More than a dozen figures charged at Qian Yu at once.
Qian Yu was incredibly fast. Centuries of brutal fighting had made his combat skills terrifying, not to mention the suppression of his realm!
He seemed to teleport, and in the next instant, every one of those guards was instantly defeated!
Pathetically weak. All of them were ants!
Setas's pupils contracted sharply as he turned and fled.
Yet in the next moment, Qian Yu appeared directly in front of him.
"Wha..."
Before Setas could finish speaking—
Boom!!
A violent force slammed into his abdomen!
"Puh...!"
Setas sprayed out a mouthful of blood, his body curling like a shrimp.
Yet before he could be sent flying, Qian Yu had already reached out, seized him by the throat, and forcibly yanked him back.
"No... no..."
Setas desperately clawed at Qian Yu's fingers, his eyes filled with terror.
"Spare... spare me..."
Qian Yu said nothing, merely looking at him coldly.
His spiritual sense swept over him.
In the next instant, an exquisite Space Ring flew off Setas's finger and landed in Qian Yu's hand.
"You have a Space Ring too?"
Qian Yu glanced at him and casually put the ring on his own hand.
His spiritual sense entered it. After a brief search, he found a sleek silver-white spaceship resting quietly in the depths of the ring's storage space.
The corner of Qian Yu's mouth curved upward.
"Transfer ownership of the spaceship to me."
He stared into Setas's eyes, enunciating every word.
"I'll give you three seconds."
"Refuse, and die!"
"One."
"Transfer it, transfer it, transfer it!"
Setas screamed frantically.
"Transfer ownership! Hurry! Hurry!"
His auxiliary intelligence appeared instantly, and a beam of light swept across Qian Yu and the Space Ring.
"Ownership transfer complete."
Qian Yu smiled.
He lowered his head and looked at Setas's face, twisted by terror.
A trace of hope flashed through Setas's eyes. "You... you promised not to kill—"
Crack.
Qian Yu snapped his neck without hesitation.
Setas's eyes widened round, disbelief and venom forever frozen upon his face. His body went limp, utterly lifeless.
Qian Yu released him, letting the corpse slide to the ground as flames blossomed in his hand.
Boom!
Crimson flames instantly engulfed Setas's corpse. Within a few breaths, they reduced it to ash, leaving only a small scattering of black dust drifting to the ground.
Qian Yu turned and walked out of the hall.
Outside, flames still burned. Thick smoke billowed through the collapsed ruins of the slave camp, and the air was filled with the mingled stench of scorched flesh and blood.
The entire Red Cloud Star had fallen into complete chaos.
Qian Yu slowly walked out of the palace. The sky was crimson, and starlight fell over him, making his eyes seem chillingly cold. He raised a hand.
The Space Ring flashed faintly.
The next moment—
Boom!!
A sleek silver-white spaceship abruptly appeared in the open space.
It was around three hundred meters long, its hull gleaming with a cold metallic sheen. Its hatch opened automatically. Without looking back, Qian Yu stepped inside. The hatch closed behind him, and he entered the cockpit.
The auxiliary intelligence lit up with a gentle glow.
"Master, the spaceship has been bound."
"Currently located on Red Cloud Star's surface. Would you like to take off?"
Qian Yu sat down, his spiritual sense sweeping through the spaceship's internal structure.
A standard C6-Class Spaceship.
It could enter the Dark Universe.
Enough.
"Take off."
Boom!!
The ground suddenly caved in as the spaceship rose vertically into the air! Violent shockwaves overturned the surrounding ruins and spread outward.
The surveillance satellites above the planet immediately locked onto the target.
But no one could stop it. Seconds later, the spaceship broke through the atmosphere, and Red Cloud Star rapidly shrank in view.
Qian Yu leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.
After hundreds of years, this damned life of slavery had finally come to an end!
"Destination: away from the Cui Lang Starfield."
"Maximum acceleration."
