Above the rapidly disintegrating Bloodline Fortress. A dark silhouette, having just burst forth from the black hole, let out a long cry to the heavens.

Before Gu Xichen could even register the shadow’s movement, a devastating punch slammed squarely into his chest. The sheer power of that blow nearly annihilated his physical body on the spot; even the somewhat accomplished Mysterious Yellow Indestructible Body divine ability could not withstand the terrifying, immense force contained within the strike. With a 'crack,' a substitute puppet in Gu Xichen's sleeve instantly shattered.

Spitting blood everywhere, Gu Xichen was hurled backward, dragging his mangled form through the air. If not for the three substitute puppets he brought along proactively absorbing ninety-nine percent of the punch's power before he arrived, Gu Xichen would have been smashed to death by that single blow. While coughing up blood and retreating, Gu Xichen roared: "The newcomer is formidable, not to be fought head-on! Retreat!"

The Bloodline Fortress was destroyed, the Elder Council members who controlled the Star Alliance were all slain, and the elite descendants of the Elder Council suffered heavy casualties. This was already a crushing blow to the Elder Council; the spoils of war were overwhelmingly rich. There was simply no need to fight to the death against this dark shadow drawn here by the three-headed gigantic dragon, Mo Zhui Long Gen.

The dark shadow let out a soft, surprised 'Hmph,' seemingly puzzled that Gu Xichen could survive his punch and remain alive. With a cold snort, the shadow transformed once more into a bolt of black lightning and plunged down again.

Several streaks of golden light shot over from the side. Rasko, Basin, and the others displayed their Three Heads and Six Arms Demon-Subduing Golden Body Dharma Manifestations, shouting loudly as they rushed to meet the dark shadow.

"Weak, too weak!" the dark shadow mumbled indistinctly, pivoting to unleash dozens of punches, swift as thunder and overwhelmingly fierce. Continuous booming sounds echoed as the shadow's fists tore through the air, sounding like heavy cannon fire. The powerful Demon-Subduing Golden Bodies of Rasko, Basin, and the others exploded violently, and their Natal Sarira were pulverized by the force of the blows. Before a wisp of their Nascent Soul could flee, it was annihilated into nothingness by the supremely fierce and domineering power embedded in the punches. In the blink of an eye, all members of the Blazing Flame family were dead.

Boreha and Maha cried out in alarm. The two brothers transformed into two sharp beams of lightning, orbiting the dark shadow at extreme speed. Innumerable ultra-fine black and white beams of light shot out from the fierce lightning, striking the dark shadow with piercing sonic booms. Attacks occurring thousands, even tens of thousands, of times per second, each blow weighed as heavily as a mountain pressing down. The shadow's body vibrated uncontrollably, staggering backward repeatedly. Vast sparks erupted from the void; the brothers' fists colliding with the shadow's body erupted in blazing light, akin to a volcanic eruption.

'Crack.' Large patches of thick black scales suddenly erupted from the shadow’s body. These black scales, thick as a thumb and the size of a palm, were already being shattered. The attacks, originating from the rules of an external alien space, were causing the shadow's body difficulty in sustaining itself. A large section of his astonishingly defensive black scales was destroyed by the dense barrage. Boreha and Maha immediately targeted the body where the scales had fragmented. Soon, heavy punches struck the shadow, causing viscous black blood to spew out in great quantities, spraying the surroundings with a pungent, fishy odor.

"Damn it!" the dark shadow roared furiously. A dragon's cry, like the simultaneous blast of ten thousand ship foghorns, suddenly resounded. Boreha and Maha, who were circling the shadow at high speed, were struck by the deafening sound. Their eardrums shattered simultaneously, and blood shot out from their nostrils and ears. The immense sound wave transformed into a tangible white shockwave that blasted in all directions, sweeping up the bodies of the two brothers without any blind spots, shattering their bones countless times over.

The two brothers screamed miserably and retreated rapidly backward. Their speed was astonishing, and the dark shadow could not immediately catch up. The brothers embraced, spinning and dancing together at top speed. Life and death energies evolved and dissolved within them like the Taiji twin fish. The phantom image of a Bodhi tree, radiating a faint green light, enveloped their bodies, its potent life force stimulating their bodies to heal at an incredible pace.

Gu Xichen, having been sent near death by a single punch, flew back to the Bloodline Fortress. Gritting his teeth, he hurled every high-yield weapon he carried onto the fortress. Large numbers of Elder Council descendants were struggling to survive on the gradually collapsing Bloodline Fortress, but Gu Xichen gave them no chance to escape. After densely seeding the fortress with nuclear warheads and other weapons, he immediately shot toward the sky. While continuously blasting his disintegrating body with the Heavenly Emperor Tribulation Seal Art, he used his divine sense to detonate the Bloodline Fortress.

