# Chapter 3: The Great Khan
The "Vanguard" Fortress was a void fortress cluster located at the edge of the World Star River, composed of numerous temporary research institutes and large-scale observation equipment assembled together.
Colorful research facilities and their supporting observation devices revolved around an inconspicuous silver world. These facilities had been jointly constructed half a year ago by the major powers of the continent, absorbing materials and experience provided by the Glory Fortress of the Far Sea Holy Mountain and the Myriad Realms Sacrificial Ground. Although most of these facilities were operating in true void space for the first time, they all perfectly fulfilled their functions.
On the outer side of the fortress cluster were trapezoidal large-scale void observation platforms used to observe other World Star Rivers in the distance, while on the inner side were prism-shaped research institutes that analyzed data from the observation platforms and information from other worlds. These two completely different types of buildings, differing in both scale and design, interlocked like gears, giving the entire void fortress cluster a peculiar aesthetic.
At the edge of the fortress cluster, inside a special white void facility, a group of black-and-gray mixed eight-legged fungi surrounded a white eight-legged fungus, waiting in the hall.
The white eight-legged fungus raised its sensory magic organ, "looking" at the void scenery outside the window, maintaining silence.
The Great Khan of the Star Shepherds was thinking, contemplating the past and future of its race.
The Star Shepherds were a race with a bumpy fate.
Of course, this statement was actually meaningless—which race or civilization didn't have a bumpy fate? Any civilization capable of existing and reaching the level of entering and exiting void space must have experienced much suffering and many disasters. There was no civilization in this world that could progress without competition and war. Whether internal wars or wars with other races, being able to develop and grow meant that conflicts could never be few.
But even so, the Star Shepherds were a race with an excessively bumpy fate.
Because before their civilization had fully developed void technology, they were forcibly deprived of their home world.
Even now, the Great Khan could still recall that day.
Accompanied by an inconceivable space-time fluctuation that tore apart the world barrier, the perpetually dim sky of the Star Shepherds' home world was illuminated by sudden firelight. This was the spectacle caused by the simultaneous energy ejection of thousands of void warships. Jet streams far more conspicuous than the sun carved brilliant blue trails across the planet's gray-yellow sky dome. The next moment, countless energy beams and projectiles, like falling stars, rained down upon the earth like rainwater, effortlessly destroying all of the Star Shepherds' defense systems.
And following this artillery fire, clearly from another civilization, came the invasion of Chaos—countless minions of the Devourer followed the artillery fire from the sky into this world, devouring everything, destroying everything.
The Star Shepherd civilization, accidentally caught in a war between some higher civilization and the World Devourer, collapsed completely in an instant. The aftermath and stray shots of the battle between the two sides annihilated the future of an entire civilization into nothingness.
At that time, the Great Khan, as one of the most powerful beings within the clan, happened to be communicating with a gentle void behemoth. The Star Shepherd civilization hoped the behemoth would leave behind some flesh and blood, and in exchange, the Star Shepherd civilization would provide the void behemoth with its favorite high-energy minerals. Both sides would get what they needed, a perfect win-win situation.
As a race specializing in soul matters, the Star Shepherds were capable of calming the unpredictable irritable temperament of void behemoths. They had traded with many beings in the void, and this was just one ordinary instance—but unlike previous situations, when the Great Khan of that era despairingly discovered that their civilization might be completely annihilated on their home world, it had a sudden inspiration, sharply recalling that inside the void behemoth's body, there were cavities large enough for ordinary creatures.
There was no time to think, no time to plan. The continent was falling silent, the mountains were burning. While the aftermath of the battle between the higher civilization and the World Devourer was destroying the entire world, the Great Khan made its only choice.
It devoured the soul of the void behemoth, stored as many of its people as possible within its own body, and then fled its homeland in panic.
Thousands of years passed.
The Star Shepherds, who had once been like refugees, living in constant fear inside the void behemoth's body, became true Star Shepherds.
They herded void behemoths, building worlds on their backs. They used planets and continents as pastures, crust and magma as fodder, wandering and migrating between the stars. Thousands of years of recuperation made them immensely powerful. Dozens of void behemoths and several powerful kings gave them strength that even surpassed the fleet that had destroyed their home world.
They could even do what they had once suffered—the Star Shepherds did not mind destroying worlds as a condition to extort other civilizations, forcing them to offer the knowledge and resources they needed.
