Chương 822: Arriving at a Frozen World.

As Liu Shu approached with her roots to this non-conquered Solar System, she could see the lifeforce from the distant dots of lights that Liu Shu presumed to be the Solary System's planets. The reason was that she had evolved one of her skills to S- Rank.

<World Tree Eye → Divine Tree Eye (A+ Rank → S- Rank Level 1 [0/839, 900])>: You can see everything where your domains reach, and nothing equal or below this skill can escape your sight. Can perceive → accurately perceive ternary essences of opponents and guess their overall strength more accurately → accurately. NEW You can perceive large gatherings of lifeforce up to <Ascension Level> ^ <Ascension Level> Light Years from the edge of your domain.

(Currently, 2^2=4 Light Years) The change to her World Tree Eye passive skill, which had not changed names from the initial F Rank to its current A+ Rank, was tremendous. At first, Liu Shu had been a bit confused about the meaning of "Large gatherings of lifeforce." After all, the places where the mercenaries hid didn't trigger that sense. She realized that their group was just too small for the effect to be considered a "large gathering of lifeforce." Only now did she realize what that meant.

"It's worlds. Worlds that have life." Those worlds didn't just single out intelligent life, but also plant-life, animals, and everything that could be considered a "Lifeform." So, for her, among the countless white dots in the sky, some of them had a faintly noticeable green aura around them. This aura was the lifeforce Liu Shu could detect. Looking at the scaling, it didn't look bad for an S- Rank skill. It would go from 4 to 27 to 256, etc.

One might think the numbers were crazy, but what this skill showed was whether abundant "life" existed in a given location or not. Such information was important and could sometimes even help single out hidden worlds. Nevertheless, it was information that was not really essential.

"Speaking of which…" Liu Shu turned her gaze back to the Golden Sap Empire and glanced into the Verdant Elder's room.

"Oh…! I can see." It wasn't that she previously couldn't. However, if before Liu Shu needed to force herself inside, now what Liu Shu acquired was similar to a vision that could see through solids. There was no trace at all that she was looking.

"Hehe~. Let's see what the Verdant Elder has been hiding in his room!" So, she scanned through all the documents and information that she could find. While most things were on the computer, important documents were handled manually for safety. After all, it was common knowledge that Liu Shu's ability to infiltrate networks, local or not, was ridiculous. No amount of security could protect you when the enemy was able to use electricity itself to infiltrate your database.

"Hoh… so the war situation is actually coming to an end? Both sides are starting to speak of peace talks in secret?" This was not good news for Liu Shu. It was a bit ruthless to say this, but the fight between the Covenant and Nexus, despite all of its casualties, was a good thing for her. It kept the two powers who were worried about her the most preoccupied and unable to send forces to deal with her.

"If the war ends, the Nexus and Covenant might send a powerful army my way…" These powers, which had enough forces to spread their frontlines across dozens of Solar Systems and simultaneously guard hundreds of Solar Systems from ambushes, were currently a bit outside of Liu Shu's defensive capabilities.

"While I am gaining plenty of <Second Ascension> powerhouses daily, it's a big problem if a <Third Ascension> decides to appear." At least, something that was both good and bad news was that, within the Nexus and Covenant, there were incredibly few <Third Ascension> powerhouses. That's why they were having trouble escaping their "Star System Empire" label. For someone to become a Globular Star Cluster Empire, they needed a relatively large number of powerhouses to defend the 1000+ Solar Systems.

"Hm… I need to speed up my roots, then. Taking over nearby Solar Systems will help in resources and space to spread my people." While her home Solar System could house many, and her people's fertility was abundant and boosted by her blessings, what they lacked was proper space. Yes, there was land, but cities have started to feel a bit cramped.

"Alright, let's hurry up!" The roots that had been spread out slowly suddenly accelerated, reaching incredible speeds through Liu Shu's <Realm> manipulation. Distances shrank thanks to her dimensional manipulation, and her roots moved swiftly. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. It wasn't long, just a few weeks, before she arrived at the edge of the inner solar system where the planets resided.

The world at the very edge of the Solar System was a freezing rocky world, but even this freezing world had a thick atmosphere and signs of life. So, Liu Shu's roots slithered through space, and soon, she surrounded the entire world with curiosity.

"Let's see…" Looking past the thick clouds, a somewhat dark world greeted Liu Shu. Inside this world, there were no cities. It was a world of frost.

"There is life here?" She was surprised. Erynthea, the furthest world in her home Solar System, was also like this one. Only, if Liu Shu were to make a comparison, this world was a world of snow and blizzards, while Erynthea was a world of ice.

