Before long, the four-winged youth flew back from Azure Water City and returned to the Rune Spaceship, his face alight with surprise as he looked at Ye Chen. "Boss, I found information about this Sky Beast, take a look." He tossed a crystal data-brain into Ye Chen's hand.

Ye Chen reached out, received it, and let his consciousness seep in to investigate. Immediately, a stream of information flooded his mind.

"Sky Beast: A unique monster born in the Ancient World, a special and rare race. Legend states there were only ever nine Sky Beasts in the entire Ancient World. Upon the death of one, a new Sky Beast is born—a World Beast nurtured by the original essence of the cosmos."

"A Sky Beast is born with the strength of the Ghost-God Realm!"

"This beast is inherently proficient in the Dao of Space, capable of penetrating all barriers and formations; nothing can confine it. It is a favored child of heaven and earth. The scales upon its body contain spatial power and can be forged into space-attribute Divine Artifacts!"

"Sky Beasts are naturally timid and flee at the sight of strangers." Ye Chen finished reading quickly, unable to suppress a slight shock. "That's all the information there is?"

The four-winged youth lowered his head. "This intelligence is highly classified, known only to a few, so this is all I could acquire."

Ye Chen gave a wry smile. He understood; considering the status and level of this Sky Beast—only nine in the entire Ancient World—what did that imply?

One had to realize that the number of living beings in the Ancient World was practically uncountable. A single White Lotus Divine Continent held billions of inhabitants, and the surrounding star fragments accumulated ten, even a hundred times that number of monsters, equating to roughly 10 quadrillion monsters!

If one Divine Continent was like this, what about the 3,000 Divine Continents?

Not to mention the most vast and boundless Ancient Continent!

With such an immense population, yet only nine Sky Beasts—even using one's toes, one could tell how incredibly mysterious these creatures were!

Ye Chen looked towards the four-winged youth and said, "The rest of the Demigod Stones, hand them over."

The four-winged youth lowered his head even further, murmuring slowly, "Total of 4.7 million Demigod Stones. Purchasing this intelligence cost 2 million..."

Ye Chen froze momentarily.

"Two million?" Ye Chen nearly smacked him. "You spent 2 million for such a brief piece of information?"

The four-winged youth murmured apologetically, "This intelligence is too high-level; it couldn't be bought cheaply."

Ye Chen glared at him, a wry smile touching his lips. Since the matter was done, arguing was useless, but he still felt a strange mix of frustration and amusement. Two million Demigod Stones could buy tens of thousands of initial-grade Semi-Divine Artifacts, greatly boosting the spiritual civilization's power, yet it had been lost on a mere piece of data.

He sighed softly, looking at the dark scales in his hand. Suddenly, a thought struck him, recalling the last line: "Proficient in the Dao of Space, penetrating all barriers..."

"Space?"

Ye Chen's gaze fell upon the dark scales in his hand. His eyes flickered incessantly. Suppressing the excitement and ecstasy welling up inside him, he instructed the four-winged youth, "Go to the Bio-Divine Temple in Azure Water City and purchase a vial of Gene Awakening Potion."

The four-winged youth muttered something under his breath and turned to fly off.

The Ancient World had fused countless civilizations; technological development had reached its peak, making the awakening of the Superhuman Mode extremely easy—one only needed to ingest the Gene Awakening Potion to achieve the awakening.

This potion came in four grades: A, B, C, and D. At Grade D, the success rate was 50%; at C, it was 60%, and so on, reaching 90% for Grade A!

It was rumored that an S-Grade Gene Awakening Potion existed, but its price was prohibitively expensive, affordable only by Pseudo-God level powerhouses.

Given Ye Chen's physique, with Divine Blood protecting his body, the success rate for his awakening was already 80%. If he hadn't considered this Sky Beast too peculiar and worried about unforeseen complications, he wouldn't have needed the Gene Awakening Potion at all and could have fused it directly.

The dark scale still retained residual stem cells and gene molecules—the cells of a Ghost-God Realm monster. Such cells rarely withered; it usually took about a year. But this Sky Beast had a special constitution, and even after several years, the scale remained supple and fresh.

Before long, Blackie returned with the Gene Awakening Potion. A bottle of Grade D cost a mere 10 Demigod Stones, relatively cheap.

Ye Chen casually took the remaining balance, opened the test tube containing the blue Gene Awakening Potion, sniffed it to confirm it was correct, and then drank it. Within 30 minutes of ingestion, the awakening had to begin, or the potion's efficacy would be lost.

"Fuse the gene!"

Ye Chen entered the ship's medical bay and, with mechanical assistance, began the process of transplanting and fusing the residual genes from the Sky Beast scale into his body.

The process was excruciatingly slow...

Ye Chen could feel his body stiffening, utterly immobile. As an hour passed, the Sky Beast gene had only fused by a fraction!

With Ye Chen's current constitution, fusing the gene of a Ghost-God Realm Sky Beast posed little significant danger. If the Sky Beast had been Pseudo-God level, the success rate would have dropped considerably, and if it were God-level, it would undoubtedly result in a violent backlash.

"At a physique level of 100,000, I can activate the Third Superhuman Mode. I haven't found a suitable gene until now. I wonder what ability this Sky Beast will grant?" Ye Chen mused internally.

Time slipped by...

...

