The convoy comprised a massive skeleton merchant ship and two hundred smaller escort vessels belonging to the entourage of the Ancient Evil Little Emperor, Virmus.

The cargo of the merchant ship consisted only of common local specialties from the Spiral Starfield. Although the volume was immense, they wouldn't fetch much of a price in Davirmus, a location that gathered all the brilliance of the Star Alliance. What truly held value in this convoy was a batch of elite intelligence operatives, meticulously selected and nurtured for several years by Fuya Ming.

Escorting these operatives safely to Davirmus, ensuring no mishaps occurred along the way, was one of the key missions for Gu Xichen and his group this time.

Incidentally, once Gu Xichen and these intelligence personnel were settled in Davirmus, he planned to engage in other activities. Judging by the scale of his entourage, it was clear that what he intended to do was hardly something that would please the upper echelons of the Star Alliance.

With the exception of the 108 Heavenly Constellation and Earthly Fiend Star Lords remaining in the Spiral Starfield, the rest—the Ten Heavenly Lords, the Four Generals of Wind, Rain, Thunder, and Lightning, the Four Generals of the Mo family, the Five Brothers of Xin Jia, the Thousand-Mile Eye, the Wind-Following Ear, and over ten thousand other Heavenly Soldiers and Generals—were all accompanying him.

Adding to this impressive force were Miao Hua and Ducart, who insisted on sticking with Gu Xichen, plus Lily, who adamantly refused to be separated from Ducart, and Xiao Xiao’s three clones, each possessing ten percent of his main body’s computational power. Gu Xichen’s party was indeed formidable.

The journey proceeded without incident, involving nearly a thousand hyperspace jumps. After dutifully paying hefty tolls to pass through fixed stargates erected by two Six-Star Civilizations, the convoy finally reached Davirmus, the innermost starfield of the Star Alliance. This was the seat of the Supreme Council of the Star Alliance, the location of numerous functional departments, and where all Six-Star Civilizations and sufficiently powerful Five-Star Civilizations maintained sprawling embassies. Lower-level civilizations, however, were relegated to the satellites orbiting Davirmus.

Davirmus—City of Civilization, City of Glory. The pinnacle achievement of all the Star Alliance’s high-tech civilizations.

It was a colossal planet, millions of kilometers in diameter. As if to emphasize its exalted status as the Star Alliance headquarters, the planet seemed almost frozen in the void, rotating at a constant, steady rate. Three small stars orbited it at a distance of thirteen light-minutes. Twenty-six artificial satellites, each representing one of the Star Alliance’s twenty-six Six-Star Civilizations, revolved around Davirmus; every single satellite was three times the size of Earth.

The convoy anchored at a commercial port station twelve light-hours away from the main planet of Davirmus. The Ten Heavenly Lords and others retreated into Gu Xichen’s Sea of Consciousness to hide. Gu Xichen, accompanied by Peng Hua, Ducart, and the others, along with Xiao Xiao’s three clones—who had outfitted themselves with mechanical crawler bodies—scuttled toward the port. Xiao Xiao effortlessly commandeered a transport skiff, and the group boarded, proceeding unhurriedly toward Davirmus.

As for the intelligence operatives within the convoy, they naturally had their own means of securing lodging; Gu Xichen felt no need to worry about them.

Through the viewport, Gu Xichen stared blankly at the three small stars orbiting Davirmus. He was so astonished he could barely breathe. Remarkable. Powerful. Such a divine spectacle must have been achieved by a Golden Immortal-level immortal. He mused. Immortals at the Heavenly Immortal realm can do little more than toy with a few planets, but altering the orbits of stars—even these small ones—absolutely requires someone at the Golden Immortal level.

Miao Hua strode up to Gu Xichen’s side, ready to ask what had surprised him so much that his expression had stiffened. But upon glimpsing the view outside the viewport, he too jumped in shock. The cigar dangling from his mouth fell to the ground, the lit end bouncing up and burning a large hole in his trousers.

“Impressive!” Miao Hua grimaced. “Worthy of being the Star Alliance’s most vital stronghold under the Elder Council. Ah, when will we ever be able to toss stars around like balls?”

