Dark space was a very mysterious place. It existed parallel to the universe, but it did not belong to the universe. At times, traveling between two points that would usually take several years in the universe could be done by simply taking a turn in dark space.

Thanks to Little Goldie, Xia Fei could freely go in and out of dark space. Seven hours after the beast flood had erupted, Xia Fei’s group appeared near another spatial gate.

Standing at the deck window, he looked in the direction of the beast horde. The distance was already astronomical scale, so there was nothing to be seen.

“What’s our next step? Should we inform the entire universe about the beast flood or return directly to base?” Xia Guanghai asked.

Xia Fei replied, “Inform the Aurora Clan and the Night Clan, I guess. You can ignore the rest.”

Xia Guanghai quickly went to inform these two clans. Meanwhile, Xia Fei quietly informed Lone Peak Shen and Turbid Shadow Lin. After all, they were temporary allies, so Xia Fei did not plan to hide this matter from them. As for unrelated parties, Xia Fei had no interest in them.

*Whoosh!*

The ship traveled through the spatial gate to return to base. Xia Fei found a quiet place and used the Bixia Orb to contact White Haze.

The Bixia Orb was a communication tool made by the Annihilators, so it could even be used while warping. Moreover, as the spatial arrays belonged to the Annihilators, the communication was actually better.

“I already know. The Red Pine Nebula is already in chaos. Over a dozen planets inhabited by sapient lifeforms have already been engulfed in the beast flood. You were right to destroy the Cosmic Gate. I’ve already had someone go and destroy the other two spatial gates in the Red Pine Nebula, but this only buys time. If the Dark Spiritualists want to flip the entire Alpha Universe over, they’ll be able to find a way. They might even set up their own spatial transfer arrays!” White Haze massaged his head and said.

White Haze appeared to be having a tough time. Even that hat with the fuzzy ball on it was all askew. It was clear that he simply did not have the energy to care about it.

“What’s the state of the Torrent Universe?” Xia Fei asked.

“It’s very troublesome. The Cosmic Gate goes both ways, so the beast flood has entered both Alpha and Torrent. Apparently, the people over there are thinking of everything they can do to deal with it. Alas, the beast flood is just too fierce! All they can do is shut off the spatial arrays and passively defend,” White Haze replied.

“Closing the spatial arrays is a decent choice. At least, they can stop the beast flood from spreading,” Xia Fei replied.

White Haze smiled bitterly. “It’s only a temporary solution. Beasts reproduce much faster than sapient life. If no one comes to clean them up, the exotic beasts will eventually occupy all of the Lower Five Stars!”

“Where did all these exotic beasts come from?” Xia Fei asked.

“Not sure. In any case, the Dark Spiritualists have been planning this for some time,” White Haze replied.

“I sense that these exotic beasts are different from the ones we usually see. Moreover, when I asked Furball, he didn’t say anything, only vigorously shaking his head. It appears that he didn’t like those exotic beasts who came out of the Cosmic Gate,” Xia Fei said while studying White Haze’s expression.

White Haze looked at Xia Fei in surprise. “I’ll be honest; I can’t do much and know very little. I won’t be of much help to you. You’ll be on your own for most of this.”

His words were very clear. White Haze was already hard-pressed. As the liaison between the Annihilator and Alpha, he was under immense pressure, stuck between the Annihilators’ stance of non-interference and Alpha’s urgent need to pacify the chaos.

“I understand. Keep yourself safe,” Xia Fei said indifferently. He had never relied on others. He had just come to ask a question to White Haze, and since the latter did not know much, he had no intention of continuing to bother the man.

Shutting off the screen, Xia Fei fell into deep thought. Based on his speculations, the sixth cycle would undoubtedly also open up the Cosmic Gates leading to the Law Realm, Rainbow Glass, and the Undercurrent. This made for four cycles, and even if he added the Cosmic Gate to Annihilator, he would still be missing a gate. Which one would the sixth cycle open up, and what place would it link to?

It was clear that the Annihilators had already given up the Lower Five Stars, but there was something that Xia Fei could not understand. The Dark Spiritualists would definitely move onto opening the gate to Annihilator once they destroyed the Lower Five Stars, so they would never be spared. Why then were the Annihilator experts not doing anything? Were they facing a problem even greater than that of the beast flood afflicting the Lower Five Stars?

Although the three spatial gates of the Red Pine Nebula had been destroyed, this universe still had hundreds of thousands of spatial gates that were in an open state. If some effective mechanism was not set up, the Dark Spiritualists would definitely use the spatial gates to rapidly spread the beast flood, and Alpha would be the first among the universe to be engulfed!

The Annihilators controlled the Alpha Universe’s spatial arrays. Unless they decided to destroy all the spatial gates or apply restrictions to those, the people below them would be unable to do anything.

Lightly brushing a finger across his spatial ring, Xia Fei took out a go board. He placed pieces on the board and began to perform some simulations.

Fuchen had given Xia Fei this go board. It was called the formation simulation board. Rather than playing go, it was for simulating soul arrays!

The board was 9999×9999, containing nearly one hundred million cores.

Soul arrays were very delicate, and one could not create a soul array just by randomly placing pieces. Each core interacted with other cores to form a dense net, through which energy could travel.

