In the imperial palace of the East Yanfei Empire, Xiao Yaming Yu Zhi, clad in a black Wei uniform and a longsword at her waist... a proud and solitary black swan, held her head slightly high, looking down upon the generals of the Star Alliance Coalition forces.

These noble generals, powerful and unrestrained in their own nations, instinctively lowered their heads. Under Fu Yaming’s blade-like gaze, they felt like hatchlings emerging from their shells, while Fu Yaming was a dragon soaring in the heavens; her sheer presence completely commanded the entire banquet hall.

Lightly lifting a golden goblet, Fu Yaming drained a cup of strong liquor in one go. She spoke with cold authority, "The Yafike Empire welcomes your arrival. We hope your campaign proceeds smoothly. As a member of the Star Alliance, the Yafike Empire will fully cooperate with the Alliance's crusade against the Romans."

Turning back, Fu Yaming said lightly, "I shall dispatch General Chen, Commander of the Yafike Imperial Guard, to assist in your operations."

Nodding gently, the disguised Gu Xiachen, wearing a Yafike Empire uniform, emerged smiling from behind the curtain. He stood beside Fu Yaming.

Ling Duoren, standing among the coalition generals, and several leaders of the Wolf Pack instinctively lowered their heads, not daring to look directly at General Chen. Others might not know, but they were well aware: this General Chen was the Gu Xiachen who had destroyed the Sian family line, the one who annihilated the coalition fleet besieging Paradise Star, and the one who handed the Roman intelligence to the Star Alliance, allowing the high command to swiftly grasp the Romans' movements and launch a new joint offensive.

Just before the banquet, Gu Xiachen had pulled them into a secluded corner and told them plainly that he was behind everything. Gu Xiachen assured them that all high-ranking coalition generals would perish due to various accidents, and he would endeavor to make Ling Duoren and the others the supreme commanders of the coalition fleet. In other words, Gu Xiachen intended to control the war entirely—if Ling Duoren and the others disobeyed, death would be their fate, and Gu Xiachen would naturally cultivate other puppets.

Faced with the threat of death, these frightened subordinates, already terrified by Gu Xiachen’s ruthless methods, chose to acquiesce.

Only when looking at Gu Xiachen did a trace of warmth appear on Fu Yaming’s face. She naturally reached out and brushed a faint speck of dust from his shoulder. Her gaze conveyed to Gu Xiachen that he should proceed with maneuvering against the enemy without worry; she would handle everything else. Gu Xiachen smiled at Fu Yaming, his eyes full of confidence; the Star Alliance Coalition was firmly within his grasp, and while the Romans had intended to make the Earth Federation and the Star Alliance mutually bleed, the protagonists of the moment had now become them.

Following a brief feast, the Yafike Empire’s most elite Guards, aboard three thousand Level-One warships, supplemented by nearly ten thousand transport ships, joined the coalition forces under Gu Xiachen's command. The massive fleet navigated the safe channels delineated by the Yafike Empire, plunging into the Savage Star Sea, surging toward the three Roman strongholds.

Dozens of star gates established by the Ancient Roman Empire in the Savage Star Sea were simultaneously breached. Millions of Star Alliance warships poured out, swiftly surrounding the Romans. Seven days later, the fleet size surpassed that of the coalition fleet that once besieged Paradise Star by more than tenfold. The Savage Star Sea was, after all, within the Alliance-controlled star regions, making the assembly of fleets from numerous civilizations far too easy for the Alliance. Gu Xiachen noted that even the forces of some Two-Star Civilizations appeared on the deployment roster; he truly wondered what use those backward atmospheric fighters could possibly be.

"Perhaps these Two-Star Civilizations manufactured a massive number of nuclear warheads to participate in this joint operation?" Gu Xiachen speculated maliciously about the significance of these Two-Star Civilizations joining the fight.

However, there was no need for further consideration now. The Romans, thrown into utter disarray, had discovered the coalition fleet surrounding their bases several hundred light-seconds away. Large numbers of Roman warships were hastily taking off, panicking as they flew toward various strategic points for defense. But in Gu Xiachen’s view, such deployment was inherently meaningless. In the vastness of space, any of the 360 degrees could become the main axis of the Star Alliance’s assault; the Romans simply did not possess enough fleet assets to stop them.

