With a satisfied flick of his daoist robe sleeves, Gu Xiechen mused to himself, "This robe is certainly a rare treasure. Nothing left by my old Daoist Chen is ever simple. Wearing this robe, my movement technique has at least tripled in speed. I just wonder if it has any other functions."

Gu Xiechen slowly walked towards Siren, who was bleeding from all seven orifices, and roared menacingly, "Siren, didn't you want to capture me alive to take to Gu Juechen? I'm right here now, come and get me!"

Siren staggered to his feet, glaring furiously at Gu Xiechen. Having been struck by an underground shell and then hit by the close-range explosion of Arediya's fireball, Siren's already fragile body had sustained significant internal injuries. Watching Gu Xiechen approach, Siren could only secretly mobilize the energy within his body, preparing for a desperate final strike.

Gu Xiechen advanced a few more steps, closing the distance to less than three meters from Siren—a space that infringed upon a martial artist's minimum personal defense perimeter. Siren's hand moved, and a faint silver glimmer flickered in his eyes. A dim silver light erupted from the center of Siren's brow like a waterfall, and from within the light, a stern young woman slowly emerged, bearing a pair of silver wings and radiating an overall brilliant silver glow. The girl was pure silver from head to toe, resembling a statue forged from pure silver, and a powerful aura of energy constantly radiated outwards from her body.

Arediya, who had fallen nearby, let out a muffled groan. Firelight rapidly swirled within her crimson pupils, and in an instant, her eyes transformed into twin vortices brimming with lava and firelight. After a violent tremor shook her body, a screen of red light shot out from Arediya's brow, and a massive rhinoceros, about a meter long with three curved horns atop its head, slowly stepped out of the red light. This entirely scarlet rhinoceros spewed flames from every pore, its crimson eyes locked fiercely onto Gu Xiechen. Every time it snorted, two streams of fire as thick as a man's arm shot out from its nostrils, extending several meters. After summoning the rhinoceros, Arediya seemed to have exhausted all her strength, collapsing limply onto the ground, unable to move further.

"You are a Jie Shi too?" Gu Xiechen looked at Arediya in surprise.

Siren coughed violently, and through his hacking, he chuckled wickedly, "If Arediya weren't also a Jie Shi, how would I have managed to entice her so easily?"

Arediya spat out a mouthful of blood and roared at Siren, "Shut up! What kind of joke is this now? Didn't you notice this guy has gotten much stronger?"

Siren stumbled back a few steps, chuckling triumphantly, "No matter how much stronger he gets, it's limited. He's just a regular Xiantian Fighter. We are Jie Shi! Even if he used schemes and tricks to wound us, hehe, he shouldn't have given us the time to summon our strongest Jie Puppets right now."

Pointing proudly at the winged maiden before him, Siren sneered and introduced her, "This is my strongest Jie Puppet currently, the Silver Winged Angel, whose actual combat power is equivalent to a late-stage Saturn Fighter."

Arediya stood up and calmly pointed at the rhinoceros, saying, "This is also my strongest Jie Puppet for this stage, the Lava Rhino, with actual destructive power equivalent to a mid-stage Jupiter Fighter."

Gu Xiechen froze for a moment, then spread his hands and sighed, "It seems I truly shouldn't have shown mercy to Miss Arediya earlier. Who would have thought she was also a Jie Shi?"

Mid-stage Jupiter Fighter? That placed them between a Zakura Index of ten thousand and ninety-nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine. A Lava Rhino of that caliber could easily destroy a small to medium-sized city.

Siren smirked smugly, "Regretting it now? However, Mr. Gu Xiechen, you don't need to worry about your personal safety. I will..."

Gu Xiechen smiled faintly, his mind stirring. Xin Jia, standing far away in the dense woods, let out a low hum. He casually scooped up a handful of dirt and sand from the ground and scattered it towards the sky. Instantly, a column of earth-yellow airflow erupted from beneath the ground, engulfing Xin Jia's body. Less than a hundredth of a second later, an earth-yellow airflow burst forth from the ground behind Siren, and Xin Jia's massive frame abruptly materialized right behind him. A huge palm clamped around Siren's throat, and Xin Jia roared in a muffled voice, "Demon, dare to move again, and this god will squeeze the life out of you!"