Outside the Rune Spaceship, not far away in the thicket, a figure clad in a spatial folding cloak lay in ambush. From a distance, he was difficult to spot. His cold eyes fixed on the Rune Spaceship, silently calculating the time. Once six hours had fully elapsed, the figure moved, rushing toward the vessel.

"Alarm, alarm!"

"Enemy attack detected!"

In the main control room, a series of prompts erupted from the alarm system, jolting the old Green Rune Man awake. He hurried to check, "Scan the enemy!"

Soon, a string of scan data appeared. With its current setup, the Rune Spaceship could scan any creature up to the Pseudo-God Realm.

"Strength: Mid-Tier Pseudo-God!"

"Race: Epic Civilization, Cyan Poetry Clan!"

"Age: 6 - 4932 years!" (Age can be determined through bone, cell scans, much like the rings of a tree.)

The old Green Rune Man frowned. "Mid-Tier Pseudo-God? Strange. How did this birdman find us? And why attack us? Doesn't he know this is a low-tier Pseudo-God vessel? If a Mid-Tier Pseudo-God were inside, wouldn't that lead to a fight?"

"Is he targeting us deliberately?"

"Perhaps Little Black leaked our location and he tracked us here."

"You scoundrel, seeing wealth and getting greedy! Damn it, I'll teach you a lesson!"

The old Green Rune Man was not slow-witted and quickly pieced together the cause and effect. His entire body seemed to merge with the Rune Spaceship. He roared, and the Rune Spaceship roared into action.

Swish, swish!

A series of cannon barrels, inscribed with strange demonic runes and radiating divine power fluctuations, gathered the ambient divine energy, brewing within the dark muzzles, aimed and ready to strike the man from the Epic Civilization rushing toward them.

With the Rune Spaceship's scanner, the man was detected as soon as he approached, giving the old Green Rune Man enough distance to take countermeasures.

"Transform!"

"Demon Art Cannon!"

"Blast him until his own mother wouldn't recognize him!"

The old Green Rune Man was boastful, controlling everything from the main control room. The entire Rune Spaceship suddenly underwent a massive transformation, shifting from a ship's appearance into a gigantic mechanical warrior!

This mechanical warrior towered thousands of meters high, holding two massive cannon barrels in its hands. The ship's railings became its collar, and the ship's hull formed the robot's chest. At this moment, the old Green Rune Man seemed like a stellar cadet controlling a cosmic mech, rapidly executing a series of combat maneuvers.

The Rune Mechanical Warrior drew a massive cannon from its back, aimed it at the oncoming man, locked on, and fired. Simultaneously, small cannon barrels extended from its five fingers, emitting red, laser-like streaks of light, which, along with the black demonic glow from the main cannon, hammered toward the man.

The man's pupils constricted, and he couldn't help but look astonished. "This spaceship belongs to a Machine Civilization? How can it transform? Damn it, this power is almost comparable to a Mid-Tier Pseudo-God vessel!"

He dared not face the attack head-on and hastily dodged. Just then, several cannonballs suddenly changed direction, locking onto his body, relentlessly bombarding him.

"Damn it!" The man couldn't help but curse. His eyes were fixed on the towering mechanical warrior thousands of meters high. He glided through the air like a fighter jet, causing the incoming cannonballs to intersect and destroy each other.

"Oh ho!" The old Green Rune Man cackled gleefully, highly excited. "This little brat knows quite a bit! Let's see if you can handle your Green Grandpa's Super Invincible Demon Art Cannon!"

The muzzle of the Rune Mechanical Warrior's cannon suddenly turned dark and deep, resembling a bottomless black hole. Immediately, strange energy fluctuations erupted, then suddenly burst forth, unleashing a stream of dark crimson light that left scorch marks in the very fabric of space.

The man gritted his teeth. "What kind of ship is this? How does it possess the Demon Art Cannon of Old Babylon?" His figure flickered as he attempted to evade. At that moment, the Rune Mechanical Robot unleashed several more laser beams, none of which were weak.

The Demon Art Cannon was incredibly swift, as if it had locked onto him specifically. Given the man's flying speed, he was slightly inferior under the bombardment of the shells. Furthermore, there was no time to activate his spatial abilities or summon his own ship; he could only flee in all directions, and eventually, he was caught.

"Shattering Heaven Sutra!" The man gritted his teeth and suddenly produced a long piece of cloth resembling aged white paper. Dense scriptures covered the paper. As he spoke, these scriptures became animated, like ants, lifting off the paper to form an incomparably sharp beam of white light before him!

Boom!

One white, one black, they collided violently!

The entire world seemed to narrow down to just these two colors. After a brief moment of mutual resistance, they exploded outward! Within that stellar-destruction-like explosion, the man from the Epic Civilization strode forward, charging through the chaotic energy toward the Rune Mechanical Robot.

"Holy crap!" The old Green Rune Man shrieked, "If I can't beat you, your Green Grandpa is pulling out!"

"I'll spare you today!"

As he spoke, he retreated. The Rune Mechanical Robot immediately transformed back into the Rune Spaceship and shot away into the distance. Despite the intense series of battles, the interior of the Rune Spaceship remained completely still and stable.

A brief note: Since this novel contains references to Earth, modern slang such as 'Aiyou' and 'So weak' appears occasionally. In truth, this is sometimes how Lao Gu speaks, or things he's heard some wicked individuals say, and he finds it amusing. Heh heh.