Not to mention the truly powerful one who had mastered the souls of all void behemoths, carrying the civilization forward on its own shoulders... Facing this ancestor of the Star Shepherds, who had dispersed its own soul to reside within all void behemoths' bodies, suppressing the revival of their original souls, all eight-legged fungi would sincerely bend their fungus pillars and sound a note of "Great Khan." Its strength was among the forefront even in the entire World Star River, and its reputation spread even to the other side of the star river.
Recalling the thousands of years of hard work that had pulled its civilization from the brink of certain death and allowed it to prosper again, the fungus cap of the white eight-legged fungus flickered with light, showing its excited heart. But in the end, the light of the fungus cap dimmed, and it sighed deeply in the depths of its soul.
But what use was this?
In the final analysis, the Star Shepherds were nothing more than homeless dogs—and not just once. They had fled their pastures countless times, avoiding the terrifying beings roaming the void.
In the vast, seemingly infinite World Star River, it seemed there was no pure land. No matter how deep they hid, no matter how far they fled, darkness always followed like a shadow, tracking them.
"The peaceful membrane has been shattered by calamity. Our home star river has become a sea of fire and scorched earth. Countless civilizations have abandoned the balance and order they had painstakingly maintained, killing and trampling each other... I do not want the Star Shepherds' civilization, which has barely survived until now, to be extinguished like weeds in meaningless battles. That is why I searched through ancient texts, seeking clues of the Lost Star River, attempting to find a pure land in this dark multiverse."
Even if this pure land was merely the ruins left behind by an even more terrifying war in the distant past.
Sighing deeply again, the fungus cap on the Great Khan's head displayed a black-red color representing a "bitter smile."
Who could have imagined that this seemingly calm, desolate Lost Star River was actually more dangerous than the outside!
How long had it been since they crossed the material vacuum zone? They had already encountered the awakening of an ancient World Devourer! And even more terrifying were the powerful beings of the ancestor civilization—just two star-swallowing level powerhouses could actually suppress a World Devourer!
Even if this World Devourer was weak, without minions, and had just awakened from its seal, it was still an extremely terrifying matter. To resist the invasion of a World Devourer, even a higher civilization capable of roaming the void had to be extremely cautious, even preparing for the same kind of escape as the Star Shepherds. Those calamities roaming the void could effortlessly destroy all life in a world. No matter how fierce the artillery fire or magic, it could not achieve such thorough destruction.
In fact, the reason the Star Shepherds had fled from their original World Star River was precisely because the number of World Devourers was increasing day by day. Originally, the number of World Devourers roaming the void was extremely small, almost non-existent. Only civilizations with extremely bad luck would encounter them. But just a few hundred years ago, the number of World Devourers increased daily. Their appearance not only destroyed some weak civilizations but also shattered the fragile balance of the original star river. The balance between several powerful civilizations was broken, and what followed was the warfire of chaos.
Orderly civilizations fought among themselves while simultaneously resisting the erosion of Chaos. Weak civilizations were like grass blades in a typhoon, mercilessly blown away and destroyed. Even civilizations as powerful as the Star Shepherds could only flee in panic.
But now, it seemed they had fled into the mouth of some ancient sleeping beast.
Thinking of this, the Great Khan turned its head and looked at the hall of this void fortress.
Since that powerful and rough ancestor civilization powerhouse had killed the awakened World Devourer, the entire Star Shepherd civilization had been confined by the powerhouses of the ancestor civilization to the vicinity of the Dark Star Domain, ordered not to leave.
Although the number of powerhouses displayed by the ancestor civilization was not very large—at least fewer than the cluster of over twenty void behemoths—the Great Khan knew that the young void behemoths under its command were absolutely no match for these civilized powerhouses with wisdom and powerful techniques. Its side was at an absolute disadvantage, and it also needed to recover, so naturally it could only follow the other side's words and stay at the edge of the star river.
During the communication process, it also keenly discovered that the current state of the ancestor civilization seemed very strange.
This ancient ancestor civilization, calling itself "Mycroft," undoubtedly possessed inconceivably powerful technology. According to information obtained through communication, this civilization's homeland was located at the very bottom of the Lost Star River, extremely far from the star river's edge. But their powerful space-time magic allowed them to traverse this distance in an instant, seemingly without any cost.
Their void fortress technology was also very advanced. Although they themselves didn't seem to fully understand the technology they were using, that technology was indeed exceptionally advanced, far more cutting-edge and powerful than the higher civilization fortresses the Star Shepherds had seen in their original star river.
Not to mention their powerhouses—each of these ancestor civilization powerhouses possessed inconceivable strength. With the blessing of the Great Magic Tide, they even had the power to destroy a world single-handedly. Each of them was equivalent to an entire void fleet. And behind the one who controlled the holy light, there seemed to be seven majestic beings they called "Holy Spirits."
