The Grand Pantheon of Guangyan, the most sacred place in the hearts of the Romanians, was the cradle of their faith.

Yet today, before the towering gates of the magnificent Pantheon, nearly a thousand bodies lay sprawled, their necks violently twisted or their skulls crushed. In the square near the temple, dozens of heavy war chariots were torn to shreds, their Roman soldiers reduced to bloody pulp, the ground slick with spattered gore.

Hundreds of thousands of elite Roman warriors rushed toward the Pantheon from all directions, desperate to defend their faith and guard their gods. But these warriors could not even approach within a dozen kilometers of the structure. They were mercilessly intercepted and sniped from afar. The Pantheon stood upon a vast, verdant grassland—a land of waist-high, lush grass and flower stalks that reached the soldiers’ necks, dotted with several substantial groves of trees.

Today, however, this idyllic setting had transformed into a terrifying killing field, unleashing a despairing lethality. The slaughter turned the path toward the Pantheon into a river of blood, preventing the Roman soldiers from advancing a single step closer.

The slender blades of grass had stretched to hundreds of meters in length. Their fine edges, like forged alloy, sliced through the void with a piercing whistle, leaving behind streaks of faint green afterimages. Any Roman soldier struck by these grass blades, even those clad in standard Roman energy armor, was effortlessly sliced into bloody chunks.

The gentle flowers had become grotesquely fearsome. Their blossoms had morphed into gaping maws several meters wide. They sprang suddenly from the foliage, capable of swallowing several, sometimes a dozen, Roman soldiers in a single bite. The highly corrosive juices instantly dissolved the bodies of the unfortunate, turning them into sustenance for the grassland, which thrived even more robustly because of it.

As for the tall forests, their capacity for destruction far outmatched that of the flora. Due to the exceptional natural environment of the Thirteenth Star System, the trees here grew to extraordinary heights, often fifty or even eighty meters tall. Today, these colossal trees had rooted themselves out of the earth like living beings, their massive trunks transforming into legs that strode rapidly across the ground. Their thick branches swung wildly like arms, flinging Roman soldiers into the air; any soldier struck by them had their internal organs instantly pulverized.

When Roman warships and fighters flew overhead, these behemoths would raise their massive limbs and launch their thick branches like missiles. The wooden projectiles were now several times sturdier than alloy steel, and their speed was so immense that even the primary battleships deployed by the Romans would stagger violently, unable to maintain steady flight. Smaller fighter craft, however, were directly obliterated mid-air by these wooden strikes.

Lili, enveloped by a dense aura of green mist, floated above the plaza before the Pantheon, her expressionless gaze fixed upon the Roman warriors butchered by her hand.

“I won’t let you disturb Xiao. Anyone who dares approach will die!” Holly—her eyes narrowing into a sweet, tender smile—muttered to herself. “My Xiao.”

The distant Roman assault abruptly ceased. In its place came a tide of Spiritual Race warriors surging forward. Their eyes glowed with green light, and powerful psychic waves reverberated around them as they began to fight Lili for control over the manipulated flora. The combined mental force of tens of thousands of Spiritual Race warriors exceeded the limits of the mental energy Lili currently possessed.

But Lili moved. Following the gift given to her by Gu Xie on Volus, she drew one of the three ancient immortal artifacts—the small jade blade—and tossed it casually into the void.

A flying knife, about a foot long, piercingly white and dazzling, scattering brilliant light like crystal reflecting the sun, shot high into the air. With a mere thought from Lili, countless slivers of intensely bright white light, no longer than an inch each, swept out densely in all directions. With a single strike, the heads of the tens of thousands of advancing Spiritual Race soldiers and the ten thousand Roman warriors supporting them from behind simultaneously rocketed skyward. Pale gold and pale green blood sprayed across the ground in a scene of utter, hellish carnage.

“It’s time to break! Roman warriors, do you still have the courage to fight?” Lili pursed her lips into a mocking smile. Based on her understanding of the Romans, having suffered such catastrophic losses, they should have retreated to regroup for the next offensive—an offensive that, most of the time, might not materialize for two or three months!

What shocked Lili then occurred: the usually timid Roman warriors, led by a contingent of senior fighters, formed up in perfect ranks and charged forward, roaring out slogans.

“For Roman! Advance!”

The slogan was simple, but the Roman warriors bellowed it in wave after wave, like a relentless tsunami crashing against a shore. The astonishing momentum turned Lili’s face stark white. She stared at the charging troops, frowning, and with gritted teeth, unleashed her full power.

Sharp eagle cries echoed from every direction. Countless fist-sized green light eagles erupted from Lili’s side, streaking forward with long green tails, plunging into the Roman ranks. Massive explosions followed; the destructive power of each exploding light eagle was equivalent to a capital ship’s standard main cannon. Thousands of Roman soldiers were vaporized in bursts of intense green light, yet the seemingly endless stream of Romans kept flooding in from all sides, their only goal to reach Lili and unleash a concentrated mental shockwave.

