Chapter 542

Chapter 542: The Branches of the Strong

Soon, the Federation Military bases in the area where Morris was pursuing Mares began to mobilize urgently.

One by one, small space battleships rushed towards the designated location at full speed.

Through the high-ranking leaders of the military, Morris quickly grasped the positions of these small space battleships.

Twenty minutes later, as the distance between him and Mares widened, making the pursuit increasingly difficult, one small space battleship successfully arrived at the predetermined area.

He immediately changed direction and quickly made his way to this small space battleship.

The Captain of the small space battleship had been prepared. After the scanner detected Morris, he ordered the battleship to stop and opened the hatch without delay.

In less than ten seconds, Morris arrived and entered the small space battleship, which was not very spacious compared to his size.

The Captain promptly issued commands.

The hatch closed, and the energy shield activated.

Then, they accelerated quickly towards the area Morris specified.

When the small space battleship exceeded the speed of light and reached a region free from the influence of surrounding celestial bodies, they activated the Space Jump System.

The next moment, they appeared hundreds of light-years away.

Morris immediately left the small space battleship, and his Perception Ability quickly spread out.

The small space battleship then turned back towards the nearest military base.

Only Morris remained, anxiously waiting alone.

Fortunately, the anxious wait did not last long.

At the edge of his Perception Ability, he caught sight of Mares.

This made Morris’s worried heart finally relax.

Thankfully, his prediction was correct!

Based on Mares’s direction and speed, he predicted where Mares might arrive, allowing the small space battleship to use the Space Jump System to arrive in this area in advance and wait.

Luck was on his side.

Mares, busy escaping, did not change direction.

As long as the initial prediction was correct, even if Mares managed to escape again and realized why he appeared ahead, it wouldn’t matter if he changed direction.

Because a large number of small space battleships had already begun to set up defenses in the area.

Additionally, the entire galaxy was under the monitoring zone of the human federation.

Unless Mares had the ability and means to shield against the scanners, he would inevitably fall within the combined monitoring of the human federation covering the entire galaxy and numerous small space battleships.

“You can’t escape your fate!”

Morris proactively moved to intercept Mares.

“How could this happen?”

Soon, the fleeing Mares sensed Morris coming head-on at full speed.

He was startled.

He never expected that the Morris, who had been trailing behind and increasing the distance, would suddenly appear in front of him.

Without any hesitation, he quickly turned to escape.

But he was still a moment too late.

By the time he turned around, the distance between them had already entered Morris’s area of attack.

Morris had also learned from experience this time.

He knew that Mares possessed powerful treasures with strong defense strength.

Therefore, he did not recklessly launch a strong assault.

Giant branches transformed into a massive net, intercepting Mares’s escape path before he could turn around.

This large net successfully blocked his way faster than Mares.

Mares turned pale in shock and tried to escape to the side.

But the net quickly extended branches once again, sealing off his escape route to the side.

Morris’s tactics clearly restrained Mares perfectly.

His speed was slightly inferior to Mares.

However, his short-term explosive power during attacks was a bit faster than Mares’s speed.

With this, he could completely block Mares’s escape route at a not-too-far distance.

No matter how fast Mares was, he could not escape the blockade.

The only solution was to find a way to break through the blockade.

Mares clearly realized this as well.

He no longer searched for gaps to escape but instead summoned a massive branch that extended from his body.

With a thunderous momentum, it struck towards the net that Morris had woven from the branches.

Boom!

The huge branch, with terrifying power, was enough to shatter a planet.

However, when it struck the net, it only created a hole around one thousand meters in diameter.

Just as Mares activated it, trying to pass through, the surrounding branches quickly repaired the hole.

The gap in strength was too obvious.

“I’ll give you one last chance. Start helping me find Yi Chen and the Shadow King now, and I can overlook the past. I will also erase our previous grievances.”

Morris said coldly, “Otherwise, don’t blame me for heavily injuring you and forcing you to sign a relevant contract.”

“Do you really think you can control me?”

Mares turned to Morris, and the Space Stone appeared before him.

Morris’s heart sank.

His biggest fear was that Mares had some treasures or materials that could rapidly increase his power.

This guy was clearly well-prepared, having anticipated that Morris would use force to coerce him.

Morris’s worries clearly came true.

Inside the Space Stone, a gray tree branch suddenly appeared.

This branch was over twenty meters long, completely wilted, and seemed like it would break with a single snap.

Yet inside, it appeared to contain incredibly powerful energy that startled Morris.

“You really put a lot into this!”

Morris ground his teeth in hatred.

This branch was clearly made from the remains of the strong after they died.

Moreover, judging from its aura and energy, it was definitely made from a tree branch of the Tree-Dwelling Tribe at levels two hundred thirty to forty.

If he could merge this branch, his strength would undoubtedly increase greatly.

Without any hesitation, Mares immediately pierced the wilted branch into his own body.

Buzz!

Green liquid flowed towards the wilted branch like a spring.

The gray, decayed branch seemed to be infused with life, quickly turning green, even merging with Mares’s body.

In the blink of an eye, it seemed to become one with Mares, turning into a branch on his body.

This branch began to rapidly extend towards the massive net once more.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Wherever the branch passed, the massive net that Morris had extended from his branches kept shattering.

The power had clearly increased several times compared to Mares’s previous attack.

“Even so, you can’t hold on for long!”

Morris went all out, sprinting after Mares.

The damaged net continued to extend branches, trying to intercept Mares as he charged out.

Mares did not engage with Morris.

Although this branch allowed him to unleash strong attacking power, in terms of attacking power, he was now stronger than Morris.

However, strength was not solely about attacking power.

Even with his current speed and defense strength being better than Morris’s, it was still not enough for him to have the ability to defeat Morris.

His reaction speed and Perception Ability were still far inferior to Morris.

In the early stages, he might suppress Morris, but he was nowhere near strong enough to severely injure him.

As time passed, once the treasure refined from the strong’s branch became ineffective, he would fall back into a disadvantage.

Escaping would not be as easy then.

Thus, he could only rely on his short-term advantage, which was slightly stronger than Morris, to try to shake off Morris’s pursuit.

As soon as he broke through the gap, he ran at full speed to escape.