merigan Country, presenting five Tier 3 spirit stones at once, along with a number of Tier 2 spirit stones—truly a lavish display of wealth.
Just like before, Lu Chen accepted the gifts as they came.
As for the cooperation, he merely stated that he needed to consider it.
For the next period of time, Lu Chen no longer ran around indiscriminately, but instead stayed quietly in the waterfall space, watching the energy points on his system panel continuously increase.
"When the host accumulates 100 million energy points, the next level of evolution will be unlocked. Current completion rate is 82.7%..."
"Current completion rate is 95.3%..."
"99.6%..."
Finally, amidst Lu Chen's anticipation, the familiar text appeared: "The host has accumulated 100 million energy points, and the evolution requirement completion rate is 100%. Do you wish to initiate this evolution?"
"Initiate," Lu Chen answered directly with his consciousness.
He had waited for this day for a very long time.
As for the location of the upgrade, Lu Chen once again chose the waterfall space.

This place was far safer than the Blue Star, guarded by tens of thousands of saltwater crocodile subjects, and no blind fierce beast would dare to come and disturb him.
Therefore, Lu Chen was not worried about his own safety at all.
"Hoo... Hah..."
In the forest near the river, Lu Chen planted his four limbs firmly on the ground, raised his head slightly, and slowly breathed in and out toward the sky.
Blood-red mist once again permeated the scales on his body surface, continuously spreading outward.
Twenty meters, thirty meters... centered around his massive body, it quickly enveloped the space within a radius of fifty meters. Viewed from afar, it resembled a huge blood-red silkworm cocoon, extraordinarily enchanting and terrifying.
Big Croc and the others had witnessed Lu Chen's state during evolution many times, and although their expressions were somewhat solemn at the moment, they were not panicked.
As for the various saltwater crocodile chieftains who had rushed over upon hearing the news, they all prostrated themselves on the ground, not daring to move a muscle.
These fellows had been able to stand out from tens of thousands of their peers, possessing extremely powerful individual strength and usually refusing to submit to one another.
Placed in the Blue Star world, they would basically belong to the existence of beast-king tiers, carrying a certain untamed nature in their bones.
If Lu Chen had not crushed them with sheer strength, it would have been utterly impossible to gather these fellows together.
Even if they were forcibly gathered, life-and-death battles would inevitably break out between them.
At this moment, however, their reptilian pupils were filled with awe, and not a single one of them dared to make the slightest unauthorized movement.
Because the chieftains could clearly sense that the Dragon King's aura was growing increasingly powerful and mysterious, causing their very souls to tremble and involuntarily compelling them to kneel in submission.
The duration of this evolution was far longer than imagined.
One day, two days... in the blink of an eye, five days passed.
Of course, enveloped within the blood-red mist, Lu Chen had lost track of time.
His attention was entirely captivated by the changes within his body. The laws of energy constantly surged and darted through his limbs and bones. Every single cell of his body, every blood vessel, every tendon and bone, and even... his consciousness was being tempered.
From the inside out, from the physical to the intangible, a transformative change akin to shedding one's mortal body and exchanging one's bones was taking place.
As the entire tempering process drew near its end, a shadowy phantom slowly materialized within the blood-red mist.
Colossal,
Primal,
Mysterious...
It hovered motionlessly in the void above the blood cocoon, resembling a sculpture condensed from the air.