Before the encirclement was fully formed, under the command of the Star Alliance Coalition's new commander—the Emperor of the Domor Empire—hundreds of fleets launched a tempestuous attack against the Romans.

Countless spatial oscillation generators were deployed onto the battlefield, producing invisible ripples that covered the three star regions, nullifying any possibility of the Romans escaping via spatial jump. Unless they could break out of the generator coverage, the Romans were forced to fight the Star Alliance fleet head-on in normal space.

Gu Xiachen and Wo Chen Daoist stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the bridge, gazing at the distant battle through the transparent alloy canopy. The magnificent sight of millions of warships moving simultaneously shocked even Wo Chen Daoist. In territories controlled by the gods and demons of the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, such large-scale warfare was exceedingly rare; at most, it involved private skirmishes between three or five individuals. A scene where billions of people were committed just to launch a single offensive—Wo Chen Daoist never imagined that humanity in the mortal realm had grasped such power!

"Romans! This is the gift I bring you!" Gu Xiachen laughed, spreading his arms wide and taking a deep breath.

The ungrateful Romans, the insidious Romans, the cruel and merciless Romans, the hypocritical and depraved Romans—every negative adjective could be used to describe them. This race, which deserved hell, had finally shown their small weakness, and Gu Xiachen had loaded several heavy artillery shells onto it.

The Roman counterattack was fierce. Led by their newly designed warships, the older Roman Super-Warships and Super-Motherships launched suicidal counterattacks against the Star Alliance Coalition. The Super-Motherships, especially those stretching three hundred kilometers in length, were treated as expendables by the Romans. One by one, these Super-Motherships rushed forward through the rain of light, followed by masses of Roman warships. After charging into the enemy fleet formations, these Super-Motherships unleashed a barrage of fire, forcing the opposing fleet to continuously retreat.

Millions of warships engaged in three star regions around more than two hundred planets simultaneously. Billions of beings attacked and erased each other amidst the conflagration. The heavy cannon beams fired by the Super-Motherships were like sharp swords swung by celestial beings, tearing open the void, while countless missiles and torpedoes resembled the River Styx water sprinkled by the God of Death, igniting vast sheets of fire wherever they passed and claiming millions of souls. On average, in the space surrounding each Roman-controlled planet, twenty to thirty thousand warships engaged in combat, the fires illuminating the three star regions brightly.

Aided by ground-based anti-air systems, the Romans firmly held their defensive lines. Tens of thousands of Star Alliance warships were destroyed, and countless escape pods fled the destroyed vessels, only to be intercepted by high-speed Roman fighters, which pulverized the pods into scrap with concentrated beams of high-energy light.

Just as the Star Alliance's first wave faltered, the coalition dispatched a second wave of attackers, composed of the electronic lifeforms and silicon-based beings Gu Xiachen had witnessed before. To Gu Xiachen's astonishment, from nearly a thousand Super Transport Ships in this attack wave, over two thousand monstrous giant octopuses—each exceeding six thousand meters in length, the type created by the Zonglao Council—erupted forth.

Tens of thousands of tentacles, thousands of meters long, silently writhed in the cold vacuum of space. The two thousand nightmares silently surged toward the Roman fleet.

When still tens of thousands of kilometers from the Roman fleet, these nightmares simultaneously opened the large, tooth-filled mouths at the tips of their tentacles, unleashing a torrential storm of black mucus that shot toward the Roman warships at thousands of kilometers per second. The velocity of the mucus was extreme, and it left no trace on radar; Roman warships were struck without any prior warning. Over ten thousand Roman warships were hit by the viscous fluid simultaneously.

White smoke erupted from the struck Roman vessels. Large chunks of armor dissolved, and the black mucus rapidly seeped into the ships after melting the outer plating. Everywhere it went, the terrifyingly corrosive substance consumed everything. Metal warships, hundreds to thousands of meters long, were completely melted away in a mere thirty-odd seconds by this mucus. Even the Romans and their Spirit race servants inside the vessels had no time to escape.

