Chapter 1 Central Star Sea

Central Star Sea, Star Abyss, Ancestral Home of Shadows.

The pitch-black gas giant still floated there, seemingly existing since time immemorial.

On this day, streaks of light shot from afar, and a fleet warped in.

The pitch-black planet suddenly became restless. The black energy flowing on its surface erupted like solar flares, stirring up waves of ten thousand zhang, as if shaking off fleas from its body. Figures of Shadow Servants emerged from the waves, ready to launch an overwhelming attack.

Just then, the lead ship of the fleet suddenly burst out a ring of black soulfire, which spread rapidly, sweeping across the pitch-black planet. In the next moment, the pitch-black planet quieted down, like a bared-teeth cat retracting its claws. Countless Shadow Servants returned to the black sea, merged into the planet's surface, and disappeared.

The Oathkeeper stepped out of the spaceship, suspended in the cosmos, gazing at the pitch-black planet before him, and slowly spoke through mental fluctuations:

"The time is advanced. We must carry out the synthesis ritual immediately, otherwise, we won't make it to the appointed day."

"But I haven't completely finished the transformation..."

"There's no time. If we miss this appointed day, even if we enter the Third Sanctuary, I won't be able to bring anyone back. The appointed day has no set cycle. I don't know how many years it will take to encounter the next one. We can't miss this opportunity."

"...Alright, I will do my best to cooperate."

The Oathkeeper nodded, turned to look at the fleet, and said in a deep voice, "Begin synthesizing the final key."

As soon as he finished speaking, the fleet immediately took action, scattering in all directions and docking at different locations on the pitch-black planet, forming a specific formation. The armor plates at the bottom of the ships shifted away, revealing a ring-shaped device, releasing a hazy light that linked together, forming a huge translucent energy罩 (zhào, cover) that enveloped the pitch-black planet.

Then, all the ships extended a specially made silver-white cannon from their hulls, aiming at the pitch-black planet.

In the Oathkeeper's constructed mental network, the voices of the cadres reporting sounded one after another.

"Level twelve energy stabilization and compression force field constructed, target covered."

"Launcher activated, all original ability essences loaded, sequence set."

"Information state template loaded, reconciliation process automatically calibrated, preparation complete."

"Everyone stand by, await my command."

The Oathkeeper spoke sternly, raising his palm.

Everyone stared intently at the Oathkeeper's palm, holding their breath. Luo and Fei and other cadres clenched their fists, their chests rising and falling.

Seeing that the Sacred Covenant Organization's mission of many years would end with the wave of a hand, everyone's hearts were surging with emotion.

Looking around, the Oathkeeper closed his eyes slightly and resolutely waved his hand.

"Action!"

As soon as he finished speaking, it was like pressing a start button, as if a precise instrument was operating. All the operators present had practiced the process thousands of times, without any mistakes, and began the synthesis ritual strictly according to the steps.

Boom boom boom——

Silver-white cannons fired beams of light of various colors. Each beam of light represented an original ability essence, all of which sank into the pitch-black planet.

The ability essence of Ten Thousand Shadows was the base of the synthesis. Through its own ability mechanism, it began to compress and fuse many original ability essences. The pitch-black planet changed in an instant. Beams of energy of different colors flowed through the black sea on the planet's surface, like overturned dye, becoming colorful.

Various energies of different properties underwent violent conflict reactions. The color of the pitch-black planet became brighter and brighter, gradually being rendered from pitch-black to incandescent, turning into a floating white ball of light, like a super-large light bulb.

The force field罩 (zhào, cover) that enveloped it suddenly produced a violent reaction, enduring a powerful impact, flickering and trembling, as if it would be disintegrated at any time.

If the original pitch-black planet was a hard stone, then the white ball of light was now a ball of mud soaked in water under the influence of various factors, with a strong plasticity.

At this moment, the information state template took effect, as if an invisible hand began to knead the ball of light, its shape constantly changing, its volume rapidly shrinking. In full view, it changed from a huge planet into a ring with a diameter of only a hundred meters, slowly rotating, its energy density increasing many times over, so dazzling that it was almost impossible to look at directly.

"Success!"

Seeing this scene, the members of the Sacred Covenant Organization present cheered.

The Oathkeeper suppressed the excitement in his heart and shouted, "Invest the other keys and open the Third Sanctuary!"

The troops acted again, taking out the "keys" they had collected in the past, and through the tractor beam, invested them in the center of the white ring, as if a special force was holding up these objects, allowing them to rotate with the ring.

When the last "key" was invested, the ring suddenly shot out a beam of light, projecting a picture in the nearby cosmos, like a world in a mirror.

