Chapter 568: Exile Across the Void, Yunxiao No.1

Within a magnificent and ancient palace, dense black mist swirled. A towering figure sat high upon a throne, exuding an aura so powerful that it reverberated through the void.

When the two middle-stage Ninth Heavenly Realm archbishops were obliterated by Chen Chu, the black mist around the towering figure churned violently, and a low, resonant voice sounded.

"Talor... they’re dead."

Sitting on the throne, Gai—his colossal form akin to a mountain—gazed indifferently.

In the Giant Cult, even among the Ninth Heavenly Realm believers, few had reached such heights of power. They had been on the verge of transforming into quasi-divine holy spirits. Thus, Gai was able to keenly sense the moment of their deaths.

Boom!

Gai stretched out a massive hand. The air before him trembled as black demonic qi surged, shattering the spatial fabric. Deep within the void, a fragmented phantom emerged.

Using himself as a beacon and guided by faith, Gai forcefully retrieved the soul remnant of the Ninth Heavenly Realm expert whose body had been shattered by Chen Chu’s casual strike. The expert’s lingering will had not yet fully dissipated.

The Ninth Heavenly Realm marked the transition from mortal to divine. The body was extraordinarily resilient, and the soul and will were incredibly robust. Even after being slain, traces of them would endure for a long time.

It was much like when a king-level expert perished, and the manifestation of their laws lingered in the form of phenomena, such as the Blood Moon. The transcendent energy of the land where they fell would remain rich for ages, and their laws would not easily dissipate.

"With Talor’s strength, it would require at least a peak Ninth Heavenly Realm expert to slay him. Could it be that the Federation has sent a quasi-divine expert to meddle?"

With the resonant hum of his voice, black light waves rippled around Gai and instantly dissolved the soul remnants, which coalesced into a faint, blurry image. Within the indistinct image, a figure clad in black and red battle armor gradually emerged.

As one of the experienced gods of the cults, Gai possessed not only immense cultivation, but also a plethora of methods for accomplishing things.

Over the years, while the Federation expanded its explorations of the mythical world, the cult had likewise unearthed numerous relics of ancient civilizations. They had even conducted transactions with the gods of alien races within the Alliance of Gods.

To these alien deities, neutral human kings and the cult’s gods were indistinguishable. As long as there was profit to be made, deals could be struck.

Such exchanges often involved fragments of their power systems, secret arts, or resource swaps. These dealings were also one of the reasons behind the formation of the Alliance of Gods.

However, just as Gai attempted to discern the appearance of the one who had slain his subordinates through the remnants of the believer’s soul, a pair of black-gold vertical pupils suddenly appeared.

Boom!

A terrifying power tore through the void. Guided by an ethereal reverse-trace, a black-and-white passage spanning over a hundred meters ripped open.

The horrifying force of exile sent tremors throughout the palace. Under the sixteenfold amplification of void principles, the overwhelming pull caused even Gai’s expression to change slightly.

"Begone!" Gai roared, unleashing a fearsome power that surpassed even the peak of mythical level. In an instant, demonic might surged, shaking the heavens and earth.

The rolling demonic force behind Gai coalesced into a towering phantom that seemed to block out the sky. A massive hand covered in black scales descended from above, cradling a black mountain. Carrying the might to annihilate everything, it smashed down onto the dimensional rift.

Boom!

Under the crushing force of the mountain, the dimensional passage shattered. The strike caused the surrounding space to collapse, creating a devastating impact that obliterated everything in its wake.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Countless runes on the towering palace walls flared brightly before shattering under the shockwave. The ground quaked as the palace crumbled, and clouds of dust billowed in all directions.

As a peak mythical-level expert, Gai’s strength was monstrous, especially under the added might of the Divine Region. With a single strike, he destroyed the Void Exile’s dimensional rift.

However, as he stared at the ruined main hall before him, Gai’s expression darkened.

He hadn’t expected that the one aiding those Federation spies would turn out to be a king. It seemed that the Federation had already uncovered his plans, forcing him to temporarily abandon them.

***

On the summit of a mountain thousands of meters tall, a black rune resembling an eye on Chen Chu’s forehead gradually dimmed, and the black-gold vertical pupils in his eyes slowly receded.

Chen Chu spoke calmly, "The Sky-Lifting Giant God Gai, is it?"

Earlier, upon sensing an unknown entity observing him, Chen Chu had used his spiritual perception to locate the source and activated the Void Death Pupil, engaging the god across vast distances with a single strike.

That strike consumed 90% of the void energy stored within his dual-pupils. Enhanced by void principles, its power was enough to banish an ordinary mythical king into the void.

The only counter to such a force was mastery over spatial or void principles—or the use of overwhelming brute strength to shatter the dimensional rift.

With his cultivation now having reached the Ninth Heavenly Realm, Chen Chu’s essence had transformed into that of an Innate Demon God. His power grew increasingly extraordinary, faintly akin to the immortals and gods of legend.

Turning his gaze toward the depths of the Alliance of Gods, Chen Chu's voice grew cold. "If you come again, I’ll kill you."

