Haiben Island.

The garrison commanders of the ten countries stood in a row on the sh.o.r.e, all with eyes wide in antic.i.p.ation as they stared at the sea in front of them. The length of the vestige exploration was only seven days, and there were only two days left until the time was up. According to previous experience, the strong parties should be almost coming out at this time.

As a commander of the China side, Gao Hongxin was especially anxious as he was clearly aware of the much deeper significance of this vestige exploration. It was the remains of a more advanced civilization. Even just a few remains of their tech could promote the progress of the entire country.

A great personage once said that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

As such, the adage couldn't be more spot on. The armed forces of a country represented the right to speak in the modern era. Although China had been developing rapidly, it was still not able to s.n.a.t.c.h the position at the top of the world. Therefore, if the Chinese team were able to reap some significant treasures from this vestige exploration, the military might of the whole country would qualitatively advance by leaps and bounds.

"They've come back!"

The commander from France had his expression moved and he shouted with a bit of excitement.

Instantly, everyone's eyes were fixed on the submarine that was slowly rising from the bottom of the water. As the submarine's door opened, the first person they saw was the injured Indian team member. At this time, he was carrying a black leather bag and quickly landed on the sh.o.r.e, greeted quickly by the Indian soldiers who surrounded him.

The second one was Kuwako Yamamoto, who carried a black suitcase, and the j.a.pan military also quickly protected her with excitement on their faces.

Afterward, it was Zhu Long's team of four that came out with a lot of things. Gao Hongxing waved with excitement on his face as a squad of Chinese soldiers quickly surrounded the four people and protected them.

"Tang Xiu?" Gao Hongxing still didn't forget to ask even though he was overjoyed.

Zhu Long shook his head silently and said, "We separated inside and we never saw him again. I'm afraid… he met some misfortunes."

Gao Hongxing nodded without a word, and then shouted in a heavy voice, "Let's go back."

After the team members of the three countries returned, however, the commanders of the other countries turned more anxious and kept waiting, but then were notified by the submarine crew that no one else returned.

Inside the vestige on the seabed.

Tang Xiu already had full control over the vestige, yet he didn't stay idle and steadily visited every place, stuffing a lot of things that could be taken into his interspatial ring. He only brought a few rings with him, which were already full after just two days.

Teng Nu had been following him all this time. After two days of being together, she had been truly wors.h.i.+pping Tang Xiu. With all of his various magical means, as well as some of the Immortal arts he imparted to her, she was occasionally full of interest causing her blood to boil with the excitement.

"Could you stay much longer, Master?" Teng Nu asked with a face full of hope as they returned to the main control room at the center of the base.

Tang Xiu smiled in response while watching the holographic footage that showed a light coc.o.o.n wrapping Cheng Xuemei inside. It had been getting thinner as the time pa.s.sed by and there was only a thin layer left. He shook his head and smilingly said, "I still have a lot of things to tend to outside, so I can't stay here for too long. Also, you'll need a long time to digest all the things I've imparted to you, so stay here and safely cultivate it! I believe it won't take long for me to come back here. I'll take you with me to the outside then."

Teng Nu couldn't care less about anything else—what she cared about was to get stronger and stronger, so she immediately nodded after hearing Tang Xiu's words. "Alright. Then I'll be waiting for you to come back here."

"Go to the botanical area and bring Cheng Xuemei over," said Tang Xiu.

"Alright." Teng Nu agreed and her figure instantly vanished.

Tang Xiu secretly forced a smile inwardly. Teng Nu's speed was fast to the extreme, so fast that he couldn't catch her at all. Also, she wasn't the only one whose speed was very fast, as so were those 35,680 sentient plants that had transformed into human forms. The weakest one among them was even ten times faster than him.

'Luckily, I already cast a sealing art on them, else they could've severely injured me or even killed me should they casually strike at me,' muttered Tang Xiu to himself inwardly. His hands then began to input commands on the virtual keyboard. He needed to shut all the entrances to the entire vestige, so he even closed the last hidden exit that would close in two days. Once they were all closed, n.o.body but him could enter.

Whoosh…

Teng Nu caught the light coc.o.o.n and reappeared in front of Tang Xiu. Cheng Xuemei was still unconscious inside the light coc.o.o.n and was unaware of the situation outside.

A day later, the light coc.o.o.n disappeared completely and Cheng Xuemei finally woke up. The moment she opened her eyes, Teng Nu's hands were pressing on her shoulders.

Tang Xiu observed Cheng Xuemei lying on the floor and asked lightly, "How's your physical condition?"

Xuemei blinked as a powerful aura burst out of her body. She felt that her body was full of explosive power and even had a feeling that she could level a mountain with a blow of her fist.

"I…"

She struggled to sit up but was unable to, even though her physique was full of power. Teng Nu still pressed on her body making her unable to get up.