"Prepare to enter the Dark Universe."
"Yes."
The spaceship's engines roared as it accelerated, then accelerated again, breaking past the light-speed threshold.
Buzz. Space distorted, and the spaceship abruptly vanished from normal space, entering the Dark Universe.
Less than half an hour after the spaceship disappeared.
Outside Red Cloud Star's orbit.
Space trembled faintly.
A dark crimson spaceship warped into view.
A clear emblem of a burning Firefeather was visible upon its hull.
It was a spaceship of the Fire Phoenix Organization. Inside the ship—
A middle-aged man clad in black battle armor stood with his hands behind his back. He was a Cosmic Level Third Order powerhouse of the Fire Phoenix Organization.
His gaze was cold and stern.
"Confirm that the signal source is on this planet?"
"Yes, sir. Before Setas's life signal vanished, it emitted an abnormal fluctuation."
"Land."
The spaceship slowly descended toward Red Cloud Star.
A moment later.
They stepped into the ruins, where traces of Qian Yu's earlier battle still remained.
The Cosmic Level powerhouse crouched down and brushed his fingers across the scorched ground.
"A slave escaped and broke free of control."
He looked up.
"Pull up the surveillance footage."
Very soon, a holographic projection unfolded, and the footage began replaying.
Qian Yu's breakthrough, eruption, self-destruction of his head, regeneration, killing, slaughter.
Charging into the palace, snapping a neck, burning the corpse.
Taking the ship, leaving.
The image froze on that raised middle finger.
The air fell silent.
The Adam's apples of several Stellar Level guards beside him bobbed.
"His head was crushed, yet he could regenerate... a Domain Lord?"
The Cosmic Level man narrowed his eyes.
"Impossible."
"If he were a Domain Lord, Setas would never have been qualified to own him. If he is a Domain Lord now, then he must have been Cosmic Level Ninth Order before. But the records show that this slave was only Stellar Ninth Order previously."
"Besides... a Domain Lord would not need to run."
He slowly rose to his feet.
"He only just broke through to the Cosmic Level. He survived having his head destroyed... could it be some special lifeform talent?"
After a moment of silence.
He spoke in a low voice.
"The Slave Chip failed, and he destroyed his own body before reconstructing it. That suggests he most likely possesses an ability similar to an externally attached Core Nucleus."
His expression darkened.
"This is troublesome."
The Fire Phoenix Organization had controlled the outer regions of the Cui Lang Starfield for years.
There had never been a case of a slave escaping after a breakthrough.
This was the first.
And he was no ordinary slave.
He was the arena's ace, a Stellar Ninth Order who had broken through to the Cosmic Level and possessed bizarre regenerative abilities.
"Gather personnel and search for this slave."
"Report to our superiors."
"The classification..."
He paused.
"A C-Class Anomaly Incident."
The people beside him paled slightly.
C-Class.
It meant the matter had entered the organization's internal investigation process. If it was mishandled, the management of the outer starfields would be held accountable.
"Yes, sir."
Two months later.
Beyond the Cui Lang Starfield, in the neighboring Clear Mist Starfield.
Blue Mist Star.
This was a highly developed life planet, more than three times the diameter of Red Cloud Star. Hundreds of space stations and satellite defense arrays densely filled its outer orbit.
In space.
A silver-white streak of light emerged from the Dark Universe.
Buzz... Space trembled.
Qian Yu's spaceship reappeared in the Original Universe.
Ahead lay a massive planet woven from deep blue and emerald green.
"You have arrived at Blue Mist Star, the core planet of the Clear Mist Starfield."
"Would you like to apply for docking guidance?"
Qian Yu opened his eyes.
"Apply."
A moment later, the official intelligence confirmed his identity and the spaceship's class.
"Registration number complete."
"C6-Class private spaceship cleared for docking."
"Please shut down autonomous power and connect to the planetary core guidance system."
Before you continue