It would only take a short time for Gu Xiechen to wreak massive devastation upon the planet Taersom.

For instance, with a mere press of his hand into the earth, he buried a thermonuclear hydrogen bomb with an explosive yield of one billion tons deep underground, two thousand meters below the surface. The detonation time was set on the warhead: it would go off in exactly one hundred and forty-four hours. A destructive power of one billion tons was a nightmare made real.

Fearing the Polaris Empire might detect the thermonuclear weapon, Gu Xiechen enveloped it in a thick layer of black mist formed from his Primordial True Water, and further secured it with several defensive formations designed to seal off any energy signatures. This ensured that even the most sensitive detection instruments would be unable to register any massive energy reaction on the surface.

Having accomplished all this, Gu Xiechen waved his hands, restoring the ground to its original state. For him, this was effortlessly simple, without the slightest difficulty.

He stomped heavily on the ground and sneered, "Good. This is the first spot. Taersom is vast, nb;nb; we’ll need to plant at least ten nuclear warheads to effectively damage its entire surface."

Heaving a sigh, Gu Xiechen shook his head. "I am still too benevolent, unwilling to cause a miniature black hole to instantly devour the entire planet. I should leave them a chance to escape."

Responding to Gu Xiechen's words were Duhacarte and Peng Hua, who let out a collective, disgusted snort. They looked at Gu Xiechen with utter contempt and said in unison, "Pah! nb;nb;"

Leaving them a chance to escape was merely making the people of Taersom wait for death slowly, steeped in greater fear and despair. Neither of them believed Gu Xiechen would leave behind any escape vessels for the Taersomians. This fellow would surely wait outside the atmosphere, ready to destroy any fleeing Taersomian ships on sight.

Peng Hua spat out a thick glob of phlegm and sighed, both excitedly and vexedly, "However, the Polaris Empire is so huge, destroying the entire thing will be troublesome."

Gu Xiechen looked seriously at Peng Hua and said sternly, "Nothing is hard in this world, only those who lack the will. No matter how vast the Polaris Empire, nb;nb; destroying one planet every few days, taking perhaps fifty years at most, should be enough to annihilate all their worlds. Senior Brother, we are here for revenge; we cannot afford to find trouble inconvenient."

He took a deep breath and spoke with intense malice, "Blowing up a planet every few days, letting all citizens of the Polaris Empire live under the constant dread that it could be their turn to face total annihilation tomorrow... that is the best revenge. They killed sixty billion of our compatriots—sixty billion! An eye for an eye, blood for blood! We must destroy sixty billion, six hundred billion, sixty trillion of their citizens!"

As the group was casually chatting and laughing, a procession of exquisitely dressed youths, riding beautiful mounts that seemed like a cross between horses and Sika deer, charged into the forest.

There were over a hundred young men, clearly organized. The leader was a youth wearing a military uniform and a long sword belted at his waist.

Gu Xiechen and the others looked at the group in surprise. They had been so engrossed in their conversation that they had forgotten to use their divine sense to monitor their surroundings, causing Gu Xiechen to berate himself fiercely once again.

Han Mei frowned slightly in annoyance and shot a sharp glare at the leading youth.

That one glare instantly exposed her peerless beauty to the young men. Her skin, fair and delicate, seemed unreal; her exquisite beauty could only be found in a painting. Her graceful, slender figure and the peerless, demonic charm she possessed struck the souls of the youths like lightning splitting the night.

The leading youth was practically drooling, staring fixedly at Han Mei. He suddenly smiled charmingly. "Esteemed lady, may I ask if this is your first visit to Taersom?"

Before Han Mei could reply, he laughed confidently, "Indeed, you must be visiting Taersom for the first time. Because I have met every captivating lady in the entire Taersom star cluster. If I had ever met a peerless beauty like you before, I absolutely would not have forgotten her."

Dismounting, the youth strode up to Han Mei, roughly seizing her small hand and attempting to pull her away.

"I personally believe these two crude fellows beside you aren't worthy of a single strand of your hair. A noble lady such as yourself should only be accompanied by me, Shallimanda Dalia. Well, Taersom Governor Golomanda Dalia is my elder brother, and Imperial Deputy Prime Minister Tasloman Dalia is my grandfather. I personally hold the title of Imperial Earl—I would be delighted to entertain you at my estate." Shallimanda Dalia muttered to himself, pulling Han Mei a few steps forward. Just as he finished introducing his lineage, he suddenly felt a searing pain in his lower body, his vision went black, and he lost consciousness.

