While people across the Blue Planet were reeling with shock and national pride over the frontlines' decisive victory, back aboard the battleship, Chen Chu, Qian Tian, and the Celestial King emerged without a sound, the space around them subtly warped.

A massive map projection rotated slowly between them. It depicted the territory just obtained from the forbidden zone, though for now, the map was blurry, showing only the rough borders.

Qian Tian slowly said, "The God Defense System, also called the Apocalypse Plan, was created ten years ago. Only myself, the Celestial King, and the Primordial King knew about it. At the time, the threat from the Purgatory Demon Clan was growing stronger. There were moments when we could see no hope, so we prepared multiple contingencies, including this one. If we were ultimately defeated and the human race faced extinction, we would activate the Apocalypse Plan and take everything down with us.

"The plan is divided into two main components: the celestial computation satellites and twenty-eight destruction platforms. The satellite system was constructed with the Celestial King at its core, integrating principle power into wireless transmissions to pierce through interference from transcendent energy and cover the entire human domain, plus another two hundred thousand kilometers beyond. Each destruction platform is equipped with an apocalyptic nuclear weapon built from dark matter. Each has destructive power hundreds of thousands of times greater than the megaton crystalline hydrogen bombs.

"Most importantly, when one of these weapons detonates, it unleashes dark matter energy[1] capable of unraveling the foundational principles of a region. According to celestial computation, if all twenty-eight were detonated simultaneously in a star-aligned formation, the resulting blast would completely annihilate the principles of heaven and earth in the area. At that point, with space-time collapsed and the world crumbling, not even a demon god would survive. It would be enough to drag every last enemy to the grave.

Chen Chu looked slightly surprised. "So dark matter really exists."

In past scientific theories, dark matter had only been a hypothesis. It was an invisible component believed to form the foundation of the universe. Yet even after stepping onto the cultivation path, creating the planar world, and contemplating the birth and death of worlds, Chen Chu had never found evidence of dark matter's existence.

"Dark matter was one of the greatest scientific discoveries after the beginning of the Transcendence Era," Qian Tian explained. "It originates from the Blue Planet's universe and, as of now, has only been found here. Although our main focus over the years has been on cultivation, we've never abandoned technological research. In fact, it has made remarkable progress. Fifteen years ago, Heavenly King Kelas constructed a massive particle accelerator ring in the depths of space, far from the Blue Planet, stretching over ten thousand kilometers. During that experiment, with a boost from Kelas's law, particles within the ring accelerated to an extreme speed and then collided. It was from that experiment that we discovered dark matter particles.

"Later, with Kelas at the center, a research team was assembled and developed methods for harnessing these particles. By combining them with crystalline hydrogen bombs, they created a more complex fission formula. However, dark matter energy is an extremely dangerous double-edged sword. Once unleashed, it brings consequences beyond prediction."

At this point, Qian Tian paused slightly. The Celestial King, shaped like a massive shifting cube, dryly chuckled. "We tested the apocalyptic nuclear weapon once. After that, it was never used again and has been sealed away as our last-resort trump card. That test took place deep in space, tens of thousands of kilometers beyond the moon, but even at that distance, the explosion not only destroyed everything nearby, it also contaminated the far side of the moon. The dark matter energy filled that region with warped, grotesque, and bizarre power. Even we wouldn't dare set foot there lightly."

"The Space Forbidden Zone Regulation Act," Chen Chu said after a moment, recalling a classified piece of intel he had once read.

Qian Tian nodded. "Exactly. After that incident, we passed the Space Regulation Act. No nation or cultivator is permitted to explore beyond lunar distance. This was mainly to prevent uninformed Ninth Realm cultivators or mid-tier nations from accidentally entering the contaminated region and bringing that power back."

"I see." Chen Chu nodded thoughtfully.

With his current level of access, Chen Chu was authorized to view all of the Federation's confidential records, equal to Qian Tian and the other top leaders. However, due to time constraints, he had barely skimmed through them. He usually only picked out documents he found interesting.

