A hundred small Roman ships poured out of the transport vessel, flying towards the statue of the slight world-entering deity. With painstaking care, they used low-power lasers to sweep the stardust accumulated on the statue's surface completely clean, then coated it with a layer designed to protect it from erosion by cosmic radiation energy. Having completed this, the Roman fleet continued its advance. The three following fleets hurriedly pressed close behind.

They continued sailing like this for over four more months, involving more than thirty warp-gate jumps and approximately three months of subspace curvature light-speed travel. Along the way, the Romans constantly launched a large number of small-scale probes in all directions for searching, stopping and starting, traversing countless star fields.

Gu Xichen also ordered the release of a large number of probes along the route, and specifically dispatched several fleets to fully map out data regarding all planets, systems capable of hosting the fleet for stops and repairs that they passed. One day, the Earth Federation’s immigrant fleet or war fleet would surely arrive here; this was the deep-rooted drive for territorial expansion among the Terrans, and also the merchant instinct of Gu Xichen to maximize the market. Terran humanity had never reached such distant star sectors, and this data might prove useful someday.

The fleets of the Alliance of Gods and the Holy See, however, had no concept of this. They simply followed the Roman fleet relentlessly, skulking about like weasels hovering outside a chicken coop. These devout clergy possessed singularly focused minds; their entire attention was currently fixed on that gigantic mothership, leaving no room to consider the future expansion plans of the Terran Federation.

Nevertheless, after carefully reviewing the route map charted by the detached squadrons, Gu Xichen could only offer a helpless, bitter smile. The Romans’ luck was truly abysmal. This route was likely the old trajectory they had used to reach the Solar System back then; along the way, they hadn't found a single planet with even a slightly better environment—only desolate lands and harsh waters. Moreover, some planets were home to native mega-beasts so powerful they induced despair. Some of the particularly formidable ones could withstand the full broadside of a Nantianmen-class heavy dreadnought's main cannons with sheer brute force. It was only fortunate that these beasts could not fly into space; that was their sole stroke of luck.

Peng Hua also flipped through the route maps roughly, and could only stare upward with a helpless, bitter laugh: “The Romans, the Romans! Romans with this level of terrible luck—I have nothing to say about it.”

Ling Hu, who had drifted closer, simply shook his head repeatedly. The Romans’ luck was not just bad; it was extraordinary. Even the Earth Federation, with its crude technology, had discovered over a dozen colony worlds, yet the powerful Roman fleet, with its advanced technology, hadn't found a single habitable planet along the entire journey. The vast cosmos, with its countless star systems—their luck was utterly wretched!

Throughout their journey, the Romans encountered no fewer than eighteen Roman statues made of that black, semi-transparent material. Furthermore, the farther out they flew, the larger the statues became. By the time Gu Xichen saw the Romans cleaning and worshipping those floating statues over four kilometers high in the void of space, he no longer had the strength to speak.

The spirits of these Romans were truly high; even while drifting through space, they had managed to carve and construct so many statues.

Along the way, the Romans also fortunately discovered over a dozen derelict Roman warships. These vessels, thousands of meters long, were sometimes mere empty shells, sometimes only half-buried in a barren, rocky planet, and sometimes just a rough skeletal framework drifting in the cosmic currents. Yet, upon finding any ancient warship, the Romans would swarm over it ecstatically, as if celebrating a festival, before completely dismantling the vessel and loading the pieces onto their transports.

Days passed, and by the eighth month after setting out, the Romans discovered an ancient transport vessel nearly eighteen kilometers long within a chaotic asteroid belt. Their emotions clearly reached a state of delirium. Countless small fighters and single-pilot craft surged out; the Romans worshipped and prostrated themselves upon the transport’s hull as if it were a holy day. Then, they employed massive laser cutters to carefully slice open the transport’s outer plating and reverently transported enormous Roman statues, hundreds of meters high, from within the colossal vessel.

Watching all this from afar via surveillance satellites, Gu Xichen was dumbfounded. The hand holding his bottle of gold-leafed brandy trembled slightly: “I thought for sure there would be some incredibly precious strategic material inside.”

Peng Hua nearly went mad. Having already mentally claimed the Roman fleet and all their spoils as his own loot, he hopped around the command deck in exasperation: “These screw-brained Romans! They brought all these statues with them while fleeing? Huh? Did I see that right? Such a massive transport ship? And it’s full of statues? Not a single other thing? Not even a few extra power cores would have been nice!”

Gu Xichen spread his hands, silent. Regarding the inherent nature of the Roman people, he gained a new, profound understanding.

However, Gu Xichen also found it a bit strange. Were those Romans truly retrieving those statues purely out of religious devotion? Whenever he scanned the statues with his spiritual energy, why did his heart always sense danger lurking nearby? Could it be that these statues, and what the Romans currently possessed...

...[Text gap in original document]...