Just the one controlling the holy light alone, the Great Khan believed, had the power to annihilate the entire Star Shepherd civilization by himself. Even the Great Khan itself could probably only run, unable to resist.
This ancestor civilization seemed to have been in a state of confusion and decline not long ago. Through the communication of the past half year, the Great Khan could confirm that decades ago, this civilization called Mycroft was exactly as they had imagined—staying in their home world, with no desire for external development. This was why, in the tens of thousands of years, they had found no abnormalities in the Lost Star River.
But not long ago, this sleeping ancient civilization had awakened.
They cleared away the sediment within their civilization, repaired the damaged world barrier. These ancients rekindled the flame of civilization and retrieved their long-lost space-time hub and information database. They began to expand outward again, intending to restore the glory of antiquity. Undoubtedly, they were cleaning up their own World Star River, suppressing all hidden dangers like the awakened World Devourer. Their gaze was not even limited to this lost land that was originally their territory; it extended even to the infinite world where the eight-legged fungi had once been.
It could be seen that they were building large-scale void observation platforms, constructing fortresses at the edge of the World Star River. They were gathering fleets, condensing power. The Great Khan did not think that these expanding void fortress clusters were just for show. "Mycroft" truly intended to step out of this lost land and return to the grand stage of the multiverse.
And they were merely the first unlucky ones to happen to touch a sore spot, the first to act like mantises trying to stop a chariot.
"How to resist this awakened ancestor civilization?"
Wrong! Stupid!
As a civilization leader who had roamed the star river for thousands of years, such a stupid thought would never appear in the Great Khan's mind.
"How to latch onto the ancestor civilization's thigh, to make them believe that we are indeed willing to cooperate sincerely?"
Right! Correct!
This was what a proper civilization leader should be thinking about.
Faced with an existence that one's civilization could not oppose, the best solution was definitely not resistance or escape, but to find a way to join them, to make oneself also become powerful.
The Great Khan had been thinking about this problem all this time, thinking about how to achieve its goal.
But unfortunately, the attitude of the Mycroft side was extremely ambiguous. Although they did not show too obvious hostility towards the Star Shepherds, they indeed regarded them as untrustworthy outsiders to be guarded against. Both sides wanted to communicate, but after probing back and forth, the situation became even more confusing.
So when the Great Khan learned that the ancestor powerhouse who had fought with it had awakened from the coma of suppressing the evil god, it proposed to negotiate with him.
Precisely because it had fought with him, because they had mutually bombarded and eroded each other's souls, the Great Khan could be one hundred percent certain that he was a true powerhouse who meant what he said, absolutely kept his promises, and would not play any tricks.
The perception brought by battle was far more real and reliable than verbal communication.
So it waited, waiting for his arrival.
Time passed.
The Great Khan, who had been staring at the void scenery outside the window, suddenly turned its fungus cap, using its sensitive light-sensing and magic-sensing organs to "gaze" at an empty spot in the hall.
At that spot, a silver light flickered, like the starlight from a distant place.
But soon, this extremely faint silver light, which ordinary people could not even notice, transformed into a vortex distorting space-time. Endless Steel Force turned into surging waves, converging and solidifying from all directions.
Not far away, the miniature silver world at the core around which all the fortresses and observation platforms revolved was shining brightly.
All the black and gray eight-legged fungi serving as guards had their fungus caps begin to change color violently. At the same time, a sharp playing sound rang out, representing the highest level of alert. But the white eight-legged fungus, the Great Khan's avatar, raised its limbs, silencing the hall.
The next moment, it strode towards the silver vortex without any hesitation.
At the same time, an avatar completely condensed from pure Steel Force directly emerged at the center of the energy vortex, then stood on the floor of the hall.
"Pleasure to meet you, Great Khan of the Star Shepherds."
"Pleasure to meet you, Star River Guardian who killed the evil god."
The black-haired man who had manifested nodded slightly to the white eight-legged fungus, and the white eight-legged fungus also changed the color of its fungus cap to indicate a greeting.
After such a brief exchange of pleasantries, Joshua, who knew the other party far better than others and understood their thoughts and goals, directly posed a question to the Great Khan.
"Before cooperation, Great Khan, please describe in detail for us what the World Star River you once inhabited was actually like."
Without preamble, without foreshadowing, Joshua never wasted words. He gazed at the Great Khan's body and spoke bluntly:
"With such power as yours, why did you flee your homeland in such panic, coming to the 'Lost Star River' you speak of?"