"Working with this attitude, the efficiency is far too low, simply inadequate."

  Seraphine slightly lowered her head, observing her current physical manifestation—one that appeared like that of an ordinary carbon-based human—and mused:

  "It appears I must fully manifest the second form (body) granted by the Skyroot Codex."

  No sooner had this thought crossed her mind than the vast sky above, spanning tens of thousands of miles, seemed to plunge into profound dread. In an instant, hundreds of millions of layers of dense, murky black clouds tore through the azure expanse, rolling and roaring forth.

  Crack! Crack! Crack!

  Boundless, inky black clouds rubbed and collided, rapidly intertwining to breed thousands upon thousands of lightning bolts that swept horizontally and vertically, instantly illuminating the world in a startling burst of blue energy.

  Seraphine looked up at the sky, smiling brilliantly: "The planetary will actually emerged at this moment? Is it because of me? Haha, you truly are a prematurely expired demon."

  Having spoken, the 'simulation' of distorted space-time existing on the surface of her slender body suddenly surged and erupted, shooting out hundreds of millions of beams of dazzling light—each carrying a terrifying temperature of hundreds of billions of degrees Celsius—in all directions.

  Under the illumination of these scorching, unimaginably fierce lights, from the boundless dark sky's myriad flowing clouds to the mountain ranges of wild rock and peaks stretching tens of thousands of miles around, everything was instantly 'ignited' by ultra-high temperature in a fraction of a second, uncontrollably undergoing fusion to produce countless bursts of blazing nuclear light.

  Rumble rumble rumble ——

  In an instant, endless nuclear explosions and countless streams of high-temperature turbulent matter boiled the world, toppling mountain ranges, vaporizing rivers and streams, and roaringly scouring the entire planet's surface.

  Thus, the vast and vibrant wilderness where Seraphine had previously paused to rest instantly collapsed into a colossal, much larger and wider, molten red pit than the entire Eliondra continent.

  At the bottom of this fiery abyss, like a realm of incessant torment, Seraphine's figure remained perfectly suspended and calm.

  She did nothing actively.

  She didn't even truly manifest her third form.

  Seraphine merely released a minor outflow of heat energy from the trillion-mile sphere of warped space-time accumulated outside her body, causing this 15,000-kilometer-diameter ancient rocky planet to tragically succumb to an apocalypse.

  What a pity.

  She had already surpassed this world by far, far too much.

  So much so that normal coexistence between the two was no longer possible.

  Crack! Crack! Crack!!

  With just a single glance at the continuously collapsing and shattering crust of the planet below, resembling a boundless inferno, Seraphine then dismissed it entirely.

  She completely ignored the planet's tragic demise. With a mere thought, she indifferently dispersed the layer of extremely warped, spherical trillion-mile space-time surrounding her.

  Boom!!!

  This layer, appearing as thin as a cicada's wing but actually 'thick' by an astronomical unit in terms of spatial distortion, after losing Seraphine's active 'maintenance,' instantly expanded to become hundreds of millions of streams of space-time, far larger and wider than mountains and peaks. They purged and enveloped all directions at speeds vastly exceeding that of light.

  As these tens of millions of space-time torrents, like ancient giant serpents roaring and dancing wildly, swept and annihilated, the colossal desolate planet beneath Seraphine, being the first to bear the brunt, was tragically ripped apart and torn into countless fragments of incandescent meteorites. Surrounded by dazzling, intensely bright plasma, they were driven at sub-light speed, frantically flying towards the boundless, dark void in all directions.

  Rumble rumble rumble!!

  Even after the planet was shattered and annihilated, these millions of space-time torrents did not cease their chaotic advance. Instead, with even fiercer and more violent momentum, they roared and swept outward toward the boundless universe, trillions of miles away.

  Under its hundreds of times superluminal, frantic sweep, the vast and boundless void also suddenly transformed drastically into infinite chaos filled with hundreds of thousands of space-time vortices and tens of millions of super-high-energy particle torrents.

  Even the colossal orange main-sequence star, slowly rotating 149 million kilometers away, after being fiercely impacted by the trailing edge of the extremely rapidly expanding space-time torrent, as if caught in a chaotic vortex, was suddenly 'sliced' from outside to inside with a blazing, massive fissure—hundreds of thousands of kilometers wide. This colossal crack was so enormous that it almost severed the entire celestial body.

  In an instant, countless high-temperature substances within the star, as if finding an exit, rapidly erupted violently from this ferocious 'wound'—a gash large enough to simultaneously engulf thirty Earths—forming a fountain of raging fire, roughly 200,000 kilometers wide, rushing straight into the external interstellar space.

  A portion of this 'fountain' of countless tons of plasma matter, soaring at tens of millions of degrees Celsius, after being fiercely ejected, returned to the star's surface under gravity, while another portion reached escape velocity, rushing frantically toward the vast starry sky.

  If one were to 'look' from Seraphine's perspective, countless kilometers away.

  This trembling star, now clearly deformed, was akin to being savagely pierced with a power saw from behind, continuously gushing 'fresh blood' outwards from the massive wound that almost cut clean through its body.

  Under the violent internal pressure generated by this event, it even ejected an amount of matter approaching one quarter of its total mass in a short period of time.

  Thus, amidst endless trembling and surging, this incandescent star, no longer able to maintain its hydrostatic equilibrium, rapidly approached its inevitable end.