A blinding pillar of flame exploded in the void. The dark shadow, which had just roared and blasted Boreha and Maha away, happened to be pursuing Gu Xichen to the edge of the Bloodline Fortress. The massive explosion engulfed him perfectly. The firelight enveloped his body and obscured his vision. He failed to notice that Gu Xichen had already converged with Boreha and Maha in the void; the three of them formed a streak of flowing light, flying away shoulder to shoulder.

An enraged roar echoed from the shattered Bloodline Fortress. The massive ball of fire, having expanded less than a hundred thousand kilometers, suddenly collapsed inward at extreme speed as if encountering a black hole. In the blink of an eye, all the remnants of the Bloodline Fortress, including the explosion's firelight, heat waves, and nuclear radiation, were completely sucked clean by that bizarre dark figure.

"You are all doomed!" the dark shadow growled low, then suddenly roared to the heavens, "Ancestor, aid me!"

A deep and sinister laugh drifted from the gigantic black hole in the distance. The three-headed dragon, Mo Zhui Long Gen, laughed heartily as an overwhelmingly powerful force condensed beside the dark shadow. "My child, kill them, and then go find those children who have gone on the expedition. Kill all the Roman people, retrieve what their Mother Goddess stole, and find a way to release me!"

Taking a long, deep breath, the three-headed dragon said coldly, "For the short term, I cannot exert any more power. To transport you directly back from that distant starry sky, I consumed too much. This damnable restriction—unless you can provide me with enough ancient weapons for me to devour their energy, I cannot replenish any strength."

"My child, kill them all, and then, kill every Roman person!"

The dark shadow violently waved both arms toward the sky. The force concentrated around him violently collapsed inward, instantly creating a thumb-sized black hole. The shadow vanished.

The next instant, less than a hundred meters in front of the three people of Gu Xichen, a tiny black hole appeared out of thin air. The dark shadow abruptly materialized before them. The three, rushing forward at full speed, barely managed to stop themselves, nearly crashing headlong into the shadow. With a dull 'thud' that completely shattered Gu Xichen's eardrums, the dark shadow had already clenched his fist and unleashed a punch with all his might toward Gu Xichen’s chest. Before the fist even touched Gu Xichen’s body, the force of the blow compressed space, causing fine spatial ripples to bloom ahead of the fist.

With one punch, Gu Xichen was like a target struck by lightning; his body, which had only slightly repaired itself, scattered into countless motes of bloody dust with a 'whoosh.'

Gu Xichen cried out in alarm and activated the Mysterious Yellow Indestructible Body divine art to its fullest extent. Vast clouds of Mysterious Yellow Qi enveloped Gu Xichen's exploding form, forcibly compressing his physical body back to its original shape. With a 'snap,' another substitute puppet in Gu Xichen's sleeve exploded. The residual force of the punch, still potent like electrical current, surged into the bodies of Boreha and Maha. The two brothers screamed simultaneously, half of their bodies pulverized into dust by the supremely powerful force, leaving them as slack bags of flesh hanging on their frames.

If not for the brothers' physical bodies originating from the lineage of the Great Saints of the alien space, even a sliver of the residual power leaking from Gu Xichen would have killed them long ago.

Roaring furiously, Boreha and Maha, using only one arm each, rapidly formed hand seals, and simultaneously cursed at the dark shadow: "The bitter sea is boundless, turn back to the shore!"

Two hazy golden ripples sprayed from the brothers' mouths, slamming violently into the dark shadow. The brothers practiced the Buddhist cultivation techniques passed down in their family. This loud shout was derived from the Lion's Roar for Subduing Demons, a secret technique refined by their father, the Dragon Sound for Smiting Demons. One angry roar sounded like ten thousand celestial dragons chanting simultaneously, especially as the brothers' shouts overlapped and amplified each other, increasing their power by more than tenfold compared to just one person acting alone.

When the Celestial Dragon Sound erupted, the dark shadow also couldn't help but cry out in pain, instinctively covering his ears with both hands and retreating several steps. The shadow, which intended to follow up with a fatal punch on Gu Xichen, instantly lost the prime opportunity to annihilate him. Strands of black blood dripped from the shadow's earlobes; his eardrums were also shattered by the immense sound. Moreover, a wisp of Buddhist meditative energy carried by the Celestial Dragon Sound had already invaded his brain, echoing like the great clanging of massive bells, causing his body to sway violently and lose its footing.

"Go!" Gu Xichen operated the Mysterious Yellow Indestructible Body divine art at unprecedented speed, drawing a massive amount of Heaven and Earth Mysterious Yellow Qi from the Haotian Pagoda into his body. In the blink of an eye, thirty percent of his physical injuries had been repaired. As his wounds just began to heal, he summoned the Sentient Seal and smashed it down toward the dark shadow's head. The Chaos Bell also rushed above the shadow's head, and streaks of chaotic light patterns rapidly poured down.

