Chapter 1 A Bold Explorer

The scenery rapidly changed, and when Han Xiao regained his senses, he found himself suspended in the outer space of a giant planet, overlooking the world below.

From his vantage point in space, the planet was vast, predominantly lush green, with clusters of brightly lit urban areas scattered across its surface, suggesting a thriving civilization.

Using the planet's orbital satellite technology, Han Xiao could roughly determine that the civilization was at a surface stage, possessing both scientific and magical systems, and attempting to develop into an interstellar civilization.

The flickering lights on the surface, like a sped-up film, compressed countless days and nights into what felt like three seconds to Han Xiao. Then, as if hitting a milestone, time abruptly returned to normal.

The next moment, the planet below underwent a dramatic change. He saw the ground violently shake in one urban area, followed by a massive seven-fingered hand bursting from the earth.

A titan-like giant, with a broad back, tore open the earth covering its head, rising like a pillar supporting the sky, bringing up vast amounts of soil. It was as if someone had lifted a tablecloth from the center, the buildings on the ground collapsing and shattering like dishes on the tablecloth.

Emerging from the ground, the grayish-white giant revealed a height of several thousand meters. The aftershock of its emergence alone devastated half the city.

It strode towards the deep mountains, each step causing a chain of earthquakes. Countless rocks seemed drawn by some force, climbing its legs and compressing into layers of dark brown protective armor, as if donning a suit of armor.

Soon, the civilization's fighter squadrons arrived, unleashing a barrage of fire on the giant. Countless explosions erupted on its body, but the damage was negligible. The giant simply waved its hand, compressing the air to create a massive shockwave that swept across the sky, crushing the fighter jets into scraps of metal and turning them into mid-air fireworks.

Simultaneously, Han Xiao saw similar occurrences in over a dozen locations. One after another, massive lifeforms emerged from the earth, each with a unique appearance—giants, behemoths, and indescribable entities. Some appeared in deep forests, others in arid deserts, and still others in deep sea trenches, as if awakening in unison.

"A disaster of the ancient god awakening type?"

Han Xiao's mind stirred.

This was a rare type of disaster. The so-called "ancient gods" were a general term referring to powerful individuals, not necessarily living beings. Even mechanical entities could be considered ancient gods. Simply put, it meant that certain powerful individuals lay dormant on a planet, having spent countless years in slumber, and reawakened for some reason, causing devastating blows to the civilization that had developed in their wake.

The causes were mainly twofold: first, "ancient gods" arrived from outer space in distant ages, falling into slumber as extraterrestrial visitors; second, "ancient gods" were native to the planet, with the latter often linked to the planet's religious system.

If he were to bury an Apostle Weapon the size of a Giant Mechanical Gorilla on a planet and set it to awaken hundreds of thousands of years later, and a civilization arose on that planet, it could also be considered an "ancient god awakening."

As Han Xiao pondered, the images continued, and time accelerated again for a brief moment. The civilization deployed various modern weapons, but to little effect. They couldn't even kill these "ancient gods" with mushroom clouds (nuclear weapons).

They seemed to possess different abilities. Aside from retaliating, they did not deliberately attack the civilization's forces, but instead constantly used their powers to guide changes in the planet's environment, causing volcanic eruptions, massive tsunamis, continental drift, magnetic field shifts, rising global temperatures, and other disasters, seemingly trying to reshape the planet into one suitable for their survival. These drastic environmental changes were fatal to the civilization, making coexistence impossible. They could only repeatedly attack with weapons of war, trying to stop the "ancient gods" from acting.

During this time, more "ancient gods" awakened. They seemed to be the ancient masters of this planet, and the civilization's population dwindled, abandoning city after city, retreating to the last continent where the "ancient gods" were least numerous, calling it the "Last Land."

But then, a turning point appeared.

Knowing that the "ancient gods" awakened from beneath the earth, the civilization spared no effort in digging around the globe, trying to capture individuals in their dormant state. Eventually, they actually found an individual tens of thousands of meters underground in the Last Land. However, this individual was already dead; only the body had not decayed or shrunk.