  And trillions of miles away.

  At the very center of the gradually dispersing space-time anomaly, Seraphine finally, for the first time, revealed her third form (self-space) to this universe.

  A white, slender humanoid figure, approximately 3 meters tall, entirely devoid of specific facial features, perfectly condensed from infinitely blazing, incandescent light.

  This radiant entity, with arms slowly extending as if to encompass this grand universe, seemed, upon observation, to embody all beauty, all might, and all brilliance of the cosmos.

  Mysterious, luminous, magnificent... every superlative could be justly applied.

  At this very moment, she was the Goddess of Power, the Goddess of Beauty, the Goddess of Creation.

  Simultaneously, beneath the blazing radiance on Seraphine's surface—a heat exceeding one hundred trillion degrees Celsius—the deep space-time structure immediately adjacent to her skin began to exhibit various peculiar alterations.

  This intricate space-time fabric, under her influence, started rapidly transforming backward towards the early high-energy epoch of this universe, mere seconds after its birth 13.7 billion years ago, a time when the Weak Interaction Force had barely decoupled, and quarks had not yet coalesced into hadrons.

  This implied that Seraphine, in her third form state, could only be truly sustained within such an extreme high-energy environment, reminiscent of the universe's nascent moment.

  However, she did not linger long.

  Seraphine, in her third form, after merely stretching those arms—which were hundreds or thousands of times hotter than the temperature at the innermost boundary of a cosmic giant black hole's accretion disk—suddenly collapsed into a flickering 'Light Point' barely the size of a button.

  Gulp!

  Gulp!

  Gulp!

  Like the measured heartbeat of a deity.

  The 'Light Point,' shining with a brilliance that seemed to eclipse all other light sources in the universe, pulsed three times—neither rushed nor delayed—then settled into absolute silence.

  This profound silence persisted for a full second.

  Suddenly!

  Boom!!!

  It was as if the observable universe itself had undergone a new Big Bang.

  This brilliant 'Light Point' surged outward at a speed billions of times faster than the speed of light.

  The second layer of her self-space, at this moment, violently unfolded.

  Rumble rumble rumble!!!

  Accompanying the roaring, surging, and reality-vaporizing torrents of space-time that swept away all conventional matter, storming toward the universe in all directions, the second layer of her self-space, shaking the very fabric of spacetime, then 'pushed' the surrounding 365 degrees and the adjacent boundless interstellar void toward the distant cosmic dark expanse in all directions at superluminal velocity.

  It was a distinct action of pushing and pressing, not one of covering or devouring.

  When Seraphine completely unfurled her second layer of self-space—which was essentially equivalent to an 'Equivalent Isolated System' (a semi-independent universe)—she appeared to sneer and forcibly 'pried open' a unique three-dimensional space-time 'cavity' belonging solely to herself, designed to 'contain' the entirety of her second layer of self-space, within the vast universe already 100% 'filled and compacted' with endless spacetime.

  In just one second.

  Seraphine had, using superluminal speed, ruthlessly 'pushed' all the boundless universe that was originally 'filling' her immediate surroundings outward in all directions, propelling it tens of light-years away.

  The countless thousands of star systems, silently scattered in a ring around the immediate region, in all directions, were also tragically and violently crushed by the infinitely powerful expansion of her second layer of self-space, which expanded at billions of times the speed of light. They shattered into endless clusters of super-high-temperature fundamental particles, accompanied by a superluminal 'retreat' toward the boundless void of even more distant regions, scattering and shooting into the depths of the limitless universe in all directions.

  Seraphine's influence extended far beyond this immediate vicinity.

  After she forcibly 'pried open' cosmic spacetime at superluminal velocity, the surrounding vast universe reacted like a calm lake into which a colossal stone had been cast. It instantaneously raised layers of immense spacetime ripples, forcing all the void above, below, left, right, and in every direction to rapidly 'fly' and chase after her at superluminal speeds into even more remote areas.

  Distances spanning hundreds of light-years, over a thousand light-years, several thousand light-years, or even tens of thousands of light-years of the universe, all experienced varying degrees of impact, both large and small, following Seraphine's 'strike.'

  Hundreds of millions of star systems, spread across this vast void, were also compelled to follow the spacetime structure in which they resided, moving away from their previous coordinates at superluminal or sub-light speeds, rapidly shifting to different, more distant cosmic regions.

  And the thousands of interstellar civilizations existing within this colossal number of star systems, after having previously fearfully detected sudden superluminal anomalies in the surrounding cosmic region, once again detected this even more exaggerated and world-shattering grand alteration through their sophisticated quantum monitoring equipment.

  For a moment, many interstellar civilizations were gripped by sheer terror and bewilderment, completely unable to fathom or categorize what this anomalous cosmic phenomenon, defying explanation by current scientific theories, truly represented.

  Humble as they were, they had no recourse but to offer prayers to deities whose existence or location they could not confirm.

  Whoosh whoosh whoosh ——

  At this moment, under the continuous 'neutralization' pressure of the vast three-dimensional space of the Grand Universe, the spacetime fluctuations—layer upon layer—generated by Seraphine's 'strike' and covering the surrounding stellar expanse continuously decreased in amplitude, intensity, and velocity.

  In just a dozen seconds, the activity plummeted from countless times the speed of light to below the speed of light.

  After another dozen seconds, the heavy spacetime fluctuations finally subsided completely.

