As dusk fell, James Lone opened the subspace again and discovered the tentacle monster was dead. Its flesh was shriveled, leaving only a thick outer skin tightly wrapped around the steamroller, an oddly comical sight. Within his perception, the mass of twisted flesh inside remained brightly illuminated.

Climbing onto the monster's corpse, James Lone found the surface mucous dry and hardened, making it quite tough. He walked over to the twisted flesh and struck it with an axe.

Minutes later, James excavated a blood-red gem!

To his amazement, the twisted flesh had crystallized into this gem post-mortem. It retained the shape of flesh, now turned transparent, rendering it somewhat eerie.

"Can this thing still convert into Qi?"

Removing the gem from subspace, it immediately began absorbing the violet mist, releasing flecks of Qi. Overflowing with joy, James thought, "It really works!"

With this, he could enhance Qi concentration while practicing his breathing technique, speeding up cultivation. He stored the flesh crystal into his personal space.

Could he harvest more tentacle monsters?

Remembering the inpatient section of Johnson Hospital in New York, he felt compelled to act. Acting on impulse, he opened a portal and headed there again.

Understanding the monster's nature gave James the confidence to confront it. While dangerous to ordinary survivors and other ability users, for him, it was a typical threat—an escape via phase shift if matters escalated.

Activating his phase shift, he exited the portal, landing atop the inpatient building. What he saw left him startled.

The building's outer walls were now teeming with cocoons!

Within his perception, countless tentacle monsters crawled ashore from the Hudson River, advancing inland. Animals encountered were swiftly cocooned.

James's expression darkened.

Moreover, not all tentacle monsters housed twisted flesh. The ones here couldn't absorb the mist. Delaying no longer, James opened another portal, transporting himself to a spot 200 meters from the riverbank.

Here, once a neighborhood, now also crawling with many tentacle monsters—all residents had long fled.

Within perceptual range, not a single human remained. Entwined around trees, tentacle monsters leaped from branches, and myriad terrified animals scattered.

Caught unaware, any animal was captured, cocooned, and hung on branches. Even car-sized giant cats succumbed to strangulation and binding, swiftly cocooned.

Damn!

James's face turned grim.

Opening another portal, he moved it above the Hudson River, peering out cautiously from subspace.

Underwater, his perception detected intense red glows everywhere!

Amidst warfare, all manner of terrifying, mutated fish, shrimp, frogs, crabs, water snakes were evolving violently. Some creatures, bearing resemblance to tentacle monsters, rampaged dominantly. The unobstructed underwater realm was the true hellscape!

All surviving aquatic life exhibited prodigious sizes. Among them, some housed "ginger," evidence of Enlightenment fruits existing underwater.

James was left utterly shocked.

"If such brutality plays out within narrow streams, what terrifying scenes must unfold at sea!"

Under normal circumstances, let these creatures fight amongst themselves—they shouldn't concern humanity. But what if they came ashore? Like the tentacle monsters.

Numerous aquatic creatures are inherently amphibious too!

James felt an ominous heaviness.

Never had he imagined the greatest threat lay beneath the water, not on land.

Flee?

Where to flee?

As one of America's largest cities, New York was transformed beyond recognition. What about areas beyond NY's borders?

No!

Terrestrial realms were too perilous. It was imperative to move home to the Pearl Tower.

Both removal from the land and distancing from seas and rivers.

Let the authorities handle aquatic monstrosities upon landfall—it's their problem now. If disaster strikes, let the tallest shoulder it first.

Enjoy playing turtle at the TV station—let's see how long that lasts with the waters' menace!

Finishing a quick search, James discovered only one tentacle monster containing twisted flesh—much larger than the previous one, easily ten times bigger—and lying deep underwater.

Not risking it, James opened a portal, bound for New York's Pearl Tower.

Two successive transports landed James on the Pearl Tower's observation deck.

From his perception, five survivors remained alive within the tower.

This was unexpected.

But they were ordinary people, not ability users—no urgency to trouble them.

James stood 300 meters high, overlooking New York City. The violet mist blanketed the cityscape below, with sparse skyscrapers poking through the mist.

Taller, denser than skyscrapers, the trees.

Poplars, willows, sycamores, gingkoes—all varieties.

Some had reached astonishing heights, surpassing the Pearl Tower itself.

Built like self-sustaining ecosystems, these gargantuan trees cast massive shadows overhead, teeming with animal life.

A colossal tree stood about a kilometer from the TV tower, its crown housing an odd troop of monkeys.

Sporting white faces and black backs, each possessed four arms.

Detected, the monkeys shrieked loudly, deftly leaping across branches before vanishing into the mist.

James sighed.

"Perhaps Earth's return to past conditions is an impossibility now."

Gazing eastward, where the azure ocean once spread unbroken, now veiled by mist.

No skyscrapers nor trees adorned the ocean—just an endless sea of mist, akin to rolling clouds.

Suddenly, a gargantuan sea serpent burst forth nearly 100 meters through the mist!

Covered in alternating silver and blue scales, it bore horrendous bone wings on either side, triple rows of spiky bone on its back.

Below, its body towered beyond imagination, head amidst the clouds, lower half in the mist, clutching a colossal cruise ship as if it were a cigarette.

Proportionately appraised, the serpent stretched at least 5,000 meters!

Unbelievable!

James was left speechless.

Confronting such an inconceivably terrifying creature, words failed him.

"Roar!"

The serpent issued a world-shattering roar.

The mist within a hundred-mile radius quivered violently.

Then, it arced across the sky, crashing heavily into the water.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

Thunderous strikes echoed like nuclear explosions.

A water column ascended skyward, accompanied by a rainbow.

James stared at the violet mist, dumbstruck for a long while before uttering,

"Christ! My God! Almighty!"