At that moment, realization struck Yun Qing. Our current position is less than 1000 kilometers from the Nine Heavens Domain. The Infinite Star Palace's Sky Patrol Warship has not simply activated an information-restricted zone covering several thousand kilometers... It has also crossed the universally recognized safe coastal boundary of 2500 kilometers without any hesitation.

What are they trying to do?! They are absolutely not coming to the Nine Heavens Domain merely to flaunt their power. Then their objective is... Well, I can't be sure! But whatever their goal may be, they absolutely cannot be allowed to succeed!

"Stop them! Stop them! We have to stop them!" Yun Qing felt his scalp go numb. Staring at that enormous entity, cloaked in countless arrays like the gate of a great sect, he went mad and surged forward in pursuit.

"Zhan Yunfei, we have to get the message out. This is a completely ‘invisible’ Sky Patrol Warship. If it reaches the Nine Heavens Domain while none of the cities there are prepared and no city-protecting arrays have been activated, then once it launches an attack, with the amplification of all those arrays, every city in the Nine Heavens Domain will fall within its strike range. In an instant, they could erase nearly all the cities of the Nine Heavens Domain, including the hundreds of millions of people living in them," Yun Qing roared.

Zhan Yunfei knew very clearly that Yun Qing was telling the truth. There was no exaggeration at all. But faced with his captain’s shout, he could only shake his head forcefully. "It can’t be transmitted. No messages can get through at all. A Sky Patrol Warship doesn’t just carry primordial-psyche-level great cultivators proficient in every field. The power of those great cultivators is further amplified by level 5 and even level 6 arrays. Forget me, a high-tier sword cultivator. Even a primordial psyche great cultivator would have no chance of sending out a single word!"

"Fly! Fly out of this information-restricted zone from the opposite direction!" Zhang Lie said urgently.

"It’s too late! This zone spans thousands of kilometers. By the time we fly out and relay the message, the Sky Patrol Warship will already have arrived above the Nine Heavens Domain." Zhan Yunfei sounded utterly despairing.

"Stop them! No matter what, we must stop them!" Yun Qing pushed his sword speed to the absolute limit and instantly caught up to the Sky Patrol Warship, which was flying at Mach 3.

A kilometer-long Sky Patrol Warship traveling at such speed generated winds of unimaginable strength. When Yun Qing flew alongside the warship, he was nearly swept away by the turbulent winds around the warship.

After staggering briefly, he forcibly stabilized himself and drove his psychic consciousness to its peak, transmitting a soul-shaking message. "Attention! You have already entered the airspace of the Nine Cauldrons Sect. Please leave immediately. Please leave immediately!"

Unfortunately, his words did not affect the colossal Sky Patrol Warship at all. The warship completely ignored his presence and his warning, maintaining its forward velocity as it continued moving in the direction of the Nine Heavens Sect.

"Your message might not get through. I’ll help you!" Zhan Yunfei caught up to Yun Qing and quickly activated the Supreme Perception Sword Art. His psychic consciousness vibrated violently as he once again pushed the message toward the Sky Patrol Warship.

The instant his psychic consciousness made contact with the layers of arrays on the warship’s surface, the backlash from the arrays struck him. His face instantly turned pale. Even so, Zhan Yunfei did not hesitate in the slightest. Gritting his teeth, he helped Yun Qing force the psychic consciousness through, causing it to resound above the Sky Patrol Warship.

"Attention! You have already entered the airspace of the Nine Cauldrons Sect. This action constitutes a severe provocation of the Nine Cauldrons Sect’s sovereignty. Please leave immediately..."

***

Aboard the Sky Patrol Warship, this wave of psychic consciousness finally seemed to draw someone’s attention. A middle-aged man wearing an astra robe asked calmly, "What’s going on?"

"Vice Captain, it’s just a few little bugs buzzing around," his aide reported back at once.

"Heh..." The powerful psychic consciousness of the middle-aged man swept outward, and he quickly grasped the situation. "Killing them would only dirty our hands... Forget it. Accelerate. Head to the Nine Heavens Domain as fast as possible. The people of the Nine Cauldrons Sect actually dared to steal our Infinite Star Palace’s spirit artifact refinement techniques! They truly deserve death!"

The aide nodded as if this were only natural. How can the Nine Cauldrons Sect possibly possess such advanced refinement techniques? Fourth-generation spirit artifacts? They had to have stolen them from the Infinite Star Palace. Even if they had not, it might as well have been the same.

"Understood!" The aide nodded and swiftly relayed the acceleration order.