  The Orion Spiral Arm, which moments before had displayed distinct variations in the arrangement of many stars, gradually returned to its normal configuration.

  Only the countless intelligent life forms residing within each star system or interstellar space remained, unable to shake off the boundless fear and disorientation in their hearts for a long time.

  And Seraphine, who at this moment had fully manifested her second form.

  She had transformed into a cosmic giant, possessing a blurred, indistinct face lacking discernible features, her sturdy yet slender figure covered with hundreds of neat, ethereal cracks, standing approximately seven hundred and seventy-seven trillion kilometers tall, as if rapidly condensed from the boundless void of the universe itself.

  Viewed from a distance.

  Seraphine, standing upon the vast expanse of the universe, resembled a colossal god of creation, radiating boundless majesty, profound desolation, immense sacredness, and an ultimate, supreme aura from head to toe.

  Within and outside her colossal body—entirely constructed from warped and bent three-dimensional spacetime unit cells—various large and small brilliant nebulae constantly flowed and swirled at superluminal velocities.

  Rippling, dazzling starlight continuously flashed across her body's surface, which resembled the dark starry sky, emitting streaks of exquisite, illusory light far brighter and more vibrant than even gamma-ray bursts.

  At the center of Seraphine's chest, however, resided a cluster of iridescent light, a blend of deep blue and brilliant white, formed from countless points, lines, planes, and bodies. It was an indescribable super spacetime vortex, eerily and continuously rotating through all directions and states.

  This vortex housed the location of Seraphine's first true form (self-space); it could not be easily unleashed or displayed, as doing so would cause severe structural damage to the delicate deep fabric of the external universe's spacetime.

  Once revealed, wherever the true form resided, passed, or traveled, that location would instantly become a cosmic dead zone.

  At that moment, all matter structures at levels higher than subatomic would irreversibly collapse and disintegrate, shattering into individual protons, neutrons, and electrons, scattering away and leaving absolutely nothing behind.

  Whoosh ——

  In the vast expanse of interstellar space, Seraphine stood calmly.

  Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of star systems—some dim, some brilliantly shining, some near, some distant—drifted serenely around her colossal, terrifying form at a pace that seemed 'slow,' almost registering as a 'static state.'

  These star systems appeared incredibly close to Seraphine, close enough to be grasped by an outstretched hand or reached with a single step.

  Yet, in reality, the nearest stellar system was several light-years away, with others stretching dozens of light-years distant.

  Consequently, when Seraphine manifested in the universe with such a grand, cosmic-giant posture, no civilization, no race, could possibly detect her presence.

  It was the sheer constraint of the speed of light that limited the senses and perceptions of these humble beings.

  Seraphine did not immediately engage.

  This was her first time fully manifesting this second form, and she needed time to acclimate and become thoroughly familiar with its capabilities.

  Hum—

  Seraphine's smooth, planar visage suddenly surged and pulsed, slowly revealing expansive areas covered in incredibly complex and magnificent patterns of profound light.

  At the core of this light pattern—which was vastly wider and more extensive than the entire Solar System—the Eye of Transcendence, currently flickering as pure light, slowly opened. For the first time, it did not gaze toward other parallel realities but focused its entire attention solely upon this universe.

  In an instant, Seraphine's 'gaze,' like a cosmic arrow, 'perceived' every star system within the next fifty thousand light-years, numbering in the millions.

  A small fraction of these systems harbored dense auras of life and civilization, totaling about 100,000.

  They shone like blazing bonfires, each holding a distinct, burning flame.

  In Seraphine's eyes, they were dazzlingly bright, and profoundly... appetizing.

  Seraphine did not advance immediately.

  Instead, she slowly raised her colossal head—tens of trillions of kilometers wide—and used the Eye of Transcendence to survey the cosmic frontier in every direction.

  Unlike the Boundless Domain, which provides complete three-dimensional sensory input (though still fundamentally a passive mechanism), Seraphine’s Eye of Transcendence—barely evolved after billions of hyper-dimensional traversals, its exact mechanics remaining deeply mysterious—is a rare form of active, singular line of sight.

  Once initiated, its wondrous 'gaze,' which transmits neither information nor energy in a conventional sense, acts like a focused beam. Originating from her eyes, it shoots instantaneously toward its 'target' across a potential range of roughly 10,000 light-years.

  Furthermore, upon activation, it completely disregards this universe's speed-of-light limitations, arriving at its destination in zero time.

  Knowledge is obtained instantly upon arrival.

  There is absolutely no delay whatsoever in the process.

  This functions in a manner not entirely dissimilar to what the Houiste Federation theorized as Level 10 warp travel.

  It seems incredibly potent and wonderfully impressive.

  However, while surveying the boundless universe in all directions, Seraphine quickly discovered a major shortcoming of this Eye of Transcendence.

  Or perhaps, a fundamental limitation.

  She noted that after focusing the Eye of Transcendence inward upon this universe, although its sensory reach broke through the 82-light-year diameter limit of the Boundless Domain, the accuracy of her observation regarding specific objects was extremely coarse.

  It was almost comparable to extreme farsightedness.

  If she employed the Boundless Domain to sense fluctuations in external spacetime, matter, and energy across the wider Grand Universe, Seraphine could effortlessly observe everything down to the fundamental particle level, thus naturally wielding the power of creation and destruction over all surrounding reality.

