Achieving Demon Godhood from Unlocking Talents

"I'm fine, Uncle Wei."

Shaking her head, Su Muqing composed herself. Led by a Personal Guard, she walked through the corridor and across the lawn, slowly making her way out of the main hall.

Wei Cangming was curious but didn't dare ask any questions.

Just as the two of them were about to leave the estate's main hall...

RUSTLE.

The soft sound of footsteps echoed as they felt their vision dim slightly.

A group of figures emerged from the fountain corridor. The man in the lead looked to be around thirty. He was tall, nearly two meters, with short golden hair, and wore a silk robe reminiscent of the old-world aristocracy.

His masculine features gave him a powerful, martial air, and he came to a stop directly in front of Su Muqing and her companion.

"I never thought Ji Lixian would actually help you."

The golden-haired Su Tianyang spoke calmly, his voice deep and resonant.

Su Muqing looked up to meet his gaze but said nothing.

"Heh."

After a few seconds of silence, Su Tianyang glanced at Wei Cangming behind her, and then at the team of elite security waiting outside the main hall.

"Not bad. You're learning to use your resources. It seems you finally understand the importance of strength."

An enigmatic smile touched the corner of his lips. Wei Cangming lowered his head slightly, not daring to meet his eyes.

Su Muqing still didn't speak, her eyes fixed on his ink-black pupils.

The atmosphere grew tense, yet the surrounding Personal Guards acted as if they saw nothing, and no one stepped forward to intervene.

Finally, with steady steps, Su Tianyang ignored their expressions and strode past, his shoulder brushing against hers.

He headed straight for the main hall, leaving only the sound of his mocking laughter to drift back to them on the breeze.

"Don't you dare think that just because you have the Superpower Bureau backing you, you can actually compete with me."

"My foolish sister."

...

WHIRRR!!

The massive glass elevator was over a hundred square meters. Dozens of elites from the Superpower Squads and patrol teams stood inside, protecting the delegation of specialists.

As their center of gravity shifted downward, they felt a momentary sensation of weightlessness.

The elevator plunged into the earth, descending into the Hive District like a vessel breaking through the waves.

The bright, domed sky rapidly receded from view, replaced by a subterranean rock stratum that glowed with countless light sources.

"So this is...the Hive District."

It was the first time here for Chen Xiao, the new captain Yang Heng, and the others. They stood by the glass walls with looks of amazement, peering out through the transparent car at the world outside.

The subterranean rock stratum had silently become the new ceiling of their world. Thousands upon thousands of lights, encased in metal frames, were embedded within the rock.

Hollow concrete pillars stretched from floor to ceiling, reaching nearly a thousand meters in height like passages to the world above. Steel cables and gears slid along their surfaces, while countless steel frames surrounded and reinforced them, supporting the ascent and descent of the glass elevators.

Dozens of these city-pillars were scattered throughout the urban area, standing tall and unyielding like a host of giants.

Other glass elevators of the same size rose in the opposite direction, endlessly climbing as they crisscrossed paths with them.

Looking down at the city below, they saw a dense landscape of gray concrete buildings packed tightly together. The windows and neon signs were crammed as close as cells in a honeycomb, leaving almost no empty space.

Pipes clung to the sides of the concrete buildings, stretching ever downward. Occasionally, open-air elevators made of iron scaffolding would appear, hinting at even deeper subterranean levels.

"One-third of the subterranean space in the Red Maple City Circle is the Hive District."

His voice was tinged with emotion. It wasn't Sun Jiayuan's first time here, and he quietly explained, "There's no distinction between a main urban area and satellite cities down here. Rent is half of what it is on the surface."

"A lot of the lower-class residents, including some laborers and gang members, actually live here... But I've heard that living here for too long can easily lead to eye and skin diseases."

His tone was somewhat wistful. The other Superpower Members inside the glass elevator had similar expressions, and even Lu Chao felt a strange emotion welling up inside him.

Looking down, the people and cars moving through the streets below looked as dense as a colony of ants.

From the moment they entered this underground world, they all felt their breathing grow heavy—whether it was psychological or not, the air seemed thick with a suffocating oppressiveness.

Subconsciously, to most of them, this world felt like a cramped, suffocating cage.

