He explored the interior, discovering a massive Tier 6 starship of an entirely alien design.

  "Intellect, can you take control of this ship?"

  [System Alert: Affirmative, Master. However, the ship’s terminal intellect will detect the intrusion. Based on initial scans, the terminal is a Tier 8 system.]

  "Tier 8, huh?" Lance paused, a thought striking him. "Right, I almost forgot. I hit the Great Grandmaster rank—my Reconstruction Quota should have refreshed."

  He quickly pulled up his status.

  User Status Panel

  Name: Lance

  Reconstruction Quota: 1/6

  Martial Rank: Great Grandmaster (Rank 1)

  Soul Rank: Grandmaster (Rank 9)

  CON: 28 Million (1 point = 30,000kg force)

  Soul: 3.1 Million

  Profession: Array Master (Tier 5 Peak, 0/100M, Legendary)

  Mastery: Spear Arts (Master Peak, 900%, 90k/100k), Movement (Master Peak, 900%, 70k/100k)

  Traits: Undying God-Body (Eternal Rank, Combat Power * 500%), Primeval Law Body (Desote Grade, 1,000,000x Affinity), Nine Heavens Starfire (Desote Grade), Dark Demon Fme (SSS-Rank)

  Lance had jumped several minor ranks in a single breath, causing his overall power to swell significantly. However, he also noticed a subtle shift: his ability to "over-rank" his opponents had narrowed slightly.

  In previous fights against Great Grandmasters, most of his enemies relied on Tier 5 war arts; only the most exceptional geniuses could wield Tier 6. But now that he was facing Pnetary Css threats, the baseline had shifted. His opponents almost exclusively used Tier 6 techniques, and many possessed B-Rank, A-Rank, or even S-Rank traits.

  The fact that he could still over-rank an entire major realm was a testament to the sheer, broken power of his top-tier cultivation methods.

  I have six Reconstruction Quotas avaible per day now. There are still over ten hours until the next refresh. If I upgrade everything today, my combat power will jump at least two or three more minor ranks even if my actual level stays the same, Lance thought with a faint smile.

  He also realized that if he merged all six of today's quotas, he could potentially force a breakthrough in his Desote Grade traits, pushing them beyond their current limits.

  But before that, he needed to upgrade his Intellect. In this era of the Great Cosmos, having a high-level AI was the ultimate form of protection.

  He looked at his old Bck Syer Set with a hint of nostalgia. Its best feature was the instant self-repair and its ability to mask its own rank. To bring it up to Tier 10, however, would require twelve individual Reconstruction jumps. Even bringing it to Tier 9 would take seven. It was an inefficient use of his limited quotas.

  "System, reconstruct the Martial Paragon Set," Lance commanded.

  [System Alert: Command accepted. Commencing Reconstruction!]

  Vroom!

  A flood of violent, golden energy surged into Lance’s Subspace Ring, engulfing the silver-and-gold armor.

  The physical appearance of the set didn't change much—it remained a striking, radiant silver with gold filigree—but its fundamental structure was being rewritten. Microscopic runes, far beyond anything Lance could currently comprehend, began to manifest across the surface of the suit. Just looking at them caused his Soul to vibrate with a phantom tremor.

  [System Alert: Reconstruction of Martial Paragon Set successful! 4.5 billion data points optimized.]

  [Evolution Complete: Paragon God-Set (Tier 10 Mid-grade) created.]

  [Paragon God-Set:]

  Components: Tier 10 Combat Lens, Tier 10 Personal Intellect, Tier 10 Combat Suit.

  Defense: Tier 10 Mid-grade Physical Mitigation, Tier 10 Peak-grade Soul Defense.

  Features:

  Morphing: Can shift into any clothing style or appearance at will.

  Self-Repair: As long as the core material isn't completely annihited, the suit can repair itself instantly.

  Regution: The user can manually adjust the defensive output and energy signature from Tier 3 up to Tier 10 Mid.

  Stealth: Can instantly cloak the user, merging them with the environment while eliminating all physical and soul signatures. Undetectable by anyone below Universal Css Rank 5.

  As the system breakdown fshed before his eyes, Lance’s breath hitched. He hadn't expected the new set to inherit the self-repair and regution features of the Bck Syer Set.

  Do all top-tier suits have these abilities? he wondered.

  "Yes, Master," a new voice spoke—a feminine, electronic tone that sounded far more intelligent and nuanced than his previous AI. "The combat suit is a warrior's most vital survival tool. Once a suit reaches Tier 8 or higher, self-repair and output regution become standard features. Your previous Bck Syer Set was likely a low-tier imitation of a Tier 8 suit, which is why its repair speed and regution range were so limited."

  "Huh. Are you the new Intellect?" Lance asked, taken aback by the shift in personality.

  "I am, Master. I am your new Tier 10 system. You may call me Maya," the AI responded respectfully.

  "Maya? Do you AI actually have genders?" Lance chuckled.

  "I do not possess a true 'gender' yet, Master. At Tier 10, I am still a simuted consciousness. To achieve true sentience and possess a Soul, an AI must reach the World Master Css—Tier 12. Only then would I become a true mechanical lifeform."