  But the Eye of Transcendence operated like supreme hyperopia; the smallest scale at which it could clearly resolve external objects began at the sub-celestial body level.

  To be precise: anything smaller in scale than a comet could not be distinctly and tangibly seen by the Eye of Transcendence.

  She could only vaguely perceive a blocky, pixelated dot.

  Under such limitations, attempting to use the Eye of Transcendence to penetrate a distant region, analyze subtle spacetime structural changes, and deduce precise spacetime coordinates would be fundamentally impossible.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Therefore, trying to leverage the Eye of Transcendence to assist in opening a Real Number Channel was equivalent to a fanciful illusion.

  Simultaneously, in terms of field of view, the Eye of Transcendence’s scope was not excessively vast.

  It only spanned a distance of 10,000 light-years.

  If the vision extended beyond this range, the Eye of Transcendence could no longer focus normally on this universe; its gaze would uncontrollably expand too broadly.

  So incredibly broad that no specific object could be clearly resolved anymore.

  So grand that this universe, alongside countless other parallel universes, whether 'near' or 'far,' would all collapse into incredibly bland, illusory images of raw information.

  If she continued to look for even slightly longer, even this specific universe would resolve in her vision as nothing more than an insignificant bubble floating in the vast ocean of infinite, macro-scale parallel realities.

  Consequently, Seraphine quickly arrived at a conclusion regarding the Eye of Transcendence:

  "The view is too elevated; detail recognition is lost."

  Although when gazing outward at the endless, innumerable three-dimensional spacetimes beyond this universe, or looking up at the blurred manifestation of the 《Dragonblood》 Grand Universe—which presented itself as a ten-dimensional pyramid—or turning toward that faintly shimmering, seemingly infinitely dimensional unknown realm beyond the Grand Universe, the Eye of Transcendence functioned with wondrous divinity, easily perceiving everything.

  Yet, the moment she turned her gaze 'downward' to peer into the interior of this specific universe, the Eye of Transcendence immediately became severely disconnected from reality.

  Let alone the countless individual life forms dwelling on planetary surfaces, even a slightly smaller interstellar warship would only register as a few blurry, indistinct pixels to her hyper-dimensional vision; she couldn't even discern if it was a mechanical or biological vessel.

  But Seraphine felt neither discouraged nor panicked, nor did she experience the slightest hint of annoyance.

  Because such regrettable emotions are reserved solely for the weak.

  The strong can be endlessly greedy, endlessly seeking, yet they will never feel anger or sorrow over the imperfection or unrealized potential of their own abilities or traits.

  "Destiny cannot bestow every unique quality upon a single being."

  Seraphine's countenance, as profound and boundless as a cosmic galaxy, radiated shimmering light:

  "But as long as one relentlessly ascends, and upon reaching the pinnacle, deliberately crushes destiny underfoot, one can exclusively claim infinite splendor."

  Seraphine raised her gaze toward a nearby star system, slowly extended her five colossal fingers, and abruptly swept them horizontally, grasping the entire structure within her palm.

  "No Spirituality radiance, useless. Destroy it."

  It was like a divine decree issued by a Creator God.

  This star system, which had drifted gently through the universe for billions of years, was suddenly gripped by Seraphine's five ruthless digits.

  Rumble rumble rumble ——

  In an instant, this colossal star system, spanning a diameter of twenty trillion kilometers, resembled a loose cloud. It was violently crushed by five primordial sky-pillars, each seven trillion kilometers thick, within the colossal palm that measured hundreds of trillions of kilometers across.

  Containing two scorching suns, six rocky planets, five gas giants, over 200 planetary satellites, and several thousand meteors and comets—all were instantly vaporized by Seraphine's five mighty fingers. Swept away by an endless torrent of chaotic space-time, they abruptly collapsed and disintegrated into countless bursts of colossal light and thermal energy, swallowed by the immense, primordial-like hand below, leaving absolutely no trace.

  Whoosh ——

  After the star system's annihilation, this tumultuous and roaring three-dimensional space-time region was instantly leveled by Seraphine's single thought, silently returning to its original, undisturbed state.

  "This Sector possesses neither Ether nor Hallways."

  After speaking, she again observed the hundreds of star systems that surrounded her from all directions, from her apex to the base, and indifferently whispered:

  "There aren't even any intelligent species present. Useless. Annihilate them all."

  With that, she lifted her colossal foot, over 90 trillion kilometers in length, and stomped forward into space.

  Boom ——

  The colossal foot landed in the boundless starry expanse, instantly raising layer upon layer of superluminal space-time tidal waves—dozens in number, measured in light-years. This massive surge swept clean several colossal star systems within a radius of several hundred trillion kilometers, transforming them into boundless torrents of thermal energy, scattered and dispersed throughout the cosmos's four cardinal directions.

  With just this single stride, Seraphine traversed several tens of light-years.

  Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

  Simultaneously, the dozens of star systems spread along this path were violently crushed as she stepped forward, sorrowfully turning into countless streams of light energy diffusing at the speed of light, scattering into the four directions of the dark sky.

  But the speed of light proved too slow.

  These vast and immense energy streams, like great rivers, had barely erupted into existence before she instantly absorbed every last trace of them.

  Next, Seraphine suddenly took two consecutive steps.

  Boom! Boom!

  While raising layer upon layer of space-time tidal waves that overturned the surrounding hundreds of trillions of kilometers of space.

  Seraphine, in a single second, traversed over 100 light-years.

  Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

  With just two strides, nearly two hundred star systems were ruthlessly ignited by her action, abruptly transforming into boundless, surging seas of luminous energy that leaped into her second form.

  It was also at this moment that Seraphine registered a subtle issue.

  She paused to observe.

  Regarding the size and scale of this current body, whether reaching out a hand or taking a step, her movements appeared relatively 'slow.'

  For instance, when taking a normal stride, her second form could only manage one step per second.

  Each step covered roughly forty to sixty light-years.

  If the stride frequency were increased.

  It would still only amount to two steps per second, covering a distance exceeding 100 light-years.

  Compared to an ordinary person's two or three steps per second in terms of frequency, she was clearly slower.

  "Is this a limitation imposed by cosmic rules, or is it due to the sheer magnitude of my size?"

  Seraphine hesitated in silence for a moment, then looked up ahead.

  Focusing thirty-five light-years distant, upon that unfamiliar Sector glittering with Spirituality radiance.

  It turned out that by taking merely three steps, she had covered a distance of one hundred and seventy light-years, arriving at the periphery of a Sector where Ether activity was noticeably higher.

  "Hmm, arrived at a Low-Ether level Sector, I see? What flourishing Spirituality radiance, but the Sentience Realm Hallway is incomplete; this must be a Broken Sector."

  The Eye of Transcendence, situated in the center of Seraphine's colossal face—approximately four to five light-years wide horizontally and two light-years high vertically—rotated rapidly. In an instant, it swept across this vast star field ahead, which contained over a thousand star systems.

  Although the view through the Eye of Transcendence wasn't perfectly detailed.

  Which of these thousand-plus star systems contained a large number of intelligent organisms, which hosted massive artificial cosmic structures, and which planets had undergone large-scale modification would still be instantly recognized by her.

  After a rapid scan.

  Following a series of simulated calculations and categorical statistics, Seraphine easily determined the Civilizational landscape and status of this Broken Sector, long forgotten outside the truly prosperous Civilization Zone areas of the vast Milky Way.

  "A total of two hundred and ninety-three intelligent species; among them, 99% of civilizations cannot harness free energy, thus failing to truly escape the planetary-bound state and step into the cosmic era.

  Most of these species are in primitive, classical, early industrial revolution, early nuclear energy application, early chemical propulsion space age, or in a decadent Cyber era following failed technological and industrial upgrades, among many other classifications."

  Seraphine gently shook her head, "Hmm, these humble organisms generate too little disturbance to the external cosmic matter, so little that even the Eye of Transcendence cannot clearly delineate them. The precise numbers of these civilizations at various stages cannot be accurately counted, but..."

  She raised her hand and plucked a star system from the outermost edge of the previous Sector, hauling it at superluminal speed across tens of light-years to position it directly in front of her face, holding it carefully in her palm for close inspection.

  To observe this closely, the Eye of Transcendence was no longer sufficient; she needed to employ Boundless Perception.

  Hum ——

  In an instant, a colossal sensory force, completely transcending the three-dimensional space-time structure, rapidly submerged into this star system, suspended in Seraphine's grasp.

  In just a single moment.

  A vast quantity of information contained within this star system was extracted by her—more than half of its contents.

  "A binary star system, one large and one small... Six rocky planets... Four gas giants... Not bad, they have skillfully mastered a free energy source... It turns out to be a fundamental particle fusion reactor, very mature in its structural aspects. This technological prowess is formidable; it doesn't seem like something a Broken Sector Civilization could research... Ah, they even constructed Orbital Fortresses... The Uco species; their population is surprisingly small... Oh? Ether-Crystalline dark matter? The Agate Clan?"

  Seraphine exhibited slight surprise.

  It was the Ether-Crystalline dark matter structure, previously only known within the Didrogutian found in Yuro's body, yet individuals of this civilization suddenly possessed a component of it.

  Curious, she immediately extended her perception deeply into the brains of the mere tens of thousands of individuals comprising this interstellar civilization.

  In an instant, through the thoughts and memories of these civilized beings, the entire background of this civilization was plundered by Seraphine.

  Species: Uco Clan.

  Physiological Characteristics: Lacking a physical body; they are formed from an extremely high-pressure current composed of trace amounts of Ether-Crystalline dark matter, existing in a three-dimensional grid-like configuration.

  Social Structure: This species manifests as a semi-militarized civilization underpinned by a distinctly idol-worshipping religious system.

  Historical Origin: Approximately 8,700 years ago, while a scientific survey vessel carrying over a thousand individuals of the Agate Clan navigated this Broken Sector, it encountered a damaged antimatter space torpedo, residue from some unknown ancient civilization. Following an ensuing explosion, the vessel’s hull sustained severe damage.

  During the ensuing self-rescue navigation to procure necessary ship repair resources, this crippled survey vessel was ambushed by an interstellar civilization known as the Spiral Tribe, ultimately leading to its catastrophic crash.

  In the massive hull detonation, a fraction of the Agate Clan corpses ejected outside the ship encountered a rare stream of Ether-Crystalline dark matter particles in deep cosmic space. Subsequently, they miraculously achieved evolution into the Uco Clan—a species existing in a semi-spiritual, semi-material state.

  Evolutionary System: Similar to the Agate Clan lineage, yet they lack skill in directing the minds and spirits of other beings; they are far more adept at manipulating physical matter via telekinetic fields.

