338: The whole army was horrified! Who was that "madman"?

In the Void Realm of the Ghost Claw Star Field, despair had frozen solid.

The Black Tortoise Holy Lord knelt on one knee on a massive meteorite, blood dripping from his cracked Black Tortoise Shield; the defense he was once so proud of was now like thin paper.

In the distance, the mournful cry of the Golden Winged Roc echoed through the starry sky.

The Old Demon Emperor's golden feathers were torn to shreds by the Annihilation Beams, and his massive body was riddled with shocking, bloody holes.

It's over.

These two words were all that remained in the hearts of every surviving expert of the Immortal Alliance.

They were the last hope of the Spirit Realm, yet now they were like livestock kept in captivity, waiting for the final butcher's knife under the hunter's teasing.

This wasn't a trap at all.

This was an execution ground!

"The Spirit Realm... has fallen after all..." A Mahayana Stage Cultivator, a Loose Cultivator, laughed miserably and gave up resistance, preparing to detonate his Primordial Spirit to preserve his final shred of dignity.

However, in the very instant that this endless darkness and despair were about to devour everything.

A glimmer of light.

A beam of white light, impossible to describe with any words, extremely brilliant yet extremely deathly silent, bloomed without warning at the edge of the distant starry sky.

There was no sound.

There was no shockwave.

That white light appeared so abruptly, and so dominantly.

It expanded instantly, turning into a perfect sphere, swallowing everything in that patch of starry sky. Stars, dust, light... and that suffocatingly massive fleet of Bone Furnaces, which resembled a factory of death.

Then, the white light collapsed inward in an instant and vanished.

It left behind an absolute, pure "void" where even nothingness itself did not exist.

It was as if an invisible hand of a god had used an eraser to gently wipe that patch of the Universe, along with everything within it, off the canvas.

Time seemed to stand still at that moment.

In the Ghost Claw Star Field, those Bone-Armored Soldiers who had been harvesting lives suddenly froze in their movements.

The Annihilation energy gathering at the muzzles of the Bone Dragon starships that were focusing fire on the Old Demon Emperor also began to dissipate eerily.

A sense of chaos and disconnection, originating from a higher level of the chain of command, swept through this encirclement force like a virus.

"What's going on?"

"The command channel... is down!"

"The Soul energy supply from the 'Furnace'... has stopped!"

The World-Ending Divine Army, which had previously feared no death, showed signs of agitation and panic for the first time.

This sudden turn of events left everyone on the battlefield stunned.

The Black Tortoise Holy Lord raised his head, staring blankly at that absolute "void"; the grief and despair on his face had not yet faded before it was replaced by extreme shock.

The experts of the Immortal Alliance stopped their self-detonations and ceased their mournful cries.

Like wooden statues, they stared foolishly at this scene that transcended understanding.

A few breaths later, that chaotic World-Ending Divine Army fleet, as if having received some confused order, actually began to turn around and retreat in a disorderly, panicked manner.

In the vast starry battlefield, only a group of Spirit Realm Cultivators, scarred and having survived the ordeal, were left staring at each other in the deathly silence.

"Wh... what was that just now?"

"The Bone Furnaces... that fleet... is gone?"

"Which reclusive Senior took action? A single strike... wiped out an entire fleet?!"

The silence was broken, replaced by joy and clamor like a landslide or tsunami!

"We're saved! The Spirit Realm still has hope!"

"It must be some Old Ancestor who failed their Undergoing Tribulation and has been living in seclusion! His Elder self couldn't stand by any longer!"

A Mahayana Stage Cultivator with a handlebar mustache flashed a sharp glint in his eyes and suddenly clapped his hands, laughing: "Hahaha, so that's it, so that's it! A piece of ancient chess I placed in the depths of the starry sky has finally been activated!"

He put on an unfathomable expression, drawing suspicious and uncertain looks from those around him.

"Everyone, do not panic. This was my contingency plan; it's nothing worth mentioning, nothing at all!"