"There is actually still much room for improvement here."

Suddenly, Secretary-General Luo Xuan, who was being protected in the very center, spoke softly, her eyes fixed on the subterranean streets drawing ever closer.

Lu Chao was taken aback for a moment, then he heard her explain, "Gas pipelines, water sources, new urban construction, adding more access tunnels to the surface..."

"We came to Red Maple to conduct this city circle inspection precisely because we hope to make this place better."

Her voice was soft, but her words carried weight.

The members of the Superpower Squads and patrol teams were all slightly stunned to hear this. Lu Chao's gaze shifted as he looked at her back.

"Red Maple is a representative Wilderness Shelter City. We hope to use it as a model, to integrate more shelter cities into the Alliance Country in the future."

"This isn't just about reclaiming the lost wastelands of the wilderness; it's also about resolving the issue of warlord conflicts, so that our Earth Star can truly become one unified whole."

At this point, she seemed to look around at everyone in the elevator through their reflections in the glass. Her words were like a reassurance, yet they also seemed to hint at something more. "The universe is vast, and the starry sky is boundless."

"Only a unified Earth Star is qualified to continue developing... So, everyone, I'll have to trouble you to put your best efforts into this inspection."

Her words, and the conviction behind them, resonated in everyone's hearts.

In that moment, Lu Chao finally understood why the Alliance Country was so determined to complete the city circle integration with Red Maple.

He even recalled the admonition left by the Starry Sky Hero, which demanded that the Alliance Country assist the wilderness settlements as much as possible.

There were also Ji Lixian's words: behind the Five Major Enterprises were behemoths that even the Alliance Country had to respect.

It was obvious. When facing extraterrestrial civilizations and interstellar powers, only a unified Earth Star could truly negotiate with them and seek further development.

HUM!

At last, the massive glass elevator reached the bottom.

The car shuddered slightly before settling smoothly on the ground, arriving in a plaza within the Hive District.

A district of towering concrete buildings came into view. An old hovercar flew past overhead, causing the elevator's steel cables to tremble slightly.

The streets and buildings were just as densely packed as they had appeared from above.

An advance team of elites from the Superpower Bureau, led by Yao Jin, had already arrived. They stood guard near the exit, armed and ready, to provide support and prevent any incidents.

Even Du Lie, the Superpower Level expert from the City Lord's Mansion, kept his emotions in check as he led a contingent of the patrol team to seal off all entrances to the underground plaza, leaving only a row of black sedans waiting by the street.

CLICK!

The massive glass doors of the elevator slid open automatically, and the circulating air once again filled their nostrils.

Perhaps because of Secretary-General Luo Xuan's earlier words, everyone was still a bit lost in thought.

It wasn't until she strode out first, the sound of her high heels clicking on the floor reaching their ears, that they snapped out of it.

Lu Chao took a deep breath. He suddenly felt a new weight on his shoulders.

"Let's go."

THUD! THUD!

With steady steps, he led the heavily armed members of the Superpower Squad out of the giant glass doors.

Regardless of what the upper echelons of the Alliance Country were planning, and regardless of the attitudes of the City Lord's Mansion and the elder families, at the very least, he was now a Superpower Team Leader.

The inspection had to continue, and he had to see his responsibility through to the end.

Instantly, his people followed.

Sun Jiayuan, Chen Xiao, and the others, all working in tacit agreement, began to disperse and blend into various parts of the district.

A smaller group stayed with him, forming a close protection detail for Luo Xuan and the others as they rendezvoused with Yao Jin and headed for the row of black Sharp Light sedans parked by the street.

Instantly, eyes from all corners of the Hive District were on them. A tattooed hoodlum stood in a corner; a middle-aged man in work clothes paused to watch from a distance.

A youth with cybernetic implants stood on an open-air, iron-frame elevator attached to a building, squinting down at them through a haze of cigarette smoke. A repairman servicing a neon sign, suspended halfway up a wall, also frowned and cast his gaze in their direction.

Their arrival seemed to have shattered some unspoken peace.

The gazes held a mixture of emotions, and there was no shortage of hidden malice.

But the convoy of vehicles drove on smoothly.

Following Luo Xuan's predetermined itinerary, they gradually entered the various building complexes of the Hive District.