  "Spiral Tribe? What a development."

  "Fascinating."

  Seraphine smiled gently, and with a mere thought, she carefully placed the rocky planet, home to over a hundred thousand Uco Clan individuals within this star system, into one of the three-dimensional dimensional unit cells residing within her body.

  She then relocated this cell into an artificial stellar arrangement situated in a remote corner of that three-dimensional space-time, an area already housing a trillion-strong Agate Clan population.

  Indeed, every member of the Agate Clan she had 'absorbed' was compressed into that single stellar system.

  In standard cosmic space, the planetary count in a typical star system is naturally not extensive, usually just a handful or a dozen bodies.

  But in Seraphine’s estimation, this represented an immense squandering of spatial resources.

  Within her own being, excluding the Solar System and that giant stellar array, any other existing or future star systems must contain thousands or tens of thousands of planets to be deemed sufficient.

  As for the gravitational influence between these celestial bodies, that was fundamentally irrelevant, a trivial issue solvable with a single directed thought.

  The very moment the Uco Clan entered Seraphine's internal structure, the surface of the Root Spirituality cluster deep within the souls of all their life forms was instantaneously bathed in a dazzling white luminescence.

  Immediately, these alien life forms were converted into continuous providers of wisdom sparks for Seraphine.

  From that moment until eternity, this Uco Clan would ceaselessly supply her with these sparks, facilitating her continued ascent into higher dimensions.

  "Spiral Tribe, indeed? A grand title, but can you bear its significance?"

  Casually dispersing the entire Uco Clan star system, Seraphine took a step forward, and with a thought, activated her Boundless Domain, enveloping the Low-Ether Sector currently before her.

  "Let me ascertain your location."

  ...

  Owing to the profound disparities between regions with varying levels of Ether saturation.

  The civilizations of the Milky Way, based on calculated variations in spiritual activity across different spatial coordinates, had artificially classified them into four distinct tiers: None, Low, Mid, and High.

  Furthermore, since the likelihood of life originating in an environment devoid of Ether—and subsequently evolving into intelligent species or established civilizations—is significantly lower than in Ether-rich environments—virtually zero, one might say.

  Consequently, non-Ether Sectors are often referred to pejoratively by many interstellar civilizations as Ash Zones, signifying dark, desolate abysses lacking the light of life, the illumination of civilization, the spark of intelligence, and the energy of evolution (Ether).

  For instance, the Solar System prior to the Ether recovery was a textbook Ash Zone.

  At that time, the Solar System, in the view of most contemporary interstellar civilizations, would only be deemed suitable as a proving ground for their experimental weaponry, a refuse dumping station, or a mineral excavation site; even these purposes would find no willing inhabitants.

  The underlying reason is that organisms born and naturally sustained in an Ether-rich Sector would, if confined too long within an Ash Zone, face a high probability of experiencing a gradual degradation phenomenon.

  Due to this inherent toxicity, even many low-intelligence or unintelligent cosmic behemoths or interstellar predators would instinctively strive to bypass Ash Zones.

  The Low-Ether Sector currently before Seraphine, to be precise, actually belonged to a small boundary region of another colossal spherical star cluster, containing tens of thousands of star systems, though over 99% of these were also non-Ether Ash Zones.

  Hum ——

  The Boundless Domain instantly activated.

  Relying on this potent sensory force that completely transcended the three-dimensional space-time structure and operated at superluminal velocities, Seraphine, observing this low-Ether Sector in detail, managed, in the blink of an eye, to detect the precise border of the Spiral Tribe's civilization territory—located a mere thirty-nine light-years away from the Uco civilization's former location.

  It resided within a binary star system.

  Whoosh whoosh whoosh ——

  Dense, subtle currents of sensory force, still subtly alive in the deepest levels of the universe's three-dimensional space-time structure, rapidly enveloped this star system, which spanned sixteen trillion kilometers in diameter.

  After enveloping it, the high-dimensional sensory force instantly penetrated its several trillion-kilometer-thick boundary Nebula layer, as well as the vast asteroid belt stretching nearly a trillion kilometers, reaching the central region of the star system, replete with numerous rocky planets and gas giants.

  Next, all the information contained within every single particle and every minute area of these planets' surfaces and interiors was scanned by the high-dimensional sense.

  Simultaneously, the billions of strangely shaped, large spiral-like Spiral Tribe individuals existing on each planet—whether alive, working, or at rest—were also, unknowingly, instantly penetrated deep into their souls by Seraphine. A layer of blazing light was plated onto the surface of their Root Spirituality, rendering them yet another collective source of wisdom sparks for her.

  All the mixed memories and crucial knowledge information plundered from the Spiral Tribe star system were instantly transmitted via the Boundless Domain directly into Seraphine's Primordial Soul, which resided tens of light-years distant in space.

  After rapidly assimilating this immense ocean of information—a volume vast enough to overwhelm the comprehension of a standard Milky Way Overlord—she commented with slight surprise:

  "I didn't expect it to genuinely be a spiral-shaped life form. Not bad; you certainly live up to your designation."

  Based on the data displayed within this vast mental archive:

  This intelligent species, known as the Spiral Tribe, boasts a civilization history spanning ten thousand years, with a total population amounting to 185 billion.

  Their bodies, shaped like coiled spiral springs, are fundamentally formed from the condensation of extremely trace amounts of Ether-Crystalline hydrocarbon anomalous oxygen-containing compounds.

