"Great Progenitor, lend me the secret prophecy you have hoarded for untold years, I, your devout believer!"

Gu Yechen’s strand of seed-consciousness laughed strangely, murmuring a few incantations softly. The long, purple-gold antennae atop the colossal Moth-Headed creature, slumbering deeply upon a star cluster dense with what looked like insect eggs, twitched slightly. A surge of immense energy manifested as a sweeping, violet torrent, rushing toward Gu Yechen. Leading this purple deluge, a thumb-sized, mindless golden cherub fluttered lightly, scattering sparks of light rain into the void.

Gu Yechen gestured with a finger, and six points of white light converged in the void to form a massive hexagram array. Gentle holy light diffused outward, forming a curtain of light spanning a hundred miles, which promptly swallowed the violet torrent whole.

By a set of rules Gu Yechen could not yet fathom, the energy released by the Angel Progenitor upon being summoned by Gu Yechen’s spell instantly tore through space, spanning vast distances to descend upon him. Gu Yechen suddenly felt his body expand limitlessly; his strength seemed to have multiplied tens of thousands of times. He had the illusion that with a gentle punch, he could shatter this very heaven and earth.

He uttered a soft commendation. Within his Sea of Consciousness, the Haotian Pagoda suddenly flashed with profound, deep light, imprisoning the little angel that had rushed into Gu Yechen's Sea of Consciousness along with the purple torrent. The primordial Qi of Yellow and Black ceaselessly eroded the cherub, dissolving the trace of the massive Moth-Headed creature’s original consciousness contained within it. The spiritual power locked inside the little angel—nearly equivalent to the entire soul origin of a First-Tier Celestial Immortal—was drawn out by the Haotian Pagoda, gradually merging into Gu Yechen’s Innate Primordial Spirit.

By absorbing only the soul origin power of this single little angel, Gu Yechen’s Innate Primordial Spirit grew by a height equivalent to a single strand of hair. This was equivalent to the spiritual progress he would normally achieve after nearly ten years of arduous cultivation. Gu Yechen was ecstatic. He suddenly realized that by utilizing the Angel Clan’s secret, heaven-defying technique—the Soul Seizing and Primordial Essence Boosting Secret Art—he had discovered the ultimate shortcut to strengthening his own primordial spirit.

The Soul Seizing and Primordial Essence Boosting Secret Art was an evil method used by the Angel Progenitor to develop its descendants and expand the power of the Angel Clan. This gigantic Moth-Headed creature was like the brood-mother of parasitic wasps; it would find a star bearing an Innate Being, inject its own life-source energy into it, and gradually modify the innate creature using Angel Clan genetics. All such parasitized innate creatures would eventually become members of the Angel Clan, their own innate primordial consciousness utterly erased.

Relying on such means, this Progenitor possessed tens of thousands of Angel descendants endowed with innate aptitude, and from them, it derived immense benefits. Merely observing the solidified mental energy that sealed an entire star domain was enough to gauge the sheer might of this Progenitor. Its power was entirely plundered from descendants who, under normal circumstances, might have been born as Golden Immortals or even Grand Unity Golden Immortals.

The High Angels of the Angel Clan were originally meant to possess the strength of at least Golden Immortals upon birth, yet now, they were often so frail at birth that they failed to even reach the Celestial Immortal realm. The power that should have been theirs was instead seized by this great Moth-Headed creature. Furthermore, these High Angels had to toil ceaselessly to develop followers and fight over territory, and over seventy percent of the accumulated Faith Power was supplied as sustenance to this Moth-Headed creature, making it ever stronger.

Those hundreds of thousands of stars were the descendants of this Moth-Headed creature still in incubation. Yet, the greedy Moth-Headed creature refused to pass up any opportunity to enhance its power or expand its progeny. Thus, it taught the Soul Seizing and Primordial Essence Boosting Secret Art to its descendants. When descendants discovered a star nurturing an Innate Being, they could unleash this divine ability, summoning a portion of the Moth-Headed creature’s original power as if inviting a god, to control and modify that Innate Being, plundering its power and corrupting its soul.

No angel would ever betray its Progenitor, for their soul origins derived from that colossal Moth-Headed entity.

However, when the person wielding this technique was Gu Yechen, things took a subtle turn! The vast energy transmitted from the distance was not injected into the planet beneath Gu Yechen, as required by the Soul Seizing and Primordial Essence Boosting Secret Art. Instead, he channeled this energy—equivalent to the total magical power of a First-Tier Golden Immortal—directly into two Profound Pearls, gradually transforming it into Yin of Taiyin and Yang of Taiyang, which in turn were converted into his own cultivation base.

