Underneath the headquarters of the Earth Federation Satellite. Earth Federation population data reservoir two.

Gu Xiachen sat cross-legged within the colossal server room of the database, thousands of palm-sized light screens flickering rapidly before him. On every screen, data streams detailing the lives of several, sometimes dozens, of individuals flashed by every second—information including their age, height, and lineage specifics.

His immense divine sense expanded outward like an octopus with eight grasping tentacles, individual threads of awareness attaching to these light screens, meticulously reviewing the data of each person.

Occasionally, when a profile piqued his interest, Gu Xiachen would flick a finger onto the screen. That person's data would vanish from the Earth Federation Population Database, and simultaneously, an identical file would be transferred to a personal terminal cradled in the hands of Ducart, who sat beside him.

A silver light shot from Ducart's brow as he began a further, more rigorous round of screening and analysis on the data selected by Gu Xiachen. His sifting was more precise, more ruthless, and entirely mechanical. Per Gu Xiachen’s strict mandate, he scrutinized the ancestry of each candidate for three generations, verifying their bloodline origins. Only those whose lineage for three generations traced back purely to the ancient Huaguo system of East Asia would qualify for the final database; data for anyone failing this standard was immediately returned to the main Federal Population Database.

Three million elders, aged fifty to ninety, whose professions were exclusively university faculty or specialized researchers...

Twenty million youths, aged thirty to fifty, with occupations spanning all sectors, but heavily weighted toward skilled technicians and scientific researchers.

Three hundred million young adults, aged eighteen to thirty, encompassing ordinary students, military academy cadets, active soldiers, and medical personnel.

One billion adolescents, aged eight to eighteen, all possessing robust health and intelligence scores well above the baseline standard. Priority selection went to those with near relatives who had previously exhibited psychic abilities. Scions from the outer families affiliated with the numerous sects of the Dao Alliance were preferentially enrolled; those already identified as suitable for cultivation were inputted into the data stream immediately.

This was Gu Xiachen’s work within the Federation Population Database. Everyone selected would simply evaporate from the Earth Federation, as if they had never been born; all records and references to them would be entirely erased. They would accompany Gu Xiachen to the Star Alliance, where they would establish a new nation belonging to the Earthlings—or, more accurately, belonging to the heritage of ancient Huaguo. The insistence on vetting the bloodlines of these chosen individuals came from Peng Hua, Daoist Priest Xiao Zhang, and Daoist Priest Zhengyi. The Daoist tradition would absolutely not be passed on to anyone outside the Huaguo line.

The destruction of the Earth Mother Star shocked all high-ranking officials of the Earth Federation, as well as the cultivators of the Nine Nether Dao, Kunlun Mountain, and Mount Zhongnan. To prevent such a catastrophe from ever recurring, a new, secure breeding ground had to be secured for humanity.

In Gu Xiachen’s plan, this new cradle of humanity would also serve as the reserve mountain strongholds for the Nine Nether Dao, Kunlun Mountain, and Mount Zhongnan sects. The selected adolescents, or their future descendants, were destined to become the successors of these three sects. Given the inherent conservatism of the Daoist sects, this requirement meant the chosen candidates could only be of Huaguo descent.

While Gu Xiachen and Ducart labored diligently, Peng Hua, Daoist Priest Xiao Zhang, and Daoist Priest Zhengyi supervised another critical endeavor.

Daoist Priest Zhengyi led the Kunlun disciples in screening various rare, specialty seeds from the Federation Seed Vault. Ten thousand tons of seeds for high-yield strains of rice, wheat, corn, sorghum, and soybeans were selected and stored within spatial artifacts for each crop. The divine senses unique to cultivators were even more precise than the monitoring instruments in the seed vault; every selected seed pulsed with vibrant life force, guaranteed to germinate and flourish.

Beyond staple crop seeds, Daoist Priest Zhengyi placed paramount importance on collecting seeds for spiritual herbs. Reishi spore clusters, ginseng seeds, Polygonum multiflorum saplings—every seed required for the art of alchemy was gathered and stored in spatial artifacts, save for the reserves needed for the three major sects' daily consumption.

Daoist Priest Xiao Zhang’s task was less aesthetically pleasing. Leading the disciples of Mount Zhongnan, he oversaw the collection of embryos and fertilized eggs from various fauna. Giant pandas, white cranes, carp—hundreds of thousands of embryos and eggs of each species were preserved using secret methods. To acquire sufficient fertilized eggs and embryos, the zoologists at the Federal Academy of Sciences even resorted to methods akin to draining a pond to catch the fish, employing bio-hormones to forcefully stimulate the mothers’ bodies to secrete vast quantities of reproductive cells.

Like Daoist Priest Zhengyi, Daoist Priest Xiao Zhang focused his collection efforts on animals whose parts could be used medicinally.

For instance, old bulls producing bezoar, fine stallions yielding calculus, large black bears possessing bear gall bladders, and fierce tigers whose bones provided ingredients for strong tendon and bone tonics, as well as creatures like musk deer and sika deer—the disciples of Mount Zhongnan descended in force, disturbing untold numbers of livestock.

The collections managed by Daoist Priests Zhengyi and Xiao Zhang were manageable; Peng Hua, however, was truly engaged in the arduous labor. Yet, this was a task he had actively volunteered for.

