That was merely it. Standing beside Yongheng.Xingguang, Liewu.Xingguang unleashed a punch that tore through Kalong's body as if crushing dry wood, his bare hand snatching out the dragon's heart. A burst of purple fire erupted, incinerating Kalong's heart to ash. His massive dragon form trembled once, then slowly plummeted, swallowed by a vast, gaping chasm of molten earth.

"The Dragon God's Power, nothing more than this," Yongheng.Xingguang sighed. He looked at Meilin and Mudao Ren, locked in a passionate embrace, and frowned. "Do you two have no shame? Mu Sha, Meilin destroyed your clan. Meilin, you personally killed Mu Sha's father and grandfather. You two are utterly shameless."

Mudao Ren pulled Meilin close, turning back to Yongheng.Xingguang with a cold sneer. "So what? She destroyed the Duolteuo family, but as long as she and I are together, we can still establish a Duolteuo lineage... As long as I live, I won't let anyone harm a single hair on her head."

With a strange curl of his lips, Mudao Ren pointed at Yongheng.Xingguang and barked, "She is mine. No matter what she does, I can forgive her."

Meilin stared blankly at Mudao Ren's face, then suddenly burst into wrenching sobs. "Why did you only realize my feelings so late? Why?"

Gu Xiechen shivered violently, goosebumps erupting all over his skin. He muttered angrily in a low voice, "How old are you two? Can we skip this melodramatic plotline?"

The Ten Heavenly Lords also shuddered simultaneously, looking at each other and shaking their heads in unison. Even the ancient immortals were speechless in the face of this pair of bickering lovers, Mudao Ren and Meilin.

Glancing coldly at Meilin and Mudao Ren, Gu Xiechen suddenly shot up on a cloud of light and flew toward the center of the field. With a subtle movement of his mind, he sent a message to the Ten Heavenly Lords, who then spurred their sword lights, flying close to the ground toward Mudao Ren and his entourage.

As soon as Gu Xiechen moved, Yongheng.Xingguang spotted him. He glanced sideways at Liewu.Xingguang and boomed with laughter, "Oh, I thought you had narrowly escaped and already fled."

Gu Xiechen smiled, his laughter echoing from a distance. "How could I? I haven't paid my respects to Her Majesty the Empress yet. And, Miss Yanwu.Ashura, where is Golo.Man?"

Yanwu.Ashura looked momentarily stunned, then glanced seductively at Gu Xiechen as she was about to speak, but Yongheng.Xingguang clapped a hand over her mouth. He shot a cold look at Gu Xiechen and said with a strange laugh, "You're looking for Golo.Man? He is a qualified subject, especially tireless in striking down lower civilizations. I plan to appoint him as the Imperial Minister of Internal Affairs. Gu Xiechen, you cannot kill him; he is under my protection now!"

Pausing slightly, Yongheng.Xingguang continued with a chuckle, "As for Meilin, she is a qualified Empress of the Empire. I intend to let her remain on the Empress's throne, continuing to bear my children. Therefore, Gu Xiechen, you cannot kill her; she is equally under my protection now!"

Gu Xiechen's expression darkened. He stared coldly at Yongheng.Xingguang and hissed low, "Are you deliberately trying to make trouble for me?"

Looking at Gu Xiechen with surprise, Yongheng.Xingguang suddenly suppressed a laugh. "A joke! Making trouble for you? Are you worth the effort? What are you, for me, Yongheng.Xingguang, to bother making trouble?"

After laughing loudly three times, Yongheng.Xingguang suddenly brought his hand back and slapped towards Gu Xiechen. Within his right palm, a black, swastika-shaped Buddhist seal spun rapidly. The surrounding void warped, and the seal flew out of his hand, instantly transforming into a massive Buddhist imprint a hundred zhang wide, slamming down toward Gu Xiechen. Gu Xiechen watched the seal with cold eyes, then suddenly waved both hands toward the void. Two great sleeves stirred up waves of water that soared into the air, transforming into a curtain of shimmering water that heavily struck the Buddhist imprint.

With a deafening boom and a blinding flash of light, everyone almost simultaneously squeezed their eyes shut. Gu Xiechen's True Waterfall Sleeve and the Buddhist seal unleashed by Yongheng.Xingguang annihilated each other. The recoil forced Gu Xiechen to jolt backward several li, while Yongheng.Xingguang stood his ground as if unaffected, shaking his head mockingly at Gu Xiechen. "You are not qualified to speak to me!"