The Sentient Seal, emitting black and yellow Xuan light all over its body, silently pressed down on the shadow's head. The strange power designed to shatter the Nascent Soul and damage the soul surged in. The shadow let out a muffled groan, his body, towering several zhang high, staggering backward. Black blood spurted from all seven orifices simultaneously. The Chaos Bell rang 108 times above his head in an instant. The chaotic light patterns, carrying the destructive rule power that devours, grinds away, and annihilates everything, swept from his head down to his soles. A sharp tearing sound suddenly erupted from the shadow’s body. Large swathes of black scales were stripped away from him.

The Chaos Bell was a supreme innate supreme treasure from another universe. Although its main body was annihilated, the Chaos Bell Spirit could still exert a fraction of the annihilation rule from that alien realm. Although the rule power generated now was weak, a rule was still a rule, and it was the domineering and unreasonable rule of annihilation. The shadow's skin and surface scales were ground into powder by the chaotic light patterns and peeled off his body. A spark of spiritual light flashed within the Chaos Bell, and the scales and skin forcibly stripped away were instantly swallowed whole.

The dark shadow let out a shrill, agonizing scream. Despite his astonishing cultivation, the intense pain of being forcibly skinned and de-scaled nearly made him faint, not to mention the significant damage inflicted by the Celestial Dragon Sound and the Sentient Seal. He staggered backward, covered in spraying blood, retreating several miles in the blink of an eye.

The Fire Crow, which had been perched on Gu Xichen's shoulder seemingly doing nothing, suddenly shot fine, eerie red light from its eyes. It shrieked toward the heavens, and large amounts of Golden Crow Celestial Fire erupted from its two wings, propelling its fist-sized body into a line of red light that shot rapidly toward the dark shadow. Having undergone external metamorphosis and bone replacement to obtain the skeleton of an ancient Golden Crow, the Fire Crow's physical body had also become exceedingly robust, and its flying speed reached its absolute limit.

The dark shadow had only retreated a few miles when a flash of red light appeared before his eyes. The Fire Crow spun rapidly like a gyroscope, using its sharp beak as the center point, rotating its entire body at extreme speed. Like a drilling machine, it fiercely slammed into the shadow’s heart. With a crisp, dull thud, a hole the size of a washbasin was pierced through the shadow's body. The Fire Crow also let out a miserable cry, fleeing back toward Gu Xichen in a sorry state with half a broken wing.

Although it relied on high-speed flight and the power of rapid rotation, using the incredibly tough skeleton of the ancient Golden Crow to pierce the shadow's body, the shadow’s physical resilience was also pushed to the extreme. The Fire Crow felt as if it had struck a wall built of diamonds; not only did it daze itself, but its flying speed suddenly dropped drastically.

The instant it pierced the shadow’s flesh, the Fire Crow emerging from behind the shadow instantly had its flight speed reduced to zero. Before it could flap its wings to accelerate again, the dark shadow counterattacked with a heavy punch to the Fire Crow's body. The shadow put all his strength into this punch. Even though the Fire Crow’s bones were now from an ancient Golden Crow, one wing was still broken by the blow. However, precisely because the Fire Crow’s bones were so hard, the rebound force shattered the shadow's fist and half of his arm into powder.

Blood dripped from Gu Xichen’s nostrils. The Fire Crow was a clone-like entity he had refined. A wisp of his own divine sense was attached to it, and part of his essence blood had been merged into its formation. Now that the Fire Crow was injured, it was equivalent to Gu Xichen being injured himself. Already gravely wounded, his injuries worsened. The agonizing pain nearly numbed his senses.

After taking several deep breaths, Gu Xichen reluctantly pointed a finger at the Chaos Bell suspended above his head, preparing to command it to completely annihilate the dark shadow. Suddenly, the dark shadow let out a tragic howl to the heavens.

An aura several times more powerful than before diffused from the dark shadow's body. The shadow's body began to expand rapidly. Its skin and scales regenerated quickly. Its body writhed, and in places where the skin and scales had not yet reformed, lumps of muscle that looked less like flesh and more like carved crystal surged out from within. The black muscles twisted rapidly, displaying a beauty of violent, pure strength.

A blast of hot air erupted from the shadow. In just a few breaths, the shadow transformed into a bizarre monster.

