"Demon Ah Gu Yechen muttered, feeling an icy chill run through him. Although countless cultivation-related insights now filled his mind, to Gu Yechen, who grew up in the twenty-fourth century, the existence of these strange entities known as Sky Demons remained profoundly baffling. Pure energy lifeforms?

Parasites dwelling in some unique sub-void? Possessing a nose like a hound's, instantly drawn to gorge themselves on the leaked energy signatures whenever a cultivator advanced? Yet, regardless of what Sky Demons truly were, or what unseen rules governed these bizarre beings, once the Pō Zéi Yìn erupted in a warm burst of crimson light, none of that mattered anymore.

The red light enveloped the entire secret chamber. Beneath its radiance, dozens of beautiful, flower-like translucent maidens, dozens of ferocious, tusked, translucent warriors, and countless aberrations—monsters, venomous insects, Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas—all shrieked and disintegrated. A continuous, faint hissing filled the air as the attacking Sky Demons were incinerated by the Innate True Fire contained within the Xì Zéi Yìn.

Thousands of needle-thin silver beams were absorbed by the Xióng Zéi Yìn, transforming into a flow of warm energy that coursed into Gu Yechen's body. Gu Yechen’s soul origin flourished like wild grass suddenly provided with potent fertilizer; in the blink of an eye, it expanded by nearly twenty percent. Stunned, Gu Yechen stared blankly as the Sky Demons turned to ash under the scarlet glow, letting out a sigh of genuine regret: "Why weren't there more?" Toxic Wolf choked, glaring at Gu Yechen in annoyance.

"These are Sky Demons! Demons that have made countless predecessors scatter their souls! And you want more?" Glancing sideways at the pale red Qilin Seal Gu Yechen was casually turning in his hand, Toxic Wolf shook his head helplessly.

People really had different fates. As the Chairman of the Federal Military, Toxic Wolf was so poor he didn't possess a single ordinary magic tool, yet Gu Yechen had pulled out four incomparably precious Liǎng Yí Duó Tiān Dān (Two Extremes Heaven-Seizing Pills). And this pale crimson Qilin Seal was clearly no ordinary item either.

Hastily tidying the chamber, and yielding to Gu Yechen’s strong insistence, Toxic Wolf generously gifted him all eighty thousand eight hundred pieces of high-grade Zakla crystals filling the room. Gu Yechen recalled his brothers Xin Jia and the others, then cheerfully walked out of the chamber hand-in-hand with Toxic Wolf, arriving at the reception lounge on the base's industrial level. Having successfully formed his Golden Core, Toxic Wolf, in excellent spirits, dismissed his assembled elite subordinates back to their respective units and brought out his finest aged wine to treat Gu Yechen.

After personally undertaking a meticulous preparation, Toxic Wolf handed Gu Yechen a ceramic wine cup, about the size of a fist. Looking at the rustic, simply shaped, hand-thrown earthenware cup, Gu Yechen drew a deep breath. The wine’s aroma was rich, piercing his nostrils like two sharp arrows straight into his chest cavity, slowly transforming into a concentrated, un-dispersing warmth echoing in his core.

Gu Yechen glanced at Toxic Wolf with surprise and admiration. "Pre-’93 War special reserve Maotai? I can’t believe you managed to find this!" Before Toxic Wolf could speak, Gu Yechen greedily grabbed the cup and downed a large gulp.

He held his breath, letting the liquor linger on his tongue for a moment before slowly swallowing. A stream of warm liquid, like liquid mercury, settled in his abdomen, the potent yet non-caustic fragrance swirling inside. Every pore on his body seemed to open up, slowly exhaling a faint wisp of alcoholic vapor.

"Magnificent wine! A peerless spirit!" Gu Yechen exclaimed. "A pity the most authentic Maotai cellars are gone!" Toxic Wolf helplessly raised his own cup and sighed softly.

Just like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the original, purest cellars of the Maotai distillery had been collected by the Roman people before the '93 War and shipped to Mars. To taste such pure fine wine now was truly difficult. Taking a sip, Toxic Wolf smiled.

"Bringing the Liǎng Yí Duó Tiān Dān aside, did you have any other business? You seem to have enjoyed your time cultivating peace and nurturing your spirit on Mount Jiuhua!" Crossing his legs, Gu Yechen leaned back languidly on the sofa and tossed Porphyrius’s storage chip to Toxic Wolf. "Look at this.

The Roman people are planning something big again." Taking the chip, Toxic Wolf tapped the coffee table beside him, and a card reader compatible with Roman data chips rose from the floor. He inserted the chip and pressed play. A massive light screen descended from the ceiling, and the ambient light in the room dimmed.

On the screen, a tattered fleet struggled across the void of space. 'Tattered' meant that the warships' outer hulls were riddled with holes and cracks; much of the once exquisitely carved hull plating had fallen away, with some sections hanging off the structure like the wind resistance on an old sailing ship, moving sluggishly forward. "Hmm, the Roman wandering fleet?" Toxic Wolf chuckled, mocking.

"This is how their warships looked when they first arrived in the Solar System!" Gu Yechen finished the wine in his cup in two quick swallows, then directly seized the wine jar beside Toxic Wolf, pulling it closer to himself. As he poured himself more wine, he mumbled indistinctly: "Keep watching, the good part is coming! We need to deliberate this matter carefully!" Toxic Wolf paused, then carefully counted the size of the fleet on the screen, his astonishment growing.

"It looks significantly larger than the Roman wandering fleet back then?" The Roman fleet gradually appearing on the screen numbered well over a million vessels, most of them colossal warships exceeding five kilometers in length. Among them were seven thousand massive colony motherships, each with a diameter exceeding fifty kilometers. The largest were over a hundred fortress ships, shaped roughly like olives, exceeding three hundred kilometers in length.

