"Chuan Bu Zigen was not from this universe. His power belonged to another cosmic system's floating principles; as a Ling Shen deity, he could no longer control his own body naturally. Originally only tens of meters tall, his physical form had grotesquely expanded into over a kilometer in height—this was even after he forcibly condensed his shape using esoteric techniques and divine arts.

After fusing with the primal skeleton of the Jueyang Bone Demon, the giant Ling Shen constantly felt an unbearable itch throughout his body. Every part of him seemed ill-fitting and uncomfortable. Whenever he stood beside Gu Xiachen, he would twist his hips and swing his legs restlessly, never managing a moment's stillness. Given his towering thousand-meter frame, he inevitably drew too much attention, so Gu Xiachen ordered him to retreat into the spiritual sea once more.

With the Giant Ling Shen settled, Gu Xiachen retrieved seven copies of the Seven Emotions and Six Desires Maze-Spirit Symbols and distributed them among Lasko's group. The entire party activated these symbols to conceal their forms and auras before stealthily summoning escape beams toward that lifeless starship ahead.

The vessel’s airlocks were left open, its interior chambers devoid of even one sentry—an oversight the dead starcraft likely never anticipated encountering outsiders like Gu Xiachen here. Under his guidance, they navigated the ship with practiced ease through to its core, finally settling in a storage compartment filled with spare parts.

The array seals and prohibitions within this vessel were clearly several times more formidable than those of similar warships exchanged by the Council of Elders with the six-star civilization. Yet Gu Xiachen barely regarded these restrictions as challenges. Having studied the fundamental diagrams of the Ten Absolute Arrays and Myriad Immortal Formation almost entirely, and having personally received instruction from Array Sage Decade Tianjun, such defenses were laughably trivial to him.

Seated cross-legged among a mountain of spare components, he casually cast several concealment seals over their group before smiling as he settled on the floor: "Once these patrols conclude, they'll lead us directly to their base—saving considerable effort."

Lasko and others nodded in agreement, then began meditative exercises. They all understood this location had become an extreme danger zone; every increment of strength gained through cultivation could mean survival against those youths aboard. Though none reached the level of Heaven's Immortal in raw power, when they transformed their bodies into monstrous forms, their destructive potential rivaled such immortals.

The sight of these youths shifting into their formidable shapes had already instilled a heavy pressure on Lasko and his companions instinctively.

Watching Lasko meditate with the crystalized Zakara stones in hand, Gu Xiachen couldn't help but smile faintly.

This space must certainly have been one of the great ancient battlefield sites between the Celestial Court and extraterrestrial primordial sages. Countless immortals from both sides had perished here. Traveling through thousands of teleportation arrays set by the Inflaming Dragon Empire, Gu Xiachen's acquisitions along this journey were nothing short of extraordinary—countless ancient cultivation techniques, powerful relics, and mysterious artifacts from otherworldly origins.

Too bad no existence comparable to Deathless Tianjun or Jueyang Bone Demon had been encountered again; Gu Xiachen longed desperately for another such formidable ally.

By the time they arrived too late to rescue a zombie wearing celestial court insignia—already destroyed by the starship—it was clear he would have made an excellent subordinate after reconstructing his spirit form within that body. Had they arrived mere days earlier, Gu Xiachen surely could have saved him, but now he could only ride along piggybacked on this journey—a mildly frustrating situation indeed.

Letting out a long sigh, he retrieved several ancient artifacts collected en route and began intense refinement rituals with full concentration.

After learning Mia's insights about forging soul-bound weapons, Gu Xiachen had deepened his understanding of such artifacts significantly. Whenever time permitted, he meticulously refined every recovered relic to integrate into his arsenal for combat enhancement. Hundreds of fragmented ancient treasures accumulated during this journey would serve him adequately in command.

When the youths finally completed their planetary survey and the dead starship resumed its patrol course along fixed routes—sailing onward for a full year and three months—the process became clear through Gu Xiachen's maintained spiritual awareness tracing its trajectory. Along this route, the vessel had exterminated dozens of "abnormal creatures"—in truth mutated zombies formed from ancient battle casualties (immortals, divine beasts, or avian deities) along with lingering resentful spirits. Beyond eliminating these threats, it also delivered supplies to over a dozen fixed outposts, replacing personnel and providing necessities for the young defenders stationed there.

In each outpost, dozens to hundreds of youths were present when the ship arrived. All pregnant females would be transferred aboard while an equal number of new recruits were sent down. These women's medical records were meticulously documented—tracking conception dates, energy fluctuations during copulation, mood states, and even hormonal levels with obsessive detail that left Gu Xiachen in stunned admiration.

Based on this data categorization, they were divided into ten distinct monitoring classes. The top-tier group received luxurious accommodations with dedicated attendants, constant health monitoring, gourmet meals, and fine wines. Middle-level groups enjoyed decent conditions including private quarters. However, the lowest two tiers were simply placed into growth chambers—sustained only on nutrient solutions while experimental drugs were continuously injected, treating them as mere test subjects along with their fetuses.

Both those administering these procedures and those enduring them accepted this treatment as an unquestionable truth. Even as girls writhed in agony under gene-modifying injections—their skin erupting in scales, bone spurs, and jagged spikes—they bore it silently without protest.

When Gu Xiachen's spiritual awareness discovered a girl suddenly disintegrate within one chamber, her nine-headed serpent-like fetus bursting into violent aggression before being instantly frozen by defensive restrictions into ice shards—he could no longer tolerate this violation of cosmic order.