This monster resembled a hybrid of a python and a centipede, possessing a large head slightly similar to a dragon's but more like a venomous snake. Its mouth was filled with dense rows of extremely sharp, triangular fangs. Its body, covered in strange scales, sprouted nearly a hundred slender, long limbs haphazardly on both sides, covered in fine black poisonous hairs. The creature had three feet on its abdomen and two pairs of semi-transparent black membranous wings on its back. The thousand-meter-long beast body writhed violently, continuously spewing thick smoke and poisonous gas from its ferocious open mouth.

Its six eerie green eyes fixed intently on Gu Xichen. The beast suddenly spoke in a low voice, "You all die! Become my food, become a part of my body!"

Laughing strangely and urgently, the beast suddenly opened its huge maw and lunged toward the three of them.

Gu Xichen spat a mouthful of blood and was about to instruct Boreha and Maha to be cautious and prepare to fight this beast to the death when a strange change suddenly occurred in the void.

Vast swathes of light-gold thunderclouds bordered with purple edges rapidly converged from all directions, instantly gathering above the beast's head into a cloud mass spanning a hundred square miles. Within it, countless golden lightning bolts flickered, and the thunder mass rapidly compressed, shrinking into a tribulation cloud about a zhang in size in the blink of an eye.

The beast froze, staring blankly at the tribulation cloud above its head. Its body suddenly stiffened.

Gu Xichen, however, smiled, laughing with malicious delight. "No matter what method you used to conceal your aura, you have cultivated Daoist techniques, and your cultivation has now broken through the Golden Immortal realm! Hahaha, this is the Great Thunder Tribulation before ascension! Congratulations, if you can successfully pass the thunder tribulation, you can ascend to the Celestial Realm and become an honored Golden Immortal!"

While spitting blood, Gu Xichen laughed merrily, and along with Boreha and Maha, who were also laughing until they were breathless, they retreated rapidly to the side, fearful of becoming collateral damage.

The beast stared dully at the tribulation cloud above its head. Its mouth opened and closed several times, perhaps cursing something inaudible. The tribulation cloud above suddenly struck down fiercely. This strike consisted of thirty-six golden thunderbolts, each as thick as a water vat, descending directly onto the head of the stunned monster, which had not managed to defend itself in time.

This strange starry sky was the battlefield of the ancient war. The rules of heaven and earth here had undergone peculiar changes due to the fighting. Cultivators below the Golden Immortal realm could not perceive the Heavenly Tribulation for ascension to the Celestial Realm. Once a cultivator reached the Golden Immortal realm, they had to undergo the Golden Immortal Tribulation before ascending. And it could be imagined that the Golden Immortal Tribulation was far greater than the Heavenly Immortal Tribulation faced by cultivators advancing from the Tribulation Period to the Heavenly Immortal realm. In history, no one who truly cultivated to the Golden Immortal realm and ascended had ever existed on the Star Alliance territory; no one knew how powerful the Golden Immortal Tribulation truly was!

The successive thirty-six thunderbolts slammed onto the beast's head, instantly blasting the seven or eight crooked horns on its head into powder. The layer of scale armor, about a foot thick on its head, also evaporated into green smoke. The lightning struck directly onto the beast's skull, causing blood-red light to scatter, and the beast convulsed violently. Half of its head was nearly scorched.

The golden lightning remaining from the first wave of thunderbolts was still writhing on the beast’s body when the second wave of seventy-two golden thunderbolts crashed down.

Before the beast could endure the second wave, the third wave of one hundred and eight golden thunderbolts roared down with a great crash.

Wave after wave of lightning continued to fall. Not only did each subsequent wave increase by thirty-six thunderbolts, but the power of the lightning also increased progressively.

By the time the sixth wave of lightning struck, the descendant of Mo Zhui Long Gen that had nearly driven Gu Xichen and his companions to desperate flight was blasted into smoke and scattered into a wisp of green smoke in the heavens and earth.

Gu Xichen stood far away, his hands tucked into his sleeves, circulating his power to heal while shaking his head and sighing, "How much slaughter did this fellow commit to attract such a terrifying thunder tribulation? Tsk, tsk, Boreha, Maha, look, the black smoke and evil energy spewed out when he was being struck by lightning are condensed karmic malevolence. The heavier the malevolence, the heavier the heavenly tribulation!"

Sighing, Gu Xichen pursed his lips and smiled, "It seems we need to do more good deeds, like building bridges and paving roads in the future, otherwise..."

Boreha and Maha were already dumbfounded. Such a fierce and powerful exotic beast was so easily pulverized by the heavenly tribulation. The might of heaven and earth was indeed not to be underestimated.

In the void, inside the giant black hole, the three heads of the three-headed dragon Mo Zhui Long Gen were spewing blood in rage. He crazily slammed his three large heads against the surrounding green restrictive light curtain, roaring hoarsely, "You bunch of lowly insects! You damnable scoundrels! You killed another one of my children! And it was my beloved direct descendant!"

