Him and their stars.

Chapter 2144 The Void Realm Lord's Iron Fist

Needless to say, the only one who could jump out at this time to act as a ghost is Little Grey.

However, in this tense moment of a duel between masters, you actually want me to look outwards? Isn't that incredibly illogical? It's even more absurd than grabbing the steering wheel while driving on the highway!

We've known each other for two lifetimes, and you actually wanted to kill me?
Although Yu Lian really wanted to express his dissatisfaction, the emperor opposite him seemed to have sensed something and actually looked directly at the outside of the dome in front of him.

This is an action that is almost completely unguarded.

This guy doesn't have eyes now, so what's he trying to do with this action? Is he trying to express a sense of ritual?
Although Yu Lian felt that something was wrong, His Majesty the Emperor not only stopped paying attention to him, but even the murderous aura that had been boiling over before slowly began to subside.

Well, since His Majesty the Emperor has adopted such a high-minded stance, it seems that if I were to continue this confrontational approach, I would be losing in terms of morale.

Yu Lian watched as the dangerous crystal cluster disappeared from the other party's hand, and he also put away his light blade. Almost instinctively, he followed the guidance in the dark, pierced through the dome of the Dragon Palace, and was thrown into the deep starry sky beyond the Heavenly Domain.

His naked eyes couldn't see it, but his spiritual sense could.

There, on the outskirts of the dense cluster of space cities in the celestial realm, at the edge of the physical concept of this galaxy, an indescribable "aura" is spreading.

A look of seriousness flashed across Yu Lian's eyes.

That kind of fluctuation is not a normal mass response, nor should it be any conventional physical phenomenon. It is a power that lies between the origins of mysticism, a combination of belief in interfering with reality, a spiritual vortex of possibility collapsing and regenerating.

It comes from the virtual realm.

It is rising from the depths of that subspace that represents the roots of mysticism, its edges tearing apart the membrane of the real universe.

This is the connection between the virtual world and the real world!

...Isn't it just the connection between the virtual realm and reality? Yu Lian wanted to say that he was very familiar with it, that he loved going to the virtual realm the most, where there were countless treasures and he could always gain a lot. He could even literally go back to the virtual realm as if he were going home.

However, this was the strongest illusory reaction he had ever seen, even surpassing the Boundless Root Demon he had encountered during the Battle of Seid.

"A Void Realm Lord? No, a more powerful King?"

“Part of it is, but I sensed an aura similar to mine,” Little Gray said.

Why do I keep sensing your presence? Is it an AI or a robot? A Void Lord with a robot-like aura? What kind of divine beast is that?
“The level of threat is extremely high, the highest ever,” she added in Yu Lian’s mind.

Fortunately, the all-powerful AI guide to civilization's voice remained calm, showing no sign of tension.

...By the way, you're still a little nervous, aren't you? That at least makes it easier for me to judge just how high the threat level is.

Yu Lian turned to look at the emperor, only to see a smile that finally appeared on his spirit body, a smile that was a mixture of exhaustion, relief, and triumph.

This was the most genuine expression he had ever seen on an emperor.

"It's getting impatient. I'm very weak, and my control is waning. I had hoped that your fleet would suddenly appear nearby after passing through the Hand of Glory, at least within 1000 million kilometers."

Indeed. If it were truly a virtual realm lord, it would prioritize attacking the nearest high-energy target group, namely the warships laden with weapons and high-spirited warriors. A mere 1000 million kilometers is simply insufficient for the entire fleet to take effective action; everyone would be caught off guard. Even the Silent Ship would find it difficult to guarantee its safety.

Yu Lian crossed the light spear again: "Do you know what it means for a Void Realm Lord to appear in such a densely populated inhabited star system? There are a hundred billion people in this star system."

The emperor smiled and nodded: "Of course I know."

"Even during the War of Independence, the Serpent didn't abandon the Dimensional Abomination in an inhabited galaxy."

During the Seventh Galactic War, the dimensional lord that had held the Emperor back did indeed descend upon the populous Shengyuan Sector. Although it was adjacent to a crucial military stronghold, the nearest civilian-inhabited star system was still two to three hundred light-years away. Thus, the Emperor personally intervened, thankfully averting a humanitarian catastrophe.

Of course, it's hard to say in too much detail whether it was the work of the snake or the alliance.

