Brilliant sparks danced in Ye Chen's eyes, eerie and mysterious. His expression was indifferent as he slowly raised a hand and clenched it slightly. The entire void seemed to writhe strangely, and the fragments of warships that had been falling automatically trembled, as if summoned by some unseen power, drifting toward the Rune Ship.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

Debris rained down from all directions, coalescing around the Rune Ship to form a wall of metal—an iron barrier built from countless shattered pieces and broken warships, some still emitting sparks from damaged electrical panels.

"How long did the fight last?" Ye Chen turned his head and asked.

The old man from the Green Rune Tribe chuckled, "Exactly three minutes and twenty-eight seconds to finish it."

Ye Chen nodded slightly, his body suddenly moving as he stepped out of the Rune Ship, hovering in the void. With a sweep of his palm, he pulled the spatial domain of the Fire Civilization apart, creating a massive black hole a thousand zhang in diameter.

"In!" Ye Chen waved his hand. The surrounding wreckage responded to the guidance, slowly moving to form a metallic dragon, which then drifted into the Fire Civilization space.

Under the control of spatial force, all the floating fragments were maneuvered at will. After about ten seconds, the majority of the wreckage from over a hundred warships had entered the Fire Civilization space.

Ye Chen collected the remaining debris, leaving only that single purple warship. A cold glint flashed in his eyes. The hatch of the purple warship automatically blasted open, and a figure floated out, drifting straight toward the hovering Ye Chen, as if an invisible hand gripped his throat.

It was the burly man.

"Don't, don't kill me..." The burly man stared at Ye Chen, his eyes filled with deep terror. Although he was a Mid-tier God, in normal circumstances, he wouldn't place much stock in talents like Ye Chen. After all, the path of cultivation was fraught with peril; countless early talents had fallen later or faded into obscurity, like carp crossing a rapid river.

Otherwise, in the countless epochs since the Yan God Empire was established, large batches of members from the Hall of Geniuses would have entered its ranks every 100,000 years, yet only over a thousand vassal states remained today.

This showed that most geniuses ultimately perished or remained merely at the God realm, with some never even managing to cross the threshold into godhood.

Hearing the burly man's words, Ye Chen remained cold and paid him no heed. He gripped his hand, pulling open the Rune Space and summoning Xiao Hei from within.

The burly man didn't grasp Ye Chen's intent, but seeing his calm, indifferent gaze, a sliver of fear crept into his heart. Disregarding the doctrine drilled into him—'Never beg for mercy or reveal secrets, even as a captive'—he hastily blurted out, "We can talk! You want to know who sent me, right? I'll tell you—the Huatian Group sent me! Ask whatever else you want, I'll tell you everything."

"Xiao Hei," Ye Chen glanced at Xiao Hei.

Xiao Hei shot out from its previous location. Its main body was about the size of a thumb, covered in numerous black tendrils, lacking visible eyes or mouth, resembling a small black sphere. It floated toward the burly man.

"Die!" Ye Chen clenched his palm.

The burly man's brain convulsed violently. All consciousness instantly collapsed, his mind turning blank. His eyes rapidly lost their luster, and he went limp.

Xiao Hei hovered before him, surveyed the body, and then slipped into the man's ear. Not long after, the burly man's finger twitched slightly, then his body trembled. After a moment, he lifted his head. The light returned to his eyes, but the expression was vastly different from before—less resolve, more wickedness.

"Boss," the burly man called out to Ye Chen, grinning widely.

Ye Chen released the spatial power he had exerted, turning off the Thunder Realm Domain artifact on his finger. He said, "Tell me about the Huatian Group."

"Understood!" Xiao Hei nodded repeatedly and said with a smile, "The Huatian Group is the largest enterprise in Donglin City, founded by the Hualong family. The members of the high-level board of directors are all from the Hualong family. In Donglin City, the Huatian Group is a force that can overshadow the sky and command the elements."

"And this man was part of an organization secretly cultivated by the Huatian Group, called 'Death God.' The lowest members of this organization are Peak Pseudo-Gods! These are the 'Outer Death God Members'; the Inner Death God Members are all powerhouse Gods!"

"A short while ago, they received instructions from their superiors to come and annihilate us, with a deadline of one hour to wipe us out, because the satellite monitoring system in this area would be jammed for that hour."

"This time, a total of 1,000 Death God members came, 900 of whom were outer members, and the remaining 100 were inner members. Every warship had an inner member at the helm."

Hearing Xiao Hei's report, Ye Chen's gaze flickered. After a moment of frowning thought, he waved his hand, turned back into the Rune Ship, recalled Kaba, and then the group steered the Rune Ship toward the distant sky.

The sky returned to silence, as if the battle had been a dream; nothing remained in the void save for the scorching airflow.

