As the soon-to-be lord of the imperial city, Chen Chu naturally couldn't appear with cultivation deemed too low and risk being looked down upon by the true-spirit-level experts guarding the city, who could lash out to humiliate him. Thus, upon entering the Star River Passage, he released a wisp of aura belonging to the True Primordial Demon God Form.

"Newly appointed City Lord!" Seeing the young man before them, whose bearing radiated utmost nobility, the five cultivators clad in black battle armor all straightened their expressions and respectfully saluted. "Commander of the Fifth Legion of the Black-Armored Imperial Guards, Tantai Yihui."

"Deputy Commander of the Fifth Legion, Ji Fengyi. We greet the City Lord."

Looking at the cultivators exuding auras at the middle to peak stages of the ancient titan level, Chen Chu gave a slight nod. "There's no need for excessive formality. Let us first head to the City Lord's Great Hall."

"Yes," Tantai Yihui answered solemnly.

Because Chen Chu possessed semi-primordial cultivation, and with Shi Feirou leading the way, none of them doubted his identity. Still, their acknowledgment alone was insufficient. There were procedures ahead, such as activating the control of the city spirit within the City Lord's Great Hall and verifying the true emperor's decree.

Just as they turned to lead the way, Chen Chu's aura rippled faintly. In that brief instant, they all keenly sensed Chen Chu's aura strengthening. Even Shi Feirou's expression flickered with surprise.

Noticing their change of expression, Chen Chu calmly said, "This universe is somewhat unique. I felt a resonance with it, so my strength advanced slightly."

In truth, the Dragon Emperor of the End's growth had fed back evolutionary energy, which strengthened Chen Chu's body. Because his primordial aura was being outwardly restrained, the surging vitality and aura from his body's reinforcement had leaked as faint fluctuations.

No wonder Big Brother Chen has ascended from the transcendent realm to the true spirit level in merely two years. His talent is truly overwhelming.Shi Feirou's eyes gleamed with admiration.

As for Tantai Yihui and the others, although they knew little of Chen Chu, they too were shaken by his ability to casually advance just by walking.This new city lord seems a little terrifying.

The gate of the Chaotic Imperial City differed from traditional structures. It was a massive white light curtain, one hundred kilometers wide and a thousand kilometers tall, solid and indestructible like the entrance to a micro-world. When Chen Chu and Shi Feirou passed through the light curtain, a pure white eye slowly opened deep within the radiance, casting an invisible gaze across them. Only after perceiving their true forms and wills to be human did the eye close again.

At that sweep of invisible sight, Chen Chu raised his head slightly. In his vision, black-and-gold vertical pupils emerged, while a silver eye also opened between his brows. With the Void Death Pupils and the True Void Eye combined, his gaze pierced through countless layers of space-time, revealing a vast white-lit dimension, where a colossal white beast, hundreds of thousands of meters long, lay across the void.

A peak-true-spirit-level mutated beast possessing the ability of surveillance, huh?Such a level of strength could expose even a primordial being's disguise. Anything beneath the primordial level could hide nothing from it. The city's defenses were commendable. Chen Chu nodded inwardly, then withdrew the pupils and the eye between his brows. His surroundings shifted, revealing a grand city of ancient majesty.

Unlike the Blue Planet's ancient cities, this metropolis stretched tens of thousands of kilometers, encompassing rivers and mountains. Its buildings were vast and towering; many pavilions and palaces were built alongside mountains, some even supporting islands suspended in mid-air. Above the city stretched a pitch-black sky, where brilliant stars shone and drifted in mysterious trajectories, clearly part of a vast array.

Despite the chaotic cosmos' crushing gravity, where only mythical-level cultivators could barely survive, the sprawling Chaotic Imperial City bustled with prosperity. On the central platform, thousands of kilometers wide and towering thousands high, shops lined the streets, and streams of people filled every corner. Here were not only human experts from the six great divine regions, but also mythical-level members of their vassal races, and strong cultivators from friendly or neutral civilizations.

On a street corner, a winged, bird-headed alien shouted, "Red Lotus Falling-Heart Iron from the Fallen Forbidden Zone! Only one hundred Chaotic Spirit Crystals!"

