The space rippled violently, and another figure emerged.
This being had reached the late peak-life of the seventh turn. His appearance resembled the angels described in the ancient mythology of Earth. Six magnificent wings extended from his back, while seven golden halos slowly revolved behind his head. In his hand, he held a radiant golden orb.
He was another clone of Govot, one stationed near Behan's post.
The angelic figure appeared directly above the trapped serpentine man alongside Behan. Behan casually waved his hand, and the enormous second sword immediately transformed into a stream of energy before flowing into his sleeve.
Behan then turned his gaze toward the distant void where the serpentine man's army had previously stood.
He took a single step.
Space twisted beneath his feet.
In the next instant, he had crossed the seven hundred million light-year distance.
The moment Behan appeared before the army, every being present became terrified.
The army of the serpentine man consisted of a hundred true peak-turn beings, a thousand half-step peak-turn beings, and a million Saint Transcendent Entities. All of them had hidden themselves within powerful treasures, believing that such protection would allow them to survive any unexpected situation.
They were wrong.
Behan looked at them coldly, his expression completely indifferent.
To him, they were no different from ants.
He raised his hand.
The stream of energy that had entered his sleeve erupted once again.
Countless sword energies emerged from it and descended upon the army like a storm of destruction.
The entire starry void trembled.
One sword after another pierced through the treasures protecting the army. Their defenses were shattered as if they had never existed.
The sword energies swept across everything.
Every single being was slaughtered.
Not even those hiding within their treasures were spared.
In a matter of moments, the army that had consisted of hundreds of true peak-turn beings and countless other elites was reduced to corpses.
Behan calmly waved his hand.
The corpses of the slain beings disappeared and were stored inside an independent spatial world he had created on the spot.
Without another word, Behan turned around.
He took a single step.
Space folded.
His figure instantly returned to Behan's post.
The angelic clone of Govot gently pushed the golden orb toward the weakened serpentine man.
The moment the orb approached him, countless mysterious engravings appeared across its surface and began to glow.
The golden orb suddenly separated into countless tiny pieces.
The pieces surrounded the weakened serpentine man from every direction, completely sealing the space around him.
At this moment, the serpentine man's strength had fallen drastically.
From his previous mid peak-life of the seventh turn, his cultivation had now dropped to the late peak-life of the sixth turn.
The countless pieces of the golden orb rapidly converged.
They formed a complete seal around his body, trapping him inside.
The golden orb then returned to Govot's clone, who calmly stored it away.
Behan and Govot's clone stood side by side and began discussing something important.
However, Solanky could not hear a single word.
A powerful barrier had already been erected around them.
After their discussion ended, Govot spread his six wings.
He was about to leave when he suddenly paused.
His gaze shifted toward Solanky's main body.
A strange look of astonishment appeared in his eyes.
He had encountered countless geniuses throughout his existence, but he had never seen a being quite as mysterious as Solanky.
Govot changed direction.
His figure flashed and appeared directly before Solanky.
He reached out and gently touched Solanky's forehead.
The moment his spiritual power entered Solanky's body, Govot's expression changed.
Shock flashed through his eyes.
Immediately, he erected a protective barrier around himself and Solanky.
"Behan, come here. You need to see something."
Behan's true body appeared beside them.
Govot looked at him seriously.
"Inspect him again."
Behan's expression became solemn.
He placed his hand against Solanky's forehead.
A moment later, his eyes widened.
He immediately withdrew his hand.
"Impossible."
Behan's voice carried genuine disbelief.
"He is a source-defying lifeform, but restrictions have been placed upon the power of his lifeform. Furthermore, fifty percent of his blood has already been transformed into peak-life essence and energy, yet he still hasn't triggered the peak summits trials."
For the first time in a long while, Behan felt that his understanding had been challenged.
But that was only the beginning.
As he continued examining Solanky's body, he suddenly sensed something even more astonishing.
World formations.
Countless mysterious seals.
They were embedded within every single bone in Solanky's body.
Behan's expression became increasingly serious.
The implications were extraordinary.
Although Solanky currently could not kill a true peak-turn being, he possessed enough defensive and combat ability to withstand one for a brief period.
That brief period could be enough.
His puppet could entangle itself with the enemy while Solanky escaped, or he could use the opportunity to prepare a hidden attack with a powerful treasure.
More importantly, Solanky's spiritual essence and energy were several times purer than those of beings at the same cultivation level.
Their purity was comparable to the level above his own.
This meant that although Solanky's spiritual body was currently at the late second turn, its quality was comparable to an early third-turn spiritual body.
Behan and Govot immediately understood why Bragon had warned Solanky not to attempt a breakthrough to the ancestor level until his spiritual body reached the third turn.
The reason was now obvious.
His spiritual cultivation could advance faster than his physical foundation could safely support.
Behan and Govot exchanged glances.
They both nodded.
They had reached an agreement.
Solanky would be placed in charge of an isolated starfield located seven thousand light-years away from Behan's post.
Behan communicated the details directly to Solanky through telepathy.
Solanky quickly understood his assignment.
However, before he could leave, he had several requirements to fulfill.
First, he needed to master the techniques Behan had gifted him.
Second, he needed to raise his spiritual body's essence to the third turn.
Only then would he possess enough spiritual foundation to deal with ancestor-level spiritual bodies.
The starfield itself was protected by extremely stringent laws.