  They possess no conventional hands, feet, or eyes, yet they are innately born with fairly potent mental power, meaning communication or object manipulation presents no obstacle whatsoever.

  Due to this unique and highly resilient physiological structure, the species can rapidly contract and expand like actual springs and achieve superluminal velocities. Furthermore, they possess the ability to absorb and convert vast amounts of kinetic energy from the external environment.

  Even a newborn Spiral Tribe infant, utilizing its inherent elasticity, can effortlessly exceed the speed of sound without sustaining injury.

  This implies that a single Spiral Tribe infant, if deposited on Earth before the Ether recovery, could easily overwhelm an Evershield Body. Defeating one would necessitate assembling a large military force backed by heavy firepower.

  As for those rigorously trained Spiral Tribe warriors, they possess the ability to achieve speeds of Mach ten or more, anytime and anywhere, allowing them to fly across land, pierce through mountains, and cross vast seas.

  Even stronger Spiral Tribe martial artists can leap and break through the atmosphere to achieve space flight.

  Relying on this potent innate talent, the ancient Spiral Tribe logically triumphed over countless ferocious beasts on their homeworld, winning the competition for survival and establishing themselves as the planet's dominant species.

  After achieving mastery over the entire planetary ecosystem, and over many years, the gradually evolving intelligent Spiral Tribe progressed through the primitive era, classical era, industrial era, and space age—much like many other burgeoning alien civilizations. Finally, they ignited the light of fusion technology and, driven by intense curiosity and excitement, set foot into the boundless universe.

  Upon leaving their homeworld, the Spiral Tribe—who fiercely adhered to the doctrines of self-evolution and the necessary destruction of lesser species—took eighteen hundred years to systematically occupy every planet within their star system, completely eradicating all indigenous intelligent or non-intelligent alien species residing on those worlds.

  Finally, having conquered and secured complete control over their entire native star system, the Spiral Tribe arduously broke through the dense Nebula layer, thereby stepping into the outer Sector and venturing toward wider spatial domains.

  And within the subsequent several hundred years, they discovered and researched the scattered, incomplete, but fortunately still functional, low-level spatial hallways that crisscrossed the Sentience Realm of this Sector—a network completely severed from the external universe.

  It was at this juncture that they encountered their sworn nemesis within the Sentience Realm: the Fossil Tribe, against whom they would wage war for thousands of years.

  In the intermittent interstellar conflict that lasted for millennia, the two species gradually claimed dominance over dozens of star systems, solidifying their position as one of the undisputed Overlords of this low-Ether Sector.

  Hum ——

  Following the intelligence 'provided' by the Spiral Tribe records, Seraphine's Boundless Domain suddenly shifted, propelling her tens of light-years away, instantly locating the so-called territory of the Fossil Tribe civilization.

  "Fossil Tribe... That designation holds a certain meaning."

  With burgeoning curiosity, her high-dimensional sense suddenly pierced into that distant star system.

  After traversing the sparse Nebula layer, passing through the chaotic asteroid belt, and reaching the system's numerous rocky planets, Seraphine repeated her previous decisive action.

  Once again, she instantly 'converted' the billions of beings belonging to the so-called Fossil Tribe residing within that entire star system.

  Simultaneously, the massive torrent of information, containing all the knowledge and memories of this entire species, returned via the Boundless Domain at superluminal velocity directly to Seraphine's Primordial Soul.

  This data indicated:

  This intelligent species, designated the Fossil Tribe, originated over a hundred light-years distant from the Spiral Tribe's homeworld. Their documented civilization history also spanned nearly ten thousand years, boasting a cumulative population of nine hundred and two billion.

  What truly astonished Seraphine was that this species emerged and evolved from the fossilized bones of a colossal, carbon-based giant creature species that had inhabited their planet tens of millions of years prior but had long since become extinct, subsequently forming a calcium-based intelligent biological community from their remains.

  "Incredible. After such vast ages of dormancy, arising from mere fossils, still capable of birthing new life."

  Seraphine gently shook her head and sighed, "The universe is indeed vast and endlessly filled with wonders."

  Within this recovered information, although this intelligent species originated from ancient fossils, unlike those enormous, mountain-sized ancient creatures, the Fossil Tribe's natural physique was quite small; even adult individuals were merely the size of common cats and dogs.

  Consequently, although their mobility wasn't slow, their raw physical strength was negligible.

  Therefore, in the brutal competition for survival on their homeworld, the early Fossil Tribe held no advantage whatsoever, perpetually hovering near the bottom of the planetary food chain.

  This dark epoch persisted for a significant duration.

  But perhaps because the Fossil Tribe's brain structure was fundamentally different from ordinary organisms—appearing in multiple crystalline lattice formations—they were inherently born with a powerful spatial geometric perception ability. Thus, in that extremely ancient era, even prior to mastering fire, they established a relatively rudimentary yet exceptionally complete mathematical system.

  As the adage goes, mathematics is the bedrock of all science, and can also be termed the mother of all innovation.

  The physically frail Fossil Tribe, leveraging this singular talent, almost "hacked" their way directly to creating steam engines in their Stone Age, completely bypassing the primitive and classical eras, and sprinting into the industrial age.

  Later, their advancement became unstoppable, leaping into the cosmic era in just over a thousand years.

