Exploring Earth

On November 23, 2062, a silver-gray disc-shaped spacecraft hovered above a stretch of the Atlantic. Not a single instrument on Earth detected its presence. In the control room, a team of nine Universe Adventurers was surveying some of Earth's basic characteristics, including its size, gravity, atmospheric composition, and terrain.

At the Luo family home, Hong and Thunder God were chatting with Luo Feng. Nearby, Luo Zhiyuan floated cross-legged, distracted. Every so often, he glanced up at the sky, then turned to frown at his surroundings, fidgeting like this over and over.

Luo Feng soon noticed Zhiyuan's strange behavior and asked, puzzled, "That's odd, Zhiyuan. You're usually so lively when your Uncle Hong and Uncle Thunder God visit. Why are you so distracted today? Is something wrong?"

At that, Luo Zhiyuan turned to look at Luo Feng, hesitating to speak. He clearly remembered that today was the first time extraterrestrial explorers would come to Earth. But there shouldn't be any instruments on Earth capable of detecting their spacecraft yet.

So Luo Zhiyuan had no reasonable excuse to warn Luo Feng to prepare in advance. Was he supposed to play the fortune-teller? Wait—he had already demonstrated his time-based Innate Secret Technique. Maybe he could use that as an explanation.

"Dad!" Luo Zhiyuan looked at Luo Feng and said earnestly, "Some aliens are coming to our house to cause trouble soon. I'm just wondering when they'll get here."

Luo Feng was taken aback. He sat up straight and asked gravely, "Zhiyuan, what's going on? How do you know aliens are coming?"

"Listening to you guys talk was boring, so I thought, 'I wish time would pass faster.' Then suddenly I noticed time speeding up around me. I saw that some aliens would come to our house soon and say they were going to capture us. It startled me, and then everything suddenly went back to normal. Dad, be careful!"

Luo Feng was about to tell him he'd been dreaming when Babata's voice rang out in his mind. "Luo Feng, this might be true. Remember how Little Zhiyuan's body and cultivation have improved every so often?

"I suspect he may have sensed some of the Time Origin but can't control it very well. This could be the same thing. The Law of Time is one of the upper-level cosmic laws, on par with the Law of Space. Even your teacher, an Immortal Expert, never fully comprehended the Law of Space, let alone the Law of Time.

"I've only heard that someone who has mastered the Law of Time can control the flow of time. Little Zhiyuan must have an exceptional talent for time. We still don't know how those people got here, but we should take his warning seriously and prepare!"

Luo Feng lowered his head and thought for a moment. Then he looked up, ignoring Hong and Thunder God's curious gazes, and asked Luo Zhiyuan, "Do you know how many are coming, and how strong they are?"

Luo Zhiyuan pretended to think for a moment before answering, "Seven people. I don't know how strong they are."

Hong and Thunder God stared at Luo Zhiyuan in surprise, unsure what he and Luo Feng were talking about. Luo Feng explained, "Zhiyuan has a talent for time. He hasn't mastered it well enough to form his own domain, but he may have suddenly sensed a future crisis. We should get ready..."

Before Luo Feng could finish, Babata shouted, "Luo Feng! A C-class spacecraft has entered the security zone!"

"It's hovering about three thousand meters above us!"

"The hatch is opening. Someone's coming out!"

Seven figures suddenly appeared in the sky. Some were burly, like black gorillas; others were strikingly handsome or had green skin. These seven adventurers from the universe looked unmistakably different from the humans of Earth. All wore smug smiles, their eyes brimming with the superiority of those who believed they could control everything and look down on the natives below.

Luo Feng, Hong, and Thunder God stared in shock at the seven figures in the sky, then checked the screens on their arms: one Stellar Level Six, one Stellar Level Two, one Stellar Level One, and four Planetary Level Nine. Aliens had arrived on Earth. Earth was no longer safe!

Luo Zhiyuan stopped floating around to show off. He lowered his legs and stood on the ground, studying the seven aliens before him. This was the first time he'd seen aliens whose appearance differed from Earth's humans. He could only guess that their leader, with pointed ears and red eyes, was from the Nolan Mountain Race, and that the burly figure who looked like a black gorilla was from the Ape-man Race. He didn't recognize the others.

Before the aliens could speak, Luo Feng summoned his bodyguards: three captains at Stellar Level Seven and nine hundred guards at Planetary Level Nine. In the Universal Language, he said coldly, "Capture them. Kill anyone who resists!"

Faced with the powerful Luo family guards, the Universe Adventurers lost every trace of their earlier arrogance and wisely surrendered. Even the silver-gray spacecraft was forced to surrender when Babata piloted the Black Dragon Mountain X81. The aliens had assumed Earth was a native planet with no Stellar Level fighters. Their carelessness had gotten them all captured.