Lili felt a flicker of panic. Her momentary lapse caused her attacks to weaken. The Roman warriors surged forward, and wave after wave of crushing psychic impact tore through the air. These shockwaves shredded the rapidly advancing flowers and grass, then screamed toward Lili.

Suddenly, several Doom Guard Knights materialized near Lili, unleashing simultaneous psychic assaults that hammered against her body.

A splash of pale green blood erupted as Lili groaned and was thrown backward, crashing heavily against the semi-open doors of the Pantheon, forcing them wide open with a resounding boom.

Inside the Pantheon, Dukat, his eyes blazing crimson, was laughing wildly as he pursued the scattering temple priests. Clad in the Flowing Cloud and Running Water Armor, his hands morphed into razor-sharp blades, his figure a whirlwind within the dimly lit hall. He slaughtered the priests, whose heads rolled across the floor, leaving pools of pale gold blood.

A storage ring hovered near him. Wherever Dukat passed, tall statues were continuously sucked into the ring. He cackled with glee: “These statues are Divine Crystals! All forged from Divine Crystals! You fools, you wasted such precious energy stones on statues! Hahaha! Where is your god?”

A few priests suddenly turned and attacked Dukat, chanting strange incantations. The statues near them flared with dense light, coalescing into vague human shapes, preparing to pounce on the priests. But Dukat reacted with terrifying speed. Six wings sprouted from his back, and with a massive beat of the fleshy membranes, he shot forward like black lightning toward the shadowy figures, swallowing them whole.

Dukat’s body pulsed with a dense black light. He threw his head back in ecstatic roar: “What pure psychic conglomerates! Are there more? I want more!”

The priests screamed in terror. Some were scared to death by the sight of Dukat—this demon—devouring their deities!

Amidst maniacal laughter, Dukat fixed his scarlet eyes on the few surviving priests. They let out agonizing screams as their bodies ignited from within. Formless, colorless flames consumed them, burning them to ash in the blink of an eye, leaving no residue behind. The panicked souls of the priests escaped, hesitating where to flee, when Dukat swallowed them down in a single gulp.

In just over ten minutes, Dukat had turned the Grand Pantheon into a river of blood and corpses. His speed was absolute; he had swept through hundreds of halls, killing nearly ten thousand priests. Mercilessly, Dukat consumed their flesh and souls, absorbing all their power.

Finally, Dukat arrived at the side chamber where the Roman Mother Goddess was secretly venerated. The Grand High Priest of Roman, cloaked in black robes, stood before two statues of the Mother Goddess, his gaze as still as water, gently fixed on Dukat.

“My child!” The Grand High Priest extended a hand toward Dukat. “Did you absorb the black orb that Pol Pot gave you?”

Dukat paused, his six wings beating slowly. He growled in a low voice: “So what if I did?”

The Grand High Priest smiled strangely, lowering his voice: “Then that is excellent. Pol Pot was a good child. The chance of success was only one in a thousand, but you actually absorbed it! My child... what can I say? You have made a great contribution to us Romans.”

“Contribution?” Dukat sneered. “Does killing so many temple priests count as a contribution to Roman?”

The Grand High Priest ignored Dukat’s question. He trembled as he raised his scepter and brought it down hard onto the ground. The High Priest’s body began to burn silently, even his soul incinerating in the faint golden flames. He offered Dukat a bizarre smile, one brimming with an ineffable sense of triumph.

“Pol Pot and the others are good children. If they hadn’t brought back the ancestral records, I never would have dreamed that the Mother Goddess statues concealed such a secret!”

A colossal surge of power gathered within the Grand High Priest. Before Dukat could react, the High Priest’s body dissolved into ash. A fist-sized golden halo hovered above the scepter, suddenly transforming into a strange rune that shot into Dukat’s body. Dukat stiffened, feeling his power swell violently, as if he had just swallowed a nuclear bomb that was now detonating inside him. A storm of violent black light burst from Dukat, lunging like living things toward the Roman Mother Goddess statues, which quickly absorbed the energy. Visible streams of black light flowed rapidly within the crystal statues a few times before the female Mother Goddess statue, carved from crystal, slowly raised its head and emitted a searing beam of light. This blinding radiance instantly breached spatial barriers, blinking several times to reach an extremely distant sector of space.

Dukat stared blankly at the statue, which soon returned to its original state. He felt he had been manipulated, but what was the Grand High Priest willing to die for?

Shaking his head, the crimson light in Dukat’s eyes burned hotter. He spat scornfully at the two statues, then stuffed them into his storage ring. After thoroughly ransacking the Pantheon and clearing every statue from every hall, he strode out, deeply satisfied.

