Mom?

In just three days, all the students scheduled to enter the Ganwu Secret Realm had gathered.

Though the Ganwu Universe Kingdom spanned a vast territory ten billion light-years across, the precise coordination of superintelligent systems meant that everyone arrived at the Spaceport at almost the same time.

The Spaceport's assembly plaza was paved with silvery-white metal that gleamed coldly. Hundreds of talented students from all over the universe stood in small groups, their battle suits ranging from ornate to understated, yet all of them radiated a sharpness rarely seen in people their age.

Tang Ping scanned the crowd and soon spotted a familiar figure. Luo Xiaoyu wore a pale-moon battle suit and stood alone at the edge of the plaza, her posture as upright as a winter pine. A faint, cool aura seemed to surround her, making her seem like a snow lotus blooming quietly atop an iceberg. She stood out amid the bustling crowd.

In this interstellar world, where cultivators gathered and billions of races took on all manner of forms, technology and cultivation could easily alter one's appearance. Looks had long ceased to be the primary measure of beauty.

What truly moved people was the temperament a person radiated from within, and the depth of character settled in the depths of their soul.

That was why many students' eyes drifted toward Luo Xiaoyu, their gazes concealing admiration and curiosity. But with the Ganwu Secret Realm's guide nearby, no one dared to do anything rude.

Tang Ping kept his usual placid expression, but in a private Virtual Universe channel, his fingers flew over the keys as he sent Luo Xiaoyu a message: "Call me big brother."

The message sank without a trace barely two seconds after he sent it.

Tang Ping raised an eyebrow and sent another: "So cold? How about calling me Dad?"

This time, the reply came almost instantly. It was just one short sentence, but it silenced Tang Ping on the spot: "Screenshot taken. I'm getting ready to forward it to the Luo Family Marriage Tribunal."

Tang Ping: "Mom, I'm sorry!"

Luo Xiaoyu paused, then sent back only a question mark, tinged with confusion: "?"

Tang Ping looked at the screen, the corners of his mouth lifting despite himself. He was about to tease her a little more when the guide's voice rang out from the center of the plaza, reminding everyone to board.

He put those thoughts aside and followed the crowd onto the starship.

The starship slowly powered up, blue energy flames spraying from its rear as it eased away from the Spaceport and ventured into the boundless stars.

A moment later, the vessel shuddered slightly. Its speed surged, and at a terrifying hundred times the speed of light, it tore through space and entered the Dark Universe.

There were no stars in the Dark Universe, only endless darkness and twisted space-time currents. The starship sped toward its destination like a sword thrust through the dark.

No one knew how long they had traveled before the starship's broadcast suddenly sounded, breaking the silence in the cabin. "We are approaching the entrance to the Ganwu Secret Realm. Space distortion is beginning to increase: ninety percent!"

The students in the cabin looked up, gazing out through the windows.

In the pitch-black Dark Universe, a black speck suddenly appeared at the center of the space directly ahead of the starship. It stood out starkly in the endless darkness, like a drop of ink too thick to dissolve, its depths unsettling.

In the blink of an eye, the speck spread at an astonishing speed, like ink spilling across white paper. It flowed outward in every direction until it formed a perfectly regular circle.

The circle kept expanding. Its diameter grew from just a few meters to over a hundred, then a thousand. In a mere five minutes, it reached a staggering 22.6 kilometers across.

It was a perfect black circle suspended in the empty reaches of space, so thin it seemed to have no thickness at all, yet it exuded a force that seemed capable of swallowing everything.

The starship didn't slow down at all. It charged straight toward the black circle, and the instant the entire vessel passed inside, a low rumble sounded from beyond the hull. Then all was quiet again.

"Huh?"

"This feels awful..."

"My head hurts!"

The hundreds of talented students in the cabin erupted into chaos. Their faces turned pale, and many collapsed to the floor, clutching their heads in agony.

