"Ugh—!"

A suppressed, metal-grinding shriek of pain squeezed out from his mouthparts.

Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—!!!

A dense, light-golden mist, glowing with molten gold, erupted like high-pressure steam from every seam in his carapace.

The liquid metal blades on his arms instantly went out of control, like two enraged venomous snakes, uncontrollably flailing and striking against the specially made alloy walls, leaving terrifying gashes half a foot deep with edges melted into a glassy state by the high temperature.

Sizzling! His dorsal carapace groaned under the strain with a "crack, crack" sound, and its tough dark-purple surface actually bloomed with spiderweb-like molten-gold cracks, through which scorching red light shone.

He suddenly fell to his knees, his bone claws digging deep into the floor, his finger bones making a teeth-grinding, twisting sound from the impact of the violent power within his body, and sharp bone spurs pierced through his carapace, oozing dark-golden blood like molten gold, which was instantly evaporated by the high temperature of his body surface.

The light of reason in his cold compound eyes was almost dispersed by the torrent of pain and violent energy, replaced by an extreme hunger for power and a tearing sensation brought by the transformation, originating from the depths of his Bloodline.

Countless profound runic fragments exploded and reorganized in the depths of his Soul—harder.

Faster.

Slicing space.

Twisting the Void Realm.

Other areas within the base:

Logistics area, weapon maintenance bay: A Mingling Devil who was maintaining a liquid blade had the high-energy power pliers in his hand instantly melted into molten iron by uncontrolled energy.

He curled up in a corner, the golden mist spewing from his body interweaving with the maintenance bay's alarm red light, emitting a beast-like low growl.

...

The entire Mingling Devil race, eight thousand individuals, were like eight thousand active volcanoes undergoing violent geological movements.

A surging tide of pain, transformation, and power Awakening swept through every Soul.

Buzz!

On the light screen in front of Zhou Qi, next to the furnace core projection, a cold, dazzling crimson countdown number ticked mercilessly: 【Smelting Completion Countdown: 23:59:59】.

"24 hours..."

Zhou Qi took a deep breath.

He could clearly feel the chaotic torrent of eight thousand parts of painful struggle and power Awakening transmitted through the Soul network.

But he forcibly suppressed the fluctuations in his heart, his gaze sharp as a blade, and turned to the sole 【Talent Extraction Slot】.

Moment of decision.

The Golden Emperor's panel unfolded:

Two six-star talents: Void Scale Armor, Planar Perception.

Both were at the Peak for survival and strategy.

Zhou Qi's finger slid across the cold console, making a faint friction sound.

Defense is important, perception is also key...

But when he clicked on the talent panel of the Fifteenth-Order Flying Thunder Centipede—【Thunder Manipulation (Six-Star Talent)】

Within the reach of his will, planetary magnetic fields, atmospheric ionospheres, and cosmic rays could all be used as weapons.

Generate, guide, and shape ultra-high-voltage destructive lightning as easily as moving an arm.

Can temporarily transform his energy core into a planetary-level thunder core, his body becoming myriad bolts of lightning, immune to lightning attacks of the same rank, and his speed greatly increased.

Violent!

Swift!

Destructive!

Zhou Qi's heart pounded violently.

The Golden Emperor's talents were like an immovable divine mountain, while this 【Thunder Manipulation】 was a raging storm sweeping across the heavens and earth.

This was exactly what his current power system most craved—ultimate, large-scale offensive capability, combining speed and destruction.

It could elevate his attack radius and destructive power to a whole new dimension.

"Attack! I need the power to tear apart all obstacles!"

There was no longer any hesitation in Zhou Qi's eyes; all considerations were instantly crushed by this thought.

His will, like a drill, locked firmly onto the lightning symbol!

"Extract! Fuse 【Thunder Manipulation】!"

【Command confirmed! Beginning extraction and Fusion of target talent...】

Rumble, rumble, rumble—!!!!

This time, it was a real sound exploding in the command room!

Zhou Qi's body, within one ten-thousandth of a second after the command was issued, became an out-of-control, humanoid, self-propelled Universe-level particle accelerator.

Unimaginably violent energy erupted from his every pore, every cell.

No longer gentle arcs, but billions of destructive plasma bolts, as thick as buckets, boiling and leaping like blue-white scorching magma.

Sizzle!

Boom!!!

The ultra-reinforced alloy floor beneath his feet was like ice thrown into the sun, instantly melting through a giant hole several meters in diameter, with crimson molten metal pouring down to the lower levels like a waterfall.

The dome was directly vaporized and evaporated by the violent lightning plasma, revealing the cold architectural structure above, and that structure was also rapidly melting under the licking of the plasma.

A strong ionized storm exploded with him as the center; all unsecured instruments and metal fragments in the room were instantly sucked in, melted, or charred by the terrifying high-voltage electricity.

Dazzling blue-white light filled every inch of space, the air was completely ionized, and ozone concentration instantly soared to a lethal level.

"Ugh ah ah ah—!!!"

Zhou Qi let out an inhuman roar, the sound itself carrying the roar of thunder.

His newly born 【Titan Dragon Body】 was enduring its most severe test ever.

The dark-gold runes flowing beneath his skin flashed madly with unprecedented brightness, like red-hot branding irons, desperately resisting the repeated tearing and penetration of billions of volts of high-voltage plasma, enough to penetrate a planet's crust.

Muscle fibers groaned and snapped under the strain, then forcibly healed under powerful regenerative abilities, and bones creaked under the high pressure, as if they could shatter at any moment.

This was not an infusion of power, but an uncontrolled cosmic Big Bang occurring within his body.

Out of control.

Total, catastrophic power loss of control.

This power was too violent, too untamed.

Driven almost by survival instinct, Zhou Qi's body transformed into a humanoid lightning bolt, smashing through the already melted wall and instantly vanishing from his original spot.

Only a death zone, with rolling crimson lava and a violent ionized storm, remained in his place.

Iron-Blood World, ten thousand meters in the sky.

Zhou Qi's figure had just solidified—

The sky, shattered!

Boom-crash—!!!!

It wasn't thunder; it was a terrifying, Soul-freezing roar as the firmament itself was forcibly torn open.

With Zhou Qi as the absolute center, within a radius of three hundred kilometers, the thick cloud layers, atmospheric dust, and even space itself were instantly pushed away and annihilated by an unreasonably brutal force field.

A massive "void" made purely of boiling, roaring blue-white destructive lightning plasma replaced the sky.

This was not dark clouds!

This was a materialized sea of lightning!

Highly compressed lightning plasma rolled, collided, and exploded, emitting light more dazzling than a stellar flare, with a core temperature comparable to a stellar core.

Countless giant lightning bolts, over a hundred meters in diameter, winding and twisting like primeval Thunder Dragons, fell madly from the sea of lightning, like the whips of destruction wielded by God, without pattern or mercy.

There was no sound premonition, because they fell faster than the speed of sound.