Even the usually solemn and dignified Corpse Emperor was unable to contain his excitement, practically dancing with glee. He cackled, “Six-Winged Angel Tsite, Silver Wolf Prince Gang’ge Lu, arson, sneak attacks—this is the very nature of our Nine Nether Path! You tricked me back then, and I must personally settle this score!”
His expression hardened, and the Corpse Emperor spoke in a deep voice, “Kan Hua, return to the Wushan temporary palace. Wu Chen, hurry and take men to stabilize the situation for that Poison Wolf brat. In extraordinary times, we must employ extraordinary measures.”
Gu Wu Chen raised an eyebrow and retorted sharply, “What do you mean by ‘extraordinary measures’?”
After a moment of silence, the Corpse Emperor grinned menacingly, “Extraordinary measures simply mean those who follow me prosper, and those who defy me perish! Those people on both sides have been hopping around quite a bit lately. Wu Chen, just go ahead and kill without restraint.”
Gu Wu Chen cupped his hands in acknowledgment. It seemed the Corpse Emperor was truly enraged.
After a pause, the Corpse Emperor smiled hesitantly at Gu Wu Chen, “I don't know what merit I accumulated in a past life, but in this one, I gained you as a disciple. Your luck is truly terrifying. Speaking of which, I haven't helped you much to achieve your current cultivation. However, when Six-Winged Angel Tsite attacked, the Kunlun Sect Master and the Zhongnan Sect Master took a strike for me—each suffering a sword strike that cost them several hundred years of cultivation! They remain heavily injured to this day... Our Dao Alliance is interconnected; this...”
Gu Wu Chen quickly offered a humble reply, “Master, please don't say such things. If it weren't for you, your disciple would have been torn to shreds long ago. You must never speak like that again. Kunlun and Zhongnan belong to our Daoist lineage; we are interconnected and support each other. Any benefits I gain naturally belong in part to them. In this vast cosmos, if our Daoist lineage does not support one another, how can we contend against various formidable enemies?”
Pausing slightly, Gu Xie Chen pointed at Kan Hua and smiled, “Disciple will have Martial Brother meticulously select a batch of immortal artifacts to present to Master.”
The Corpse Emperor nodded in satisfaction. He chuckled, “That is good. Even ordinary disciples cannot wield these immortal artifacts. We shall gift three to five artifacts to each of the many Void Realm Grandmasters in our Dao Alliance.”
Saying this, the Corpse Emperor suddenly laughed and cursed, “Those two troublemaking brats, your combined wealth now surpasses that of our entire Dao Alliance by a thousandfold. Such luck... such luck!”
After expressing his feelings, Gu Xie Chen hastily pulled Dukat over and meticulously explained Dukat's background to the Corpse Emperor.
Upon hearing Gu Xie Chen’s description of Dukat’s character and aptitude, the Corpse Emperor was overjoyed and, without hesitation, accepted both Dukat and Lily as his disciples. Dukat’s talent was so terrifying that he would certainly become a figure like a Vajra War General—the Nine Nether Path would gain another outstanding master. As for Lily, was there any question? Born of Primordial Azure Wood essence; unless the Corpse Emperor’s brain was run over by a steamroller, it would be foolish not to immediately accept such a genius.
Afterward, Gu Wu Chen generously introduced Fu Ya and Ming to the Corpse Emperor. Seeing the intoxicating allure radiating from the corners of Gu Wu Chen, Fu Ya, and Ming’s eyes, the Corpse Emperor immediately understood the nature of their relationship. After exchanging a few words with Fu Ya and Ming, the veteran old fox, the Corpse Emperor grasped their fierce, decisive nature—a temperament fit for a great general that perfectly suited his own preferences. The Corpse Emperor then laughed heartily, “Truly fine women, worthy matches for my disciple. No more need be said; when you return to Earth, I shall accept all three of you as disciples!”
Jin grew anxious. Fu Ya and Ming were accepted, Dukat was accepted, and little Lily was also accepted. It was clear that this Corpse Emperor was the major figurehead among all the monstrous races in that terrifying powerhouse known as the Earth Federation. If someone as powerful and capable as him could accept her as a disciple, she would have a colossal backer! Combined with her connection to Gu Xie Chen, she absolutely had to become a disciple of the Corpse Emperor.
Jin immediately jumped forward and rapidly introduced her identity and origins with a flurry of words, striving desperately to also be accepted by the Corpse Emperor.
