Several months earlier, Chen Beixun had landed in an ocean, hidden himself in the depths, and secretly observed the distribution of forces and the number of powerful fighters, while learning the natives' language.
The man of extraordinary origins whom Chen Beixun had killed belonged to the Sound-Direction Clan, which the other local races called the Ancient Emperor Clan. The power levels in this star system were divided as follows: the Transformation Realm (Apprentice Levels One to Nine), the Comprehension Realm (Planetary Levels One to Nine), the Dao Discussion Realm (Star Levels One to Nine), and the Ancient Emperor Realm (Universe Level).
The strongest on Dili Planet was only at Star Level Eight. The Sound-Direction Clan member who had been killed was merely at Planetary Level Seven.
Chen Beixun was very interested in a Sound-Direction Clan member named Luoduo. Though only at Planetary Level Two, he had already mastered the Sevenfold Domain.
Luoduo was an unparalleled genius among the Sound-Direction Clan. He had reached Planetary Level and comprehended a domain at the age of ten, then killed an opponent five minor levels above him at twelve. He had lived only fourteen years so far.
Luoduo had once nearly been poisoned to death at a clan banquet, but Chen Beixun had secretly intervened and helped him survive the crisis.
Inside the clan leader's palace in the Sound-Direction Clan's territory...
"My son, why hasn't he come back yet!" roared the burly, irritable man on the throne, as fierce as a black bear.
The elders below him all stayed silent.
Everyone in the Sound-Direction Clan knew that the clan leader's son, Xien, was violent, capricious, and lecherous, with a narrow mind. He was always suppressing the clan's gifted youngsters.
"The Holy Envoy will be here soon! Where has that good-for-nothing gone!" The clan leader was so furious he was about to explode.
In this small, enclosed world, the Sacred Assessment was a cause for celebration among countless people on Dili Planet. Anyone who passed the assessment could go to the underground world on Tianwen Planet and receive a mysterious inheritance!
At this point, they still didn't know that danger was approaching.
Forty thousand kilometers from the Sound-Direction Clan's territory.
"Once I've mastered Soul Control, I'll enslave that guy named Luoduo directly." Chen Beixun flew through the air, aiming to control the strongest person in the region.
"Master, I have important intelligence!" Chunqiu said. "I've already sent it to you."
"What is it?" Chen Beixun raised his arm and touched the metal plate on his bracer with two fingers.
The metal plate projected an image.
"A spaceship?!" he said in surprise, hovering in the air.
Chen Beixun stared at the reconnaissance footage Chunqiu had sent back and fell silent for a moment.
"Looks like I underestimated the level of civilization here. There must be an underground world," Chen Beixun thought.
Then he ordered, "Chunqiu, fire one shot from the small particle cannon. Rapid fire. I want them alive!"
"Understood!" Chunqiu replied excitedly.
Deep underwater...
Inside the spaceship's control room...
Chunqiu adjusted the various instruments, speaking excitedly.
"Preparing..."
A cannon with a triangular cone at its tip slowly rose from the spaceship.
"Three... two... one, fire!" Chunqiu shouted gleefully.
A speck of light rose from the ocean surface, then turned ninety degrees, like a meteor in the night.
The particle cannon was incredibly accurate. It was like throwing a needle from ten thousand kilometers away and sending it at the second cosmic velocity through a hole just a few millimeters wide, also ten thousand kilometers away.
In an instant, a speck of light streaked across the sky and struck the spaceship flying through the air.
There was a sharp clang.
The spaceship flying through the air was immediately blasted in two.
Meanwhile...
"Almost there!" Chen Beixun flew through the air.
In just a few seconds, he reached the crash site.
A man crawled out of the wreckage. He wore a white robe, now in tatters, and shouted up at the sky, "Who dares attack a Holy Envoy? Aren't you afraid Emperor Jing will punish you!"
Chen Beixun's eyes turned cold. Several flying blades appeared around him, and he swept his hand forward, sending them hurtling toward the man.
"Anti-Saint Alliance!" the Holy Envoy shouted.
The Holy Envoy was immediately blown to pieces. The smell of blood mixed with burning metal was truly revolting.
A woman in a white robe slowly crawled out of the wreckage. It seemed the earlier attack had knocked her unconscious, and she had only just come to.
"How crude. It's made of B3-grade metal." Chen Beixun stepped on the corpse of the man who had called himself a Holy Envoy.
"What's this Emperor Jing you mentioned?" Chen Beixun asked the barely living Holy Envoy, his tone arrogant.
"Who are you? Emperor Jing is my father!" the woman in white replied without beating around the bush.
"Good, good." Chen Beixun held out his hand, and an invisible force extended from his palm.
The Soul Secret Technique Chen Beixun practiced was called the Twilight Art. It had three volumes, each containing ten chapters and over six million words in total. According to the first volume, cultivating three crystals allowed one to search souls, while five allowed one to control someone and make them a Soul Slave.
The woman in white's life force plummeted. In moments, she was a corpse.
"Sigh, looks like I still need to work on my soul-searching skills." Chen Beixun shook his head.
"By the looks of it, this Emperor Jing is only at Universe Level Three or Four. The Demon Island Vine has already grown to Universe Level Seven," Chen Beixun thought.
With the Demon Island Vine as a powerful weapon, Chen Beixun naturally had nothing to fear from ordinary Universe Level fighters.
"But if there are high-level Universe Level fighters, I'll be in trouble."
