Chapter 1329: Confrontation

Emperor Qi, Caroline, the Three Pillar Gods, and others watched with subtle shifts in their expressions, none of them looking pleased. They gazed up at the Divine Emperor, who indeed possessed astonishing methods. Earlier, he had used other tactics to far outpace their hard-earned progress in evolving universes while drifting through the Sea of Chaos. Now, with these new methods, he was pulling even further ahead. It felt as if an invisible hand gripped everything, and they were living within the Divine Emperor's calculations and schemes, unable to surpass him from beginning to end.

"I fear we've been within his calculations from start to finish," Emperor Qi remarked, watching Zhi Ji and the Divine Emperor calmly sip tea from their elevated positions. He spoke with a hint of helplessness, "Asura Path warriors are inherently a stage in evolutionary development. Clearly, the Divine Emperor was well-prepared, having his civilizations cultivate this knowledge in advance. It's not an exaggeration to call it a miniature 'Spore Evolution' game, all orchestrated for this very moment."

Caroline, watching the coastline, took a deep breath, her gaze tinged with admiration. "It's not that we are incapable, but rather their first-mover advantage, their pre-existing strategy! Their creatures are now masters of this path, thriving like fish in water, so it's only natural they'd surpass us. It's a pity that all the talents our civilizations cultivated previously are now largely useless... This is an entirely new system, requiring us to train new talent from scratch."

The focus of talent development had shifted. While combat-oriented talents remained potent, they had been relegated to a secondary, "muscle" role. Evolutionary talents were now paramount. This shift led Caroline to reallocate her internal resources, with the powerful Celestial Piano quickly becoming her most trusted confidante, assisting in the development of new personnel. The same situation applied to Emperor Qi's side. Emperor Qi, the Alchemist Emperor, and even the previously "uselessly cute" Earth Mother Goddess, instantly became beings of supreme talent—a true testament to the unpredictability of fate. After all, Emperor Qi's personal evolutionary talent was far inferior to theirs. Emperor Qi himself lacked the power of creation and pioneering; although he had learned advanced evolutionary knowledge in the "composite sandbox," he still didn't possess the innovative ability to create new life forms. Currently, Emperor Qi's strategy involved waiting for others to evolve new creatures, then learning from them, integrating, strengthening, and updating his own.

Meanwhile, the situation for the Three Pillar Gods had also drastically changed. The Balloon Fish, previously benched and only used as a means to hold back Du Xue, suddenly rose to a position of immense importance. It now walked with its head held high, becoming the Three Pillar Gods' "Destiny Blocker." This turn of events brought tears to someone's eyes; their Umbrella Corporation had finally come into its own!

"Is there a solution?" Emperor Qi asked, looking at the Alchemist Emperor, Meng Mei, and Akina Mountain Speed beside him.

"I specialize in plants, which gives me an advantage on defense, but getting ashore depends on them," the Earth Mother Goddess replied, shaking her head. Her focus wasn't even on this conflict; her recent attention had been entirely on her avatar in another universe, researching the Heavenly Sound Sect. After all, Meng Mei's strategy was quite clear: wouldn't conquering the God of Destruction be more appealing?

Akina Mountain Speed pondered for a moment before replying, "It's simply unrealistic to temporarily evolve a universe and conquer it... The timeframe is too short. It would require at least some time, and that period happens to be crucial. Our opponents have just settled in and are also taking the opportunity to evolve their forces. Once they establish a firm root, it will be incredibly difficult to conquer them. That's why they are so brazen."

Emperor Qi fell into deep thought. While they used this time to evolve creatures to climb ashore, their opponents were simultaneously using the same period to firmly establish their plant-based foundations! At that point, victory would become even more impossible. It was essentially an unsolvable stalemate.

"No wonder they're so arrogant; they've long calculated that we can't conquer them," Caroline said, looking at Zhi Ji and the Divine Emperor calmly drinking tea on the shore, their faces composed but vigilant. "The Divine Emperor's tactics are truly despicable! It's infuriating that merely landing a few years earlier than us has decisively determined the outcome."

Akina Mountain Speed listened without refuting, though he vaguely suspected this was the strategic style of those "silly gamer" players. It was undoubtedly the reason they were so brazen now, gloating from across the battle lines—they were clearly confident they had them cornered.

"Then we must launch a quick assault; we cannot wait." Emperor Qi then said softly, "Their forces are currently divided into nine. They are too greedy, wanting the best spirit vein port areas of all nine universes, which significantly reduces their overall strength. Would it be feasible for us to concentrate our forces, with our three factions jointly attacking one universe?"

Akina Mountain Speed thought for a moment before shaking his head. "The advantage of their dojos is simply too immense! Rooted in the earth, sucking up power, it's virtually an infinite energy source for them. Even if we greatly outnumber them, we might not be able to conquer even one."

This situation was akin to a saint without a dojo trying to attack a saint fortified within one. The disparity was too great! Moreover, their opponents had the equivalent of dozens of dojos, forming a combined defensive line—how could they possibly fight that? On top of that, those scoundrels were employing dirty tactics! Behind their lines, they had cultivated a massive number of Sunflowers, fearing that a full assault might deplete the Pea Shooters' energy supply from the earth. These Sunflowers were ready to resupply the front line at any moment.

"How despicable," Akina Mountain Speed muttered, shaking his head. "Just one look tells me they have multiple layers of backup plans; it's incredibly thorough."

Meng Mei's eyes rolled. Weren't these people trained by him? Hadn't they learned their shameless combat tactics from him?

"I have no solution," Celestial Piano said after a moment's thought, shaking its head. "My species was never meant for warfare; it was created for creation and adapting to alien rules... Right now, I'm still contemplating its purpose in this new era."

Balloon Fish considered for a moment, then offered, "My universe has also been secretly developing over the years. The Balloon Fish universe can glide at low altitudes for short periods and also has the effect of deflecting force during combat."

While that universe seemed somewhat useful, its impact appeared limited. After all, the Pea Shooters weren't incapable of attacking airborne units.

"Our Small TV universe can deploy immortal quantum players for covert microbial offense and defense," said Zhang Tong, leader of the Quantum Players. "Perhaps through tiny spies, we could approach them and destroy their cosmic creatures. However, while we seem to have an opportunity, those guys know us well. They've likely taken precautions against us using individual quantum life forms to secretly approach their universes."

Everyone nodded. After its bloodline update, the Quantum TV universe allowed all creatures within it to cultivate only quantum martial arts. They could also dispatch quantum battle bodies outside their universe. The current conflict was akin to a bacterial warfare. After all, quantum life forms were extremely tiny and could transform into bacteria to approach and destroy life within other universes, infiltrating them stealthily and making defense nearly impossible. However, their opponents were familiar with them, and given the meticulousness of those shady characters, it was inconceivable they wouldn't guard against the quantum Small TV.

After some thought, Akina Mountain Speed suddenly chuckled. "Don't worry, there's no situation this strategist cannot solve! Your Majesty, we possess a powerful method, and we need you to decipher the bloodline map of that bloodline universe."

"Oh?" Emperor Qi asked, curious.

"Since we can't evolve land species in a short time, then only... magic can defeat magic!" Akina Mountain Speed took a deep breath. "This trump card was originally meant for others, but I never expected these people to get so conceited!"

Akina Mountain Speed's body silently turned to gaze at another hidden, golden, opulent universe, which resembled a vast, golden cosmic factory, emitting faint strands of multi-colored light. In this universe, his body raised its arm high.

"Alchemy Factory, Super Transformation Form!"