Chapter 215: The Pi Xie Clan
"Received, Master. Adjusting the course immediately!"
The ship's AI, crafted by Orianna, instantly complied.
Not just the AI within Jiang Zhe's silver-robed clone—every AI and intelligent lifeform in the Jiang family and Lei Emperor's lineage had been created by Orianna.
In this universe, where everything was overly reliant on the virtual cosmos, nothing within their faction could escape Orianna's notice.
"Target distance: 700 million kilometers… 500 million… 300 million…"
"Master, according to the scanner's report, the target has already detected us and is rapidly approaching!"
"Current distance: 100 million kilometers… 80 million… 20 million… Intense energy fluctuations detected—suspected to be an Immortal Godforce attack… Master, your orders?"
"Open the hatch. I'll meet him myself."
Jiang Zhe rose from the sofa, silver robe glinting, fully armed in an instant.
The Silk Nest merged into his body, reinforcing his defenses. The Golden Wings flared from his back, boosting speed. His right hand gripped Thunderbolt, while his left wielded the Aegis.
—Clang!
The hatch slid open.
Jiang Zhe spread his golden wings and shot into the void. With a wave of his hand, he stored away his F-grade ship—better safe than to lose his vessel in the coming battle.
From afar, a dazzling emerald beam surged forth. Jiang Zhe infused godforce into the Aegis, hurling the shield like Captain America himself.
It clashed with the green column of light, shattering it before arcing beautifully back into his hand.
"A strike equal to about four hundred million times a World Lord's power… definitely a Universe Venerable," Jiang Zhe calculated from the first exchange.
And finally, he saw the enemy clearly.
A towering monster, nearly a thousand kilometers tall. It had the head of a stag but the body of a man, its jade-like godbody glistening as though carved from emerald. It wielded a long jade spear, radiating a stiff, unnatural aura—as if it were no living creature at all.
"Stop."
"Kneel."
"Submit."
That was its opening greeting—three roars of dominance.
At the same time, Jiang Zhe unleashed his newly mastered willpower strike.
With the will of a Universe Master erupting, even a Universe Overlord should have trembled, some even blacking out entirely.
But to his shock, the stag-headed monster remained utterly unaffected. Instead, after briefly gathering power, it hurled its jade spear.
Mystic runes bloomed around the spear, shaping into a colossal stag charging through the void, antlers sharp as blades, rushing toward Jiang Zhe.
"Fine! Let's fight. I'll see just what kind of freak you are!"
Without losing focus from his failed will attack, Jiang Zhe ignited his godbody, multiplying his power a thousandfold.
Lightning contracted in his palm, compressing Thunderbolt into a crackling sphere of violet lightning. With his burning divine power flooding it, countless mysterious runes danced across its surface.
"Filthy beast! Take my Palm Thunder!"
This was no ordinary strike—this was an Immortal-tier ultimate technique.
As the "Thunder Universe" weakened toward collapse, Jiang Zhe's godbody surged to a level equal to ninety million times a World Lord's strength.
With the Silk Nest amplifying his blow, it reached nine hundred million times a World Lord's strength.
Combined with the reckless burn of his divine body, even a Universe Overlord wouldn't walk away unscathed.
The lightning sphere smashed straight into the charging stag projection, shattering it on impact. The jade spear spun away, revealing the monster's true form—before the Palm Thunder struck it head-on.
The ball of lightning raced so fast, it nearly distorted time itself.
That was the mark of profound mastery of the Law of Time.
The stag-headed creature couldn't react in time. It crossed its arms over its chest, bracing for impact.
—Boom!
It was blasted apart instantly, fragments of its divine body scattering across millions of kilometers. Shockwaves tore through the void, leaving only torrents of broken space.
Was it over in one strike?
Jiang Zhe doubted it. The resilience of an "undying body" was not to be underestimated.
Golden wings flaring, he steadied himself amid the turbulent void. With a snap of his fingers—
"Annihilation Chain, bloom!"
Crack!
Endless lightning chains spread like serpentine whips, lashing everything within range, shredding even the monster's scattered divine fragments.
This was Thunderbolt's first secret rune effect—the aftermath strike following Palm Thunder's explosion.
When the storm faded, his spear returned to his hand, once more in the form of a crackling lightning lance.
Particles of divine essence gathered, slowly reconstructing the stag-headed monster's body. But its aura plummeted—less than a tenth of its strength remained.
Curious, Jiang Zhe muttered, "Its divine body is under fifty percent, yet it still shows no reaction? Any other Venerable would be howling in rage."
"Kneel! Submit!"
Once more he tried his willpower strike.
Still ineffective.
"Damn! A puppet… it's not alive at all."
The truth clicked. The creature was just a corpse, animated like a puppet.
With its jade spear raised, it charged recklessly again, laws surging as it transformed into a massive emerald stag, antlers like steel blades aimed at Jiang Zhe's chest.
"Oh? A Wood-type Beast God? Perfect!"
The familiar Beast God aura ignited his fighting spirit.
Behind him, a colossal phantom of the Thunder God, nearly ninety thousand kilometers tall, briefly appeared, hammering a war drum that thundered through the void.
"Drizzle Strike!"