"Emperor Jing is only a second-tier figure on Tianwen Planet. There are even stronger ones, like Emperor Ta and Emperor Mu."
"Fortunately, there are no Domain Lords. If there were, they'd have discovered me already." Chen Beixun thought to himself. Then he shot skyward and flew away like a streak of light.
Dili Planet was extremely backward technologically, while Tianwen Planet's technology was decent, having just entered the age of interstellar travel.
As Chen Beixun flew through the air, he thought:
"I should be cautious. These natives are poorly informed. It'll take a few days for news of the Holy Envoy's death to spread."
"And with Chunqiu's ability to lock down communications, I'll have no trouble taking care of everything here."
"First, I'll go to the Sound-Direction Clan and take Luoduo. Once I've refined the fifth crystal, I'll use the secret technique to enslave him."
He arrived there before long...
Above the Sound-Direction Clan's territory.
Chen Beixun hovered in the air, looking down below.
The Sound-Direction Clan's territory was bustling with people as it held a grand celebration.
Clearly, they had no idea what horror they were about to face.
"Sorry, Sound-Direction Clan. I'll make it up to you someday. Demon Island Vine!" he said coldly.
In an instant—
Countless crimson vines swept toward the Sound-Direction Clan's territory.
The vines blotted out the sky, occasionally snatching up isolated members of the Sound-Direction Clan.
Cries of terror rang without end. The shockwaves from the Demon Island Vine's rampage killed countless weaker members of the Sound-Direction Clan.
"Damn it, the Ancient Emperor Mirror!" Standing in front of the palace's arched entrance, the clan leader watched the scene with a face contorted in rage.
He was powerless and could only stare.
It was a massacre!
The Demon Island Vine currently had seventy-two vines, each a terrifying 1,450 kilometers long. The Sound-Direction Clan's territory was only a mere 250,000 square kilometers.
"Found you, Luoduo." Chen Beixun's eyes turned cold as he stared at the crowd fleeing in the distance.
Luoduo was among them, moving with the crowd in a panic.
Suddenly, an invisible giant hand reached into the crowd and grabbed Luoduo.
"Ah! Teacher, save me!" The sudden grasp of that strange force terrified Luoduo, and he immediately cried out.
"Luoduo!" A handsome man in the crowd panicked.
The youngest genius in the Sound-Direction Clan was a peerless talent whose name resounded through the ages. Countless elders had poured their hearts and souls into him, and the clan had invested tremendous resources in him, all in the hope that he could go to Tianwen Planet and receive the inheritance.
Tens of thousands of years ago, a Sound-Direction Clan leader had received an inheritance on Tianwen Planet and broken through to the Ancient Emperor Realm.
Having achieved his goal, Chen Beixun didn't linger. He flew off at top speed.
"This time, I abducted 1,520 members of the Sound-Direction Clan. That should be enough for my research." Chen Beixun flew through the air, quite excited.
To master Soul Control through the Twilight Art, he would have to conduct his research and cultivation on a large number of living beings.
The first volume of Soul Control required the practitioner to possess advanced techniques for penetrating the soul. Chen Beixun wasn't a bloodthirsty person, but the secret technique left him little choice. The Empire's laws forbade harming its citizens, but the planet where the Sound-Direction Clan lived was unclaimed territory, with no citizens to speak of. The irony was that Chen Beixun had once taken part in a war between two clans, joining as a mercenary.
Chen Beixun's side had won, then carried out a frenzied massacre of the defeated side. The Empire had turned a blind eye and done nothing; tens of millions of lives had been lost just like that.
That was when Chen Beixun had understood whom the laws were meant to protect—and that strength was always his most reliable shield.
"I'll buy some slaves to practice on after I get out," Chen Beixun thought.
He flew over the ocean, then plunged into the water.
In the depths of the ocean, aboard the spaceship.
"Strange. This star region is so poor in resources, yet it's given rise to so many Universe Level fighters. The underground world can't be any better. Could there be a supreme powerhouse's legacy?" Chen Beixun sat cross-legged on a fur rug, pondering.
"Too bad my soul-searching ability is poor. I didn't learn anything important from the Holy Envoy. It won't be long before Tianwen Planet's powerful fighters hear that the Holy Envoy has been killed. I need to make plans."
"Let's take stock. Tianwen Planet has six great nations, eight great temples, and three great inheritance grounds. As for powerful fighters, it has twelve Universe Level fighters, over a thousand Star Level fighters, nearly a hundred thousand Planetary Level fighters, and more than a billion Apprentices." Chen Beixun ran through the figures. "If I can control these natives, they'll be a tremendous asset."
He had lived for over three hundred years and developed a heart of iron—or, more accurately, he had become utterly cold-blooded. If someone lived that long and still acted like a saint, it would be a miracle if they survived.
"First, I'll condense the last crystal needed for Soul Enslavement." Chen Beixun frowned, then swept his hand out.
Whoosh!
A strange, brilliantly golden gemstone appeared in front of him. It floated above his head, and countless beams of light immediately sprang from it.
The gemstone Chen Beixun was using was a Gold Soul Stone. He had picked it up by chance in a remote area during the Universe Mercenary Assessment. It had taken him years of tinkering to learn a little about it.
The Gold Soul Stone's main purpose was to strengthen and repair the soul, making it more powerful.
The fifth crystal was much harder to form than the previous ones. Chen Beixun only succeeded after several attempts.