Opposite him, a human middle-aged man sat cross-legged in mid-air, with a ten-meter-long pure white tiger at his feet excitedly roaring,Qiankun Obsidian Sand, freshly dredged from the White-Silver Abyss! It can greatly enhance world-level weapons. This is an opportunity not to be missed! Also, Dragon-Tiger Tianyuan Fruit! It helps refine principles and increases the chance of breaking into the ancient titan level by twenty percent! But only in exchange for Eternal Purple Yang Wood. No disturbances otherwise.

Not far away, a towering alien twenty meters tall, skin as dark as iron, stood in the street with a crystalline red organ the size of a mountain beside him. "Come and see! Freshly harvested heart of the Blood-Scaled Sky Whale! Sealed within are its remnant soul and thirty percent of its essence..."

High above, within subspace, Chen Chu looked down with a strange expression. These civilizations felt almost... primitive. Though their strength was great and their cultivation systems far surpassed the Federation's, beings equal to deities were still trading in such crude ways. Did they not find this absurd?

After tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of years of civilization, had no one invented a rune network, a principle-based trading platform, or even delivery systems? Or perhaps all of the brilliant minds had devoted themselves to cultivation, spending their days in seclusion and enlightenment of laws and principles, with no interest left to pursue such things?

While these thoughts flickered, Chen Chu followed Shi Feirou and the others to the City Lord's Great Hall. Thirty thousand kilometers east of the Chaotic City, a black palace exuding solemn majesty stood on a mountain more than a hundred thousand meters tall. Ten thousand Black-Armored Guards stood in formation outside, while countless powerful restrictive barriers filled the surroundings.

Before the general named Tantai Yihui could speak, a golden-red token appeared in Shi Feirou's hand, imprinted with the divine symbol of the red Great Sun. The instant the token emerged, the pressure of ten thousand suns spread forth, forming a blazing Great Sun phantom high above the sky. Within the phantom, a vague figure clad in imperial robes and a crown of earth appeared, towering above all and overlooking the living beings below.

At that moment, not only those in the City Lord's Great Hall, but every soul within nearly a hundred thousand kilometers of the Chaotic Imperial City saw the Great Sun phantom and the projection of the true emperor.

Faces throughout the city turned in awe and reverence, for they knew the appearance of the true emperor's decree signaled that a great matter was unfolding.

"It's the decree of the True Emperor!" the hundreds of imperial guards flanking the gates cried, their expressions solemn.

Shi Feirou's voice resonated across heaven and earth. "By order of the True Emperor, the Flamewheel Emperor is to return to the divine region and stay in the imperial court. From this day forth, Chen Chu, the Divine Might Supreme, is appointed the city lord of the Chaotic Imperial City to guard this place."

At once, the Black-Armored Imperial Guards on both sides of the gates dropped to one knee and declared, "We greet the Divine Might Supreme, and welcome the city lord's arrival."

Within the palace, thousands of guards, hundreds of officials, and even the tens of thousands of human cultivators across the imperial city all stood straight and bowed slightly toward the hall. "We welcome the arrival of the Divine Might Supreme, to suppress the chaos and strike awe into the eight directions."

"Supreme" was the honorific reserved in the six divine regions for those who had shattered the shackles of power and pushed their true-spirit-level cultivation to the limit, not yet primordial but strong enough to rival it. Thus, both the majesty of the true emperor and Chen Chu's new identity and strength were enough to command reverence from all.

Amid countless respectful gazes, Chen Chu only nodded faintly, and with Shi Feirou at his side, stepped directly into the city lord's residence, flashing across three front halls in a few steps. When he entered the towering black main hall, it was as though he had walked into a world of void. On either side of the hall, hundreds of black stone seats rose in tiers, surrounding the black-iron throne of the city lord at the summit.

Before the throne hovered a blue star ring, a hundred meters in diameter and radiating a hazy glow.

Standing at the steps, Shi Feirou said softly, "Big Brother Chen, that is the key to controlling the city spirit, the core of all restrictive barriers and defensive arrays of the Chaotic Imperial City. Only by gaining the recognition of the city's core can one truly be the city lord."

Chen Chu didn't reply. Before the gazes of the guards and heads of the city's departments, he strode up the dais and reached toward the blue star ring.

Boom!

The moment his hand touched it, a violent force of rejection surged forth, shaking the vast void until it trembled madly. However, the power that could have repelled even a peak true spirit couldn't so much as budge Chen Chu's hand. That slender palm seemed to hold the strength to suppress the heavens, unstoppable, inevitable, and descending steadily before all eyes.

