Within the Shenzhou, Ye Chen and the other occupant felt the Heavenly Dao Ark shudder violently, its external energy shield flickering precariously, almost shattering.

Every hair on Ye Chen’s body stood on end as a potent sense of impending crisis washed over him. He roared immediately, "Faster! Engage the warp drive, now!!"

Xiao Zongsheng was startled as well. She had navigated the Heavenly Dao Ark through countless perils over the years, yet she had never encountered anything so bizarre. A mere eyeball releasing such power could damage the Ark; what level of supreme cultivation must its owner have possessed in life?

She had no time to ponder further and frantically maneuvered the Heavenly Dao Ark, dodging and weaving, while simultaneously activating the spatial warp engine to tear open a transit corridor ahead.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

The eyeball blinked rapidly, sending streaks of golden light hurtling toward the Ark. Each beam shredded the surrounding spatial currents, causing the newly stabilized warp tunnel to violently collapse.

Ye Chen’s expression shifted. "Pull back! Get out of its attack range first, then initiate the warp!"

"Understood." Xiao Zongsheng acknowledged immediately and swiftly steered the Heavenly Dao Ark into a desperate retreat. The blood-red eyeball roared and pursued relentlessly, weaving strands of divine golden light that clung tenaciously to the Ark’s tail. If not for Xiao Zongsheng having honed her piloting skills to perfection over eons, they would have been pulverized long ago amidst that rain of golden beams.

Even so, after dodging the attacks with sheer terror for over ten minutes, the Heavenly Dao Ark managed to gain a small lead. Ye Chen glanced at the rapidly depleting energy reserves. He realized that ever since encountering the headless ancient corpse in the Ancient World Peak, the Ark's energy consumption had spiked dramatically. It had plummeted from over 90% to just 63.2% in less than a month!

He recalled that just 0.1% of that energy was enough to slay a peak Divine Emperor. He had initially calculated that the Ark’s reserves were more than sufficient for him to waste freely until a new energy source was located, yet now it was draining away like flowing water.

A twinge of heartache hit Ye Chen. Once the energy dropped to 10%, many of the Ark’s vital functions would be severely hampered, and if it completely ran out, it would simply become a heap of scrap metal.

Ye Chen clenched his fist and ordered Xiao Zongsheng to open a spatial warp channel to prepare for transit. The eyeball was still tens of millions of kilometers behind, needing a second or two to close the gap—more than enough time for them to escape.

The time required to establish a spatial warp tunnel was inversely proportional to a civilization’s technological advancement. Lower tech meant longer setup times—sometimes ten minutes or even half an hour. Higher tech meant only a few minutes, or even mere seconds.

A pitch-black warp tunnel slowly materialized fifty thousand kilometers ahead of the Heavenly Dao Ark. The Ark instantly shot toward it, on the verge of plunging in, when a piercing whistle erupted from behind. A dazzling golden light chased after them and struck the spatial warp tunnel with chilling precision.

Boom!

The warp tunnel was violently torn apart, collapsing into a black vortex that gradually shrunk out of existence.

Ye Chen’s face darkened. He turned to look at the blood-red eyeball, his gaze laced with shock. "It’s sentient?"

"You won't escape!" The blood-red eyeball advanced with a sinister grin, eyeing the Heavenly Dao Ark greedily. It hissed menacingly, "Such a fragrant source aura. You best surrender now. I will make you the foremost Divine Servant beneath my command and bestow upon you the High-Grade Servant Seal, greatly boosting your power!"

Ye Chen’s eyes turned cold. Without a word, he activated the Ark’s main cannons and unleashed a barrage toward the eyeball, simultaneously engaging the thrusters to flee at full speed.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~

The sky filled with glowing cannon shells, resembling beautiful, vibrant fireworks. Beneath this splendor lay the essence of death and destruction.

The blood-red eyeball curved its lips in a cold sneer and began to fly up and down with lightning speed, successfully deflecting the majority of the incoming ordnance. The few remaining projectiles struck the eyeball, which simply closed its eyelid. Stars-annihilating shells crashed against the lid, sparking harmlessly.

Ye Chen managed to steal a glance back. He saw that after being struck by a dozen shells, the eyelid only showed minor damage—some scorched, slightly raised flesh—but no mortal wounds. His heart seized. This eyeball was terrifying; not only did it retain awareness and understand concepts like spatial warp tunnels, but its physical hardness was utterly comparable to the skin of the severed hand they had previously encountered.

"What kind of being’s eye is this? How can such a monstrous thing exist in this world?!" Ye Chen’s heart hammered. In this moment of crisis, a soft, delicate hand suddenly rested upon the back of his own, radiating faint warmth.

Ye Chen turned his head and saw Bai Yijun smiling faintly, which momentarily stunned him. The tightly coiled tension within him slowly dissipated. He calmed himself, offered a slight smile, and then looked ahead, stating firmly, "We will be fine!"

He turned to Xiao Zongsheng. "Fire the Aurora Cannons, then execute the Cosmic Instant Shift."

Xiao Zongsheng immediately responded, "Yes!"