Roaring toward the sky, Mo Zhui Long Gen suddenly chuckled sinisterly and muttered to himself.

"Golden Immortal Tribulation? There's such a thing? Damn it, does this mean that as long as my children cultivate those ancient techniques, they cannot reveal their auras? And the power they use cannot exceed that energy limit? Oh, never mind, then, truly never mind... Just wait until my first generation of direct descendants returns, it doesn't matter..."

"They haven't cultivated those ancient techniques; what they possess is the formidable physical body and mental power inherited from my Mo Zhui Long Gen bloodline! Golden Immortal Tribulation? They are not Golden Immortals, so how can they have a tribulation?"

After muttering to himself for a while, Mo Zhui Long Gen suddenly laughed loudly toward the sky, his laughter shaking the entire star domain.

As he laughed, Mo Zhui Long Gen suddenly raised his foreclaw and bit down hard on it. Pitch-black blood plasma flowed out from under the torn skin. Mo Zhui Long Gen slowly used the blood plasma to draw an extremely complex talisman, surging with sinister energy, in the void. Gritting his teeth, he spat out blood mouthful by mouthful, continuously integrating his essence blood into the talisman.

To lure one of his descendants here to slay Gu Xichen, Mo Tui Longgen had exhausted the last vestiges of his strength just to push his power through the external prohibition. Without prolonged recuperation and a massive infusion of ancient artifacts, his power could not be restored. Yet, he was utterly unwilling to let Gu Xichen depart like this; this creature had slain so many of his children right before his eyes—the feud was simply too profound.

Driven by an intense desire for vengeance, the extremely vengeful Mo Tui Longgen disregarded everything, risking massive depletion of his vital essence blood, just to employ the spell-killing technique he had learned to destroy Gu Xichen!

The three great dragon heads continuously spewed forth torrents of blood. Gradually, the blood Mo Tui Longgen expelled was enough to form a vast lake hundreds of miles in diameter, only then did he stop, panting heavily. Floating before him was a massive talisman, several hundred miles across, entirely wreathed in black, baleful light, emitting a mournful, ghostly wail. The pervasive, chilling evil energy even caused Mo Tui Longgen himself to shudder involuntarily.

Glancing somewhat hesitantly at the colossal talisman, Mo Tui Longgen's three heads simultaneously flashed into a cunning grin: "Heh, hehe, size does have its advantages! Without this much essence blood, how could I possibly kill him?"

Taking a deep breath, his six evil eyes glared intensely at Gu Xichen far off in the distant starry void. Mo Tui Longgen carefully extended a single claw and gently tapped the talisman.

With a sharp crack, the talisman dissolved into a black torrent, surging towards the green prohibition barrier, crashing violently against it. Black light and green light flashed together, and the dull, massive impact shook Mo Tui Longgen so much that he involuntarily clapped his claws over the ears of his central head. But he quickly realized covering just one head was entirely useless. He could only shake his three massive heads in frustration, grit his teeth, roar to the heavens, and loudly curse the two Mother Gods of the Roman people.

Accompanied by a 'sizzling' tearing sound, layer upon layer of vines made of green light were shredded. The enormous talisman slowly burrowed into the prohibition, spinning wildly like a drill bit as it broke toward the outer layers. Layers of green light coiled around it from all directions, and wave after wave of vine-like restrictions surged forward. The black talisman spewed dense black smoke, gradually shrinking in size.

When the talisman, originally hundreds of miles wide, had shrunk to the size of a soybean, it finally pierced through the thick prohibition successfully, shooting out from the dense green light trailing a wisp of black smoke.

Under Mo Tui Longgen’s eager gaze, the tiny black talisman ripped through the void with a piercing shriek, arriving almost instantaneously next to Gu Xichen and violently embedding itself in the back of his skull. A monstrous surge of evil power erupted. Gu Xichen’s barely healed body exploded with a bang, and countless wisps of Xuanhuang Qi flooded out from within him, frantically reassembling his form.

The last puppet hidden in his sleeve dissolved into a wisp of black smoke, drifting away. Mo Tui Longgen’s talisman possessed astonishing might; not even the slightest residue of the body-substitute puppet remained.

Gu Xichen coughed up great mouthfuls of blood. He looked backly at the black hole trapping Mo Tui Longgen, not daring to linger, and hurriedly pulled on Banruo and Mohe. The three of them vanished in a streak of rainbow light, rushing back towards the passage they had used to arrive. Along the way, vast numbers of Death Star Ships and White Winged Warships swarmed forward to attack the trio, but since Gu Xichen possessed the Formation-Breaking Secret Curse, the Death Star Ships disintegrated before they could even fire a single shot. As for the massive quantity of White Winged-class warships, they couldn't even lock onto Gu Xichen’s body, rendering them completely incapable of inflicting harm.

