Early December.
After three months of intensive training.
In 3070, the second batch of Tianlan Star's Expeditionary Force stood ready to depart.
This expedition consisted of the 115th Legion and the 116th Legion, with a total of forty squads and more than 1,200 Military Region Warriors.
They would travel aboard the Dawn, an Interstellar Ship belonging to the Tianlan Star Military Region's Alliance headquarters, to Planet 9 in the Carro Galaxy, 1.8 light-years away.
The expedition's codename was "Spirit Slaughter."
Its ultimate mission was to eliminate every Exotic Beast on Carro-9 and mine the Star Source Stone buried there.
The night before departure, Lu Feng said goodbye to his family.
According to Gao Zhan, this Interstellar Expedition would take at least four to five years round trip.
That meant he would be separated from his parents and younger sister for years.
During the three months they had lived at the base, Lu Dahai and Li Qinglan had gradually learned that although their son had never attended a Martial Arts University, he was undoubtedly a Martial Arts Prodigy.
At such a young age, he had already reached a formidable Martial Realm—and he also had an innate talent for taming beasts.
It was precisely for this reason that the military had given their family special care.
Now that they understood the situation, they had no reason to stop their son from going so far away.
December 5.
Hong Kun, Yang Qian, Lu Feng, and the others from the Skyfire Club followed Gao Zhan's Chasing Wind Squad and left the Jinzhou Military Region aboard aircraft.
Twenty aircraft carried more than six hundred members of the 115th Legion, speeding across the wasteland. After crossing dozens of towering mountains, they reached a Starry Sky Station thousands of kilometers away.
When Lu Feng first arrived at this Starry Sky Station—a place ordinary people might never get to see in their entire lives—he couldn't hide his astonishment.
The station was so vast that he couldn't see its end.
Even the ground was made of silver-white alloy.
At the edge of the station stood several black towers, each a thousand meters tall. Bands of deep-blue energy coiled around them, flickering like breathing lights in the night.
Small aircraft of all kinds kept roaring overhead, their pale-blue trails streaking across the sky like meteors.
And at the center of the station, several parked Interstellar Ships were impossible to look away from.
They were as immense as Ancient Giant Beasts, each more than a kilometer long, their hulls shaped like enormous, elongated oval pebbles.
The huge, exaggerated thruster nozzles on either side of each ship looked like the gaping maws of giant beasts.
Though the ships weren't running, they seemed to contain enough violent energy to tear stars apart.
At the sight of them, Lu Feng's heart raced and his scalp tingled.
He stared blankly ahead and couldn't help asking, "What could possibly power a ship this big?"
"Star Source Stone, of course. We're headed to the Carro Galaxy, 1.8 light-years away. The round trip will consume at least five hundred tons of it."
"What? F-five hundred tons?"
At Gao Zhan's explanation, Hong Kun nearly dropped his jaw.
"With that much Star Source Stone, how many Martial Arts Grandmasters could we make if we used it for cultivation?"
He had once spent 100 Military Merit points to exchange for a mere 100-gram piece of Star Source Stone, and it had taken him from the peak of the Meridian Condensing Realm to the Innate Realm.
Five hundred tons of Star Source Stone was an almost unimaginable astronomical figure!
"What do you know?" Gao Zhan cut him off without mincing words.
"Star Source Stone is an indispensable energy source for humanity in the New Era. Daily life, transportation, Interstellar Travel, Warriors' cultivation—even the energy shields protecting more than three hundred secondary stars—all rely on vast amounts of energy."
"If we used Star Source Stone only to cultivate Warriors, how could we have transformed more than three hundred planets into habitable worlds? How could we have built today's New Era civilization, with a population of nearly five hundred billion?"
Ever since humanity entered the Third Era of civilization, it had continued expanding outward and accelerating its growth.
Now, with people spread across more than three hundred planets and a population nearing five hundred billion, every day of operation consumed an incalculable amount of energy.
Although each Expedition consumed an enormous amount of energy, the resources brought back from other planets were undoubtedly worth far more, provided the ships returned safely.
"Come on. The Dawn departs promptly at midnight."
The thirty-five members of the Chasing Wind Squad and the five members of the Skyfire Club followed the flow of people from the 115th Legion into the Starry Sky Station and headed toward the enormous Dawn.
Lu Feng couldn't help asking again, "A ship this big... is it carrying only the two legions from the Jinzhou Military Region?"
The 115th and 116th Legions had only a little over 1,200 people between them.
He couldn't help feeling that the ship could carry far more.
"Of course not." A tall woman behind Gao Zhan picked up the conversation.
"Besides our Jinzhou Military Region, the Dawn is carrying members from four other Military Regions. There are more than six thousand people from Tianlan Star alone."
"Are people from other planets joining this operation too?" Lu Feng asked.
"Of course. Every Expedition Mission is usually a Joint Operation involving the military forces of several planets. Besides Tianlan Star, Military Regions from three secondary stars are also sending ships for this Spirit Slaughter operation. There are more than sixty thousand people in all."
"Sixty thousand?!" Lu Feng's heart jolted.
He had originally thought that an Expedition meant traveling with the Jinzhou Military Region's troops aboard an Interstellar Ship to hunt Exotic Beasts in a distant Starfield.
He hadn't expected it to be a Joint Operation spanning multiple planets.
More than sixty thousand Military Region Warriors—that was an enormous force!
The group crossed the Boarding Bridge and entered the ship.
A member of the ship's staff handed each person a Communicator.
They hadn't brought their usual Communicators, and civilian models were completely useless here.
Everyone aboard the ship had to wear an Exclusive Communicator. It could connect them with their squadmates and put them in touch with key personnel at the Bridge Command.
Once they reached the planet they were heading to, it might save their lives at a critical moment.
After receiving their Communicators, the people from the 115th Legion continued farther into the ship.
Their commander was Zhang Zechuan, a powerful Martial Arts Grandmaster.
He pointed ahead at the people behind him. "Go eight hundred meters forward and turn right. You'll find your Living Quarters."
After that, the Martial Arts Grandmaster headed toward the bridge alone.
In the days that followed, the Warriors of the 115th Legion rarely saw their commander.
After walking eight hundred meters as instructed, they came upon a spacious Living Quarters. The words "Jinzhou City 115th Legion" were clearly marked above the entrance.
Across from them was the 116th Legion's residential area.
It seemed that each legion had its own Living Quarters.
Each one also had at least six hundred rooms.
They had been designed to accommodate the number of people in each legion.
Just as Lu Feng and the others began filing into the huge quarters, another group came down the corridor toward them.
They were Warriors from the 116th Legion.
But Gao Zhan spotted a familiar face in the crowd!
Zheng Yi!
The man who had a blood feud with Lu Feng over his son's death—a grudge that could never be settled.
"What's he doing here?"
Gao Zhan's heart tightened.
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