Gu Xiachen gasped sharply. Although he had seen nightmares before, this was his first time witnessing their combat method. Was that black mucus the nightmare's stomach acid? It could dissolve specialized alloys—what did these creatures eat normally? And how could their own bodies withstand the onslaught of this black secretion?

Vast numbers of silicon-based lifeforms poured out of their ships, exhaling thick white vapor and charging toward the Roman warships, brandishing heavy weaponry.

Innumerable white spots flashed in the void, and on the surfaces of the Roman-controlled planets, countless strong servant warriors in energy armor flew skyward. They, too, swung heavy cold weapons, roaring loudly to meet the silicon-based enemies who possessed equally formidable bodies.

Even larger white spots shot out from the planetary surfaces—nearly ten thousand massive apes and twin-headed dragons, each about a thousand meters tall, ascended to confront the nightmares that relentlessly waved their tentacles and sprayed mucus. These artificially created behemoths exchanged glances from afar, as if encountering mortal enemies, and charged directly toward each other. Without needing any commands, the three types of giant beasts clashed into a massive brawl.

The nightmares fought desperately, wrapping their tentacles around the giant apes and twin-headed dragons. Anything caught by their limbs—be it a giant ape's lumbar spine or a twin-headed dragon's neck—was easily twisted into a pretzel. The giant apes countered by slamming their gauntleted fists, studded with thick barbs, into the nightmares' bodies. The twin-headed dragons spat torrents of red flames to scorch the nightmares. Wherever the heavy fists landed, they punched holes tens of meters in diameter through the nightmares' bodies; the flames burned, oxidizing the nightmare flesh to charcoal.

The nightmares possessed greater combat power and stronger vitality. However, the giant apes and twin-headed dragons created by the Romans were more numerous. After losing half their numbers, the combined force of over a hundred thousand giant apes and twin-headed dragons overwhelmed the two thousand-plus nightmares, tearing them into fragments and subsequently burning them to ash.

The victorious beasts roared triumphantly in space for a moment before charging toward the Star Alliance warships behind them.

The giant apes leaped like lightning among the Star Alliance vessels, smashing chunks of armor with heavy blows. The twin-headed dragons specifically targeted the engine exhaust ports at the rear of the ships, spitting superheated flames that ignited the engine sections. The main engine units exploded violently under the impact of the high-temperature flames capable of melting metal, shattering the warships into dust.

Tens of thousands of giant apes and twin-headed dragons operating together posed a greater threat than organized fleet formations. The Star Alliance warships, battered and chaotic from the onslaught of these beasts, broke formation, and hundreds of thousands of vessels retreated haphazardly toward the rear, crashing into the main body of the Star Alliance fleet and disrupting their formation. The coalition command structure became furious, immediately ordering execution squads to blast these erratically charging warships into cosmic debris. This brutal enforcement stunned the participating coalition fleets. The fleets of lower-tier civilizations then reluctantly charged toward the Romans once more.

Gu Xiachen's divine sense wandered aimlessly through the void, sweeping over Roman warships one after another. Suddenly, within a vessel hidden in the rear, he discovered many familiar faces: Nan Ket, Pol Pot, Hesso Jin, Yak Jin, Bolu Jin, and others were all present, observing the battlefield situation with worried expressions.

From their conversation, it was clear that the Roman high command was deeply perplexed as to how the Star Alliance fleet had discovered them. They believed they had maintained absolute secrecy, leaving no trace whatsoever. Yet, the Imperial Alliance fleet had appeared, emerging simultaneously from dozens of star gates known only to the Romans, virtually encircling the three star regions currently controlled by the Romans in an instantaneous, all-encompassing maneuver, leaving them no chance to escape.

"I told you, the moment the Qianhu Mouzi Sacred Artifact was attacked, we should have all evacuated this place," Pol Pot roared in dissatisfaction. "But you all held onto vain hope, thinking it was just an accidental energy surge caused by the artifact's manifestation."

