Gu Xichen shook his head, leaning close to Fuya Ming’s ear to whisper, "It seems I guessed right."

Fuya asked, confused, "Guessed right about what?"

Gu Xichen grumbled in a low voice, "When Master accepted you as a disciple the day before yesterday, I questioned Du Lang. When the Papal State and the Federation of Gods split, the Heaven Star Expeditionary Force didn't make a single move."

Fuya Ming frowned, "Is there anything strange about that?"

Gu Xichen chuckled coldly, "The leadership structure of the Heaven Star Expeditionary Force is incredibly complex. There are die-hard faithful of the Church, descendants of dark creatures loyal to the Alliance of Gods, Hekoms' cronies, and those loyal to Jean and Joanne. The split between the Papal State and the Federation of Gods—such a massive event—and yet, Heaven Star has remained utterly stable, still fighting the Romans. It’s very peculiar."

Du Lang roared again, "Vagri, looking at me like that, are you dissatisfied with me? Hmm?"

His eyes rolled back, and Du Lang aggressively stepped forward several paces, delivering over a dozen hard slaps across Vagri’s face: "Are you dissatisfied with me? What's the meaning of looking at me like that? Hmm? Have you all gone mad, or are you just stupid?"

Several officers loyal to Vagri rushed forward. The more impulsive young officers even reached for the holsters at their waists.

From the flank, a pack of wolf-like military police surged forward. With clean, swift motions, they jammed their high-voltage stun batons hard into the officers' spines, dropping them instantly before dragging them away.

Vagri’s dull eyes rotated a few times. He asked in a dry voice, "Why are you confiscating our command authority? What’s the meaning of those warships?"

The characteristic codes for all units of the Heaven Star Expeditionary Force had been altered. This instantly rendered all their warships incapable of takeoff, grounded all their fighter jets, and locked down all large anti-air artillery emplacements, preventing them from targeting any ships flying overhead. Elite forces directly under the Military Department quickly took over the defense of every base. The Heaven Star Expeditionary Force was effectively disarmed. Aside from the small arms soldiers carried, the Expeditionary Force had lost all heavy firepower.

Facing the direct military elite units uniformly equipped with Hercules-series combat armor, what could the Expeditionary Force soldiers, armed only with light weapons, possibly do?

Du Lang frowned, looking at Vagri, asking in confusion, "What’s wrong? What’s wrong, Vagri, you old grey wolf? Why have you become like this?"

Gu Xichen patted Fuya Ming’s small hand and glanced back. Feng Yu Lei Dian, Qianli Yan, Shunfeng Er—the six of them strode over, encircling Fuya Ming and Jin. Gu Xichen then gestured to Ruan Hua and Siren, and the three quickly moved to Du Lang’s side.

Vagri remained frozen, staring blankly at Du Lang, his tone unchanging: "Since you’ve stripped us of our command, why should we welcome you?"

Du Lang’s eyebrow jumped. He snapped, "Do you know what you're saying? Our visitor is an ally of our Earth Federation, Her Majesty Queen Fuya!"

Vagri shook his head and delivered a clean, powerful punch straight at Du Lang’s face. With a sharp crack, Vagri’s fist generated a wave of white air as it connected almost simultaneously with the tip of Du Lang’s nose. His fist appeared a strange, milky white, coated in a layer of oily fluorescence, exactly like the finest mutton-fat jade.

Du Lang brought his two hands together, blocking Vagri’s punch. His body swayed slightly, and a huge explosion echoed from his palms. Du Lang exclaimed, "What incredible strength! Hey, Vagri, long time no see, your skills have improved, haven’t they?" Du Lang spoke casually, but inwardly he was terrified to the extreme. Having already formed a Golden Core, he practiced the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Jade Art, a secret technique of the Kunlun Dao Sect specializing in close combat and maximizing physical strength. Yet, he had nearly failed to block Vagri’s punch!

What did this imply? Vagri must also have a master behind him!

Gu Xichen snorted coldly. Amidst the gasps of onlookers, Ruan Hua suddenly blurred into an afterimage, darting behind Vagri and delivering a vicious groin kick. Siren ghosted around Vagri. A rapier forged from black evil flames silently and diagonally thrust toward Vagri's left ribcage. Gu Xichen was even more direct; he roared, "How dare you assassinate the Chairman of the Federal Military Council? Are you rebelling?" As he shouted, two tri-edged bayonets, appearing from nowhere, plunged deeply into Vagri’s lower abdomen.

The rapid series of strikes dazzled the onlookers. Before they could fully process what had happened, Vagri let out a terrible howl and rapidly dodged aside, clutching his lower body. A thumb-thick wound on his left rib was continuously spurting black blood. The two bayonets in his lower abdomen had vanished without a trace, but the puncture wounds were instantly covered with ice shards, allowing a clear view of the scene behind him through the holes.

