Originally, this was a quiet and peaceful agricultural star-domain, where nearly a thousand administrative stars were fertile lands blessed with timely rains and favorable weather. The vast harvests produced here each year, after fine processing, transformed into the most cherished fine wines and exquisite foods of various nation leaders. These not only enjoyed high prestige between nations but also brought immense wealth to the local populace.

However, ever since the sudden descent of the dark creatures, and the Weijing Empire's closure of all fixed star gates between star-domains and the sealing of all spatial jump points, the Zhamuda Star-domain had become a living hell. The Blood Clan wantonly bred blood slaves, just as humans raise various livestock for meat; the Werewolves savagely hunted its citizens, treating them as wild game to be killed and devoured at will; and the Necromancers enthusiastically experimented with all manner of vicious necromantic arts on these people, causing ghosts to drift through the daytime skies everywhere.

Because Gu Xiechen had sealed the passage to the Dark Star-domain, the dark creatures occupying the Zhamuda Star-domain paused their invasion of the Weijing Empire. They rested and recuperated here, engaging in rampant **breeding. When Gu Xiechen and his companions secretly infiltrated the most remote planet in the Zhamuda Star-domain, they saw countless heavily pregnant Werewolf females lying sprawled on the ground, basking in the sun. Their tails gently patted their bellies, appearing utterly comfortable and relaxed.

By this time, Gu Xiechen and the others had entered this planet and hidden themselves deep within a secluded pool, using their divine sense to probe the surroundings.

Old Man Baxin, whose mind had become clouded from cultivating to the point of qi deviation, excitedly rushed out upon seeing the pregnant Werewolves. Muttering incoherently, he proclaimed that these pregnant she-wolves were the litter of little hounds he had raised in his youth, and he needed to take these lost little darlings home. Gu Xiechen was so terrified that he hurriedly commanded the Giant Spirit God to snatch Baxin up, holding him firmly in his palm.

Fortunately, although Old Man Baxin was senile, he still retained some semblance of sanity, perhaps also due to the strong admonishments from Raskov and the others. Despite struggling violently in the Giant Spirit God's palm, the old man refrained from unleashing Daoist magic to attack the deity. Otherwise, Gu Xiechen suspected the simple-minded Giant Spirit God might have simply crushed the old man, whose bones were not very sturdy.

After a brief commotion, Gu Xiechen psychically transmitted to Raskov the location of the top-secret passage leading to that place. Raskov made a gesture to Gu Xiechen, pointing forward toward a massive mountain where countless Werewolves were currently frolicking. It was a mountain over twenty thousand meters high and nearly a thousand kilometers in circumference. Its undulating peaks were covered in green grass, lush trees, and exotic flowers, but this beautiful landscape was now saturated with the stench of blood and gore. Large groups of citizens from the Weijing Empire were being driven by the Werewolf soldiers to scatter through the forest. Behind them, densely packed, at least tens of thousands of small Werewolves, no taller than a foot and a half, stumbled along, chasing and killing these humans.

Occasionally, a few individuals, exhausted, would fall to the ground. These small Werewolves would swarm over them with great excitement. Although they were young, they possessed rows of fine, white teeth. Those who fell were viciously torn and ripped apart by them; within a quarter of an hour, they would be reduced to piles of clean white bones. The little Werewolves, smeared with blood, would then cheer joyfully and continue the chase, as if treating it as a playful game.

"In that mountain?" Gu Xiechen frowned. He sensed more than a dozen powerful auras within the great mountain. True to the arrogant nature of the Werewolves, those strong individuals within the clan made no effort to conceal their presence. They unleashed their full auras wildly, like a heavy mountain pressing down over that entire peak.

"Forcefully kill them?" Raskov made a gesture toward Gu Xiechen.

Excluding Raskov, the remaining thirty-seven royal members of the Yanlong Empire were formidable. Baxin was a peerless master at the Fifth Grade Celestial Immortal level; there were also three at the Third Grade Celestial Immortal, seven at the Second Grade, and thirteen at the First Grade. Everyone else was a Six Tribulation Loose Immortal, possessing the strength of a low-grade Celestial Immortal. This was the most reliable and core group of the Yanlong Empire's royal lineage—the largest force they could mobilize without jeopardizing the inheritance and foundation of the Yanlong Empire. Such power was absolutely sufficient to instantly annihilate the dozen or so Werewolf powerhouses within that mountain. However, Gu Xiechen did not wish to do this. Dark creatures were like spiders lurking in the darkness; a single move could affect the entire web. It was highly possible that before they could slay these Werewolf masters, the Great Chief of the Werewolf Clan and the Seven Clan Chiefs, along with other absolute powerhouses, would already have arrived.

