Du Zhaodi had not been possessed by He Luopo.
Even at the peak of her power, He Luopo had only been a high-ranking member of an Ascendant civilization.
Du Zhaodi, on the other hand, was the leader of an Ascendant civilization—and the queen of a mechanical insect race!
Who in the realm of consciousness would dare claim to be stronger than her?
Besides, this did not seem to be a Hongmen banquet either.
When "He Luopo" arrived, quite a few cosmic nobles merely glanced back, nodded slightly, and continued chatting among themselves.
It seemed that her arrival had elicited nothing more than a touch of surprise.
"This is... the Immortality Merchants' Association?"
Du Zhaodi dug this memory out of He Luopo's memories.
It was an organization whose entry requirement was to be both a cosmic noble and an immortal. Back then, He Luopo had exchanged for "The Cosmic Obituary," the "Immortality Project," and the "Mechanical Prison" through this organization.
Of course, the price of those exchanges had been the Wet River Civilization.
An entire civilization had been used as a sacrifice, becoming He Luopo's invitation into the organization.
"This organization... seems to do this quite often."
Du Zhaodi's gaze, cold as starlight, slowly swept over the beings in the hall known as "cosmic nobles."
The cosmic nobles took all sorts of forms. Some retained humanoid shapes, but their skin was as dense and smooth as neutron-star matter, with miniature galaxies swirling in their eyes. Some had abandoned flesh entirely, existing as pure vortices of energy or geometric crystal structures. Still others resembled moving silhouettes of starfields, with dramas of civilizations rising and falling constantly playing out within their outlines.
They conversed in low voices, using "concept waves" that acted directly upon the laws of reality. Every syllable contained vast amounts