Chương 698: First Steps Toward Terraforming The Gas Giant.

The tests took time, even if she accelerated the process with forceful means; a single cycle for a small boat-sized island took around 8 months to complete. If it were a natural cycle, Liu Shu's calculations told her it would take around 12 years for its rise and fall.

"Regardless…" Liu Shu observed as the island fell into the hydrogen ocean with interest.

"It's a success." The moment the materials made contact with the surface, they exploded violently. The burst was like an atomic bomb exploding, creating a blinding flash of white light, followed by a giant mushroom cloud. However, even amid the explosion's violence, the explosion wasn't hot—it was kinetic. The hydrogen sea triggered a chain reaction that violently ionized the materials, launching them upward, where the magnetosphere caught them like dust in a storm.

"And the result is as expected." All materials that made up the small boat-sized island got shot into the sky, picked up by the powerful currents, and thrown into the atmosphere. Their innate electromagnetic properties reacted with the planet's magnetosphere, allowing them to become "weightless." This energy came from the reaction when they collided with the hydrogen sea, like pieces of metal recharging instantly through a violent explosion.

"With the energy levels these particles carry… It will take them roughly two to three decades to fall back down naturally. Future larger islands will take even longer due to their ability to accumulate more energy…" Our World Tree felt extremely satisfied with the test results.

"Incredible. This has boundless potential for developing life in gaseous giants…" She paused.

"Well, that's if all gaseous giants have the same composition. There is only one in my Solar System, after all." Tiravel's project was much more time-consuming than anything else. The reason being mainly Liu Shu's lack of materials. After all, to create the small boat-sized island that was now scattered like debris, Liu Shu needed around a month. To fill Tiravel's sky with hundreds, if not thousands, of life-supporting floating islands, the time she would need would be extraordinary.

"But… There is a way to lower this time drastically." Her gaze moved away from Tiravel and looked around it. As a gas giant, the planet had over 200 moons of several sizes. Some were even larger than Ceperet's Moon, while others were petite enough to almost be confused as asteroids.

"Materials…" Her lips arched.

"I have plenty." Her body's aura expanded for a second, alarming everyone, but in the next second, she threw all her energy down into her root-net. THUMP! A low, flat, yet loud sound struck everyone's hearts, startling them. Then, this energy reversed through Liu Shu's perfect root net, bouncing from node to node and arriving at Tiravel in less than a few seconds. Once there, Liu Shu zoomed out her gaze, overlooking everything like a great god, and got to work.

Spatial rifts opened, her roots manifesting around the hundreds of moons and striking down with the entirety of her strength. BANG! BANG! BANG!... Moons cracked, some spewing lava from their heated cores, while others directly lost their spherical shape and crumbled into massive chunks that followed their previous orbit. Liu Shu was ruthless with these moons, holding them in little regard beyond their material value.

Then, using most of her processing capabilities, she began transforming these moons and moving chunks from different ones to mix into the materials needed for the floating islands. Her attack was all-encompassing, blue-glowing roots shadowing the skies above Tiravel as its moons collapsed one by one. The World Tree's might, exposed to the void in full display, would've left anyone in Ceperet trembling.

Her millions of <Stats> translated into moon-shattering capabilities, and while it took effort to dismantle the bigger ones, Liu Shu's relentless assault from the outside and inside allowed her to collapse even the largest moons.

"The Moon is usually important to help illuminate the dark side of the planet at night." Liu Shu pondered as her roots crushed the Moons into chunks.

"However, Tiravel's atmosphere is just… too thick. The light of the Moon can't pierce through the uppermost layer. A Gas Giant is basically a year-round cloudy world." This made Tiravel much darker than what one would expect.

"Therefore, what I need is Feltera's characteristics in Tiravel's atmosphere." Feltera, the crystalline world, was the polar opposite of Tiravel. Even on the "dark side" of the planet, the night could barely be considered as such. The crystalline qualities of the world made the "night" feel like Dusk at the darkest hours. Moreover, with the multitude of sky-spanning auroras, even those "dark" hours were illuminated by the auroras. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

If Tiravel's atmosphere prevented its lower layers from receiving any sunlight, Feltera was like a massive disco ball.

"So…" Liu Shu's gaze moved toward Feltera, and her roots got to work.

"Let me borrow part of your surface, Feltera." The world quaked, roots materializing everywhere as massive chunks of the world got twisted, crushed, and eventually devoured by spatial vortexes. With the help of Liu Shu's <Eternal> attribute to avoid things from collapsing more than she needed, she managed to bring to Tiravel's atmosphere chunks of Feltera's crystalline surface.

"Now… I will crush everything and let the winds grind it into powder. These crystals will act as countless mirrors, reflecting light from the surface of Tiravel further down.

"The distance should be more than enough to cover the 'livable' space of the floating islands. Floating islands will, naturally, spawn further down into the darkness and quite high into places too bright. However, this doesn't matter. The darker and brighter locations will only foment variety in flora and fauna, perhaps creating future 'factions' of 'dark dwellers' and 'sky dwellers' with the 'mortal islands' in between." Liu Shu's eyes shone with amusement. She was truly curious about how Tiravel would develop.

