1545 Encountering a Black Warship!
Tamu began his daily healing treatment by unleashing his guardian god. As the Patriarch of the Chosen, Tamu’s guardian was the God of Light, said to be the strongest God Emperor among all his clansmen.

The God of Light had a long beard and silver hair, and had a kindly look about him. Tamu devoutly knelt down into the open arms of the God of Light, who embraced Tamu within his long robes.

A divine power instantly enveloped Tamu’s body, a warm feeling akin to basking in the afternoon sun. Wisps of green smoke rose off his infected skin when exposed to this light, like water vapor rising from a hot spring.

Tamu had been infected by Darkness for many years; it was entirely thanks to the blessing of the guardian God of Light’s treatment that he had survived all this while, keeping him from danger. Nevertheless, Tamu’s experience could not be replicated, since normal people would not have the protection of a god, and the moment they were infected, it was almost a certainty that they would succumb to the Darkness.

—

Xia Fan quietly closed the door and gave Tamu some time and peace. He went to another room and was promptly greeted by a gust of cold air the moment he opened the door, as if he had just entered an ice cave.

Two large-eared dark lifeforms were laying down on two separate stone slabs. They were both completely naked, and anyone could clearly see that parts of their skin had blackened, mainly concentrated on their backs. It was a form of severe keratosis that looked like fish scales.

He could hear them breathing, clearly indicating that neither was dead, though neither showed any signs of struggling. That was because there was an elder who was using his hands to pin their heads in place.

This elder’s hands were skinny yet fierce, like gnarled branches of an old tree. The two were staring up at the ceiling, their eyes showing their whites while their bodies trembled constantly. A very mystical kind of mental power was being injected into their brains, tearing apart their memories to read their contents.

This was mental interrogative torture, a cruel but powerful special ability. Blood was trickling from the nostrils of the two dark lifeforms, a reaction to having parts of their brain destroyed.

The elder did not care for the lives of the two. He was unscrupulously attacking their memory centers.

All of a sudden, the bald elder seemed to receive a heavy blow. His entire person was sent flying backward, before slamming heavily into the wall. He coughed out plenty of blood from the blow, his blood even containing black blood clots, filling the room with a pungent metallic smell.

The two dark lifeforms on the stone slabs reacted as if they had been electrocuted, their entire bodies convulsing violently. Blood poured freely from every open orifice, like they were having epileptic seizures. In just the span of a few seconds, the two were killed off. It was almost as if there was some sort of magical power that had forcibly killed them off through long-range control!

“Huuu~” Traveling Buddha opened his eyes and heaved a sigh. The level of bloodshed was unexpected. In the blink of an eye, two beings were dead and one was injured. Whether it was the mental interrogative torture user or the two dark lifeforms, all of them looked as if they had been possessed by some demon!

The bald elder was curled up in a corner, constantly waving his hand to warn others away from getting near him. Time passed, and he only got up anew with the help of the wall after an hour had gone by. He was completely pale and his eyes dim, panting heavily.

“That was close,” the bald elder wiped the sweat off his forehead and said. “The demonic energy was seeded deep in the recesses of their memory. I nearly suffered backlash from it!”

“This is my brother, Cardiff!” the owner of the Waystation, Karlos introduced him to Xia Fan. “Very few people know that I have a younger brother, as most of the time I’m the one acting as the face, while Cardiff is in charge of the work behind the scenes.”

Xia Fan nodded. The strength of Carlos and his brother was obvious. What he was currently most concerned about was information about Shaka, as well as the Skywings.

“A batch of Demonic experts are about to be born,” Carlos said, a look of worry etched on his face. “From the memories of those two, I’ve learned some very specialized information. The Demonic Energy controlling them was very powerful, and even I nearly fell to it.

“All this while, whether its here in the Celestial Path or the Great Chiliocosm, the ranks of the demons haven’t been particularly high. Take the Demonic Ants, for example. They were the earliest species turned demonic, and are fairly frightening in power, but that strength is based on their numbers. No one has any idea who or where their king is, which is the same for other demonized races, as well.

“But now, I’ve seen a group of people! A group that could bring a devastating assault to the Celestial Path! Whether their appearance signifies the rise of the demons, I dare not surmise. However, I do think that the sudden appearance of high-ranking demons that have not shown their faces in public before is never a good sign.”

