In the atmosphere, a D2-class spaceship plunged downward at high speed.
Seated in the cockpit was a tall, powerfully built lizardman with brown skin and scales covering his entire body.
"Bagoer died a year ago. I thought the killer would have fled long ago. Who knew he'd been hiding underground all this time?"
"The detector didn't find them before. Could there be some treasure underground that can block my scans?"
The tall man gazed underground, his vertical pupils brimming with greed.
He had been stuck at Universe Level 9 for tens of thousands of years, unable to break through.
If he could obtain the treasure, he might be able to break through to Domain Lord Level and live another nine hundred thousand years.
Just as the lizardman was imagining his wonderful future, a dazzling blue light suddenly flared in front of the spaceship.
What is that?
The thought had barely surfaced in his mind when the blue light swallowed him whole.
The energy beam struck through the spaceship's bow, pierced its energy shield, tore through the hull, swallowed the man, and finally shot out through the stern into outer space.
Rumble!
The D2-class spaceship broke apart in midair, exploding into an enormous fireball.
The lizardman was blasted away without even a scrap remaining, as though he had never existed.
Even at the moment of his death, he never knew what attack had killed him.
In the underground cavern, the muzzle of the D5-class railgun glowed red-hot.
"Master, no signs of life detected. The target is dead!"
Feiluan spoke cheerfully from beside him.
Chu Yuan nodded, his eyes calm. He had expected this outcome.
A D5-class railgun could kill even a Domain Lord Level 5 expert with a single shot if they were careless, let alone a mere Universe Level 9.
Its astronomical price of 260 billion Universe Coins was no joke. Only such terrifying power could justify that price.
Gulp.
The six Universe Level 8 bodyguards beside him swallowed simultaneously.
"Just like that, he's dead?"
"That was a Universe Level 9 expert!"
They looked at Master Chu, then at the D5-class railgun's glowing red muzzle, their eyes filling with profound awe and fear.
Earlier, they had braced themselves as though facing a formidable enemy, even mentally preparing themselves for death.
Who could have imagined that, in the time it took to turn their heads, the enemy would be dead, blasted into nothing by a single shot?
From beginning to end, their master had only spoken a single sentence.
A D5-class railgun-so terrifying!
That was the only thought left in the six bodyguards' minds.
Before such advanced technological weapons, even a Universe Level 9 expert was merely an ant that could be killed at will.
"There may be an even larger organization behind this Universe Level 9 warrior. This place isn't safe. We're leaving immediately."
Chu Yuan put away the Dragon Abyss spaceship and the palace of Guiyan stone essence. The seven of them burst through the surface and piloted a spaceship out of the atmosphere.
Only after entering the Dark Universe did Chu Yuan breathe a sigh of relief.
Coordinates in the Dark Universe corresponded to those in the Primal Universe at a ratio of 10,081,000 to 1.
Below the Immortal Level, once someone entered the Dark Universe, pursuers would find it very difficult to catch up.
On the twelfth day after Chu Yuan left, a D-class spaceship landed on Planet GR-2584.
A lizardman stepped out of the spaceship. The aura he radiated far surpassed Universe Level 9. He was unmistakably a Domain Lord expert.
The man found the wreckage of the spaceship destroyed by the railgun, his expression utterly grim as he examined it.
"Who was bold enough to do this? They actually dared to kill Kaku! Didn't they know he was my subordinate-Modu's subordinate?!"
Modu carefully analyzed the wreckage with his Intelligent Optical Computer. "The damage was caused by a pure energy attack. To pierce a D2-class spaceship and blast Kaku to death, the killer used a railgun!"
"Even the cheapest D-class railgun costs tens of billions of Universe Coins. What extravagant spending!"
Even as a Domain Lord Level 6 expert, his entire fortune did not amount to tens of billions of Universe Coins.
"Using a railgun to attack rather than striking personally means the killer is still weak. If I can find him, I'll have a chance to seize his wealth."
Greed suddenly surged in the lizardman's icy vertical pupils.
"You dared to offend me, Modu, in the Radiance Empire. Your life has reached its end!"
He activated his Intelligent Optical Computer and issued an order. "Retrieve the final footage recorded by Kaku's subsidiary intelligence."
Modu was a high-ranking member of the organization, and Kaku was his subordinate. Modu had permission to retrieve all the data recorded by Kaku's intelligence.
The video played. On the screen, the spaceship plunged downward, a burst of blue suddenly lit up, and then the image instantly went black.
The video was utterly useless. After a moment's thought, Modu issued another order. "Retrieve the final video footage recorded by Bagoer's subsidiary intelligence."
Kaku had died because Bagoer had died, and Kaku had come to investigate.
Then what had caused Bagoer's death?
The video played. An enemy killed Bagoer instantly with a single blade strike, after which another spirit reader slaughtered the thousand-strong slave guard.
Rewinding the footage farther, Modu found a recording of the Dragon Abyss spaceship entering the GR Star System.
"That's the spaceship!"
Modu's eyes instantly lit up, their murderous gleam fully exposed.
He contacted someone by video. On the screen, a man bowed respectfully. "Lord Modu."
Modu ordered coldly, "Kaku is dead. Use my authorization and devote every effort to tracking down the spaceship in the data. I want to know where this spaceship is and who its owner is!"
"You have three months. If you can't find it, you can join Kaku in the grave!"
"As you command, Lord Modu!"
After ending the call, Modu shot into the sky and hovered ten thousand meters above the ground. Gathering his Genetic Origin Energy to its fullest, he hurled a vicious punch downward.
His Gene Force struck like a falling meteor, piercing the layers of crustal rock and instantly unleashing incomparably terrifying power.
Rumble!
Mountain ranges collapsed, the ground shattered, and stone turned to magma.
With the point of impact at their center, shock waves and magma spread rapidly, flattening everything until they covered every corner of the planet's surface.
The surface of an entire planet was completely destroyed just like that.
If any life existed on the planet, then all life on it would now face total extinction!
Chu Yuan knew nothing of this. He was traveling through the Dark Universe.
Inside the Dragon Abyss spaceship, Chu Yuan sat cross-legged, flames coiling around him and surging back and forth, obeying his will as readily as his own limbs.
After a long while, Chu Yuan opened his eyes.
"At this rate of cultivation, in just a few years, I'll be able to break through to Domain Ninth Level, or even cross the threshold of the Fire Origin Law."
Crossing the threshold of a Lower Origin Law at the Star Level made one a star-sector-level genius.
And by then, Chu Yuan would still be under forty.
Given a little more time, he would definitely become a race-level genius.
He entered the Virtual Universe and returned to his home in Reynolds City.
Chu Yuan found his inbox crammed with messages. Seventy-six were from his eldest brother, twenty-nine from his second brother, and his third brother and other friends had each sent several as well.
His eldest brother's messages all asked whether something had happened to him, where he was now, and the like. His anxiety was evident in his tone.
His second brother's messages were much the same.
Chu Yuan had spent the past year refining the Fire Origin Divine Fruit without entering the Virtual Universe, and both his older brothers had been worried about his safety.
Chu Yuan immediately sent replies to his eldest and second brothers, telling them he was fine and that they need not worry.
As for his third brother, he had come to ask Chu Yuan for a loan.