  Maya continued, "For now, my personality and vocal profile are automatically adjusted based on your primary social circle. Since your most frequent interactions are currently with females, I have adopted this profile. You may change it at any time."

  Lance was speechless. Adjusted based on my social circle? So because I only hang out with girls, the AI assumes I prefer this?

  "Whatever. I'll leave it as is," he muttered. He wasn't going to fuss over a voice pack.

  However, Maya’s words about Tier 12 AI having souls fascinated him. A soul was the defining line between a living being and an object. High-level AI could simute emotions perfectly—joy, anger, sorrow—but only the AI truly knew it was just a complex script, an act pyed out for its master.

  Lance shook off the philosophical thoughts and focused on the suit.

  Vroom!

  With a mental command, the ptinum-and-gold combat suit dissolved into a million microscopic fragments. They swirled around Lance for a heartbeat before snapping into pce, forming a perfectly fitted yer of high-tech armor over his skin. Simultaneously, a new, cutting-edge combat interface was projected directly into his retinas.

  The integration of the new combat interface was staggering. Lance found that with a single thought, he could zoom in and clearly see celestial bodies located several light-years away.

  The sheer range of his perception was beyond terrifying.

  "Maya, take control of this ship," Lance commanded without hesitation. "Also, use its network uplink to reverse-engineer and hijack the Void-kin’s central intellect. You can do that, right?"

  "Child’s py, Master," Maya replied instantly.

  She didn't miss a beat. Utilizing her immense processing power, she surged through the ship’s systems, bypassing every firewall within milliseconds. Using the coordinates in the ship’s logs, her data stream locked onto the Void-kin’s home intellect, located tens of millions of light-years away.

  The overwhelming superiority of a Tier 10 intellect became apparent. In a heartbeat, she had completely dominated the enemy’s central system. Their home intellect didn't even have time to register an intrusion before it was ensved.

  "Master, I have full control over their Tier 8 Mid-grade central database, their war art libraries, and their entire communication network. If you wish, I can instantly seize control of all their starships and strategic weapon systems. I can wipe out every single Void-kin below the Stelr Css in an instant."

  Lance stood there, stunned. He had initially hoped that hijacking their system would simply give him better intelligence to make future battles easier. He never imagined that total control over a central intellect would be this absolute—the power to colpse an entire civilization with a single command.

  "Wait a second," Lance said, a cold sweat breaking out as a realization hit him. "If you can do this, then their Tier 8 AI must have been able to do it to us, too. Have they compromised the human Federation’s intellect?"

  "Affirmative, Master," Maya replied matter-of-factly. "The Void-kin took control of the Human Central Intellect over a thousand years ago. They have also compromised the central systems of the other four Great Races."

  Lance sucked in a sharp breath. Controlled for a thousand years?

  That meant humanity had been living under the constant surveilnce of their predators for ten centuries. Connecting this with the memories he’d scoured from the Phantom Emperor, he understood why they hadn't simply wiped humanity out: they were "ranching" them. Humans were being kept alive as a renewable food source for their souls.

  If a real war ever broke out, the Void-kin wouldn't even need to fire a shot. They could simply paralyze every human ship, shut down every weapon, and disable all communications. Humanity and the other four races would be sughtered like cattle.

  Lance felt a surge of relief that he had upgraded his own intellect. If he had waited until the invasion began, humanity’s own weapons would have likely been used to purge their own powerhouses before he could even react.

  "Does this mean they already know I’m an SS-Rank genius? And did the data about me killing their scouts just get transmitted back to their home sector?"

  Lance realized the danger. The ship he was on was an official Void-kin vessel; his entire battle must have been recorded. If that data reached their home world, the strongest members of their race—perhaps even their Gactic Realm leader—would come for his head. His previous Tier 7 AI wouldn't have been able to stop a Tier 8 transmission.

  "They are already aware of you, Master," Maya confirmed. "In fact, your assignment to this outpost by the Human Central Intellect was a direct result of the Void-kin detecting your SS-Rank potential. Their home intellect’s analysis concluded that your actual talent level might even be SSS-Rank."

  "You are currently at the very top of the Phantom Sector’s assassination list. An SSS-Rank genius has the potential to become a Star Sea Realm powerhouse, which would be a terminal threat to the Void-kin. The Void Overlord personally maniputed the human system to lure you here so their elites could eliminate you. They hoped to kill a potential threat without revealing that they’ve hijacked the Federation's central systems."

  "Fortunately for you, they underestimated your combat power. While the data regarding your victory was transmitted, space is vast. Even through Dark Space, a transmission across seventy million light-years takes over an hour. I have successfully intercepted and deleted the packet before it could be processed by their home network."

  Lance let out a long, shaky exhale.

  He had no desire to be hunted by a Gactic Realm powerhouse. Such a conflict would almost certainly force the Void-kin to unch their invasion early. Maya had said she could kill everyone below the Stelr Css, but she couldn't wipe out the top-tier leaders or the Gactic Realm Overlord.

  If he backed them into a corner now, the resulting retaliation against humanity would be catastrophic, and he wasn't strong enough to protect everyone yet.

  "So, I can't move against the Void-kin yet? That’s going to be a problem," Lance muttered, his brow furrowed.

  "Actually, Master, you can..." Maya’s voice trailed off, hinting at a hidden possibility.

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