In the horrified gaze of the other youths, Peng Hua slowly retracted his right leg—the very leg that had just delivered a devastating blow to Shallimanda Dalia’s groin. This kick sent Shallimanda Dalia flying over a hundred meters high. His lower body was completely deformed, and his body was still suspended in mid-air, showing no sign of falling back to the ground.

Gu Xiechen smiled cruelly and said in a low voice, "Governor Golomanda Dalia’s relative is our enemy."

He produced a one-edged military spike forged from alloy, tossed it towards the sky, and the spike pierced Shallimanda Dalia’s forehead, instantly ending his life.

Clapping his hands together, Gu Xiechen laughed at the terrified youths who were retreating rapidly. "Allow me to introduce myself—I am Ni Zuzong, leader of the Dragon Group, Special Operations Division of the Imperial Intelligence Bureau, here under orders from the Bureau Director to execute the traitor Shallimanda Dalia!"

With a burst of wild laughter, Gu Xiechen and the others turned and vanished into the dense woods like a raging gale.

In less than five minutes, large groups of Polaris Empire Military Police swarmed into the forest, surrounding it completely.

Ten minutes later, the impeachment memorial submitted by Taersom Governor Golomanda Dalia against Intelligence Bureau Director Mu Dao-ren reached the capital of the Polaris Empire via quantum communication system.

Because of the arrival of Gu Xiechen and his group, the Polaris Empire was fated to descend into great chaos. (To be continued. For subsequent events, please log in... [Author’s note encouraging readers to support the work])

Han Mei swallowed ten times harder. The triangular spatial barrier fighter streaked forward at high speed.

Inside the fighter's sole cockpit, Gu Xiechen sat cross-legged, silently absorbing the Primordial Spirit Qi transformed from the seven high-level Loose Immortals, including Daoist Ziyun. Daoist Ziyun was actually an expert whose cultivation level was comparable to Gu Xiechen’s; however, his physical body was too frail to withstand the impact of his own powerful magic, and his cultivation technique was inferior to the Great Yin True Scripture, which was why he was so easily defeated by Gu Xiechen.

Though defeated, his cultivation was real. If Gu Xiechen could fully absorb his Primordial Spirit Qi, his strength would increase by at least a factor of two.

Above his head, the Five Qi churned, colorful clouds billowed, and the Haotian Pagoda hovered amidst the white waves, continuously sprinkling down light resembling rain, nourishing Gu Xiechen's innate Primordial Spirit and his physical body. With every drop of light absorbed, Gu Xiechen's compatibility with the Haotian Pagoda increased slightly. With every drop of light absorbed, strands of five-colored energy surged out from Gu Xiechen’s five internal organs, rising from his Tianling (crown chakra), and being quietly drawn into the Haotian Pagoda. The numerous minute cracks on the Pagoda’s surface were gradually restored by the nurturing five-colored energy, becoming clearer and brighter.

Duhacarte was also seated in a corner of the cockpit. Ninety-five percent of his attention was devoted to cultivation, while the remaining five percent was connected to the fighter’s main control super-brain, comparing stellar maps seized from Polaris Empire warships to determine their course.

Traveling from the border of the Xisi Empire to the border of the Polaris Empire required one hundred and forty-seven spatial jump points, spanning a vast distance of forty-seven hundred light-years. Some of these jump points were hidden within extremely dangerous energy torrents in subspace; only certain powerful families and departments within the Polaris Empire knew of their existence. Utilizing this top-secret route, they could reach the Polaris Empire in roughly a month and a half.

The other public routes required at least five hundred and ninety-four spatial jumps, taking one year and one month to complete the long journey.

The customized triangular fighter carrying the group could travel at super-luminal speeds within the spatial barrier—dozens of times faster than navigating subspace. Under normal circumstances, they would only need less than a day to reach the border star region of the Polaris Empire. However, because some secret jump points along the route were heavily guarded by the Polaris Empire, Duhacarte had to manipulate the fighter to bypass these secret points to avoid alerting Mu Dao-ren and the Polaris Empire too early. Consequently, they would take longer to arrive.

In the other corner of the cockpit, Peng Hua was intimately entangled with Han Mei. The two were draped over each other, arms linked. Peng Hua constantly puckered his lips to initiate kisses with Han Mei, who gently used her fingers to pinch the soft flesh at Peng Hua's waist, pinching him until he constantly grimaced and cried out in pain. Despite the agonizing sensation that made his heart tremble, Peng Hua found endless delight in puckering his lips toward Han Mei again and again. Their lips brushed past each other quickly—a stream of pink, ambiguous intimacy secretly flowed between them.

