Planet Master

177- Landing on Rodentia (2)

After the discussion, Long Wu found out that the item in question was currently digesting the ‘food’ it had consumed.But it would not be long before it began hunting for more sustenance.

“We need to prune it down for sure.” Long Wu was calm and collected. To him, this was another task to be completed.

“Then we will support you. Although you are no longer the strongest transcendent, that does not mean you are weak. Please make this thing rest.” The guy said with a slight melancholy in his tone.

Long Wu nodded. Because he could feel that at the center of this facility, the Crimson Black Iron Tree resided, waiting for him to go there.

-

“Three, two, one, go!” With the leader of the remaining landing Marines ready, they were paving the way down with their action.

They breached a door using the latest door-breaching equipment. Long Wu was right in the middle of the group, sensing that the Crimson Black Iron Tree was almost devouring the nutrients it needed.

According to the record, it was something that enveloped one of the now barren planets. Long Wu knew that this was another kind of Planet Behemoth and decided to bring it to the scientist at home to be analyzed.

For that, he was prepared and got a device that could extract part of the substance. Long Wu was confident that with enough samples, even this Planet Behemoth would be subdued and even eliminated.

Then, all of a sudden, the substance formed numerous tentacle-like forms and attacked them. Long Wu summoned some of his undead servants to handle it, while he himself had to rotate from the vanguard to the rear, patrolling, since the substance had covered almost everything in the deeper part of the facility.

When Long Wu’s dagger was slashing at one of the tentacles, it produced a spark, which meant that the substance was hard.

‘Using only physical attack seems more difficult than using the transcendent energy.’ Long Wu just did it as a test and found out that to be the case.

It meant he would be the key player in this operation. The Marines then shot at the incoming tentacles while moving deeper and deeper into the facility. They did not miss the sign that Long Wu had shown and imbued their bullets with the transcendent energy they had.

The characteristics of the transcendent energy could be manipulated at will by the transcendent, whether to recover or to harm.

The shot the Marines did at least could repel the substance from harming them. With the addition of Long Wu, their safety was temporarily guaranteed.

When they breached the final door leading to the center of the facility, the substance was overwhelming. Fortunately, Long Wu used the undead element to make the substance wither and produced quite a lot of undead element.

“Be prepared. The main body of the Crimson Black Iron Tree is in front of us.” Long Wu said as he and the Marines looked at the large opening in front of them.

The opening formed a dome which letting the sunlight come from above despite being underground. In front of them, a large tree-like form was standing there. Its branches covered the above dome while its roots were entrenched in the center of the facility, growing so far to the outer part of the facility.

“Sir, what should we do?” since thy came closer to the source of the substance, the resistance the Marines felt was increasing, but still manageable due to Long Wu’s undead servant.

Long Wu heard that and narrowed his eyes as he carefully scanned the Planet Behemoth in front of him.

Then he unleashed his full transcendent energy which was fully controlled and directed it toward the Planet Behemoth in front of him.

“Stay in your position. This battle is mine to do.” Long Wu said as he willed the undead servant to form an outer defense position based on the Marines' position.

Long Wu even went so far as to open one gate so that his transcendent energy could invade, corrode and assimilate the Crimson Black Iron Tree in front of him.

But of course, since Long Wu became the biggest threat the tree perceived, most of the attack went to Long Wu’s position. But the black vortex of undead element covering him caused the substances to wither and was assimilated to become more undead element, which Long Wu absorbed.

‘This is too slow.’ Long Wu thought about the entire process and felt that it was too slow. The tree was big enough, and he began to delve deeper into its structure.

There, he found a faint yet vibrant pulse.

‘So even this tree-like thing has a core.’ Long Wu knew that the core was heavily protected, but he needed to refine it to make the tree-like being stop attacking and even become one of them.

But the relentless assault from the roots and the branches, which made the leaves into projectiles, caused Long Wu’s advance to slow down as he needed to block the projectiles' attack.

With his dagger and his experience honed on the battlefield, Long Wu could deflect all the attacks while even assimilating things around him without reservation since he was all alone in his current position.

One step closer to the core, the attack became more frantic. Long Wu’s lips turned upward as he could feel that the tree-like being was threatened and did an all-out assault. Long Wu’s energy consumption was less than the energy he gained by assimilating the substance.

“Come on. You know that is futile.” The area around Long Wu turned into a death zone where things were changed into the undead element. Even after the all-out assault, Long Wu kept his focus on the unexpected attack that wanted to surround and entwine him.

Of course, such attacks were futile in front of the strong undead element, only to become its nourishment. Although not everyone could do it as fast and efficiently as Long Wu.

Then Long Wu spun the vortex faster and faster; he could not wait to weaken the tree-like existence as well as strengthen himself. This was the most common tactic for the bearer of the undead element like him.

