Having finally refined the true form of the Old Ancestor Hei Shi into something tangible, something far more precious than even the Pangu True Blood, which surpassed treasures like the Zhou Tian Star Formation in value, Gu Xiechen immediately retreated to the Spiral Star Domain. He unleashed the Zhou Tian Star Formation and paid no further heed to external commotions, dedicating himself entirely to secluded cultivation.

For cultivators, time is immaterial; the three thousand years Gu Xiechen spent in isolation flew by in a blink.

The Nine Heavens and Ten Earths had undergone massive changes. Under the astute strategic maneuvers of the Auspicious Heavenly Maiden, each realm had largely settled upon a single dominant overlord. Every overlord controlled all the cultivators within their sphere of influence. The Immortals lingering in the Mortal Realm were largely ignored; they established new sects and demarcated their territories, yet peace generally prevailed. The Three Realms entered a period of profound tranquility, with almost no conflicts erupting over the span of three millennia.

In the Earth Core Secret Chamber on Yafeike Imperial Capital Star, within the Spiral Star Domain, Gu Xiechen sat cross-legged.

His Three Corpses Primordial Spirits, now condensed to resemble living beings, hovered around Gu Xiechen’s true body in a static Three Talents formation. Each spirit directed a separate flame towards a square, black-and-yellow seal, three inches on each side, resting before Gu Xiechen. The seal was utterly devoid of ornamentation, possessing a primitive, stark design. At first glance, it appeared ordinary, yet closer inspection revealed an innate, contained grandeur—clearly no common object.

This seal was the true body of the Old Ancestor Hei Shi: a mountain spanning two hundred million li, a form that had swallowed the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, endured untold hardships, and survived countless epochs since the creation of the Primordial Chaos. After three thousand years of relentless, merciless refinement, Gu Xiechen had finally forged it into the new Seal of All Beings.

Due to the impossibly dense nature of the Old Ancestor Hei Shi’s true form, the newly born Seal of All Beings possessed not only the power to assault the Primordial Spirit but also a terrifying physical destructive force. It required no incantations to activate; its sheer weight alone could effortlessly crush the physical body of an ordinary Grand Unity Golden Immortal into dust.

And how could Gu Xiechen neglect to infuse the Seal of All Beings with arrays and restrictions?

The Heavenly Net Array, the Myriad Immortals Array, the Ten Absolute Arrays, the Zhou Tian Star Formation, and even the profound essence of the Immortal Slaying Sword Array, insights gleaned by the Corpse Emperor—Gu Xiechen poured immeasurable effort into integrating all these infamous, formidable arrays of the Three Realms into this small Seal of All Beings.

Had it not been for the colossal scale and unyielding, powerful foundation of the Old Ancestor Hei Shi’s true form—rarely matched in the Three Realms—it could never have withstood the combined might of these renowned arrays. Gu Xiechen had experimented: he attempted to inscribe the Ten Absolute Array Diagram onto half a solar continent condensed within the Taiyin Profound Pearl’s solar space. The result was immediate: the half-continent was annihilated into nothingness.

This showed just how fortunate Gu Xiechen had been to forge this new Seal of All Beings. What other material in existence could simultaneously endure the coexistence of so many supremely powerful arrays, aside from the true form of Old Ancestor Hei Shi?

With a cold sneer, Gu Xiechen opened his mouth and swallowed the Seal of All Beings. A bell chime sounded above his head, and a stream of five-colored qi shot forth, lifting the seal, allowing it to hover steadily above his crown without the slightest movement.

No flame erupted, no magical power radiated outwards. The newborn Seal of All Beings floated above Gu Xiechen’s head silently, like an inert lump of common stone. Streams of five-colored qi continuously flowed into the seal, nurturing and permeating its body, making it increasingly spiritual and marvelous.