In the picture, there were six blurred light doors, also slowly rotating, seemingly not far away, but like a mirage, untouchable, as if in another world.

This scene only lasted for a moment. Five light doors suddenly disappeared, leaving only one light door, which grew rapidly, as if turning from virtual to real, turning into a light door通道 (tōng dào, passage) five meters high and three meters wide. The edges were still constantly shaking, appearing quite unstable, and inside the通道 (tōng dào, passage) there was only empty light, and nothing could be seen clearly.

"This is the gateway to the Third Sanctuary. According to the information passed down, the flow of time inside is very strange. The appointed day is not far away. I have to go in now..."

The Oathkeeper flashed this thought in his mind, took a deep breath, and prepared to fly towards the light door通道 (tōng dào, passage).

However, at this moment, the white ring transformed from the pitch-black planet suddenly trembled violently. Streams of black mist were separated out, turning into the same face, opening its mouth and uttering an unwilling roar that exploded in everyone's hearts.

嗡 (wēng)——

The sudden change caused the通道 (tōng dào, passage) to the Third Sanctuary to become blurred and virtual again, as if it would disintegrate at any moment.

"Ten Thousand Shadows!"

The Oathkeeper turned his head sharply, and blazing soulfire shot out from his eyes, instantly hitting Ten Thousand Shadows and burning the mist into nothingness.

This blow completely killed the remaining consciousness of Ten Thousand Shadows. Only now could Ten Thousand Shadows be considered truly dead.

"He really would fight back at the last moment..." The Oathkeeper was not surprised and sighed inwardly.

The Sacred Covenant originally planned to carry out the ritual after the consciousness of Ten Thousand Shadows was completely devoured, but the appointed day was brought forward, and there was no time to wait any longer.

Although the Oathkeeper could easily kill the remaining consciousness of Ten Thousand Shadows, under normal circumstances, Ten Thousand Shadows and the ability were one body, and outsiders could not forcibly separate them. If they did, even the consciousness of the ability itself would be eliminated, and they would lose the yet-to-be-formed original ability essence雏形 (chú xíng, prototype).

The synthesis ritual could remove superfluous things, and Ten Thousand Shadows himself also planned to fight back, which is why he briefly separated out, giving the Oathkeeper a chance to kill him.

However, although the Oathkeeper had minimized the influence of Ten Thousand Shadows, it still had a negative impact on the opening ritual of the Third Sanctuary. The gateway to the Third Sanctuary became increasingly unstable.

With no time to delay, the Oathkeeper rushed into the通道 (tōng dào, passage) to the Third Sanctuary, only managing to leave behind a single sentence:

"Before I return, Luo and Fei will temporarily lead the organization, keep a low profile, and wait for me to bring them back."

In the next moment, the Third Sanctuary通道 (tōng dào, passage) collapsed, and the many keys disintegrated.

Apart from the original ability essences, the other keys were basically disposable. The results that the Sacred Covenant Organization had spent many years collecting vanished into thin air at this time.

Also missing was the Oathkeeper. All the full range of locators he had brought with him had failed, as if he no longer existed in this world.

...

More than a month later.

Somewhere in the Flickering World's asteroid belt, two figures, one black and one red, were shuttling through it, engaged in a fierce battle.

"Torrential Current · Guiding-Force Ripple Fist!"

The bright blue thick ray flashed past, and the asteroid belt along the way was instantly evaporated and annihilated, leaving a blank path.

The red figure dodged the attack with a teleport, and in turn waved a piece of red energy to resist the opponent.

Light flashed in the star space, and the two fought back and forth. They were none other than Han Xiao and Hela, who were in a routine spar.

The two had fought many times and knew each other well. As Han Xiao delivered a heavy knee strike to Hela's abdomen, causing her to be unable to stand up straight, followed by a powerful palm chop that shattered her throat, the spar came to an end.

"Ugh, cough, cough..." Hela knelt on an asteroid, covering her neck and coughing for a while, before her shattered throat recovered as before, and said sullenly, "I lost again."

"Don't be discouraged. Your progress is very fast. The Netherworld is really a good thing." Han Xiao was a little envious.

Since obtaining the Netherworld dimension, Hela's growth rate had also reached the level of cheating. The better the Netherworld recovered, the higher the bonus to her ability.

Therefore, Han Xiao had been sparring with Hela recently, and the heavier the blow, the better. If it was too light, Hela would complain about holding back.

"No matter how fast I progress, it's not as fast as you." Hela stood up and pointed to the device floating beside Han Xiao. "Your new weapon is not bad. Even I can't stand a few hits."

"After all, I am a Mechanic, and our systems are different."

Han Xiao smiled and put away the Guiding-Force Ripple Fist.