Her slender fingers deftly pressed two buttons. Two alloy apertures slid open on the Heavenly Dao Ark’s stern fins. Two beams of white light suddenly shot out from the empty openings, moving with incredible speed. Before the blood-red eyeball could even register them, a deafening boom echoed across the heavens.

After issuing his orders, Ye Chen closed his eyes, drew Bai Yijun close to his chest, and covered her eyes with his hand.

Only Xiao Zongsheng, utilizing the Ark’s detection systems, could witness the sky outside erupt in an intensely dense radiance. This white light was sharp as needles, so blinding that even Ye Chen’s physique dared not look directly upon it, lest he be blinded instantly.

Xiao Zongsheng hurriedly urged the Heavenly Dao Ark forward, charging toward a nearby star fragment, and swiftly activated the spatial warp engine, quickly constructing a Star Gate.

Whoosh!

The Heavenly Dao Ark plunged through, and the Star Gate snapped shut behind it.

Ye Chen finally let out a sigh of relief, lowered his hand, and murmured, "It's done. We’re safe."

Bai Yijun gazed into the dark channel of the Star Gate and felt a weight lift from her chest. She smiled radiantly. "I knew you would find a way."

Ye Chen rubbed his nose, a smile spreading across his face.

Just then, whoosh! A streak of golden light suddenly shot from the void ahead, violently impacting the Heavenly Dao Ark’s energy shield. It pierced the shield, which had already dropped to the warning threshold, and the remaining force scraped a faint mark on the Ark’s reinforced hull.

Ye Chen’s smile froze. Outside the forward viewport, a blood-red eyeball hurtled toward them, brimming with ferocity and killing intent: "How dare you trick me and inflict damage? You invite death!!!"

Boom!

The surrounding dark spatial tunnel suddenly ripped open. The shockwave from that single golden beam caused violent turbulence within the warped space, making it extremely unstable and riddled with fissures. The moment these cracks appeared, the external gravitational forces surged inward, causing chaotic gravity within the tunnel.

The Heavenly Dao Ark was sucked into a nearby spatial rift. Ye Chen did not instruct Xiao Zongsheng to stabilize the Ark with maximum effort. Given the Ark’s capabilities, navigating a collapsing spatial tunnel was not impossible, but with the blood-red eyeball blocking the exit, staying meant an inevitable, fierce battle. It was better to leave.

"You cannot run," the blood-red eyeball snarled, chasing after them.

Whoosh~

The Heavenly Dao Ark fell into the spatial rift. After an unknown amount of time, white light appeared outside the viewport. The Ark plummeted and crashed onto a mountain peak. The sheer weight of the vessel caused the peak to shake violently; rocks tumbled down, trees snapped, and chaos reigned.

Whoosh!

The blood-red eyeball burst down from the black vortex in the sky above, blinking a thousand golden beams with a sinister smile, enveloping the entire Heavenly Dao Ark.

Ye Chen’s expression changed instantly. He ordered the Ark into emergency status, pushing all major engines and systems into overload. Energy consumption immediately doubled to 200% of the normal rate, but survival superseded caution. As the myriad divine lights rained down, the Ark suddenly shot forward, tearing away from the mountain peak.

Boom, boom, boom...

In the space of an instant, the solitary peak was blasted into dust and rubble under the torrent of golden light, kicking up a massive cloud of smoke.

Ye Chen was preparing to pilot the Heavenly Dao Ark away when he suddenly heard a lazy voice drift from within the dust cloud: "Who dares interrupt my sweet dreams?"

The voice wasn't loud, yet it seemed to speak directly into Ye Chen’s ear, as if the speaker were standing right beside him. Ye Chen started, surprised that someone else was here. He immediately checked the radar, only to find no red dots, indicating no other life forms nearby.

Ye Chen’s pupils contracted. He looked back toward the dust cloud, a terrifying realization dawning in his heart. As the cloud slowly dispersed, a black silhouette, thin as a thread, appeared before them.

"This, has..." Ye Chen was utterly astonished.

Where there should have been pulverized sand and stone from the mountain peak—which spanned a diameter of a thousand kilometers—now stood a single, needle-like spire of rock, thick only as a bowl, yet stubbornly unbroken. Resting horizontally on this pillar was a youth in white robes, propping his head on one hand while holding a wine gourd in the other. His eyelids drooped as he tilted his head back, taking a slow sip of fine wine, smacking his lips with apparent enjoyment.

Ye Chen was dumbfounded. Undeniably, the white-robed youth had survived that intense divine bombardment completely unharmed, even managing to preserve the small patch of ground beneath him. What terrifying cultivation level was this?

Ye Chen felt a momentary shortness of breath. At that moment, the blood-red eyeball hovering in the sky glanced at the white-robed youth, its own gaze turning serious. It coldly demanded, "Who are you?"

The white-robed youth acted as if he hadn't heard, instead carefully admiring the wine gourd in his hand. He muttered, "Unexpectedly, after just one long dream, the world has changed so quickly. Am I drunk, or have I awakened?"