"Who are you?" A thunderous voice boomed from the Blade Emperor. "You are Sharo." The Blade Emperor uttered the name.

As Yang Ying knew, before his own breakthrough to the Fourth Level, only one Fourth Level entity in the Orion Arm had reached the zenith—Sharo, the guardian deity of the Cygnus people. Sharo was not of Silicon-based origin; he belonged to a lesser-ranked civilization. His entire existence was a legend, no—it could be called a myth.

Long, long ago, during the era of the Atlantean Galactic Great Empire, the Balians, Sharo’s race, were vassals to the Muun, a powerful, high-ranking civilization. The Muun were at war with the Dazz, an equally formidable rival race, and demanded military reinforcements from the Balians. Sharo, being the son of the Balian king, was dispatched as the commander of the contingent sent to join the Muun forces.

On the battlefields of the starry expanse, the young Sharo swiftly displayed exceptional talent; his command capabilities were extraordinary. The Muun equipped the Balians with only second-rate, third-rate, or even decommissioned warships. Yet, under Sharo’s leadership, the Balian legions conquered planet after planet, achieving remarkably brilliant victories.

However, in the eyes of the Muun, the Balians were, after all, merely their lowly subordinates and servants. While Sharo’s achievements brought honor to him and the Balians, they also bred greater jealousy and insidious schemes.

Later, during a crucial campaign, several narrow-minded and short-sighted high commanders within the Muun army betrayed Sharo in a bid for personal glory. This maneuver caused Sharo’s forces to be hopelessly encircled by the Dazz, with their supply lines cut off, ultimately leading to the Balian army being annihilated, supplies exhausted.

That was not all. To retaliate for the defeats Sharo had inflicted upon them, the Dazz savagely purged the Balian homeworld. It must be noted that the Balians, being a lower-tier civilization, had not yet mastered interstellar colonization; they possessed no other settlements besides the planet they inhabited.

Consequently, following this massacre, the Balian race was effectively extinguished, almost vanishing from the galaxy.

The demise of a low-ranking civilization during the wars of the higher powers, while not a minor incident, was usually settled with mere verbal condemnations between the two races. Neither the Muun nor the Dazz truly regarded it as a momentous affair.

But decades later, Sharo reappeared, astonishing everyone.

The Sharo who resurfaced was no longer the man he once was. As the last living remnant of the Balian race, sworn to avenge his entire people, he had already become a Fourth Level entity.

The path of vengeance laid before Sharo was exceedingly arduous. At that time, the Atlantean Galactic Great Empire had not yet suffered the Great Cataclysm, and the various alien races under the rule of the True Human lineage were far more powerful than they were in the present day.

Fourth Level entities were far less rare in that era. The Muun had three guardian deities at the Fourth Level, and the Dazz, being their equal, also possessed three such beings.

The strongest entities of both races were at the Upper Fourth Level; none had reached the Fourth Level Apex, yet they were powerful enough.

Sharo, as a recently ascended Fourth Level being, regardless of whom he chose as his target for revenge, no one believed his vengeance could succeed.

However, those who had prematurely drawn conclusions soon realized they were profoundly, spectacularly wrong.

Sharo unleashed his retribution upon both the Muun and the Dazz simultaneously, exhibiting an incredible capacity for slaughter during the process. He sought out the guardian deities of both races one by one, killing them all. Each kill sent shockwaves throughout the cosmos, and after eliminating all six guardian deities, his name resonated across the entire galaxy.

While studying in the True Human Empire under the guise of Igor, Yang Ying had encountered records detailing Sharo’s path of revenge in certain historical archives, complete with interspersed video logs vividly presenting the scene of a Lower Fourth Level entity systematically slaying Middle and even Upper Fourth Level existences before the reader.

To fulfill his vengeance, Sharo accepted the invitation of the developing Cygnus people and became their guardian deity, leading the Cygnus fleet to completely annihilate the Muun and the Dazz.

Sharo’s story did not end there. After the Great Cataclysm emerged over ten thousand years ago, the True Human Empire evacuated nearly its entire population from the Orion Arm. The remaining alien races in the Arm took the opportunity to aggressively seize vast territories that once belonged to the Empire.

By then, Sharo was already a peak Fourth Level existence. With his assistance, the Cygnus people emerged as one of the ultimate victors after numerous major conflicts.

Nearly a millennium later, the Grewal and the Tan Star people—the largest winners in the Orion Arm and the Perseus Arm, respectively—having fully absorbed the Empire’s legacy, grew ambitious, believing the Empire was doomed. They united to invade the Empire, but the outcome was predictable: they were exterminated by the Empire.