“Golden Immortal, minimum First Grade Golden Immortal,” Gu Xichen provided the definitive answer. Peng Hua counted on his fingers, calculating the gap between his current cultivation and First Grade Golden Immortal. After a long, long pause, he sighed resentfully, “Junior Brother, now I truly believe that those Dead Starships you mentioned might actually be capable of unleashing Golden Immortal-level attacks!”

The transport skiff docked at a port in Davirmus. Although Gu Xichen’s group carried no identification papers, under Xiao Xiao’s escort, they smoothly cleared the port.

Like the capital worlds of all high-level Star Alliance civilizations, Davirmus was a planet where the natural ecological environment had been preserved in a near-pristine state. The dense jungles contained no roads; they were a paradise for various wild beasts. Scattered sparsely within the boundless jungle were structures entirely enclosed by transparent alloy domes. The few existing cities were also sealed beneath such immense domes.

Utilizing the fixed-route aerial transport system, Gu Xichen successfully reached Dahlia City.

The Dahlia was a rare treasure native to Davirmus, a flower with petals several meters wide, incredibly vibrant, exuding an enchanting fragrance, and capable of yielding the exceedingly precious natural gene repair fluid. The concentrated and refined sap from a single Dahlia flower could restore a Star Alliance natural person nearing their end of life to their youth, granting them nearly ten thousand more years of healthy, youthful existence. Hence, the Dahlia was acclaimed as the foremost precious flower of the Star Alliance. The headquarters building of the Star Alliance was situated within Dahlia City, which itself spanned nearly twenty thousand square kilometers.

A transparent, circular dome nearly a hundred kilometers in diameter covered Dahlia City. Inside, the architecture consisted primarily of low-rise garden villas, with only a few dozen towering spires piercing the dome. These spires were the most luxurious locales in Dahlia City, where one could find every luxury item produced across all planets within the Star Alliance’s sphere of influence.

A famous Star Alliance pirate once lamented that if he could just loot one of those spires, his great-grandchildren would never have to worry about money again. This pirate not only lamented but also acted, rallying nearly a million psychics for a raid on Dahlia City. Consequently, those nearly million psychics, along with their descendants, were utterly vaporized, never to be heard from again.

This was a city embodying the supreme power of the Star Alliance, the crystallization of its highest technology, and a fortress representing the pinnacle of the Star Alliance’s military might, secured by formidable defenses.

Standing in the center of a street in Dahlia City, Gu Xichen looked down at the thick layer of green grass beneath his feet and frowned. “Let’s find a place to rest first. There’s still some time before the day Zero told us about. We can’t just wander around here, can we?”

Xiao Xiao’s clone’s eyes flashed red as he mumbled, “I’ve connected to Dahlia City’s data... but every building already has an owner—sixteen Six-Star Civilization embassies and seventy-three thousand nine hundred and fifty-five embassies from the most powerful Five-Star Civilizations.”

Miao Hua sucked in a sharp breath, grimacing. He muttered at the immense number Xiao Xiao had cited. Over seventy thousand of the most powerful Five-Star Civilizations? How much territory did the Star Alliance truly control? He unconsciously muttered to himself, “Based on the concept that one top Five-Star Civilization possesses one hundred thousand Tier-One warships, then seventy thousand Five-Star Civilizations…”

Gu Xichen’s face also grew strained. Anyone would feel a bit faint thinking about such an overwhelming number of warships.

However, seeing that both Peng Hua and Ducart looked unwell, Gu Xichen simply let out a cold laugh. “It doesn’t matter. The number of immortals the Heavenly Court possessed in the ancient times was several times larger than this figure. Heh heh heh!” Gu Xichen produced a few stiff, cold chuckles.

Peng Hua and Ducart shivered simultaneously. They both recalled the reasons Gu Xichen had shared about the disappearance of the Ancient Heavenly Court. Hearing the colossal number of immortals the Court once commanded, they truly felt that the Star Alliance’s Five-Star Civilizations amounted to nothing. Really, they amounted to nothing compared to the Heavenly Court; the Star Alliance was merely a toddler that hadn't grown up yet.

After pondering for a moment, Peng Hua’s rogue temperament resurfaced. He rolled his eyes and sneered, “Since every building is occupied, why don’t we just pick one we don’t like and break in?”

