"I went to the source of the beast tide."

Mrs. Yun and Mr. Ya’s expressions shifted slightly. Just as they were about to ask more, they noticed a crowd gathering around them.

Su Ze’s appearance had attracted many soldiers. They swarmed him, expressing their gratitude and respect. If it hadn’t been for him, many more of them would have died in the beast tide; any one of them could have been the next casualty.

With this single battle, Su Ze had cemented his prestige within the army.

"Alright, all of you, stand down. Mr. Su has just returned from a great battle; he must be exhausted." Ning Yushen’s voice rang out, prompting the soldiers to disperse.

It wasn’t just Ning Yushen. When Li Fayi and the Dongli Saint Envoy saw Su Ze return, they flew over as well.

Seeing that a group of Dongli’s top leaders had gathered around him, Su Ze pointed to the nearby naval base. "Let’s talk inside."

...

Inside a spacious conference room at the naval base.

The five Guardian Gods of Dongli and the supreme-grade Saint Envoy had gathered here.

Su Ze then told them about his discoveries from his trip to the depths of the Central Sea.

He had little to hide, so aside from the matter of the golden energy, he gave them a general overview of everything else.

"You’re saying you saw the legendary ’New King’ of the beasts?" the Dongli Saint Envoy asked in shock.

Su Ze nodded slightly. "There’s no mistaking it. I saw that most of the evolutionary power on its body had already turned purple, and all the other beasts were submitting to it."

"So, this beast tide that’s sweeping across the entire Lin Hua Continent was initiated by this ’New King’? Why would it do that?" Li Fayi asked, puzzled.

"He’s right. All it has to do is quietly complete its seventh evolution to become a divine-grade lifeform. It could crush the Lin Hua Continent then. Why stir up trouble now?" Ning Yushen was equally baffled.

Mrs. Yun nodded as well. "And if it was going to start a beast tide, why stop so suddenly?"

Su Ze frowned, pondering for a few seconds. He remembered the beast tide had stopped only after he’d lured out the Sponge Beast, and a theory suddenly occurred to him...

’Could it be that the one who ordered the beast tide wasn’t the New King, but its "crab-headed strategist," the hermit crab?’

’The New King Sponge was in seclusion, pushing to reach the divine grade, so the strategist crab took matters into its own hands and rallied the beasts to attack the Lin Hua Continent...’

If that stupid decision had come from the hermit crab, which didn’t look particularly intelligent, Su Ze wouldn’t have been surprised at all. In fact, it seemed perfectly logical to him.

’And when the New King Sponge was disturbed by me and came out of its seclusion, it immediately halted the beast tide.’

’Thinking about it this way, everything seems to line up.’

’Just as I thought! With such brilliant masterminds advising it, that New King is doomed to fail! It’s toast!’

However, this was just Su Ze’s theory, and he didn’t voice it.

"I must report this to the Sovereign Country at once," the Dongli Saint Envoy said, rising to his feet. He took the matter very seriously. "We need to see if there’s any hope of eliminating this New King before it achieves divinity!"

The combat power of beasts is lower than that of human evolvers of the same rank, a difference that becomes more pronounced at higher levels.

As long as the New King Sponge hasn’t truly achieved divinity, a few human ’legends’ working together might still have a chance to defeat it by leveraging the combat superiority of intelligent lifeforms.

Su Ze watched the Dongli Saint Envoy walk out of the conference room without saying much.

’Even though I have a relatively good feeling about this Saint Envoy and trust him more than most, I’m not planning to tell him about the alien invasion. Can’t risk any slip-ups.’

’If anyone’s going to tell him, it should be Chen Suifeng and his group. It’s up to them to decide if this Dongli Saint Envoy is trustworthy and worth bringing into the fold.’

"The beast tide may have retreated, but I hear the other countries suffered heavy losses. We in the Dongli Kingdom were very fortunate," Mrs. Yun said, glancing at Su Ze.

The others looked at Su Ze as well. They all knew that if he hadn’t intervened, the Dongli Kingdom’s losses would have been just as severe.

Dongli managed to hold its ground. In the early stages, it was mainly thanks to the Dongli Saint Envoy, who single-handedly tied down two fifth-rank beasts. Without him, the defensive line would have been broken long ago.

In the later stages, however, it was Su Ze who turned the tide.

Just then, all five of their phones chimed at once.

A message came in the "Dongli Guardian Gods" group chat.

They took out their phones to look, and their expressions changed in unison.