Two months later, Gu Xiechen suddenly opened his eyes. Within his crimson pupils, a small black light and a small white light spun rapidly. The five-colored airflow above his head slowly coalesced into a massive Taiji diagram, rotating around his body seventy-seven times forty-nine times before all anomalous phenomena subsided. He stood up. His Great Yin Robe transformed into the attire popular among the upper class of the Polaris Empire, as seen in their data. His long hair cascaded down his back, and a single Great Yin Thorn morphed into an exquisite cufflink fastened to his sleeve. The Five Water Dragon Beard Fan transformed into several silk ribbons that bound his hair, while the sword case that had always been on his back could only be stored in the Azure Lotus Ring.

After tidying his attire and finding nothing amiss, Gu Xiechen coughed lightly toward Peng Hua.

Peng Hua, who had been intimately entwined with Han Mei, lazily stood up, a flash of blood light crossing his eyes. After two months of constant intimacy, Peng Hua had absorbed a little over half of the cultivator's essence blood he had seized—his strength was subtly breaking through to the Void Realm. Han Mei tremblingly supported Peng Hua’s arm as she stood up, forcefully puffing out her chest. "Junior, are you changing clothes too?"

The word "clothes" elicited a seductive wink from Han Mei toward Gu Xiechen.

Gu Xiechen ignored Han Mei and instead turned to Duhacarte to ask where they had arrived.

Han Mei, seeing that Gu Xiechen hadn't even glanced at her, stamped her foot so hard she nearly pierced the fighter's deck plating, thoroughly infuriated.

Duhacarte opened his eyes slightly and forcefully exhaled two jets of steam. He stood up, several light screens flashing beside him, and said in a deep, powerful voice, "We are already within the Polaris Empire. This is Taros, the star region furthest from the Imperial Capital. This sector focuses primarily on mineral extraction and crop production; it is also the largest slave-producing region in the Polaris Empire."

The Polaris Empire was one of the fifteen Star Alliance member Level Six Civilizations. Over the long years, although the Polaris Empire had not actively sought external expansion, its sphere of influence still saw numerous small nations willingly or forcibly integrated into its domain. A thousand years ago, the Taros Sector was the territory of nearly a hundred low-level civilizations, but now it was merely the least significant sector under the rule of the Polaris Empire.

The Taros Sector had over one thousand one hundred administrative stars and a population exceeding eighty billion people—and this was only a snapshot of the Polaris Empire's domain. In this vast expanse of the cosmos, twelve low-level civilizations had not yet been integrated into the Polaris Empire. The citizens of these eleven low-level civilizations frequently appeared on the slave markets of the Polaris Empire.

"Taros. My first target is the Taersom star cluster," Gu Xiechen stated coldly.

"How far are we?"

Duhacarte checked the super-brain. The Taersom star cluster was one of the most crucial core sectors of the Polaris Empire. The origin point of dozens of noble families and powerful clans within the empire was located there. This sector, spanning nearly a thousand light-years, contained over one hundred and forty administrative stars, with a total population of only forty billion. It was the Polaris Empire's most vital area for industrial production and luxury goods manufacturing. The Imperial Procurement Minister was often stationed in the Taersom sector, responsible for providing various high-end luxuries exclusively for imperial family members and dukes.

This was an oil-rich domain; therefore, the Polaris Empire stationed a massive force of one hundred Legions here. Each Legion possessed one standardized Imperial Level White Wing warship, along with over ten thousand other capital ships and support vessels. The White Wing warships were the same type—capable of performing subspace fold projection attacks—that Golomanda had used to destroy Earth.

The distance between the Taersom star cluster and the Taros star cluster was over two million light-years. However, the Polaris Empire had established massive Star Gates within its territory—artificial wormholes, similar to spatial jump points, that had been artificially opened. Passing through these fixed Star Gates, the journey from Taros to Taersom took a mere hour.

"Artificial Star Gates?" Gu Xiechen and Peng Hua were both startled by the term. The technological level of the Polaris Empire had surpassed their imagination. Even the Romans of old had not developed such incredible technology. If the Romans had developed artificial Star Gates, they wouldn't have needed to maintain such a massive fleet of super-motherships for patrolling the four directions.

"Then let's go through the artificial Star Gate," Gu Xiechen decided. Duhacarte immediately communicated with the fighter's main control super-brain, and the fighter swiftly flew toward the core region of the Taros Sector.

The Taros Sector’s administrative star, Taros Planet, was orbited by thousands of crystal-ground spheres, several meters in diameter, circling an area of space that rippled like water. Ships continuously emerged slowly from that trembling space. Nearby, within a gigantic space dock, large numbers of transport ships were queuing up.