Shaking his head, Gu Xiechen took out over two hundred high-quality Immortal Artifacts and handed them to Raskov and the others, instructing them to refine these artifacts as quickly as possible. Afterward, Gu Xiechen took out massive amounts of materials and began refining the Six Desires and Seven Emotions Bewitching Talismans. To sneak into the mountain while avoiding the keen senses of smell and hearing of the Werewolves, there was no better method than the Six Desires and Seven Emotions Bewitching Talismans.

When Raskov and the others saw this pile of Immortal Artifacts, they became like hungry wolves spotting fresh meat; their eyes all turned green. Especially Old Man Baxin, who had been humming about wanting to hug his little doggies, instantly zipped out of the Giant Spirit God's palm. He gleefully grabbed a few artifacts he fancied and, without uttering a word, released large amounts of vital blood to begin refining them. At this moment, Old Man Baxin showed no sign of senility; the artifacts he selected were all the finest of the fine.

Glancing at Baxin in surprise, Gu Xiechen focused all his attention on the Six Desires and Seven Emotions Bewitching Talismans. With his current cultivation, in just two short quarters of an hour, he had refined enough talismans for everyone. The group immediately followed Gu Xiechen’s instructions, donning the Bewitching God Hunting Armor. Under the cover of the True One Profound Water mist, formed by the water essence released by the Four Directions Exotic Beast Pattern Water Venerable, everyone concealed themselves within a patch of dark cloud floating high in the void, slowly moving toward the mountain range.

The Werewolves’ vigilance was indeed high. Before the dark cloud was even ten miles from the mountain range, hundreds of not-weak divine senses swept over, thoroughly scanning the cloud inside and out. Gu Xiechen cooperatively urged the dark cloud to release a heavy downpour and let loose a few ordinary bolts of lightning, striking a few muffled peals of thunder. The Werewolves, realizing it was just an ordinary rain cloud, let them pass easily.

The rain cloud drifted deep into the mountain range, finally hanging on the mountainside of a towering peak.

The group emerged from the black mist, sliding down the steep cliff face to the valley floor beneath. Without alerting a single Werewolf, Gu Xiechen and the others smoothly reached the end of the valley. Raskov activated a restriction at the deepest part of the valley, revealing a straight, downward shaft several meters wide. As soon as the restriction was lifted, a gust of cold air jetted out from the shaft, its touch icy and seeming to pierce straight into the marrow.

Looking at the shaft, Gu Xiechen stopped Raskov, who was about to jump in, and asked, "Is it worth it for your Yanlong Empire to take such a huge risk...?"

Worth it? To infiltrate the core of the Star Alliance, and even intend to destroy the Star Post's lair while the main forces of the Star Alliance were away—was such a risk worth it?

Raskov remained silent, merely looking at Baxin. Baxin rolled his eyes at Gu Xiechen and mumbled vaguely, "Whether it's worth it or not depends on how one thinks. We just don't want to keep being kicked around anymore. For ourselves, it’s well worth it. You aren't us; how can you know if we feel it's worth it?"

Muttering a viciously hateful curse under his breath, Baxin tumbled into the shaft. A swirl of cold air enveloped him, and Baxin instantly vanished.

Gu Xiechen paused, sending his divine sense sweeping into the shaft, and then jumped down after Baxin. Raskov and the others followed, and the last person to jump in turned back to activate the external restriction, sealing the shaft entrance again. As the restriction engaged, the daylight filtering down through the entrance suddenly vanished, plunging everyone into absolute darkness. Raskov and the others took out fist-sized luminous orbs. These near-transparent, moon-white orbs emitted a white light covering an area of about ten square meters. Dozens of these white lights converged, illuminating a space of roughly an acre. But that was all. The shaft was filled everywhere with dense, tar-like black mist. This mist was chilling to the bone. Occasionally, when a few wisps of black mist collided, they emitted a crisp sound like metal striking metal. Large flakes of black snow also sprayed out from the mist, falling heavily downward as if they were lead weights.