  Observing this trajectory, Seraphine, far away in space, couldn't help but let out a laugh:

  "No wonder the scale of conflict has escalated so much; they're almost ten times the Spiral Tribe's numbers, yet they are all mathematicians."

  Not long after entering the cosmic era, the Fossil Tribe quickly made contact with the Spiral Tribe, a species utterly divergent from them in both appearance and philosophy.

  The Spiral Tribe championed the exploration and exploitation of every corner of space, arrogantly proclaiming themselves the universe's developers and rulers, possessing an intense desire to conquer other species.

  The Fossil Tribe, conversely, advocated for creation and evolution, yet they were not hesitant to employ force when necessary to safeguard their own existence.

  At the same time, they firmly adhered to the belief in some mysterious, ancient, non-personal deity existing within the cosmos, one that established and enforced strict mathematical universal laws.

  Consequently, they arrogantly presumed that their inherent extraordinary mathematical acumen was granted entirely because they were the chosen few of this Creator God, born specifically to safeguard life and nature across the universe.

  The completely divergent beliefs held by these two species, compounded by their fierce struggle for dominance across the vastness of space, inevitably fueled immense conflict between them.

  However, due to an ingrained sense of caution, the two tribes initially refrained from lightly engaging in open hostilities.

  It was not until an exploratory mission at the contested boundary of an unknown Ash Zone that the survey vessels of the two species unintentionally collided.

  With the subsequent arrival of military forces from both factions, the minor skirmish rapidly escalated into a localized campaign.

  This campaign concluded very quickly, leaving both sides having sustained notable damage.

  Despite subsequent attempts by high-ranking officials from both tribes to negotiate a ceasefire, the vast ideological chasms separating them meant that even with equivalent military standing, they could not forge a consensus for lasting peace.

  Finally, driven by the escalating desire for confrontation simmering within both civilizations, outright war became unavoidable.

  From the outset, the conflict was exceptionally brutal.

  Both tribes, aiming for total, decisive victory, deployed their most advanced technology and most ruthless weaponry onto the battlefield, maintaining an extremely high intensity of interstellar warfare.

  As epochs passed, the scope of the war continually expanded.

  Hundreds, then thousands, of starships were annihilated, countless lives extinguished, yet neither faction could claim the upper hand.

  Eons passed, and the war dragged on for an entire century.

  During this not-so-brief period, both sides endured punishing losses and prolonged agony.

  Finally, the two tribes initiated efforts toward peace negotiations.

  And after numerous rounds of arduous diplomacy, they ultimately signed a perpetual peace treaty, formally ratified by the supreme leaders of both tribes in a grand ceremony.

  Within this treaty, both sides stipulated that reigniting hostilities was permanently forbidden, and furthermore, they vowed to forever maintain mutual respect and tolerance moving forward.

  But at that precise moment, a large Agate Clan scientific survey ship, passing nearby this pivotal planet, inadvertently triggered a hidden, colossal antimatter torpedo left behind by some ancient, unknown civilization. This detonation subsequently triggered an incomplete sequence of similar torpedoes that the ancient civilization had somehow 'interred' within this star system.

  Consequently, the Agate Clan survey ship, now 'critically damaged,' fled, and the planet’s landmass also suffered catastrophic devastation.

  Naturally, the supreme leaders of the two tribes, having just signed a perpetual peace accord, along with their respective high-ranking personnel, all perished, their very existence erased.

  Thus, war reignited.

  The key difference this time was the integration of a new force—or rather, the passive incorporation of a group: those 'new Agate Clan' members resurrected by Ether-Crystalline dark matter—the Uco Clan.

  Although this emergent force possessed an extremely shallow foundation due to the remarkably small number of individuals involved.

  Yet, because they wielded military technology advanced enough to effortlessly crush the two existing tribes for several generations, coupled with potent, seemingly insurmountable mind-control abilities.

  Initially, relying on a salvaged, three-year-old derelict vessel, the Uco Clan could still barely challenge the combined interstellar fleets of both the Spiral and Fossil Tribes.

  Thus, the millennia-long war between these three tribes slowly unfurled its curtain.

  "Though somewhat interesting, at its core, it remains a battle between snails," Seraphine mused leisurely.

  With that thought, she did not hesitate, stepping directly into this low-Ether Sector.

  Whoosh whoosh whoosh ——

  Seraphine's colossal form swept through space, raising layer upon layer of space-time ripples in its wake.

  With a single half-step, she pierced through a vast expanse of cosmic dust clouds—spread widely in all directions but only a few trillion kilometers thick—entering the periphery of the Sector.

  Upon entry, Seraphine encountered dozens of star systems blocking her immediate path.

  Now, viewed from her perspective, these entire star systems resembled dim, loose smoke rings, each barely the size of a cola bottle cap.

  Fragile, nearly dissipated with the slightest exertion of her will.

  Hum ——

  The Boundless Domain washed over, instantly encompassing these star systems within its sweeping range.

  Extracting and analyzing all the information contained within, Seraphine stated somewhat coldly:

  "There might be some low-intelligence life forms, but there is no sign of Ether-based radiant light flickering. Useless."

  Her progress unbroken, she indifferently took another step forward, mercilessly crushing these tiny smoke rings.

  Rumble rumble rumble ——

  The dozens of star systems scattered throughout space faced instant apocalypse, immediately crushed and disintegrated by her impact, transforming into colossal torrents of thermal energy that she devoured almost entirely, leaving behind not a single atom.