To an observer, that was the height of poor fortune; if Hilhsi had only sat upright instead of bolting about randomly, that broken sword would never have struck her!

“Gods!” The young noble whose arm had been shattered rolled his eyes and collapsed, unconscious. The Empire's Right Noble Consort had died by her own sword—even if it was accidental, his future was over. Even if Tartar suddenly showed great mercy and overlooked his crime, the best outcome for him would be to be sidelined and sent to some remote military base, or perhaps in the future, he would meet an unfortunate end during a minor skirmish with space pirates, without even receiving a pension.

In less time than it takes to speak, Tartar roared out of the mud pit, swinging the heavy silver scepter down toward Gu Xechen’s head.

Gu Xechen noticed. Tartar hadn't spared even a glance for Hilhsi’s corpse. “As expected, the imperial family is the most heartless!” Gu Xechen sighed softly, his body drifting backward slightly, again evading Tartar’s full-force strike. His body flowed like a nimble snake through the crowd; Gu Xechen slapped a young man dressed in the traditional princely robes of the His Empire unconscious, casually tossing him aside. Before those nearby could react, Gu Xechen struck out again, knocking several more His Imperial princes unconscious in quick succession.

Hom ran off, clutching two unconscious princes, and Gu Xechen, holding one limp prince in each hand, turned and fled as well.

The scene devolved into utter chaos. Six princes of the His Royal Family had been abducted right in front of so many people; if this news spread, it would become a grand joke among the high-level civilizations of StarDream. Several old ministers of the His Empire shrieked hoarsely, pointing and stamping their feet at Gu Xechen: “Stop them! Kill them!”

“Hah!” The His Empire’s Palace Guards finally arrived—at least five hundred ability users, ranging from three-star to five-star ranks, along with over two thousand members of the retinue composed of various races. The ability users were one thing, but among the non-human guards, Gu Xechen spotted members of the giant Mangke tribe, kin to Big Gold and Little Gold beside Jin, as well as tribesmen of the Steel Fangs, and at least a hundred other bizarrely shaped sentient beings of different races.

All the guards roared in unison, pouncing on Gu Xechen from every direction. A Steel Fang guard cried out in a strange voice, “Release the Princes, or we’ll eat you!”

Gu Xechen kicked the Steel Fang guard flying. His gaze swept around, just as he was looking for an obscure, deserted line of defense to slip through, when he abruptly witnessed a sight that enraged him.

Hailis’s mother, Empress Karina of the His Empire, was supporting the pregnant consort as they fled to the side. Suddenly, a sharp, long needle appeared in Karina’s hand—a needle that gave off a dense green hue under the moonlight, clearly poisoned—which swiftly pierced toward the consort’s lower abdomen under the cover of her voluminous sleeve.

“Damn it!” Gu Xechen frowned, flipping over and kicking a massive Mangke Guard high into the air. The huge, cumbersome ape smashed toward Karina’s position, causing the surrounding nobles to scream in terror. Several pale-faced eunuchs rushed forward without hesitation, shoving Karina and the consort several paces back.

Thud. The guard landed, and the eunuchs cried out in agony as they were pinned beneath him. Karina, still clutching the long needle, looked furiously toward the pregnant consort and suddenly shouted: “Protect His Majesty, protect His Majesty... Protect Jennia, be careful of the child in her belly!”

“The imperial family is the most heartless!” Gu Xechen shook his head. With mischievous intent, he condensed a wisp of sound into a single thread and blasted it directly into Karina’s ear as she was gesturing wildly: “Noble Consort, I am Prince Hailis’s ally, here specifically to eliminate your political rivals for you. Heh heh, if I can’t escape the palace, don’t blame me for being completely frank!”

“Oh~~~ My Gods!” Karina stopped listening to Gu Xechen and immediately rolled her eyes, fainting dead away.

Gu Xechen, with a broad heart, let out a series of loud laughs toward the heavens, grabbed two unlucky princes, and turned to leave. How could those ability users and guards possibly stop him? His broad sleeves flipped easily, and countless guards were seen flying everywhere. In an instant, Gu Xechen cleared a wide path between himself, Jin, and Hom, sweeping unimpeded straight out of the His Imperial Palace.

Guided by Jin’s “Coin Navigation System,” the three haphazardly found a location where they severely beat the six unfortunate princes, extorting all the StarDream gold coins from their accounts. Satisfied, they dumped the six princes and cheerfully departed. Among the six princes, the Second Prince, Yuri.His, had contributed the largest sum to Gu Xechen—he actually managed the account from which his mother, Empress Xidurna of His, drew her daily expenses for food and clothing. It was hard to imagine how furious Tartar would be when he discovered his personal account had been wiped clean. Prince Yuri and Empress Xidurna were going to have a very hard time.

The entire His Empire was in turmoil.

