Deathly silence. A silence deeper than the collapse of the world.

The shockwaves of the Fungus Master's annihilation had long since subsided, leaving behind devastation. The vast remains of the World Tree server, like the gnawed bones of a giant god, cast a twisted, hideous shadow beneath the ruptured hole in the bloody fungus network (the sky system). The ground was covered in a thick layer of ash, a mixture of metallic dust, charred mycelium, and crystallized energy fragments. The air was thick with the stench of burnt ozone, the odor of molten metal, and a lingering, strange smell, akin to the ash and humus left by a completely burned forest after rain. It was the embers of the World Tree's burned roots.

Xu Shuangyao knelt in the cold ashes.

She pressed her forehead against the cold, hard crystal statue before her. The statue retained Pei Du's final, curled-up, side-lying pose, lifelike yet lifeless. The energy crystal, a woven of dark gold and emerald green, shone a hazy glow under the sunlight that broke through the fungus web. The energy flow within was like a frozen galaxy. Her fingertips felt only a biting chill and an indestructible texture; there was no pulse, no warmth, not even a ripple of energy. Only the tiny, spiderweb-like crack between her eyebrows stood out, glaring in the light. Deep within the crack, a faint yet remarkably clear strand of dark red mycelium lurked, as if alive, emitting a heart-pounding, sweet, decayed scent.

Is it over? The Fungus Master was murdered, the Decaying Throne collapsed, and the blood-red fungus network that enveloped the world was shattered... But the price of this victory was so heavy that every breath Xu Shuangyao took felt like swallowing glass.

"Pei Du..." A hoarse voice escaped her cracked lips, tinged with the sweetness of blood foam. Her tears had long since dried, leaving only a searing pain in her eyes. She had pulled him back from the brink of death countless times, from the operating table to the battlefield, from infection to loss of control. But this time, to pass on the power of the crown to her, to end the Fungus Master, he chose an eternal crystallized slumber. That last look he gave her, a hint of relief, burned deep into her soul like a red-hot iron.

Just when this boundless silence and sadness was about to swallow her completely!

Buzz——!!!

An unprecedented, vast, yet gentle torrent of will, like a dormant galaxy awakening, suddenly erupted from the depths of the hideous, lacerated wound on her neck! It was the twin "seeds" that fused the essence of Pei Du's Crown of Thorns with the will of the Azure World Tree! Under Xu Shuangyao's extreme grief and the stimulation of contact with Pei Du's crystal image, it finally completed its final fusion and transformation!

Intense pain! It felt like billions of red-hot steel needles instantly piercing every cell in his body! Xu Shuangyao's body suddenly arched upward, and from his throat came an uncontrollable, painful whimper like a dying beast! The wound on the side of his neck seemed to be torn apart again by an invisible force, and a light intertwined with emerald green and dark gold gushed out like a solid liquid!

Yet, amidst this excruciating pain, an indescribable, vast, and overwhelming sense of power crazily grew! It was like a dry riverbed flooded with stars! An unbearable burning sensation surged between his brows! It was as if something was about to break out from the depths of his soul!

laugh--!

A tiny but extremely condensed crown shadow suddenly appeared and solidified in the air about an inch above her eyebrows!

The crown's form was incredibly strange, neither metal nor wood. Its main structure was formed from countless slender, resilient, living, emerald vines, their surfaces swirling with silvery-white streams of data. And between the interwoven vines, sharp thorns, gleaming with a cold, dark-gold light, stubbornly pierced through, exuding a purifying majesty and awe. The vitality of the vines and the sharp edge of the thorns blended perfectly, forming a unique crown that symbolized the will of the Twin Eras—the Throne of Thorns!

Buzz!

The moment the crown's shadow formed, an invisible pressure, a blend of the vitality of plant networks and the purifying will of thorns, spread outward from Xu Shuangyao like ripples caused by a boulder dropped into a calm lake! The ashes covering the battlefield rolled outward as if blown by a strong wind! The stench of decay in the air was instantly purified and dispelled!

This pressure surpassed that of either Pei Du or the Fungus Master before! It carried a new, yet ancient and majestic will, like an invisible declaration, sweeping across the entire wasteland in an instant, even penetrating the broken sky system hole, spreading to the wider world!

A new king...is born!

Xu Shuangyao's body trembled violently under the combined impact of intense pain and power. She slowly raised her head. Her blood-stained and dust-stained face, eyes once filled with wisdom, pain, and determination, now seemed empty, illuminated by the suspended crown of thorns between her brows. Deep within her pupils, emerald green and dark gold light swirled and flowed like a vortex, reflecting the devastated world and the cold, crystal-like image of Pei Du before her.

An indescribable, cold and heavy "cognition" filled her consciousness instantly along the connection of the crown, like a sudden enlightenment.

She "saw" it. Not with her eyes, but through the newly formed data network connected to the crown (composed of the remnant roots of the World Tree and the mycelium nodes purified by the Crown of Thorns), she could clearly "feel" every corner of the battlefield ruins beneath her feet, the trembling of every dust particle!

She "saw" the only remaining core nodes of the World Tree emitting a faint emerald green light deep in the ruins of the collapsed World Tree in the distance.

She "saw" that beneath the wasteland, countless mycelium network nodes that had been contaminated by the Fungus Master but had not yet been completely exhausted were slowly fading from their dark red color and restoring a weak data flow, like ink spots dropped into clear water, under the purifying will of the Twin Crowns.

She even saw it! At the edge of the battlefield, a temporary stronghold built by the remnants of the Burning Fungus Alliance, barely protected by several giant fossilized World Tree roots!

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It will be even more exciting later!