The civilization was overjoyed, organizing a research team to find the "ancient god's" weakness. But the more they studied, the more desperate they became. All evidence indicated that with their current level of weaponry, there was no way to kill the "ancient gods."

In Han Xiao's eyes, these "ancient gods" were at the Heavenly Disaster grade. They seemed to be a rare cosmic lifeform, and because of their extraordinary racial talents and vast life force, they were stronger than ordinary Heavenly Disaster grades, mainly because they were extremely durable. A Heavenly Disaster grade powerhouse could easily sweep through a surface civilization. For this civilization, so many special Heavenly Disaster grade lifeforms were far beyond their ability to handle.

In despair, someone had a flash of inspiration and proposed a suggestion: since existing weapons were ineffective, could they find a way to modify the dead but undecayed "ancient god" corpse and use it as a weapon to fight the other "ancient gods"?

With no other options, the civilization naturally had little objection and could only treat a dead horse as if it were still alive. However, a disagreement arose over the method of control. Normal remote control was not suitable for high-intensity combat, and neural links were too taxing on the driver's nervous system due to the enormous body. It would take at least thousands or tens of thousands of people to barely qualify, inevitably hindering flexibility. Artificial intelligence technology had not yet developed to the point where it could be used in actual combat.

In the end, the civilization decided to jointly advance multiple plans, one of which was to develop a device to transfer souls, allowing their souls to escape their weak bodies and inhabit the "ancient god's" remains for control. In this way, they could maximize the "ancient god's" combat power from its lifetime and also have a chance of retaining its coveted "abilities."

"This sense of deja vu... Ultraman?!"

Han Xiao's mouth twitched.

At that moment, his vision suddenly zoomed in, arriving in a massive laboratory. The "ancient god's" remains were erected high, with layers of scaffolding suspended around it for modification, implanting various mechanical weapons.

On the ground, there were teams of white-clothed suicide soldiers with mechanical ports implanted in the back of their heads, with cables extending from them, all connected to a large device suspended in mid-air.

This large device was suspended in front of the "ancient god's" head, with a black crystal mirror serving as the launch port, facing the remains' forehead.

*Click!*

Han Xiao saw the researchers in the control room push the lever. The next moment, a series of thuds echoed in the room as all the white-clothed suicide soldiers fell to the ground. Streams of dark light flowed along the cables into the device. Then, a beam of eerie black light shot out from the crystal mirror, entering the "ancient god's" forehead.

Minute after minute passed, but the "ancient god's" remains showed no reaction. Disappointment appeared on the faces of the researchers.

But then, the entire underground laboratory shook violently, cracks spreading across the walls. A dozen huge tentacles shattered the walls, and amidst the swirling soil, a gigantic figure passed through the earth. It was one of the "ancient gods," with a semi-plant body, like a combination of an enlarged Venus flytrap and an octopus, using the earth as its swimming pool.

At that instant, the "ancient god's" remains suddenly opened its eyes.

At this moment, Han Xiao's vision blurred, and he returned to the spaceship office. The illusion brought by the 【Bold Explorer】 came to an abrupt end.

He savored the experience, thinking to himself:

"It feels like there was a lot of information this time..."

If he wasn't mistaken, the large device in the illusion was the prototype of the Soul Transfer Instrument. The crystal mirror serving as the launch port was the Soul Transfer Instrument in his hands. He wondered what mutations had occurred over the long years that eventually turned it into a cosmic wonder-level item.

Recalling the appearance of the civilization in the illusion, Han Xiao searched the database, but there were no matching records. Even the Space-Time Research Society's database, which specialized in collecting information on lost civilizations, had no records.

"It seems to be an undiscovered civilization, possibly located in the unexplored universe, or perhaps an even more ancient lost civilization. Could it be from the same era as the civilization that created the Domino Virus... I wonder what happened to this civilization afterward."