Peng Hua was responsible for the collection and preservation of human embryos, sperm, and ova. To facilitate his work, the Federal Ministry of Health launched a sweeping, universally free physical examination campaign, wherein every citizen contributed to this grand plan. Under Peng Hua’s supervision, he selected only the sperm and ova from specimens deemed exceptionally beautiful or handsome, transferring them to the embryonic banks. The handsome men were one thing, but the most stunning beauties—over the course of just two months, these exquisite young women were subjected to constant, pretextual medical examinations. They enjoyed treatment akin to that of the giant pandas, their bodies bio-hormonally stimulated to mature and yield eggs, which were then sent to the embryo banks.

Peng Hua genuinely considered his actions noble. Thanks to his efforts, the future nation to be built would boast only the most strikingly handsome men and beautiful women—what a pleasing sight!

"To ensure every man in the Earth Federation has a peerless beauty as his consort—this merits praise for generations to come!" Peng Hua, shamelessly hiding near the "examination site," watched the beautiful women and let out a sentiment that made one wish to strike him dead. "For millennia upon millennia, the future male citizens of the Earth Federation will owe their existence to beautiful women; you must thank me, for I laid the foundation today for you to marry beauties!"

Beyond gathering the genetic material of Federation citizens, Peng Hua’s most critical mission lay with the military.

Toxic Wolf issued a mobilization order in the name of the Military Department for a massive, army-wide training and martial competition drive. Millions of troops across the Earth Federation engaged in fervent contests. From this crucible, ten thousand elite warriors, whose physical capabilities approached the limits of human potential, were selected. The martial cultivation levels of these warriors generally surpassed the level of Uranus, and their mental fortitude was more than ten times that of ordinary Federation citizens.

Over the next few months, these elite warriors lived lives of luxury, akin to prized livestock. They were daily administered massive doses of high-standard recovery fluids and nutritional agents, had hundreds of milliliters of blood drawn every day, and contributed one session of heated vital essence daily. Their blood and essence were sent to a top-secret department, meticulously cultivated and extracted into stem cells that recorded their entire genetic data; vast quantities of these stem cells were delivered daily to a designated super-mothership for storage.

Concurrently, the Federation’s numerous production lines operated at full capacity. Items ranging from daily necessities like pots and pans to heavy machinery such as logging equipment and mining drills; instruments of war, from small firearms to massive tanks and fighters; as well as mobile fortresses, modular housing units, high-grade, high-strength concrete and steel—everything imaginable, encompassing all necessities. Even medication for the common cold was being manufactured in quantities measured in tens of thousands of tons.

Beyond these astronomical figures of consumer goods, even more significant was the mass production of various bioreactors.

Medical pods for repairing internal and external injuries, reproductive pods for cultivating test-tube babies, and life-support cultivation pods for manufacturing clone soldiers—these units were manufactured in batches of one hundred thousand and ferried to the designated super-motherships.

The secret research divisions under the Military Department, completely controlled by Toxic Wolf, were engaged in another highly classified project.

They extracted somatic cells from captured Roman biomechanical beasts on the battlefield. These cells were subjected to biological propagation and purification, then cross-fused with various human cells. Much like cultivating insectoid soldiers, these fanatical biologists created vast numbers of cell embryos for bio-warriors that violated traditional human ethics, also sending them to the super-mothership. They manufactured such an enormous quantity of cell embryos and specialized cultivation pods that, given sufficient raw biological material, they could spawn a bio-chemical army numbering in the hundreds of millions in a short period.

Furthermore, these deranged biologists were engineering all manner of lethal viruses and noxious gases. From traditional deadly viruses like the plague and cholera to terrifying microbes possessing self-evolutionary capabilities. From common corrosive and nerve agents to terrifying gases capable of eroding even common alloys—an untold quantity of horrific, inhumane biochemical products was manufactured.

As for high-yield nuclear warheads, to produce these bombs, the Federation's major mining corporations had already hollowed out radioactive ore deposits on dozens of nearby planets. The minimum yield for every nuclear bomb exceeded one hundred megatons. The largest batch of warheads, reaching volumes of several dozen cubic meters, possessed yields measured in the hundreds of billions of tons!

This cache of nuclear weapons secretly manufactured by the military factories was sufficient to erase all life from the surfaces of hundreds of planets. If combined with those terrifying viruses and toxic gases, even the originator, Gu Xiachen, could not estimate the total number of deaths they could inflict!

But it mattered little; these things were being created solely for the purpose of slaughter.

Everything proceeded at a frantic pace in preparation.

Finally, after three months, everything was ready.

There was no mobilization rally, no propaganda, and barely a handful of people even knew of the operation. The massive fleet led by Gu Xiachen departed Paradise Star and plunged into the vast emptiness of space.

The Nine Nether Dao publicly announced that Gu Xiachen, having comprehended the profound mysteries of the Heavenly Dao, had entered isolated seclusion at the Nine Nether Soul-Falling Cliff.

The Nine Nether Dao was placed under the governance of Yan Jiang.

Kunlun Mountain was managed by Yi Jizi, the senior disciple of Daoist Priest Zhengyi.

Mount Zhongnan was overseen by True Man Han Mei, the senior brother of Daoist Priest Zhang.

The three great sects simultaneously announced the sealing of their mountain gates, dedicating themselves solely to pure cultivation and withdrawing from worldly affairs.

The Paradise Star system instantly fell silent, while the massive fleet led by Gu Xiachen was set to churn up a storm in distant stellar regions.