Sure enough, the man-eating willow held traces of a Superbrain. Strictly speaking, it was only the rough form of a Superbrain. It sat inside the trunk where the first branches forked, wrapped in layer upon layer of burning growth rings.

"It hasn't developed any intelligence. This man-eating willow's Superbrain is forming, but it has lived through too little to become intelligent quickly... Intelligence takes experience as well as thought. The thunderbolt giant fir's intelligence came on fast because I tormented it... Let it live or die on its own. We'll see what it grows into!"

Shen Cong pulled out the five-fingered Qilin Arm and gently let the man-eating willow go.

After all, this was only a big tree with no mind of its own yet. The thunderbolt giant fir had been another matter; it had begun to hate him. Beings that could become Tree Vajras were marvelous. If the thunderbolt giant fir hadn't come to hate him, Shen Cong wouldn't really have had the heart to cut down such a marvelous life.

The Vajra Fortress roared and drove on east.

All along the way, his particle-grade pressure kept spreading out, and the marine jin beasts he passed, small or large, all fled in fright.

That was how Shen Cong reached the mouth of the Yellow River.

The seaside smelled strongly of salt and fish, and the seawater was the same color as the muddy Yellow River—yellow. Between the great earthquake and the heavy rain before it, the Yellow River had swept huge amounts of silt into the Bohai.

The endless sea was a sight that lifted anyone's spirits.

Shen Cong felt his heart open up too. "Once I've finished hunting the Firestarter Spirits on the new government's side and built a solid base for human technology, my goal stays the same. I'll head south and go take a look at Guangzhou. By then, if the Vajra Fortress can fly, I'll cross the Pacific and take a trip around the United States."

"If it still can't fly by then, I'll go north to Siberia, cross the Bering Strait, land in North…