In the distance, the sound of howling wind, like the moaning of a ghost, echoed intermittently, sending chills down the spine.

Gu Xiechen silently noted that this passage was extremely strange. It was worthy of being a passage from an ancient battlefield; the entrance to this passage was located deep within the core of the planet. Clearly, a massive battle in the past had shattered the void and twisted time and space, causing a passage entrance to somehow connect with this subterranean shaft.

Using the faint light from the orbs, the group each summoned their protective magical treasures and cautiously began descending.

On the way down, Raskov had already briefed Gu Xiechen on the general situation here. The cold air in this shaft intensified the deeper they went. Ordinary people, touching even a bit of it, would immediately have their souls scattered. Even accomplished Celestial Immortals could not linger long in this cold; back then, Chi Long Lieyan, an outstanding young elite of the Lieyan family, had cultivated to the Celestial Immortal realm at a young age. Because he explored this shaft recklessly without proper defenses, his physical body was destroyed, and he barely managed to escape with his primordial spirit. The dignified Celestial Immortal then had to re-cultivate, and to save face, he only told people that his physical body was destroyed by the heavenly tribulation.

Besides the biting cold, this shaft was also home to strange creatures. Constantly tempered by the invasion of the earth's core black mist day and night, their bones, sinews, and flesh were harder than steel, and they were born with some innate divine abilities, making them very difficult to deal with. If they encountered those strange things, it was best not to engage them in a prolonged fight; moving as fast as possible was the proper course.

As he recalled the information Raskov had given him about this shaft, Gu Xiechen suddenly heard a low, raspy 'hissing' sound beside him.

Just as Gu Xiechen turned his head, a black python, thick as a water bucket and of indeterminate length, shot out from the black mist, opening its massive maw to swallow Gu Xiechen whole. Instinctively, Gu Xiechen pointed his finger, sending several streams of Kui Water Yin Lightning toward the python’s mouth. However, the black python spat out a blast of black mist, swallowing the Kui Water Yin Lightning entirely. The seemingly unstoppable Kui Water Yin Lightning was consumed by the black python, which seemed to grow visibly more ferocious from the ingestion.

In that moment of stunned surprise, Raskov screamed from beside him, "It's a Black Water Profound Python! You cannot fight this head-on unless you possess Pure Yang Heavenly Fire, otherwise, you can't harm it in the slightest."

Pure Yang Heavenly Fire? Gu Xiechen let out a cold laugh. He plunged directly into the python's gaping maw, and a massive burst of black flame erupted from his body. The Solar Blazing Flame was the ancestor of all pure yang flames in heaven and earth. As soon as the Solar Blazing Flame appeared, the black python shrieked, and its entire head instantly dissolved into wisps of black mist that drifted away. A long, heavy section of the snake's body, submerged in the external black mist, fell with a dull whoosh, its sheer size causing a noticeable sound as it descended.

Gu Xiechen smiled, retracted the black flames surrounding him, and returned to the group. Raskov had long learned of Gu Xiechen’s marvelous abilities from Chi Long Lieyan, which was why he had eagerly sought Gu Xiechen out on Heaven Star to join forces. The others, including Baxin from the Yanlong Empire, looked at Gu Xiechen with astonishment. They rejoiced inwardly; having a companion with such unfathomable, profound abilities as Gu Xiechen greatly increased their chances of success this time.

Gradually, as the group descended further, the black mist below grew denser. Eventually, this mist condensed into black crystal walls, thousands of feet thick in places, incredibly solid, and subtly imbued with the pliant attribute unique to the essence of the Extreme Yin. Even an attack from a superior-grade Immortal Artifact would only leave a shallow mark of a few inches. It must be noted that Immortal Artifacts were divided into four major grades and thirty-three minor grades corresponding to the ranks of Immortals, allowing Immortals of the matching grade to wield their strongest effects. The artifacts Gu Xiechen gifted Raskov and the others were top-tier, requiring a Great Golden Immortal to truly unleash their unparalleled might. Raskov and the others were only Celestial Immortals; a single strike driven by their full power would exhaust them completely. If they merely used the artifacts to hack at these crystal walls without fully motivating them, the power was negligible.