A beam of True Yin and Yang Light shot out from the Chaos Bell, enveloping the bodies of Gu Xichen and his two companions in dual streams of black and white radiance. With a faint shimmer, the three had vanished without a trace.

Frenzied curses and insults erupted from the black hole. Mo Tui Longgen seemed maddened, furiously taking turns lashing out at his three great heads with his foreclaws, shaking his fists at the sky and vowing that he would definitely capture Gu Xichen, swallow him whole to digest him completely, turning every single cell into a part of his own body, leaving him no chance to even become excrement.

The furious torrent of cursing lasted for an unknown amount of time. The residual Death Star Ships and White Winged-class Warships circled the black hole fearfully, quietly awaiting Mo Tui Longgen’s command.

After venting his rage for a considerable while, Mo Tui Longgen finally brought his emotions under control. He roared out a series of commands. Besides attacking Heaven Star to eliminate the Roman people, he issued secret orders to the descendants aboard those warships to track down Gu Xichen’s whereabouts and hunt him down to the ends of the earth.

However, Mo Tui Longgen's voice was noticeably weak. His truly elite descendants had been annihilated with the destruction of the Bloodline Secret Fortress. The descendants aboard these warships were merely ordinary descendants, with the strongest among them barely equivalent to the Golden Core stage. Relying on them to deal with Gu Xichen was clearly an impossible prospect.

In his fury, Mo Tui Longgen failed to notice a small White Winged-class warship slip stealthily into the formation of his own descendants.

Peering through the transparent alloy viewport, Ducate stood with his arms crossed, greedily watching the Death Star Ships and White Winged Warships outside. He murmured darkly, "How many descendants of my same origin are here? If I plunder all their inherited genes, just how powerful can I become? Lily, is this ability you comprehended—this method of extracting bloodline—truly effective?"

Lily, standing quietly behind Ducate, nodded gently. In her palm, a seed of vibrant crimson suddenly sprouted, and a vicious vine, known among the Star Alliance as the 'Devil Man-Eating Vine,' grew rapidly, quickly engulfing the entire command deck. Gazing tenderly at the man-eating vine tearing large rents in the alloy deck plating, Lily said softly, "It is effective. The ability I grasped from these vines, with your blood as the catalyst, can extract specific bloodline genes."

Dense green light coiled around Lily. Faintly, azure gales and lightning spat out from within the glow. The Innate Wood Spirit Body—Lily was gradually mastering the inherent powers of her own form.

Ducate turned around, his crimson eyes gazing deeply at Lily. He cautiously caressed her lower abdomen. He spoke in a low, potent voice, "It’s marvelous; my bloodline is growing within your belly. This sensation... it is truly wondrous... Xiao!"

A mechanical octopus slowly descended from the ceiling. Xiao blinked its large electronic eyes and chuckled, "Understood, Boss Gu and the others have been under my surveillance the whole time. Hoo-hoo! They’ve certainly brought us to a wonderful place, Xiao! Based on my calculations, if you absorb the bloodline genes of everyone here, you might just break through to another realm!"

Another realm—even greater power. Ducate smiled, his eyes narrowed, as chunk after chunk of muscle swelled across his body.

Time flew by. Before the Star Alliance Dragon Star Envoy could arrive escorting the Planet Destroyer Ships to the Heaven Star sector, the dust-covered Gu Xichen returned to Heaven Star. To his astonishment, Heaven Star was already covered in churches. The uniforms of the Heaven Star Defense Force soldiers were now overlaid with white cassocks of the Holy See, and every single person wore a pure silver cross, at least half a foot large, hanging around their necks.

What made Gu Xichen roll his eyes the most was that Ruan Hua and a host of demons and monsters from the Nine Nether Path were all clad in priests' robes, holding the Bible in their left hands and the cross in their right. They grinned whenever they saw Gu Xichen, making the sign of the cross over their chests and repeatedly crying out, "May the Lord protect you."

The Heaven Star Defense Force’s military band had completely transformed into a choir. The massive band of six thousand members, all impeccably dressed, stood before the entrance of the Pangu Base daily, singing hymns. Their soaring voices drifted far and wide like heavenly music, and a faint divine light shimmered around them, truly presenting a scene of sacred solemnity.

Rudely interrupting the joyous reunion of the reborn Banruo, Mohe, and the others, Gu Xichen snatched Ruan Hua and asked with bared teeth, "What in the hell is going on here?"

Ruan Hua kissed the cross on his hand and smiled with the air of a spiritual charlatan, "We witnessed a miracle, so all of us have come to believe in the divine and sought refuge under the wings of God."

