The starry sky, boundless and profound, was like an unchanging tapestry of ages.
Within the tapestry, a tiny speck of dust was slowly navigating.
This was, once again, the Dimensional Palace ship.
"The universe beyond the realm is too vast."
According to his understanding, the Twisted Realm and tens of millions of ordinary worlds together constituted this universe.
The Twisted Realm was the absolute core of the universe.
The Twisted Realm was incredibly vast and was constantly expanding, devouring all worlds it touched.
The starry sky outside the Twisted Realm was not dangerous; unlike the spatial rifts where one had to constantly endure the invasion of spatial turbulence, this expanse of stars was incredibly vast, larger than the Twisted Realm itself. Thus, Tutor Fang had chosen the fastest mode of transport currently available – the Dimensional Palace ship.
He sat within the palace, setting the predetermined course with his will, and then began to cultivate.
He performed several sets of the Myriad Beasts Body Tempering technique and then consecutively used twenty to thirty cultivation cards on the Nirvana Sacred Fire skill.
Milky-white flames erupted from his body's surface. His bones and muscles resonated in unison, and his cells were slowly undergoing metamorphosis.
After entering the cultivation space dozens of times, Fang You's face showed a hint of fatigue. He ceased strenuous cultivation and instead began to ponder the construction of his demigod manifestation.
This was a highly technical endeavor.
It not only involved the foundation of a demigod, the strength of its divinity, but also was closely related to the knowledge the demigod possessed.
— A semiliterate could not construct a compliant Dharma manifestation.
Fang You was, in a way, a top student, and he possessed top-tier knowledge from the Kandra Empire, so constructing a Dharma manifestation was not difficult for him.
Combining his own foundation, Myriad Beasts Body Tempering, Mountain and River Contemplation, and the Tree of Life, he intended to construct what he named the 'World Dharma Manifestation'.
This manifestation prioritized endurance and life energy, being slightly weaker in offense.
However, Tutor Fang did not lack offensive power; what he lacked was endurance and resilience. He would burn World Power as fuel to amplify his skills, consuming both World Power and a large amount of his own energy.
When dealing with the Mire Lord, if his life energy had been even slightly more abundant, he would not have had to conclude the engagement after only a few moves. He could have directly crushed the Mire Lord.
"In short, if I want endurance, I'll proceed with this plan."
The rest was a matter of meticulous effort.
...
The starry sky beyond the realm was vaster than imagined. All that met the eye was 'nothingness'—no danger, no change, no treasures, nothing at all.
The only colors present were the faint 'world light particles' that could occasionally be seen at the edge of vision.
Those were the external worlds.
Fang You sat in the Dimensional Palace ship, gazing and observing these passing worlds from a distance of millions of miles across the cosmic river.
Worlds possessed barriers, repelling all external things.
Without any preparation, he could not transform and enter these external worlds. However, if he merely projected a wisp of his gaze, the barriers of ordinary worlds could not stop him.
Wisp after wisp of gaze was cast towards various parts of the starry sky.
Initially, he was full of novelty, but after seeing a lot, he found it to be just the same.
"The external worlds can each be considered living planets, but only a minority have given rise to civilizations within. And of these civilizations, 99% are quite backward."
Before the mysterious descent, Blue Star's civilization level was already capable of overpowering these worlds.
These civilizations were mostly human-dominated. Non-human civilizations were also rare; he only discovered one world that had given rise to intelligent life similar to goblins, forming tribal societies.
As for truly outstanding worlds with special technologies or cultivation legacies, he had not found a single one.
This was normal.
There was a pattern in the external worlds: only higher-level worlds had the opportunity to give rise to higher civilizations. Of course, even higher civilizations were no match for the evil gods.
The core of the universe remained the Twisted Realm.
To deal with the twisted evil, one could only seek help from the mysterious forces intimately related to them.
But as of now, he had no clue how to deal with the unspeakable evil gods.
The only two clues were the God-Slaying War of the Kandra Empire, and it seemed that in ancient times, the ancient gods had also fought a war against the newly descended evil gods.
"As long as one's strength is sufficient, one can crush all calamities and evils. Upon reaching the tenth realm and standing at the pinnacle of the mystical path, perhaps I will discover something."
However, let alone the tenth realm, even the ninth realm seemed currently unattainable.
Cultivation could not be rushed.
To rapidly enhance the strength of his organization, Tutor Fang's first thought was...
"God-Slaying Weapons!"
The Sequence 09 War Puppet - Shallow Red and the Sequence 13 Lord of the Realm's Hand provided him with significant assistance.
The former was currently the backbone of the team's combat power.
