"Stay where you are. Activate stealth mode," Qin Zhao ordered the ship's AI.
The D-class spaceship blended perfectly into the pitch-black backdrop of space, as if it had never been there. Qin Zhao stepped out of the cabin alone and stood in the cold void. His Universe Level cultivation had long since made it possible for him to survive in a vacuum without any protection.
He hovered quietly in place, his gaze spanning hundreds of thousands of kilometers to settle on the familiar planet. Vast stretches of reddish-brown desert covered its surface, land rich in special metal deposits. Scattered patches of green marked the city-states where life had gathered. Around the planet, a few tiny artificial satellites, like fireflies, circled in orbit.
Little had changed since he left. It still seemed so... ordinary, even somewhat backward. Compared to the Noah Secret Realm where he now resided, and the Virtual Universe Company Headquarters he was about to visit—a place that gathered countless elite members of the Human Race—this world was as insignificant as a speck of dust.
And yet, this seemingly ordinary planet was where he had been born.
As he looked at his home planet, so inconspicuous amid the vast sea of stars, Qin Zhao felt no particular emotion—only an indescribable calm and... nostalgia.
His thoughts seemed to cross through time, returning to the days before his memories awoke, when he had struggled at the bottom of Flame Meteor Planet and scraped by with a little ingenuity; to the joy of taking his first steps on the path of cultivation; to the day his system had awakened...
Scene after scene flashed through his mind like a montage. There had been hardship and sweat, the thrill of gaining power, and the calm he had felt upon earning glory. Every experience, bitter