Han Xiao was quite curious, but the 【Bold Explorer】 had a cooldown of fourteen days, so he wouldn't be able to use it again for another half a month.

According to the illusion, the plan to control the "ancient god's" remains with the Soul Transfer Instrument seemed to have succeeded. The souls of those suicide soldiers should have merged into one, and although the remains were dead but undecayed, the soul had long since dissipated, so there was not much resistance. The shell successfully accommodated the new soul...

"Hmm?!"

At that moment, a spark of inspiration, like lightning piercing the darkness, exploded in Han Xiao's mind.

Hela's interrogation of the Soul Transfer Twins' souls, combined with Fording's testing during this period, had given him a preliminary understanding of the Soul Transfer Instrument's effects. He knew that this thing could transfer souls, largely ignoring the body's rejection. So as long as the target was a still-living but soulless body, it could easily bring it back to "life."

In that case...

Han Xiao flipped his hand and took out the Time Amber, his eyes gradually lighting up.

He suddenly realized that the functions of these two items seemed to be a perfect match!

The Soul Transfer Instrument in his hands seemed to have a special use!

"Black Star, what are you smiling about? Why are you smiling so..."

Fording, sitting across the table, hesitated, embarrassed to say the word "lewd," afraid of being beaten up.

"Cough!" Han Xiao quickly suppressed his thoughts, cleared his throat, and said, "I thought of something happy."

"What happy thing?"

"My wife gave birth to... Pui, none of your business." Han Xiao almost blurted it out. Recovering his senses, he waved the Soul Transfer Instrument in his hand and said irritably, "I'll take this for experiments first. I'll give it back to you when I'm done."

"I have no problem with that." Fording hesitated for a moment and said, "Actually, there's something I wanted to ask you to help me with. As you know, psychic users can transfer souls, but the risk is extremely high. So Morning Star has been staying in my body all this time. But now that we have this cosmic treasure, there's no danger. I plan to get her out."

"Get her out to do what? Isn't spiritual intercourse fun?"

"As if you've tried it." Fording was speechless.

Han Xiao scratched his nose and changed the subject. "So you want me to find a body for Morning Star?"

"It's not just that..." Fording said awkwardly, "She said she doesn't want to use someone else's hand-me-down, so she wants to customize a body, with the figure and appearance to be designed by her."

"I can't help you with that." Han Xiao waved his hand in refusal. "I'm just an ordinary mechanic. I can build machines, but creating people is out of the question. Do you think I'm the Creator?"

"Can't you use things like biochemical muscles and nano-nerves to create a bionic human?"

"You can, but that would require using chips. The consciousness you put in would be in a virtual intelligence format, which is incompatible with your psychic users' souls."

"What about simulating brain structures without using chips?"

"You can, but I can't guarantee what side effects there might be."

"What should I do then?" Fording said with some distress, "I can't just harm a young and beautiful female creature to find a body for her."

"If you ask me, you can first find a pet and temporarily transfer your wife into it. Wouldn't that be wonderful..."

"She says you're getting more and more perverted." Fording squinted. "I think so too."

"...What are you guys thinking about in your heads?"

Han Xiao rolled his eyes. You're the last person in the entire legion who has the right to say that to me.

Fording shook his head, his expression turning serious. "Let's talk about something serious. I used the Soul Transfer Instrument to separate the parasitic soul from Iso. He's recovered now."

"Oh, let him come see me. I want to see how he's doing."

"He's already outside the door."

Fording waved his hand, and the door was pushed open. Iso walked in, a wry smile appearing on his face as soon as he saw Han Xiao.

Han Xiao looked Iso up and down. "Old man, are there any aftereffects?"

"No, I'm very normal now."

Iso sat down heavily, his expression complex. Finally, he sighed and said, "Black Star, thank you this time. If it weren't for you, Ames would definitely have been implicated by me."

"Don't say that. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have been plotted against," Han Xiao said, shaking his head.

"Alas, I've lived for so long, and it doesn't matter whether I die or not. I just didn't want my death to involve Ames. I know her temper. In her rage, she would definitely do something she would regret for the rest of her life."

