The shuttle craft stretched over six meters in length, yet its slender wingspan reached twelve meters. The nose of the shuttle was sleek, while the tail section was full and rounded, with eight rectangular nozzles arrayed across the stern, silently expelling bright trails of plasma nearly a hundred meters long. Judging solely by the length of this plasma wake, one could tell that despite its compact frame, the shuttle possessed battleship-level power.

A faint, ethereal electromagnetic field enveloped the shuttle’s surface, allowing it to descend without so much as a whisper of displaced air. It drifted like a phantom into one of the massive canyons ubiquitous on the Martian surface, rocketing forward at a dizzying speed. In mere minutes, it had covered hundreds of kilometers.

Ducate sat bolt upright within the cockpit, which was devoid of any instruments or control panels. Hundreds of incredibly fine electrical filaments extended from his head, seamlessly integrating with the shuttle’s central hyper-brain.

He had become one with the shuttle; the craft was now an extension of his very being. Wherever his thoughts led, the shuttle followed, weaving up and down, accelerating and decelerating according to his will. Ducate skimmed the surface of Mars with the effortless grace of a fish.

Ahead, a colossal basin suddenly appeared, spanning over ten kilometers in diameter and plunging more than four thousand meters deep. At the basin’s center lay a small pool of pale blue, brackish water, less than two hundred meters across. Sparse, hardy flora, adapted to cold and drought, dotted the basin floor. Dozens of genetically modified herbivores lay listlessly huddled near the spring, concealed within a thicket of brush, their dull eyes watching the shuttle emerge silently and alight with exquisite delicacy from a canyon on the basin’s western flank.

Upon landing, the shuttle rapidly reverted to its previous dilapidated appearance. Ducate pushed open the hatch and stepped out. With a subtle gesture, the shuttle quickly shrank to the size of his palm, which Ducate easily tucked into his embrace.

A hundred meters away, a “Greed Wolf”—a creature engineered from Earth’s prairie wolves and enhanced with sharp teeth—slowly closed the distance, using the sparse bushes for cover. Trailing behind it was a pack numbering nearly a hundred. These wolves crawled almost flush with the ground, their greedy eyes fixed on the robust Ducate. In their simple minds, a prey of this size surely held an abundance of meat.

Ducate glanced at the hostile pack approaching him, then extended his right hand. A cascade of pale silver liquid seeped from his skin, rapidly encasing his arm. In the blink of an eye, Ducate’s right arm morphed into a 150mm caliber energy cannon. He raised the weapon and fired a blast directly at the lead Greed Wolf.

A deafening boom erupted, vaporizing the lead wolf, leaving behind a crater several meters deep where it had stood. The rest of the pack instantly emitted a shrill, mournful cry, leaping up and fleeing backward with their tails tucked in terror. Only the herbivores huddled near the bitter spring remained unmoved, watching Ducate with cold indifference, as if the massive explosion had never occurred.

Surveying his surroundings, Ducate strode purposefully to the edge of the small, bitter spring. The water tasted acrid, saturated with heavy metal minerals. Any normal organism drinking it would perish instantly; only the genetically modified animals could survive. Such bitter water was common on Mars—a remnant of the Roman colonists’ cost-cutting measures during their massive terraforming efforts. This water could only be slowly purified by Mars’ own geological processes; the Romans had shown no interest in investing further resources here.

He looked up at the sky, and the deep black luster of Ducate’s eyes abruptly shifted to a cold, emotionless crystalline blue, like that of a machine. His gaze pierced the Martian atmosphere, sweeping rapidly across the space above the planet. An invisible wave of energy expanded to cover hundreds of kilometers of the surrounding void, rendering the surveillance monitoring of all electronic instruments above this basin blank.

With a soft sigh, Ducate dove into the pale blue, bitter spring, sinking straight down hundreds of meters.

When he was still hundreds of meters from the bottom, Ducate suddenly reached out and gripped a narrow fissure in the rock beside him. He glanced left and right, then darted into the crevice like a swift fish.

The winding crevice was devoid of water, and a breath of fresh, clean air rushed out to meet him. An intense spiritual energy surged, fighting to enter every pore of Ducate’s being. He inhaled deeply, a look of profound contentment washing over his features; the perpetually rigid expression on his face softened as he quickened his pace into the fissure.

The further he walked, the denser the surrounding spiritual energy became, eventually condensing into a visible, thick, green mist pooling on the ground. After a short distance more, liquid green ‘spirit dew’ began to appear on the floor. By the time he reached the end of the fissure, the rock walls beside him were densely studded with fist-sized green crystals. These translucent gems seemed to breathe in the abundant spiritual energy around them, giving the distinct impression of being living entities.

He had entered an irregularly shaped cavern spanning over two hundred meters in diameter. The entire four walls of the cave were a uniform, vibrant emerald green, completely covered in a thick layer of these green crystals.

In the absolute center of the cavern was a Spirit Spring. The pool itself measured about five meters across, its bright green spiritual liquid churning restlessly. Occasionally, a bubble would rise from the spring’s eye. When the bubble burst on the surface, the spiritual energy within the cavern thickened perceptibly.

At the bottom of the pool grew a mass of root-like structures, coiled and interwoven like lotus roots, each as thick as a child’s arm. These pale green tendrils were so translucent and brilliant they seemed carved from the finest jade. They were riddled with tiny air vents, from which thin, scarlet filaments emerged. At the end of each filament bloomed a fire-bright, fist-sized orchid, dazzling in its coloration.