"Cut the crap and tell me the truth!" Gu Xichen raised his fist.

Ruan Hua immediately dropped the Bible and the cross, spat onto the ground, and frowned, "We have no choice but to believe this nonsense! Last time, over a thousand angels charged out and annihilated millions of Star Alliance Coalition warships. Tsk... just imagine, if it wasn't a thousand angels, but ten thousand, or a hundred thousand..."

Taking a deep breath, Ruan Hua frowned, "That dead-fish-eyed Siren said that the memories inherited from Mnemone in his lineage contain records of the Angel Legions—and when they mobilize, they number at least in the millions."

Ruan Hua recounted the events of the recent past at top speed.

Gu Xichen furrowed his brow. He looked at the crosses towering above the dozen churches scattered across the nearby and distant hillsides. He sat down cross-legged on the spot, pulled out a Spirit Turtle shell, and began an intensive divination. He recited a sequence of complex incantations, and all of Gu Xichen's memories flooded into the shell. The purple halo in his eyes grew steadily thicker, until the purple flames illuminated several miles around him with brilliant clarity. A mysterious power, incomprehensible to Ruan Hua and the others, surged in the void, causing them to cautiously retreat a few steps.

Suddenly, an intensely bright silver light erupted from the turtle shell, faintly revealing a pair of silver wings shimmering within the light.

Gu Xichen abruptly closed his eyes and began making random gestures in the air, his fingertips continuously spitting out sparks of green fire and purple light. He chanted spells in a low voice; though his eyes were closed, the purple light shooting from his eyelids was blindingly bright, like two small purple suns shining through his skin.

"Siren," Gu Xichen suddenly hissed.

Siren strode to Gu Xichen's side. He drew the longsword transformed from the Ruler of Fate, concentrated all his power into the blade, and slowly released a jade-white light that enveloped Gu Xichen. The Ruler of Fate specialized in harming human fortune and destiny, thus it also possessed the miraculous power to control fate and predict the future. Furthermore, the ancient deity Fuxi, who created the Ruler of Fate, was the first divine being in the cosmos to invent the techniques of Bagua and divination?

Aided by the miraculous power flowing from the Ruler of Fate, the purple light in Gu Xichen's eyes intensified, transforming into two purple energy dragons that shot forth, dyeing the silver-glowing turtle shell purple as well.

With a snap, the turtle shell suddenly shattered into powder. Gu Xichen, drenched in sweat, slowly raised his head; his face had visibly sunken. His body trembled slightly, and Gu Xichen murmured in a low voice, "This power to predict the future truly drains too much. With my current cultivation... hmm, my life is more important, so I should use it less often."

With a mere thought, the two Black Pearls within his body released vast amounts of spiritual energy to nourish his overly depleted form. Gu Xichen spoke slowly, "It is confirmed: an Angel Legion, an extremely vast Angel Legion, is crossing the void toward us. Their speed is fast; they should arrive here within three to seven days."

He paused, then added mysteriously, "They are coming for revenge for the two angels who died here in this star field previously. I can clearly sense this."

Ruan Hua, Siren, and the others simultaneously pulled incredibly strange expressions onto their faces. They exchanged silent glances and burst out laughing.

After a moment of contemplation, Gu Xichen gestured toward the surrounding churches and said calmly, "Deploy all engineering machinery and construct ten times more churches. Let the off-duty soldiers eat their fill and then go inside to recite the Bible. Hmm, pick a batch of young, beautiful female soldiers for rotation duty inside; they must clean the floors, wash the glass, and polish the crosses every day. This kind of work cannot be done by machines; it must be done manually."

A spark ignited in everyone's eyes; they all instantly grasped Gu Xichen's intent.

Ruan Hua exclaimed excitedly, "Then we need to figure out how to make these churches look older. Hmm, tomorrow I’ll take a trip to the Roman territory and tear down their most historically ancient structures to use here."

Siren nodded emphatically, "The décor must be lavish. If gold can be used, brass must not be; if silver can be used, tin plating must not be. We must inlay as many pearls and gems as possible—at least three to five hundred pounds of rubies and sapphires on every single cross. They just love this sort of thing... In short, we will arrange every church as if it were a jewelry display room."

Mohe spoke in a weird, sing-song voice, "I have secret hypnotic spells here. Hurry and send all the soldiers to me for mass hypnosis so they believe they are truly fanatical believers."

Banruo stated placidly, "I possess the Power of Thought Great Method here, which allows one to disguise and release one's own mental power in various forms—it is the supreme method for cultivating thought power in Buddhism. Ordinary soldiers can be disguised as fanatic believers after hypnosis, but we will have to use this method to disguise ourselves."

One after another, a host of bizarre, intensely evil ideas quickly surfaced.