“Hold on to your position. Let Sir Long Wu handle the rest!” the Marine leader said with a steadfast and loud tone.

Gunshots could be heard throughout the center of the facility as Long Wu finally got to the very center of the Crimson Black Iron Tree.

The structure was familiar, as if the tree-like existence truly copied the structure of a tree to a tee.

“It reminds me of the Sacred Tree of the Elves.” Long Wu murmured as he went by, using his movement technique.

He quickly went to the trunk of the tree, finding the core of the substance. When he arrived, he could see that the core was actually producing the substance. The spherical red-black core was churning the substance out and then formed it in the shape it recognized the most.

‘Why is it forming a tree-like form? Does it only know this form the most and nothing else?’ Long Wu pondered this question as he got near the core.

The core felt as if the sanctuary had been breached, and the substance was all coming together to form something. It looked like a familiar form that Long Wu recognized.

“Hmm, a Treant?” Long Wu tilted his head but then accepted the fact.

Long Wu had a certain thought when he saw the form that the substance had taken. It looked like it was modeled after a Sacred Tree but this defense mechanism proved its theory.

The Crimson Black Iron Treants formed a defensive formation around the core. Long Wu then slashed using his dagger, forming a ranged slash attack using the undead element. This was the strongest attack possible for him.

The Treants were bisected and the undead element gnawed at the bisected part, slowly assimilating it. Long Wu also noticed that the core had almost no defense against the undead element.

But strangely, despite the Treants around the core had been injured, the core itself was intact. It was as if the attack had no effect on the core.

Long Wu used the gap when the Treants were cut off to get closer to the core. He then placed his hand on the core, the hand which was already covered in undead element.

A hissing noise could be heard as Long Wu’s hand touched the core.

‘Refining the core is the objective here. Let’s see, using the transcendent energy to guide the circulation. Then use it as a skeletal form before the final act of fully refining the object.’ Long Wu was slowly but surely refining the core.

He not only refined it but also slowly learned what had happened to it to become the form it had now. Long Wu was surprised that this core had once invaded the Elven planet and successfully eliminated the nascent civilization, ending it.

That was why its current form was that of a tree.

Long Wu also discovered that the enemy civilization had engaged with at least one Star Battle of this magnitude. He frowned at that since it meant that the enemy had the advantage but became confident soon since even they had been repelled to their own territory.

‘We are developing in the right direction. Not wasting with unnecessary things is the greatest blessing that our civilization has. Looks like even our transcendent path is unique.’ Long Wu thought.

As far as he had experienced, his civilization had the advantage both in technology and the transcendent path. That was why they could crush the opponent’s civilization despite them gaining an advantage in experience.

Then he refined the Crimson Black Iron Tree’s core further and met fierce resistance.

“Hmm…as expected. There is a remnant of the self in the core.” Long Wu had expected this from the start. The substance was the extension of the core’s will, and it was hostile. That was why it attacked everything.

Even the researchers and scientists in this facility became victims of the core. But Long Wu knew that there was a method to control this core.

“Refining it will turn out to be the same result as controlling the core of this Planet Behemoth. Frankly, this is the first time I have seen living Planet Behemoth up close.” Long Wu nodded, his hands gripping the core as he channeled his transcendent energy into it.

While doing so, the substance slowly ceased its movement and crept to the core as if an obedient child queued up to get their meal.

Long Wu and the others gasped and breathed a sigh of relief at the sight. If it were any later, their ammunition would be exhausted and had to resort to melee combat which made things messier.

“Sir, are you alright there?” the leader shouted while his expression was one of disbelief.

After all, how could the source of this mess be easily tamed like that? But the proof was that the thing on Long Wu’s hands let out the substance which meant that the spherical core was the source.

Then they saw that the substance which formed a giant tree slowly turned into dust. Slowly from the outermost to the innermost part.

Long Wu felt the core react to his will after being refined. He willed for the core to retract all of its parts outside, condensing it into the spherical core. After the core did that which took some time, the center of the facility became clearer and cleaned from the previous state where there were lots of roots and branches.

“Looks like some spatial tearing attributes are available for this core to be used.” Long Wu knew all about the core after the first successful refining. This Planet Behemoth was still young, but it had already space manipulation as its ability.

But too bad it encountered someone like Long Wu who could turn it into nutrients. Even if it let out its full strength, all seemed futile since the transcendent energy from the people that attacked her seemed to be able to pierce its spatial barrier.

“The attribute is being suppressed by our transcendent energy alone so it does not show but the application of that creates the space cage.” Long Wu murmured.

He had found some inspiration as to how the space attribute worked and tried to apply that to himself. Then the space of his inner world expanded by twenty percent. The digested undead element could now be stored there and did not make him overconsume.

