Chapter 229

Chapter 229: If You’re Not the Child of Destiny, Don’t Expect to Get Something for Nothing

Barbatos was stunned.

He returned to his "secret domain" and found a shocking fact that made his blood pressure soar—his whole family was gone.

Of course, calling those "Outer Gods from the Void" his family might be too much, but at least they were his "dogs" or "horses."

But now, there were no "dogs" or "horses" left here, not even a hair remained.

Clearly, a vicious fellow barged in here, carried out mass slaughter, and nearly wiped out the Outer Gods.

According to the vague memories of a few survivors, that fellow was a terrible "Chaos Demon God," but they had never seen such a dragon-like form, with strength above a "core councilor."

He was powerful, quick, and great at fighting.

Even the Outer Gods couldn’t escape his chase.

But what scared the survivors more was that this guy didn’t just eat the divinity of the Outer Gods; he gobbled up their flesh and blood!

He yelled strange, twisted slogans.

He seemed totally insane!

Hearing these reports, Barbatos cursed, "Damn it!"

"How dare he kill my horses!"

Of course, Barbatos was far stronger than these weak Outer Gods, both in his sense for magic and in magical battle experience; he quickly figured out the key details from the magic traces at the scene and the chaotic signs left by the "mad god."

"Even with all this disguise, and changing his Divine Body completely, ditching his wings; no matter what he turns into, I can spot her!"

"It’s Gimmerly, right?!"

It wasn’t that Barbatos liked Gimmerly, but she was very good at spying, especially on the Chaos Demon God.

If any other god came along, he could tell it was them too.

"Lady Xidi keeps saying Gimmerly vanished, yet she alters her looks to raid my secret base?!"

"Boom—!"

"Roar—!"

Barbatos slammed his hand against the Fantasy Tree of Subspace, bellowing loudly.

"Humph! First, she led the Star-Eater Plutonium Dragons to wreck my open territory; then she made Gimmerly change her form to kill the Outer Gods I raised."

"No doubt, that woman Lady Xidi is out to get me!"

"Hmm…"

But in the end, Barbatos held back his rage.

He had to admit that Lady Xidi’s moves were very clever, and no one could find fault openly, leaving him helpless.

"The Star-Eater Plutonium Dragons were led to attack my land, and they had to fight back on my turf to push off the enemy."

"That’s a win."

"No one blames a winner."

"And I found no proof she meant to guide the Star-Eater Plutonium Dragons."

“It was as if the Star-Eater Plutonium Dragons became smart overnight.”

“This was clearly unreasonable, yet I couldn’t pinpoint the problem. It was truly…”

At this thought, Barbatos had to agree that Lady Xidi truly deserved her position as the Twelfth Seat; her schemes were terrifyingly brilliant!

“This time too!”

“These Outer Gods from the Void were my privately trained ones, and I didn’t report them to the council.”

The Chaos Council actually required each seat member to declare their subordinate officials and the Fantasy Trees they occupied, but this open rule was generally ignored; instead, most Chaos Demon Gods privately cultivated their own power.

These powers weren’t meant to deal with the “Order Gods”; rather, they were weapons aimed at and prepared against other members.

They hid beneath the table, so when these powers were destroyed by colleagues, the surface rules couldn’t punish them.

“Tsk…”

After deep contemplation, Barbatos finally made a decision.

“Let’s do this: for now, withdraw a portion of the power invested in the Bubble World.”

“Sending a few capable assistants to maintain the status quo will be enough.”

“At this stage, my serious hidden trouble wasn’t those pathetic Order Gods, but rather that terrifying colleague, Lady Xidi!”

“She was the true mastermind behind all of this!”

—-

“Oh oh oh!”

“Very good, very good.”

Trilobite was overjoyed.

He watched the Chaos Energy flowing in continuously, nodding in satisfaction.

The system prompt—[Expected to earn 50,000 points of Chaos Energy]—made him even more pleased.

“Well then…”

Having received the funds, it was time to get to work.

Trilobite began his role as an evolution design master once again.

“Ah, actually, it wasn’t that difficult.”

Many people praised certain creatures or humans for being so exquisite, so precise, declaring them masterpieces that nature couldn’t have evolved; as a paleontologist, Trilobite couldn’t help but laugh at this.

Damn, it wasn’t that precise.

The human body was filled with various organs that were all “just good enough,” “the lifespan was only thirty years, after that it wasn’t my problem,” “this thing might not be very useful and could cause inflammation, but it was inherited from our ancestors, so let’s just keep it around,” and so on.

It was basically a combination of “I think it works” and “patch upon patch.”

To say that it was this huge pile of things patched together enough to be usable, there was some truth to its brilliance.

But it certainly wasn’t the “exquisite” and “precise” that some amateur scientists claimed.

Maybe turning a fish into a pterosaur was a task that Trilobite couldn’t handle.

However, he certainly knew how to turn a Bunny Lizard into a creature similar to a pterosaur.

“First of all, with such long arms and legs, didn’t it look odd?”

“Shouldn’t we add something in between?”

“Come on! Let’s set up the membrane!”

“Add some chest muscles so you can flex the membrane!”

“Perfect!”

Trilobite was determined to be a crafty merchant.

Even though Gimmerly had slain many Chaos Demon Gods to gather enough Chaos Energy again, Trilobite refused to achieve it in one step.

Instead, he kept creating an intermediate form.

And so…

“Whew—!”

Trilobite nodded as he examined the winged "Bunny Lizard."

“Hmm, this matches my hypothesis—the transitional form between Bunny Lizards and pterosaurs. The Triassic Gliding Lizard.”

“Ah, let’s just call it Gliding Lizard.”

Of course, no fossils of "Gliding Lizard" had been found yet, and similar animal fossils were scarce. But this never stopped paleontologists from piecing together clues to speculate about such transitional creatures.

It was widely accepted that pterosaur ancestors evolved from Bunny Lizard-like forms to early wing-flapping pterosaurs through gliding species like this.

Truthfully, lizard-like creatures took a detour in their flight evolution.

From Coelurosaur to modern flying lizards, they either extended ribs or tried reinforcing membranes with bony structures—all stubbornly chasing wings without putting in the effort.

That could never work!

They weren’t fate’s chosen insects.

Free gains like that just didn’t happen!

By contrast, archosaurs followed a more practical path skyward.

Though Gliding Lizards couldn’t fly yet, their limb-supported membranes between arms and legs pointed the right way.

They probably clung to their decent Terrestrial Mobility. Once they let go of that reluctance, true flight would follow.

Bats likely soared by this very route.

“Done!”

“That’s all for today’s knowledge payment.”

“Until next time!”

“Remember—come back when you’ve got Chaos Energy!”

“As for me…”

Trilobite narrowed his eyes, gazing ahead.

In the distance, another thick fog swelled.

He was no longer surprised by these "fogs."

Where fog appeared, lakes were approaching!