Following this, Sharo again led the Cygnus people, along with other major races, to carve up the Grewal territories.

The battles Sharo, the Cygnus Guardian Deity, experienced, both large and small—be it fleet engagements, ground warfare, or one-on-one duels—totaled in the thousands, and he never once suffered a defeat. Many high-ranking civilizations in the Orion Arm even integrated the name Sharo into their native tongues, using it as a synonym for victory or war, a testament to his awe-inspiring divine might.

The Blade Emperor never expected to encounter Sharo within this combined fleet, nor to be discovered by him.

However, the Blade Emperor felt no panic; such sensations had long deserted him. Few things in the galaxy could still astonish him.

He focused his High Spiritual Sense Eye upon the approaching figure. Before him appeared a magnificent, vast River of Time, flowing from behind him toward the front. Time flowed like turbid, surging currents, each drop containing immense information, revealing myriad scenes, each scene representing an event that had transpired at a specific moment.

The Blade Emperor stood at the center of the river. The scenes behind him were constant and unchangeable, for that was the past, already etched into reality—the past could not be altered. But in the water before him, although most scenes remained fixed, a small portion was shifting.

These changing visions formed hidden eddies and reefs in the river’s flow. These alterations were caused by the calculations and interference of Fourth Level entities disturbing the River of Time.

Those who cannot perceive the future cannot grasp their own fate. Only Fourth Level entities who can glimpse what lies ahead are capable of altering it.

The Blade Emperor perceived that ahead in the River of Time, numerous tumultuous undercurrents were surging toward him. Some currents were large, some small, some obvious, and some concealed, but regardless of their outward presentation, they were fundamentally hostile.

"I am Sharo, the Hidden One. Who are you? You are strong; why do you spy on us? What connection do you have with those insectoids over there?" Along with this barrage of questions, Sharo’s figure materialized before the Blade Emperor—a powerfully built silhouette. His skin was as pale as bone, his eyes eerily crimson, and a long tentacle trailed from behind his head.

"If we speak of connection, it is a deep one," the Blade Emperor stepped forth from the void. The blade-like spikes covering his body and the pair of gruesome bone wings behind him unequivocally declared his affinity with the Insectoids. This caused Sharo, along with the rapidly arriving Emperor Salian, Sidillon, and others, to frown. "So, it is as we suspected. You are the leader of those Insectoids."

"I suppose that makes sense," Sharo stated slowly, hovering in the void. "With so many Fourth Level entities among those Insectoids, it would be impossible for them not to have an Apex entity leading them."

"Where did you originate?" Emperor Salian stepped forward. "The planets you have occupied once belonged to the various races of the Perseus Arm. I have lived in the galaxy for tens of thousands of years, and your race was never mentioned."

"I did not come here to answer your questions," the Blade Emperor declared. Surrounded by a host of Fourth Level entities, he appeared utterly unfazed, as if their encirclement did not exist. "Since I have been discovered, I might as well say hello. Lord Sharo truly lives up to his fame. Now that the greeting is exchanged, I shall take my leave."

With that, the Blade Emperor’s form dissolved back into the void.

"How can we allow you to leave so easily!" Sidillon sneered, abruptly unleashing a string of runes intended to spatially imprison the area.

Both actions occurred nearly simultaneously. Sharo’s expression remained placid, like an impassive observer. The others, including Emperor Salian, were identical in their stillness.

The string of runes launched by Sidillon shuddered mid-flight as if assaulted by a fierce gale, nearly crumbling instantly into fragments.

The spatial confinement effect failed entirely. The Blade Emperor's presence vanished without a trace; he had already leaped hundreds of millions of kilometers away in space.

"He is indeed a Fourth Level Apex entity, breaking Sidillon’s confinement with a mere wave of his hand," remarked one Upper Fourth Level entity upon seeing the Blade Emperor escape. "If Lord Sharo hadn't discovered him, we likely would have remained completely deceived."

"We must reconsider our strategy regarding this newly emerged Insectoid race," Emperor Salian stated with palpable gravity. "They have at least one faction on every planet, each governed by a Fourth Level entity as its brain. The one who just appeared was likely the brain of the brains. By this calculation, this Insectoid force is terrifyingly formidable in terms of high-end combat power alone."

"Their low-end forces cannot be ignored either; they possess a terrifying reproductive capacity," Sidillon added. "Although they currently do not pose a threat to our various expeditionary fleets, given more time, they will inevitably become a major menace to the Perseus Arm, perhaps even the entire galaxy."

"He is right; their mere existence is a danger. If we do not eradicate them while they are still nascent, they will become unstoppable once they gain strength," agreed another Fourth Level entity.

They all turned their gazes toward Sharo, awaiting his decision.