As the spiritual civilization erupted in cheers, Ye Chen, accompanied by White Dragon and others, steered the rune ship—its strange, dark hull seemingly a fusion of a hundred styles—through the city, escorted by the City Lord’s personal guard, towards the central space-jumping point of Tianzhou City.

All along the route, the citizens stared in astonishment as the unique rune ship, entirely black and oddly shaped, was ceremoniously welcomed by a legion of the City Lord's personal guard vessels, which were uniformly crafted in the style of divine ships.

"Who is that?"

"What kind of figure warrants the mobilization of the City Lord's personal guard corps?"

"Even the City Lord rarely deploys the personal guard legion; what is the origin of this ship?"

"Could they be someone from a vassal state?"

As they passed, shock rippled through the populace. Certain shrewd families immediately focused their attention on the vessel escorted by the guard, meticulously recording it in their lists of esteemed guests and disseminating the information internally, to prevent any arrogant young scions from provoking this mysterious personage of evident high standing.

Truly ancient and established great families maintained extremely strict governance over their members because the older the lineage, the larger the population, stretching into the tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or even billions! Among such vast numbers, there were always one or two dull-witted individuals; should they happen to offend someone of immense background, the entire family could face catastrophic ruin.

While these families secretly cataloged the rune ship under their highest tier of honored visitors, some minor powers subservient to the Luoer family reacted with sheer bewilderment, having spotted a crucial detail.

"This, this..."

"Isn't this the ship Young Master Luo Guo has issued a warrant for?"

"How could the Luoer family issue a warrant for someone with such an immense background!?"

"It's fortunate we didn't provoke this person; otherwise, if they were to complain to the City Lord, our family's entire financial system could suffer massive losses."

These affiliated powers breathed secret sighs of relief.

As the rune ship approached the core of Tianzhou City, the Luoer family headquarters received intelligence and visual feeds transmitted from other districts. Elders tasked with tracking the rune ship visibly changed expression upon seeing it.

"What is happening?"

"This ship was supposed to be in the Tianwu Mountains; how did it enter the city?"

"Young Master Luo Guo ordered its destruction; what do we do now? Judging by the display, this is absolutely no ordinary figure!"

These individuals pondered the dilemma, uncertain of the proper course of action. However, they soon received direct orders from the High Council: rescind the kill order!

The rune ship arrived at the space-jumping point where the Tianzhou City Lord had been waiting for a considerable time, arrayed with welcoming formations, blaring drums, vibrant neon lights, and an atmosphere of extraordinary grandeur.

Ye Chen moved swiftly, stepping out of the rune ship to stand before the Tianzhou City Lord.

"Divine Envoy," the City Lord greeted him with a warm smile and a slight nod. "This parting may mean years apart. Please take good care of yourself."

Ye Chen nodded in return. "City Lord, what is the influence of the Luoer family within Tianzhou City?"

"Luoer?" The City Lord seemed slightly confused. "Could they be friends of the Divine Envoy?"

"No!" Ye Chen frowned slightly.

Sensing the coldness in Ye Chen’s tone, the City Lord gained some clarity and smiled smoothly. "The Luoer family is one of the three transcendent families of Tianzhou City, with a lineage spanning tens of millions of years. It is rumored their founding ancestor was an expert who surpassed the gods but perished in a great war. Since then, the family’s fortune declined steadily until about three million years ago, when a capable figure emerged to guide the fading Luoer family back into prominence as one of the Three Great Families of Tianzhou City."

After speaking, he glanced at Ye Chen. "Divine Envoy, if this family has offended you, it amounts to disrespect toward the Heavenly Sorcerer King. Within Tianzhou City, I will oversee their entire economic domain!"

Ye Chen nodded subtly, thinking the Tianzhou City Lord was indeed seasoned and cunning, understanding Ye Chen’s mind and seeking to curry favor without overtly revealing his own ambitions, instead elevating the Heavenly Sorcerer King to a position of supreme importance.

"This family deserves annihilation!" Ye Chen murmured softly, then cupped his hands toward the City Lord, turned, and re-entered the rune ship. The vessel slowly steered toward the space-jumping aperture.

"Security scan system deactivated."

"Please select destination map."

The intelligent system at the space-jumping point bypassed all security checks, clearing a path for the rune ship, and a vast panel of maps shimmered into view.

"Forward!"

The ship vanished into the space-jumping point, accelerating down a distant, ethereal path.

The City Lord watched the rune ship depart. After it was out of sight, he gazed for a moment, then turned, waved his hand, summoned several guards, and commanded, "Seal off all economic markets belonging to the Luoer family!"

"Yes!" the guards acknowledged.

The City Lord stared into the distance, a slight arc forming on his lips. "To actually provoke the Heavenly Sorcerer Divine Envoy—your Luoer family has quite the nerve. Across the entire Heavenly Sorcerer Vassal State, there have only been three Heavenly Sorcerer Divine Envoys in tens of millions of years!"

"To overturn the governance of an entire city, a Heavenly Sorcerer Divine Envoy can even replace the City Lord. You dared to offend one; truly foolish!"

As Ye Chen warped toward the next city, stirrings began in certain hidden, mysterious locales.

