The Conflict of Power

"Let me go!"

"Release me!"

Princess Saliman struggled violently, using all her strength, but it was laughable against the mythical beast.

She tried to break free using divine techniques, controlling weapon-like shuttles with her mental power to attack the Desert Worm, but to no avail.

The feeling...

It was like an ant trying to move a mountain, or a leaf resisting a hurricane.

She was so frightened that tears streamed down her face as she pleaded with a choked voice.

"Father, please spare me."

"I don't want immortality, not this kind of immortality."

"I don't want to be like them. I'm your daughter, the heir of the Samo family!"

The priests of the kingdom's priest group watched her from the plaza, witnessing her desperation and helplessness. Once again, they felt the fragility of the Trilobite Men in the face of the beasts.

This was why the Trilobite Men worshipped the power of the beasts so fervently, and why they were still unwilling to give up the Ruhe brand in the end.

Similarly, it was the key factor in the Samo king's mad desire to become a beast.

The king descended the steps gradually, approaching the Desert Worm at the center of the plaza.

"This is a chance for immortality, Saliman."

"You're my favorite daughter. How could I bear to watch you age bit by bit?"

"Come!"

"Let's obtain this immortal power together, achieve eternal life together."

"Time and age will no longer touch us. We'll stride through the ages, side by side."

"We will become the immortal kings of a new age."

Princess Saliman looked at the crazed king, her struggles slowly ceasing.

"Father," she whispered, her voice trembling. "What has happened to you?"

The king spread his hands, as if not understanding Saliman's question.

"What's the matter, Saliman?" he asked, his tone eerily gentle.

"I am still your father. Look at my love for you."

"I have so many children, yet you are the one I cherish most."

"Look!"

"I'm even sharing the chance of immortality with you. Isn't my love enough? Who else in the world could receive such a precious gift?"

He kept talking incessantly, but Princess Saliman no longer spoke.

Her eyes, once full of laughter and mischief, were now filled with disbelief and confusion. Her beautiful pupils stared fixedly at her father, motionless, with only tears continuously falling.

She knew she couldn't stop her father who had completely fallen into madness, nor could she resist the fate that was about to befall her.

Just as the Trilobite Men couldn't resist the power of the beasts.

The king's words gradually became low and somber. He lowered his head, no longer looking at Princess Saliman. The entire underground plaza fell silent.

"So be it."

He turned around, waving his hand at the high priest of the kingdom's priest group standing behind him.

"Begin!"

The high priest nodded, and all the priests standing around the plaza began to move.

Dozens of priests chanted spells, streams of mental power intertwining above the plaza, converging into a massive net.

The priests applied their power to Saliman, their mythical blood resonating, drawing out Saliman's power of wisdom.

The huge mental net, centered on Saliman and the beast, constantly intertwined and pulled, the resonating power growing stronger and stronger.

Finally, it gradually forced out all the mythical blood from Princess Saliman's body.

It was a brilliant silver light, the color of the power of wisdom.

The silver light gradually emanated from Princess Saliman's body, and beyond the light points was an invisible force, the mental power materialized from the power of thought.

Saliman's body also gradually became transparent, and a faint light could be seen shining deep in her brain.

Saliman's mental power, mythical blood, and the light of thought intertwined, gradually forming a complete light shadow, pulled out of her body.

"It's successful."

The king looked up at the light shadow, his gaze following its floating trajectory.

His eyes revealed shock, the center of his pupils filled with longing.

He paid no attention to Saliman on the other side, her eyes completely closed, her once warm body gradually turning cold.

The light shadow slowly rose, the silver light gradually overlapping with the beast's shadow.

Amidst the mysterious and eerie chants of the priest group, the light shadow carrying Saliman's wisdom and memories gradually merged into the Desert Worm's body. The worm, which had been constantly writhing, slowly ceased all movement.

"Thud!"

The corpse, tightly gripped by the tentacles, finally fell to the ground.

The Samo king rushed forward, anxiously calling out to the Desert Worm.

"Saliman!" he called out, his voice growing desperate. "Saliman, answer me!"

For a long while, there was no response.

When the light finally dissipated completely, one of the Desert Worm's tentacles began to move again. Its flesh split open with numerous cuts, from which eyeballs of various sizes squeezed out.

The largest eyeball kept rotating, observing the surroundings, finally fixing on the Samo king.

The beast opened its terrifying mouthparts, emitting a strange yet familiar voice.

"Fa... father!"

"Fa... ther..."

"King~"

The Desert Worm's pupils even reflected Saliman's shadow, that slender figure with white bone armor.

The king was instantly overcome with wild joy. His mouth gaped as he slowly approached.

Then, he gently stroked the beast's eyeball.

He looked as if he was touching his most precious treasure.

"That's right!"

"Saliman, I am your father, I am your king."

He gazed at the beast in a trance, looking at the Desert Worm calling him father.

"This is... the power of immortality."

"This is the power of God."

"I've succeeded, I've really succeeded."

As long as Saliman successfully merged with the Desert Worm, he could immediately begin his own immortality ritual, merging with the power of the Samo family's other Ruhe beast, the Moon Magic Fern.

He wasn't afraid that Saliman would turn against him after mastering the power, after all, the Desert Worm's Ruhe brand was still on him.