Just as he was about to continue bragging and claiming this immense credit.

A cold, bone-chilling Sword Intent instantly enveloped him.

Li Hanyue had arrived before him at some point, her cold eyes watching him quietly, devoid of any emotion.

But the handlebar-mustache Cultivator felt his very Soul freezing.

"That Senior sacrificed himself to buy us a chance at survival."

Li Hanyue's voice was very soft, yet it clearly spread across the entire battlefield.

"We cannot know his name. We should not forget his sacrifice."

"And we should certainly not tarnish it with lies."

The entire field fell silent instantly.

Shame and reverence appeared on everyone's faces.

That's right.

How could an existence capable of unleashing such a terrifying strike be unscathed?

That was a self-detonation capable of shaking the heavens and earth!

An unknown hero had used his own life to ignite the brightest torch before dawn!

Everyone bowed deeply toward that void.

Li Hanyue also bowed slightly, but her gaze pierced through the endless Void Realm, looking toward the more distant, unknown depths, her eyes filled with a complexity no one could understand.

Madman...

You succeeded again.

...

Flagship, "immortal throne".

The Demon Leader stood up abruptly from the Bone Throne and kicked the adjutant who had come to report into pieces.

"What did you say?!?"

His roar made the entire hall tremble.

On the screen below, the final footage of the Bone Furnace fleet disappearing was replaying.

That patch of pure "nothingness" made his Soul fire dance wildly!

It's this feeling again!

The exact same aura of the "Rebel" as when that bug detonated himself!

He didn't die!

Not only did he not die, but he infiltrated his most important logistics fleet and, in a way he couldn't understand at all, blew up the entire fleet!

Humiliation!

Anger!

And a trace of... deep-seated fear that he himself was unwilling to admit!

What on earth is that bug?!!

"Soul Hounds!"

The Demon Leader's roar carried unprecedented violence and ferocity.

"Release all the 'Soul Hounds' for me! They can track the fluctuations of the Soul Origin! Even if he can resurrect, his Origin imprint will never change!"

"Find him for me! I want to personally... grind him into the humblest dust in the Universe!"

...

Inside the familiar starship cabin.

Lin Fan's figure appeared out of thin air; he stretched, feeling completely relaxed.

"Tsk, the settlement animation this time was well done; it felt like a blockbuster movie."

He leisurely pulled up the System light screen to check the loot from this time.

Besides massive experience and some standard rewards, his gaze locked directly onto the most special item.

[Congratulations! You have obtained SSS-rank special intelligence: God-Fall Land · Elementary Supply Route Map (Fragmentary)!]

[Intelligence Content: 0.01% of the God-Lord level encrypted data stream has been intercepted. After decryption, you have obtained the coordinates and schedule for some low-level supply transport routes of the Ninth Vanguard Fleet...]

[Note: This is the "Soul Energy Liquid Food" transported for the lowest-level bone soldiers. The nutritional value is not high, but it has the advantage of being plentiful.]

Lin Fan's eyes lit up instantly.

A massive virtual star map unfolded before him.

On the star map, in addition to the fixed strongholds marked before, there were now over a dozen dotted lines emitting a faint light, slowly moving.

Each dotted line represented a logistics transport fleet.

He looked at those light spots in the star map wriggling along fixed routes like lambs waiting to be slaughtered, and then thought of the "heroic" behavior of the Immortal Alliance group fighting to the death to attack a trapped stronghold.

Lin Fan curled his lips.

Fighting head-on was a job for reckless brutes.

High risk, low reward, and the rating wouldn't go up either.

His finger slid gently across the star map, finally tapping on a transport route closest to him.

That brilliant smile appeared on his face again, only this time, it carried a bit of... greed and cruelty, like a hungry wolf seeing a flock of sheep.

"Blowing up warships is so unskillful."

"From today on, let's switch to a new business."

Lin Fan's fingers operated on the control panel, and the starship's engine started silently, quietly heading toward that route.

"Robbery is the most promising profession after all."