Siren dared not move an inch, and the Silver Winged Angel he summoned also remained frozen. Arediya shrieked, and the Lava Rhino she summoned let out an enraged roar, lowering its three curved horns and charging madly at Xin Jia. Xin Jia merely sneered. The iron chains wrapped around his waist jingled crisply as they flew out. The chains spun, binding the massive rhinoceros tightly into a bundle. The rhino's huge body tumbled to the ground but continued to surge forward. Xin Jia hooked his fingers slightly, and the chains lifted, carrying the fat beast far away to be smashed against a giant ancient tree.

With a thunderous crash, the five-meter-thick trunk of the giant tree was pulverized by the impact of the rhino. The intense flames covering the rhinoceros instantly ignited the tree trunk, and red flames spread from the fracture point. The tree, nearly two hundred meters tall, was engulfed in fierce fire within just a few breaths. The colossal torch, accompanied by the terrifying howl of wind and fire, plummeted from the sky, causing the ground to tremble violently. Large swaths of sparks scattered everywhere, igniting vast areas of the nearby forest.

A faint sound of tearing wind signaled the arrival of the white-robed fighters of the Dawn Squad. But what they witnessed was Arediya spitting blood and collapsing, while Siren’s neck was held tightly in the palm of a giant whose size and strange attire were decidedly inhuman. These white-robed fighters, trained by Siren, were instantly dumbfounded, standing foolishly in the distance, afraid to make any rash moves.

Siren remained stunned for a long moment. After quite some time, he bowed to Gu Xiechen, "You have won. According to mercenary rules, be quick about it—whether to kill, torture, or demand ransom, just say the word."

Arediya screamed, "Siren!"

Siren snapped at Arediya, "Shut up! This is a matter between men!"

Arediya glared angrily at Gu Xiechen, a faint ball of fire swirling above her brow. The discarded Lava Rhino struggled furiously, the thick iron chains rattling loudly as it thrashed. However, these chains, smelted by Xin Jia using the Golden Crow Celestial Fire to refine dozens of rare metal ores through a secret method, were not so easily broken. Despite Arediya ordering the rhino to struggle with all its might, the iron chains showed no signs of damage whatsoever.

Siren chastised Arediya, then humbly smiled at Gu Xiechen, "Mercenaries have their rules, Mr. Gu Xiechen, what do you say..."

"I want you!" Gu Xiechen said calmly, his hands clasped across his chest. "I want you, the Siren of the Sea Demons. And Miss Arediya, Arediya the Sorceress God? Hmm, your names are quite 'elegant'; I like your names, so I suddenly don't feel like killing you anymore! Become my subordinates, pledge your loyalty to me from now on, and I will let bygones be bygones."

Arediya looked at Siren. Siren stared blankly for a moment, then burst into loud laughter, "Serve you? Ha! On what grounds?"

Gu Xiechen stated flatly, "On the grounds that your lives are currently in my hands, on the grounds that I am also a Jie Shi, and on the grounds that I destroyed your fleet! On the grounds that your Holy Unicorn's actions have already been broadcast back to the Earth Federation via the public channel..."

Siren was stunned speechless, Arediya was stunned speechless, and all the white-robed fighters of the Dawn Squad nearby were stunned speechless.

"You!" Siren glared at Gu Xiechen in utter fury.

Gu Xiechen spread his hands and smiled candidly, "I indeed intended to kill you earlier..."

More than thirty Spirit Race soldiers, their bodies a faint green, emerged silently from the dense woods. Dozens of thick vines suddenly coiled out from beneath Xin Jia’s feet. Caught off guard, Xin Jia was tightly bound by the vines, and his massive body was violently hoisted into the air. Finger-thick black thorns pierced Xin Jia's skin, injecting vast amounts of paralytic neurotoxin into his body. Xin Jia felt wave after wave of numbness wash over him, and his vision began to swim.

