It took another year from that point before a tiny fruit grew on the 50-meter-tall bone tree. Surprisingly though, the fruit seemed like it was nothing special.
From afar, the Seamstress noticed his actions, smiling as she shook her head, muttering to herself, "This guy…"
Krune carefully plucked the fruit, noticing the tree begin to wilt immediately like wet grass dropped in the middle of the desert. He judged that it would finish wilting within an hour at this pace. He could also hear the rock pillar rumbling as a result as it began to destabilize.
Krune hurriedly returned, also not forgetting the sever the rope bridge connecting to it. He didn't want the crumbling rock pillar to hit the other rock pillars because of this rope bridge, which was stretched completely taut.
After he discovered the method to grow King-level Rope Bushes, the rope bridges created out of it were even sturdier. With that, there was a good chance the rope bridge would pull the crumbling rock pillar towards the rock pillar connected by it.
It took Krune more than ten minutes to finish severing it as he was sweating by the end of it, having forgotten to bring his Whale Tooth Sword. He could only use the knife he usually carried, so it took him time to cut it off.
Once it was done, he traveled far away, sighing when he noticed the rock pillar crumble like sand. It didn't fall on any other rock pillars and just crumbled to the ground, creating a massive dust cloud in the process.
The only ones to be affected by it would be the Great Dippers living beneath the cloud layer. Krune wasn't concerned about that as he looked at the fruit in his hand that was only the size of his palm. He then cautiously approached the pool where he had relocated the final of the six Emperor Monsters that he had taken more than a decade to grow.
"I hope you succeed," Krune said solemnly as he tossed it into the opened mouth of the Emperor Monster below. There was nothing else he could do other than this. It was the time of warm currents in the ocean above, so the place had turned warm.
Not only that, but he no longer hindered it from trying to form a cocoon, which he had done for more than a decade. The moment it swallowed the fruit, the Emperor Monster closed its mouth, seemingly struggling as its nerves became highlighted on its skin, seemingly on the verge of bursting.
And to survive, since it was no longer hindered while the climatic conditions were perfect, it began to form a cocoon. This was the reason he went with this species to achieve his target the moment he saw it.
It was the characteristic of the species itself. A pupa would form a cocoon and evolve into its adult form. This evolution was their principal characteristic that he could use. After all, the stronger it grew while in the pupa stage, the stronger it was as an adult.
Though, as all pupae began to form a cocoon the moment they met the requirements, Krune wasn't able to find out their limit.
Simply based on his experience, its Mutated version seemed the strongest out of the numerous Mutated species he had seen. Not only that, but he had also chanced upon their King versions, among both the pupa and the adult, realizing that both were even stronger than a Sonic Radar, the strongest King he had ever seen. In that state itself, they had already reached the same level of strength as a Monster Gecko Emperor.
With that, Krune was assured that once the monster had reached its limit as an Emperor Monster, and if it spun a cocoon, it would be able to reach the next stage. After all, it had the highest growth potential. Moreover, he was boosting it with the bone trees by concentrating the Blood Essence of their race in their bodies for decades.
And as he had experimented and collated during his thirteen plus years of stay in the Secondary Landmass, the Emperor Monster began to form a cocoon around itself, finishing the entire process within a couple of days.
He noticed that some of its blood vessels had ruptured from the sheer density of energy circulating through it. But in the end, it finished creating a cocoon. Krune looked at it as days turned into months and months turned into years.
Three years later, the cocoon forming it cracked, breaking little by little. Upon seeing it, tears began to well from his eyes as he had spent tremendous time on it.
"Yes! Yess! Yesss!" Krune touched the ground as he cried, watching the cocoon completely break to reveal a creature that was serene, having the gentlest of appearance. The moment it appeared, even the air surrounding air turned a tad warm, occasionally accompanied by cold winds that made the place peaceful and refreshing.
It had a long, streamlined body, shaped like a whale with a flat top and bottom. On its forehead grew a horn, spanning a length of five meters. On top of that, its tail was like a tadpole's. Attached to its end were a pair of fins, creating a beautiful curve.