You guessed right...

Han Xiao thought to himself.

"What do you plan to do now? Although this was someone else's scheme, Ames will be on guard from now on. Even if you want to leave on your own initiative, you won't be able to leave easily."

"What else can I do? I can only stay here."

Iso gave a helpless wry smile. He had originally agreed with Black Star that after everything was done, he would go out and continue wandering around, courting death everywhere. But plans couldn't keep up with changes.

If Black Star hadn't notified Ames, his situation wouldn't be so troublesome. But he had saved him, so naturally, he had no reason to blame Black Star.

Han Xiao stroked his chin and suddenly said, "Actually, I have a way to satisfy everyone."

"Oh?" Iso's eyes lit up, and he couldn't wait to say, "Tell me quickly."

"It's actually very simple. Now that the Soul Transfer Instrument is in my hands, I can transfer your soul into a strong person's body. You can follow others around and go on adventures. Although you can't control the body, it's better than staying at home and rotting away. And your safety will be guaranteed."

Iso's eyes lit up, and he was somewhat tempted.

"That is a way... but what about my body?"

"Simple, I can seal it with the Time Amber... but I suggest you contribute it and temporarily let someone else use it. I happen to have a candidate here."

"What candidate?"

Han Xiao pointed to Fording and said with a smile, "You enter Fording's body, and Morning Star borrows your body. Wouldn't that be a perfect solution?"

Hearing this, both of them shivered at the same time.

Fording wanted to gouge out his eyes at the thought of his lovely wife turning into a wretched old man.

Iso instinctively tightened his legs in horror at the thought of Fording's habit of spiritual intercourse.

"I'd rather die!"

The two said in unison.

...

Fein Star, headquarters of the Beyond Grade A Association.

Today was another day for the regular meeting. The remote projections of many Beyond Grade As descended upon the venue, waiting outside the conference room for the meeting to begin, forming small groups of two or three, chatting in low voices.

"Have you heard? Black Star had another fight with the Machinery Country not long ago, and he actually won this time," Hunter of the Sky floated in the air and said.

"We're not ill-informed, of course we know." Kant stood with his arms crossed, clicking his tongue and saying with emotion, "Do you remember the battle we watched a few months ago? At that time, Black Star could only barely draw with the Machinery Country. It's only been a short time, and he can actually defeat Mannison head-on. It's really terrifying."

"Hehe, Mannison really suffered a great loss this time. I'm satisfied," a neutral mechanic said with a cheerful smile.

Kroye shook his head. "I know the Machinery Country's strength very well. He took out so many trump cards, but he was still defeated. It's really unbelievable. I watched the video. Black Star seems to have learned some new methods that just happened to restrain the Machinery Country."

Sierraon snorted coldly, "Just good luck."

"I officially object to your evaluation of his luck. Are you questioning my professionalism?" Secret Master said expressionlessly.

Sierraon was immediately at a loss for words, his face looking displeased. I was just being stubborn, do you have to call me out!

"Speaking of which, I don't know if I'm guessing right. The three Beyond Grade A weapons that the Machinery Country took out in the video later, are they the three guys we know?" Millizaus asked hesitantly.

As soon as he said this, the entire room was silent for a moment, and everyone's faces were a little strange.

These veteran Beyond Grade As naturally knew who the Machinery Country's former defeated opponents were, and some even had friendships with them.

At this time, looking at the familiar people who used to be acquaintances being suspected of being turned into living weapons by the Machinery Country, many people present did not feel good about it.

Although modifying lifeforms was not a taboo, it seemed out of place in the Beyond Grade A circle, because everyone possessed great power. Once a guy who used living beings for modification appeared, all Beyond Grade As would be more or less wary of this person, fearing being treated as prey.

"I saw Black Star capture two of them in the video. When he comes later, we can ask him about it," Kant said, shrugging.

Just then, another projection descended not far away. Everyone turned to look.

"Yo, speak of the devil, the guy's here."