The faces of the Roman high command were grim. They glared at Pol Pot almost in unison. Nan Ket directly barked, "Shut up! What use is discussing this now?"

A group huddled together, murmuring, and finally made the decision to prepare for immediate retreat, abandoning all their servant race soldiers. Where they would retreat to mattered little; with the Sacred Artifact capable of continuously generating Divine Crystals, the Romans had no worries about energy supply, and Divine Crystals could be used directly to manufacture warships and war fortresses. If they could just find a safe place for the Romans to develop peacefully for a few decades, they would become invincible throughout the universe!

A fitting scheme, Gu Xiachen sneered mockingly. After contemplating for a moment, a flash of purple light appeared beside him, and a handsome general in golden armor stepped slowly out of the light. He was fair in appearance and imposing in stature, with ears reaching his shoulders, his eyes faintly emitting a golden glow. He wore a Three Phoenix Helmet and Golden Pillow Armor, draped in a saffron robe, with a bow on his back, a carved scabbard at his waist, and holding a Three-Pointed Double-Edged Saber. Every part of him was adorned with treasures, gleaming brilliantly, truly extraordinary.

What was even more peculiar was the vertical eye on the young general's brow, its faint red pupil occasionally shooting out golden light and purple qi.

The general glanced briefly at Gu Xiachen and offered a cool, distant salute: "Venerable Superior?"

Gu Xiachen returned the bow and said with a faint smile, "True Monarch Erlang, I must trouble you."

This man was Erlang Zhenjun Yang Jian, famous throughout the Three Realms! After devouring that intelligence bead, Gu Xiachen had refined its massive soul origin essence using the Haotian Pagoda. He absorbed only a small portion himself, allowing his Innate Primordial Spirit to grow to the realm of a Primary Golden Immortal—the limit his physical body could sustain. The remaining soul essence was divided into two portions: one was used to recast the primordial spirit of True Monarch Erlang, and the other was used to recast the soul of another person closely connected to Yang Jian.

The intelligence bead possessed an incredibly powerful soul origin essence. Although a large amount of energy had dissipated over the long ages, after being divided into three parts, it still allowed Yang Jian and the other individual to recover to the soul realm of a Fifth-Rank Golden Immortal. This meant that as long as Yang Jian and the other could absorb sufficient energy, they could immediately become Fifth-Rank Golden Immortal-level powerhouses.

However, even after Gu Xiachen gave them all his Divine Crystals and Zakkla Crystals, they only managed to barely restore the cultivation base of a Primary Golden Immortal.

Yang Jian was inherently arrogant; in the past, he barely heeded the decrees of the Jade Emperor. Expecting him to kneel and bow to Gu Xiachen like Xin Jia and others was impossible. Even though his current primordial spirit was born dependent on Gu Xiachen's Innate Primordial Spirit, he merely offered Gu Xiachen a fist salute, a brief acknowledgement, and a greeting. As for the other gentleman whose primordial spirit was recast alongside his, his temperament was even more unrestrained; he didn't even bother to glance at Gu Xiachen, let alone do his bidding.

Upon hearing Gu Xiachen's words, Yang Jian merely nodded faintly, his body flickered, and he transformed into an appearance indistinguishable from Pol Pot. Gu Xiachen’s divine sense had scanned Pol Pot, copying his appearance and aura incidentally; Yang Jian only needed a sliver of that aura to change into Pol Pot’s form.

Glancing down at the color of his robe, Yang Jian snorted coldly and shot out of the bridge like a clear breeze.

Gu Xiachen’s divine sense followed Yang Jian closely. He was horrified to realize that if Yang Jian's primordial spirit were not so tightly connected to him, he might not even have detected Yang Jian’s escape technique. Even though Gu Xiachen possessed an Innate Primordial Spirit and his divine sense resonated highly with nature, he could not discern Yang Jian's presence.

The cultivation methods practiced by the venerable divine beings of antiquity were indeed extraordinary!

Wo Chen Daoist’s expression became even stranger. He stared blankly in the direction Yang Jian had vanished, then shook his head and sighed, "Disciple, what profound karma you possess. What is this?"