This was the first time the three martial brothers had teamed up against an enemy, shamelessly bullying the weak, yet their coordination was seamless. Vagri suffered fatal injuries before he could even react. Ruan Hua gloatingly bumped fists with Siren. They both laughed shamelessly, "When brothers are united, their strength can sever metal... Hey, that move you pulled earlier wasn't hard enough!"

A sharp wolf howl tore from Vagri’s mouth. The bleeding from his left rib ceased, and his body rapidly swelled. In the blink of an eye, a grayish-white werewolf, nearly three meters tall, stood before the group. Vagri roared maniacally at the sky, charging toward Du Lang with a claw aimed at his throat.

"A child of immense wealth should not sit in danger!" Gu Xichen grabbed Du Lang by the shoulder and tossed him backward, sweeping his voluminous sleeve toward Vagri.

The Waterfall Sleeve divine technique erupted. There was a sound of rushing water as a sheet of white liquid light enveloped Vagri's body, lifting him soaring several miles high, flailing wildly backward. With a dull thud, Vagri slammed headfirst into the fire control radar of an anti-air turret several miles away. Before his body even hit the ground, Gu Xichen grabbed him with a great hand, and Vagri was brought back without the slightest resistance.

Gripping Vagri’s throat tightly with one hand, Gu Xichen’s eyes glowed with a chilling green light. He chanted an arcane spell while rapidly drawing bizarre runes on Vagri’s brow with his right hand.

As Gu Xichen chanted, large patches of blood-red discoloration suddenly appeared beneath Vagri’s skin. These blotches writhed like living things, shifting beneath the skin to form grotesque, fierce patterns. Gu Xichen let out a few cold laughs, and his chanting grew more urgent. A chilling, murderous aura radiated from his body, causing the surrounding air to spiral rapidly. In an instant, a grayish-white whirlwind, no more than five or six meters high, formed around him, spinning with a whistling sound.

"Ah!"

Vagri, frozen solid by the Taiyin Profound Aura and unable to move, suddenly shrieked. A wisp of pale, shimmering ghostly light shot out from the top of his head, transforming into a bizarre curse that flew towards the sky.

Gu Xichen laughed sharply, "A mere puppetry spell dares to show off in front of me?"

He tapped his right fingertip, and the skin split open. Gu Xichen drew an extremely sinister rune in the air using his own fingertip essence blood.

With a muffled sound, the blood-red rune ignited out of thin air, sending a red beam straight toward the escaping curse. In an instant, the light beam clung to the fleeing curse, which erupted like an oil drum splashed with a spark, burning furiously. The curse, barely the size of a thumb, unleashed a raging inferno dozens of meters in diameter. A stench, overwhelmingly fishy yet carrying a strange, intense fragrance, rapidly spread through the air, accompanied by faint, ghostly wails echoing from the void.

In a secret chamber somewhere beneath the base, a piercing, desperate scream suddenly sounded, and a streak of white light shot up from the ground, fleeing rapidly towards the west.

A wisp of black energy rushed out from the transport ship, intercepting the white light with lightning speed. The Corpse Emperor stood expressionless within the dense black mist, sneering as he grabbed the escaping white light. A shrill scream came from the light: "Old Zombie, what evil magic did you use to wound my primordial spirit? You—your methods are vicious! You’ve ruined over half my cultivation—what more do you want?"

The Corpse Emperor didn’t even glance at the light, shaking his hand to smash it heavily onto the ground.

With a sharp screech, the snow-white Jade Sorcerer King crashed onto the ground, gouging a deep pit in the solid surface of the landing field.

Gu Xichen flicked his hand, dropping Vagri, and slowly approached the Jade Sorcerer King, bowing with a smile, "Senior, your technique for controlling puppets is quite exquisite!"

The Jade Sorcerer King glared venomously at Gu Xichen, then resignedly closed his eyes. "I—I hate... The lineage of the Three Sorcerer Sect is utterly severed today."

From the ranks of the military band, a figure suddenly lunged out, and a bright, somewhat seductive arc of blade light slashed remotely toward the Jade Sorcerer King.

Gu Xichen let his eyelids droop and took three steps back. A razor, over ten feet long yet extremely thin, gracefully sliced across the Jade Sorcerer King’s neck. A spray of blood rose, dyeing the blade light with an eerie shade of crimson. Those who witnessed the cut seemed to hear a groan like that of a peerless beauty emanating from the blade light. Where the light passed, the Jade Sorcerer King’s massive head soared several feet into the air, and even his primordial spirit, severely wounded by Gu Xichen’s Divine Severing Curse, was cleaved in two.

The blade light retracted, and a handsome youth, possessing an unnerving, almost bewitching beauty—like a poisonous narcissus dripping with dew—walked toward Gu Xichen, clutching the razor.