He also had retracted the undead servant to his side.

“This is good news. With this, I can explore the intricacies of the higher realm. Perhaps this is the key to becoming a stronger transcendent.” Long Wu nodded to himself after getting stronger.

Then he felt the core in his hands. It felt like the core was actually quite a foodie if Long Wu had to put it. But it disliked the undead element for obvious reasons.

‘I will store you in the spatial storage. You are in the core form and won’t wake up, right? Do you think you can withstand the environment inside?’ Long Wu sent his will to the refined core.

The core let out a crimson light for a bit before dimming and returned to normal, with a mixed crimson and iron black color.

“Understood.” Long Wu then stored the core in his spatial storage.

Long Wu also understood that the spatial storage was one of the applications of the spatial attribute and now he could see the potential it had for combat. Not only as a auxiliary thing but as a potential weapon.

"Come on, everyone. Sweep this place clean. Leave nothing valuable behind. You know the procedure.” Long Wu shouted which awakened the Marines.

The rest shook their heads before they spread around to collect everything of value.

According to the procedure, they needed to collect samples, documents or data stored as they would be valuable.

The process took about two hours before they were done. Long Wu heard from one of them that the facility’s system had failed to function. Even its self-destruct was not activated at all before the Crimson Black Iron Tree rampaged the entire facility.

“Sir, all the valuables have been inspected and carried.” The Marine leader saluted at Long Wu. Long Wu was also doing his job of inspecting things in detail before the Marines could carry it with them.

Long Wu also had his own shares, so everyone could rest easy. Of course, Long Wu had the most valuable thing on him after all.

“Since that is the case, let’s return to the surface. Being in the hollow of the underground is not good since the facility itself malfunctioned.” Long Wu nodded and said.

With him in the lead, he escorted the Marines back to the entrance of the facility. They breathed in the air of Rodentia, which was similar to the air of their home planet.

“We are connected back to the spaceships in orbit.” The Marine leader said as he looked at his communicator.

“We have found something suspected to be a nascent Planet Behemoth.” Long Wu said to the communicator.

“What!? So that thing is Planet Behemoth?” one of the Marines shouted in surprise.

“No wonder it took some of us. Damn it!” another said with a bitter expression.

Even the leader had to agree that the Planet Behemoth was a formidable opponent if not for Long Wu’s assistance.

“Now, now. We are fortunate enough to survive the encounter with the Planet Behemoth. You should be glad instead.” The leader said one positive thing, and the rest chirped in.

“As you know, the nascent Planet Behemoth has the spatial attribute as well as absorption. I want to trade this for some merits from the Federation. Please contact the HQ to process this.” Long Wu said his piece of mind.

“Acknowledged. Transcendent Long Wu requested an exchange for Federation Merit.” An automatic response was received for Long Wu before it connected to someone else.

“Oh, it is you. How’s the frontline going? I can’t believe that you requested a merit exchange. It is said that you want to exchange a Planet Behemoth…right?” a familiar voice could be heard on the communicator.

“Haha, Elder Adrian sure loves his joke. It is true. Although in a nascent form, it is still a Planet Behemoth that has absorbed an entire civilization.” Long Wu said with a relaxed expression.

“So it is true. Those researchers and scientists will be going frenzy if they hear this. But this means that you need to deliver it personally to the scientific spaceship, right? Is the frontline stable yet?” Elder Adrian asked.

“Don’t worry about it. The generation after me is all capable people. I will personally escort this Planet Behemoth while they deal a final blow to the coffin.” Long Wu replied while checking the Marines who remained here for further operation on Rodentia.

“Good. Just deliver it and a billion Federation Merit Points will be yours. Sounds good?”

Long Wu wanted to reply but when he sensed the surroundings, he could sense that the Marines’ attention was on him all along.

“They heard this, you know.” Long Wu opened his mouth and reminded Adrian about this.

“It’s fine, it’s fine. They are together with you, so they just need to sign a confidentiality promise. Other than that, what are your thoughts about the situation at Rodentia?” Adrian asked in curiosity.

Long Wu was then reminded by the incomplete corpse of the Rodents, the skeletal remains of some Lizardfolk and Elves as scientists who died on duty in the facility.

“I can’t say for sure. After all, I am only going to one of their facility and I can say that they made a mistake trying to contain a Planet Behemoth when the situation is ever changing.” Long Wu wanted to say more but held his tongue.

He could only glean at the aftermath and not the entire process of what had happened.

“Okay, your request will be processed by the other Elders. If there is nothing else, I am out.” Adrian then cut off the communication channel.

Long Wu’s eyes glittered as he received the confirmation. But furthermore, he also confirmed that the infection of the Variant Neurax Worm had reached Rodentia.