Star Source Stone

Inside another Liquid Nitrogen Cryogenic Chamber aboard the Dawn Starship, Hong Kun and Yu Le stood in silence.

Two bodies lay before them.

One was Yang Qian. The other belonged to a member of the Skyfire Club.

The Skyfire Club had suffered the heaviest losses in the crisis.

Two members had died, and Hong Kun had lost an arm.

With the medical technology aboard the starship, they could have reattached his severed arm.

But after it had been cut off, the Giant Python had swallowed it, leaving nothing to recover.

What broke his heart now, however, was not his own disability, but his good friend lying before him.

Lu Feng had heard that Yang Qian and Hong Kun had grown up together, going to Martial High School and Martial University side by side.

Later, when Hong Kun founded the club, Yang Qian had come to help manage it without hesitation.

Their bond was stronger than that of brothers.

Yang Qian's death had dealt Hong Kun a devastating blow.

The only thing he could do now was have his close friend's body cryogenically preserved and take it back to Tianlan Star for burial.

A day later, just as the Chasing Wind Squad finished its rotation and prepared to resume its reconnaissance mission,

good news arrived—

Several squads from the Cangwu Star 796th Legion had discovered Star Source Ore about a thousand kilometers north of the Temporary Starry Sky Station.

The discovery lifted the spirits of the entire Expeditionary Force.

Every legion immediately halted reconnaissance and devoted all its efforts to mining the Star Source Stone.

The Chasing Wind Squad received orders to change course as well, heading toward the ore vein north of the station.

Despite the encouraging news, the squad members showed no joy.

The tragedy from the day before was still fresh in their minds, and Fang Qing remained unconscious in the Medical Pod.

Lu Feng followed silently at the rear of the squad.

The only thing he could do now was grow stronger as quickly as possible.

Only then could he protect those around him and settle his blood debt with the Zheng Family.

When the squad reached the northern ore vein, a vast basin stretching hundreds of kilometers came into view.

More than ten thousand Mecha Warriors had already gathered, and more squads continued to arrive.

The Artificial Intelligence Luo Lin was assigning mining zones to the legions from each planet through the All-Channel.

As soon as each squad received its designated location, they began operating their mechas and digging with focused urgency.

"Didn't they say they'd found Star Source Stone? How come we haven't found anything after digging for so long?"

Lu Feng followed the Chasing Wind Squad as they dug steadily through a low-lying area.

The soil here was unusually hard, and they kept running into layers of rock, but there was still no sign of Star Source Stone.

Just as he began to wonder, an excited shout rang out from the squad. "I found some! I found some!"

Yu Le of the Skyfire Club shouted excitedly as he made his mecha dig faster.

The squad members hurried over. In the pit they had dug, several crimson transparent crystals, each about the size of a fingernail, had appeared.

"So this is Star Source Stone?"

It was Lu Feng's first time seeing Star Source Stone with his own eyes.

As a Three Realm Martial Artist, he immediately sensed the immense energy within the crystals. It was exactly like the energy of the Mark on his chest.

He couldn't help wondering: why were these crystals buried beneath the soil of an alien planet all so uniform in size?

Shouldn't natural ore vary wildly in size and shape?

"Quickly clear out the Star Source Stone and keep digging!" Gao Zhan ordered.

One squad member quickly picked up the Star Source Stone in the pit while the others operated their mechas, widening the dig area around the pit where Yu Le was working.

"Quick, I found more!"

Before the others could get started, Yu Le shouted again.

Dozens more Star Source Stones had appeared in the pit before him.

At the same time, cheers broke out across the work zones of the other legions as they began finding Star Source Stone too.

"Uncle Hong," Lu Feng said over the comms while digging, "why is Star Source Stone only found on distant alien planets? Don't we have any on Tianlan Star?"

Hong Kun replied quickly. "Of course we do. We just don't anymore."

"What do you mean, we don't anymore?"

"Before humans settled Tianlan Star, it was just like Planet Caro 9 is now, covered in Exotic Beasts and Star Source Ore."

Lu Feng understood at once. "So before humans migrated to Tianlan Star, all the Star Source Stone there had already been mined?"

"Exactly. Tianlan Star was one of the planets humans conquered with their military forces. Once the Exotic Beasts on Planet Caro 9 are wiped out and all the Star Source Stone has been mined, this place may well become another auxiliary planet for humanity."

So that was how it worked.

This was the full process of humanity conquering a planet.

Tens of thousands of years ago, Tianlan Star had come into being in just this way.

It took another twenty or thirty thousand years of development for it to grow into what it was today, with its twenty-six major cities and population of 1.5 billion.

"Would anyone really want to move so far away to live on a planet like this?"

"They would. As long as the Alliance establishes an Energy Shield here, builds cities, and offers generous enough incentives, there will always be people willing to move."

That made sense. If the Alliance was willing to provide enough resources, people would surely come.

Sometimes, Lu Feng had even thought about taking his family away from Tianlan Star and living on a planet where no one knew them.

Far from his enemies, he could focus on cultivating martial arts.

Ever since he killed Zheng Tong, the thought had crossed his mind countless times.

After a month of continuous mining, the Star Source Ore vein in the Northern Basin had been completely exhausted.

More than twenty million Star Source Stones had been mined in total and transported in batches to eight starships at the Temporary Starry Sky Station for storage.

The Expeditionary Force had now successfully completed its first mining mission on Planet Caro 9.

Next, the Expeditionary Force would abandon the current station and move five thousand kilometers south to establish a new Starry Sky Station in preparation for the next reconnaissance mission.

Before then, all members of the Expeditionary Force received a Star Source Stone reward!

Each person received one hundred stones, while fallen soldiers were awarded double, to be delivered to their families by their comrades.

This was the moment the entire Expeditionary Force had been waiting for most eagerly!

On planets inhabited by humans, Star Source Stone was a scarce resource that money couldn't buy. It could only be exchanged for Military Merit, at a cost of one hundred points per stone.

After running the Skyfire Club for more than a decade, Hong Kun had accumulated only ten thousand Military Merit, enough to exchange for just one hundred Star Source Stones.

Now, each person was receiving one hundred directly, with more rewards to come if new ore veins were discovered during future reconnaissance missions.

But this reward had come too late, and at far too great a cost.

For the next week, there were no other assignments aside from squads taking turns on watch at the outposts.

The higher-ups had set aside these seven days so everyone could cultivate using their Star Source Stone.

Back in the 115th Legion's Living Quarters, Lu Feng looked at the 110 crimson crystals in his hand and couldn't help feeling puzzled.

"Luo Lin, did you give me ten extra?"

The Artificial Intelligence's voice rang through the quarters. "The distribution was accurate. Every soldier from the eight legions from Tianlan Star received one hundred and ten."

"What about the soldiers from the other planets?"

"Soldiers from the other three planets received one hundred each."

"Why did the people from Tianlan Star get ten extra?"