Having completed the refinement of the Seal of All Beings, a faint golden radiance suddenly erupted from within Gu Xiechen. His body instantly appeared as if cast from solid gold, and an overwhelmingly potent aura, saturated with pure strength, roared forth, causing even his Three Corpses Primordial Spirits to stagger backward, losing their footing.

Ropes of tightly knotted muscle suddenly bulged beneath Gu Xiechen’s skin. In the blink of an eye, he transformed into a giant, a thousand li tall, his entire body a mass of bulging muscle looking as if carved by axes and blades—exceptionally majestic and overwhelmingly mighty. His eyes blazed like lightning; with every opening and closing, primal chaos spiritual light shot out. A slight movement of his feet and hands instantly shattered the surrounding space, turning it into countless currents of chaotic energy surging outward.

With a cold snort, two plumes of breath, thick as white dragons, erupted from Gu Xiechen’s nostrils. His form flickered, and he instantly exited the Spiral Star Domain, arriving in a neighboring stellar region. He casually swung both arms through the void, causing thousands of nearby stars, large and small, to begin spinning rapidly. The volume of these thousands of stars rapidly decreased; even the suns with diameters exceeding ten million li shrank to the size of mung beans in an instant.

Reaching out his right hand to grasp the void, the mung beans—condensed from thousands of stars—all converged into a single, thumb-sized, incredibly heavy, jet-black thunder pearl.

With a casual flick, he projected a strand of chaotic spiritual energy into the thunder pearl, inscribing a lightning spell upon it. Gu Xiechen aimed at a distant void and casually hurled the pearl.

With a sharp hiss, the surrounding cosmos shuddered violently. The small thunder pearl tore through the void, traversing tens of thousands of light-years in an instant to reach its target. It was as if the entire universe trembled before the pearl detonated. The space spanning thirty thousand light-years instantly collapsed; space, time, and all physical existence vanished without a trace, leaving behind an absolute void.

"Magnificent! Pangu’s True Body, the immeasurable might of Chaos—just how powerful was the Sage Pangu?"

Gauging the destructive potential of this casually manufactured thunder pearl, Gu Xiechen judged that it could easily annihilate any Upper-Tier Grand Unity Golden Immortal instantly. Even a peak Grand Unity Golden Immortal, if struck directly, would suffer at least grievous injuries.

And how much effort did it take to manifest this Pangu True Body, refined over three thousand years? Thirty percent, perhaps forty?

No, slightly over thirty percent, but less than a full forty. The current Gu Xiechen possessed the stable power to outright kill a peak Grand Unity Golden Immortal in a direct confrontation, and this was merely the power of his true body, not including his Three Corpses Primordial Spirits, whose cultivation and magical power had also advanced by leaps and bounds.

Laughing with elation, Gu Xiechen unleashed dozens of chaotic lightning beams, drawing in the endless energy tides of the sub-space to rapidly fill the void he had torn open. He then cast a Heaven-Fixing Talisman, causing the turbulent, energy-rushing void to tremble briefly before shrinking inward and restoring itself to normal space.

With every gesture manifesting the power to create or destroy heaven and earth, this three-thousand-year refinement of Gu Xiechen’s body…

He immersed his consciousness into his heart. A drop of golden blood, spanning tens of thousands of li, was spinning rapidly, constantly ejecting particle-sized droplets that permeated Gu Xiechen’s body, nourishing and strengthening his flesh ever further.

Gazing upon this drop of Pangu True Blood, which had swollen nearly a hundredfold since he first obtained it, Gu Xiechen couldn't help but offer a measured smile.

Three thousand years of arduous effort—if Gu Xiechen had one paramount achievement, it was this drop of Pangu True Blood. Theoretically, since the Sage Pangu’s body transformed into the myriad things of heaven and earth, all stars in the cosmos (excluding the mothers of the Innate Star Lords existing since the Primordial Chaos) were formed from Pangu’s physical form.

