Yue An looked at the Army Commander, then looked at Ji Xiuyun, who was listening intently to the report. He thought for a moment, but didn't say anything.

A group of the Empire's highest ranking military officials sat on the ground without a care for their image. They formed a circle and sat cross-legged on the scorched yellow ground. They were seriously discussing the military situation.

The soldiers around them walked back and forth. They were used to this.

On the contrary, compared to the military situation, they were more focused on the prey that Yue An had hunted. There was a neat row behind the circle of people, and one of them had already been brutally dismembered.

The Commander of the Seventh Army was sitting next to Yue An. He was staring at the barbecued meat in Yue An's hand, drooling.

Yue An turned to look at him.

The Commander of the Seventh Army was also looking at him.

Yue An turned to look at the other Army Commanders, who all had serious expressions on their faces. He then turned to look at the one beside him, who was slacking off. He asked softly, "You want it?"

The Commander of the Seventh Army nodded.

Yue An was hesitant about whether to take the meat for himself or share it with him.

He liked this Army Commander a lot. Although he always chased him out of the room and ran away whenever he saw him, this didn't affect Yue An's good impression of him.

After all, the Commander of the Seventh Army was a good friend who would run over to him whenever he ate a new dish that the cafeteria cooked up.

Yue An gritted his teeth and decided to hand the meat in his hand over to him.

Marshal Ji's eyes and ears were all alert, so he heard every single movement of the two brats beside him.

He looked at the meat in his hand, which was already barbecued, and handed it to the Commander of the Seventh Army without hesitation before Yue An could.

"Focus," he reminded him.

Of course, the one who reminded him wasn't Yue An. It was the Commander of the Seventh Army.

The Commander of the First Army sat across from them and saw everything that had happened.

The Commander of the First Army, who only knew a little, looked at his colleague. He wanted to say something, but didn't.

This is a flower that our Marshal has worked so hard to bloom.

The commander of the First Legion was wondering if there was a need to remind his colleagues so that they wouldn't hear raindrops falling on the green grass and affect the harmony within the legion.

After all, in all fairness, Yue An was very good-looking. According to the five-second battle footage of Yue An's battle submitted by the Marshal's direct subordinates, this young man's combat ability was also very impressive.

He was good-looking and strong, who wouldn't like him?

This was especially so in the army, where the desire for strength was extremely strong. If it weren't for the fact that the Marshal of the army kept himself clean and appeared to be very difficult to get along with on the outside, the number of bed partners that came knocking on his door would probably be enough to circle the main ship three times.

The First Legion Commander sat there, worried sick.

As for the other protagonists, one of them was seriously discussing the issues regarding the pirate gangs and the Free Army while roasting meat, one of them was focused on eating meat with his face full of oil, and the other was seriously discussing the issues while eating meat.

Yue An's eyes followed the movement of the red symbol.

More and more information was displayed, gradually covering that page of information.

Yue An retracted his gaze.

The pirate gang with the symbol was one of the pirate gangs that the Second Legion Commander had mentioned not to take the initiative to attack during wartime. However, it was at the bottom of the list, and the specific information couldn't be seen without clicking on it.

He only knew that it was called Phoenix.

"The vanguard has just sent a report. The situation at the frontline is normal, and there is no need for emergency support. Therefore, we can stay in the 17th Star System for a while and fight back the scattered Free Army and pirate gangs that are trying to encroach on the 17th Star System."

The Second Legion Commander looked up at Ji Xiuyun. "Marshal, the 17th Star System is your hometown, so …"

Ji Xiuyun nodded and did not say anything else. He stuffed another skewer of meat into Yue An's hands and opened the star map. He began to make minor adjustments to the course he had set at the beginning according to the new intelligence and the suggestions of the commanders.

After this short dinner and military meeting, Yue An watched as the soldiers carried the remaining prey into the freezer. He reached out and pulled Ji Xiuyun back to the office.

"Let me see the information on those pirate gangs again." Yue An pulled a stool and sat beside Ji Xiuyun.

"Hm?" Marshal Ji turned to look at him. "What is it?"

"I saw Phoenix." Yue An gestured. "It looks exactly like the Phoenix that they drew for me before."

Ji Xiuyun immediately sat up straight with a serious expression.

He didn't ask who Yue An was referring to. Instead, he asked directly, "Are you sure?"

Yue An was stunned by his reaction. "What's wrong?"

Ji Xiuyun immediately opened the information on the Phoenix Pirate Gang.

The information was very detailed. It included the pirate gang's history, battle records, and speculations about their strength and military capabilities. Everything was available.