Liewu.Xingguang and several cultivators walked toward Gu Xiechen with expressionless faces. They uniformly raised their flying swords and attacked Gu Xiechen without a word.

Gu Xiechen equally wordlessly met the charge, deploying various magical treasures while continuously spewing out Kui Water Yin Lightning from his hands. He engaged the cultivators in a vivid, back-and-forth struggle. Relying on the sheer toughness of his physical body and the fact that Liewu.Xingguang and the others were at most at the cultivation level of Taihuang Huangzeng Heaven, Gu Xiechen sometimes boldly used his body to directly absorb their attacks, letting their flying swords and treasures clang against his flesh without leaving even a scratch.

Liewu.Xingguang and the others grew increasingly alarmed as they fought; their attacks inflicted no discernible damage on Qi Xiechen.

Even Yongheng.Xingguang turned his head in surprise, staring astonishingly at the battle between his few avatars and Gu Xiechen. It was truly terrifying. The immortal swords infused with the full immortal power of a Prime Celestial Immortal were sent flying back upon contact with Gu Xiechen's body, failing to shave off a single strand of his hair. Meanwhile, a casual blast of Kui Water Yin Lightning from Gu Xiechen forced Liewu.Xingguang and the others into panicked scrambling. Sometimes, he even closed the distance, punching and kicking the cultivators, leaving several of them with shattered bones, howling in agony.

Meilin, nestled in Mudao Ren's embrace, suddenly cried out sharply, "Gu LinChen, kill Yongheng.Xingguang, and I will stop pursuing Jin!"

Mudao Ren frowned slightly, then shouted loudly as well, "Gu Xiechen, kill him, and I will no longer interfere in your matters with Jin. I can even permit you and Jin to marry!"

Gu QiuChen, who was engaging Liewu.Xingguang and the others with such skill and ease, was nearly driven to spit blood by Mudao Ren's outburst. He turned to look at Mudao Ren and Meilin, roaring in frustration, "Shut up! Neither of you will escape! Meilin, I will kill you; Mudao Ren, you ungrateful wretch, I will stab you thirty-six times—if you don't die then, our grievances are settled!"

Meilin and Mudao Ren snorted coldly and simultaneously fell silent. They pressed tightly together, their eyes darting around as they searched for an escape route.

Above them loomed fifteen Death Star Vessels, watching menacingly. All around, tens of thousands of White Winged Battleships patrolled, and tens of thousands of cultivators controlled by Yongheng.Xingguang surrounded them from every direction. Escaping seemed nearly impossible.

Yongheng.Xingguang frowned as he glanced at Gu WuChen, who was giving his avatars a hard time, and let out an unhappy snort. Nine of the eunuchs beside him immediately transformed into streams of black energy and lunged toward Gu Xiechen. These figures were blurred into black smoke, within which the faint outline of a skeletal demon could be seen flickering, shrieking piercingly as they continuously lunged at Gu Xiechen. The black smoke appeared and vanished in the void, flashing around Gu Xiechen with near-instantaneous speed, relentlessly closing in.

Gu Xiechen regarded the demons with a cold eye, and suddenly a curtain of black and white light erupted around him.

With a sharp shriek, the nine demons shrouded in black smoke slammed into the light screen, becoming entirely trapped as if flies caught in freshly dripped pine resin. Countless minute sword energies whistled and swept through the barrier. The nine demons emitted sharp, grating wails as their external black energy was stripped away by the sword energy in the blink of an eye. Innumerable minuscule black and white sword energies rapidly bombarded their true forms, grinding them into fragments like stones being polished by a grindstone. "Useless!" Gu WuChen laughed at Yongheng.Xingguang, "Your lackeys cannot possibly be my match. I dare say, my cultivation is invincible within the same realm."

After roaring with laughter, Gu WuChen fanned his hand out, and the Five-Colored True Water roared down from the sky, instantly grinding Liewu.Xingguang and the other avatars to dust, even shattering a residual strand of the main spirit. Yongheng.Xingguang’s body convulsed, and beads of blood spurted from all seven of his apertures. His upright figure flickered momentarily, becoming hazy like smoke blown by the wind, before instantly returning to normal.

"My child!" Meilin suddenly stretched out her hands toward the direction where Liewu.Xingguang vanished, shrieking madly, "Gu Xiechen, I will definitely kill you!"