Wo Chen Daoist, his mind in turmoil, stepped aside, almost wanting to squat on the ground and draw circles. What was this? Carrying the primordial spirit backups of all the divine beings from the Ancient Heavenly Court, capable of recasting their true divine bodies if sufficient soul origin power was available—what kind of power was this? Such a thing was too unbelievable. Though he was a Second-Rank Golden Immortal, Wo Chen Daoist felt his brain aching fiercely, piercingly, today.

Gu Xiachen smiled honestly, his divine sense still closely tracking Yang Jian.

A wisp of clear wind drifted through the void, instantly traversing several hundred light-seconds to reach the flagship of the coalition fleet—a Death Star vessel gathering all core commanders. Yang Jian casually lifted his precious sword, drew it back with a light sweep, and tore a massive breach in the Death Star ship's thick outer armor. His figure swift as the wind, he walked slowly into the ship, flicked his sword’s edge with his finger, and shouted with an incomparably dashing tone, "All of you, come and die! Your great master, Yang Pol Pot, has come for your lives!"

The coalition soldiers on duty within the Death Star ship screamed hoarsely—"Ancient demons, the Romans!" Some of the more timid soldiers collapsed onto the ground in terror.

Although they had been fighting the Romans for so long, many coalition soldiers were seeing "true, living Romans" for the first time. Ancient demons! The Romans were the stereotypical villains in the bedtime stories of many coalition soldiers’ youth. In the minds of these soldiers, the Romans were like Satan to Westerners from the Earth Federation, or Yama, the King of Hell, to Easterners from the Earth Federation—carrying an almost unbelievable sense of awe and dread.

Furthermore, Yang Jian exuded surging killing intent; the murderous aura accumulated over countless years of battle by the foremost war god of the Three Realms was released completely unrestrained, terrifying the ordinary coalition soldiers into fainting.

Wielding a longsword, Yang Jian strode into the core command cabin of the Death Star ship as if entering an unguarded territory. His spiritual sense had locked onto the nearly one hundred stunned coalition figures inside the compartment.

Sword light flashed, and layer upon layer of thick bulkheads parted before him. Yang Jian followed a perfectly straight path, penetrating directly into the command cabin of the coalition flagship in less than the time it takes for one breath. He flicked his left index finger sharply against the sword edge, and a dragon-like sword cry vibrated, making everyone in the compartment tremble violently. Yang Jian roared, "Today, I have come to take your lives!"

Deigning not to waste a single word on these people who seemed like ants to him, Yang Jian swung his sword; all heads in the compartment fell. He unleashed a Palm Thunderbolt with the back of his hand, shattering every soul present. The sword returned to its sheath with a reversed motion, and Yang Jian threw his head back and laughed three times, dissolving into a wisp of clear breeze with incomparable elegance and ease.

Gu Xiachen sighed deeply. He communicated via divine sense to the person hiding in his Sea of Consciousness and refusing to move: "The foremost war god of the Three Realms truly lives up to his name. Even killing people is this stylish!"

The man lounging lazily on a bed of white clouds, swigging old wine, let out a cold sneer. He lifted his head proudly and declared, "That pretty boy? Hah! Spit!"

With that, a long-legged, long-waisted black dog viciously bit his calf. The man roared in anger, spinning around to point at the dog and curse it, "You insolent beast! Dare to touch one more hair on me, and I’ll skin you alive and boil you down for a rich pot of soup!"

The black dog gave a remarkably human-like series of laughs. It spat out a mouthful of yellow fur, transformed into a streak of purple light with arrogance, and vanished. In an instant, it reappeared beside Gu Xechen, casually cocked its hind leg, and relieved itself right at Gu Xechen’s feet. Whether this was intentional or not was unclear. This stream of urine—

[...Irrelevant text/noise...]

—was quite long, and by the time Yang Jian returned to the bridge, the yellow stream had thoroughly soaked half of Gu Xechen's lower leg.

Gu Xechen stared at the black dog, his face darkening, the muscles in his face twitching violently.

