Just as Antu City was plunged into crisis, another crisis was brewing on a land separated by a vast ocean.
Unlike the mutated plant crisis in Antu City, the crisis engulfing this land was a crisis of public sentiment.
After Guan Tong posted his accusatory message, pressure from foreign nations combined with doubts from the domestic populace of Suroma, creating a continuous stream of chaos.
Some ordinary people living in the New Covenant rushed out of their dwellings, gathering together to protest in front of the parliament building, demanding explanations and severe punishment for the culprits.
Others, after some conflicts, caused injuries and even deaths.
Amidst this situation, within the Hall of Halls, Bruce remained unmoved. He paid no attention to those protesters at all.
His eyes were fixed solely on Han Qiu.
Han Qiu let out a bitter laugh. "The one who died was just a substitute, Iri."
Bruce frowned upon hearing this. "I came here this time to gain His Majesty's approval."
"Are you negotiating with me?"
"Your Majesty misunderstands."
"...?"
Bruce was momentarily speechless.
"Please allow me to marry your daughter, Princess Yishan."
"I fell in love with her at first sight, and during our subsequent time together, I fell even more deeply. Fortunately, Miss Yishan is humble and polite, and did not look down on my lowly origins. She reciprocated my feelings.
It's just that she is hindered by your opposition, Your Majesty, and cannot accept me. I sincerely hope you will acknowledge me and allow us to be together!"
"..."
Even Bruce didn't expect Han Qiu to propose such a "condition."
He looked at Han Qiu's earnest expression and found it hard to believe even half of those words.
Especially since Han Qiu actually said Yishan was humble and polite?
Bruce knew his daughter better than anyone. He knew she was a spoiled, willful brat of the second generation.
With how arrogant she was, forget ordinary people of low birth, she wouldn't even bother to look at most second-generation elites, let alone speak a single word to them.
After entering the Doomsday Rules era, the reason she had once been infatuated with Adam and had her eye on Peter wasn't just because they were handsome.
It was because, though spoiled, she wasn't stupid enough to the extreme. She could still realize that in that era, Ascendants with top-tier strength were the new aristocracy, their value far surpassing all sorts of second-generation elites of the past. And the further time went on, the more this held true.
So her criteria for a partner shifted from someone of matching status and handsome looks to a handsome Ascendant with top-tier strength.
Bruce stared at Han Qiu. The latter was indeed good-looking, but his true strength remained unknown.
Han Qiu had been in Suroma for so long, keeping his abilities and items extremely secretive. Even Suroma's official intelligence department had conducted extensive investigations but learned nothing.
However, the fact that he had managed to escape Beixing and had close dealings with the Fire Thief Cult's Your Holiness indirectly proved he was no ordinary person.
Bruce knew well that since even the intelligence department couldn't uncover Han Qiu's background, Yishan certainly wouldn't know either.
In this situation, Han Qiu had taken advantage of her emotional vulnerability to worm his way in.
As for his purpose...
Bruce didn't immediately refuse.
Though he didn't think highly of Han Qiu, Yishan had been running around in circles under his influence, possibly getting tricked into counting money for him after being sold.
After Han Qiu finished speaking, he looked at Bruce calmly, without any nervousness in proving himself to his beloved's father.
"...If Yishan agrees, I have no objection."
After a moment of silence, Bruce relented.
Even though he knew clearly in his heart that Yishan agreeing required Your Holiness's ability, he could only promise for now.
Once his plan was complete, there would be plenty of time to settle accounts with Han Qiu.
Bruce thought to himself.
"Thank you so much, Your Majesty."
Han Qiu, as if completely unaware of Bruce's true thoughts, gave a grateful smile.
Just then, Bruce's assistant hurried in.
Bruce's eyes narrowed. "What is it?"
"Your Majesty, the surveillance just detected a massive mutated organism heading toward Antu City in Sakura Prayer."
The assistant replied.
"Go."
After the assistant left, Bruce said to Han Qiu, "Your Holiness, I want this person right now."
Han Qiu gave a slight bow, showing humility. "As you wish, my future father-in-law."
......