When the Corpse Emperor heard the origins of Jin, his eyes immediately shone. “Hahahaha, such a background? Does this mean you are the second-ranking young chieftain of a mountain stronghold on that massive territory belonging to the Star Alliance? Hahahaha, today I have actually run into a fellow practitioner...” The Corpse Emperor suddenly fell silent, as Gu Xie Chen and Kan Hua stared at him intently, their expressions identical to the gossip reporters at the Federation Entertainment City.
Clearing his throat awkwardly, the Corpse Emperor forced a laugh, “Forget it, forget it. Meeting is fate. Little girl, when this business is concluded, you may come as well!”
After a pause, the Corpse Emperor still felt a touch of lingering emotion and mused, “Just based on your background as coming from a bandit mountain stronghold, established sects like Kunlun and Zhongnan would never accept you. But my Nine Nether Path? Hahahaha, we embrace all! We are vast and inclusive! Alas, the Patriarchs of my Nine Nether Path throughout history were the most open-minded. This small flaw in your background is but a blemish on fine jade, merely a blemish on fine jade!”
Gu Wu Chen and Kan Hua exchanged a strange look. Kan Hua sighed deeply, “Master is flattering himself... Our Nine Nether Path has certainly done its share of arson and banditry; why would we care about this girl?”
After some commotion, Kan Hua boarded a miniature battleship no more than thirty meters long and stealthily sneaked toward Earth, while Gu Wu Chen, leading Fu Ya, Ming, and Jin, brazenly sailed toward Earth in his prehistoric-class battleship, protected by twenty Roman-class warships. Eight thousand Hadvar warriors and thirty thousand Yafik warriors accompanied them.
Dukat and Little Xiao, left behind on the Shield of Yafik, began enthusiastically modifying all the super-motherships and Roman warships. This was a massive undertaking. Gu Xie Chen had left all the storage rings containing the loaded Super-motherships and Roman warships to Dukat. To refit the engine systems of so many motherships and warships, even with hundreds of thousands of Yafik soldiers volunteering as laborers, it would still take a month—and that was only because Dukat possessed the miraculous ability to control machinery; otherwise, it would have taken years.
The Grand Yin Robe rapidly transformed under Gu Xie Chen’s control, manifesting as a black tailcoat on his body. He tied his long hair back with an ice-silkworm thread and fastened a personal terminal and communicator produced by the Earth Federation from his Green Lotus Ring onto his left wrist. The former Gu Xie Chen had returned.
As they approached the Moon’s orbit, a Federation fleet aggressively broadcasted an approach signal. Over a vast distance, a Caucasian general sporting the rank of Major General in the Earth Federation impolitely conveyed an ultimatum directly to Gu Xie Chen: “Shut down your warship engines and all auxiliary power, open your hatches for inspection, or we have the right to open fire and destroy you on the spot!”
Gu Xie Chen shot the Major General a glare and sneered, “I am...”
Before Gu Xie Chen could finish speaking, the Major General arrogantly cut him off, “I know who you are: the former so-called Federation Hero, the current so-called Federation Senator, the former Director of the Federation Special Operations Bureau, Gu Xie Chen. I suspect your fleet is harboring contraband. Shut down all engines and auxiliary power, or I will initiate an attack in thirty seconds!”
Fu Ya, Ming, and Jin had already undergone the mental injection of Earth Federation language and Roman language, so they clearly understood the Major General’s rough and discourteous words.
Jin’s face paled with anger, and she muttered under her breath, “If this were the Star Alliance, with just a fleet this small, he would have had his underwear stripped off by now!”
Fu Ya and Ming glanced dismissively at the fifty-something Federation warships in front of them, each less than three thousand meters long. She sneered, “Xie Chen, let us attack first! Fifty-one Third-Class warships are no match for us.” Fu Ya and Ming were keenly aware of how monstrously powerful Gu Xie Chen’s prehistoric-class warship was, and escorting it were twenty Roman behemoths modified by Little Xiao—each of these escorts exceeded 102,000 meters in standard length. Once their energy shields were activated, they could shatter the smaller fleet ahead of them with mere collision.
Before Gu Wu Chen could decide, five more small fleets, each consisting of fifty-one warships, suddenly materialized around them. The fire control radars of all the warships locked onto Gu Xie Chen’s vessel. Blaring alarms sounded incessantly. The main control supercomputers of the warships, upgraded by Dukat and Little Xiao, reacted automatically—warship engine power began to increase, massive energy flooded the ship’s energy conduits, all weapon emplacements charged to maximum capacity, and the energy shields’ reserves reached their peak, ready to deploy at any moment.