Gu Xiechen looked coldly at Meilin and said with utmost cruelty, "You don't need to say it; I will kill you anyway. Do you know why Jin isn't here today? Because I want to kill without restraint, to kill to my heart's content! Even if she doesn't consider you her parents, I won't kill her parents in front of a naive girl—that would be too cruel!"

Lifting the Five-Water Dragon Beard Fan, still wrapped in wisps of water light, Gu WuChen bellowed, "Though I am ruthless, I am still a person! You trash from high-level civilizations, believing yourselves superior and all-powerful, treating yourselves as gods who can casually dictate the lives of others—I will strike you down into the dust and let you know you are still just people!"

With a great roar, Gu Xiechen ascended into the air, unleashing dozens of Kui Water Yin Thunderbolts toward Yongheng.Xingguang, then sweeping his fan toward Mudao Ren and Meilin, who were clinging tightly together.

Meilin let out a shrill scream as a Blood Jinfeng Flower, exuding an intensely demonic and evil aura, suddenly burst forth beside her. The petals of this flower gradually unfolded, revealing a woman completely naked, her skin a vibrant crimson, identical to Meilin in appearance, but possessing two pairs of transparent wings on her back. As soon as this crimson woman ascended, she let out a bewitching and wanton laugh, lightly tapping the surroundings with her hands. Following her laughter, countless Blood Jinfeng Flowers bloomed across the heavens and earth. Countless tough and flexible vines shot out from the flowers, transforming into a swarm of monstrous pythons that surged forward like a vast tide.

The Five-Colored True Water collided head-on with the countless monstrous pythons. Amidst the dull, heavy boom, the Blood Jinfeng Flowers shattered, turning into gouts of blood that poured into the crimson woman. The woman let out a strange laugh, and the blood inside her churned. The Yin Evil Qi condensed within her refined into a beam of concentrated, dazzling blood-red light less than three feet long, which she spat out, piercing straight toward Gu WuChen.

The sky roared with the sound of surging water waves, yet they could not stop the piercing trajectory of the blood beam. Wave after wave of water shattered, and the light beam was instantly upon Gu WuChen's chest.

A vast expanse of chilling white light coalesced around Gu Xiechen. In the blink of an eye, several feet of profound ice formed before the blood beam. With a crisp cracking sound, the blood beam shattered scores of layers of profound ice, only for new layers to regenerate as each was destroyed. Several Taiyin Talismans on the Taiyin Robe flashed with a dazzling, ashen-white cold light. No matter how fiercely the blood beam attacked, it could not breach Gu Xiechen's figure.

Mudao Ren’s eyes turned utterly frigid. He vigorously shook his right hand, pouring his last bit of vital energy into one final flash of white light.

The Yin-Yang Mirror was, after all, an ancient supreme treasure. As the white light emerged, Gu Xiechen's Taiyin Robe clearly could not withstand its penetration. In just one breath, the ashen-white cold light emitted by the Taiyin Robe grew faint and brittle. Immediately, Gu Xiechen felt his soul floating out of his body, nearly escaping through the white light of the Yin-Yang Mirror.

Just then, the Haotian Pagoda suddenly shook, and several strands of Xuanhuang energy surged through Gu WuChen's body. The (towing/pulling) force of the Yin-Yang Mirror on Gu WuChen's soul vanished without a trace! Instead, a repulsive force in the shape of a character shot out through the void, nearly causing Mudao Ren's nascent soul to explode. His eyes burst at the corners, spraying two streams of dark red blood.

"You... bastard!" Mudao Ren shrieked, clutching Meilin as he frantically retreated. But after retreating barely a hundred paces, several beams of intense black light grazed past their bodies, narrowly missing them. The black light struck the surface of Planet Number One, gouging a pit hundreds of li deep into the planet. Then, a massive explosion ripped the rock strata for a thousand li high by hundreds of li in altitude. Towering flames and magma erupted from the strata beneath the impact point, and nearly one-third of Planet Number One’s surface was submerged in lava.

Mudao Ren struggled to turn his head back. The main cannons of a dozen White Winged Battleships behind them were emitting faint wisps of black smoke. After firing this powerful volley, the battleships quickly retreated, allowing other fully charged White Winged Battleships to move forward and take their positions.

"Your Majesty..." Mudao Ren called out dryly.