"The damned Council of Elders! What the hell are they doing?"

His hatred toward these elders reached unprecedented levels. Through conversations with Lasko and others from the Flameblood lineage, he now understood why these rebels fought secretly—the youths here might include direct descendants of that family. The Flameblood clan's inherently wild nature even bordering on decadence made their covert rebellion against the Council of Elders entirely comprehensible without further explanation needed.

Cursing the elders' monstrous behavior internally, Gu Xiachen refocused his full attention back to refining ancient artifacts. His cultivation advanced steadily; twin celestial pearls—the Taiyin and Ta Yang—within him continuously emitted potent cosmic energies accelerating his progress far faster than Lasko's group by hundreds of times over.

When the starship they traveled aboard suddenly came under attack, Gu Xiachen had already broken through to Third Rank Heaven Immortal level with the clarity of HeTong Tian enlightenment.

The vessel shuddered violently beneath their feet as some colossal force repeatedly struck its core structure. The tremors were so severe they shattered their meditation states and woke everyone abruptly. Mountains of spare parts crashed down in disarray, walls distorted unnaturally while alloy floors rippled like water surfaces. Suddenly, cracks split through the metal flooring directly under Gu Xiachen's position.

A burst of spiritual awareness projected outward to reveal two beams—one black, one white—circling the starship at blinding speeds. Their movements were too rapid for the vessel’s main cannons to lock onto. Occasionally they would close in, unleashing sudden powerful blows that sent shockwaves rippling through the ship. The hundred-meter-thick energy shield was already torn into shreds by these twin beams before the starship itself began suffering direct impacts.

As Gu Xiachen observed, the black beam suddenly slammed against an outer plating section with thousands of rapid strikes concentrated in a single location.

A deafening explosion resonated as the ship's surface briefly flared gold—the activation of a defensive formation spewing faint golden light to block this assault. However, the sheer speed and intensity of these attacks combined with their strangely anomalous energy made the formation useless within moments. The black beam pierced through multiple layers of composite armor plating—each over one kilometer thick—and delivered thousands of needle-like dark spears that penetrated dozens of internal bulkheads directly into a crucial chamber: the low-level monitoring females' gene experimentation facility.

The black-beamed figure burst inside with fiendish laughter, confronting several untransformed youths whose cultivation levels were only comparable to early stage soul-cultivators. The energy pressure from this attacker was at least Fourth Rank Heaven Immortal level—his power utterly inscrutable and malevolent. With a mere lunge followed by the snap of fingers, tens of thousands of attacks rained down simultaneously. A single muffled scream heralded the youths' annihilation into blood mist which was greedily swallowed up whole by the black beam.

The dark energy suddenly contracted to reveal an androgynous young man about two meters tall with dangerously beautiful features bordering on (malevolent allure). His skin gleamed like polished pearls, but six pairs of obsidian wings emerged from his back—longer, softer, denser than the angelic wings behind Sirens. These feathers shimmered faintly with black-purple light and were entwined with dark stardust swirling around him.

Simultaneously, a second figure entered through the white beam—identical to the black-winged youth but bearing luminous silver-white feathers radiating starlight trails.

The two exchanged glances before suddenly clashing their hands together forcefully against each other's palms in some ritualistic gesture of unity.

The black-and-white cinnabar suddenly shattered, releasing two faint streams of spiritual light from the relic. One carried a pale grey hue with a tinge of bloody stench, while the other shimmered golden with whispers of Buddhist iconography. The grey essence merged into the black-winged youth's body even as the golden radiance flowed through his white-winged counterpart. Both vessels shuddered slightly, emitting soft gasps.

Gu Xiachen nodded solemnly, "These vessels originate from the Outer Realms—crafted asgreat saints' forms with impeccable quality in terms of mass itself. Yet... mastering them proved far more arduous."

His palm brushed against the Chaos Bell which erupted once more into chaotic patterns. The divine sigils bathed both youths, slowly harmonizing Borena and Moha's souls to seize control over these new forms. Their spirits, native to this universe, now faced compatibility issues with rules governing these alien vessels—like software from one system clashing with hardware built for another.

With the Chaos Bell—an artifact embodying Outer Realm's ultimate laws—acting as a converter, Borena and Moha's consciousnesses finally synchronized with their new bodies. Within moments they grasped every nuance of their newfound powers.

After an hour-long silence, Borena rose from where he knelt, folding his six pairs of white wings immediately behind him before pressing palms together in a respectful gesture toward Gu Xiachen: "Leader, thank you."

The simple words carried infinite weight. Gu Xiachen heard the resolve beneath them—implicit trust forged through that single expression of gratitude.

Meanwhile Moha, who'd awoken alongside Borena, shamelessly continued the white-winged youth's previous motions. His body undulated violently while he mumbled between breaths: "Leader, wait a sec—we're right in the middle! Stopping now would be a bummer... just give me another minute to finish this up."

Still bouncing rhythmically, Moha grunted through his exertion: "This new flesh is at least ten thousand times stronger than our old forms—can't really complain about anything else. Just wish these joints weren't three sizes smaller than my original ones... not nearly as imposing or masculine!"

Gu Xiachen rolled his eyes toward the ceiling while Borena's face darkened into a scowl. He delivered a brutal kick to Moha's rear end, sending the laughing youth flying through the air.