The hostages had been rescued by an unknown figure, who didn't even leave a name behind.
When they were interviewed, not one person was willing to describe who had rescued them.
It was quite a strange act. Some people called him a hero while others said he recklessly endangered the lives of the hostages.
Bian meanwhile couldn't be bothered with the storm he left behind.
With the Black Cruiser in tow, he went home and was in the process of getting prepared for his return to the sanctuaries when a call came in.
It was Man Tian who called and after some pleasantries, he insisted that both Bian and Han Yan met up with him and his wife.
With their current status as demigods, although they didn't publicize it, they were more than qualified to meet his wife.
"Alright, when Han Yan is back from the sanctuaries we will definitely meet up." Bian hung up the call and stepped toward the teleporter.
Back in the sanctuary at last, Bian took in a breath of fresh air, then he froze.
He wasn't in the ruined castle, instead he seemed to be in some underground tunnel.
"What, no way."
Bian immediately began to panic. He teleported back to the alliance, activated the Empirical Will and teleported back to the sanctuaries.
Sadly he still remained in the tunnels. He had to support himself on the wall for a moment.
There was a reason Bian was so relaxed in the alliance. That was because he had conquered the shelter and thus all the threats around the ghost gathering.
He had already envisioned himself with multiple Gemstone or even Super geno cores once he used the Solum Mirror to capture all those ghosts.
But, life had other plans. The teleporter must have been destroyed somehow, leaving those natural resources with no owner.
This made Bian feel as if his heart was bleeding. He scratched his head in frustration and began exploring the tunnels.
The tunnels looked natural, but it was too smooth for Bian to believe no creature had tampered with them.
He followed a narrow path until it branched into two ways. The left path tilted downwards while the right inclined upwards.
Bian could see light entering from the right, so he followed there first. As he walked upwards, he couldn't help but think about the Story of Genes.
It was one of the strongest arts he could practice, but even Bian fell short of the requirements to begin practicing it.
He would basically need to be a God to start practicing the Story of Genes, but by then it would already be too late as his foundation would be set in stone.
If he truly wanted to practice it, he would at least need to become a top-tier demigod then he hoped the Black Crystal would help him out like it did Han Sen.
Soon, Bian reached the exit of the tunnel. Up ahead he saw a strange purple meadow that extended as far as the eye could see.
A gaze locked on to Bian, causing him to subconsciously track it to a mantis a mile ahead of him.
The creature had a purple carapace and soon vanished into the field when it made eye contact with Bian.
"What sharp senses." Bian immediately released the Empirical Aura which doused the entire area in an indigo light.
The light travelled for tens of kilometres, stimulating the area in Bian's mind.
He clearly saw several mantises heading towards his direction.
Most of them were only the size of a small dog and their lifeforce was quite weak. They were ordinary creatures.
Then a few were equal to Bian in height, but they stuck to the floor and moved quite fast.
To the eye, Bian was alone in this meadow, but actually several mantises were converging towards him at a speed that wasn't slow.
"This is perfect."
Instead of running, Bian summoned a Silver-Plated Armor and the Solum Mirror.
As the first ordinary mantis jumped out of the meadow, the Solum Mirror turned to a streak of light and smacked its head.
Thuds rang out continuously as the Solum Mirror circled him and knocked out several purple mantises.
The blade of a Primitive Purple Mantis struck the Mirror but was unable to even leave a scratch.
Instead the Solum Mirror swooshed across the Mantis and smacked the back of its head, causing it to stumble forward.
The human-sized mantis swung its forearm blade in retaliation, but the Solum Mirror had circled it again and smacked its head once more, rendering it unconscious.
Most of the other mantises paused, but a brave fellow jumped at Bian while the Solum Mirror was occupied.
Bian summoned the Altering Brush and wrote the word, 'solid' mid-air.
When the small purple mantis struck at him, a reflection of a square pane briefly flashed before Bian, but that was all.
The mantis struck again, but the pane remained unmoved. Before it could strike a third time, the Solum Mirror knocked it unconscious.
The rest of the Purple Mantises quietly retreated, but Bian could feel their gaze.
Each and every one of them had a pair of transparent panes attached to their eyes. They resembled contact lenses and Bian reasoned they were the geno cores of the creatures which granted them great visual prowess.
Like the hostile creatures that they were, two of the ordinary creatures had already woken up and planned to retreat.
Two thuds sounded as the Solum Mirror knocked them down. Although the Solum Mirror was more suited to facing elemental and energy powers, its physical properties were also quite exaggerated.
Next Bian wrote the word 'asleep' on each of the other Mantises and 'immobile' on the two mantises which were still struggling.
He observed how the ink barely moved when used on the air, it slowly drained when used to keep the creatures asleep, but it rapidly decreased when used to keep two ordinary purple mantises immobile.
Bian placed a hand on each of the purple mantises and activated the Empirical Decree.
Or at least he tried to.
He felt his powers reach them, but then recede due to their constant struggling.
Bian undid the bindings on them and knocked them hard until they both fainted. Then he tried using the Empirical Decree again.
It worked this time, but the energy consumption was quite high.
Both bodies turned to indigo lights and fused together. Bian stepped back as he watched the light rearrange itself into a large Purple Mantis that was identical to the one he captured.
"The Empirical Decree really does work on living creatures."
The implications of this were wild. Bian suddenly felt less pained about the thousands of ghosts he left behind.
He could farm his own Primitive, Mutant and Sacred-blood creatures from ordinary ones. Maybe he could even farm super creatures.
The newly evolved Purple Mantis woke up, but Bian didn't feel any connection with it.
"Kneel."
He told the creature, but it just rushed at him creating sparks as it struck the silver armor.
"Too bad I can't control the creatures." Bian licked his lips. He knew it was his greed speaking though. The power of fusion was already quite broken.
Bian slapped the Primitive Purple Mantis to the ground. After a few more punches, the creature went unconscious.
Bian dragged it to the other primitive mantis. Activating the Empirical Decree this time caused him to stumble slightly.
A wave of drowsiness came as quickly as it left. Bian stepped back and watched the two bodies of light combine and contort, then reshape.
The body of light got bigger and bigger until it settled on a shape and formed a purple mantis that was the size of a storey building.
The Mutant Purple Mantis immediately rose up and overshadowed Bian.
Its contact lenses shot a beam of light right into Bian's eyes at a speed that was impossible to dodge.
Bian instantly lost all vision and the Mutant Mantis struck him off his feet with one-and-a-half-meter-long blade arms.
"Its strength has gotten quite decent and its speed is difficult to follow."
Bian was unharmed by the strike though. He had Sacred-blood armor on which was the bane of blades and slashing attacks.
The Mutant Mantis rushed at Bian, but he wasn't interested in being a punching bag. He first unsummoned the Solum Mirror.
Then he removed the other bindings on the mantis which relieved the Altering Brush and wrote the word 'solid' in air.
Pang!
A squarish pane appeared for a moment before it broke and the blade kept heading for Bian.
Taking advantage of the slowed momentum of the attack and having the Dongxuan Movement, Bian sidestepped the attack and jumped to the head of the mantis.
As the hum of the Empirical Will whispered into his ears, a blade darker than the night appeared in Bian's hand.
With a twist in the air, Bian avoided the savage mouth of the creature and his blade traced a light across its neck.
[Mutant Creature Purple Mantis King killed. Beast soul has been acquired. Gold Geno Core received: Crystal Lens. Consume its flesh to gain 0 to 10 Mutant Geno Points randomly.]