Laughing strangely, Gu Yechen’s fragment of divine sense within that star domain continued to chant the spell, repeatedly activating the secret art.

If the Innate Foundation of an innate creature was weak, one activation of the Soul Seizing and Primordial Essence Boosting Secret Art would suffice to easily control and modify the being. But if the innate creature was exceptionally strong and formidable, an immense amount of energy would be required—modifications might need to be performed several times, dozens of times, or even hundreds of times.

In the history of the Angel Clan, such intensive modification was not uncommon. A particularly powerful Seraphim known to Hamlein and Dora, for instance, required over one thousand seven hundred infusions of the Soul Seizing and Primordial Essence Boosting Secret Art before he was successfully transformed into an angel.

Merrily activating the secret art again and again, Gu Yechen carefully infused the energy into the two Profound Pearls, imprisoning each golden cherub that willingly flew into the trap within the Haotian Pagoda, annihilating the trace of the Moth-Headed creature’s original consciousness within them, and converting it into his own soul power. In this manner, Gu Yechen activated the Soul Seizing and Primordial Essence Boosting Secret Art over seven thousand times. The two Profound Pearls became saturated with tremendous energy, and his Innate Primordial Spirit swelled to the height of several zhang, becoming too much power for him to contain.

With a low gasp, Gu Yechen’s Innate Primordial Spirit expelled tens of thousands of wisps of fine, innate spirit energy. Tens of thousands of golden stars cheered joyously and rushed toward the innate spirit energy. Each golden star merged with a wisp of multicolored spiritual light, beginning to condense its own natal divine soul. The strange Sacred Artifact wrested from the hands of the Roman people spewed forth vast amounts of vital energy, rapidly merging with these gradually forming golden-star souls. In Gu Yechen’s Sea of Consciousness, strong physical bodies began to manifest one after another.

Of the one hundred eight thousand Heavenly Soldiers and Generals who originally guarded the Southern Heavenly Gate of the Ancient Heavenly Court, the ten thousand eight hundred soldiers led by Xin Jia had already recast their divine souls and bodies. The remaining ninety-seven thousand two hundred Heavenly Soldiers and Generals were granted an opportunity today. Gu Yechen did not allow these soldiers to roam free; instead, he kept them contained within his Sea of Consciousness, letting them slowly absorb the energy erupting from the Roman Sacred Artifact to restore their bodies and enhance their magical cultivation.

If not for this vital energy, Gu Yechen would never have dared to recast the bodies of tens of thousands of people simultaneously. Without the Sacred Artifact continuously producing divine crystals as backing, the Zackla crystals required for simultaneously recasting the bodies of tens of thousands of Heavenly Soldiers and Generals would have bankrupted Gu Yechen, the Earth Federation, and the Yafik Empire entirely.

Carefully pilfering a vast amount of power and soul origin energy from the Moth-Headed creature, Gu Yechen activated the secret art once more, injecting a wave of power and a tiny golden angel into the planet beneath him. The Moth-Headed creature’s original power and consciousness surged into the body of the bull. The bull convulsed violently, as if stung simultaneously in its testicles by tens of thousands of wasps. Its eyes, previously tightly shut, snapped wide open, and two thick streams of red vapor shot from its nostrils.

"Good child, that great moth is not your Progenitor; I am your best friend, your most trustworthy brother!"

He continuously activated the secret art hundreds of times, pouring streams of power and original consciousness into the bull’s body. The bull’s body, which had already completely formed, convulsed and twisted rapidly, melting quickly like lead in a crucible. Its form gradually morphed into the shape of an angel, and its aura swiftly changed. The aggressive, fierce blood-light in the bull’s eyes gradually dissipated, replaced by the pure, solemn, majestic, and sacred brilliance unique to angels—a very pious, extremely pious gleam.

With a bizarre smile, Gu Yechen modified a shred of the Moth-Headed Progenitor’s original consciousness, implanting in the bull-turned-angel a nascent sense of goodwill toward himself from birth.

This tiny sliver of goodwill might one day grant Gu Yechen a reliable cannon fodder, a heavy-hitter, or even a backer and patron. In any case, it was one more card in his hand!

Two pale silver wings, tinged slightly with crimson, spread from the back of the transformed bull. A low chant echoed from the depths of the planet.

Having absorbed such immense power from the Moth-Headed Progenitor, the bull, which originally might have needed millions of years to take physical form, was finally at the moment of hatching. According to Gu Yechen’s set schedule, in about three months, this bull would cleave open its mother body to enter this universe. Then, it would naturally follow an impression Gu Yechen had branded in its mind, exiting this dark star domain through a specific spatial tunnel to go wherever Gu Yechen intended.