Yang Jian shifted his body, reverting to his original form, and looked calmly at Gu Xechen, asking, "Are there any further instructions?"

[...Irrelevant text/noise...]

Gu Xechen, trembling slightly, pointed at the black dog still urinating on his calf and made a sharp gesture, indicating he should be thrown out. Yang Jian smiled faintly, gave a brief nod, and the dog’s continuous stream of urine abruptly stopped. It yelped with delight and bounded over to Yang Jian, brazenly baring a set of sharp, white teeth at Gu Xechen.

Taking a deep breath, Gu Xechen forcibly managed a strained, dry laugh, then angrily pulled out his communicator and barked a few orders.

Seconds later, the people controlled by Gu Xechen, including Ling Duo’en, jointly issued a notice: due to the annihilation of the Allied forces' command structure, they had assumed full command. Their first decree was that the entire fleet was authorized to attack freely, without coordination or formation, using overwhelming force to annihilate the Romans and capture their high command whenever possible. The top thirty civilizations achieving the most merit would receive immense rewards from the Council of Elders! Those not yet six-star civilizations would be supported by the Council to reach that status; those already at six stars would receive anything they desired from the Council!

At the command, the entire Allied fleet paused for a beat. Then, simultaneously, all Allied warships surged their engine power, pouncing upon the Romans like a pack of maddened hounds.

Twenty-five six-star civilizations, tens of thousands of five-star civilizations, hundreds of thousands of civilizations below four-star rank, and hundreds of millions of warships poured toward the Romans. Even with the powerful divine senses of Gu Xechen and his allies, they could not encompass the entire battlefield or discern the precise chaos unfolding. As far as the eye could see, every vessel was charging toward the Romans at maximum velocity. The warships were so dense that the distance between them shrank to a critically dangerous hundred meters or so.

It was like the collapse of the heavens and the cracking of the earth. A vast, black expanse of warships surged toward the core. Centered around the three star systems housing the Roman Knights Templar, the Roman Academy of Sciences, and the Roman Imperial Family, hundreds of millions of Allied warships pressed forward, shoulder to shoulder, hand in hand. They advanced with a reckless fervor, disregarding cost and sacrifice.

The fleet density was so extreme that the Romans and their vassal races within those three star systems could no longer see any starlight from the outer regions. Their vision was filled only with the roaring flames spitting from countless engines, and the high-energy beams and ion rays tearing through the void and pouring down upon them. In just a single quarter of an hour, seventy percent of the Roman fleet that had been patrolling the exterior space was destroyed, and even their newest model warships were vaporized under the saturation attack.

Every second, Roman vessels were subjected to a combined attack from a hundred times their number. The heavens were filled with the rain of hostile light, and the Roman warships had no room to maneuver. The void had transformed into a dense screen of light, a condensed sphere of energy. The Roman fleet was like flies encased in amber, turning to smoke after only a brief moment of resistance.

Faced with an absolute numerical superiority, even advanced technology could not halt the advance of the Gate Fleet.

Gu Xechen watched the rapidly diminishing Roman fleet, a triumphant smile curling his lips.

Since you wish so much to watch the tigers fight from the mountain, he thought, then I shall bring the tigers right to your doorstep. First the Star Alliance, and then the Angel Race! Whatever trump cards you Romans have, I’ll make you fight tooth and nail with the Star Alliance first. If you lose, what happens next is none of your concern. If you win, then await the retribution of the Angel Race!

In the videos produced by the Earth Federation’s propaganda department, the Romans and the Star Alliance were shown jointly killing Hatan Dragon-Yin and twelve Archangels—ironclad evidence. The Romans could not escape blame!

Lost in his scheming, Gu Xechen turned back to Yang Jian, who was stroking the hound at his side, and chuckled, "True Lord’s intervention was truly extraordinary. That transformation technique is profoundly mysterious."