At the same time, the true emperor's decree in Shi Feirou's hand shot forth into the star ring. Instantly, the resistance vanished. Endless streams of information burst into Chen Chu's sea of consciousness, while starlight engulfed his form, clothing him in a radiant starry battle suit.

At once, the thousands below bent low and respectfully said, "We greet the Divine Might City Lord."

Shi Feirou smiled, tilting her head back to gaze at the figure before her. Back then, on the bridge of the black-and-red warship, she had stood behind him the same way, gazing up at that towering back as he looked down upon the Lost World.

Ever radiant, as always.

While the masses bore witness to Chen Chu's investiture as city lord, he was immersed in the flood of information. Controlling the city spirit meant bonding with the artifact spirit of the Chaotic Imperial City itself. At its core, the entire city was a super-weapon of great might, forged jointly by the six true emperors.

Standing within the city, even should an overlord of the Second Primordial Heaven descend, Chen Chu could resist them head-on. This was why the main cities of peak civilizations were so difficult to conquer.

However, though its power was unmatched, the city couldn't be moved, or rather, the cost of moving it was too great. It existed as an immovable bastion, a stable rear stronghold. Its true purpose was governance, controlling and ruling surrounding territories. Chen Chu's will now spread along a vast network spanning billions of kilometers.

Yellow continental slabs ten million kilometers wide that drifted in the turbulent chaotic currents; thousands of celestial bodies, each thousands of kilometers across, with monitoring points established; and three satellite cities garrisoned by a million Black-Armored Imperial Guards all connected to the Chaotic Imperial City's net.

Slowly opening his eyes, stars gleaming within them, Chen Chu murmured, "So there is a network here after all."

"What network, Brother Chen?" Shi Feirou faltered below.

"Nothing," Chen Chu chuckled, then turned and sat on the wide throne, his expression solemn. "Star Spirit, link with all outposts and satellite cities. Inform them of my arrival."

Silently, starlight erupted above the void, and a wave spread faster than light itself.

Hum! Hum!

The void quaked as beams of red, blue, and multicolored lights appeared from nowhere, falling on the black stone seats to form projections.

Among these figures, the strongest were two late-stage true spirits; below them sat three beginning-stage true spirits, and over thirty ancient-titan-level and titan-level experts.

The two late-stage true spirits, both middle-aged men, inclined their heads politely toward the throne. "Lu Youyi of the Thousand-Sword Divine Region. Greetings to the Divine Might City Lord."

"Dugu You of the Chaotic Ancient Divine Region. Congratulations to the Divine Might City Lord on your arrival..."

Lords, generals,and commanders of the imperial guards bowed to Chen Chu, affirming his identity and declaring the human race's presence in this cosmos. When everyone had finished offering greetings, Chen Chu nodded in an unhurried manner. "No need for such a ceremony. Today is merely to meet and acquaint ourselves. From here on, everything will continue as before. Unless it involves chaotic divine objects or conflicts with other civilizations, there is no need to report to me."

He wouldn't remain long here; once he broke through to the primordial level, he would leave. Chen Chu had no interest in basking in the prestige of a city lord—better to urge these leaders to gather intelligence on the emergence of chaotic divine objects.

His words caused the assembly to pause. Then, Lu Youyi, the commander of a million Black-Armored Imperial Guards, stepped forward solemnly. "In fact, I have intelligence concerning a chaotic divine object to report to the city lord."

"Oh? Where?" Chen Chu, who had spoken so casually before, now sat upright in surprise.

Lu Youyi gravely replied, "A day ago, a powerhouse of the Golden-Scaled Dragon-Mark Race discovered signs of a chaotic divine object's birth within the Heavenly Pool Forbidden Zone. But it was hunted by the Shadow War God Race, who also witnessed the anomaly. In the end, the Dragon-Mark expert fled to Changshan Satellite City, trading news of the divine object's location for our protection. Lord Shi Hong of Changshan notified the main city at once, and has already led his army into the Heavenly Pool Zone. However, with the Flamewheel City Lord absent, no decision could be made.

"Just now, as you summoned us, I received word that the Shadow War God Race has spread the news upon learning we had sheltered the Dragon-Mark expert. As of now, seven nearby top civilizations have dispatched large numbers of experts toward the Heavenly Pool Zone. With the news spreading further, it won't be long before even the peak civilizations of this region, the Heavenly Silver-Winged Ants and the Eternal Golden Divine Race, will be alerted."

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