Any being above the fourth turn was forbidden from entering or interfering with the lives within that region.
Behan's voice sounded within Solanky's mind.
"You are required to guard that starfield and nurture the weaker beings until they reach the Saint Transcendent Entity level. While guarding them, you may also study the mysteries of that world.
There are eight life galaxies within the starfield. Each galaxy contains three life planets. Within those planets, the malevolent forces have planted envoys whose purpose is to disrupt the development of the beings within those worlds and exploit their resources.
Your task is to raise an army or establish a sect capable of resisting the forces of the malevolent fiends.
As for the remaining details, I cannot provide them. That world is governed by extremely heavy restrictions against beings above the half-step peak-turn level.
Ten thousand years ago, an ancestor-level malevolent fiend entered that starfield. The moment it appeared, it was immediately eradicated.
All of its clones and resurrection carriers were erased from existence.
Even the beings it had created and modified were not spared. They were all massacred, leaving them with no possibility of reincarnation.
To accomplish something like that, the power of the restriction is estimated to be at least comparable to the all-out attack of an eighth-turn late peak-life being proficient in spiritual and soul attacks.
You must understand that such beings are terrifying to deal with. They can injure you from an extremely distant location."
Solanky nodded.
He checked the coordinates of the starfield and began preparing for his departure.
Govot tossed him a flying ship.
The ship had originally been enormous, but Govot had compressed it to only a few meters in size.
At their level, beings could freely adjust their physical size, shrinking themselves to a few millimeters or expanding until they became hundreds of billions of light-years tall.
After the previous battle, however, they had returned to their optimal size, which was several tens of millions of light-years tall.
To meet Solanky, they had further reduced their bodies to only a few kilometers.
Unlike true peak-turn beings, half-step peak-turn beings did not possess supermassive physical bodies of that scale.
Solanky caught the flying ship and stored it within his internal world.
He then bowed toward Govot.
Govot smiled.
"Don't use your wing treasure during this mission. It belonged to the body of a deceased peak-turn being. I also advise you to send your Black God clone on this mission while keeping your main body and puppet outside the starfield with the ship."
Solanky immediately understood why Govot had given him the warning.
He decided to take it seriously.
Govot spread his wings.
A brilliant golden light engulfed his body.
When the light disappeared, Govot had already vanished.
Far away, in a region of shattered space five billion light-years from the walls of the Beyond Realm where Behan's post was located, a figure suddenly emerged.
Her enormous wings were spread wide.
It was the evil fiend ancestor.
She had successfully escaped from Behan's grasp.
She cursed under her breath while attempting to heal her self-inflicted injuries.
Suddenly, the space a few meters before her rippled.
A humanoid figure walked out.
The first thing that appeared was his enormous belly.
It was the Gluttonous God.
Bragon had once fought this being, but the gluttonous god was now an eighth-turn late peak-life being.
The Gluttonous God looked at the injured evil fiend ancestor.
"How did you become this heavily injured? And what happened to the serpentine fiend guarding ancestor?"
The evil fiend ancestor's expression became ugly.
"Behan has advanced to the eighth turn. His methods have become even more mysterious and terrifying. He apprehended the serpentine fiend ancestor."
She paused before continuing.
"Before I escaped, I sensed Govot's third clone arriving there. He was carrying a sealing treasure from an Above Peak-Turn being."
The Gluttonous God frowned.
After a moment of thought, he spoke.
"Have the evil fiend clan enter seclusion for now. The treasure land of the draft world will open in only a few billion years. We cannot afford to lose any more ancestors before then."
The evil fiend ancestor nodded and disappeared.
The moment she vanished, another figure materialized from the empty space beside the Gluttonous God.
It was the main body of the Levian progenitor.
"We need to find the barrier of tribulation thunder and excavate millions of tons of eternal soil, along with a million transcendent grasses of eternity."
His expression became solemn.
"Those resources may be enough to repair the wounds of our founding ancestor."
He paused.
"Alternatively, we must assist him in possessing his body according to his plans. That is the only way he can continue the war of attrition against the Beyond Realm."
The Levian progenitor looked toward the distant Beyond Realm.
"Send information regarding Behan's advancement and the capture of the serpentine fiend ancestor to the various ancestors and guarding ancestors. Tell them not to act recklessly."
"We still need them for the treasure land that is about to open in one of the remote regions of the draft world."
The Gluttonous God nodded.
Without another word, he disappeared.
The Levian progenitor remained behind.
He stared toward the direction of the Beyond Realm.
After a long silence, he muttered to himself.
"Who exactly is your independent incarnation, Supremo?"
His eyes narrowed.
"You possess the source-defying flames and are connected to a source-defying lifeform."
"Although my clone has remained within the Beyond Realm under the agreement with that powerful being, allowing us to pursue the breakthrough to the level above the true peak-turns, there are still loopholes that Supremo can exploit."
"If his incarnation truly is a source-defying lifeform, then the moment that incarnation breaks through to the ancestor level, my clone within the Beyond Realm will be eliminated."
The Levian progenitor's expression became cold.
"That cannot be allowed to happen."
His figure gradually faded from the void.
A moment later, he vanished completely and returned to his world.
Yet all this time, another figure had also been watching in their direction.
Supremo.
His gaze remained fixed upon the distant void for a moment.
Then, without saying anything, he slowly turned his gaze away.