At the edge of that stellar system.
In the northwest region of the Verlon Winter Empire, a flickering apricot-yellow radiance paused briefly, gazing into the distant star-filled sky.
"A long, long time ago..."
"In those distant, ancient years, we left something behind in this region of the starry sky..."
"Who am I, who are we?" The strange apricot-yellow radiance slowly split apart, revealing a delicate halo that resembled both an eye and a tentacle: "We are the Supreme Light Clan, omnipresent everywhere!"
——
Silent and indescribable, a strange whisper. The apricot-yellow radiance flickered and leapt, immediately heading toward the next coordinate suspected to be a lost site.
The so-called lost site—
is a region of the starry sky where a precious treasure might have been left behind.
And there are a total of 2,190,083 coordinates suspected to be lost sites.
To investigate, it must visit each one in turn, missing not a single coordinate.
Unless it truly finds the precious treasure left here years ago, this search cannot be stopped or canceled. After all, the Supreme Light Clan spent years planning this covert search within Human Territory, paying a tremendous price.
For example...
A third-rate life race of the cosmic starry sky—the Hu-Gu Race!
The pot-shaped crystalline Hu-Gu beings—how could they, on a mere burst of courage, dare to offend the Human Race?
And this—
is the hidden truth unknown to others.
They have no right to step into this territory. All they can do now is hide and wait in silence.
"What a pity."
"In the end, it all ended in failure."
The apricot-yellow radiance let out a cold, eerie laugh.
If not for this, why would the Supreme Light Clan support the Hu-Gu Race? In the end, the Primeval Life-and-Death War was a total loss—the Hu-Gu Race failed the high hopes placed on them, never achieving the expected results. How could the Light Clan not feel anger?
"Hmph."
The apricot-yellow radiance sneered, thoroughly dissatisfied with the Hu-Gu Race. If the Primeval Life-and-Death War had ended in a draw, it would not have had to risk its life coming here to investigate.
"Utterly worthless third-rate trash!"
The apricot-yellow radiance seethed: "Those Hu-Gu are truly disappointing, useless things! According to our original plan, we would have first cordoned off a small sector of the starry sky, then slowly searched for the exact location of the lost site."
But now—
They have no right to enter this territory, and can only lurk in secret.
And the total number of search coordinates exceeds two million, a crushing pressure on it.
"Far too many."
"There really are far too many search coordinates," the apricot-yellow radiance muttered anxiously. "Just to investigate all these coordinates would take at least half a star-year."
The Supreme Light Clan's lifespan is unusually long and leisurely.
Before opening the Gate of Eternal Life, a Light Clan member of this tier typically lives dozens of times longer than a Human. The Light Clan are beings of spiritual light, their life force extremely active, and the energy exchanged for their existence is almost negligible.
To them,
half a star-year is merely an unusually short nap.
But the real issue depends on the specific situation—after all, look at where this is: if it exposes its traces in Human Territory, no matter how strong it is, death is certain, with no hope of survival.
"Humans are truly terrifying."
"By relying on the overwhelming power of individuals, they have risen to become a Supreme Race." The apricot-yellow Light Clan member understood the advantages of each of the Four Great Life Races.
In terms of racial strength, the Four Supreme Life Races are: Shenro Clan, Star-Sky Human Race, Nether Clan, and lastly, the Light Clan.
The Shenro Clan—lords of fate, their movements are unfathomable.
The Nether Clan—constructs a Void Nether Kingdom, seeking to supplant this starry sky with their own domain.
And as for the Star-Sky Humans...
"Sigh."
The apricot-yellow radiance shivered, then simply stopped thinking about it and continued searching for the location of the lost site.
"Coordinate 307, investigation complete—confirmed negative..."
"Coordinate 308, investigation complete—confirmed negative..."
Undoubtedly, regardless of its search method, this was a vast and time-consuming ordeal. More importantly, this was Human Territory—no other supreme race would ever be permitted to trespass without sanction.