The latter allowed Fang You to seal himself as a high-tier combatant, and the Lord of the Realm's Hand's utility extended far beyond combat.
He wanted to collect God-Slaying Weapons.
At the very least, he couldn't just wait for draws.
He suspected that most God-Slaying Weapons could not be obtained through drawing and that he must start from the Kandra ruins.
This would be a medium to long-term goal for the Spark organization.
He attempted to manipulate the River of Fate for 'Revelation,' but it was in vain.
Fate Revelation could be considered a high-level method of divination and astrology, but the principle was similar. If he wanted to obtain revelations, he needed at least related dependencies and to fulfill various prerequisite conditions.
To reveal 'parts of Shallow Red,' Shallow Red was the best connecting bridge.
To reveal 'the location of Scarlet Yan,' the contract was the most intimate connection.
As for the remaining 16 God-Slaying Weapons, well, he could not even inquire about the names of most of them.
In fact, many Overlord forces were completely unaware that the Kandra Empire had ever executed a God-Slaying plan. In their memory, the Kandra Empire had probably attempted to challenge an evil god and was then annihilated. Or, they had not challenged an evil god, but were still annihilated.
Since the Overlord forces could not be relied upon, he had to act himself.
As the first signs of the evil gods' awakening gradually subsided and calamities diminished, Spark had more abundant manpower. Fang You planned to arrange for a group of mythological workers to venture into dangerous and perilous places rarely tread by humans, to explore and uncover more secrets of the past.
He began to edit tasks and posted them on the organization's internal network.
...
The starry sky beyond the realm had no day or night.
If it weren't for the explicit navigation provided by Fate Revelation, he might have gotten lost in the deep space himself.
Even so...
"The journey is too far. The Dimensional Palace has been traveling for over half a month, and we still haven't reached our destination."
Fang You savored the delicacies left by An Jianyou in the palace, which had been stabilized in their state, while gazing at the unchanging starry scenery and sighing.
It wasn't entirely unchanging, though.
The starry sky was far from the twisted evils, but twisted evils still roamed here!
Tutor Fang had only discovered not long ago that twisted evils existed in the outer starry sky. Their numbers were small, and they were rare in the vast, boundless expanse of stars. However, any twisted evil roaming the starry sky started at the seven-star level and posed a significant threat.
During his travels these days, Fang You had eliminated seven twisted evils that he encountered.
"The deep space beyond the realm is indeed not a place of peace."
"I can transfer the position of Blue Star to seek a certain strategic safety space, but I cannot place all my safety on this."
"There is no retreat in confronting the calamities of the evil gods."
He thought, and then distantly saw a colossal world whose barrier shimmered with magnificent luster, emanating a vast and great power.
It was a high-level world, roughly equivalent to Blue Star after integrating a World Wonder Stone.
He thought.
Then, he widened his eyes and discovered a discordant black dot clinging to the world's barrier.
That wasn't a small black dot at all! It was a massive eight-star twisted evil. However, it appeared very small in front of the high-level world, like a fly stuck to the world's barrier.
It was sucking the world's power!
High-level worlds were immense in scale, even exceeding that of a high-tier existence in quantity. However, worlds lacked self-awareness, making it difficult to cleanse twisted evils attached to their outer walls.
Over long periods of consumption, an eight-star twisted evil could even drill a hole in the barrier of a high-level world and forcibly breach it from the outside.
Fang You did not know if similar situations had existed since ancient times, or if they were intensifying with the impending awakening of the evil gods.
He simply stepped out of the Dimensional Palace ship and onto the starry sky.
Endless golden light particles surged from his body's surface, swirling and dancing, and in the blink of an eye, they formed a towering giant that spanned heaven and earth.
He transformed into light!
Upon closer inspection, the head of the giant, enveloped in brilliant radiance, was remarkably realistic and exuded immense pressure. Its eyes burned with blazing golden flames. In comparison, the giant's torso, arms, and lower body were less refined and appeared somewhat ethereal.
The giant slowly extended its hand.
"Sword, come."
A legendary holy sword flew out, instantly growing to a size of several thousand meters, matching that of the giant.
Around it, one energy-forged yet incredibly real golden flying sword after another appeared. In a flash, they formed a vast river of gold.
As the giant pointed distantly, the golden sword river descended like a waterfall from the heavens, leaving a brilliant spectacle in the boundless starry sky.
The eight-star twisted evil, clinging to the world membrane and enjoying its feast, was awakened.
Its massive maw opened, thousands of pairs of compound eyes glinting with cruelty. But before this twisted evil could pounce, the golden sword river surged past it along the world's barrier.