As Gu Xichen was considering Miao Hua’s suggestion, nearly a hundred two-seater light armored vehicles, escorting three lavish RVs over thirty meters long, zoomed past at low altitude in the distance. This motorcade flew past with extreme arrogance, stopping before a tall building constructed of greenish-gold rock, about a hundred meters ahead. The light armored vehicles swiftly ascended, surrounding the building and the small manor behind it, which covered an area of several tens of thousands of square meters, from all directions.

The three RVs landed, and a squad of sturdy men in black poured out, escorting a stout young man wearing a patterned shirt reminiscent of a Hawaiian vacation style on Earth. The stout youth, panting slightly, walked toward the building entrance. He gazed at the structure for a moment before suddenly laughing loudly, “The Embassy of the Yavier Empire, tsk tsk, so luxurious!”

A dozen panicked soldiers rushed out of the main entrance. One soldier glared at the group outside and sharply commanded, “Who are you? In the name of Star Alliance law, leave this place!”

The stout youth looked down, tightening his belt which was revealing a small portion of his lower abdomen, and let out a lazy hum.

A few of the light armored vehicles circling overhead swooped down. Accompanied by faint hissing sounds, dozens of high-energy beams shot out, striking the soldiers and leaving bowl-sized, transparent holes across their bodies. The soldiers stared wide-eyed, unable to believe what they were seeing, before slowly collapsing to the ground.

“That’s it. The capital of the Yavier Empire has fallen. The first, second, and third heirs to the Imperial Family are dead, and other royal members are scattered, location unknown. According to our rules, this manor is ownerless property! Brothers, let’s take it over!” The stout youth waved his hand and laughed loudly.

The squad of sturdy men in black surged into the building. Sharp screams and furious roars erupted from within, accompanied by grating sounds of shattering. Several floor-to-ceiling windows were smashed open by human bodies, and dozens of men and women in green robes were hurled out, spitting blood. They crashed heavily onto the ground, clearly devoid of life upon impact.

The weakest of the black-clad men were Five-Star ability users, while the strongest were eight peak Six-Star ability users. The stout youth, who looked quite unremarkable, possessed the cultivation of the peak Transformation God stage. The people inside the Yavier Empire Embassy had a highest strength of only three Four-Star ability users; they possessed no one capable of intimidating the situation. Facing the brutal assault of the black-clad men, they offered no resistance.

A group of soldiers wearing the distinctive Star Alliance Military Police uniforms of Davirmus stood far down the street, pointing and watching, their faces betraying unconcealed schadenfreude. Gu Xichen overheard them remarking that the head of the Yavier Empire Embassy on Davirmus, an imperial princess named Mi’er, had fallen into the hands of the Davirmus Wolves and would likely be ravaged beyond recognition—a pity for such a delicate and gentle princess.

As the Military Police were chatting, they saw two black-clad men dragging a young girl by her shoulders out of the building.

The two black-clad men were about two meters tall, while the girl stood only about 1.5 meters. Her petite frame was enveloped in a gown of pure, flawless white. Her honey-colored skin shimmered under the sunlight, and her light brown hair cascaded down past her knees. Just

He glanced at Princess Mi'er with a hesitant, fiddling manner. Princess Mi'er, however, nodded generously toward Xin Jia and took a step up onto the dais.

Penghua jabbed hard into Dukat’s soft spot. Dukat turned his head back and whispered, “What is it?”

Penghua spoke in a strange, affected tone, “What a sin!”

Dukat asked, confused, “What sin?”

Penghua furtively gestured with his thumb. He pointed at Xin Jia and said, “Look, so tall. So strapping.”

Then, he gestured again, pointing toward Princess Mi'er: “But she’s barely the size of that fellow’s one arm—a true sin!”

Dukat’s expression became distinctly odd; he couldn't even be bothered to turn his head to look at Penghua.

Li He’s face turned ashen. She silently condensed a wooden splinter, extremely thin and wickedly sharp, a full foot long, and drove it viciously toward Penghua’s backside.

A piercing shriek echoed across nearly half of Dahlia City. Penghua sprang up nearly half the height of the sky, landing flat on his back against the transparent dome above the city. (To be continued)