Gu Xechen, already addicted to the thrill of plunder, took advantage of the chaos in the His Empire’s commercial district to brazenly breach the Imperial Bank vault, looting the Starlight Silver held there as financial reserves. It was rumored that the underground vault of the His Imperial Bank stored twenty-five percent of the His Empire’s Starlight Silver reserves. This massive loss instantly sent Emperor Tartar into a coma, and important ministers dealing with finance and commerce fainted along with their emperor.

Feeling the weight of the now significantly heavier Azure Lotus Ring, Gu Xechen contentedly boarded the Great Falcon.

While Starlight Silver was worthless on Earth Federation, it was hard currency in StarDream. How much rare mineral wealth could a tenth of the His Empire’s Starlight Silver reserves buy? The thought of the mountain of precious metals made Gu Xechen chuckle delightedly. Fortunately, his Azure Lotus Ring now had enormous capacity; with the old Qiankun Pouch, transporting that much silver would have been impossible. Truly worthy of being a major power overseeing more than a hundred administrative stars—one-tenth of the His Empire’s Starlight Silver reserves piled up into a veritable mountain.

Sitting in the pilot’s seat of the Great Falcon, Jin said worriedly, “The reports say the His Emperor has ordered the lockdown of the entire planet; not even a private spaceship can leave. The informants we have in the military hook cannot facilitate our safe departure, so...”

“Relax, just start the engines,” said Gu Xechen, in high spirits after his haul. He released the Black Jade Quadrupedal Beast-Patterned Water Vessel from his Azure Lotus Ring, contentedly patting the vessel and laughing, “With this treasure, forget this tiny Great Falcon; I could get even a space carrier safely out of His.”

The Seven Emotions and Six Desires Illusory Charm could only conceal individuals; for a massive vessel like the Great Falcon, the stealth effect wasn't great unless the whole thing was covered in talismans. But with the Black Jade Water Vessel and the True Origin Profound Water condensed within it over countless years, leaving without alerting anyone was surprisingly easy.

Jin started the Great Falcon with lingering doubt. Gu Xechen attached a thread of his divine consciousness to the Water Vessel, slapped the vessel hard with both hands, and a water column radiating a chilling, pale black mist roared out of the vessel’s spout. Forced by the Lunar Profound Shield, it rapidly transformed into a hazy black mist, enveloping the Great Falcon.

With a gurgling sound, the faint mist quickly spread outward, covering nearly a thousand miles of space in the blink of an eye, extending from the ground all the way beyond the atmosphere. Within the area covered by the mist, not only was nothing visible to the naked eye, but all scanning waves also became ineffective. The Great Falcon seemed to melt into this watery haze, silently bypassing the atmospheric layer.

Once inside the atmosphere, the faint black mist merged seamlessly with the black background of space. The naked eye couldn't spot the Great Falcon, and radar waves couldn't scan it either. The ethereal and unpredictable nature of the True Origin Profound Water was exploited by Gu Xechen to the extreme, making the departure dozens of times easier than the arrival.

In just three days, relying on the Great Falcon’s astonishing speed, Gu Xechen and his group returned to the Spiral Starfield.

Two days later, Gu Xechen smoothly rendezvoused with Fuya.Ming, who was visiting the Yalis Kingdom within the Fourteen-Nation Alliance.

A day later, Fuya.Ming concluded and announced a package of friendly cooperation agreements with the Yalis Kingdom. The Yafik Kingdom engaged in comprehensive exchanges and cooperation across economic, cultural, and educational fields. Both sides also agreed to grant each other Most Favored Nation treatment, with their imported and exported goods enjoying the most preferential tax rates within each other’s territories.

For the following month, accompanied by Gu Xechen, Fuya.Ming continued her visits to the other nations in the Fourteen-Nation Alliance. Everywhere they went, Gu Xechen imparted the cultivation methods for the Four Primal Energies—Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind—summarized by the Demon Exorcism Knights, in exchange for countless precious research documents and substantial material aid.

But whether it was the mountain-sized warship production lines or the exquisitely crafted microelectronic processing machine tools, Gu Xechen swept them all into the small Azure Lotus Ring with a wave of his hand. Witnessing this incredible sight firsthand, the kings of the Fourteen-Nation Alliance secretly rejoiced at having gained powerful allies, ecstatic that their national strength was poised for explosive growth.

After this month, Gu Xechen and Fuya.Ming publicly announced their return to Yafik Star to handle state affairs; in reality, the group employed a 'golden cicada sheds its shell' tactic and, led by Hailis, began a long voyage.

Three fully equipped, standard StarDream Level Three warships constituted the entire long-voyage fleet.

Peering out the viewport at a small star erupting with long solar flares hundreds of thousands of kilometers away, Gu Xechen frowned. “This route is quite dangerous.”

Hailis stood beside Gu Xechen nonchalantly. He said proudly, “If it weren’t dangerous, that base would have been discovered long ago.”

Fuya.Ming stood next to Gu Xechen, her arms crossed over her chest. She turned her head to look at Hailis and sneered coldly, “I hope everything you’ve said is true.”