Qian Tian continued, "Although we've won a great victory this time, the threat of the Primordial Ancestor still looms. That ancient emperor-level entity is beyond anyone's ability to stop right now. So we've decided to initiate a backup version of the Apocalyptic Plan. It's now been renamed the God Defense System. If you and the Thunder Fiery Colossal Beast have yet to grow strong enough to match that Ancestor, and it awakens prematurely, then we're prepared to destroy the entire forbidden zone. Once the foundational principles of that area collapse, it will become a place even emperor-level beings dare not approach. This would buy us precious time. While we would lose all the territory and be forced to retreat back to the Blue Planet, that doesn't matter. We can always turn to developing the deep sea passages instead, provided the second mythical surge hasn't erupted by then."

As pillars of humanity, Qian Tian and the others weren't blinded by victory. They remained as calm and vigilant as ever, preparing for all contingencies. The reason he was telling Chen Chu all of this now was because they needed his help to repair the Celestial King's divine weapon.

Only with a fully restored ancient divine weapon and the Celestial King's strength could they use wireless transmissions to cover a range of over a million kilometers through transcendent energy interference, and trigger simultaneous detonation of all apocalyptic nuclear weapons if needed.

"Chen Chu, here are 340,000 level 1 Life Crystals, along with some tens of thousands of level 2 and 3 crystals, and even a few level 7 and 8 crystals. When converted, it totals around 650,000 level 1 equivalents. Should be enough to repair the Celestial King's divine weapon, right?"

Looking at the hundreds of thousands of white crystals floating in the air, Chen Chu smiled. "That's more than enough, sir."

This amount of Life Crystals could be converted into nearly 3 million attribute points. After allocating 2 million to restore the Celestial King's weapon, he would still have around 1 million left. Conveniently, he had just obtained a pseudo-world-level weapon; with those extra attribute points, he could strengthen the Eight Desolations Halberd and elevate it to a true world-level weapon.

Once Chen Chu confirmed, Qian Tian smiled. "Then I'll leave it to you."

Chen Chu nodded solemnly. "There's no need for thanks. This is what I should do. Everything is for the eternal survival of the human race. However, before I begin, I'll need some time to absorb these Life Crystals and convert them into ability energy. Only then will I be ready to repair the Celestial King's weapon."

Though he no longer needed to hide the ability to enhance equipment, Chen Chu remained cautious. The two supreme powerhouses understood what he meant. Smiling slightly, they nodded and vanished, leaving Chen Chu alone with the hundreds of thousands of crystals.

"Time to get to work." Chen Chu's smile widened.

[You have converted one Life Crystal and gained 4 attribute points.]

[You have converted one Life Crystal and gained 5 attribute points...]

Since the Life Crystals required Chen Chu's direct touch to activate, converting all of them would take some time.

***

While Chen Chu busied himself with this labor of fortune, somewhere within the Dark-Red World, where crimson light flooded the heavens and earth, the ground had fractured. Mangled corpses of countless creatures lay scattered, each one emanating an aura at least at level 9.

At the center of this devastated land stood An Fuqing, her battle armor slightly damaged. She held her sword upright, breathing lightly.

Around the black-haired girl swirled razor-sharp sword will, condensing into tangible sword light that enveloped a ten-kilometer radius. Her aura had already begun to breach the limit of the Ninth Heavenly Realm; she was on the verge of crossing the threshold and reaching the mythical level.

Behind her, the earth was shrouded in dark demonic qi, forming a massive cocoon-like structure spanning a hundred kilometers in diameter. Something was clearly gestating within it. In this red-saturated world, the enormous black mass stood out starkly and had drawn many of the native monsters of the Dark-Red World.

"Already breaking through to the demon god level? Good. I'm not too late." As a calm voice echoed, a figure emerged from the distance. It was none other than Xiao Tianyi, who had vanished right before the Heavenly Feathered Battlefield's destruction.

His eyes were now icy, and when they landed on An Fuqing, all of his former gentleness had completely vanished.

1. Not to be confused with dark energy, which is a similar yet distinct hypothesis from dark matter. Dark energy is related to the expansion of the universe, while dark matter is a proposed explanation for smaller-scale gravitational anomalies, such as in the creation of galaxies. ☜

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