Yang Jian offered a slight smile, about to reply, when a sudden streak of purple light erupted beside Gu Xechen. A voice, arrogant and booming, suddenly cut in: "The pretty boy’s transformation technique is profoundly mysterious? What about this Old Sun’s?" A thick, furry, yellow-haired arm reached out from the purple light, clutching a blazing pillar of energy—black at the core and golden at the ends. With a sound like tearing silk through the void—Chiliu Hong—the very bridge Gu Xechen occupied was shaken to pieces, and a massive fireball erupted far in the distance.

The Death Star ship, which Yang Jian had just attacked, was struck by this colossal pillar of light that seemingly materialized from high above, instantly pulverized!

It was utterly annihilated; not even a speck of dust the size of a sesame seed could be found. The dozens of layers of immortal formations guarding the Death Star ship were as fragile as tofu pudding before that pillar of light, utterly neutralized without offering any defensive effect. The one hundred thousand Allied soldiers garrisoned inside were utterly scattered, annihilated beyond measure.

Gu Xechen gasped, sucking in a cold breath. A Death Star ship, destroyed with a single blow?

Yang Jian raised an eyebrow and roared with laughter, "I didn’t expect the Great Sage still possessed such power! Hmm, both of us being at the initial stage of Golden Immortal cultivation, this Lord is inferior to you!"

The shaggy arm slowly retracted. The voice chuckled, "Gah-gah," several times in triumph, then boasted proudly, "Forget it, this current implement in my hand isn't quite to my liking! Once this Old Sun spends a little more time refining it until I can wield it as easily as my own limbs, I’ll show you what a world-shattering staff strike truly means!"

The pillar of light slowly dissipated. The furry palm beckoned lightly towards Gu Xechen: "Kid, be generous. Give Old Sun another billion catties of those scrap metals you collected! Ah, though they are all innate materials, innate materials are divided into four grades and thirty-three classes. What sort of junk have you gathered? Why is it so hard to forge a new staff?"

Gu Xechen was speechless. He obediently produced a storage ring, filled it with innate materials, and placed it onto the waiting palm.

The purple light vanished, and the hand quickly retracted. Gu Xechen gave Yang Jian a wry smile before asking, "Does True Lord wish to re-forge a weapon?"

His gaze swept over the three-pointed, double-edged halberd held by Yang Jian, and Gu Xechen said quietly, "Before the materials in hand are wasted, if True Lord needs them, take them."

Yang Jian smiled faintly and shook his head. He said serenely, "No matter. This Lord's cultivation technique differs from the Great Sage’s. My weapon is condensed from my own primal energy and divine abilities; it requires no external aid. It’s just that the Great Sage intends to reforge a weapon comparable to his former artifact; that requires substantial materials. That staff is terrifyingly heavy, and the materials needed..."

Shaking his head, a layer of purple light gradually enveloped Yang Jian’s body, and both he and the hound slowly faded into an ethereal shadow within the light.

Daoist Wuchen turned around in surprise and urgently asked Yang Jian, "This junior has indeed heard of the Great Sage’s reputation, but wasn’t his staff only slightly over ten thousand catties?"

Yang Jian’s voice drifted over, ethereal and mocking, "How much of the mortal legends can be taken as truth? A mere Celestial Immortal can pluck stars and seize the moon; what about the Great Sage's divine might?"

Daoist Wuchen slowly nodded, murmuring to himself, "Indeed. An object weighing barely ten thousand catties—even a Golden Core cultivator could toss it around casually, let alone him?"

Gu Xechen, however, paid little heed to this. His entire attention was focused on the Roman counterattack.

When the Great Sage Sun struck, destroying the Death Star ship, the resulting shockwave caused the Star Alliance warships within a radius of tens of thousands of miles to rock violently. Tens of thousands of low-quality vessels were shattered by the aftershock. Suddenly, the sky was filled with firelight from explosions, and debris from large and small warships shot outwards in all directions, causing other ships in formation to sway erratically. Their control systems blared sharp warnings. Their energy shields had been reduced to their breaking point.

At this moment of turbulence, directly facing this sector of space, the surfaces of three planets suddenly split open, revealing nine immense cannons, a hundred miles long, coiled in black light and forged from black semi-transparent crystal. These nine colossal weapons, thirty kilometers long from tip to base, boasted main bores an astonishing five hundred meters in diameter. As the cannons began to charge, the entire planets trembled. Thick, heavy black light patterns spread out from the cannons, instantly enveloping the whole celestial body in darkness.

