Xia Fei’s leg was in terrible pain, causing his face to become caked in sweat. He had actually been restraining this intense pain while saying goodbye to the Night siblings.

Returning to the command deck with a cold face, he exhaled and rolled up his pants leg.

A scar had appeared on his left leg! It was about the size of a fingernail and shaped like a rhombus. It was like a black piece of ice, radiating endless coldness that pierced through his bone marrow!

Xia Fei had sustained many injuries in his lifetime, and he could no longer keep track of them all, but this time was completely different, for this one was none other than Terror Genesis of the Five Immemorial Mystical Armaments!

The Six Waters of Terror Genesis had not followed the script. Xia Fei had believed that when he defeated Shui Shengsheng and Terror Genesis, he would get the chance to merge the water-type mystical armament with his plant-type mystical armament, but after his opponent was slain, Terror Genesis simply disappeared!

Zesyr Night and the others had seen Xia Fei pick up Chaos Water from a distance, but this had entirely been an accidental discovery. Xia Fei had actually been searching for Terror Genesis, only to spot Chaos Water Swiftblade, which had survived the Law of Primal Chaos’s attack. Thus, Xia Fei decided to pick it up and make it his own.

It was also at this moment that he began to feel a stabbing pain in his lower leg, as if an insect had gotten into his pants and taken a bite on his leg.

It was not very painful at first, but at this point, the pain had gotten so bad that even Xia Fei and his incredible resolve could no longer endure it. Thus, he hastily shooed off the Night siblings and returned to the Silver Specter for treatment.

As a master of one of the five Immemorial Mystical Armaments, Xia Fei knew that this injury had been inflicted by Terror Genesis. As for why the water-type mystical armament had unexpectedly not resisted and, instead, silently attached itself to Xia Fei’s body, he did not know.

In short, the Immemorial Mystical Armament did not follow the script. It was clearly of the water element, but Terror Genesis spent more time in its ice state. This was very strange. Had the sudden fusion of the five Immemorial Mystical Armaments caused a huge shift in nature? The water-type mystical armament was ice, so what about fire? Would it be lightning? What of Earth then? Would it be stone?

Xia Fei had always been good at thinking, and even though his body was in immense pain, he thought of so many things at once. The five mystical armaments were not existences of the universe he knew. They were too powerful and too mysterious, forcing him to think carefully about them.

Xia Fei grabbed several dozen bottles of medicine, all of them meant to repress pain, and downed them all at one go. What Xia Fei needed to do was hold out against the intense bouts of pain.

…

Very far from the Silver Specter, on the other end of the planet.

Qiu Yang stood next to a lake and entered it slowly.

The water was soon up to his waist; at which point, a wavering figure appeared on its surface. Upon a closer look, it turned out to be the face of a middle-aged man!

“Why did you stop me earlier? If you hadn’t, I would’ve surely succeeded. You said before that I should eliminate anyone with the ability to compete against me, so why did you suddenly change your mind right as I was about to do so?” Qiu Yang frowned as he asked the image.

The reflection’s mouth opened and closed, a raspy voice coming out. “Flaunting your intelligence too much will just hurt you sooner or later. Did you think that Xia Fei couldn’t see through your plan? You were inciting Anzu Night and Tian Jing against Xia Fei, but if a fight really broke out then, Xia Fei would most likely target you at all cost.”

Qiu Yang spoke carelessly. “Since I started it, I was naturally confident that I could contain him. You’re too cautious.”

The reflection in the water was Qiu Yang’s father, none other than the Peak Spiritualist who had emerged from the Collapsed Expanse of Founders and founded Heavenly Might Spirit School, the Alpha Universe’s illustrious Qiu Xingbang.

Qiu Yang was not meek at all even when speaking to his father. He did not address him with any honorifics, seemingly showing little respect for his father. This was not at all how he acted normally. While everyone knew him as a scion who flaunted his wealth, he was always polite and courteous. Alas, the people did not know about Qiu Yang’s other side. In private, he would even order around his father and was arrogant and conceited to the extreme.

Qiu Xingbang was rather angry, but he still restrained himself and said, “In short, don’t try to touch Xia Fei during this time. He hasn’t taken the anti-scanning medicine, but he’s been safe and sound in the Collapsed Expanse of Founders for seven days. There’s a very high chance that the system has designated him as part of the Fiend Clan and subsequently rejected.

“Fiend Clan! Again with the Fiend Clan,” Qiu Yang said coolly. “Those Fiends were forced into extinction long ago. How could Xia Fei have some connection with the Fiend Clan? What if he’s actually been accepted by the system? You said before that inside the system is a one-way path. If anyone runs into another, they must fight to the death. Wouldn’t it be better for me to deal with him earlier while I could borrow external help? With me not doing it then, he’s bound to trouble me in the future. His ability to calculate and plan, along with his ruthlessness, are all on par with me.”

“You’re underestimating the God-Demon System, which is linked to the Collapsed Expanse of Founders, too much. The system will intentionally avoid making the warriors with the greatest potential meet too early. There are tens of millions of paths, and there’s no telling who will be sent where. Back then, I was just a nobody Law God, but because I walked the correct path, I experienced a skyrocket advancement and ultimately became the champion inside the God-Demon System, which has led me to my current status.