Roar!

Several thousand kilometers away from the Jingtai Immortal Region, the distant forest quaked as colossal beasts, some level 5, 6, and even 7, charged toward Chen Chu’s location with ferocious, bloodthirsty intent.

Hovering beside him was a dark red bottle that emanated a blood-colored glow, runes flashing at its mouth. It released a pungent aura of blood—a clear manifestation of the Divine Lure Liquid.

According to his map, another ten thousand kilometers south would take him beyond the borders of the Alliance of Gods. After that, a journey of over twenty thousand kilometers—crossing seven hazardous forbidden zones and bypassing four other perilous areas—would finally bring him back to the Thirtieth Legion's base.

Chen Chu considered himself fortunate this time. After being swept into a void storm, he had ended up near the outer edges of the Alliance of Gods, not too far from human territory. On his return journey, he planned to hunt a few mutated beasts to collect Life Crystals.

Currently, with his main body having advanced to the Ninth Heavenly Realm, the integration of his cultivation arts, innate abilities, and runes had lessened the immediate demand for attribute points. Only the Space-Time Summoning Secret Art still had room for enhancement.

However, while his main body required fewer resources at the moment, his avatar still had an immense need for attribute points—tens of thousands of them.

Of the six remaining top-level innate abilities, each required 50,000 points to be enhanced to the divine transformation level. In particular, the Gigantification ability demanded a staggering 150,000 points.

He even had a premonition: once he broke through to the mythical level, the attribute page of his soul ability—as an extension of his soul—would undergo a significant transformation as well.

While lost in thought, Chen Chu became aware of over a thousand mutated beasts converging around him. Their sizes varied, and more than a hundred massive flying beasts with wingspans of dozens of meters swooped down from the sky.

As the closest flying beasts approached within a kilometer, a blue-white light wheel materialized behind Chen Chu's head.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In an instant, a boundless torrent of lightning erupted from the mountain peak, forming a blue-white spherical thunderstorm that radiated outward in all directions.

Wherever the lightning passed, the earth exploded, trees shattered and burned, and the mutated beasts let out terrified and agonized roars. Their once-impenetrable scales burst apart, their flesh torn to shreds.

The weaker level 5 and 6 beasts were obliterated instantly. Thunderbolts, over a meter thick, tore their bodies into multiple segments, leaving their wounds charred and emitting intense heat.

Within moments, the forest was ablaze, lightning rumbled in the sky, and the ground below was littered with incomplete, massive corpses of mutated beasts—a scene of utter devastation.

Standing on the scorched mountain peak, Chen Chu frowned slightly. This time, the number of beasts drawn in was underwhelming, and most were of low levels. Only one level 8 beast had appeared, along with a dozen level 7 ones.

"Have the level 9s and higher all been hunted or driven away?" Chen Chu mused thoughtfully.

In recent years, humanity had forged trade relations with certain neutral kings and alien deities within the Alliance of Gods, establishing a stable trade route. It passed through territories under the jurisdiction of neutral kings, safe from harassment by the Demon Cult Alliance.

Moreover, if any demon cultists ventured too close, they would be intercepted and annihilated by subordinates of several human deities.

The Alliance of Gods, as a neutral major power, maintained rules stating that while conflicts between deities were permitted, all deities must unite against external forces.

This arrangement also explained why the cult gods had managed to remain unchallenged for so long. Their domains were far from human bases and shielded by the Alliance of Gods. Additionally, they had formed covert alliances with alien deities and even demon kings of the Purgatory Clan, further solidifying their strength.

Amid the raging flames, Chen Chu's figure flitted swiftly between the mountain ranges, shattering the corpses of mutated beasts in search of Life Crystals.

After about an hour, he had collected twelve level 5 Life Crystals, one level 6, and one level 7 from the remains of over a thousand mutated beasts. His silhouette then shot into the sky.

Boom!

At an altitude of tens of thousands of meters, fierce winds howled around Chen Chu. Sonic booms echoed as he streaked across the sky, leaving behind a hundred-meter-long trail of energy before vanishing beyond the horizon in an instant.

On the road ahead, Chen Chu refrained from deploying the Divine Lure Liquid again—the returns simply weren't worth it.

Not only were there no colossal beasts above level 8 in this trade route, but even the blue sun overhead appeared abnormal.

Under its cold, eerie glow, the mutated beasts had grown sluggish and calm, far less responsive to the Divine Lure Liquid's effects, which significantly reduced its efficacy.

This left Chen Chu with two options: delve deeper into the mythical world to specifically hunt mutated beasts and harvest Life Crystals, or head directly to the frontlines.

If he killed enough Purgatory Demon Clan entities—perhaps even a demon king or two—the merits he earned could be exchanged for the crystals required to enhance the Thunder Fiery Demonic Dragon’s[1] abilities.

Although an individual legion base held only a limited stock of high-level crystals, what if the reserves of the Federation’s major empires and legion bases were pooled?

***

Under the blue sunlight, after flying for most of the day, Chen Chu finally arrived at the Thirtieth Legion's base. Using his identity verification, he passed directly over the base without stopping.