Coincidentally, Lili, having been struck, slammed into the massive Pantheon doors. Her slender body bounced off the heavy wood and was thrown violently to a stop right in front of Dukat.

Dukat roared in fury, charging toward the Doom Guard Knights with a guttural yell.

In the vast void, the strong light emitted by the Roman Mother Goddess statue traveled at an unimaginable speed, traversing one or dozens of star systems with almost every blink. The beam cut through space, and after about two hours, it reached the star domain controlled by the Star Alliance.

The light contained a special signal frequency. These frequencies went undetected even by several Six-Star level civilizations it passed along the way. However, when passing certain instruments secretly positioned throughout the void, the signals within the beam were absorbed and rapidly translated into a specific language and script.

On the border of the Blazing Dragon Empire, within an extremely desolate asteroid belt, three giant Nightmare Octopuses, each over twenty thousand meters long, circled a small metal outpost barely three hundred meters in diameter. The outpost was luxuriously furnished, equipped with every necessity for life. Five handsome, imposing youths, looking like gods, lounged lazily on soft couches, staring expressionlessly out the viewport at several rapidly passing meteors.

After a long silence, the bored youths yawned and began to chat lazily.

“That Wolf Pack group seems to have hit a hard target; they suffered a major loss.”

“Good riddance. They were embarrassed, so they went to bully those Five-Star civilizations. At least those guys didn't get wiped out along with Davirmus.”

“Oh, the Star Alliance’s various departments were taken out in one go. How long will it take to restore normal administrative functions?”

“Orders have already come down from above. In about half a month, the Star Alliance Headquarters will be rebuilt. The new Dragon Star Envoy will also take up residence there.”

“Who do you think killed Davirmus? It’s terrifying; so many blood brothers simply vanished.”

“A devastating loss! But it has nothing to do with us. Our families are hidden throughout the Alliance; we suffered no damage.”

“Right, nothing to do with us. What we need to worry about now is how to pass this boring duty rotation! We still have another one hundred and seventy years before this shift ends!”

“So dull. I want women—hot, fiery women! This is just too boring.”

After some idle chatter, the youths all yawned simultaneously. Just then, a black crystal sphere, about one meter in diameter, suddenly materialized on the floor before them, a faint layer of black light flashing rapidly across its surface. One of the youths lazily straightened up. He frowned, then smiled mockingly. “Which liaison point brother is bored? Using such a high-density signal to tease us... Oh my god!” The youth suddenly sprang up, shrieking, “Brothers, am I mistaken? Six spiral gene chains? It—it’s the Romans!”

Cold light flashed in the eyes of the other four youths. They jumped up simultaneously, all five rushing to the crystal sphere, staring intently at it.

Immediately afterward, the palms of the five youths pressed down on the sphere. Their lips moved silently for a moment, and then they exclaimed in unison: “Yes. It’s the six spiral gene chains unique to the Romans. It’s the Romans! Damn it, they even forcibly merged with our noble genes! These damned bastards!”

The five immediately shouted: “Quick, transmit the intelligence back! We’ve earned a huge merit! We’ve earned a huge merit!”

Another blinding beam of light shot out from this tiny metal outpost, followed immediately by dozens of strong beams shooting out from there toward various points in the endless starry expanse.

Dozens of identical metal outposts received the signal fluctuations contained within the strong light from the Thirteenth Star System. The blood descendants of the Elder Council within these outposts, filled with both agitation and rage, rapidly forwarded the message.

“Six spiral gene chains confirmed, identified as Roman.”

“Signal source: some remote, minor star system. Recommend immediate dispatch of reconnaissance fleets to investigate.”

“Recommend mobilizing the nearest low-level civilized nations to form a joint fleet to probe that star system immediately.”

Not long after the signal transmission, an order of the highest level swept through all the secret outposts of the Elder Council:

“Full mobilization! Full mobilization! Deploy all available forces to surround that small star system and annihilate every Roman! Reclaim what belongs to us! Wash away our disgrace!”

Dense, starlike emergency signals spread across the universe, passing through one star domain after another, until finally, these signals traveled beyond the limits of the starry sky conceivable to the Star Alliance inhabitants—reaching incredibly distant, far-flung reaches of space.

All the signals repeatedly broadcast the same message:

“Six spiral gene chains discovered, confirmed as Roman.”

“Six spiral gene chains discovered, confirmed as Roman.”

Then, signals began returning to the Star Alliance at a terrifyingly high velocity. These signals originated from all corners of the universe; even using the fastest means of travel currently known to the Star Alliance, the nearest signals would take tens of thousands of years to arrive.

The content of these returning signals was almost identical—dry, yet dripping with murderous intent that sent chills down the spine:

“Sons of the Demon Dragon King! Take up your weapons and attack any Roman you find! We are on our way back!”

We are on our way back! (To be continued)