“It is now your turn. I have already created the best conditions for you. Tian Jiang, Anzu Night, Feng Jianting, Shui Shengsheng, and Zesyr Night are all much inferior to you. If they enter the system with you, you’ll definitely be able to dominate. As for Xia Fei, he won’t have a chance.” Qiu Xingbang was very smug as he spoke of the past.

It turned out that Qiu Xingbang had planned everything. Even leaking the secrets of the system to others had been for the purpose of turning them into stepping stones for his son.

“Shui Shengsheng is dead,” Qiu Yang said nonchalantly. “There are only four of us now, so there’s still one missing. I certainly don’t want the substitute to be Xia Fei.”

Qiu Xingbang smiled. “You’ve forgotten about Zesyr Night. Old Cloud Night’s precious granddaughter will be the perfect replacement for Shui Shengsheng. This situation is even better than what I initially envisioned.”

“I hope things go the way you say they will.” Qiu Yang dropped his head and inspected his face in the water. The creases at the corner of his eyes made him sigh.

“All because of you, I’ve held myself back for more than a thousand years, and I’ve even been forced to call little babies who aren’t even twenty years old my fellow comrades. At times, I even have to play the fool. It’s all because of that crazy plan of yours. Alright, I’ll trust you, but this will be the last time,” Qiu Yang said sternly.

More than a thousand years?!

None of the Six Celestial Treasures was more than thirty, but Qiu Yang was actually a thousand-year-old monster?!

What a terrifying plan!

Qiu Xingbang had his thousand-year-old son, Qiu Yang, pretend to be a young man precisely for the purpose of him being able to interact with the young scions in the Alpha Universe, and when the Collapsed Expanse of Founders was about to open, he had leaked its secrets to the Night Clan, Serene Jadewater Clan, and others. This was so that those young masters would serve as sacrificial lambs for Qiu Yang!

How much patience did this plan require? There must be some heaven-shaking secret behind all this, or else why would this sinister father-son pair endure for more than a thousand years?!

Smiling, Qiu Yang stroked his chin and said, “Xia Fei really does seem to be in his twenties. For that kid to match me in terms of scheming is a very interesting fact.”

Straightening up, he said solemnly, “I have a prediction. When I first saw Xia Fei, I had an intense desire to kill him. That’s the first time in more than a thousand years that I’ve seen someone so ruthless, and with such a sharp mind. One day, both of us might regret me letting him go this time.”

…

On the Silver Specter, Xia Fei welcomed a pair of surprise guests; the Night siblings had returned.

Xia Fei could be considered on good terms with Cloud Night. Some time ago, that old man had even helped him take care of Aquamarine. Thus, he did not feel it right to refuse entry to the siblings. Besides that, he still had many questions regarding the Collapsed Expanse of Founders, and it would be great if he could get more info from them.

Zesyr Night showed a lot of interest in the command deck but soon wrinkled her nose.

She was interested because of the Silver Specter’s layout. Alas, the rather large ship had been turned into a complete mess by Xia Fei, with countless cables running everywhere and various pieces of equipment of different sizes piled around. If she was not careful, she could bump her head into something.

However, it was the odor in the command deck that had made her wrinkled her nose. Medicine bottles of various sizes had been thrown on the floor, all of them releasing a nauseating smell. As a girl, Zesyr naturally could not stand the stench.

In the past, Xia Fei had Pod. That little robot had taken care of both his food and hygiene. However, Pod was not by his side anymore and had been replaced by a bunch of old men, instead. To tell the truth, Xia Fei was actually the cleaner member of his group. If Zesyr Night were to see Oro walk barefoot across the floor, she probably would throw up.

There was nothing to be done. No matter how good Pod was, Xia Fei could not bring him along. That guy was too kindhearted, and Xia Fei was surrounded by trouble. A cunning rascal like Furball was far more suitable.

She found a clean place to sit down, but Anzu Night remained standing, his brows creased.

“So… Why did you two come?” Xia Fei smiled and asked. His leg was still hurting, but it was much less now. The medicines had cost him tons of money, but they had not been of any help. In the end, Xia Fei had to use his healing spirit energy to slowly soothe the wound.

This was both good and bad, for ordinary wounds did not require spirit energy to heal, meaning that he had sustained a soul injury!

Zesyr Night pursed her lips and pointed at her older brother.

Anzu Night was startled, and then he dropped his head and said, “Little Zesyr told me about it. I didn’t know that it’s you who healed grandfather back then.”

Xia Fei poured two cups of tea and offered them while glancing at Zesyr. While she seemed like a fool, she was actually rather sharp. Upon learning that he was a Spiritualist, she had managed to conjecture that the the person in the room who had healed Cloud Night had been him.

Not denying it was tantamount to admission. Anzu Night found himself embarrassed. The children of major clans had rules, and now that Anzu knew Xia Fei was the savior of his clan’s grand ancestor, he immediately changed his attitude.

“My gratitude is beyond words.” Anzu clenched his teeth as if he were making an extremely difficult decision. He reluctantly pulled out a pentagram-shaped metal object and offered it to Xia Fei.

“Take this. My grandfather probably wouldn’t say anything if he were to know that I gave it to you,” he said solemnly.

Curious, Xia Fei glanced at the object and asked, “What is this?”

“It’s the key to entering the God-Demon System! If you have it, you’ll be able to get in!” replied the Night siblings in unison.