It had to be said that the grand gift presented by Xiude, the Guardian Priest, had truly struck a chord with Chen Xu.
His Star Lord Project had only just completed the Sun and Moon, and the other star slots were still vacant.
Wanbao Pavilion had been trying to contact those high-level planet merchants to purchase a batch of planets from them.
The trouble was that the mandatory route to reach those planet merchants was currently being blockaded by several groups of space pirates who specialized in intercepting anyone from Wanbao Pavilion.
Every person Wanbao Pavilion sent out had disappeared, captured by these space pirates.
Those pirates had even sent out word demanding that Wanbao Pavilion compensate them for their losses; otherwise, the pavilion could forget about doing business across the myriad worlds ever again.
They vowed to kill on sight anyone flying the flag of Wanbao Pavilion.
Any civilization that dared to trade with Wanbao Pavilion would have to weigh for themselves whether they had the strength to endure the wrath of the space pirates.
Unsurprisingly, these pirates were acting out of revenge for Chen Xu and Wanbao Pavilion's previous high-profile "fishing" operation.
In the last round, Wanbao Pavilion's merchant fleet had been loaded with resources to lure in a large number of space pirates blinded by greed, leading them to become souls under the blades of the undead.
According to Xuan Chu's incomplete statistics, tens of thousands of space pirates were wiped out in that single round of trade alone. Although most were epic-tier and only two or three were mythic-tier, it was still a considerable figure.
If nothing else, the environment of various starry sky corridors had improved significantly. Many small merchants and minor civilizations no longer needed to take long detours or expend extra effort to travel safe alternative routes; they could now take the most direct paths.
Because of this, Wanbao Pavilion and the Land of the Undead had become great benefactors in the eyes of those smaller factions. A steady stream of people went to the City of Miracles to hire undead guards.
One side's joy was another's sorrow. While Wanbao Pavilion gained a reputation, the space pirates lost face.
Thus, they united to cause trouble for Wanbao Pavilion—and only Wanbao Pavilion. Their public statements didn't mention the word "undead" once; they clearly knew what they could and couldn't afford to provoke.
The leaders of those space pirates were of the opinion that Wanbao Pavilion had simply spent a fortune to hire the undead as guards and that their relationship with the Land of the Undead wasn't actually that close.
Chen Xu, meanwhile, had been busy with various trifles: nurturing the Nephalem, cooperating with the Martial Arts Alliance, and investigating the Mother of Hell's mysterious ritual.
Furthermore, since Big Boss was at the critical final stage of ascending to the God of Trade, he had no time to deal with those pirates.
This led the pirates to believe their guesses were correct—that Wanbao Pavilion and the undead were merely in a contractual hiring relationship—and they gradually became more rampant.
Little did they know that in Chen Xu's eyes, these space pirates were nothing more than a bunch of clowns who could be dealt with at any time.
However, these clowns were quite good at running and hiding. Once he decided to act, he would have to use thunderous force to sweep them away completely.
Otherwise, he would have to leave it to experienced hunters to track them down slowly.
It was a pity Bone Guard Two was only interested in legendary creatures; otherwise, he could have been sent to hunt those pirates.
Forget it, I'll just leave it to the skeleton heroes. After they finish practicing their battle formations against demons, they can go practice against a diverse range of space pirate races.
Seeing Chen Xu so pleased, Xiude also felt a sense of relief.
This gift was difficult to quantify. One hundred and eight stars had a market value that was by no means low.
But on the other side of the scale were four eternal-tier Hell Archdukes. This balance relied entirely on the goodwill of both parties.
Fortunately, Chen Xu was satisfied with the preparations, so Xiude didn't have to worry about whether to allocate more resources.
Xiude raised his left hand and gave a slight wave, signaling the angels who had carried the gifts in to leave. Then he looked at Chen Xu and spoke.
“Your Excellency Lord of the Undead, although I do not know what you intend to do with these stars, and I have no intention of prying, there is something to note.”
“These one hundred and eight stars are remnants of Ancient Gods from the remote past. They contain certain mysteries that you should be aware of.”
“Mysteries? In what way?”
Xiude took out a piece of ancient and tattered parchment. Then, with a flick of his hand, he plucked a feather from the wings behind him and signed his name on the parchment.
Saint Light flashed, and the seal was undone. Instantly, Chen Xu sensed an eerie aura emanating from the parchment.
“These are the records concerning those one hundred and eight stars. Since they involve Ancient Gods, they are quite sinister. Even though these records were written by the Wisdom Priest himself, they have still undergone mutations.”