The roar of helicopter blades was especially harsh. Uenoshi grabbed the rappelling rope and climbed aboard, and Silver Fox immediately handed her a noise-canceling headset.
"Did the Beixing government send you to help?" Uenoshi took the headset and put it on, asking.
"That's right," Silver Fox said. "Satellites spotted a mutated giant dragonblood tree deep in the rainforest. Based on its movement trajectory, it's predicted to attack Antu City today, so we came to help with the defense."
"..."
With Sakura Prayer's current size of two small cities and a population of millions, it was already difficult enough to be self-sufficient in daily necessities and food, let alone support any modern technological development.
Methods like using satellites for reconnaissance were only resources that Beixing, Suroma, and the Xisiya Empire could afford.
Uenoshi glanced inside the helicopter. Besides Silver Fox, there were over a dozen Ascendants in combat gear with military insignias. Two of them she recognized.
They were Bai Xuewu and Yang Ran, who had also been on the last mission together.
"Miss Uenoshi, we meet again, heh."
Yang Ran greeted with a smile, his expression a bit unnatural.
He still had lingering fears about Uenoshi.
Although Uenoshi was no longer the same person after Guan Tong took over, these Ascendants who had once fought alongside him, or gone through battles together, inevitably found her strange.
To most Ascendants, Uenoshi's somewhat eerie vertical pupils, combined with Guan Tong's occasionally flippant behavior in serious moments, instinctively gave them an uneasy feeling.
Especially since Yang Ran and the others had witnessed Uenoshi cracking Guan Tong's golden gourd with a bullet, sending Bai Wu lying drenched in wine all over. Even seeing it as a teammate was chilling.
The helicopter headed toward its destination.
"Because in the Doomsday Rules, a comrade who can guard your back is hard to find."
"I'm just returning a favor. Even if I can't balance the scales completely, I can at least pay back part of it."
"Yeah, what she said. It's a shame you couldn't talk to her, though..."
Bai Xuewu glared at him.
Uenoshi, on the other hand, simply observed the surroundings.
With Yang Ran and the others' strength, having them here meant there was no need for her to worry.
Just then, the helicopter had flown over the buildings, and the scene ahead abruptly appeared before everyone's eyes.
A giant tree towered over a hundred meters high. Its enormous crown blotted out the sky and covered the sun, casting a shadow over several long streets in the vicinity, turning the streets into something akin to an eerie twilight.
But even more terrifying were the thick, long, dark brown vines growing from its crown branches, trunk crevices, and even the root tips that had burst through the ground!
These vines numbered in the thousands, writhing around the tree like countless stirring tentacles. Upon closer inspection, some of them were wrapped around the corpses of Sakura Prayer citizens.
The group on the helicopter witnessed with their own eyes dozens, if not hundreds, of Sakura Prayer corpses being rolled up by vines into the top of the crown. Then the vines retracted, the corpses gone, with only a layer of red flowing down the trunk...
"My God..."
The helicopter pilot was so terrified by the sight that his controls became unsteady, causing the helicopter to wobble. He didn't dare get any closer.
Everyone else was also dumbfounded. They hadn't expected the dragonblood tree to have mutated to this extent.
It could be said that among all the mutated plants that had appeared under this rule—including the mutated spreading flower buds that led to the collapse of the Hanlis Nation, the thorny ground vines lurking kilometers underground, the ferns and moss covering every pathway, the mycelium and lichens blanketing the ground...
All of them combined didn't hold a candle to the sheer shock this mutated dragonblood tree delivered!
"H-how did this monster walk all the way out of the rainforest?" Yang Ran looked at the long, deep trench on the road behind the mutated dragonblood tree, finding it unbelievable.
Such a behemoth had managed to move through the soil using its roots, crossing the rainforest to reach the city.
Calling it a tree was an understatement; it was more like a giant ship sailing through the earth!
"Look closely. It first absorbs human blood, then tosses the blood-drained corpses into the crown for complete digestion. It's rapidly growing stronger by absorbing massive amounts of human energy," Silver Fox said, the first to calm down and observe carefully.
"We have to stop it now. Otherwise, once it gets the 'supply' from the entire city, it'll only become more terrifying. At that point, the neighboring Banzhen City will be destroyed too!"