"Snow is better than ice for life?" Surely not. From what Liu Shu had observed, a world of ice had a better chance at creating oceans below the sheets of thick ice through geothermal heating. Meanwhile, a world of snow was just… frosty. There was nowhere for life to take root. And yet… Her gaze was currently observing a group of strangely shaped creatures. They were similar to a centaur species, but with furry bodies, and their lower halves were those of a bear instead of a horse.

This group was chasing down a massive animal with thick wool. This animal, a Level 79 creature, was clearly an apex predator in this world. After all, the group chasing it was several Level 60~70 people, none at the Level 75's <Fourth Energy Cycle>.

"But they are hunting it down." This was quite incredible. Due to the harsh conditions, it seems that creatures were incredibly aggressive.

"Those centaurs… beartaurs? What is their species?"

Species: Frostblood Beartaur.

"Wow! They are really Beartaurs!" She giggled and hummed.

"They are an intelligent group." She could see because of the tactics and also the tools they were using to hunt the giant sextupedal creature.

"Well, no matter how potentially intelligent a species can be, if there is no civilization trigger, then the only result is a primitive nomadic group." In harsh conditions, anything more than that was asking to kick evolution out of the window.

"... Well, evolution was kicked out of the window." Looking from the sky, she had not noticed, but now that she had infiltrated her roots underground, Liu Shu was slapped by the <System>'s ability to adapt creatures even to the harshest conditions. Liu Shu grumbled.

"If the <System> had a face, I bet it would be smiling smugly. You annoying thing!" [...?] The system, not knowing why it was being targeted again, decided not to answer. Otherwise, it would get beaten up again.

"Wisdom, do you have any idea why my Solar System was so barren of life?" From what she had heard, the average number of worlds with complex life in a Solar System was four! And yet, her solar system only had Nualis and Ceperet. The rest of the worlds were so hostile to life that Liu Shu had to actively terraform them. [Wisdom: After analyzing, your Solar System seems to have gone through a massively large extinction event in the past. Life only recovered in Ceperet and Nualis, where the conditions for life were the most ideal.]"Huh." Liu Shu blinked.

"I see." After observing for a while, Liu Shu came to a conclusion.

'Alright, conquering this world is as easy as making my presence known. The number of World Trees in this world is six. Only six. Moreover, these six World Trees are all Level 50 or below.'

"So many chiefs and such…" Thankfully, with <World Tree Wisdom>, Liu Shu could understand all languages that exchanged proper meaning and were not just grunts. Therefore, there was no communication barrier. In the home of one of the main chiefs, a massive Beartaur lay on a thick skin, a female Beartaur cooking a large piece of meat beside him. Suddenly, the female and male beartaurs, both Level 74, saw a bunch of roots rise from the ground like a flower.

The female looked over, stupefied, and the meat in her metal stick over the fire slipped.

"W-What is that?" Brown roots were not something these people were accustomed to. Even local World Trees, adapted to the harsh life of the frozen world, had developed white bark or developed as resilient vines. The roots entangled, and soon, Liu Shu created her wooden Avatar. The male, seeing such a bizarre two-legged creature, reached out and swung its massive spear-like weapon. Liu Shu blinked her blue-glowing eyes and stretched two fingers.

The female and male Beartaur opened their eyes wide when the brutal attack was perfectly pinched between two fingers.

"Relax. I am not here to hurt you… Well, not yet." Since the male beartaur attacked her, Liu Shu could perfectly kill him without receiving penalties from the <System>. Of course, she wouldn't do something like that.

"Who… or what… are you?" Liu Shu smiled at those words.

"That's much better than a lance strike as a welcoming greeting. Hello, chieftain. I am the Heavenly Willow, a True World Tree that has crossed the stars to take over your world. It is a pleasure to meet you." Both the female and male Beartaurs blinked in utter stupefaction. Liu Shu laughed.

"Surprised expressions are quite identical regardless of race and culture. What a fascinating thing." Liu Shu moved her wooden Avatar, sitting by the fire and picking the about-to-burn meat.

"This is quite a precious resource, right? Don't let it go to waste. Here." The female instinctively reached out, grabbing the hot metal skewer.

"Hiss!" She dropped it, and that small pain broke the daze of both people. The one who spoke, to Liu Shu's surprise, was not the male but the female Beartaur.

"You, who say you are from beyond the cloudy sky… Can you prove it?" Liu Shu's blue-glowing eyes flashed.

'Quite a mature reaction. Since conversation is possible, then I'll show them.'

"I could, but why should I, a divine being, explain myself? Instead, I'll let you feel a fraction of my presence." Then, from the brown root, an instant of pressure pulsed outward. THUMP! That single pulse brought not only those two in front of her, but every single creature in a 10-kilometer radius to its knees, while the rest froze in pure fear. The female Beartaur's icy blue eyes trembled wildly.

'Such presence… Are her words the truth?'