Gu Xichen watched the youth silently as he walked until he was less than two meters away. Trembling, the youth held the razor in his hands, knelt before Gu Xichen, and declared, "The contemporary head of the Dizang Temple family, a servant clan of the Three Sorcerer Sect, Dizang Temple Yiruian, offers his life to serve the Master!" The youth held his hands up high, repeatedly banging his forehead hard against the ground. Soon, a brilliant crimson flower bloomed on the pavement.

Dizang Temple Yiruian? Gu Xichen quietly observed the exquisitely beautiful youth.

Dizang Temple, Yaoshi Temple, and Guanyin Temple—these were the three most famous servant clans of the Three Sorcerer Sect. Having suffered repeated heavy blows, the influence of these three clans had also been greatly diminished. However, Dizang Temple Yiruian’s immediate betrayal of the Jade Sorcerer King, personally decapitating him, was too thorough, too swift a defection.

"Why should I accept you?" Gu Xichen looked coldly at Dizang Temple Yiruian. Another monstrously beautiful creature, so beautiful it would make ninety-nine percent of men wish for suicide. Siren, Jin, and now this Dizang Temple Yiruian—how could there be so many prodigies of ill omen in this world?

"The three families of Dizang Temple, Yaoshi Temple, and Guanyin Temple are certainly more useful than a single dog," Dizang Temple Yiruian stated calmly. "Since you could break the puppet curse cast by the Jade Sorcerer King, you can certainly break the poison curses he placed within us, and control us with even mightier sorcery. We can serve you to the death, provide you with vast amounts of intelligence, and offer immense funds and resources."

"We can do the things inconvenient for you to do. We can do the things you cannot bear to do. We can do the things you cannot bring yourself to do. With us, you will have a group of the most loyal hounds—what could you possibly be dissatisfied with?"

Gu Xichen kicked the head of the Jade Sorcerer King lying before him and fell silent.

After a moment, he took out a Spirit Sealing Plaque refined by Master Zhuozhi from his Green Lotus Ring and ordered Dizang Temple Yiruian to drip a drop of essence blood from his brow onto the plaque.

A ferocious phantom of a Heavenly Demon flashed across the plaque, which measured thirteen inches long, three inches six li wide, and one inch two fen thick. Dizang Temple Yiruian’s one soul and two spirits were instantly sucked into the plaque.

Gu Xichen murmured an incantation, empowering the plaque with three Taiyin Divine Charms, and then used the most vicious runes from the Great Desolation Scripture to imprison Dizang Temple Yiruian’s soul before nodding in satisfaction.

After considering for a while, Gu Xichen sneered, "Gather everyone from the three families and come find me tonight. I will lift the poison curses in your bodies and accept you as my servant clans in the process. Should you dare defy me, hmph!"

With a light snort, Dizang Temple Yiruian, already trembling uncontrollably, pressed his forehead tightly against the ground, not daring to show the slightest disrespect.

The restrictions Gu Xichen placed were too venomous, too evil. Dizang Temple Yiruian clearly perceived that his life and death were now entirely in Gu Xichen's hands; he had no way to resist. This feeling of being clearly subjugated was even stronger than when he had been imprisoned by the Three Great Sorcerer Kings of the Three Sorcerer Sect years ago. Dizang Temple Yiruian realized that Gu Xichen’s power far surpassed that of the Three Great Sorcerer Kings.

The Corpse Emperor’s voice, fine as a mosquito’s buzz, reached Gu Xichen’s ears: "Apprentice, why would you take in such a treacherous follower?"

Gu Xichen smiled slightly and gently shook his head: "Master, rest assured. Your apprentice has complete means to control them. Such methods are vicious, but they are exactly right for dealing with turncoats. Once they are snared, unless it is the legendary Three Pure Ones Dao Venerable, no one can save them!"

With the profound depth of the Taiyin True Scripture and the ancient malevolence of the Great Desolation Scripture, devising a foolproof method to completely control others and prevent their betrayal was simply too easy.

Now that he had the overt armed force of the Hardwood Defense Company, Gu Xichen was only lacking a group of ghosts and goblins to act in the shadows as his slaves—perfect timing for the three Dizang Temple clans to deliver themselves to his doorstep.

After lifting the suppression spells on all the generals controlled by puppetry in the Heaven Star Expeditionary Force, Du Lang announced the decision that Heaven Star would become the new capital of the Earth Federation.

The colonization project for Heaven Star and the three other planets—New Earth One, New Earth Two, and New Earth Three—commenced immediately, with vast numbers of immigrants surging from Earth to these three worlds.

Construction of the Heaven Star defense system also began instantly, with everyone immersed in the busy work. Fuya Ming, as the chief designer of the Heaven Star defense system, was particularly occupied.

Perhaps only Gu Xichen remained the most leisurely.

However, as the Federation’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, he too had quite a few matters demanding his attention now.