Luo Feng had one of the Stellar Level Seven guard captains use Hypnosis on the aliens and interrogate them. He learned that they were only the first wave of explorers. More than two years ago, they had entered the Solar System through a newly discovered wormhole. The second wave of Universe Adventurers, far stronger than the first, would invade Earth in three months.

They belonged to a fleet from a family in the universe known as the Nolan Mountain Family. Their spacecraft carried more than forty Stellar Level Nine fighters, leading around a thousand fighters at Stellar Level and over ten thousand Planetary Level fighters. They were strong enough to wipe out Earth countless times over!

The situation was extremely urgent. If Earth couldn't defend itself in three months, its people would be enslaved by the aliens. But three months wasn't nearly enough time for Earth to build a force capable of protecting itself. What could they do?

Luo Feng, Hong, and Thunder God urgently summoned the leaders of the world's nations and Base Cities. In the end, there were only two options. First, Luo Feng could reach Stellar Level within three months, claim an inheritance from his teacher, and buy the rights to Earth in the universe.

Second, if Luo Feng couldn't reach Stellar Level in time, they could sell Earth to the Black Dragon Mountain Empire, a mid-level civilization in the universe. They would receive a reward of one hundred billion Black Dragon Coins, and the Black Dragon Mountain Empire would own Earth. The Nolan Mountain Family wouldn't dare seize it.

The Black Dragon Mountain Empire would have to travel through the wormhole in the Solar System to take control of Earth. It would take more than two years to reach them. They could use that time to secretly evacuate humanity aboard their spacecraft.

A little after three that afternoon, Thunder God's daughter, Hong's children, and relatives from the Luo and Xu families gathered at the castle. Many of Earth's leaders had also come to see Luo Feng, Hong, and Thunder God off. The three heroes of Earth were once again setting out to fight in the universe for the planet's future!

Luo Zhiyuan watched the three leave. He wanted to go with them and see the universe for himself, but he didn't have a good reason to persuade Luo Feng, so he could only follow his father's wishes.

"Protect Mom while you're on Earth. You're a little man now, Zhiyuan. While I'm away, you'll have to look after her."

Luo Zhiyuan thought it over, then obediently agreed. Xu Xin would indeed face some danger later, and he was more than willing to protect her.

Still, Luo Zhiyuan had plans of his own. Before Luo Feng left, he made a few preparations. First, he asked Hong for a branch cutting from his Cloud-Touching Vine, claiming he wanted to study the universe's marvelous plant life. Then he asked where Luo Feng and the others had fought the Golden Horned Behemoth, saying he wanted to experience the atmosphere of that battle. Of course, both requests were preparations for his own Main Body Avatar or External Incarnation.

The Golden Horned Behemoth had been badly wounded back then, so it must have shed plenty of scales or tissue. As a Stellar Level creature, however, those scales and bits of tissue should still be intact. If he could find them, Luo Zhiyuan could keep them and use them to cultivate an incarnation or an avatar.

Hong's Cloud-Touching Vine cutting, on the other hand, was something he could use right away. Luo Zhiyuan planned to use it to cultivate a disposable incarnation, since Hong's Cloud-Touching Vine was only at Planetary Level Seven.

After experimenting with his Innate Secret Technique again over the past few days, he had confirmed one of its limits: as long as he didn't cross a cultivation level, he could cultivate an incarnation even if his energy was weaker than his target's. He could create incarnations of his Planetary Level Nine guards, for example, but not of his Stellar Level One guard captains.

That night, after Luo Feng and the others left Earth, Luo Zhiyuan wrapped a small slice of Cloud-Touching Vine leaf in Spiritual Force and used the External Incarnation technique. In his Soul Space, the energy cocoon lasted about five seconds before a Cloud-Touching Vine incarnation appeared beside him.

As he sensed the incarnation, he felt a vitality and resilience coursing through it. Luo Zhiyuan controlled it to wrap around his body, forming a Cloud-Touching Vine battle suit. Then he created another incarnation of himself to stay home with his family, while his Main Body set off with the Cloud-Touching Vine incarnation for the depths of the ocean, where the Golden Horned Behemoth had been wounded in battle.

Deep in the Pacific Ocean, the seafloor was dark and silent. Luo Zhiyuan hovered there, sitting cross-legged. The Cloud-Touching Vine incarnation began to spread, sending five main vines snaking forward, backward, left, right, and straight down. Countless branches sprouted from the main vines, spreading across almost the entire seafloor in the area. Every beast in those waters fled in terror at the astounding spectacle.

The Cloud-Touching Vine's tendrils and leaves turned and twisted, churning up the seafloor sediment. They scooped up, wrapped around, and wound through anything buried in the mud. Whenever they found something they couldn't break, they carried it to Luo Zhiyuan.