Ten White Wing-class warships hovered silently near the Star Gate, their crystal-like outer armor reflecting the magnificent light emitted by the gate. Lights flickered on the warships, making them look like ten massive firebirds. Near these White Wing warships were five spherical space cannons, each a hundred kilometers in diameter. These cannons were entirely pitch black; all light hitting them was absorbed by the thick armor, reflecting none back. From a distance, these five cannons seemed to merge perfectly with the dark void of space.

Duhacarte piloted the fighter closer to the space dock and intercepted the communication signals between the dock and the queued transport ships.

The space dock continuously announced the names of various star sectors, and all transport ships heading to that sector would use maximum speed to pass through the Star Gate upon receiving the dock’s signal. The destination of the Star Gate changed approximately once every hour.

Gu Xiechen and the others waited silently in the cockpit for nine hours until the signal they awaited finally came from the space dock: the fluctuation frequency of the Star Gate had been adjusted to align with the frequency of the Taersom Sector’s Star Gate. All inspected transport ships bound for the Taersom Sector could prepare to depart.

Gu Xiechen released his divine sense. The moment the Star Gate’s fluctuation frequency shifted, his divine sense simulated and memorized both frequencies.

The triangular fighter shot out of the spatial barrier like a phantom, darting ahead of all the transport ships like a black, sharp lightning bolt, plunging into the surface of the Star Gate’s fluctuation. The ten White Wing-class warships and five space cannons on duty showed no reaction. After a period equivalent to the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, shrill alarms finally sounded in the Taros Sector. All fleets stationed in the Taros Sector hastily sealed off the sector’s various jump points, and the most urgent warning signal was rapidly transmitted via the inter-spatial quantum communication system to the capital of the Polaris Empire and the Taersom star cluster.

The fighter shook violently as it burst out of the Star Gate. Ahead lay a magnificent, pale blue nebula, shaped like a scallop shell found on Earth. The one hundred and forty-seven administrative stars of the Taersom sector lay peacefully within this nebula. Around the nebula were countless scattered mining stars, with masses of intelligent robots controlling ships shuttling back and forth between the Taersom administrative stars and the mining stars.

The Star Gate exit was similarly guarded by ten White Wing-class warships and five space cannons—this seemed to be the standard configuration for the Polaris Empire’s Star Gate defense units. Ten White Wing-class warships and five space cannons were enough to destroy all the warships belonging to a Level Five civilization; this defensive power was indeed extremely formidable.

Perhaps because the defenses were too strong and no one had dared cause trouble within the Polaris Empire for countless years, the ships and space cannons at this exit showed no reaction to the intruding fighter. It wasn't until Duhacarte maneuvered the triangular fighter deep into the spatial barrier that they suddenly reacted. They chaotically unleashed thousands of beams of light toward the place where the fighter had vanished.

The fighter sped rapidly through the spatial barrier and soon plunged into the Taersom star cluster, heading toward Taersom Star, the capital of the Taersom sector.

Not far from Taersom Star, the fighter jumped out of the spatial barrier, and Gu Xiechen and the other three rushed out. Gu Xiechen waved his left hand, and the Azure Lotus Ring erupted with green light, sucking the fighter inside. The long-range surveillance radar of Taersom Star hadn't even managed to detect the fighter’s presence.

The Four Divine Beasts Pattern Water Venerable was summoned, and Gu Xiechen activated his Primordial True Water, transforming it into a hazy black mist that enveloped the figures of the four. The group swiftly flew toward Taersom Star.

Han Mei and Duhacarte were relatively calm. As Taersom Star grew nearer, the murderous aura emanating from Gu Xiechen and Peng Hua grew heavier, especially Peng Hua, whose eyes were nearly dripping blood. His two fangs had extended over a foot long, emitting a chilling, bloody aura. Two fleshy wings on his back suddenly burst forth and flapped violently.

The hazy black mist deftly avoided several small, bird-shaped patrol vessels orbiting outside the atmosphere of Taersom Star, sinking into the planet's thick atmosphere. After a few breaths, the four were standing in a lush jungle on the planet’s surface. Towering trees hundreds of meters high surrounded them. Beneath their feet was lush green grass and brilliant flowers. The only sounds were the chirping of small birds; the air was sweet with the scent of flowers, and the natural scenery was exquisitely beautiful, like a dream.

Upon reaching this place, Gu Xiechen withdrew the black mist formed by the Primordial True Water.

In the Star Alliance, the higher the level of civilization, the more they valued citizens' privacy. In outer space, they might deploy hundreds of detection instruments per square kilometer to guard against external intrusion, but on the surface, except near certain key targets, no probes were installed. Moreover, except for specific targets monitored by strong departments, citizens did not carry any tracking chips. Therefore, once they reached the surface of Taersom Star, as long as they acted cautiously, no one would discover that they were not natives of the Polaris Empire.