The broken fleet pushed forward through space. Warships constantly ran out of energy and were forever stranded in the boundless void, or they were captured by the gravity of a planet or star and destroyed as they struggled to break free. They also encountered space hazards intermittently—small black holes, supernova explosions, cosmic electromagnetic storms, nebula eddies—causing the fleet's numbers to dwindle continuously.

Toxic Wolf’s facial muscles twitched a few times. He forced a dry laugh. "No wonder the Roman people have so many deities; they must have had truly terrible luck on their journey!" Gu Yechen also chuckled dryly.

Although he knew the Roman fleet had suffered massive losses during their long migration, seeing this million-strong armada still sent a chill from the soles of his feet straight to the crown of his head. It was unimaginable what the outcome of the '93 War would have been if this million-strong fleet had reached the Solar System. The fleet struggled onward.

Gradually, only one colossal fortress remained, and the number of giant warships steadily decreased. The colony motherships dwindled to fewer than fifteen. By the end, all weapons had been stripped from the remaining colossal fortress and used to equip salvaged parts and energy blocks from damaged vessels that could be recycled.

Only fewer than a hundred giant warships, five kilometers long, remained; most were between three and six hundred meters in length. The vast numbers of Roman people were densely packed into the fifteen remaining colony motherships, the majority sealed inside coffin-like hibernation units, unable to move freely within ships that once possessed independent life support systems. The final colossal fortress was slowly converted into a massive processing factory.

Using scattered minerals and energy found along the way, the Roman warships patched themselves up and struggled forward. "I can only say, they were incredibly unlucky... traveling like that for so long and never encountering a single planet with decent natural conditions!" Gu Yechen shrugged helplessly.

Toxic Wolf maliciously remarked, "This is retribution... Now they can only scrape by on Mars!" The fleet continued its advance and finally reached a quiet and peaceful stretch of the cosmos. According to the scouting ships they sent out, a small planetary system lay hundreds of light-years ahead.

The third planet in that system possessed very good natural conditions, sufficient for the Roman people to survive. Excited, the Romans recklessly used their last remaining energy reserves for subspace curvature warp speed cruising, rushing toward the Solar System at full throttle. The result was that their excessive joy turned to sorrow: they lost their final colossal fortress.

After countless years of continuous, patch-upon-patch repairs, the giant fortress cracked with a kacha sound, splitting a fissure in sub-space, ejecting it into a more distant sector swept by temporal turbulence. The Romans, however, paid no heed to their sole remaining fortress; like flies smelling blood, they swarmed toward the Solar System, where they conveniently met up with the vessels of the United States of North America. "What in the hell are these bastards trying to do?" Toxic Wolf smacked his lips, kicking Gu Yechen’s thigh and snatching back the wine jar, which now held only a little more than half its contents.

Looking longingly at Toxic Wolf’s jar, Gu Yechen sneered, "What else could they be doing? According to intelligence, the Romans have now amassed a huge hoard of rare minerals and energy crystals. They are preparing to launch a long-distance expedition to bring that lost colossal fortress back to the Solar System." Toxic Wolf frowned.

"Trouble... If that thing gets armed..." Toxic Wolf's face was grim. If the Roman people truly managed to repair that colossal fortress, the Federal military would be like tofu dregs before them.

The wars on Heaven Star and the Thirteen Adjacent Stars wouldn't even need to be fought; the Federation would simply surrender. A colossal fortress three hundred kilometers long—the technological gap was immense! With a long sigh, Toxic Wolf expressed relief.

"It's fortunate that ninety percent or more of the Romans who arrived in the Solar System were nobles and priestly clans. If some of the Roman original research personnel were mixed in, we’d be in real trouble!" In his words, Toxic Wolf expressed great admiration for the escape capabilities of the Roman aristocracy and priestly families. The current Roman civilization was far inferior in technology to the one depicted on the screen, but if they managed to locate and repair that colossal fortress, the consequences were unpredictable.

Gu Yechen nodded slowly. "The Romans have been fighting and mining on Heaven Star simultaneously, and they finally gathered enough rare metals and energy crystals. So, they dispatched Pol Pot, the most outstanding talent among the current Roman Kingdom's younger generation, leading the young elites of the Nine Great Electoral Families to retrieve that colossal fortress...

If he succeeds, Pol Pot could very well be named the Roman King’s first-in-line successor due to this achievement." Toxic Wolf grinned slyly. "Meaning, the Holsama family might become the First Electoral Family?" Gu Yechen spread his hands. "Exactly.

Which is why someone tipped me off, telling us we must sabotage their operation!" Toxic Wolf said seriously, "That’s right, we absolutely must sabotage their mission... But..." Gu Yechen smiled lightly. "But, I’ve just realized that letting others do the dirty work is much more relaxed and joyful than doing it myself!" Toxic Wolf was also amused.

He gave a thumbs-up in admiration. "Hearing you say that, you have the potential to be the Chairman of the Federal Military!" They exchanged a look, and Gu Yechen dialed a communication number. "Gu Yu-ru?

Come to Paris, I need to see you!" Gu Yechen’s smile was conspiratorial, the kind a weasel gives when spotting a hen. "What? Who am I?

I'm your grandfather! Your own biological grandfather!" "Uh... you don't believe me?

I don't need you to believe me; you must listen to me! You must obey me! Do you understand?

Do you remember the casino in Sydney?" He abruptly terminated the call and looked at the stunned Toxic Wolf, laughing. "The fall guy is here!"