"Forget it; you don't need to explain." Tang Xiu waved and said, "Although I don't know what has happened to you, it seems that you've quite benefitted. At least you're much stronger now; not just a small increase either. Anyways, she's Teng Nu, the human form of the Luminous Vine. I was afraid that you wouldn't be able to control your strength the moment you woke up, so I ordered her to hold you down. Listen well and wait for her to loosen you up, but don't get up all of a sudden or use too much strength. Adapt to it slowly."

"All right!"

Although Cheng Xuemei was unaware of the reason why her physique had undergone such a change, she obtained the memory of that sentient plant thus understanding quite a bit of information.

Bang…

Just as Teng Nu released her shoulder, Cheng Xuemei tried to prop herself up with a hand to the floor in an attempt to sit up. Her whole body that was half-sitting suddenly sprung upwards and hit the dozen meter high steel roof.

"Argh… whoops…"

A shallow hole was formed on the steel roof, but the pain made her scream. Yet, when her body lightly floated down and landed on the floor, the pain was mostly gone already.

"I…"

Cheng Xuemei was dumbstruck. She felt like she was about to break away from the shackles of gravity. Her whole body was filled with power, yet she felt very light. Except for some light spasms of pain in her head that she just b.u.mped, the other parts of her body had never felt better. In particular, it was her spirit—she felt that it had been completely purified.

"I told you not to use too much strength, didn't I?" Tang Xiu shook his head and smiled. "You're very powerful now, but you can't fully control that strength of yours. Only by slowly adapting can you gradually control it, else there will be a backlash from the sudden surge of power!"

The revelation left Cheng Xuemei at a loss whether she should laugh or cry. She never thought that she would have such a situation. She carefully stood up slowly and gently moved her body, yet all the bones in her body were creaking. She realized that she had even become taller by at least five centimeters.

After spending some time in adapting to the new situation, Cheng Xuemei was barely able to use some of her strength. Despite such a small bit of progress, however, she fell over and stumbled dozens of times, feeling faint pain in many parts of her body.

"It seems like I need to take you to another area and make you have a good workout."

Tang Xiu took out a set of clothes from his interspatial ring. It was menswear, but Cheng Xuemei had become taller, around 173 centimeters, so it was not too big for her to wear.

"From where did you take that out?" Cheng Xuemei was dumbfounded. Her eyesight was greatly improved and was quick, yet she couldn't even see Tang Xiu's movements. It was just like magic.

"The me you knew before was not the real me, if I must say," said Tang Xiu with a calm smile. "But I'll tell you more when I help you control your power."

Having said that, he left some orders to Teng Nu and then walked outside. Along the way, due to the changes in Cheng Xuemei's physique, it was inevitable that she b.u.mped into things here and there. Finally, after coming to the vestige exit which he left intact, he reached out and pressed the b.u.t.ton at the junction of the pa.s.sage.

"What's this?" Cheng Xuemei's eyes shrunk and looked with amazement at the previously shut pa.s.sage opening up. The interior inside looked like a cabin with two robots that had already been activated.

"It's a Subaquatic Corvette. Well, I christened it, hence the name," said Tang Xiu lightly. "Didn't you see that we came all the way here smoothly? To be honest with you, the entire base is controlled by me and I set up all the procedures here. As of now, this is the only entrance and exit that is accessible in the entire vestige; the rest have been fully shut. The people from the various countries have already left, so we don't have a submarine to pick us up. We can only take this Subaquatic Corvette to leave this place."

"SAY WHAT?" Cheng Xuemei screamed and looked at Tang Xiu incredulously.

Tang Xiu stepped into the Subaquatic Corvette and indifferently said, "No need to fuss over trivial things, alright? You really have shallow knowledge, seems like I gotta send you some popular science magazines later. Also, you can't be considered as a normal person now, so you must completely change the path that you'll take in the future."

Cheng Xuemei wore a complicated look as she stared at Tang Xiu. After she entered the Subaquatic Corvette's cabin, the exit pa.s.sage slowly closed again as well as the Subaquatic Corvette's door.

Tang Xiu found the controls and quickly inputted a series of instructions. As the Subaquatic Corvette began to cruise along the seabed, Tang Xiu returned to the main cabin. He saw Cheng Xuemei's complicated expression and then said, "Well, let me re-introduce myself again. I'm Tang Xiu, an immortal cultivator."

Immortal cultivator?

Cheng Xuemei shuddered and seemed to realize something all of a sudden, as she quickly asked, "I've only heard of Daoist cultivators, never of Immortal cultivators whatsoever."

"That's because you don't know much," said Tang Xiu lightly. "An Immortal cultivator is, in fact, essentially similar to a Daoist cultivator; that is, we walk on the path of cultivation, though an immortal cultivator is higher in rank compared to a Daoist cultivator. What I am practicing is Immortal Arts, not Daoist Arts."

Cheng Xuemei suppressed the shock in her heart and nodded. "No wonder you've become this powerful. Turns out you're an Immortal cultivator. I really understand now."