His first stop was Passage One's Base City to pick up a delivery.

Deep within the headquarter’s central facility, Blade King Mu Jun, who was meditating, suddenly opened his eyes when Chen Chu flew over, then calmly closed them again.

Following the directions on his smart watch's map and aligning with the coordinates provided by base relay stations, Chen Chu flew an additional six thousand kilometers before finally arriving at Base City.

In this sprawling, bustling, futuristic city filled with a sci-fi ambiance, transport planes and fighter jets soared overhead, alongside colossal flying beasts with wingspans stretching hundreds of meters.

At that moment, the clouds above tore apart, forming a hole. A black figure descended with astonishing speed.

[Identity verification complete. Welcome, Major General Chu. Please follow the signal to the Fifth Construction Base to retrieve your custom fighter jet.]

On a five-hundred-meter-tall skyscraper rooftop, a middle-aged man in military uniform smiled warmly as he greeted the descending black-haired youth.

"Greetings, Major General Chu. I’m Li Lin, responsible for the handover of your fighter jet."

Chen Chu nodded calmly. "Sorry for the trouble."

Li Lin quickly shook his head. "Not at all, not at all."

This young officer, with his rank of Major General and the privilege of a custom king-level fighter jet, commanded both respect and awe. Despite his restrained aura and mild demeanor, Li Lin dared not slacken.

The two descended into the depths of the base via elevator, quickly arriving at a massive underground hangar.

Inside rested a fighter jet resembling a futuristic warship. It spanned over seventy meters in length, with a wingspan exceeding fifty meters.

Its design was both sleek and intimidating, painted in a dominant black and red color scheme. Two pairs of wings adorned the craft—larger and wider ones at the front, with smaller ones at the rear.

"Major General Chu, this fighter jet is constructed from the mythical-grade armor and bones of a colossal beast from our reserves, reinforced with alloys boasting high energy conductivity. The internal space of the jet has been expanded to seventeen times its apparent volume, divided into propulsion, defense, and offense modules.

"The propulsion system features dual modes: a crystal core reactor and a nuclear fusion reactor.

"The crystal core reactor is more suitable in transcendent energy-rich environments like the mythical world. The jet can sustain normal flight by absorbing ambient energy, with the reactor’s reserves only depleting during bursts of high-speed movement.

"In energy-scarce environments, it switches to the nuclear fusion reactor, with its current fuel sufficient for sixty years of full-speed operation."

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Li Lin gestured toward a storage compartment. "Additionally, a tenth of the jet’s space is allocated for nuclear fuel reserves, enabling continuous operation for over a millennium without concerns about power shortages.

"To complement this, the jet is equipped with solar, thermal, and cosmic radiation energy absorption systems for kinetic energy conversion, ensuring its functionality in the Blue Planet’s space environment. The control system supports both manual and AI-assisted operation, while the offensive systems are divided into physical and energy-based weaponry.

"The physical arsenal includes state-of-the-art supersonic missiles incorporating crystalline energy and rune technology, such as anti-air, anti-ground, and bunker-buster missiles, each with immense destructive potential.

"The onboard armory also contains twenty nuclear weapons: small-scale three-hundred-kiloton, medium-scale one-megaton, and large-scale five-megaton strategic hydrogen bombs. Larger, more devastating weapons fall under restricted categories and require special authorization."

"As for energy-based weapons, the jet is equipped with four high-energy beam secondary cannons and a primary Particle Annihilation Cannon. When fully charged, the Cannon can threaten even an ordinary mythical-level entity, rivaling the power of a five-megaton crystalline hydrogen bomb.

"The defensive module is anchored by the colossal beast’s innate laws, paired with the crystal core reactor, and can form a spatial energy shield capable of withstanding peak level 9 attacks.

"For your convenience, Major General, the entire jet—including its missiles—has been integrated with subspace technology. In everyday scenarios, it can be compacted into a subspace bracelet, ready for deployment whenever required..."

Li Lin proceeded to explain the detailed specifications of the fighter jet to Chen Chu. After covering most of the details, he finally asked, "Major General Chu, the next step requires you to name this fighter jet and imprint your spiritual will onto its control system core to activate it."

"A name, huh?" Chen Chu pondered briefly before replying, "Let’s call it Yunxiao—Yunxiao No.1."

The moment he confirmed the name, a dragon-shaped emblem encircling crossed swords lit up beneath the jet, while the cockpit at the front, resembling a pair of glowing eyes, also came to life.

Clank! Clank!

The massive hangar doors slowly opened, revealing the jet’s sleek design, with its interwoven black and dark red hues exuding a menacing aura.

Whoosh!

With a burst of blazing energy streams, the sinister-looking dark red fighter jet ascended into the air.

Boom!

A sonic boom erupted as the jet accelerated to supersonic speed. Its velocity increased rapidly, soon reaching Mach 10 as it streaked toward the Abyssal Battlefield, over 15,000 kilometers away.

1. This is a short version of Thunder Fiery Destructive Heavy Armored Demonic Dragon. ☜