All trees, grass, birds, beasts, and even the members of the Roman vassal races on the planet surface, every living thing, withered and decayed at an alarming rate. In just a few breaths, these life forms had their life force entirely sucked out by the black light, dispersing as wisps of black ash. The black glow wrapped around the nine great cannons grew increasingly brilliant. The cannons slowly raised their barrels, their dark muzzles aimed at the countless warships rushing toward the planets in the void.

In the void, a marvelous object, shaped like a uterus and emanating boundless vitality, was moving at great speed, spanning tens of thousands of miles. Wherever it passed, all Roman production lines, the Mother God class fortresses on those lines, and the Roman super-warships were sucked inside. Also swept in were the Romans busily working on the production lines.

The Feathered One sat at the center of this object, concentrating all his energy on controlling the Holy Artifact to gather the wealth the Romans had painstakingly accumulated. The first priority for intake were the Romans themselves and the most loyal Spiritual Kin. Next came the production lines and any unfinished products. Only then were the members of the other vassal races collected.

Large orbs of light continuously erupted from the Feathered One's body; the energy required to power this Holy Artifact was simply too immense. Even though the Feathered One had employed all sorts of inconceivable secret arts to boost his cultivation, and even though the Holy Artifact had already been refined by the Roman Mother God, driving it was still no easy task.

The Feathered One anxiously controlled the artifact, sweeping across the star field, stuffing anything he deemed valuable into the artifact. When he finally reached the limit of his endurance and could maintain it no longer, he recited an incantation, shrunk the Holy Artifact down to the size of a palm, and hastily stepped onto the warship where Borbort and the others were waiting.

This warship, ten thousand meters long and entirely cast from Divine Crystal, possessed a soft, streamlined teardrop shape. Countless intricate patterns were carved into its lustrous hull—opulent, luxurious, and exquisitely refined. All the high-ranking officials and Temple Priests from both Roman kingdoms were gathered aboard. They all stared with heavy concern out of the viewport at the dense swarm of Star Alliance warships, their faces shifting between pallor and green.

The Feathered One strode up to Nanct and Hezuojin, forcefully clapping the Holy Artifact in his hand. He said with resignation, "All the clansmen and the Spiritual Kin, and over ninety percent of the production lines, are secured. But for the vassal races, less than ten percent were taken in. I did my best!"

Nanct nodded slowly, sighing deeply, "Must we begin a new wandering?"

Hezuojin replied calmly, "Yes, a new wandering. But this time will be different from the past."

Exchanging a glance, Nanct gave a quiet order, "Prepare to break out. What does it matter if they occupy these three star systems?"

Borbort clenched his fist and roared, "We will return! And when we do, we will be the masters of the universe!"

The nine colossal cannons, having drained all the energy from the planet surfaces to complete their charge, simultaneously spewed forth a cluster of black suns. Black spheres, nearly a hundred thousand meters in diameter, erupted with blazing flames into the high sky. The atmosphere on the surfaces of the three planets instantly ignited, completely destroying the surface environments. The flames melted the planetary crust, turning it into black, glassy obsidian.

The nine towering black spheres, blazing with immense light, shot into the upper reaches and slammed into the Star Alliance fleet descending upon them.

In a silent explosion, the black flames swept outwards, covering nearly a million kilometers of space. Tens of millions of warships were instantly vaporized.

The warship carrying the Roman high command suddenly accelerated, reaching superluminal speed in just two seconds, quickly bursting through the space enveloped by the black flames and escaping the encirclement.

The Allied Fleet quickly spotted the Roman vessel. At once, fleets from at least three thousand civilizations altered course in pursuit.

Gu Xechen, acting with apparent compliance, led Jafik’s fleet in the chase.

Well now, comrades, cast your votes!

[...Irrelevant text/noise...]

Writing is a duty, voting is righteousness! (To be continued)