At once, even more massive energy fluctuations erupted from the colossal vessel before it began to accelerate! It went from Mach 3 to Mach 3.2, then 3.4... Very quickly, Zhan Yunfei, who was not skilled in sword-flight speed, had already been left far behind.

At that point, even Yun Qing’s psychic consciousness struggled to reach the Sky Patrol Warship. Of course, the people aboard the warship undoubtedly knew what he was saying, but no one cared.

"They... never took us seriously... They can't even be bothered to stop and kill us..." Zhan Yunfei said bitterly. "We can’t stop them from entering the Nine Heavens Domain... and we can’t send word back to warn the Nine Heavens Domain to prepare..."

Yun Qing stared at the steadily accelerating Sky Patrol Warship, despair also appearing in his eyes. Fully activating a city's defensive array required time. Depending on how sophisticated the array was, the fastest could be activated in minutes, while slower ones could take even multiple hours.

Moreover, arrays were very delicate structures. Even the destruction of a small array foundation or a few array patterns could render an array unable to operate. He could already imagine it. Once the Sky Patrol Warship reached the Nine Heavens Domain, which would be completely unprepared, those on board could dismantle all of the Nine Heavens Domain’s defensive facilities with a single thought. There was no doubt that a Sky Patrol Warship possessed the required amount of power!

"We have to warn the Nine Heavens Domain. We must tell them that the enemy has arrived..." Yun Qing said.

"But... we can’t... The message simply can’t get out!" Tu Hong’s eyes were also filled with unwillingness.

"No!" Yun Qing fixed his gaze on the accelerating Sky Patrol Warship and said solemnly, "There is still one way!"

"What way?!"

"Captain, tell us. As long as it’s possible, we’ll risk our lives to do it!" Zhan Yunfei, Tu Hong, and Zhang Lie said almost simultaneously.

"All of us earned great merit in the previous war against the Xuanming Sect and have already been nurtured as true disciples. Each of us has a soul lamp in the sect. If our soul lamps are extinguished, the sect will definitely be alarmed. Combined with the information-restricted zone covering thousands of kilometers in this area... I am sixty percent sure that they will associate it with this Sky Patrol Warship," Yun Qing said.

Yun Qing looked at Zhan Yunfei, Tu Hong, and Zhang Lie, his eyes filled with pain. "But extinguishing only my soul lamp won’t be enough. The sect would think to wait until you return to ask what happened. So it has to be our entire squad. All four soul lamps must be extinguished. And... they must be extinguished instantly, as if we were annihilated in a single overwhelming strike. Only then will the sect truly go on full alert!"

Zhan Yunfei, Tu Hong, and Zhang Lie were momentarily stunned. Then, seeing the pain and guilt in Yun Qing’s eyes, all three smiled at the same time.

"Good idea!"

"Sixty percent. That’s not a low probability. Captain, you really are something, coming up with a plan like this!"

"Haha, Yun Qing, I wasn’t fully convinced when you first became captain, but now I have to admit it. That brain of yours turns faster than mine!"

Their faces were filled with smiles, calm and composed.

"You all..." Yun Qing looked at them.

"What are you waiting for?"

"Let’s go, Captain. Don’t make us look down on you."

"Heh, honestly, I still have some regrets. But there’s no choice. My parents and my younger sister all live in the Nine Heavens Domain. If I could save them and still did nothing, how could I live with myself afterward?"

As they spoke, there was reluctance in the eyes of some, regret or sorrow in those of someone else, but there was not the slightest trace of fear. Yun Qing looked at them, and they looked back at Yun Qing. In the end, they all nodded at once.

"Let’s go!"

"After all, behind us... is the sect we defend! The homeland that gave birth to us and raised us!"

"Don’t get sentimental. We are all grown men, hahaha. I wonder if I’ll become a hero."

"Form the array!" Yun Qing said in a low voice, his gaze locked firmly on the ever-accelerating Sky Patrol Warship. Then with his command...

"Charge!"

The four of them began to accelerate! They kept on accelerating! Even though the Sky Patrol Warship had already exceeded four times the speed of sound, surpassing Zhan Yunfei’s speed limit, he still burned true origin without hesitation, burning himself away, forcing even more speed!

As they used all their energy to accelerate, the distance between them and the Sky Patrol Warship rapidly closed. It went from fifteen kilometers to ten, then five...

Their eyes were completely fearless, burning with madness! Four figures, like four sword lights, faint but able to illuminate the void. They displayed unyielding resolve and faith as they slammed heavily into the Sky Patrol Warship.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! The Sky Patrol Warship’s protective arrays activated, and the four sword lights were crushed into dust as easily as rotten wood. A mist of blood exploded in the air and instantly scattered, leaving no trace behind.