A single silver flash cut across the void—shattering the stag projection, knocking aside the jade spear, and piercing the monster's divine body.
—Crack!
Again the Annihilation Chains tore it apart, until Jiang Zhe halted the effect early.
—Boom!
His cosmic projection spread, suppressing the fleeing fragments, forcing them back into shape.
The stag-headed monster lay broken and unconscious, over ninety percent of its divine body lost.
"Just as I thought—it isn't corroded by the Withering Wind," Jiang Zhe noted.
Even with the Silk Nest reinforcing him, his own godbody still eroded under the Withering Wind—albeit slowly. Yet this thing resisted completely.
With a flick of his wrist, Thunderbolt shrank into a short blade.
One swing severed both antlers. He stored them in his inner cosmos, activating his innate gift—
Life Dominator.
The original universe birthed all life, the embodiment of the Law of Life.
As a special lifeform akin to the original universe, Jiang Zhe's life core contained an inner cosmos capable of devouring other beings' tissues, analyzing their structure, and even recreating identical bodies.
Now, he would use it to unravel the monster's secrets.
Moments later, the answer came.
"As I thought—it's just a corpse puppet."
Back in his ship's control chamber, swirling a wine glass, Jiang Zhe pondered.
"This isn't a natural Venerable's corpse. It's been altered into a living puppet. Someone must have controlled it… But who?"
"To craft a puppet from a Venerable's body—what terrifying power must they wield?"
Then he froze, chuckled, and slapped his forehead.
"What am I thinking? Imagining some hidden mastermind pulling strings? Paranoia!"
"If someone with such means truly existed, they'd be dominating the wider universe, not lurking here in this tiny Herod Secret Realm."
"No… this feels more like nature's handiwork. A Venerable dies, buried in a geomantic land, turning into a corpse puppet? Ha! Almost funny."
Yet jokes aside, Life Dominator revealed the truth of its origins.
"The Pi Xie Clan… a special race, born with a life gene level of 100. Their innate gift, Ascend Spirit, lets them refine higher lifeforms' tissues to elevate their life level."
Or more simply—
The Beast God Clan.
Yes, the former rulers of the Herod Secret Realm.
One of their kind, Herod himself, had reached Universe Master level, refining the eyes of Thunder and Wood Beast Gods with Ascend Spirit. With that power, he elevated his entire clan, renaming them the Beast God Clan.
"Truly a protagonist's fate," Jiang Zhe admitted, "yet in the end, he still fell short."
This stag-headed body bore traces of Wood Beast God's bloodline. Its gene level reached 140, meaning its peak strength was 1.4 billion times a World Lord's.
But after some refinement, it had been reduced to about one billion—and twisted into its current puppet state.
"…So many questions. But my mission isn't to solve mysteries."
He steadied his thoughts.
"My goals are simple: First, uncover the origin of the Withering Wind. Second, retrieve the Beast God Clan's inheritance."
"As for the rest—it's none of my concern."
Still, he concluded that this puppet was likely a Beast God Venerable who'd tried to escape during the great calamity, only to fall just short.
His theory was confirmed when he accessed its world-storage treasure.
Dispersing its lingering spirit mark, Jiang Zhe claimed its contents—then released what was inside.
In an instant, over a hundred figures appeared before him.
Some with stag heads, others draconic, all exuding a terrifying Beast God aura. Their godbodies each exceeded a million times a World Lord's strength.
The elite bloodline of the Pi Xie—Beast God—clan.
They had been carried away when calamity struck, transformed into these puppet husks.
At once, their cold eyes locked on Jiang Zhe, moving to attack like territorial guardians.
But his response was faster.
The void warped, his cosmic projection descending—lightning-forged mountains and rivers suppressing them instantly.
Each puppet was immobilized, helpless under his will.
A single Palm Thunder could erase them all.
But Jiang Zhe held back. Instead, he unleashed the Annihilation Chains lightly, draining each to a tenth of their strength, leaving them unconscious. He then stored them alongside the stag-headed puppet.
"If I can find a way to control these puppets… I'll be rich."
Indeed, the thought of commanding an army of Venerable-tier corpse puppets thrilled him.
From the storage, he retrieved a strange object—a twenty-sided die, fist-sized, cast in bronze, etched with cryptic runes.
"Well, well… this odd thing is a true treasure?"
Infusing it with godforce, he uncovered its peculiar condition—it only recognized Pi Xie bloodlines.
"Of course… a custom-forged treasure, much like Soul Armor or Origin Souls. No wonder it was hidden."
Besides basic resources, this die was the greatest prize within.
But to others, it was useless. With the Pi Xie Clan extinct, it was just an indestructible lump of metal—only a Universe Master could crush it.
For Jiang Zhe, however, things were different.
"Life Dominator, activate."
His body dissolved, leaving only a life core. When the chaos mist reformed, he now wore the form of the stag-headed puppet.
At this moment, he was the last descendant of the Pi Xie Clan.
The die recognized him instantly, binding itself to him. Its hidden seal unlocked, revealing its true identity.
"Hahaha! Jackpot! Absolute jackpot!"
Eyes gleaming, Jiang Zhe held the bronze die like a priceless relic.
"This is a vault… one of the Pi Xie Clan's treasure repositories!"
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