As for the complex academic question of how the Minotaur clans would view their deity, worshipped for millennia, suddenly becoming a bird-person, Gu Yechen paid it no mind.

Following the same pattern, Gu Yechen used this rather heinous secret art to transform the deities worshipped for countless years by the Minotaurs, Centaurs, Werewolves, Vampires, Necromancers, and hundreds of other dark creature races into angels. However, he was not completely greedy; he left approximately three-fifths of the dark deities intact, allowing them to retain their original appearances.

But even these fortunate gods who kept their original forms were accelerated in their development by Gu Yechen’s Essence Boosting Secret Art. They were expected to arrive in the mortal realm around four months from now, almost simultaneously. The dark creatures should be pleased, right? Even if they were astonished that their gods had turned into a flock of bird-people, the birth of so many more deities meant their guardianship had not been in vain.

Gu Yechen felt he had performed an act of immeasurable merit. Three-fifths of the dark deities arrived early in the mortal realm, completely unharmed and unchanged; moreover, having absorbed a portion of the Moth-Headed creature’s original power, these fortunate ones were even stronger than they should have been. The dark creatures would be happy; they would thank him.

Carrying the pride and arrogance of being the god of the dark creatures, Gu Yechen casually selected a gathering of dark creatures—a tribe comprising about four million Minotaurs.

This tribe guarded a small planet where a delicate little female calf was gestating. Of course, this little calf had now transformed into a beautiful female angel. Gu Yechen chose this Minotaur tribe without hesitation and unleashed a deadly blow, instantly erasing the four million Minotaurs, whose cultivation peaked at the Nascent Soul stage, from the planet’s surface.

A single, casually condensed strike of Water of Yin Thunder leveled the area spanning a thousand miles. The four million Minotaurs, powerful and fierce in the eyes of ordinary beings, never even understood what happened before they dissolved into ash amidst the ceaseless thunder. To prevent any soul secret art experts among the dark creatures from detecting any lingering clues, Gu Yechen utterly annihilated the souls of the four million Minotaurs as well. With a mere gesture, an entire clan turned to dust—this was the capability expected of a Golden Immortal! "Those not of my kind must have different intentions... Since you are dead and useful to me, you have died for a worthy cause!"

He removed the Ring of Three-Headed Dragon Bloodline from his finger—an item seized long ago that represented the authority of the Demon Clan’s Dragon Bloodline Elders Council—and casually tossed the ring onto the ruins of the tribe. He intentionally imbued the ring with an aberrant energy so that any powerful Minotaur investigating the scene would surely discover it. "Demon Clan Dragon Clan, I am framing your descendants!" Gu Yechen pursed his lips strangely, his body flickered, and he vanished into the vast void.

Three months later, under Gu Yechen’s secret direction, the Minotaur powerhouses discovered the complete destruction of the tribe. They immediately invited powerful figures from allied dark creature settlements, such as the Fox-Men and Werewolves, to investigate the ruins. Such an event had never occurred in the Dark Star Domain—a tribe of millions from a strong warring race utterly flattened. This unprecedented event caused unease, and dark creatures converged on the site from all directions.

Soon, a meticulous Fox-Man discovered the ring Gu Yechen had deliberately left behind. The dark creature powerhouses gathered around, staring at the exquisite ring, almost simultaneously recognizing the image of the three-headed dragon, the Demon Clan Dragon Clan, carved upon it. The dark creatures muttered softly, and several Fox-Men cautiously used a secret technique to examine the image of the three-headed dragon on the ring...

While the dark creatures debated the origins of the three-headed dragon on the ring, a satellite above them suddenly exploded, and a female angel, two thousand li tall, leaped out from a column of white light. This angel, exquisitely beautiful and slender, with twelve pure white wings on her back, immediately raised the two Sacred Artifacts accompanying her—a long sword and a round shield—and shouted loudly: "Long live the Supreme Lord Demon Clan Dragon Clan! Thank you for your guidance; you have shown me the path to evolution!"

According to the official effect of the Soul Seizing and Primordial Essence Boosting Secret Art, the first words uttered by these innate beings transformed into angels upon leaving their matrices should be loud praises to their great, omnipotent Progenitor whose radiance covered the entire universe. But since the Essence Boosting Secret Art was enacted by Gu Yechen, making a tiny, insignificant adjustment was only proper. Thus, the roar of this female angel became a declaration of thanks to the Demon Clan Dragon Clan.

