The red figure raised her right hand, placing it on her forehead. Although her eyes were never open, it seemed as if she was scorched by the figure radiating holy light, causing her to furrow her brow slightly.

"Living Saint..." she murmured softly.

The holy figure descending from the sky slowly turned around, its ethereal and hazy body floating about a dozen centimeters above the ground. The alloy floor of the ship bridge melted under its feet, emitting rolling heat waves. The semi-transparent, light-cast wings fluttered gently in the air, as the powerful spiritual energy resonated joyously, producing a melodious sound like wind chimes.

The hole piercing the ship bridge led to a gas leak, a gale swept through the hall, and a large number of lightweight debris was swept up by the airflow, instantly being sucked into space — but the automatic damage control system quickly activated. A layer of surging silvery-white metal rapidly filled the hole in the roof, and then the gale subsided, with the nearby ventilation ducts emitting a hissing sound as they quickly replenished the air.

The surviving Hidden Monastery sect members in the hall seemed to see the dawn of hope. Even though they were almost sucked out of the hall by the airflow a moment ago, they were now holding onto nearby fixtures tightly while joyously cheering, "Living Saint! It's a Living Saint! Our Protector has come!"

The holy radiance surged in the hall, and Red's brow furrowed deeply, feeling the powerful force from the spiritual 'being.' Her typically calm expression now showed a hint of seriousness, as she whispered cautiously, "...Neither alive, nor holy, nor human..."

As soon as she finished speaking, the powerful spiritual being raised the light-cast giant sword in its hand — the dazzling holy light burned on the blade, as horrifying energy began to gather in the air.

Red immediately tensed, with layers upon layers of illusory mirrors beginning to appear in the hall.

Then she saw the being suddenly swing its sword in a sweeping motion, a searing white light swept across the hall, aimed at the cheering and clamorous Hidden Monastery sect members — the quickest ones could only widen their eyes in terror, letting out a brief scream before instantly dissolving in the blazing radiance.

Red: "...?"

A dazed expression appeared on the face of this Boundary Affairs figure for the first time. She looked at this scene in shock, unable to understand what had happened until the white light in the air gradually subsided, and she subconsciously murmured, "...Not even your protector."

The melodious sound like wind chimes gradually disappeared, and the floating Living Saint resolved the clamor in the hall, once again focusing its gaze on the "Vampire" in front of it.

And then came a long silence, with quiet enveloping the hall, aside from the sporadic buzzing of some system alarms echoing from unknown corners.

The Living Saint seemed to have no intention of launching further attacks but also showed no signs of communication, floating quietly there, which made Red not dare to act rashly, only able to maintain a tense stance, confronting it.

This excruciating confrontation lasted for a good while, when Red suddenly heard Baili Qing's voice through the earpiece, "Red, what's the situation over there—Yu Sheng sent a message asking us to help stabilize the Star Gate's state... Red?"

"I'm... in a bit of a situation," Red mumbled softly, "I've encountered the Hidden Monastery's 'Living Saint.'

The earpiece went silent for two or three seconds.

"Can you beat it?" Baili Qing's tone noticeably turned serious, quickly saying, "Send your coordinates, I'll come find you."

"No, the situation is... complex," Red whispered, still vigilant of the spiritual being's actions in the distance, "It hasn't acted — but it just killed all the remaining cultists here." 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Baili Qing: "...?"

Just then, Red suddenly saw the "Living Saint" across having made a move.

It gently fluttered its wings and began floating towards her.

"It's coming—" Red quickly said while abruptly stepping back half a step — layers upon layers of illusory mirrors suddenly appeared behind her, a chill, as if emanating from a grave, enveloped the surroundings, and her long black hair, as if soaked in fresh blood, began to swiftly dye a layer of crimson from the tips, while her fingers quickly turned a translucent, jade-like color, with her nails growing like blade edges!

But just as she prepared to face this eerie "Angel Derivative," the anticipated attack did not occur.

The "Living Saint" stopped several meters away from her and extended one hand towards her — the one not holding the sword.

Red paused, looking at the hand formed of condensed holy light, half-transparent.

In that hand was a handful of small shattered items, colorful and brilliant.

It was a handful of colorful candies — semi-transparent candies with an ethereal texture, looking like some kind of spiritual creation.

The "Living Saint" took another half-step forward, slightly leaning its upper body, continuing to extend its hand, seeming to carry some form of... anticipation and a friendly probe.

"Red? Red? How's your situation there?" The voice in the earpiece started sounding a bit anxious, "Tell me your location, I'll..."

Red interrupted the other party, "Ah Qing, it gave me a handful of candy — a handful of candy that can't be grasped."

Baili Qing: "...huh?"

Red opened her mouth, taking two or three seconds to organize her words before speaking, "I don't know how to explain it to you, but..."

Just as she began her sentence, a sudden sound of spiritual energy resonance interrupted her actions.

The next second, she saw the calm glow beside the "Living Saint" suddenly start to stir again, and before she could react, the other party abruptly spread their wings behind them!