"No, no, don't call me Your Majesty!" Yongheng.Xingguang had just shattered the Kui Water Yin Thunderbolts Gu WuChen had aimed at him. He looked toward Mudao Ren with a mocking smile. He chuckled grandly, "This is a very amusing game. Before the game is over, none of us are allowed to leave." After laughing a few times, Yongheng.Xingguang beckoned downward with his right hand. The seven crystal pillars that first appeared shot into the sky. The carved images of demon gods on the pillars twisted and struggled madly, and gradually, colossal phantom images of demon gods poked half their bodies out of the pillars. They all formed mudras and chanted spells, drawing up the earth-fire magma and black smoke from below, making them rise continuously and swirl around the seven crystal pillars, gradually condensing into a veil of black clouds that seemed substantial, hovering over everyone's heads.

Yongheng.Xingguang spoke with smug satisfaction, "Well, it seems you are all eager. Then let the game enter its final phase."

Pausing briefly, his authoritative gaze swept over everyone present. Yongheng.Xingguang laughed, "Let's fight with magic. I won't bully you; none of my avatars will participate, nor will the Death Star Vessels or White Winged Battleships. As long as you can escape with your lives under my hand, you will still be qualified to continue playing with me."

Including Yanwu.Ashura, the tens of thousands of cultivators behind Yongheng.Xingguang silently retreated backward, quickly reaching the hatch of a Death Star Vessel.

Gu Xiechen suddenly turned back and barked sharply at Yanwu.Ashura, "Where is Golo.Man?"

Yanwu.Ashura chuckled lightly, stroking her lower abdomen, and said sweetly, "Golo.Man? He is in His Majesty's hands! His Majesty highly appreciates him and is planning to grant him a high office."

After giggling softly a few times, Yanwu.Ashura burst into triumphant, loud laughter. She swayed her slender waist and blew a seductive wink at Gu Xiechen before smugly flying toward the hatch of the Death Star Vessel.

Yongheng.Xingguang also let out a triumphant laugh, laughing so hard he bent over, raising his thumb toward Yanwu.Ashura. "That's right, I'll give him a high office! Hmm, absolutely."

He provocatively hooked a finger at Gu Xiechen, laughing strangely, "Want to kill Golo.Man for personal revenge? Defeat me! Want to kill Meilin to vent the hatred of a ruined nation? Defeat me! Want to destroy the Polaris Empire to avenge your insignificant lower civilization? Defeat me! Otherwise, you can do nothing."

Gu Xiechen glanced quickly at Yongheng.Xingguang; he had already received the spiritual message from the Ten Heavenly Lords. He smiled faintly and said, "No, I can do everything."

With a wave of his hand, the fifteen Death Star Vessels floating in the void disintegrated simultaneously. Their main cannons spat out a beam of intense black light in their final moment before collapse. The seven crystal pillars shattered within the black light, Yanwu.Ashura and the other cultivators vanished into nothingness within the black light, and even half of Yongheng.Xingguang's body dissolved into smoke. This was despite Yongheng.Xingguang reacting extremely quickly, teleporting a distance away, otherwise, he would have been completely annihilated like Yanwu.Ashura.

Gu Xiechen casually reached out toward the struggling, roaring mass of souls in the void, selecting Yanwu.Ashura's soul, and stabbed a finger into her soul's origin.

In an instant, everything in Yanwu.Ashura's memory was forcibly stripped away by Gu WuChen; she didn't even have the chance to self-destruct her soul.

"Golo.Man is dead... Ashura, Viking? The former Emperor of the Viking Empire?" Gu Xiechen sneered, then casually unleashed a stream of Solar Blazing Flame to incinerate Yanwu.Ashura's soul.

Yongheng.Xingguang, whose body was half-dissipated into smoke, screamed uncontrollably. He violently inhaled toward the wisps of residual spirit attempting to flee back into his avatars floating in the void, trying to draw them back into his body to replenish his injured power. His remaining half-body had turned translucent, with a strand of purple lightning flickering within.

Meilin shrieked, "He didn't truly pass through that Heavenly Tribulation... He, he's just an empty shell, all façade!"

Yongheng.Xingguang glared at Meilin in anger and frustration. "Stupid woman..." Then he transformed into a strong beam of light, ready to shoot high into the sky.

But suddenly, several thousand White Winged Battleships locked onto Yongheng.Xingguang's body, and dozens of black beams flashed past him, terrifying him into halting his advance.

Gu Xiechen calmly bowed toward Yongheng.Xingguang, Meilin, and Mudao Ren. He smiled with genuine delight.

"Gentlemen, you must now listen to me."