“However, this power of mutation can only affect beings at the epic-tier and below. It will have no effect on an existence of your level.”
With a thought, Chen Xu used his mental strength to pull the parchment over, letting it hover in the air without touching it directly with his hands.
It wasn't that Chen Xu was afraid to touch this eerie Ancient God parchment; rather, it was the parchment itself that was afraid. It was trembling violently as if it possessed a life of its own.
The moment Chen Xu's mental strength gripped it, it began to shake. As it got closer to him, the trembling grew even more intense.
Chen Xu was worried that if he actually touched it, the parchment might simply crack and shatter into pieces on the spot.
After all, the concept of an "Ancient God" was relative. To an ordinary transcendent, this eerie parchment was undoubtedly a cursed object that could bring disaster.
But once the target was swapped for Chen Xu, the Lord of the Undead himself, the roles were reversed.
If he were to leak even a bit of his Undead Dao rhyme, he could forcibly change the very nature of this parchment, turning it into a bone fragment or a piece of ghoul skin.
Ultimately, Ancient Gods were just a bunch of generous exhibitionists; they made no effort to hide their own Dao rhymes, even going so far as to generously push them onto every reckless explorer who dared to peer at them.
Sometimes, their desire to share would flare up, and they would actively broadcast their Dao rhymes to the outside world.
Moving the parchment a bit further away so it wouldn't shake so much, Chen Xu began to examine the contents.
According to the records, those one hundred and eight stars were creations of the legendary Lord of the Ancient Gods, tools used to spread its "gospel."
As long as that unique-tier Ancient God willed it, it could spread its own Dao rhyme through these stars, causing creatures in tens of thousands of worlds to mutate simultaneously in an instant.
After the Lord of Heaven launched the divine war and wiped out the entire lineage of Ancient Gods, these one hundred and eight stars were taken as spoils of war and placed in Heaven's treasury.
Initially, the angels had wanted to use them as normal planets to expand the living space for worlds with high population densities.
However, these stars still contained the residual power of the Ancient Gods. As soon as ordinary creatures arrived on the planets, they would begin to mutate.
Those at the epic-tier could resist for only a year; those at the legendary-tier could ignore it for a century. Only from the mythic-tier onward, where the physical form underwent a qualitative change, could the interference of this power be completely ignored.
Consequently, these one hundred and eight stars had sat quietly in Heaven's treasury, neglected by all, until Xiude brought them to Chen Xu.
By now, the fortress spirit had finished hanging Chen Xu's portrait. Before it could even indulge in its handiwork, it sensed the sinister aura of the Ancient God parchment.
It flew to Chen Xu's side and, after confirming the parchment was the one from its memories, it crossed its tiny arms and complained in a huff.
“Aah, Little Xiude, how could you give such a thing to our distinguished guest?”
“These one hundred and eight pieces of junk planets can't even support the White Bull race, who have the toughest hides and the most loyal faith. How can you bring them out as a gift?”
“What if the undead under our guest's command...”
Suddenly, the fortress spirit remembered that Chen Xu was the Lord of the Undead. It seemed he didn't have any "normal" living beings under him. But could the undead ignore the infection of the Ancient Gods?
The fortress spirit didn't know; this was outside its field of expertise.
“Um, anyway, it's just very bad!”
“Haha, it’s fine, it’s fine. I like this gift very much. My thanks to you, Lord Xiude.”
Chen Xu didn't mind at all; in fact, he was even happier.
He had originally thought he was just getting one hundred and eight stars, but to find that they contained Ancient God power meant their quality had instantly shot up.
The higher the quality of the star, the greater the foundation and realm of the Star Lord created from it would be.
Forget Ancient God power—Chen Xu wished these stars had even more miscellaneous powers mixed in.
“I am glad you like it.”
Seeing that Chen Xu had accepted the gift so happily, the fortress spirit was also baffled.
Perhaps still feeling a bit guilty, when the skeleton heroes finished killing all the demons outside and Chen Xu prepared to return to the Undead Dao Court, the fortress spirit suddenly came over and secretly stuffed ten more Feather Fruits into his hands.
Moreover, the feathers on these ten fruits actually had patterns on them, indicating their grade was likely quite high.
Chen Xu accepted them with a smile and led his undead army back to the Undead Dao Court.
Those one hundred and eight Ancient God stars now hung high in the sky of the Undead Dao Court, waiting for Chen Xu to harvest them.
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