Dozens of high-energy particle beams roared towards Xin Jia. The vines melted and burned away in the high-temperature plasma clusters. Xin Jia was blasted away by the high-temperature, high-pressure gas, plummeting with a streak of fire deep into the woods.

More high-energy particle beams whistled towards Gu Xiechen. Gu Xiechen's body flashed rapidly, the particle streams skimming past him so closely that the faint blue light emanating from his daoist robe and cloak prevented even a single hair on his body from being scorched by the heat of the plasma clouds.

Five Spirit Race soldiers grunted as they dragged a small-caliber high-energy cannon out of the forest. After a brief aiming adjustment, a high-energy particle beam, about a meter thick, shrieked towards Gu Xiechen.

Gu Xiechen's movement technique was currently in that precarious stage where old force had depleted and new force had not yet arrived. This high-energy particle stream struck him at his most vulnerable moment. The blue beam shot directly for Gu Xiechen's chest, leaving him no choice but to clap his palms together to guard his chest.

Siren, Arediya, and the fighters of the Dawn Squad were all dumbfounded, and even Gu Xiechen stared at his hands in alarm.

The Ruyi Gloves faintly glowed. The high-energy particle stream, powerful enough to shatter a small hill into dust, was firmly grasped by Gu Xiechen's two palms. A blue lightball, the size of a human head, churned in his palms, and dazzling arcs of electricity continuously shot between his fingers, sparking brilliant fire.

Gu Xiechen felt a massive, tearing force surging within his palms. His physical strength was rapidly losing control against the impact of this energy.

Instinctively, he gripped the blue lightball twice with his hands. To Siren’s utter horror, which nearly caused his eyeballs to pop out, Gu Xiechen actually cleaved the high-energy particle condensed lightball into seven or eight pieces. Immediately after, Gu Xiechen shook his hands, and the seven or eight fist-sized blue lightballs transformed into blue streams of light, each several meters long, enveloping meter-thick ionized gas clouds, hurtling towards Siren and the others with piercing screeches.

Siren screamed, "Damn it, he’s a monster!"

The Silver Winged Angel snatched up Siren and Arediya, flapped its wings once, and transformed into a streak of light disappearing into the vast forest.

Siren's distant cry echoed back, "Gu Xiechen, I surrender! I’m backing out of that deal with Gu Juechen! From now on, we'll mind our own business—don't provoke me, and I won't provoke you!"

The blue streams of light shot towards the dumbfounded white-robed fighters and the Spirit Race soldiers. Flames flashed across the area, turning large sections of the forest into ash. The white-robed fighters staggered back, spitting blood, while the Spirit Race warriors were almost entirely wiped out. Only the small-caliber high-energy cannon was protected by an energy shield, suffering only half its power being dissipated before hitting the target.

Gu Xiechen cheerfully hoisted the three-meter-long small-caliber high-energy cannon and said to Xin Jia, who was staggering towards him, "Xin Jia, your artillery can be upgraded now."

Xin Jia knelt heavily on the ground and roared, "Honored Superior, this subordinate is incompetent! I allowed that demon to escape your grasp, this subordinate..."

"Enough!" Gu Xiechen waved his hand. "I didn't expect those Spirit Race soldiers to have that kind of ability either. It's not your fault. Hmph, Siren, you don't think you can just erase the past with one sentence."

"If others don't offend me, I won't offend them; if they offend me, I will return it a hundredfold!"

Gu Xiechen sneered, "I've taken a liking to you and Arediya. I am currently short of manpower to deal with Gu Juechen!"

Taking out a large, vitality-restoring Ganoderma lucidum, Gu Xiechen chewed the sweet, slightly bitter fungus loudly while narrowing his eyes in calculation.

$\times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times \times$

Recommendation tickets, recommendation tickets... Heh heh...