Gu Xichen and his group discussed their plans with great enthusiasm for quite some time. Once everything was settled, Gu Xichen immediately took Banruo and Mohe and secretly left Heaven Star, evading the Star Alliance patrol fleets, heading straight for the Holy See Headquarters.

After a brief, whispered consultation with Gu Yuru, Gu Xichen successfully obtained the official conferment documents personally signed by Gu Yuru, the current Pope. After donning a red cassock enhanced with Holy Power, Gu Xichen transformed instantly into one of the Holy See’s most important figures: the Grand Inquisitor of the Inquisition Court. Banruo and Mohe became the two Deputy Inquisitors serving under him.

Clearing out the Holy See’s storerooms, Gu Xichen returned to Heaven Star with a large haul of authentic, Holy See-produced pure silver armor.

After some effort, they selected a batch of tall, strong, and handsome young men. Hypnotized by Mohe, these men had already transformed into fanatic believers, with faint traces of Holy Power subtly clinging to them. Dressed in the armor Gu Xichen brought, ten thousand Holy See Knights were thus freshly minted.

These brand-new suits of armor were then processed by Ruan Hua and the others, who deliberately battered and distressed them until they looked tattered and covered in sword and knife marks, as if they had survived dozens of major battles.

After much fuss, Heaven Star looked more like the Holy See Headquarters than the actual headquarters itself.

With everything prepared, Gu Xichen, clad in the red cassock and holding a Bible and a longsword, ascended high into the sky to confront the high command of the Star Alliance Coalition.

His first words upon meeting them were a bizarre, strange cry:

"You lost sheep, return to the embrace of the Lord, or you are doomed to face the judgment of the apocalypse."

The Solar Black Pearl released a vast amount of Innate Pure Yang essence, injecting it into a Seed of Holy Power implanted within Gu Xichen—a seed planted by Gu Yuru. Excited by the Pure Yang essence, the Seed of Holy Power, which was of the same pure, luminous energy, suddenly swelled into a towering tree. Behind Gu Xichen, five pairs of wings made of concentrated white light, looking solid and substantial, sprayed forth with a rustling sound.

Melodious music descended from the void. Behind Gu Xichen, a colossal cross, a thousand meters high and composed purely of Holy Power, manifested.

The pure Yang essence spewed by the Solar Black Pearl grew stronger and stronger. The Seed of Holy Power inside Gu Xichen surged as if injected with steroids. Dazzling white light erupted from every pore on Gu Xichen’s body, transforming into white Sacred Flame reaching a hundred meters high, fiercely blazing around him.

"Hmm? This Holy Power is quite useful!"

Gu Xichen sensed the difference between Holy Power and Immortal Method Power. He suddenly realized that if Immortal Power was a complex super-integrated motherboard requiring extremely strong control and immense spiritual energy to operate perfectly, then Holy Power was a simple axe; even an idiot, provided they had devout faith to activate the Holy Power, could wield it freely.

This was why many Knights in the Holy See, despite having average spiritual power, could command strength comparable to Golden Core cultivators—it was for this reason.

"Interesting, very interesting!"

He praised softly a few times, then Gu Xichen reverted to his prophetic shouting:

"In the name of the Lord, lost sheep, return to the correct path!"

"This is your final chance!"

Gu Xichen raised his right hand high, gripping the massive, one-and-a-half-meter-long greatsword. A beam of silver light, stretching for miles, shot out from the tip, trailing scorching holy radiance that sprayed far into the distance.

From the star within the Heaven Star Sector, a triangular stargate, tens of thousands of kilometers wide, suddenly opened, and Hatan Longyin stepped out.

Behind Hatan Longyin, twelve Virtuous Angels, each bearing six pairs of pure white wings, followed out with divine composure.

Then came the continuous sound of flapping wings as millions of angels silently poured out of the stargate.

Hatan Longyin narrowed his eyes, sensing the auras around him, and suddenly widened them in astonishment, staring in Gu Xichen's direction.

"How many years have I slept? Have I gone mad in my slumber? A humble human believer—he... he actually reached the realm of a Ten-Winged Angel relying solely on the power of devout faith?"

The twelve Virtuous Angels froze simultaneously. They exclaimed in unison, "Lord Hatan Longyin, what jest is this? A believer? A Ten-Winged Angel? Uh..."

The Virtuous Angels stared toward Gu Xichen’s position, and then every single one of them froze in shock.

"His Holy Power is even purer than ours!"

Hatan Longyin forcefully swallowed, and he called out eagerly, "A talent! He shall become a member of the Power Angel Legion—do any of you have an objection?"

Before the Virtuous Angels could respond, Hatan Longyin sharply flapped the pale silver wings on his back and shot away like a stream of light. (!)