Invisible light, huh? Su Ming pondered while flying.
But if the Holy Walker wants to bait him, he's out of luck.
These mystics are all like that.
It's like walking down the street and a fortune teller sees you, shakes their head, sighs, and mutters something like 'disaster of blood' before walking away.
Many people, out of curiosity or other reasons, would follow to ask for the truth.
When the Holy Walker brushed past him and said those words, it was probably the same trick, but it wouldn't work on Su Ming.
He was curious, but he understood the Holy Walker's habits better.
The alien spoke in riddles, with each word full of hidden meanings.
If you asked the Holy Walker how he knew about the ring, he'd undoubtedly respond with a string of unrelated phrases, like 'the bird in the sky saw it' or 'the heart didn't move, only the shadow did.'
Seemingly saying a lot but having no practical use at all.
Currently, these details didn't matter; Su Ming needed to prioritize solving Earth's problems.
The ring, like a tattoo, remained printed on Su Ming's middle finger, but it no longer glowed.
It hadn't shattered or disappeared, indicating that Eclipse Star hadn't truly perished, something Su Ming had long suspected.
The explosion that delivered him directly to Death had also damaged Eclipse Star but hadn't completely destroyed it.
It's likely hidden again, as it's a being born to manipulate light and shadow.
..............
When he returned to Shangri-La, he almost thought he had arrived at the wrong place.
The castles resembling Potala Palace in style had disappeared, and the city on the mountain ridges was suddenly buried in yellow sand.
Pyramids and obelisks surged up from beneath the ground as if they were bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
The yellow sand filled the valleys, severing the rivers; the snow-capped mountains were now an endless desert.
A fully realistic desert, he could hear the sand particles carried by the wind striking his armor, and feel the dryness in the air, as if it was draining all the moisture from his body.
He saw Donna and the others engaged in battle with a giant monster.
It was a giant humanoid creature with a crow's head, with six eyes arranged in pairs along its elongated head.
Behind it were three pairs of black wings, casting a shadow over everyone when spread out.
Its hands, as withered as ancient trees, wielded a massive black scythe, silent in its swings, yet leaving black trails and shadows in the air, emanating a decaying and annihilating aura.
He couldn't quite tell how much time had passed since crossing worlds, but it couldn't have been long as everyone was still there.
But how had things changed so dramatically?
He circled in the air and landed behind an obelisk, where Barry immediately met him.
"How long was I gone?"
Tendrils of golden electric light surrounded them both, slowing everything down around them.
"Less than five minutes."
Barry answered his question.
Hecate and Kushina were nowhere in sight; only this 'Crow Giant Dragon' hovered in the sky, so Su Ming naturally inquired about the cause of all this.
It turned out that the Dead, seeing the situation was hopeless, immediately persuaded their goddess to escape, and under the cover of other monks charging at Hecate, moths to a flame, Kushina successfully slipped away.
She dived into the body of a monk on the ground, wrapped herself in bed sheets, and ran off on two legs without Hecate noticing.
Or perhaps Hecate simply didn't care, as after Kushina fled, she directly initiated a super magic transformation of the area.
She turned the second magic pillar into what she desired.
"Zatanna said this is a place of converging death, and Hecate altered this place through witchcraft; now it's a new Land of the Dead."
"Tsk, sounds grand, but while Hades might fear her, Death is not so easily replaced," Su Ming shook his head, not optimistic about Hecate's plans.
"But we just received a communication from Swamp Monster; over at the Amazon Basin Tree Council, they've been ambushed by a new force. The groups composed of giant flowers, called the Hundred Flowers Council, aim to replace the Green of All Things as a new force of life."
Barry quickly explained the bad news at an incredibly fast pace.
Su Ming took a deep breath. First, Hecate created the Pillar of Death, then the Pillar of Life; if Olympus were to be transformed into the focal point of reincarnation, her 'Death' hardware setup might indeed meet the requirements.
If she could reclaim the power from the other pillars, the powerful fire outside the Origin Wall might truly serve her purposes.
"So this crow birdman is a new Death God? Hecate just created a deity?"
Barry tilted his head thoughtfully, then nodded: "Yes, she just created a god."
The current 'Death', on its own, occupies the roles of death, rebirth, and reincarnation. Perhaps Hecate knew she couldn't fulfill all these roles herself, so she distributed the responsibilities.
Indirect control could still achieve the same effect.
Most importantly, the altered location and resources, like the Green of All Things and contributions from the gods, were merely repurposed by her.
If not for Su Ming having Albella blow up Doctor Fate's spire, reducing the number of magic pillars by one, she might have already used the Tree of Miracles as the Life Pillar there.
Su Ming pondered, in the Divine Speed, where he had ample time to think. He touched his mask and asked Barry a question.
"Does the Justice League have nuclear options?"
Considering the Hundred Flowers Council is composed of giant flowers, the attributes of plants wouldn't change. Regardless of how long it delays, dropping a few nuclear bombs in the Amazon Basin will surely have an effect.
As for the surviving Tree Council, well, apologies for their sacrifice for the world; the Green of All Things would remember them.
Barry hesitated; he was reluctant about deploying nuclear weapons on Earth.
"We don't have nuclear bombs..."
"Nuclear bombs, yes, but we have weapons stronger than nuclear bombs." An unfamiliar voice from Batman's utility belt replied.
"Oh, I almost forgot, here's your phone back."
Barry returned the phone to Su Ming, and it was clear Batman intended to send Clark over to the Swamp Monster.
"How are you communicating with us while we are in Bullet Time Domain, surrounded by Divine Speed, with different time flows compared to the external world?"
Su Ming was curious about this aspect, as relativity didn't quite fit.
"Subspace network communication transcript, through Steel Bone's Mother Box, utilizing the sonic boom passage principle, letting a communication processing device in the Hall of Justice continually jump to a series of closely spaced timelines while transcribing the audio."
Batman wouldn't have explained Deathstroke's question, but The Flash, being straightforward, explained everything.
He was a physicist after all, and when it came to technologies related to Divine Speed, he naturally participated as well.
He loved explaining mechanical principles to others.
Well, Mother Boxes were unreasonably complex engines of technology, even Su Ming couldn't quite understand them, so dwelling on this was pointless.
Knowing Superman would go to handle the plants gave them extra time.
"Would Superman destroy the plants? Even those that can talk?" This was his only concern now.
"... Communication ended."
Batman seemed to lose interest in the conversation and directly hung up, leaving Su Ming to believe he was unsure of the answer too.
Once the plants developed self-awareness and could converse with Superman, whether he could take action would be a quandary.
Confronted with aliens or robots, Clark had no hesitation, but what about Earth's native flora?
For Su Ming, it was merely something to observe, and Batman's tacit suggestion was that this was left to Barry and Deathstroke to handle.
Now they had a giant Death God to deal with.