"This pirate gang … is a very strange group." Ji Xiuyun chose his words carefully and said, "It's very special."

Yue An looked at the battle records. "Hm?"

"They rarely target civilians, and the number of times they appear is very few."

Marshal Ji tapped on the battle records page that Yue An was browsing. His finger landed on the names of the planets. "They only rob energy veins and aren't afraid of facing the armies of other countries. This is because no country has been able to find out the location of their headquarters."

Yue An and Ji Xiuyun looked at each other.

Ji Xiuyun immediately opened the list of the pirate gang's leaders.

"The number of people in this group is a mystery. The first recorded appearance was 800 years ago. At that time, this pirate gang became famous because they did something that is still controversial to this day. They destroyed a planet, which was the largest human trafficking center in the universe at that time. After rescuing all the trafficked people, they carried out a major clean-up on that planet."

As Ji Xiuyun spoke, he clicked on the first profile picture. "This is their first leader."

A young man with a sly and arrogant smile appeared in the projection. He was shockingly good-looking, with light brown hair. His overall temperament leaned toward evil and arrogant, but from his figure and face, there was a sense of weakness that could not be cured for a long time.

One look and one could tell that this person didn't have long to live.

Yue An looked at the holographic projection in front of him and widened his eyes.

Ji Xiuyun looked at Yue An and pursed his lips. "You know him?"

"Yes," Yue An answered very quickly. "This is the human form of the old fox who lives next door to my clan."

Ji Xiuyun looked at Yue An and waited for him to continue.

"Before I left the clan, he became an immortal."

Yue An looked at the holographic projections of the next few leaders. Then, he stopped at the fourth leader and pointed at the portrait. "I don't know the rest."

Ji Xiuyun asked, "They are all foxes?"

Yue An nodded. "They are all foxes. Foxes who became immortals. These three came back to play after they became immortals. I know them."

"Yue An."

Ji Xiuyun pointed at the portraits that were tapped on. "Every leader of the Phoenix Pirate Gang lasted less than 50 years. The longest one lasted for 49 years. No one knows if they are dead or not."

Yue An looked at the holographic projections of the foxes and his eyelids twitched.

"They are dead."

Yue An tapped on the holographic projections and gently glanced at their eyebrows. "They are about to die. They are fated to die."

Marshal Ji pinched the space between his eyebrows. "They will die after becoming immortals?"

"Of course."

Yue An sighed. "People like us who don't need to rely on spirit energy to cultivate are better. Most demons rely on spirit energy to cultivate. Without spirit energy, they can't cultivate. When they encounter danger, they need to consume spirit energy to resist the danger. If they can't make ends meet, their cultivation will regress and they will return to their original form. Then, they will go through the cycle of birth, old age, sickness, and death."

"That's why they are fighting for energy veins," Ji Xiuyun said.

"They have already become immortals. They don't need spirit stones … I mean energy crystals. These things can no longer satisfy them."

Yue An said, "What they want is immortal energy. In human terms, it is a higher level of energy."

Yue An was stunned for two seconds after he finished speaking.

That's right.

Why would immortal foxes need spirit stones?

It was meaningless for them to fight for spirit stones!

Taking a step back, spiritual monsters like them could not use unnatural forces to influence the development of human society.

The reason was simple. Back then, humans were extremely lucky. If demons like them used unnatural means to affect the development of human society, they would suffer retribution. Moreover, retribution came very quickly.

The luck of humans had always been much stronger than that of demons and ghosts. Although they felt that this situation was very unfair, there was nothing they could do. If they were born crippled, so be it. How could they not cultivate?

If they wanted to stir up trouble in human society, even the immortal foxes who came back to play in the past relied on their faces. They used human methods to climb to the top. Only when they were recognized by the rules of human society could they avoid retribution.

Yue An himself only dared to go to the battlefield because of Ji Xiuyun's status.

"Is this projection from before or after he destroyed that planet?" Yue An pointed at the projection and asked.

Ji Xiuyun checked and answered, "Before."

Then it was not retribution.

If it was not retribution, then why did these foxes die one by one?

It was very difficult for immortals to die. It was even more difficult for an entire clan to die.

Yue An frowned. He could not figure it out.

"In fact, this pirate gang has not been active for six years."

Ji Xiuyun pointed at the last leader. She was a woman. "In one more year, she should have reached 50 years old. However, the outside world is guessing that she has followed in her predecessor's footsteps."

Simply put, she was already dead.

"The only recorded speculation about this pirate gang's base is that it is located in the Death Triangle."