Consequently, traces of the Sage Pangu’s essence and blood existed within all things. Over these three thousand years, Gu Xiechen had used the Chaos Bell, brought from an alien new universe, to devour countless stars and planets that possessed the potential to evolve into new Innate Star Lords. Utilizing the Chaos Bell’s miraculous ability to return things to their origin, he refined the faint, interwoven threads of Pangu True Blood contained within, ultimately gathering this substantial drop.

Of the drop of Pangu True Blood he had originally obtained from the body of Old Ancestor Hei Shi, Gu Xiechen had already absorbed half, which accounted for his current vast power. If he could completely assimilate the drop before him now, his strength might surpass that of the legendary Sages of antiquity.

Theoretically, if Gu Xiechen descended into madness and destroyed the entire universe, refining the whole cosmos with the Chaos Bell, he could acquire the entirety of the Sage Pangu’s essence and blood, thereby truly attaining the Pangu Sage Body of supreme sanctity.

However, the consequence might well be the Heavenly Dao’s enraged intervention, erasing him and initiating the recreation of Pangu and the opening of a new Great Desolation. Therefore, Gu Xiechen acted with extreme caution, daring not to destroy too many celestial bodies. Accumulating this single drop of Pangu True Blood was, to him, more than enough—exceptionally satisfying!

After a period of dazed contemplation, Gu Xiechen summoned the Fire Crow from the Taiyin Profound Pearl, allowed it to manifest, and fed it a portion of the Pangu True Blood spanning a hundred li before tossing it back into the Taiyin Profound Pearl to continue its cultivation.

Slowly resuming his original form, Gu Xiechen stood with his hands behind his back, looking down upon the brilliantly silver Spiral Star Domain. A strange smile suddenly appeared on his face: "Auspicious Heavenly Maiden, why haven't you come to settle accounts with me these past years? I feel quite restless; I almost want to teach you a lesson!"

He hadn't disturbed the Auspicious Heavenly Maiden for three thousand years, yet every one of her moves was entirely within Gu Xiechen’s awareness. The Three-Linked City seemed not yet fully rebuilt. The Auspicious Heavenly Maiden labored like a diligent worker bee, constantly shuttling between the Mortal Realm and the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, ferrying the inexhaustible supply of heavenly materials and earthly treasures produced in the upper realms down to the Mortal Realm.

Gu Xiechen ceased harassing her, instead acting like the most patient of hunters, lurking nearby, waiting for the optimal moment to launch a fatal strike against the Auspicious Heavenly Maiden and her guardian deities.

The guardian deities should never have provoked Gu Xiechen, nor should they have slaughtered tens of thousands of members of the Nine Nether Dao Sect who guarded the ore stars, along with mercenaries from the Hadewald Defense Company, all for the disciples of the Kunlun and Zhongnan Sects. Gu Xiechen had kept this debt of blood firmly in mind.

"Actually, what does it matter to me if you want to occupy the Heavenly Court? Why did you have to provoke me?"

With a faint sigh, just as he was about to return to the Spiral Star Domain to continue cultivating, a faint sword light flashed in the distance, instantly capturing Gu Xiechen’s interest. He silently took a step toward it, and in the next breath, he was near the sword light.

A girl, appearing to be only thirteen or fourteen, was hurtling through the void on a spiritual flying sword of decent quality. The girl’s cultivation was low, only at the Nascent Soul stage, but her sword was inscribed with dozens of acceleration arrays that seemed passable to Gu Xiechen, allowing her flight speed to rival that of an ordinary Celestial Immortal. Furthermore, several short-range teleportation arrays were embedded within, automatically drawing in ambient spiritual energy to replenish consumption. After flying for barely a quarter of an hour, the girl teleported hundreds of millions of li forward like a phantom, constantly changing direction—thus enabling her escape to this location.

Yes, this fair-skinned, delicate girl, whose eyes were filled with terror and despair, was fleeing for her life. Far behind her, a Golden Immortal leading four or five Celestial Immortals were in hot pursuit, having nearly caught her several times.