Lily was curled up on a mat woven from grass leaves beside the Spirit Spring, nibbling little pieces off a root segment nearly a foot long. Thick, viscous green liquid oozed from the section she had bitten, filling the air with a faint, sweet perfume. Lily was savoring the liquid with her nimble little tongue, licking up every drop as if it were ice cream. Before her lay a thick volume published by the Roman Academy of Sciences on biochemical weaponry, the cover stamped with the word “TOP SECRET” in Roman script.

Hearing Ducate’s approaching footsteps, Lily sprang up excitedly. She soared across the nearly hundred-meter distance in mid-air and launched herself into Ducate’s arms.

The root segment she was holding flew along with her embrace and landed squarely in Ducate’s mouth. Lily laughed delightedly, “Xiao, eat quickly! We haven’t been here in ages!” Ducate stroked Lily’s head with deep affection, consuming the transparent root segment entirely in just a few bites. While Lily seemed somewhat slow to realize it, Ducate now understood he had just eaten an extremely rare spiritual treasure.

Borbot had intended to kill Ducate in a way that seemed “reasonable,” leading a high priest of the Pantheon to announce an experiment using Ducate to test the possibility of a second fusion of the Cristallos. Facing the oppressive authority of the Pantheon, Ducate had no choice. He and Lily were both forcibly confined and compelled to fuse two purple Cristallo spheres.

A secondary fusion—an attempt with no known successful precedent, guaranteed fatal. During the long, agonizing process of fusion, Ducate and Lily felt their bodies nearly collapse multiple times, their souls seeming on the verge of being devoured by the purple Cristallo spheres. Yet, just when they felt they could endure no more, a massive surge of energy would erupt from every cell in their bodies, successfully pulling them through crisis after crisis.

The aura of that energy was identical to the energy contained within these root segments!

Patting Lily’s head gently, Ducate sat down on the mat, holding her close. He stared intently at the tangled roots within the Spirit Spring and murmured, “Lily, this place you mischievously found is extraordinary. Do you know? Our survival this time is entirely thanks to all the treasures we’ve consumed over the years!” “Oh?” Lily blinked, then looked at the dense cluster of roots in the spring and beamed happily, “Since they’re treasures, we should eat more! Xiao, let’s eat more!” With a flick of her finger, a pale green vortex erupted from the spring, snapping off two root segments about a meter long, which flew directly into Lily’s waiting hands.

Ducate smiled, taking one segment from her. He leaned down and kissed Lily’s lips.

“Lily, the two of us can only rely on ourselves, understand? Borbot wants to kill us. We must rely only on ourselves!” Lily’s expression dimmed, but in an instant, she rallied her courage. She defiantly bit into the sweet, juicy root segment, then kissed Ducate’s lips affectionately, saying, “Borbot is a bad man. Xiao, we aren’t afraid of him, right?” Ducate nodded heavily, his voice deep, “Yes, we aren’t afraid of him. We just need to be careful.” A heavy weight settled in Ducate’s heart. On the Pluto hunting vessel, Borbot had already demonstrated improper intentions toward Lily; perhaps then it was purely to torment Ducate. But now, with her displayed extraordinary power, Lily, who might become the next leader of the Spirit Clan, had become the prime target for certain factions. Must he really subject Lily to such danger? Lily was different from him; any misstep involving her would be a lifetime of agony for him!

“But…” Ducate’s brow furrowed tightly. What was he to do?

Shaking his head sharply, Ducate said quietly, “Lily, cultivate diligently. We can only depend on ourselves; we must become stronger!” Lily responded obediently, and the two quickly devoured the root segment between them.

Ducate sat cross-legged on the mat, Lily nestled in his lap, and both simultaneously entered the deepest state of cultivation. Ducate practiced the Nine Yang True Art transmitted to him by his mother. Lily practiced the secret methods of the Spirit Clan, secretly passed down by the Elder Council.

Gradually, a crimson aura began to emanate from Ducate, while Lily glowed with a brilliant, fresh emerald light. The immeasurable azure spiritual energy in the cavern rushed into Lily’s body as if greeting a relative. A sound like avalanches and tsunamis roared within her, whipping up a fierce wind throughout the cave.

Soon, a deep green, refined True Qi erupted from Lily’s back, flowing directly into Ducate’s Dantian. The moment the azure spiritual energy contacted the crimson True Qi in Ducate’s Dantian, it was like pouring a tanker of gasoline onto a pile of burning embers. Countless streams of Nine Yang Qi exploded forth like detonating bombs, rapidly surging throughout Ducate’s entire body.

Cultivating in this cavern, Lily’s speed was more than fifty times that of the outside world; Ducate’s cultivation speed, likewise, reached thirty times the outside rate! Gradually, both figures were enveloped in a swirling storm of crimson energy.

Meanwhile, in the castle of the Hallam family, Borbot Hallam, the family’s most promising young elite, was launching his fifteenth thunderous assault, lasting thirty-five seconds, upon the seventh serving girl. Around Borbot, other young talents from the Hallam family, having rushed over upon hearing the noise, were playfully tangled up with the serving girls.

Dozens of bodies tumbled together as the Hallam youths excitedly exchanged tales of their strenuous battles with the maids.

Deep within the subterranean cavern, Ducate and Lily continued their cultivation, utterly undisturbed.

The fifteenth thunderous assault, lasting thirty-five seconds.

Alas, what staggering data.