Second Layer Star Region

Seven hours later, Earth time.

"Finally found it. So this is a Planet Teleportation Gate."

Bai Xiaowen felt that it had been quite arduous.

The planet's surface was simply too vast. Searching such an expansive area for a few Teleportation Gates no larger than houses was no exaggeration to call looking for a needle in a haystack.

Fortunately, Bai Xiaowen could read the flow of the earth veins. He searched for Planet Teleportation Gates the same way he searched for Spirit Power Gathering Points, greatly conserving his energy.

By sending Spirit Sense into one end of a Teleportation Gate, it could extend to the other end. Through this process, he could judge the approximate physical distance between the two gates—whether it was a Short-Range Teleportation Gate or a Long-range Teleportation Gate.

The moment his Spirit Sense probed inside, he "saw" the other end in the blink of an eye.

"The physical distance is under a million kilometers. It can only be a Short-Range Teleportation Gate."

Bai Xiaowen sighed. He knew he would not be that lucky.

After recording the location, Bai Xiaowen continued searching.

Bai Xiaowen glanced at the several newly converted Undead Servants.

The Leader Grade servants were fine, but the dozen or so Elite Grade Skeleton Warrior servants all showed signs of "fatigue"—though no expression could be seen on their faces, their continuously weakening auras could not deceive him.

These converted Undead Servants could not be recalled through the Visage of the Death God. They could only keep following Bai Xiaowen on this long journey.

Before finding this Planet Teleportation Gate, Bai Xiaowen had encountered several more waves of Insect Monsters.

These low-intelligence Insect Monsters were all Leader Grade. They did not care about the lack of spiritual energy. Upon encountering Living Beings, they burst from the ground without hesitation and launched fierce attacks.

Bai Xiaowen had no choice but to fight. He minimized his expenditure, using footwork and swordsmanship for close combat, and killed the waves of Insect Monsters under the cover of his Undead Servants.

As for the Insect Monster corpses, Bai Xiaowen did not even want to convert them. He merely absorbed their Soul Essence.

What was the point of converting an army here? This was the Star Region of the Land of Origin, where spiritual energy was scarce.

Such an environment was like marching across an endless desert. The larger the army, the more terrifying the expenditure, and in the end, the troops could only starve and die of thirst for nothing—Undead Servants would not feel hunger or thirst, but they likewise needed Spiritual Power replenishment to sustain their "survival."

In the end, no matter how large the army was, it would come to nothing, while needlessly wasting the Four Heavenly Kings' Spiritual Power reserves. Those reserves also required Bai Xiaowen to spend Soul Essence to replenish.

More importantly, Planet Teleportation Gates required Divinity Cores for charging. The more individuals passed through, the more Divinity Cores were needed! This further limited the number of troops Bai Xiaowen could command.

If he converted a large army on Aqi Luo Star, only to abandon a great number of Undead Servants when traveling to the next planet because he lacked enough Divinity Cores, would that not be a waste of time and effort?

Bai Xiaowen had already decided not to increase the number of Elite Grade Undead Servants for the time being, retaining only Leader Grade ones.

Five hours later, Bai Xiaowen found a second Planet Teleportation Gate. It was likewise a Short-Range Teleportation Gate, connected only to another planet in a nearby Planet Cluster. There was no point in going there.

Another four hours passed, and he found a third Planet Teleportation Gate. It was short-range again.

Bai Xiaowen did not lose heart. He recorded the gate's location and the areas he had already explored, then continued searching.

At last, his efforts were not in vain. After continuing his trek, Bai Xiaowen finally found a Long-range Teleportation Gate.

According to the Titan Star Chart's records, the other end of this gate was finally no longer connected to a planet in the Outer Star Region, but to the Second Layer Star Region.

Moreover, the destination planet belonged to a large Planet Cluster with as many as nine planets.

Bai Xiaowen could not help thanking Okandis. The man had certainly been there, and might even have come from there.

After studying the symbols Okandis had left behind, Bai Xiaowen found no Triangle Symbol representing "danger." However, there was a special "eye" symbol at the center of the nine planets.

The eye symbol was situated in a very special position, at the center of this large Planet Cluster. The nine surrounding planets all revolved around it.

It was like the Solar System's Nine Planets—or rather, eight planets—orbiting the sun. Such inexplicable harmony was immensely precious in the Land of Origin, where collisions occurred every day and meteor showers were an everyday occurrence.

"I just don't know why Okandis didn't stay in such a safe environment and instead came to Aqi Luo Star."

Bai Xiaowen could only guess that Okandis had been searching for an energy source—Original Spiritual Energy. After all, without Original Spiritual Energy, even someone as powerful as Okandis could only slowly "starve to death." No matter how safe the environment was, it would be useless.

Bai Xiaowen attempted to activate the Teleportation Gate.

A notification from the Spirit Realm Rules arrived:

"After activating this Teleportation Gate, each individual will consume 1 Divinity Core for teleportation."

Bai Xiaowen frowned and looked at the few Undead Servants following behind him.

"Forget it. Abandon them all."

Bai Xiaowen had over twenty Divinity Cores in total, enough to pay the transportation costs for some of the servants, but there was no need.

According to Bai Xiaowen's deduction, Divinity Cores were extremely important and could not be squandered. If he brought all these servants over now, would he not have to pay again when using the next Teleportation Gate on the next planet? Who could afford repeated payments? Bai Xiaowen was not even sure whether he could gather so many Divinity Cores on the next planet.

Bai Xiaowen had these Undead Servants dig pits and bury themselves.

He also took the precaution of placing a Daoist Mark on one of the Undead Servants.

This was equivalent to planting an eye on Aqi Luo Star, allowing Bai Xiaowen to monitor the situation near this Long-range Teleportation Gate at any time.

After finishing all this, Bai Xiaowen placed one Divinity Core inside.

The Planet Teleportation Gate lit up. Bai Xiaowen stepped into it alone.

As for the Four Heavenly Kings and the other Summoned Creatures, Bai Xiaowen had always kept them in the Summoning Space within the Visage of the Death God. They did not count as additional target creatures, so there was naturally no extra cost.

This time, the teleportation was very fast.

In a flash of light, Bai Xiaowen appeared on a Planet Covered in White Mist.

"So cold!"

Ever since becoming an Evolutionist, Bai Xiaowen had not felt cold for a very long time. Even if he ran naked in Tens of Degrees Below Zero temperatures, he could withstand it without feeling cold.

But this planet's temperature was probably One Hundred Degrees Below Zero.

The ground was covered in a solid Ice Layer.

Bai Xiaowen struck it. The Ice Layer was thick and frozen together with the planet's surface soil, making it impossible to pry loose.

"Having an Ice Layer is a good thing. Volcanoes should not erupt so frequently, right?" Bai Xiaowen thought to himself.