But each time the Immortals drew close, the girl would unleash a vast sheet of glowing green lightning from her palm, scattering thunder across the sky, forcing the pursuers to scatter wildly. The girl would seize the chance to surge forward, widening the gap once more.

Just as Gu Xiechen arrived, the Golden Immortal utilized a teleportation technique to appear directly behind the girl, releasing a rope-like immortal artifact to bind her.

The girl again sprayed a large patch of glowing green lightning from her palm. Mixed within the lightning was a golden scissor artifact, resembling two intertwined giant pythons, which effortlessly sliced the rope-like artifact into two pieces. Following this, a large bolt of lightning, thick as a water vat, slammed down onto the Golden Immortal’s head, scorching him badly and forcing him to retreat in a disheveled manner. The girl seized the opportunity to surge forward again, instantly moving millions of li further.

The enraged Golden Immortal shrieked toward the heavens, threatening, "Little woman, if I capture you, I’ll make you wish for life more than death! Where will you run? Where else can you flee! Heh, hehe, I will exterminate your entire family line. Aren't you going to die with them?"

Gu Xiechen concealed his form, flying silently alongside the girl. Hearing the Golden Immortal's vicious threats, Gu Xiechen couldn't help but find it amusing. Had these people all gone mad? Did this little girl not have the right to kneel before him and allow him to do as he pleased? These days, the villains were truly losing quality!

Scoffing inwardly at the Golden Immortal, a mass of hazy, gray demonic clouds suddenly rushed forward from ahead. A sharp shout echoed around them: "Which Daoist friend approaches? What business have you in my Spiral Star Domain? This area ahead is territory belonging to the Nine Nether Dao. Please halt and state your purpose!"

Gu Xiechen looked closely. Ahead was a patrol unit of minor mountain demons from the Nine Nether Dao, riding the clouds. Though called minor mountain demons, this group of ten demon immortals all possessed Golden Immortal cultivation levels. Moreover, every one of them was armed to the teeth, equipped with immortal artifacts meticulously refined by Daoist Gu Chen! The pursuing Golden Immortal was startled, shouting loudly, "Daoist friends of the Nine Nether Dao, this place is still a great distance from the Spiral Star Domain! How has it become your territory? Please intercept that demoness ahead; this Immortal will certainly reward you handsomely, handsomely!"

After a brief pause, the Golden Immortal shouted, "That demoness is exceptionally cunning and skilled at deception. Daoist friends, you must not be fooled by her!"

The demonic clouds suddenly parted, revealing the ten patrolling mountain demons. The lead demon immortal sneered coldly, "Nonsense! If we say it's our territory, it's our territory—what business is it of yours? As for deception, hehe, do you think this little girl can deceive us?"

The group of minor demons let out triumphant, roaring laughter. Behind them, three snow-white fox tails swung back and forth. These were all demon immortals from the Celestial Fox Clan, renowned for their cunning and shrewdness!

The pursuing Golden Immortal suddenly saw thirty exposed fox tails, and his face went pale. He turned and fled without a word.

The ten fox spirits blinked their eyes in unison and laughed, "There's something fishy. He’s not a good person! Brothers, chase him down and interrogate him thoroughly!"

Six fox spirits shot off a streak of light in pursuit of the fleeing Golden Immortal, while the other four fox spirits lined up to block the somewhat bewildered girl. One fox spirit cast a restrictive spell, trapping the girl and preventing her from flying, before shouting sternly, "Female Daoist, from where do you hail? Why have you come to the territory of my Nine Nether Dao?"

The girl shook her head blankly, then suddenly cried out sorrowfully, "Are you members of the Nine Nether Dao? Is your Sect Master Gu Xiechen?"

The four fox spirits were greatly alarmed. They roared in unison, "Audacious little girl, how dare you utter our Sect Master’s true name! Quickly slap yourself a hundred times! Otherwise, you too face a death sentence, a death sentence!"