Within a volcanic region bathed in crimson flame, the sky was a blaze of red, surrounded by fire; even the mist was a burning cloud of fire. The ambient heat was enough to instantly vaporize an ordinary peak Pseudo-God expert into steam.

In this air, shimmering threads of mysterious electrical light could be observed, as if the fundamental laws of the primordial universe itself were weaving through the space.

This was a realm of fire!

If an outsider were to witness it, they would know this was a veiled sanctuary within the territory of the Blazing God Empire.

"Hmm? A genius has appeared within the Heavenly Sorcerer Vassal State?"

In a colossal hall, clearly marked by deep carvings and constructed entirely of crimson fire-bronze, a figure enveloped in swirling flames sat enthroned at the center. His true face was obscured, as if all time and space warped around him, radiating an aura of profound mystery.

Before him, a crystal sphere hovered.

Currently, the sphere displayed an image: a black-clad, black-haired man, wreathed in crimson blood energy, his hair wildly surging—it was unmistakably Ye Chen!

"Peak Demigod, yet capable of clearing the 20th floor of the War God Tower!"

"Able to contend against higher levels purely through secret manuals!"

"If cultivated properly, there's a sixty percent chance he could become a true God!"

The figure murmured this softly. After a pause, a connection sound from a communicator broke the silence, and he spoke again with detachment: "Admit that person into the Genius Hall of my Blazing Empire. We must strike first and not allow other sects to claim him."

"Yes, Master." A respectful voice replied from within.

In another, ancient and mysterious bronze hall:

"We are taking this person."

"Screening complete, qualified."

"Proceed with the invitation..."

Time flowed onward. Ye Chen and his company traveled for over ten days before finally reaching a Dragonflame City. Along the route, personnel at the intermediate rest stations, upon seeing the Heavenly Sorcerer Token, accepted no fees whatsoever; instead, they eagerly permitted Ye Chen to acquire resources within their stores.

During this time, Ye Chen distributed some of the treasures he had acquired to White Dragon and the others. After this extended separation, White Dragon and the rest had all reached the Demigod realm. Faced with tens of millions of Demigod Stones, they swiftly ascended to the peak of the Demigod stage!

However, their version of 'peak' was entirely different from Ye Chen’s.

Ye Chen had originally intended to instruct them in the Heavenly Dao Scripture, but later realized that this cultivation manual could not simply be imparted; they could only practice it if they were personally recognized by the scripture itself.

Despite this limitation, over these days, Ye Chen gave White Dragon and the others numerous spiritual elixirs that were of little use to him, causing their physiques to surge. Furthermore, he summoned Island Master Ziyun, Island Master Tiangong, and others, providing them with vigorous cultivation support.

Island Master Ziyun and the others possessed the Xuanyuan bloodline; upon breaking through to the Demigod realm, they instantly attained peak Demigod cultivation.

Now, Ye Chen possessed items like the Spirit Transformation Pills, let alone lesser medicinal aids. Many resources beneficial for cultivation were plundered from the Fengyue family.

When Ye Chen presented everyone with a set of early-stage Pseudo-God equipment, an absolute silence fell over the group.

"Where, where did all these things come from?"

"How could there be so many?"

White Dragon, Island Master Ziyun, and the others felt their mouths go dry.

Ye Chen stated calmly, "I robbed them."

"As expected..."

"I wonder which poor young lady you mugged."

Yue Heng and White Dragon exchanged bitter smiles, seemingly having guessed this long ago.

Ye Chen said no more, pulling out numerous secret manuals and scriptures collected from the Fire Civilization and tossing them to White Dragon and the others. Among these manuals were several Pseudo-God level texts.

"These, these..."

Everyone was stunned by the sheer volume of items Ye Chen produced. Staring at the mountain of manuals piled before them, they felt dizzy. Gods above, were these priceless scriptures being treated like waste paper here?

Ye Chen summoned Xu Tiangguo and commanded, "Give these elixirs to the capable individuals within the spiritual civilization. Focus on combat techniques, aiming to produce as many Ghost God realm martial artists as possible. Furthermore, reward every Ghost God realm martial artist with a complete set of early-stage Pseudo-God equipment!"

He had originally seized forty to fifty thousand sets of early-stage Pseudo-God equipment during the raid on the Fengyue family!

Xu Tiangguo accepted the spatial ring Ye Chen offered. As his consciousness probed within, he immediately froze. Inside the massive space, a rich fragrance of medicine permeated the air; vast quantities of medicinal pills floated, forming rivers, all of them rare and precious elixirs!

He found it hard to believe—if these many pills were sold, how much grain could they procure?

If he knew that the accumulated wealth of a thriving great family spanning millions of years had been stripped away by Ye Chen, perhaps his shock would be slightly less profound.

Under the influx of these resources, the overall strength of the entire spiritual civilization experienced a quantum leap in ascent.

Time flowed like water.

The rune ship slowly emerged from the space-jumping point of Dragonflame City. Due to the authority of the Heavenly Sorcerer Token, it departed without even paying the jumping fee.

As the rune ship taxied outside the jumping point plaza, a colossal vessel suddenly surged from ahead, blocking the path of Ye Chen's ship.

"Hmm?" Ye Chen frowned.

"What's happening?"

"That’s a mid-tier Divine Vessel."

The old Green Rune man and White Dragon expressed their surprise. (To be continued)