The Expedition Begins, Enemies Follow

December.

After three months of high-intensity training.

In 3070, the second batch of Tianlan Star's Expeditionary Force stood ready to depart.

This expedition was composed of the 115th Legion and the 116th Legion, totaling forty squads and over 1,200 military region warriors.

They would board the "Dawn" interstellar ship from the Tianlan Star Military Region Alliance Headquarters, heading to Planet 9 of the Carro Galaxy, 1.8 light-years away.

Expedition codename: "Spirit Slaughter."

The ultimate mission objective was to eliminate all exotic beasts on Carro-9 and mine the "Star Source Stones" hidden on that planet.

The night before departure, Lu Feng bid farewell 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 living at the base, Lu Dahai and Li Qinglan gradually came to understand that their son, though not enrolled in a Martial Arts University, was an undeniable Martial Arts Prodigy.

Young as he was, his martial realm already qualified him as an expert, and he was born with the ability to tame beasts.

It was precisely for this reason that their family had received special care from the military.

Understanding all this, the family had no reason to stop their son from traveling far.

December 5th.

Hong Kun, Yang Qian, Lu Feng, and the others from Skyfire Club, along with Gao Zhan's Chasing Wind Squad, boarded a flying vehicle and left Jinzhou Military Region.

Twenty flying vehicles carried over six hundred members of the 115th Legion, racing across the wilderness. After crossing dozens of towering mountains, they arrived at the Starry Sky Station, thousands of kilometers away.

When Lu Feng arrived at this Starry Sky Station—a place an ordinary person would never have a chance to see in a lifetime—the shock in his eyes was impossible to hide.

The entire station was so vast that its end was beyond sight.

Even the ground was built from silver-white alloy metal.

At the station's edge, several black towers, each a thousand meters tall, were wrapped in streaks of deep blue energy light bands, pulsing and flickering in the night like breathing.

Small flying vehicles of various types constantly whooshed through the air, their pale blue flowing light trails like meteors streaking across the sky.

And at the center of the station, several interstellar ships were docked, impossible to look away from.

They were as massive as ancient giant beasts, each vessel body over a kilometer long, shaped like a huge, elongated, smooth oval stone.

The enormous thruster nozzles on both sides of the vessel body gaped like the bloody maws of a giant beast.

Though the starships weren't activated, they seemed to harbor a violent energy capable of tearing apart stars.

One glance, and Lu Feng felt his heartbeat race and his scalp tingle.

He stared blankly ahead and couldn't help asking, "What drives something this huge to fly?"

"Star Source Stones, of course. This time we're heading to the Carro Galaxy, 1.8 light-years away. The round trip alone will consume at least 500 tons of Star Source Stones."

"What? Five... five hundred tons?"

Hearing Gao Zhan's explanation, Hong Kun nearly dropped his jaw.

"With that many Star Source Stones, if they were used for cultivation, how many Martial Arts Grandmasters could be created?"

Back then, he had spent 100 points of Military Merit to exchange for a mere 100-gram Star Source Stone, and it had pushed him from the peak of the Meridian Condensing Realm straight into the Innate Realm.

Five hundred tons of Star Source Stones was an astronomical number beyond imagination!

"What do you know?" Gao Zhan cut him off bluntly.

"Star Source Stones are the indispensable energy foundation for human survival in the new century. Whether it's daily life, transportation, interstellar travel, or even a martial artist's cultivation—or the energy shields on those three hundred-plus auxiliary planets—everything relies on massive energy to sustain it."

"If Star Source Stones were only used to cultivate martial artists, how could we have transformed over three hundred habitable planets? How could we have bred today's new-century civilization of nearly five thousand billion people?"

Since humanity entered the Third Era civilization, it had continuously expanded outward and accelerated reproduction.

Now, spread across over three hundred planets, with nearly five thousand billion people, every day's operation consumes an unimaginable amount of energy.

Though each expedition's energy consumption was a massive figure, as long as they successfully returned, the resource rewards gained from other planets were undoubtedly even greater.

"Let's go. At midnight tonight, the 'Dawn' sets sail on time."

The thirty-five members of Chasing Wind Squad, plus the five from Skyfire Club, followed the flow of the 115th Legion into the Starry Sky Station, heading toward the colossal "Dawn" starship.

Lu Feng couldn't help asking again, "A starship this big... is it only carrying our two legions from Jinzhou Military Region?"

The 115th and 116th Legions together numbered just over 1,200.

He felt the ship's capacity was far greater than that.

"Of course not." Behind Gao Zhan, a tall woman took over the conversation:

"On the 'Dawn,' besides our Jinzhou Military Region, there are members from four other military regions. Just from Tianlan Star alone, the total exceeds six thousand."

"Are people from other planets also taking part in this operation?" Lu Feng pressed.

"Of course. Every expedition mission is usually a joint operation involving military forces from multiple planets. For this 'Spirit Slaughter' operation, besides our Tianlan Star, military regions from three auxiliary planets are also dispatching starships to join the campaign. The total number exceeds sixty thousand."

"Sixty thousand?!" Lu Feng's heart jolted.

He had originally thought the so-called expedition meant following Jinzhou Military Region's troops aboard a starship to hunt Exotic Beasts in a distant Starfield.

He never expected this to be a joint military operation spanning multiple planets.

Over sixty thousand Military Region Warriors—what an immense force that was!

The group crossed the Boarding Bridge and entered the starship's interior.

A member of the starship's Staff handed each person a communicator.

Lu Feng and the others hadn't brought their original communicators; civilian models were useless here.

Inside the starship, they had to wear an Exclusive Communicator. It could link them to their teammates or connect them to core members of Bridge Command.

When they eventually reached the expedition planet, it might well become a lifesaving tool at a critical moment.

After receiving their communicators, the 115th Legion continued deeper inside.

Their Commander, Zhang Zechuan, a Martial Arts Grandmaster, pointed ahead to the legion behind him: "Eight hundred meters forward, then turn right, and you'll see your Living Quarters."

With that, the Martial Arts Grandmaster headed off alone toward the Bridge.

In the days to come, the warriors of the 115th Legion would rarely see their Commander.

Following the directions, they advanced eight hundred meters and came upon a spacious Living Quarters. Above the hatch, the words "Jinzhou City, 115th Legion" were clearly marked.

Across the way was the 116th Legion's living area.

It seemed each legion had its own designated Living Quarters.

And each Living Quarters contained at least six hundred rooms.

This was designed according to each legion's headcount.

Just as Lu Feng and the others were filing into the massive compartment, another group of people approached from the corridor.

Those were the warriors of the 116th Legion.

Yet Gao Zhan spotted a Familiar Face among the crowd!

Zheng Yi!

The man who shared an irreconcilable blood feud with Lu Feng over his slain son.

"Why is he here?"

Gao Zhan's heart tightened.