In the next two weeks, the Romans seemed to have found the correct trajectory to their lost giant mothership. The variety of miscellaneous vessels they found along the way kept increasing.

But the items salvaged from those vessels were driving Gu Xichen and Peng Hua to near distraction. Statues, statues, and more statues! God only knew how many different types of statues there were, and these Romans were transporting them as if they were treasures. Following those were ceremonial items: colossal golden scepters, family crests intricately carved from precious metals, and gigantic cloaks used as external decorations on the warships—for instance, wings carved from gold and ship figureheads carved from silver.

When the leading Roman warship enthusiastically spent two days mounting a hundred-meter-tall ship figurehead, cast entirely from silver crystal, onto its prow, not only Gu Xichen and Peng Hua but also the supreme commander of the Holy See and the Alliance of Gods mission nearly ordered an immediate bombardment of these ostentatious Romans!

Two weeks later, the Roman fleet had become glittering and opulent, every warship as flamboyantly adorned as a carnival float, making them breathtakingly beautiful. Gu Xichen, with his advanced cultivation, no longer needed professional large-scale optical telescopes; he could see the dazzling radiance emanating from the Roman fleet from a great distance with his naked eye!

Just as Gu Xichen’s patience was about to run out, and he was about to recklessly order the complete destruction of the Roman, Holy See, and Alliance of Gods fleets to extract confessions, in a chaotic dust cloud ahead, a gargantuan mothership hundreds of kilometers long suddenly appeared.

Pinpricks of light flickered on the mothership, clearly indicating that some parts of this behemoth still possessed sufficient motive power.

Gu Xichen, who had been fiercely gambling at a mahjong table, violently shoved the tiles aside and strode to the massive viewport of the command cabin.

The immeasurably vast warship floated silently amidst interstellar dust spanning millions of kilometers wide and long. Occasionally, small asteroids struck its enormous hull, causing large showers of sparks. The giant vessel hung steadily ahead like an ancient, primordial beast, exuding a suffocating pressure that washed over them.

“So big!” Peng Hua muttered dazedly. “Too big!” Huo Ju and Ling Hu swallowed simultaneously. “Magnificent. If we repair this thing, what price do you think we should quote the Earth Federation when we sell it?” Gu Xichen stroked his chin, entirely focused on calculating the asking price for this colossus.

Peng Hua shot Gu Xichen a look, clenched his fists, and growled in a low voice, “What nonsense are you spouting? Such a treasure—you want to sell it? That’s just… just wasteful!”

With a light sigh, Gu Xichen glanced sideways at Peng Hua and said calmly, “Fine, once we capture it, I’ll give it to you! Hmm, Ling Hu, how many Zakra energy crystals does a Primordial-class warship consume per hour? A vessel this size should be equivalent to several thousand Primordial-class ships, right? I truly wonder if the entire family fortune could power it for even one second!”

Peng Hua’s face turned pale! He gazed at the enormous mothership, stammering, unable to speak.

A streak of crimson light flashed past Peng Hua. Han Re, her body miraculously restored, had once again emerged without invitation. She cast a coquettish glance at Gu Xichen and smiled sweetly at Peng Hua: “Oh my, what a big one! Did you little insects build this thing? Tsk tsk, it does have a bit of the flavor of the ‘Heavenly Palace of Lingxiao’ that the Heavenly Emperor used when inspecting the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. I really want it. Shall we seize it?”

Gu Xichen stepped aside, his right hand tightly gripping the Qilin Seal, remaining silent. Five streaks of purple light flashed, and the five Xin Jia brothers emerged. Their arms were crossed over their chests, their well-developed pectoral muscles visibly twitching, their gazes unfriendly as they looked towards Han Re.

Han Re let out a few cold laughs, raising her head proudly and sweeping a disdainful look over the five Xin Jia brothers.

The atmosphere in the command cabin immediately became incredibly strange, but the actions of the Alliance of Gods and the Holy See drew everyone’s attention away, even distracting Han Re from further provocation.

The protective armor on all gun emplacements of the three Alliance of Gods warships suddenly retracted. All their main cannons were already fully charged, and nearly a thousand primary and secondary cannons, along with several hundred heavy torpedoes, roared toward the eight Holy See warships. Simultaneously, the protective armor on almost all eight Holy See warships retracted, revealing similarly charged firing positions. Nearly three thousand primary and secondary cannons, and over a thousand heavy torpedoes, blasted toward the three Alliance of Gods warships.

Firelight illuminated a small patch of the cosmos. Several nearby small celestial bodies were sent tumbling away by the colossal explosion shockwaves, and the immense energy fluctuations instantly triggered shrill alarms from the Primordial-class warship’s sensors. The Roman fleet, which was speeding towards the giant mothership in the distance, immediately detected the presence of these two fleets.

The thirty Roman warships instantly reversed course and moved to intercept them, forming a combat array. All main cannons began charging, and their thick energy shields had already been activated to full power the moment the fighting began.