In recent years, under Gu Xiechen's command, the Nine Nether Dao had prospered exponentially, with the number and cultivation of its demonic followers soaring geometrically. His status among the sect members was akin to that of a deity. For this girl to call Gu Xiechen by name—the four fox spirits were showing remarkable leniency by only demanding she slap herself.

The girl paused for a moment, then suddenly shouted, "Stop wasting time! Hurry and take me to find your Sect Master! Hurry, or my father, mother, grandfather, grandmother, great-grandfather, great-grandmother, and all my relatives—they will all die! They will all die!"

Foxes are the most cunning and suspicious. The four fox spirits exchanged glances. The leading fox spirit coughed dryly, slowly raised one tail, and dangled it lazily from side to side, asking with a grin, "Indeed. But who are you? If your whole family dies, so be it—what does it have to do with our Sect Master?" Another fox spirit said with a smile to the girl, "Little girl, come, speak obediently about what your family does. Ah, perhaps our Nine Nether Dao has some past affinity with your family. Tsk, tsk, you don't expect us to rush off with you to see our Sect Master just like that, do you?"

The girl squirmed desperately, but no matter how hard she struggled, the binding restriction remained utterly motionless. The restriction cast by the leading fox spirit was the Buddhist Golden Net Heavenly Dragon Curse, taught by Fuya Seven Nether—the most formidable spell for self-protection and imprisonment. This girl had no way to break free.

Screaming in desperation a few times, the girl shrieked, "My great-grandfather is Gu Juechen! He is the Sect Master’s own older brother! Your Sect Master is my great-uncle! You—you hurry and tell him! Our entire Gu family is about to be wiped out!"

Gu Juechen? The Gu family?

Memories stretching back thousands of years suddenly flooded Gu Xiechen’s mind. He vaguely recalled the events of the past. He hadn't heard any news of Gu Juechen’s family for millennia! Whom had they allied with back then? The Seven Revered Celestials of the True Cultivation Hall?

Hmm.

Gu Xiechen slowly materialized from the void. The few fox spirits were startled to see him, immediately dropping to their knees in the air, unwilling to look up.

Gu Xiechen looked at the girl and spoke gently, "I am Gu Xiechen. Are you… from the Gu family?"

The girl stared blankly at Gu Xiechen, instinctively lowering her voice, "Yes, I am. I am Gu Turu. Turu greets Great-Uncle!"

Gu Turu? With Guang Tong Chen (Blending with Dust) and Yuan Run Ru Yi (Round and Smooth), she belonged to the Ru generation of the Gu Clan—veritably Gu Xiechen’s great-granddaughter.

He casually lifted the Golden Net Heavenly Dragon Curse and asked in a low voice, "What exactly happened? How did your family face annihilation so suddenly?"

Gu Turu scrambled to her knees and rapidly recounted a string of events.

Gu Xiechen’s eyes narrowed. Thousands of nearby stars suddenly exploded from within, their brilliant light enveloping everything. The immense magical pressure turned Gu Turu’s face and those of the fox spirits deathly pale, as if the apocalypse had arrived.

"Then I suppose I shall take some men and visit them," Gu Xiechen stated calmly. "Bullying Gu Juechen is my exclusive right. Those demons and monsters have no qualification to do so!"

He reached out to the void and snatched the Immortals who had been relentlessly chasing Gu Turu and were now retreating in disarray. He brought them next to him, casually unleashed a strand of Taiyin Xuan Yan, and refined them into countless dispersing ice crystals.

After a cold laugh, Gu Xiechen cast out a signal flare.

A quarter of an hour later, a massive host of millions of demons and monsters from the Nine Nether Dao emerged in neat ranks—proud and spirited, their hearts filled with joy. After three thousand years, the army of the Nine Nether Dao mobilized once more.