"Continue."
The apricot-yellow radiance moved on to the next coordinate.
The boundless starry sky—this was a cylindrical stellar system near the Milky Way, fully governed by the Verlon Winter Empire.
But one must understand.
Compared to the empire's technological level, a stellar system is an unimaginably vast domain. Even with all the empire's power, it is impossible to monitor every corner and subtle change within the system, let alone maintain constant, flawless surveillance—something even Cosmic Eternal Realm beings cannot achieve.
Therefore—
The existence of the apricot-yellow radiance, leaping from place to place, was completely undetectable to the Verlon Winter Empire.
Whoosh!
That sentient apricot-yellow radiance flickered in the dark vacuum and vanished in the blink of an eye.
It came quickly.
It left quickly.
It vanished without a trace.
Across the entire Verlon Winter Empire, there was nowhere it could not reach; this immense stellar system was nearly free for the Starry Sky Light Clan to traverse at will.
Immediately after—
The apricot-yellow Light Clan seemed to venture into some mysterious, unknown higher dimension, and in the next instant, descended straight to the deepest core of a barren planet nearly three hundred light-years away!
The Light Clan's supreme talent—Omnipresence!
As long as there is light, they can instant-shift, arriving at any fixed location within range. The range depends on the individual's cultivation and genius level.
"Hmph."
"A radius of three hundred light-years, mine to roam as I please."
The apricot-yellow Light Clan flickered restlessly, its earlier anxiety gradually giving way to idle ease, like a lamp dimming and brightening: "This Human Empire is so weak, its monitoring so crude, it can't possibly detect me!"
As time passed—
The apricot-yellow Light Clan grew ever more confident.
"So then..."
"Where is our clan's lost treasure..."
The Light Clan's whisper was faint, dissolving into gray as soon as it was uttered, leaving not a trace behind.
It must be known—
Sound is produced by the vibration of objects, transmitted through a medium, and can be sensed or detected by living beings. In other words, sound is the faintest ripple of energy, with minimal destructive power and a short range, yet it plays a crucial role in carrying information.
Lifeforms above the Starlight Tier usually transmit sound mixed with energy waves.
Existences above Cosmos Union Realm can transform sound into unique fluctuations, allowing it to persist as energy storms—energy storms are hard to erase and do not dissipate quickly; it's said Cosmic Eternal Realm beings have communicated across stellar systems this way.
Thus—
People leave traces, light leaves images, and sound is also a trace.
For the apricot-yellow Light Clan to risk infiltrating Human Territory was already extremely dangerous; how could it allow any trace to remain?
"As long as it belongs to our Light Clan!"
"No matter where it is!"
It was silently growling, urging itself on, firming its resolve.
Meanwhile—
Boom.
A profound and terrifying fluctuation appeared at its side in an instant, exploding into sound.
"Argo!"
"I've successfully induced a Starry Sky Catastrophe to cover your tracks... Don't worry, search slowly, I'll shield you the whole way!"
Hearing this, the apricot-yellow Light Clan Argo flickered wildly, seemingly responding in excitement.
...
Suspended near the Verlon Winter Empire's region in the Milky Way.
The blue planet—Earth.
It was the height of summer; the blazing sun shone upon the sea of clouds, and the drifting white clouds at ten thousand meters looked like palatial towers of white jade.
"Starry Sky Catastrophe?"
Andrew Han sat cross-legged atop the sea of clouds, holding his Star-Gate Martial Communicator, and asked curiously, "Brother Howard, are you responsible for handling the Starry Sky Catastrophe?"
On the other side—
The communicator projected a clear human figure—it was the smiling Primeval Howard Gu, already freed from his previous predicament.
"Hahaha, Andrew, you really overestimate me." Clad in white, Primeval Howard Gu shook his head and laughed: "I'm just a Void Rift peak Primeval—how could I possibly stop a Starry Sky Catastrophe? That's the Flame-Smoke Shattered Gold Stream..."