The three hundred Earth Federation warships facing them were the latest production models from the Federation’s major military-industrial conglomerates. However, in every aspect—armor strength, engine unit power and efficiency, and even onboard electronic systems—these ships lagged behind the twenty-one warships commanded by Gu Xie Chen by at least tens of thousands of years of technological accumulation.
According to the assessment given by the prehistoric-class warship’s supercomputer, a single escort ship would be enough to completely crush all three hundred Federation warships. Yet, the six commanders of these three hundred ships were arrogantly issuing ultimatums to Gu Wu Chen, and the final countdown had already dropped below ten seconds.
Gu Xie Chen let out a cold laugh and said in an icy voice, “Get out of the way, or else...” Following Gu Xie Chen’s reprimand, a secondary cannon on one of the escort ships suddenly fired. A bright blue high-energy beam grazed past the hull of one Federation warship. The beam was still over ten meters from the hull armor, but the resulting plasma field generated by the high-energy beam ripped open the ship’s outer shell, carving a gash several meters deep and over ten meters wide, stretching from bow to stern. Thick smoke billowed from the damaged fissure, and countless wires snaked out, spitting sparks everywhere.
Nearly a hundred lifeboats scrambled out of the damaged vessel in panic, quickly fleeing toward the ‘nearby’ Earth.
The six Federation Major Generals, who had been so haughty and arrogant moments before, simultaneously gasped. Gu Wu Chen’s warship had not fired directly at the ship but merely grazed past it from a distance, yet it caused such severe damage. How powerful was the energy contained within that high-energy beam?
Gu Xie Chen calmly watched the six Major Generals on the light screen, their faces now ashen. After fifteen seconds, an aide presented an analysis report to almost every Major General. The report detailed the energy intensity of the previous shot—a number so outrageously high that it surpassed the theoretical limits of the Earth Federation’s current high-energy weapon science, causing all six Major Generals to exclaim in shock.
“Get lost, good dogs don’t block the way!” Gu Xie Chen commanded coldly. “I do not wish to stain my first day back on the Earth Federation with the blood of Federation soldiers.”
A fleet painted in gray suddenly surged up from the Moon base, heading toward them from afar. The flagship of this fleet was flying the banner of the Federation Military Command. This fleet consisted of the familiar Heaven Gate-South and Heaven Gate-North class warships, and the commander appearing on the screen was also an acquaintance of Gu Wu Chen—the Bearded Commander.
What surprised Gu Xie Chen was that the Bearded Commander now wore the rank insignia of a full General in the Federation Military Command!
As soon as communications connected, the Bearded Commander roared out with his gravelly voice, “Didn’t you hear what my brother said? Good dogs don’t block the way! Get out of here, or I’ll smash you all!”
The faces of the six Major Generals turned livid, but they remained unresponsive.
The Bearded Commander roared furiously for a moment before cursing at Gu Wu Chen, “Kid, you’re finally back! I thought you’d croaked out there and even had a grave dug for you in Copenhagen! Humph, bad luck—I’ll go dig up that spot tomorrow. Listen, those six brats up front aren’t Federation military men; they’re from the Papal State!”
The Papal State! Gu Xie Chen’s eyes widened, and he demanded sharply, “What Papal State? What Papal State?”
The Bearded Commander gave a sinister, cold laugh. “Kid, when you were swaggering through Paradise Star in a massive warship, do you know how many people you scared?”
He glared coldly at the six expressionless Major Generals on the screen. The Bearded Commander said grimly, “News just reached Earth. The Papal State and the Pantheon Federation have just declared their formation. Their diplomatic envoys arrived at the Federation Council Headquarters half an hour ago.”
Gu Xie Chen’s mouth fell open. Even though he had weathered countless storms, he was utterly stunned speechless by the Bearded Commander’s words for a long time.
Just like that? Just like that, the Earth Federation had been dismantled?
“Guess who the First Regent of the Papal State and the Chief Executive of the Pantheon Federation are!”
The Bearded Commander smiled maliciously.
Gu Xie Chen shook his head, considering the potential impact of the current situation on his future. Of course, from the perspective of an Earth Federation citizen, he did not wish for the Earth Federation to split. But, from the duty of a qualified arms dealer, the Earth Federation merely splitting into three parts...