Just getting the energy to move around was not enough. As the cores changed, so would the function of the soul array. Whether or not a soul array had power and could utilize its full position depended completely on the arrangement of the cores.

According to Fuchen, this go board with one hundred million cores was only the basic version for practicing soul arrays. There were versions with one hundred billion cores, and advanced versions had one hundred trillion.

Simulating a formation took a lot of patience and focus. Xia Fei had not tried it too much. While he did not lack patience and focus, he did lack time. There were too many inexplicable problems troubling him, becoming part of his life. Whenever anyone talked about him, they would always joke about how he was a guy constantly plagued by trouble.

The Law Realm and the skirmishing battles going on were in a dangerous state. Xia Fei had determined that the Dark Spiritualists and those strange Annihilator experts would eventually come for him following their activation of the Torrent’s Cosmic Gate. When the time came and the Cosmic Gate was bursting with the beast flood, the Law Realm, the Panhuman Alliance, Earth, and Avril—everything Xia Fei treasured—would be facing calamity.

The most effective method for this was for Xia Fei to lay down his own soul array.

Soul array versus soul array!

While the Dark Spiritualists had yet to arrive, Xia Fei would strike first and lay down an impregnable killing formation!

Otherwise, with the strength he had on hand, he would find it hard to fight with these Annihilators. Moreover, they would not be alone but would be accompanied by billions of frenzied beasts!

His brows furrowed as he placed piece after piece on the board. There were countless possibilities, and trying to find the perfect defensive array among them was excruciatingly difficult.

…

“Whooaaa!”

Xia Fei swept the pieces off the board, his face grim.

Creating a soul array was far more difficult than anticipated. The hundreds of millions of possibilities left even him at a loss.

“Would you be able to use one of the soul arrays from the Unrestricted Sect and lay it around the Cosmic Gate?” Radix asked in concern, knowing the difficulties that Xia Fei faced.

Xia Fei shook his head. “Impossible. The Cosmic Gate’s width is around eight Earths. Even the largest formation from the Unrestricted Sect, the one around Spirit Mountain, had only 256 cores. It’s completely unfit for defending the entire Cosmic Gate!”

Radix scratched his head and awkwardly said, “Those Dark Spiritualists managed to open the Torrent Universe’s gate using a soul array with only five hundred cores. Can we not even do that?”

Xia Fei bitterly smiled. “Don’t forget that they also used a Yggdragon as a sacrificial offering. Moreover, the cores all had to be Annihilator soul weapons, and they needed five million standard units of energy on top of that! Where am I going to find such absurd conditions?

“Besides, defense is different from offense. Offense requires only a sword and a point, but defense requires a shield that covers everything!”

Radix was rendered speechless. Xia Fei was right. While the Dark Spiritualists had opened Torrent’s gate, it had come at a heavy cost. Putting aside everything else, where were they going to find an intact Yggdragon corpse? As for five hundred Annihilator soul weapons, it was extravagant to the extreme.

Xia Fei put away the array simulation board and said, “We’ll be at base soon. Let’s go. Avril should be waiting for me.”

Radix nodded. He hated himself for knowing too little and being unable to share in Xia Fei’s burdens.

This was when Xia Fei’s Annihilator communication device, the Bixia Orb, unexpectedly rang. He opened it and found that it was a stranger calling him. With their back to him, Xia Fei could only see their nape.

“Who are you?” Xia Fei asked.

“Someone who’s helping you,” the person replied indifferently.

“Help me? Why would you want to help me?” Xia Fei countered. He believed in price theory and that there was no such thing as free lunch. Thus, he was always cautious when it came to the kind intentions of others.

“It’s very simple. I am helping you because you helped me.”

“I helped you?” Xia Fei was baffled. Chuckling, he asked, “I’ve never even met you, so how would I have helped you? Did you just get up or something?”

“You don’t have to meet me to help me. I don’t have much time to waste talking with you. In around twenty minutes, all of the spatial arrays in the Alpha Universe will be taken control of. If you believe me, then you can just sit back and watch,” the person said.

Xia Fei was stunned. If all the spatial arrays were taken control of, it really would be a huge help to him. At the very least, it would prevent the beast flood from reaching him in the short term, giving him enough time to prepare.

Although that person did not turn their head, they seemed to sense Xia Fei’s surprise, saying, “From what I know, the Dark Spiritualists will move against the Undercurrent next and then against the Wild Glacier, which you’re concerned about; finally, they’ll move against Rainbow Glass. I can’t give any time windows, as that depends on the preparations the Dark Spiritualists have made. You and your people will at least be safe for two months.”

After a pause, that person added, “Don’t place any hopes on the Annihilators. They’re dealing with a crisis even worse than the one confronting the Lower Five Stars. If they don’t handle it properly, they might not even be able to save themselves!”

Xia Fei’s jaw dropped, not knowing what to say. This person had seemingly descended from the heavens to deliver all this shocking news to him!

“Right, Xia Fei, do you have a son?” that person asked inexplicably.

Xia Fei shook his head.

That person chuckled.

“Very good.”

*Pa!*

The screen shut off.