Whether due to a lack of ability or a matter of choice, the ferocious beast ultimately did not descend upon the residential area. In this sense, the snake and (and the possible) alliance do possess a certain anthropomorphism.

“Would the Imperials ever imagine that their rulers are more ruthless than their enemies?” Yu Lian said coldly.

"This is common sense, young man, this is the true essence of governance." The emperor seemed proud rather than ashamed: "However, your fleet has already crossed the outermost border. Now, if your arc cannons were to shine on any densely populated urban area, the death toll would exceed the combined total of the Miracle Ring Campaign and the Battle of Seid."

"You're taking advantage of my moral superiority again? With your own people."

"I understand your anger, young leader of Earth. So why not try to feel it with your heart?"

For some reason, Yu Lian felt that the intense fluctuations he sensed from the illusory realm were emanating the same level of aura as the emperor's spirit body before him.

He probably understood something.

"It's here." Yu Lian heard Xiao Hui's voice again.

His intuition could only capture a grotesque outline, yet he desperately wanted to see the uninvited guest's full form. He wanted to warn his comrades on the fleet, and to alert Fifi and Shirley, but all external information had been blocked since he and the Emperor began their battle.

Perhaps Little Grey is the only medium through which he can still contact the outside world?
...Well, the robot lady's actions were thrilling, but very meaningful! Yu Lian was deeply moved.

At this moment, the all-powerful robot lady had already sent over the live broadcast footage, but it was unclear which close-up camera the image had been hacked from.

In the void at the edge of the galaxy, an indescribable, colossal being has squeezed out from the rift in reality. It hovers there, not acting immediately, as if preparing to expend a little effort to readjust to this constant universe.

It was a majestic and ferocious, yet magnificent and awe-inspiring steel golem.

That shouldn't be the Void Realm Lord he knew.

These ancient wills, composed of pure illusory energy and chaotic information, should never have possessed such orderly bodies. Even upon entering the world of matter, these god-like beings could only manifest distorted and bizarre physical entities, as if they were there to mock basic geometric aesthetics.

Yu Lian thought of the Boundless Root Demon that had appeared during the Battle of Seid. That thing was like a super stick insect wandering in the universe, its branches connected to ever-changing energy clouds, as if it were forcibly pieced together from countless broken dimensional planes, with countless flickering ghostly lights on its surface, the echoes of the worlds it had devoured.

Interestingly, these demon gods actually appear more dignified in the subspace of the virtual realm. This is perhaps a case of the illusory appearing real, and the real appearing illusory.

However, this is the real world, a galaxy dotted with tens of thousands of space cities, home to hundreds of billions of people, and the capital of the Galactic Empire. There is probably no galaxy in the entire universe more "material" than this.

However, in Xiao Hui's live stream footage, this guy was really too materialistic.

Most of the lord's torso seemed to have been tamed by the orderly mechanical creations.

Its main body resembles a stretched and twisted giant whale, with layers of armor plates covering its outline like fish scales.

The dark, eternally night-like alloy armor reflected all the starlight like a mirror, subtly preventing the neat geometric lines between the armor plates from appearing too mechanical and rigid. Of course, it also subtly concealed the ominous glow flickering between the armor plates.

Thousands of tall, thorn-like devices were distributed along the massive, winding spine that stretched for tens of thousands of meters. On one side, they resembled undulating mountain ranges pointing straight to the starry sky, their sharp tips still carrying the lingering glow of light, piercing the void. On the other side, they were like rivets and energy locks, deeply penetrating the armor and embedding themselves into the solid flesh and blood of the inner illusory realm.

It resembled some indescribable, bizarre biological organization that was constantly disintegrating, reorganizing, and regenerating, radiating a chaotic aura.

However, the biological tissue overflowing from the edge of the armor not only flowed with a dark and profound chaotic spiritual light, but also faintly shimmered with the ripples of space.

Those metal devices, hundreds or even thousands of meters long, strung together the armor of technology and the flesh and blood of mysticism, like wooden stakes sealing away evil spirits, restraining the flesh and blood of the virtual realm from polluting the real world.

The behemoth's "head" area, of course, could not possibly contain any biological facial features, only layers of curved armor stacked up to form a disc-shaped structure.

Perhaps this is the head of the behemoth, but compared to its enormous body, the head is ridiculously small. Those two rows of red lights scattered across the disc are probably the behemoth's eyes.