In the past two months, he had created all four newly acquired golden blueprints. With [Myriad Mech Country · Manison], the success rate and efficiency of creating universe treasures had greatly improved, greatly saving costs.

Evolution Totems could be easily mass-produced, but Psionic Obelisks were difficult. However, Han Xiao had also created a batch of finished products, which had been installed in multiple bases, while Mechanical Territories were mainly provided to the Mechanical Civilization.

The application range of the Titan Spine Central Nucleus was limited to Mechanical Gods. Only the Guiding-Force Ripple Fist had the strongest practicality. It not only adapted to various combat environments but could also be combined with various moves to create Mech Martial Artist-like combos, which were deeply loved by Grand Technician Han.

The attack intensity of the Guiding-Force Ripple Fist itself depended on the output power of the energy core and the Qi force input by itself. It had an attack enhancement effect and could increase the original attack power by a percentage. The lethality was very considerable—apart from concentrated fire, Mechanics generally lacked powerful output methods, and the Guiding-Force Ripple Fist filled the gap to a certain extent.

——And every time he used this weapon, Han Xiao couldn't help but shout it out, as if it could increase the power.

The two original abilities had also been dealt with. Natural Spiritual Energy found a host, who was none other than Yi Ye Qing, the director of the Pharmaceutical Research Institute in the Logistics Department. Her ability was very compatible and successfully adapted.

However, the Frost Authority did not find a host, so Han Xiao temporarily made it into a Arcane Esper.

After tidying up the battlefield casually, Han Xiao asked casually, "After a while, the Three Great Civilizations will hold a joint commendation ceremony for the heroes of the Intelligent Plague. Do you want to attend?"

"I didn't participate in the Intelligent Plague. What would I do there?" Hela shook her head. "But you have to go on stage to accept the award and say a few words of thanks. Have you prepared?"

"What's there to prepare? Isn't it just some platitudes? I can spout them out as soon as I open my mouth."

"You're so capable."

Hela rolled her eyes. Usually, she was solemn and rarely chatted with her subordinates. Only when facing Han Xiao would she say a few more words, saying:

"Speaking of which, the movements of the Free Competition Zone have been a bit strange recently."

"How so?"

"The fourth phase of exploration progress is estimated to be 80%. The Super Star Cluster Alliance's expansion actions are getting bigger and bigger. They are no longer just exploring internally, but have begun to massively invade and seize planets occupied by other forces in the surrounding area, and the territories are connected into one piece. Not only does it encompass the central area of the Free Competition Zone and multiple resource-rich star systems, but it has also established a Star Gate transportation system, connecting multiple borders, with clear strategic intentions."

Han Xiao didn't find it strange, saying: "It's normal. The Super Star Cluster Alliance is making preparations. It is estimated that after a while, the Three Great Civilizations and them will have a formal conflict. They want to obtain a piece of land for themselves in the Flickering World, and the Three Great Civilizations are unwilling for the Super Star Cluster Alliance to obtain room for development. At the same time, there are pretexts of free competition and anti-monopoly that can be used, so the contradictions between the two sides cannot be reconciled."

"Um...There are also some strange movements from other forces, including many Undying units that are not from the legion. They seem to be eager to move."

"I know, I will pay more attention to this aspect."

Han Xiao nodded. The signs of the world server national war were appearing, with the shadow of the Super Star Cluster behind it.

The two chatted for a while and returned to their respective fleets, sailing in different directions. Hela returned to the Free Competition Zone, while Han Xiao's sailing direction was the planet where the Three Great Civilizations held the commendation ceremony, located in the Dawn Star Cluster, the gateway to the Flickering World.

The fleet sailed for a period of time and successfully arrived at its destination. The celebration planet was already crowded with guests, and countless spaceships were lined up in a long queue in the cosmos.

After reporting their identity, the fleet docked at the port via the VIP通道 (tōng dào, passage) under the leadership of the Imperial Guards.

As soon as Han Xiao walked off the spaceship, he saw Talrokov waiting for him there.

The two walked closer and shook hands heavily.

"How long have you been waiting here?"

"Not long, Your Excellency Black Star, you have arrived early."

"Hehe, I am the most punctual person."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Talrokov suddenly lowered his voice and said:

"Because we had to keep the whereabouts secret beforehand, we didn't notify you. Now I can say it. The leaders of the Three Great Civilizations will all attend this meeting. You have to be prepared."

Han Xiao raised an eyebrow, "You mean..."

"Yes, they will be attending in person this time and personally award you a medal, not a projection."

Han Xiao was quite surprised.

I thought I was just here to go through the motions, but it turned out to be so impressive.

It seems that the Three Great Civilizations are determined to make me famous even if I don't want to be.