The king's words grew increasingly frenzied, his expression more and more exalted, as if he were a god gazing down upon the mortal realm.

He could already see himself fully controlling the power of the beasts, becoming an immortal, undying being.

"Hahahahaha!" He couldn't help but laugh out loud, laughing so hard he bent over, laughing until tears came out.

"Perhaps, I should thank that son of black mud."

"If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have been able to make up my mind."

"I am the one who will create a new era. I will become the first mortal to achieve immortality, establishing an unprecedented realm."

He kept describing his ambitions.

At this moment, no words could express the joy in his heart.

However, he didn't see the unimaginable changes happening inside the Desert Worm before him. Two completely different mythical bloodlines were now violently conflicting within the beast's body.

In the beast's terrifying eyeballs, a strange light was gradually released.

It wasn't the life force belonging to the beast, but it also didn't fully belong to the power of wisdom.

An eyeball on the back of the Desert Worm moved slightly, a beam of light sweeping out with its gaze, just brushing past a few priests in the priest group.

A priest immediately noticed something was wrong. He looked down at his chest where the light had swept over.

He immediately found his body swelling and distorting, an arm growing out from his chest. In the blink of an eye, he had turned into a deformed monster.

"Ah!" he screamed. "Why are hands... growing from my body?"

"What is this?"

He let out a miserable scream, though it was unclear whether it was from physical pain or mental terror.

Or perhaps, both.

"The light, was it that light?"

"It's over, it's over."

"Save me, save me!"

"What on earth is this thing?"

The others hit by the light were in a similar state. Some instantly regressed into giant trilobites, some grew insect legs, some had multiple heads growing from their bodies.

But in the end, they all died in their twisted, deformed transformations.

No one could withstand such mutation.

This wasn't over yet. As the Desert Worm's eyes kept rotating, beams of light continued to shoot out.

The power of wisdom and the power of life intertwined and conflicted, the light formed by the mutation could transform any nearby life it touched.

"Hahahahahahaha!"

"Hm?"

The Samo king, still laughing, also sensed something was wrong, but just as he straightened up, he saw the terrifying eyeball facing him.

The laughter stopped abruptly.

Because the most intense beam of mutating light shone upon the Samo king.

"Run for your lives!"

The surrounding members of the kingdom's priest group also noticed something was wrong and immediately fled up the stairs in panic.

But the beast's mutation was becoming more and more severe. Hundreds of eyes on its body opened simultaneously, beams of light crisscrossing and sweeping towards the distance, instantly illuminating the entire underground plaza.

No one present escaped; all were engulfed by the mutating light.

Miserable, despairing screams rang out. Some people were rolling on the ground in agony, some fell from the stairs and turned into hideous monsters.

It was a horrifying inferno, from which no one could escape.

"A curse, this is a curse, a curse for touching the power of God," someone wailed before dying.

"This is punishment sent down by God."

"King! Didn't you say God wouldn't pay attention to the mortal world?"

Someone crawling on the ground in distortion shouted towards the Samo king.

Terrifying insect legs burst through the bone armor and flesh of the Samo king's body.

Then, several hideous, ugly insect heads broke out from his shoulders.

His form kept getting closer to the ground, finally changing from an upright walking Trilobite Person into an ugly, deformed insect.

The Samo king's confident immortality technique had brought about an unimaginably horrifying disaster.

"My immortality technique... it can't be," he muttered in disbelief. "It shouldn't have any flaws. How could it possibly fail?"

The Samo king looked bewildered. Even at this moment, he still didn't understand where the problem lay.

That was a secret technique that took the Samo kingdom generations, and he himself spent decades to develop.

Transformed into an insect, he raised his head, just in time to see the Desert Worm slowly wriggling towards him.

The Samo king's face completely changed. He didn't want to be devoured by such a monster. He knew best what would happen after being swallowed by the eternal technique he created.

Those test subjects in the prison cells were precedents.

"No!"

"Don't come over here."

He shouted in terror, wanting to turn and flee.

But he couldn't move at all, only able to watch helplessly as the enormous flesh mountain engulfed him.

Tentacles extended from under the flesh mountain, pulling him deep inside.

Finally, he was completely devoured.

"Fa... ther..."

"Father... I am... Sali..."

The Desert Worm kept calling out in Saliman's voice as it swallowed the Samo king.

However, not long after devouring the Samo king, the Desert Worm's voice suddenly changed to another.

It was a rough, frenzied voice: "I am the king of the Samo family, I am an eternal, immortal being."

As it continued to wriggle forward, devouring one mutated Trilobite Person after another, the voices it produced became more and more varied.

"No, I am the high priest of the kingdom's priest group."

"I am..."

One terrifying face after another appeared on the surface of the Desert Worm, different wills seemingly fighting for control over the beast's body.

Chaos, evil, greed, and anger intertwined and intersected. The beast, bringing death, slowly crawled out from underground.

The power of Redlichia, the King of Wisdom, and the power of Shelly, the Mother of Life, engaged in a violent conflict. This was a problem that even the gods couldn't solve in the past, yet the Samo kingdom had recklessly violated this taboo.

The spiritual light of wisdom and the strong fusion power of life intertwined and repelled each other, distorting and infecting the life forms of all nearby living beings.

An unprecedented disaster descended upon the mortal world.