Query

Just as Bai Muye was about to look up the information he wanted, Little Sprite spoke from his shoulder. "Master, there's a call request. The caller is Samao. Should I connect?"

"Wait a moment," Bai Muye asked. "If I take the call here, can other people hear it?"

"I can request privacy screening, but it'll cost a little extra," Little Sprite replied at once.

"Request privacy screening, then connect the call."

A screen appeared in front of him. Once the call connected, Samao's face appeared on it.

"Lord Samao." Bai Muye bowed slightly.

"Is everything you said in your email true?" Samao had already regained his composure and asked in a steady voice.

"Yes, my lord."

"Where are you now... I mean, in the real world."

"I'm... at the entrance to the Virtual Universe Company branch."

"Stay there. I'm coming to get you."

The call ended. Less than a minute later, Samao appeared in front of him.

"Come with me." Without waiting for a response, Samao enveloped him in World Force and whisked him back to the building that housed the Giant Axe Arena.

Before Samao arrived, a young man at Domain Lord Ninth Stage had been watching Bai Muye from the shadows, apparently waiting for him to go somewhere secluded.

But when he saw Samao take Bai Muye away, helplessness welled up in his eyes. He had finally found him, only for a World Master to take him away. It seemed he'd have to find another way to avenge his sister.

"This is my office." In the spacious room, Samao tossed him a bottle of drink. "Take out the dagger and let me have a look."

Bai Muye took out the dagger and handed it to Samao.

It was called a dagger, but it was quite small, only about thirty centimeters long, with the handle and blade each taking up half its length. The moment Samao grasped it, he could see the information it contained.

After reading through the information, he took a high-tech-looking device from a cabinet and aimed it at the dagger.

A hazy beam of light shot from the device and enveloped the dagger. A second later, the device beeped. Samao glanced at the information on the screen and nodded.

"This dagger was made from one of the secondary teeth of a Myriad-Tooth Earthworm. It really can transmit information over short distances... You were lucky. Ye Yunqing didn't set up any safeguards to prevent the information from being viewed. Otherwise, even if you'd gotten the dagger, you might not have noticed anything unusual..."

He chuckled. "Good thing I gave you that Space Ring. If it had been turned in directly, we might never have found out."

He looked at Bai Muye. "What do you want to do with it?"

"I'll leave it entirely to you, my lord," Bai Muye replied without hesitation.

"Good." Samao was very pleased with his answer. "Leaving it to me is the wise choice. I'll submit it directly to my superior... Don't worry, you won't be shortchanged."

"Yes, my lord."

Samao looked at him. "After it's turned in, the investigation and eventual arrest will take quite a while. You probably won't receive your reward before then. You're about to head to the Outer Battlefield, and Universe Level 7 is still a little weak. How about this? I'll prepare fifty kilograms of Yulang Liquid for you. It's the best cultivation aid available at the Universe Rank..."

"The journey to the Outer Battlefield is a long one. It'll take at least twenty years. You can use that time to finish all this Yulang Liquid, and you should be able to reach the peak of Universe Level 9."

"Thank you, my lord." Bai Muye thanked him gratefully.

Samao had thought it through. Bai Muye was about to leave for the Outer Battlefield and wouldn't receive his reward in time, so giving him a cultivation resource now was undoubtedly the best option.

Samao sent a wisp of consciousness into the Virtual Universe to make arrangements. Soon, someone brought over a bottle. It was small, about the size of a bottle of mineral water from Bai Muye's previous life, yet it weighed well over a hundred pounds.

"That settles it, then. You're about to embark on a long journey and will probably have plenty to prepare, so I won't keep you..."

After Bai Muye put the bottle into his storage space, Samao saw him out.

He walked Bai Muye to the door and patted him on the shoulder. "I won't say more than I need to. The Outer Battlefield is treacherous, with countless Alien Races and powerful fighters everywhere, but it's also the best place to distinguish yourself and make a name for yourself. Be careful in everything you do..."

