Over the past hundred thousand years, Huosi had been the first to refine a Divine Spark and become an Earth Midgod. He had then continued trying to upgrade and improve the Interstellar Battle Armor.
Pusiluo had become a Midgod after more than eighty thousand years. Bored by the lack of battles, he had started accompanying the inspection teams on their rounds, killing corrupt officials and the like.
Adkins had taken a little longer than Pusiluo, becoming a Midgod only after more than a hundred thousand years.
Of course, that was slow only by comparison. In the Divine Plane, a hundred thousand years passed in the blink of an eye. Being able to break through to Midgod was already proof of considerable talent.
Not everyone was a genius who could become a Highgod in just a few thousand years. Even after several million years, Beirut's three sons were still Midgods.
That was partly because Beirut had deliberately held them back from breaking through so they could fuse their Profound Mysteries, but a hundred thousand years was hardly a long time in the Divine Plane.
"A hundred thousand years have passed, and you've all broken through to Midgod. It's about time we restarted the expedition."
Watching Pusiluo and the other man fidget with anticipation, Huosi spoke slowly.
The Four Divine Beasts Clan wouldn't keep people stationed in an ordinary Material Plane indefinitely. Even if they had sent someone before, that person had most likely left by now.
If they set out now, reconnected to the Gorbachev Plane, and continued expanding the Federation, they probably wouldn't encounter any more resistance.
"That's wonderful, sir! We can finally go on an expedition again!"
Pusiluo instantly grew excited. He'd been cooped up all these years, and now he finally had a chance to fight again.
He'd always loved fighting, but the Federation had been at peace for the past hundred thousand years, leaving him no chance to battle.
All he could do was go around with the inspection teams in his spare time, killing a few people who bullied ordinary folk. But they were so weak that he couldn't get excited about it.
His reputation as Lord Qingtian, Pusiluo, had spread across many planes, but all he really wanted was to fight.
"Sir, are we going after some mid-sized Material Planes next?"
Adkins wasn't as excited as Pusiluo. Instead, he asked calmly.
In the early days, the Federation had chosen to expedition to weak Material Planes, where even the strongest people were no more than Lowgods.
Now that all three of them were Midgods, perhaps they could step things up.
"Exactly. We were weak before, and worried we might run into Midgods, so we only targeted small Material Planes. Now we can take a look at some mid-sized ones."
Huosi nodded, showing no concern about the danger.
Mid-sized Material Planes were larger, more populous, and richer in the elements of heaven and earth than small ones.
As a result, they might encounter Midgods in mid-sized Material Planes.
But greater risks brought greater rewards. Besides, the risk was actually quite small. Both Pusiluo and Adkins were Midgods who had fused Profound Mysteries.
It was almost impossible to encounter a Midgod like that in a Material Plane.
And although Huosi was only a Midgod who had refined a Divine Spark, the boost from his Interstellar Battle Armor had greatly enhanced his defense and physical strength.
He wasn't afraid to fight a Highgod, let alone a Midgod.
When Linley had been a Midgod, he'd dared to fight Highgods. The physical boost from his Azure Dragon Essence Blood had been indispensable.
"Get ready to set out. We'll be wandering between planes for a long time. Pusiluo, before long, you'll be sick of expeditions."
Huosi looked at Pusiluo and teased him.
At first, Pusiluo had thought Huosi was exaggerating. It didn't take long for him to realize it wasn't an exaggeration at all.
Leading the Expeditionary Army to conquer planes and fight battle after battle was a lot of fun. Naturally, Pusiluo had enjoyed it at first.
But anything fun could become boring and numbing when you did it too often.
There were countless Material Planes. Pusiluo would never conquer them all in his lifetime.
"Take this!"
Pusiluo swung his battle-axe halfheartedly, smashing a Midgod's head in one blow. With the Midgod's death, the battle for the entire plane was over.
The Federation's Expeditionary Army soon occupied the whole plane and, by now, was well practiced at restructuring it.
They replaced the upper ranks, improved the lives of the people at the bottom, changed the system, and then concentrated all their strength on extracting resources and developing technology. Finally, they sent the required resource taxes to the Federation's central government.
"Hey, Goldie, how many planes is this now?"
Pusiluo couldn't help yawning as he asked Adkins.
"Are you trying to get yourself killed, little kitty? This is number 18,329,781!"
Adkins rolled his eyes as he operated the data log. Hearing Pusiluo, he immediately shot back.
"Is that so? We've added more than a million again!"
Pusiluo answered without a hint of surprise. He was already numb to the nickname "little kitty."
For all these years, the two of them had led the Expeditionary Army from one battle to the next.
They'd had this kind of exchange countless times. Pusiluo called him Goldie, and Adkins called him little kitty.