Tang Ping felt a fierce headache too. The scene before him began to blur, as if countless needles were jabbing at his nerves. Gritting his teeth, he struggled to open his eyes, but all he could see was a mass of distorted light and shadow.

Just then, a calm voice rang out. It came from the guide in the cabin, an Immortal God clad in black armor.

He looked at the young people writhing in pain on the floor and spoke in an even tone. "We are now inside the passage between the Primal Universe and the Ganwu Secret Realm.

"The Ganwu Secret Realm is a special realm that the great Ganwu Kingdom Lord discovered in the early days of the universe. The flow of time and space here differs slightly from that of the Primal Universe. This discomfort is a normal reaction to the difference in space-time."

Tang Ping forced himself to stay upright and surveyed his surroundings. Of the hundreds of students, only a few dozen could still stand, and he was one of them.

The black-armored Immortal God nearby noticed this. A flicker of approval passed through his eyes, and he gave a slight nod.

"As expected of a special-grade student. He's stronger than the others," the black-armored Immortal God thought. "But even so, without becoming an Immortal, he's still just an ant. Perhaps while I'm taking a nap, countless of these so-called geniuses will grow old and die as time passes."

Once, he too had been eager to seek out and invest in geniuses, just like the Ganwu Kingdom Lord. But after witnessing the deaths of too many geniuses over billions of years, his heart had long since turned to still water. He couldn't even be bothered to give the students his name.

"I can't see it... I can't see it at all..." Tang Ping squinted, trying to peer through the distorted light and shadow before him and discern the true nature of space-time within the passage.

As long as one failed to comprehend the Space-Time Laws, no matter how high one's level of cultivation, one remained at the very bottom of the universe.

About five or six minutes later, that wrenching discomfort finally began to fade.

Tang Ping rubbed his throbbing temples, and his vision cleared. He looked around and saw plenty of people still lying on the floor. Some were deathly pale, their faces and bodies damp with some unidentified moisture. But when they noticed others looking, they hurriedly used their power to evaporate it, then scrambled to their feet, pretending to be composed.

So it was all sweat!

At the corner of the cabin, Luo Xiaoyu's face was still a little pale, but she remained standing at attention.

"Activate the exterior holographic simulation," the black-armored Immortal God said again.

The next moment, the cabin's Holographic Projection system activated, clearly displaying the scene outside the starship.

Below lay a vast, boundless continent, with towering mountains, clear lakes, and lush forests. Strange birds and beasts could even be seen darting through the woods, while insects and fish swam through the water. It was a complete ecosystem, teeming with life and vitality.

Farther away, fissures periodically split open between the distant earth and sky. Countless strange secret patterns flowed along their edges, flickering faintly like living things.

Transparent threads stretched from the fissures, linking the heavens and earth. Secret patterns wound around the threads as well, as if an invisible hand were working a loom, stitching the fragmented space back together bit by bit and making the continent ever more vast.

The black-armored Immortal God pointed at the flowing patterns and slowly explained, "These flowing secret patterns are the first Supreme Treasure of the Ganwu Secret Realm: the manifestation of the Primal Universe's Space Law.

"If someone could grasp the essence of the Space Law from these patterns, then perhaps one day they could become a mighty Venerable standing atop the universe, just like the great Ganwu Kingdom Lord."

He paused, then continued, "Next, you will disembark in the order in which you registered. Third-grade students will live in the third-grade residential district, each with a private room. Second-grade students will be assigned large apartments. As for special-grade students, they will stay in detached villas."

"Also, facilities such as the Heaven-Reaching Tower, the extra-reward system, and the Life-Death Arena are available in the secret realm. You can ask the realm's intelligence for more information. Every room has a data access port, and you can look up the details through your personal intelligent program."

With that, the black-armored Immortal God said no more. He strode through the cabin door, transformed into a streak of black light, and vanished in an instant.

The Star Rank students in the cabin looked at one another.

Back when they were Star Rank, they stood like nobodies.