"Thank you for your concern, my lord." Bai Muye bowed slightly, then took his leave.

As he walked down the street, looking at the dazzling array of shops, Bai Muye could only shake his head helplessly. With the little money in his pocket, he could afford things he didn't need, but not the things that would actually be useful.

He found a quiet corner and sat down. Fully integrating Ye Yunqing's cultivation insights would take a long time, so he planned to do it after boarding the spacecraft.

At last, he had time to look up the question he cared about most.

In the Virtual Universe, Bai Muye reappeared on a street in an ancient city.

"Master, what would you like to look up?" Little Sprite was as cheerful as ever.

"Look up when the previous Universe Peak Genius Competition was held, who hosted it, and the final rankings..."

All of that was public information. If he tried to look up the name of the Venerable who had hosted the Genius Battle, he probably wouldn't find anything.

Little Sprite quickly came back with an answer:

"The final round of the previous Universe Peak Genius Competition was held 3,852 years ago. It was hosted by the Giant Axe Arena. The first-place winner was..."

Little Sprite recited a long list of names, none of which Bai Muye recognized.

After thinking it over, he gave another command. "Check whether 'Luo Feng' appeared in the top ten of any previous Genius Battle."

This time, Little Sprite took longer. More than ten seconds later, it gave its answer. "A search of the top ten from all previous Genius Battles found no one named Luo Feng."

"So Luo Feng probably hasn't been born yet? I wonder if he'll make a spectacular showing at the next Genius Battle..." Bai Muye murmured to himself.

After searching for a long time without learning much, he could only be sure that the original story's events probably hadn't begun yet.

The main problem was that he didn't have sufficient access. He couldn't look up information involving higher-level matters. For instance, when he asked when the Primal Star had last appeared, Little Sprite couldn't even find out what the Primal Star was.

"Look up the Outer Battlefield and show me all the information about it..."

In an instant, a sea of information appeared before Bai Muye. It was all about the Outer Battlefield, but most of it consisted of posts discussing how brutal it was. There was very little genuinely useful information.

"Filter for accounts from people with firsthand experience on the Outer Battlefield..."

The results immediately shrank by ninety-nine percent. Bai Muye read through them slowly. Most of the remaining accounts came from Domain Lords or Universe Rank fighters who had returned from the Outer Battlefield.

After reading all the relevant information, he gained a basic understanding of the Outer Battlefield.

Although the original story had described the Outer Battlefield, it had done so from Luo Feng's perspective. At the time, Luo Feng had been a World Master, and the Outer Battlefield would naturally look very different through his eyes than it did to Bai Muye, who was currently at the Universe Rank.

On the Outer Battlefield, Universe Rank soldiers and Domain Lord captains couldn't go off on their own. Even if they had accumulated enough Military Merit, their only options were to retire or continue fighting. They couldn't become independent fighters.

That was because Universe Rank and Domain Lord fighters couldn't survive on the Outer Battlefield alone.

The most important piece of equipment on the Outer Battlefield was a Detector. Without one, you'd be like a blind and deaf person, unaware of the enemy until they were right at your doorstep.

Even the lowest-grade Detector could only be exchanged by those at World Master or above. No matter how much Military Merit Domain Lords and Universe Rank fighters had, they still couldn't exchange for one.

After going through all the information, more than a day had passed.

Bai Muye continued wandering around the Virtual Universe. For more than a hundred years, he'd either been fighting life-or-death battles or on his way to one. He'd never had the chance to enjoy a leisurely life.

After leaving the Virtual Universe, he went to a shop on Purple Crown Planet that specialized in weapons. He sold the Trident he had and traded it for a Thunder Staff, a weapon he was used to using. After thinking for a moment, he also bought a lightning-attribute Telepathic Weapon—the Thunder-Striking Needle.

Then he began wandering freely around Purple Crown Planet. On the morning of the third day, he arrived at No. 3 Spaceport on Purple Crown Planet.

The sight before him made him draw in a sharp breath.