Ji Xiuyun clicked on another item in the information.

"In the past five joint hunts, they have all escaped into the Death Triangle. Apart from them, everyone else who had entered had all vanished. Some people have speculated that they have a way to safely enter and exit the Death Star Region."

Yue An looked at the coordinates and silently memorized them.

"Yue An." Ji Xiuyun wanted to say something, but he felt that it was inappropriate.

However, after a short moment of hesitation, he said, "It's like this. Have you ever thought … what if this universe is the Immortal Realm to you?"

Yue An looked at Ji Xiuyun blankly.

"The Earth has disappeared, but we can't even find its remains."

Ji Xiuyun said, "Not only that, we can't find the Solar System or the Milky Way. Other than you, we can't find any information related to the Solar System or the Milky Way. This shouldn't be."

Although Ji Xiuyun's ancestral home was in the Milky Way, this was passed down from generation to generation. Today, there were many people who still retained their ancestral home in the Milky Way. This was also considered a remembrance of the origin of mankind.

Many people guessed that during the time when mankind left their mother planet to travel the universe, they might have passed through a wormhole that was about to collapse and arrived in a new universe.

This was because when they looked back according to the coordinates left behind by the ancient people, the place that should have been the Milky Way was another galaxy. There was not a single habitable planet in the entire galaxy, and the planets were all over 100,000 years old.

Yue An felt as if a bolt of lightning had struck him, causing his brain to buzz.

Earth had disappeared without a trace, there were large amounts of spirit stone veins in the universe, mankind's struggle to survive for thousands of years at the beginning of the Universe Era, and some intelligent life forms with special talents …

The spirit stone veins were such a huge treasure. Why did they wait until mankind entered the Universe Era to exploit them?

What were the other intelligent life forms doing?

It wasn't like they didn't need energy!

Unless they had a better energy source, they didn't care about spirit stones because they didn't think they were valuable.

However, the entire universe was currently using energy crystals as the highest-grade energy source. There was no higher-grade energy source that could be used.

Who were mankind's opponents in the beginning?

Naturally, it was the natives of the universe. They were the other intelligent life forms whose living space had been greatly compressed.

This was especially true for the group of intelligent life forms with special talents.

They had special talents and lived in the universe for so many years. Why were they eventually overtaken by mankind?

Yue An turned his head to look at the immortal foxes. They all looked like they were about to die. He felt a chill run up from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. He was stunned.

If this place had been the immortal world in the beginning, it would have made sense.

No matter if it was immortal energy or spirit energy, they were all resources.

Resources were limited.

Just like when Yue An was in the Age of Chaos, the spirit energy resources on Earth had been squeezed dry.

Naturally, the resources in the immortal world would be squeezed dry as well. Perhaps they had been squeezed dry for a long time — otherwise, mankind alone wouldn't have been able to defeat the immortals.

When ordinary humans came to this part of the universe, they would have to face worlds that had been in conflict for many years.

They would fight for resources and kill each other.

In this kind of environment, no one would be able to survive alone.

However, resources were limited. In the end, the powerful beings would decline, and development would inevitably happen.

Just like on Earth, after the spirit energy was squeezed dry, there were very few monsters that could gain intelligence, and no one could cultivate anymore.

And these innately lame monsters couldn't think if they didn't gain intelligence. They could only watch helplessly as mankind wantonly developed technology.

In the past, monsters and cultivators could fly.

Later, mankind could too.

In the past, monsters and cultivators could burrow underground.

Later, mankind could too.

This world was gradually replaced by technology.

If this part of the universe was really the immortal world, it would probably be the same.

When the Immortal Qi was exhausted, the Immortals gradually disappeared. In the end, even the method of traveling was gradually lost. Then, humans appeared here and fought for survival with the descendants of the Immortals and Demon Immortals who had special abilities. They gained a foothold and discovered the Spirit Stone Veins that the Immortals had left behind in the past because they didn't even bother to look at them.

Yue An didn't detect any spirit energy from the bodies of the scientists who were said to have special talents. Perhaps it was because they didn't have the method to cultivate at all.

But to be able to make an immortal fox look like it was about to die, it could basically be stamped that their cultivation was rapidly declining and they couldn't maintain it.

After all, a fox was different from a nine-tailed cat, which naturally had a long tail. To cultivate, they needed resources. To fight, they also needed resources. If they consumed their own spirit energy and couldn't replenish it, even if they became immortals, they would still die.

"I think …" Yue An looked blankly at Ji Xiuyun, then pointed at the coordinates of the triangular area. "I should go there and take a look."