Carlos nodded. “Perhaps your fellow clansmen have already gotten this news. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the Skywings, and there’s a very good chance it is related to this large-scale mobilization of demons. The Shaka person you previously mentioned, he should be an expert as well, right?”

Xia Fan answered, “Shaka is a very formidable expert, and acted very strangely. He has stolen plenty of the dead bodies of experts from the Ashen Moon Universe, including the Fey, and even a Skywing.”

Carlos and Cardiff were astonished. Cardiff mused, “He stole the dead body of a Skywing? Heavens, he could not be thinking of replicating a Skywing, right? If a clan were to rise among the Demons that possessed combat strength equal to that of the Skywings, the results would simply be unimaginable!”

Indeed, that would be terrible…

Xia Fan was silent. No matter the case, the most important thing now was to locate his father and kin as soon as possible. It had been a very long time since they had showed their faces here in the Celestial Path, and Xia Fan was extremely worried.

…

Leaving the Waystation, the Skydome headed toward the Desolated Valley universe.

Carlos and his brother had specifically handed him a map. After many generations and countless years of hard work, humanity had gained some understanding of the Celestial Path, learning where a portion of the Cosmic Gates were headed, though there remained a large number of unknown worlds still out there.

The Celestial Path was an exitless circle. If someone were to travel along the Path, they would ultimately end at where they began. Even the fastest starship would need twelve years to circumlocute the Celestial Path. If the countless side Paths and splits were included, it would not be an exaggeration to call the Path endless!

The vastness of the Celestial Path was by no means a good sign for Xia Fan. The size meant it would be that much easier for him to miss finding his kin. There were no long-range communication systems here, so unless Xia Fan managed to bump into someone from the Skywing Clan, he would really have no idea where to go.

Along the way, Xia Fan encountered various ships of different colors and sizes. They had all come from various universes, ending up here in the Celestial Path. The moment they arrived, the probability of them going back home was very slim. Because of the chaotic timelines of the Cosmic Gate, there were many beings out there who had spent their whole lives wandering the Celestial Path.

—

“Why are they all human?” That was the perplexing question that rattled around in his mind. Since the demons were so powerful across the Great Chiliocosm, then why had he not encountered even a single demonic warship? Just where were they all hiding?

Bright Pearl helplessly answered, “It can’t be helped. That is just how strange the Great Chiliocosm is. It seems the demons are capable of traversing space, and though we can’t see them here in the Celestial Path, they nevertheless exist in many different universes.

“Demons that are active in the Celestial Path are all disguised as humans, making it difficult to differentiate them. To think your nose would actually be so sensitive, so there’s nothing we need to be worried about!”

——

Two days later, the Skydome took a turn down a smaller trail.

If the Celestial Path was likened to be a human’s arm, then these smaller trails would be like the hairs found on said arm. There were simply just too many of them, as every single trail connected to countless worlds. According to the estimates by some, the number of connecting universes was in the trillions; no one could explore all of them in one lifetime.

With the map, they managed to find the entrance to the Desolated Valley Universe. Xia Fan was then forced to wait in boredom. Their shockwave engine needed seven days to recover all the energy it expended with each jump. According to the meter, Xia Fan still needed to wait thirty-six more hours before he could activate said engine.

Suddenly, they saw the dimensional wall in front of them flicker. A black warship came charging out from Desolated Valley Universe. It was much larger than the Skydome, and could be considered an extended Heavy Armor Battleship.

“Could that be Skywing’s warship?” Xia Fan’s eyes were wide, and he could feel his heart jump into his throat.

“No. There’s no Skywing insignia, but we can ask them what the current situation in the Desolated Valley Universe is,” Tamu shook his head with slight regret.

Xia Fan thus sent a communication request, but the other party did not respond. The more Xia Fan stared at the black warship, the stranger he felt. As humans that wandered the Celestial Path, even if they were not acquainted, surely they would be willing to exchange pleasantries at least, right?

Tamu thought nothing of the matter. “Maybe they were frightened. We have the Skywing insignia on our ship, after all. No matter, send a request again. They would not dare to not give the Skywings some face.”

Pearl was brandishing her little fists, saying, “Tsk! No one dares to oppose the Skywings out here in the Celestial Path!”

Seeing how confident both Pearl and Tamu were, Xia Fan shrugged and sent the communication request again. However, only seconds after he had done so, the alarm indicator light suddenly lit up, and the radar system indicated that the enemy had locked on the Skydome, and was preparing to attack!