Accompanied by a sharp explosive sound in the air, this strange spiritual entity turned around and took off, crashing directly through a large hole in the ship bridge hall, vanishing into the boundless space.

The control hall, just repaired by the damage control system, now had another hole, even in the same location.

A violent wind rose, air began to leak, the pressure balance system emitted a dying wail, and the damage control nanomachines once again desperately tried to repair the damaged parts of the spaceship.

Red stepped through the air amidst the fierce wind, reaching the bottom of the hole, looking up at the war-torn space outside, only to see a trace of sacred white afterglow disappearing into the darkness.

And then the writhing silver-white nanomachines blocked her sight.

Baili Qing's voice came through the headset: "Red! The radar detected a high-speed high-energy reaction passing over the battlefield and disappearing into a Space Rift near the Star Gate—we weren't able to stop it!"

"Understood," Red said softly, pressing one hand to the headset, "It's that bizarre Living Saint—but we can't deal with it now. Prioritize suppressing the defense forces around the Star Gate.

"As for the rest, let's see how our 'Angel Hunter' plans to pierce this starry sky."

"Alright—also, when you get back, give me a good explanation of what that Living Saint was all about."

Red gave a soft "mm-hmm".

Then a pair of blood-red bat wings suddenly unfurled behind her, and as the wings flapped, the black-haired girl shot straight toward the top of the hall—as her gaze fell, the ceiling of the ship bridge hall suddenly turned into a smooth mirror, reflecting the distant starlight near the Star Gate.

She flew into that mirror, her figure disappearing amidst ripples.

Subsequently, the converted mirror began to spread outward with those ripples, and as it expanded, it quickly cracked piece by piece—the entire ceiling of the ship bridge hall shattered along with this disintegrating mirror into pieces amidst crisp and continuous sounds.

Air leaked, pressure imbalance, and the howling wind swept away the corpses of those cultists and all the scattered items in the hall, and the rapidly cooling gas quickly condensed into a murky ice mist in space, with tiny mirror crystals erupting from the midpoint of the warship like a brilliantly sinister flower blossoming in space.

The damage control system finally failed completely—the surface lights of the scarred Dark Star Cruiser flickered a few times, then it clumsily tilted and fell towards the Brown Dwarf Star emitting a dim red light.

Meanwhile, behind the slowly falling interstellar battleship, in the vast space with the entire Star Gate as a backdrop, the raging fires of war continued to burn fiercely.

The United Fleet of the Special Service Bureau, jumping into the battlefield from the Star Gate, had already completely destroyed that Star Castle and the "Disaster Backup Node Pod" splitting from it. The remaining Star Gate defense force quickly moved towards total defeat amidst chaos, with a few fierce and steadfast Hidden Monastery Commanders organizing several half-hearted counterattacks during this process, but the newly gathered small forces were almost instantly precisely killed by the light spear weapons of the United Fleet, turning into scorching debris in space.

The United Fleet brought by Red and Baili Qing already surpassed the local Star Gate garrison in combat strength, and when such a fleet jumped directly into the defensive blind spot of the Hidden Monastery from the center of the Star Gate, the outcome of the entire battle was already a foregone conclusion.

And at the same time—Saint Realm, 11XX year.

The toxic atmosphere was thick and heavy, cold and chaotic winds blew through mountain ravines, and on an open land at the intersection of mountains and plains, the silver-white Nine-Tailed Demon Fox stopped, looking up at the distant majestic mountains.

Then she sneezed several times in a row—a storm of flying sand and rolling stones within ten meters.

"This place still stinks..." The big fox lifted a paw to rub her nose, then stuck out her tongue to lick the somewhat dry nose tip, grumbling in displeasure, "Don't any of you feel it?"

Yu Sheng casually spoke as he got off Hu Li's back: "I don't know, I've been holding my breath—this place's air is poisonous, breathing it could kill you."

"Is that even a human sentence! Normal people would die from holding their breath too!" The small puppet on Yu Sheng's shoulder piped up loudly, then quickly added, "Though I also haven't been breathing."

Luna's figure landed nearby, pointing to herself: "No such function."

"Can't you just hold your breath," Erin turned to glance at Hu Li, "Since you can survive in a space environment anyway."

"Can't smell anything without breathing," Hu Li swished her tail, "In such unfamiliar surroundings, not being able to smell makes me uneasy."

Erin thought about it, scratching her head: "...I don't quite get you cyber foxes."

She then turned to look at Yu Sheng: "Hey, we're back here again, where do we head next?"

Yu Sheng squinted, gazing into the distance through the alien planet's murky atmosphere, then vaguely determined a direction: "That way."

The small puppet shaded its eyes with a hand: "That way? What's there?"

"The Gate of Eden."

"...Huh?" Erin looked bewildered, even standing up to strain her eyes into the distance, "You're joking—that's the Saint Realm from hundreds of years ago, forget the Gate of Eden, the Hidden Monastery Sect doesn't even know where they are digging rocks in the wastelands!"

"Yes, this is the Saint Realm from hundreds of years ago," Yu Sheng smiled, stepping forward, "But a 'Time Root' of the Gate of Eden is rooted in this place."