While she crushed the moons and powdered Feltera's chunks onto Tiravel, her gaze returned to Tiravel.

"Hm… I guess the destruction I caused will create a large environmental chain. Rain, landmass shifts, new cycles… A perfect brewing condition for new life to spawn. Moreover, the amount I took out is enough to lower temperatures to the point that life can start its adaptation without being overwhelmed by the extreme weather.' So, Liu Shu glanced around Nualis, Vorathen, and Ceperet, her spatial powers taking different chunks of forest, ocean, volcanic areas, and such.

All life she moved was naturally low-level and lacking any high-level intelligence. What Liu Shu needed was not proper "human-like" intelligence, but an initial form of natively evolved lifeforms. Even microscopic organisms were okay.

"When my powers evolve in the future, as a World Tree, I will most likely be able to either accelerate evolution, push natural cycles to develop faster, or directly manipulate time to a certain degree." So, she wasn't worried. Everything she needed was native lifeforms that could resist the world's peculiar extreme atmosphere. Once those emerged, everything else could be slowly arranged in the future. Two years followed quickly, and Liu Shu noticed that her 115th birthday was around the corner.

During this time, Liu Shu focused on four things: Vorathen, Feltera, Tiravel, and the biological computer. While she worked, she didn't ignore those close to her. Aionthra, her Sylvan children's dungeon dives, her lovers, Flor, and the alraune children… Liu Shu made sure to successfully divide her attention and interact occasionally with everyone. Still, the amount of focus the three planets and new technology took out of her was noticed by her family, as she was much more absent. Naturally, no one blamed her.

Liu Shu was the World Tree of their civilization, one who was not ignoring them and developing by herself, but trying to drag the entirety of her society to soar through the cosmos together with herself. She might be extremely ruthless with those who broke the rules, but all of it was because Liu Shu couldn't afford to be merciful. Forgiving once was not a problem, but twice was too much.

Like always, her motto was "I can give you a second chance, but if you ask for a third, you clearly aren't willing to learn from your mistakes." While Liu Shu continuously worked without rest, Aionthra's voice reached her.

"Mother, I felt a fluctuation at the edge of your domain."

"Hm?" Liu Shu stopped her research and looked over to the location Aionthra pointed to. There, she saw a few ships. Her eyes focused, displaying their System Pages. [Level 155 Merchant Astral Ship (World Grade Flawless Level)] [Level 160 Merchant Obsidian Spaceship (World Grade Flawless Level)] … There were around 28 vessels soaring through the void quite quickly; their direction was without a doubt Ceperet.

'Merchant ships?' Her eyes squinted, smelling conspiracy. It was not because she was too paranoid, but because the chance of so many vessels arriving together from different companies was just… too coincidental.

'Not to mention, they are merchant ships, but… where are their guards?' She felt a slight disdain for whoever sent these ships.

'Do they take me as someone easy to trick? Or do they believe that I am as slow as the other World Trees?' She had learned quite a bit during the recent years while speaking with Xalis and the others. After that day at the conference, the insectoids fully decided to integrate into her society. What else could they do when Liu Shu bathed them in her Blessings? In a single step, they all soared to the sky, many of those that had been stuck at Level 149 successively making breakthroughs into Level 150.

By now, the number of <Sixth Energy Cycles> in the Golden Sap Empire had reached around 200 individuals, with around 6 managing to reach Level 175, gaining Star Lord Level strength. Among these 6 were Xalis, Zerrek, Rhex, Cael, and the two new ones, Elyne and Lysara. Together, they made quite a comprehensive party. Rhex and Cael were frontline fighters with powerful defensive skills, and Zerrek was a melee fighter with shredding capabilities, while Xalix and Lyssara were both ranged damage dealers.

Finally, Elyne's supporting abilities were incredibly exceptional. All of them buffed by Liu Shu had stats strong enough to crush five average Star Lord Level powerhouses by themselves. So, even when these 28 vessels were coming over, Liu Shu was not nervous in the slightest. Instead, her eyes shone with interest.

'I wonder what your intentions are?' Aionthra, meanwhile, felt displeased that some random people dared to enter her mother's domain without permission. With her usual royal tone, she caressed Liu Shu's roots and spoke coldly.

"Mother, you should teach them a lesson and slaughter a few of them. Next time, they will learn to at least notify you before they dare desecrate your domain with their filthy ships." During the last few years, Aionthra had become a "mommy girl" to the extreme. She was constantly observing Liu Shu's domain, and the second she found someone doing something half-shady, she would warn Liu Shu and suggest quite a few brutal punishments.

Moreover, as someone born with the qualities of an empress, her ability to judge and develop the empire was top-notch. She sometimes made suggestions, which Liu Shu relayed to Flor and the others as a "messenger." Of course, no one knew of Aionthra's existence, as she was her "secret" Dungeon Boss daughter, whom she pampered greatly. Hearing Aionthra's suggestion, Liu Shu chuckled and used her roots to gently caress her face.

"Don't worry, baby. If they dare have evil intent… I'll just treat them as fertilizer for my armies." Aionthra's cold face melted away, actively rubbing against the root like a pleased cat.

"Alright, Mother. As you say."