Attached to the sides of its body were a pair of fins that were a mix between wings and flappers, looking like it was made using an elastic material of sorts that caused it to expand into large wings or contract it into tiny retractable flippers when necessary.
Lastly, it had a pair of humane eyes that blinked, with every flap of its eyelids mesmerizing. Overall, it had a hint of peacefulness to it that prevented anyone seeing it from harboring any sort of animosity against it at all.
Supreme Monster!
'D-Do I have to kill it?' Krune felt his thoughts stammer as he looked at it. He wasn't an individual with staggering killing intent in the first place. He was someone who only killed when necessary. Even though he had reaped a lot of lives in the past decade, enough to amass a tremendous quantity of killing intent, it only took one look at the creature before him to forget all notions of killing.
He craned his hand, gently placing it near its eyes, watching the eye focus on him, expressing a humane helplessness. Upon seeing the expression, Krune was confused before frowning, noticing a blood vessel next to its eye rupture, spilling blood on him.
At first, since he had planned to kill the Supreme Monster and absorb its blood, Krune had swallowed two Water Essence, their final stock. The remaining two were in the hands of the Seamstress for her use.
And now, he stared helplessly as blood vessels on the Supreme Monster burst one after another, spilling its blood on him. Krune stared at it with widened eyes, making eye contact as it seemed to be able to convey its emotions and thoughts to him through eye contact.
'I succeeded in the evolution, but my body is unable to handle the resultant stress.'
'I'm about to die now.'
'So, take me with you!'
"A-Alright." For some reason, he began to cry involuntarily as Krune stretched his hand, placing it near the biggest wound in its head, noticing its eye stare at him with an expression of content.
Slowly, its eyes lost focus, losing their light as it slowly closed its eyes. Immediately, something stirred up from within it as its blood essence spilled out through its bleeding injury, touching Krune, seeping into him slowly to the extent he didn't even feel any pain.
It seemed until its final moments, it was a creature that was the embodiment of peacefulness. Even while its essence seeped into him, it made it painless. Krune stared at it for two days as its blood essence seeped into him before stopping.
Its body slowly began to dissipate as particles of light, vanishing as even its blood followed suit, leaving behind a Krune that was seated on the ground, panting as he shed tears once again.
"Why couldn't it just be a monster that would have killed me if I slipped up even the slightest?" Krune hugged his knees, continuing to cry as he was depressed. He remained within the place for two more days before he got up due to hunger, unable to endure it any longer.
After eating, he slept. For the next one week, he did not do anything but alternate between the two, finally getting over it as he brisked himself, smacking his cheeks as he summoned his tablet.
There was an announcement to everyone in Layer 3 about the birth of the tenth king.
"Wait, tenth?"
He then looked at the name of the person in ninth place, surprised as he heard a series of footsteps before the Seamstress arrived, telling him, "You were depressed for the past week, so I didn't get the opportunity to tell this to you. But it seems I was a couple of hours earlier than you."
Krune laughed after hearing that. "I guess it's congratulations to the both of us. We managed to obtain everything we needed from this layer."
"Let's head out for a walk, then. We hardly ever relaxed for the past 17 years. It seems even though we have become mortals, our cultivator mindset hasn't vanished yet." The Seamstress laughed as she accompanied Krune, heading out as they walked on a rope bridge, taking in a refreshing breath of fresh air.
Now that they had achieved all their objectives, they felt free of stress, wishing to just lay back and relax. As they walked, Krune asked, "What do you plan to do once you return to the God Realm?"
"Same old, same usual." She laughed. "I don't think I'll ever get bored of repeating what I had been doing before I arrived here."
She then looked at Krune, asking, "What about you? Do you have any plans?"
"I'll start searching for Feifei while cultivating to become an immortal so that I can bring my kids to the God Realm." Krune sighed once. "It's been too long since I last saw them. As a mortal, the passage of time is an unbreakable curse. I feel like I can't even remember the faces of my wife and kids that clearly anymore."