The dark creatures below, who had been discussing why the Minotaur tribe was destroyed, were utterly dumbfounded. Experts from other races turned to look at the Minotaurs beside them. As for the honest Minotaurs, their jaws dropped, the joints of their lower jaws dislocating irrevocably from their maxillae; in short, their jaws had dislocated due to the extreme width of their open mouths.

A Werewolf licked his nose and mumbled hesitantly, "If I am not mistaken, the deity gestating in this planet was the great Goddess Bulbul of the Minotaur lineage. But why has the Goddess taken this form? Although, Her Highness's figure is quite impressive, far surpassing that of the Minotaur girls."

Dozens of thick, massive fists simultaneously slammed into the Werewolf, causing him to vomit blood and collapse unconscious. The Minotaurs present were nearly driven mad! Just as the accursed Werewolf had said, why had their Minotaur deity transformed into such a delicate, fragile woman?

The female angel gazed down haughtily, her divine gaze sweeping over the uneasy dark creatures.

With a cold snort, Seraphim Bulbul, possessing the might of a Third-Tier Golden Immortal, barked coldly, "Believe in me, and you shall receive eternal life."

She spoke this almost by Angelic instinct. The final remnant of restriction Gu Yechen left in Bulbul’s mind took effect. This newly minted Seraph frowned, then suddenly cried out toward the sky: "Honorable Lord Demon Clan Dragon Clan, are you summoning me? I shall come immediately!"

With a sweep of her round shield, Bulbul’s mother body suddenly exploded, transforming into a set of gleaming, golden armor with astonishing defensive power, which she donned. Bulbul’s eyes glazed over slightly as she shot a streak of golden light toward the distance, vanishing instantly from the sight of the dark creatures.

Then, a mass of black flame erupted from the ground. The image of a colossal black three-headed dragon, about ten thousand li tall, slowly manifested within the flames. This three-headed dragon roared to the sky several times, then lowered its head to emit a series of low, ferocious, and disdainful sneers toward the dark creatures before slowly dissolving in the void. A faint, almost imperceptible voice circled in the ears of these dark creatures: "Foolish creatures... I am Demon Clan Dragon Clan, the master of all dark power! Your gods shall become my servants, and you shall become the slaves of my slaves!"

Almost on the same day, nearly two hundred planets nurturing dark deities were breached. The dark deities who had emerged during countless Kalpas of time but lacked sufficient power to hatch in the Primordial Era burst forth from their shells. But to the shock of all dark creatures, every single dark deity had transformed into an angel, and the first words spoken upon their birth were loud praises to a damned entity named the Demon Clan Dragon Clan.

Soon after, the dark creatures who had gone to investigate the destroyed settlements reported the entire sequence of events to all the dark creatures.

The dark creatures were filled with rage, roaring demands to settle accounts with the Demon Clan Dragon Clan, who dared to scheme against their gods.

Just as the emotions of the dark creatures were about to explode, over four hundred dark deities hatched almost simultaneously on the same day. This tremendous piece of good news sent the dark creatures' emotions to a boiling point. All dark creatures roared single-mindedly, determined to find the Demon Clan Dragon Clan and take fierce revenge upon him!

Thus, the spatial tunnel opened by Gu Yechen was ‘coincidentally’ discovered by a Minotaur. They were astonished to find the spatial passage had been restored to normal, meaning the dark creatures could now search for the clan members who had gone missing decades ago, along with the former leaders of various races who had vanished with them!

And a newly born deity of the Fox-Man race—a three-tailed celestial fox with six wings on its back—asserted with certainty that, according to its prediction, the Demon Clan Dragon Clan was waiting on the other side of the spatial tunnel! Consequently, the entire dark creature population erupted into chaos. The dark creatures abandoned their territories and poured into the spatial tunnel!

The reason these dark creatures had been confined to the Dark Star Domain was to await the birth of their deities. Since all deities had now appeared simultaneously, what reason was there to remain guarding that desolate place? Hundreds of dark races, countless dark creatures, surged into the spatial tunnel like a tide consuming everything, rushing toward the Viking Empire!

Yes, Gu Yechen had exhausted all his magical power to connect the exit of the spatial tunnel with a secret Star Gate provided by a certain Flame Dragon Empire. The exit of this Star Gate was located at the periphery of the Viking Empire's capital star system!

The Viking Imperial Guard fleet, emblazoned with statues of the three-headed dragon Demon Clan Dragon Clan, was patrolling the void when these dark creatures charged out! The keen-sighted Werewolves, from a great distance, immediately spotted the pitch-black, three-headed dragon.