"Huatian Group." Ye Chen sat on the sofa in the main hall of the Rune Ship, holding a glass of red wine. The exquisite crystal glass was dazzling under the lights, reflecting the deep crimson liquid within, its fragrant aroma filling the hall, intoxicating and comforting.

"I gave you a chance this time, and you miscalculated. Next time, there might not be such a good opportunity," Ye Chen curved his lips into a cruel arc, tilting his head back to drain the wine in one gulp.

He had fully anticipated this attack. After having beaten Hualong Tian and killed Zidian previously, both of whom were connected to the Hualong family, it would be unreasonable for the Huatian Group to do nothing.

Moreover, with Ye Chen's state of mind, he saw through things with clarity.

Cause and effect, gain and loss—he understood this shallow principle. Beating Hualong Tian was the source of the disaster, and this was the first trial; greater tribulations would follow.

However, to Ye Chen, these were nothing to fear, requiring no excessive worry.

After a brief rest, Ye Chen arrived at the Fire Civilization space. Over the vast expanse of the city in the Fire Civilization, several mountains of metal were piled up—all wreckage fragments. These fragments were gleaming and new on the surface, with scorch marks in some places and distorted metal.

Bailan stood at the edge of the plaza, lost in thought.

Ye Chen walked over, looked at the wreckage strewn everywhere, his eyes flashing. He raised his hand, took out the Small Nine Cauldrons from his inner armor, aimed them at the first pile of metallic wreckage, and activated the Nine Cauldrons System.

Clang!

The entire mountain of metallic wreckage trembled slightly. Many fragments on it shook loose, suddenly surging toward the Nine Cauldrons. Under the shroud of the mysterious force field, they rapidly shrank hundreds of times and were absorbed into the Small Nine Cauldrons.

Not long after, the suction intensified, and the entire metal mountain shook apart, dissolving into a flow of countless metallic fragments that spun and swept toward the Small Nine Cauldrons, shrinking hundreds of times before being collected within.

"Smelt," Ye Chen selected 'Spaceship.'

Buzz~

The dark cauldron body of the Nine Cauldrons trembled slightly. After a while, it stabilized, and then a super-small, miniature spaceship slowly floated out. This ship slowly grew until it reached a size of a thousand zhang and anchored itself in the void.

It was a bronze-colored vessel, surrounded by numerous metallic appendages like a centipede. On the cabin roof were many missile tubes and laser cannons, their muzzles gaping black holes, inducing palpable dread.

Ye Chen moved, arriving before the cabin. There was a small hole resembling a cat's eye on the door, emitting a red light beam that scanned Ye Chen's iris. After a moment, a mechanical-sounding voice announced, "Master locked."

Click!

The red light retracted, and the hatch opened automatically.

Ye Chen was astonished. He hadn't expected that the Small Nine Cauldrons could not only smelt puppet bodies and forge various weapons but also weave intelligent systems—it was truly a versatile artifact!

"The Small Nine Cauldrons hide the passage to the Nine Cauldrons World. There are nine Small Nine Cauldrons in this world; I wonder what would happen if they were all collected?" Ye Chen mused briefly before entering the ship's main control room. Here, numerous screens displayed every corner of the ship. On the control panel next to the central radar, a small figure, about the length of a finger, hovered in the air, enveloped in a bluish-green light.

"Master." The small figure spoke vividly upon seeing Ye Chen.

Ye Chen approached him, glanced around, and asked, "What is the ship's grade, and what is the maximum combat power it can exert?"

"The spaceship is currently Mid-tier God level. If it enters self-destruct mode, it can achieve the destructive power of a High-tier God spaceship, but it can only maintain that for 10 seconds!" the small figure reported truthfully.

Mid-tier God level? Ye Chen nodded slightly, left the spaceship, returned to the plaza, and subjected the remaining piles of metal to the same process, forging a total of eight Mid-tier God-level spaceships.

Each God-level spaceship commanded an extremely high market price; one God-level ship was equivalent to ten Divine Artifacts of the same rank!

Having completed this, Ye Chen returned to the Rune Ship. By now, the Rune Ship had docked onto the aerospace rail and arrived in the center of Donglin City, mooring before the headquarters of the First-Rank Hall of Geniuses.

From afar, the magnificent gate looked like a space fortress. Numerous soldiers stood guard at the entrance, while aerial detection radars and patrolling mechanical warriors filled the skies, resembling an iron bastion.

The Rune Ship stopped outside the city gate. Ye Chen emerged from it and stored the ship in the Rune Space. He then walked alone toward the gate. After a short while, he reached the gate and noticed that the soldiers and the captain at the entrance had been replaced; the previous captain and soldiers were nowhere in sight.

Ye Chen didn't dwell on it and walked straight in.

I was unable to update yesterday, but under my wife's urging, I have resolutely chosen to release five chapters today to make up for yesterday's omission, plus an extra chapter! I apologize to all the brothers for keeping you waiting.