Raskov looked at Gu Xiechen and forced a bitter smile. To penetrate this incredibly thick crystal wall, at their current pace, it would take about a month to descend just one thousand feet.

Shaking his head, Gu Xiechen suddenly reached out and placed his hand on the crystal wall. His divine sense seeped into it, and Gu Xiechen perceived that the wall was composed entirely of pure, chilling energy—a form of acquired extreme yin energy separated from the supreme Taiyin energy. He pondered for a moment, then drew out the Taiyin Profound Pearl and infused a stream of true qi into it.

Piercing white light shot out from the Taiyin Profound Pearl. Countless sword-like beams of white light rapidly revolved around the pearl, tearing through the surrounding black mist and shattering the crystal wall beneath them like a rotating blade wheel.

The indestructible crystal wall crumbled spectacularly, and the black mist, along with it, transformed into streams of white energy that flowed into the Taiyin Profound Pearl. The Taiyin Profound Pearl acted like a black hole, rapidly devouring the black mist in the shaft. The earth shaft roared like a tsunami as countless masses of black mist surged toward the pearl, being continuously sucked in.

Two hours later, the shaft—three hundred miles in diameter and tens of thousands of miles deep—was utterly empty. All the black mist had been absorbed by the Taiyin Profound Pearl. Gu Xiechen distinctly felt that the Pearl's power had instantly recovered by twenty percent. Excitedly, he merged the Taiyin Profound Pearl back into his body and laughed at Raskov and the others, who were staring dumbfounded, "It's done. The obstacles are gone. Let's continue forward!" With a slight smile, he shot a ball of crimson flame down into the depths of the shaft, illuminating half the cavern with the flame, which spanned several dozen feet across.

Just then, tens of thousands of divine senses of varying strengths pierced down from above, sweeping into the cavern. The black mist previously filling the shaft had the miraculous effect of shielding divine sense scans, which was why the Werewolves, despite occupying the planet for some time, had never discovered this shaft.

But now that the black mist was gone, swept away by Gu Xiechen, the Werewolves’ casual probing divine senses immediately detected the shaft’s existence.

Sensing that a massive number of auras were rapidly converging on the shaft, Gu Xiechen's expression shifted slightly. He shouted sternly, "Move fast!"

The others dared not delay, immediately shooting downward at their maximum speed.

The Werewolves arrived with astonishing speed. The group had only plummeted less than a hundred miles when the upper restriction was violently blasted open by brute force. Thousands of Werewolves roared angrily as they poured down the shaft entrance, howling as they chased after the group. Among these Werewolves were some mutated varieties with wings, flapping them furiously as they dove downward. At full charge, their speed was only slightly slower than the escape light of Gu Xiechen's group. This was partly because the Six Tribulation Loose Immortals in Gu Xiechen's party were lagging behind, their flight speed being slightly slower.

Locking his divine sense onto the pursuing Werewolves, Gu Xiechen suddenly let out a strange laugh. He sharply pinched the Fire Crow's rear end.

Startled by the sudden, agonizing pinch, the Fire Crow let out a mournful cry and spun around, unleashing a torrent of fire breath upon the descending swarm of Werewolves above its head.

Innumerable golden streams of Golden Crow Heavenly Fire swept upward. The Werewolves shrieked repeatedly, but they couldn't stop their momentum! They plunged headlong into the Golden Crow Heavenly Fire, instantly vaporized into thin smoke by the extreme heat.

Gu Xiechen laughed heartily, continuously pinching the Fire Crow's backside. The Fire Crow kept spitting out blazing flames, effectively turning the deep, dark shaft into a giant kiln.

With the Werewolf pursuit halted, Gu Xiechen and his party had already reached the end of the shaft.

There, suspended before them, was a swirling mass of pitch-black energy. Raskov called out to Gu Xiechen, and the group simultaneously leaped into the black energy.

Instantly, the world spun into darkness. When their vision cleared again, the group found themselves standing in a magnificent expanse of starlight.

Gu Xiechen stared at the stars ahead, which were so dense they seemed pressed right up against each other, and let out a sharp gasp of cold air.

What a perilous place this was.