Back in the day—no, in another timeline—the Overlord who looked like Shali had been besieged by the combined forces several times. They had used every kind of tactic they could think of: the mysterious, the technological, the biological, warships, psychics—even, of course, barriers that blocked certain spatial concepts.
Yet even so, the Swarm Overlord had escaped their cordons time and again, using this very Skybound Sacred Jade. This ancient treasure, which looked thoroughly ordinary, had single-handedly prolonged the "Swarm Calamity," which had ravaged the entire galaxy, by at least ten years.
Of course, whether it was the Swarm or the treasure, there were limits to what they could do against the combined might of the two hegemons. The Overlord eventually fell in 856. The planet where it had met its end was struck with neutron annihilation three times, to ensure every cell was broken down into particles. The last organized nest of the Swarm was wiped out a month later. Only then was the "Swarm Calamity," which had claimed trillions of lives, finally brought to an end.
They said the Skybound Sacred Jade had been shattered by Alliance psychics during the final campaign, denying the Overlord one last chance to escape.
Yu Lian truly had no idea what the truth was. He hadn't taken part in that battle, and had only heard from a friend that the Alliance and Empire psychics had nearly come to blows over the jade's fragments. Fortunately, the leaders on the scene had been level-headed enough to prevent that from happening.
It was also clear that the Skybound Sacred Jade, though capable of carrying people through space, could still cross certain spatial rifts considered impossible to traverse.
Back then, he'd used the thing to roam the military restricted zones of the imperial capital as if they