Anything the Cloud-Touching Vine incarnation couldn't crush with its current strength might well be a scale or piece of the Golden Horned Behemoth shed during the battle. Luo Zhiyuan carefully examined everything the vine brought him.

Hard objects he had discarded began to pile up around him. They were all scraps of damaged alloy. These metal fragments were probably wreckage from spacecraft that had crashed on Earth long ago. After all, Earth had been ruled by other Universe Countries hundreds of thousands of years earlier.

It wasn't until Master of Yunmo Star Hu Yanbo forcibly occupied Earth that he erased its interstellar coordinates with a Space Secret Technique, turning it into a Void Region in the Milky Way Galaxy. Earth still held many relics from ancient cosmic civilizations.

Looking at the metal wreckage, Luo Zhiyuan thought of a way he might make a little money. After finding the Golden Horned Behemoth's scales or tissue, he could secretly conduct a thorough search of Earth. Many relics from ancient cosmic civilizations might be buried beneath its mountains, ravines, oceans, or even plains.

Finding some would be a worthwhile haul. The original story had mentioned that relics were uncovered during Earth's later development, including the most important item that made Luo Feng the chosen one of the universe: the Nine Calamity Manual!

The Nine Calamity Manual was the foundation of Luo Feng's strength. Luo Zhiyuan had no intention of stealing that opportunity from him. Besides, training with the Nine Calamity Manual meant facing the trials of the Star Tower, and the thought made him nervous.

Luo Zhiyuan didn't dare assume he had the same protagonist's luck as Luo Feng, enough to survive such abnormal trials. The Nine Calamity Manual could stay with Luo Feng. He only planned to search for other relics on Earth that humans hadn't discovered. The rewards might not be great, but there was practically no risk!

He could even explore the other planets in the Solar System. Luo Feng had probably only explored Mars, so Luo Zhiyuan decided to visit the others as well. Who knew what he might find?

Half an hour later, the Cloud-Touching Vine incarnation brought him a flat, black object. At first glance, it seemed remarkably tough, and faint golden streaks were hidden just beneath its surface. The moment Luo Zhiyuan picked it up, he instinctively knew it was a creature's scale. The only scales in these waters that the Cloud-Touching Vine couldn't damage belonged to the Golden Horned Behemoth.

Luo Zhiyuan cautiously tried using the External Incarnation technique. A moment later, a message came from deep within his soul: insufficient strength; unable to cultivate an incarnation!

There was no doubt: this was a scale from the Golden Horned Behemoth. When he'd tested the External Incarnation technique before, inanimate objects such as metal and rock had given him a different message: invalid target!

All told, the search took nearly three hours. He found more than forty scales in the surrounding area, but no other tissue. It must have been obliterated during the battle. Still, it was a good haul. Once Luo Zhiyuan reached Stellar Level, he could use these scales to cultivate an incarnation or an avatar.

Afterward, he recalled the Cloud-Touching Vine incarnation completely. He decided to take the opportunity to conduct a thorough search of Earth, so he created eleven more Cloud-Touching Vine incarnations and eleven more incarnations of himself. Pairing them up one by one, he began a systematic excavation of the planet.

Luo Zhiyuan had already reached Planetary Level Six as a Spirit Reader, with a Mental Power Amplitude of twenty-five. His Spiritual Force could spread ten kilometers across Earth, and each main vine of a Cloud-Touching Vine incarnation could extend five kilometers. Together, his incarnations could survey the general terrain within a thirty-kilometer radius.

It wasn't as precise as a scanning device, but it was just about good enough to uncover relics buried beneath Earth. After all, Earth's crust was only thirty-three kilometers deep. To survey the deeper mantle and core in detail, he would have to wait until he had a scanner from a cosmic civilization.

Luo Zhiyuan began his search on the floor of the Pacific Ocean. His Main Body paired with one Cloud-Touching Vine incarnation, while his eleven Main Body Avatars each paired with a Cloud-Touching Vine incarnation. The twelve points formed a straight line, allowing them to survey an area 360 kilometers long and fifteen kilometers wide in a single pass.

That meant Luo Zhiyuan's Spiritual Force could quickly search the crust beneath an area of 5,400 square kilometers for undiscovered relics.

A day passed in the blink of an eye. Luo Zhiyuan had nearly finished surveying the Pacific seafloor. Aside from some spacecraft wreckage, he hadn't found any other relics. He knew the work would take a lot of mental energy, but he hadn't expected it to leave him almost completely exhausted. Still, consuming so much Spiritual Force had actually sped up his cultivation, so at least it hadn't interfered with his training.

After resting for half a day, Luo Zhiyuan continued his systematic search, treating it as a form of training.