It roared.
It struggled.
Its body began to crack, and its exterior turned to ash inch by inch under the onslaught of the sword river.
This terrifying eight-star twisted evil completely perished within the vast river of swords before it could even escape its range, leaving behind only a few scraps of material.
This was Fang You holding back; he had to be frugal.
"The river of swords, containing a bit of the law of severance, is indeed extraordinary in its might."
He was now capable of instantly killing an eight-star existence!
Recalling the past, when Xing Jinglei and a few others ventured deep into the Sea of Filth to fight, he had kept burning faith power with cheating, yet could only hold back one eight-star twisted evil.
In just a few years, he now possessed the power to instantly kill an eight-star existence in his normal state.
Even so...
"It's not fast enough."
"The evil gods are still out of reach. Cultivation still requires effort."
He recorded the coordinates of this high-level world, intending to have the reception team members like Yi Yueluoxi explore it later. Fang You then continued to control the Dimensional Palace ship, flying towards the place of revelation.
The twisted evils he encountered along the way seemed to be increasing.
There were also some broken asteroid belts in the deep space, and occasional spatial tidal waves.
"We're almost there."
"Will it be Scarlet Yan herself? Or perhaps just a clue? In what state is she now?"
Gazing at the gray representing death and the specks of light representing vitality on the interface, Fang You couldn't help but feel a twinge of worry.
He had pushed the Dimensional Palace ship's speed to its limit.
However, high-speed flight made concealment difficult, and he had attracted quite a few twisted evils along the way. There were seven-star and eight-star ones.
Tutor Fang did not act again.
"It's up to you, Little Ling."
"As you command, Boss."
He used the Nethermind Controller skill.
The secret puppet Little Ling was unsealed and entered a high-tier state.
Terrible tentacles danced in the depths of space. Even an eight-star twisted evil, if ensnared, would instantly dissolve.
This was the power of a high-tier!
Shallow Red remained at home, assisting Master Wang Chui with research.
As for the secret puppet, Fang You brought this combat force with him.
Within the organization, only he or An Jianyou could fully unleash the secret puppet's combat power. If the Ghost Controller skill was used, its power was insufficient to maintain it.
However, An Jianyou could only unleash it, not amplify it.
Her amplification of twisted evils required her to contract them.
With the secret puppet's unrivaled sweep, the Dimensional Palace's voyage was unimpeded.
He soon approached the golden exclamation mark on the map, his heart gradually tightening.
He noticed that the twisted evils were becoming more numerous.
Many twisted evils were flying in almost the same direction as his.
He had a premonition of something ominous.
"Faster."
Fang You gritted his teeth, drawing power from the Lord of the Realm's Hand and controlling the Dimensional Palace ship in a high-tier state. Instantly, the ship's speed increased tenfold.
His divine sense also spread out, his vision elevated, entering a high-tier state.
He saw it!
At the end of the boundless deep space, amidst dark nebulae, a maiden lay curled up quietly.
The maiden was flawless and perfect like white jade and glazed glass, surrounded by circles of profound and mysterious laws. There seemed to be some treasure above the laws hidden within.
This agitated the surrounding time and space, and also agitated dozens of seven-star and eight-star twisted evils.
A seven-star twisted evil suddenly pounced towards the curled maiden, opening its maw, larger than a mountain.
*Bang—*
The moment it touched the surrounding laws, this seven-star twisted evil exploded violently, turning into dust.
However, twisted evils never knew fear. They took turns, throwing themselves forward one after another towards the maiden enveloped by laws, their eyes, filled with destructive intent, revealing a hint of longing.
As they continuously impacted, the dense laws surrounding the maiden gradually weakened.
*Boom—*
The secret puppet made a move. It operated at full power, with thirty-six tentacles, thousands of meters long, extending from its back. They swept and grasped, annihilating a succession of powerful twisted evils.
But it was still too slow.
Fang You could not wait another moment.
He channeled World Power, and his body erupted in blazing white flames. Life energy surged, and a river of swords, a hundred or even a thousand times vaster than before, swept across the boundless deep space, crushing every twisted evil that lunged at the maiden.
Seven-star twisted evils instantly turned to ash.
Eight-star twisted evils struggled for a moment before also shattering.
They didn't even leave behind a speck of material, completely vanishing into the heavens and earth.
After a while,
Having annihilated several eight-star twisted evils and dozens of seven-star twisted evils, Fang You left the secret puppet to clean up the remaining twisted evils and guard the surroundings.
He took a deep breath and slowly flew forward, looking at the maiden's nearly half-missing limbs, he fell silent.
"I'm sorry, Master is late."