At first, Pusiluo had come up with the nickname Goldie because he was bored, and teased Adkins with it every now and then.
Adkins had been unhappy about it and protested several times. They'd even nearly come to blows.
Pusiluo hadn't cared and kept doing as he pleased. Goldie had practically become a catchphrase for him.
So Adkins had come up with another solution: he simply started calling him little kitty.
The first time Pusiluo heard the nickname, he flew into a rage and demanded a duel with Adkins, to the death.
By the tenth time, Pusiluo merely rolled his eyes and said he didn't care anymore. "Whatever."
Now, Pusiluo almost wanted to say, "Yeah, yeah, you're right. I'm a little kitty!"
"Stop complaining. Isn't this what you chose?"
Adkins replied as he uploaded the information to the Interstellar Network.
Pusiluo had long since grown sick of this kind of work.
But Lord Huosi had promised to make him a suit of armor too if he met his quota.
For that, Pusiluo endured the boredom and kept working.
"I know, but I really didn't expect it to be this boring."
Pusiluo sounded exasperated. He didn't exactly regret it, but he still found the work painful.
A million years had passed since the new expedition began, and Pusiluo had long since lost the enthusiasm he'd felt at the beginning.
If Lord Huosi hadn't promised to make him an upgraded suit of Interstellar Battle Armor once he'd collected resources from twenty million Material Planes, Pusiluo would have quit long ago.
"Look on the bright side. All these planes will eventually be turned into resources to support our research at the Academy of Sciences. Before long, we'll have even more breakthroughs, and your armor will be top-of-the-line."
Adkins patted Pusiluo on the shoulder and started dangling a carrot in front of him.
"Save it. I believed you last time. When we went back to rest, you got me all excited about checking on the progress. And then—well, you know."
Pusiluo rolled his eyes. He remembered exactly what had happened the last time he'd been bored out of his mind. Adkins had said something very similar.
He'd gotten Pusiluo so curious that he'd gone to the Academy of Sciences to check on the progress.
And what had he found? It seemed they'd merely drawn up a new plan and made two—or maybe three—components.
"The people at the Interstellar Warship Research Institute said they haven't even finished making all the parts yet. If you want to pilot an Interstellar Warship, you'll have to wait another million years!"
"There's nothing we can do. Scientific progress takes time. A million years isn't that long, and we have infinite lifespans anyway."
Adkins shrugged and replied without hesitation.
"Whatever. Enough talking. Let's get going."
Pusiluo didn't want to keep discussing it, so he cut Adkins off.
"You're the one who brought it up."
Adkins curled his lip and said no more.
After a million years of development, the Federation controlled an ever-growing number of planes, gathered more and more talented people, and acquired more and more Divine Sparks.
By now, even the weakest full-time researchers at the Academy of Sciences were Saint Realm experts. Only interns and students were below the Saint Realm.
After all, many projects took tens of thousands of years to research. Researchers who weren't Saint Realm experts would need replacing every few hundred years, and their usefulness would gradually diminish.
As projects grew, there was no longer enough room on the Yulan Plane, so many project teams moved to other planes to carry out their research.
In Federation Year 2,570,000, the Federation had become a colossal power beyond anyone's imagination.
The Federation controlled a total of thirty-six million Material Planes, nearly a quarter of them mid-sized.
The Federation had made the Yulan Plane its capital and combined the dozens of planes closest to it into the Capital Circle.
Then, across several regions surrounding the capital plane circle, it established project planes for the Academy of Sciences.
These included, among others, planes for Interstellar Warship research, Divine Domain research, Divine Power research, and Soul Research.
Each plane brought together top talents recruited from countless planes, and they could draw on all kinds of resources and mineral deposits in the Federation's warehouses.
In addition, the Federation had established more than thirty thousand provinces. Each province had over a hundred prefectures, and each prefecture controlled more than a dozen Material Planes.
The Federation's branch on each plane controlled its central region. Around the space teleportation gates, it also installed hidden systems, detection systems, and self-destruct systems to keep the gates' existence from being exposed.
Furthermore, to keep the Plane Guardians in the dark and prevent the Divine Planes from noticing the Federation, the Federation carefully screened everyone it recruited.
Anyone joining the Federation had to sign a Soul Contract from the outset and keep its secrets. Those who refused to join had to leave for a Divine Plane.
From the Plane Guardians' perspective, there was simply a group of people on the planes who called themselves the Federation. They had no interest in the Divine Planes and only wanted to study strange things.
They didn't know what those things were, but the world was a big place. It was only natural for there to be strange things, like Metal Lifeforms and magic arrays.
This faction was unusual, but not enough to make them pay too much attention.
The Plane Guardians couldn't force anyone to go to a Divine Plane, after all, and they didn't care about the development of the Material Planes themselves.
Before you continue