Beneath the disc, the protrusions, resembling bamboo shoots, are hidden beneath thick, dense, arc-shaped armor, yet they also faintly conceal swirling currents of murderous energy, much like the closed main gun emplacements of a warship.

The behemoth hovered there silently, its towering steel body making it appear at first glance as a mobile interstellar fortress.

No Void Realm Lord should look like this.

However, it was clearly a virtual being.

That affected air of being out of place in the real world—isn't that the origin of those indescribable things in the virtual world? Now, any legitimate psychic can sense this greedy belief in the real world.
The instincts of the illusory realm still exist, only they are suppressed.
His true nature was suppressed by the majesty of cutting-edge machinery. Two concepts that led to the same goal were forcibly merged, in a way that seemed to blaspheme against the divine.

Therefore, this is no longer a purely illusory incarnation; it must now be dealt a heavy blow.

However, Yu Lian had to admit that this big thing was quite uniquely twisted, and once he accepted the setting, it actually became more and more pleasing to the eye.

Even with his imagination, he never imagined that he would encounter such a being one day.

The emperor gazed at the monster, its spirit glowing slightly, and murmured, "So, this is what it looks like!"

"You're meeting me for the first time?" Yu Lian asked incredulously.

"That's not surprising. Even if the parents know about their child's existence, it will be at least ten months later," the emperor said with a smile.

Okay, that makes a lot of sense, but something just doesn't seem right.

The emperor's gaze drifted beyond the dome once more, his eyes, formed by a glimmer of light, filled with a complex emotion: "How ugly! But it's also a truly ingenious idea! And it actually came to fruition."

"The Dimensional Lord?" Yu Lian finally understood.

The emperor smiled without saying a word, but nodded almost imperceptibly.

“I’ve seen that thing. You killed it. Its body is still in the fields of the Ilant system in the Shengyuan sector, now a museum.”

During this expedition, Yu Lian and his fleet passed by the neighboring country. If time hadn't been limited, he really wanted to take all his comrades over for a group photo or something.

The emperor said, “I destroyed His earthly possessions. The fragments of His shattered and destroyed body fell to the earth and were turned into museums. As for His spirit, His origin, His soul, and His information, wouldn’t it be a great pity if they were to be scattered at will?”

Yu Lian looked at the other party with deep respect.

Defeating a Void Realm Lord and keeping that Void Realm Lord as a pet are two completely different concepts. The former is certainly a heroic legend that can be passed down through generations, but it is not an isolated case; but the latter is a groundbreaking innovation.

"It's really a pity. There are fewer than a hundred known instances of Lord-level Void Beasts entering the real world." And then two of them appeared in just one year. What kind of luck is that? At this moment, he was filled with envy, jealousy, and hatred.

Emperor Elithel may not have been the most powerful psionicist in history, but he was certainly the first to turn the Voidlords into watchdogs, making him a truly great figure.

"Ah, I want one! I really want one too! It's way cooler than a warship," Yu Lian murmured in a voice almost only he could hear. Then, a drawn-out "oh" echoed in his head.

Yu Lian looked at the emperor again: "I truly never imagined that the remains of a Void Realm Lord could be modified in this way. Your Majesty, could this be your trump card to use against the Enlightened One warships?"

"Boy, you're not that important." The emperor glared at Yu Lian. "However, this kind of experiment is very important. Someone told me that humans can be cybernetically transformed, beasts can be cybernetically transformed, so who says that virtual beings can't?"

Yu Lian hesitated for a moment. This argument is theoretically untenable.

The emperor recalled, "I thought that person was a fraud. The virtual body doesn't exist in reality; it only exists because you believe it does. It's a quantum state between being and not being. Since there's no physical body, how can there be a prosthetic body?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I mean." Yu Lian nodded.

“Is a prosthetic body such an inconvenient thing? That’s what he said too, and I think it’s good,” the emperor said.

"..."

Family members, does anyone understand? The Emperor of the Galactic Empire, the most powerful being of the most mysterious fundamentalist doctrines, the first and largest nation in the universe to prohibit cybernetics, is actually a supporter of cybernetics theory?
Excellent! This kind of self-contradiction-slapping yet self-satisfying spirit is the true demeanor of a great emperor! Yu Lian said he had learned something new.

"These words were not mine, but those of those who support this transformation," the emperor added. "If the soul can reside in a body, why can't it reside in a man-made steel body?"

Well, while this might sound a bit like pseudo-science, it doesn't seem entirely without merit in a universe like this. Perhaps...