"Preparing for spatial transit."
A triangular spaceship appeared out of thin air in the starry sky.
It was roughly 69 trillion kilometers from the original binary star system.
"Get ready to transfer to another ship." Qishan gazed at the 100%-simulated starry sky, his eyes filled with deep longing for the universe. He let out a long sigh. "I'm finally back!"
Chen Beixun's gaze shifted. He rose from the lounge, shook off his drowsiness, and flew out of the ship's cabin. Then he took a D-class spaceship from his Space Ring.
The ship was about 124 meters long, and its model was very old.
It was perfectly normal for immortals who spent years adventuring beyond their home worlds to keep a spaceship below F-class hidden, so as not to attract attention.
Inside the D5-class spaceship.
Chen Beixun walked down the D5's corridor, rubbed the dust off the metal wall, and curled his lip. "How long has this been sitting here?"
Qishan appeared beside Chen Beixun and replied, "This was your teacher's first spaceship. It's been here for nearly thirty million years."
After speaking, Qishan's eyes revealed a complicated expression.
"This..." Chen Beixun's mouth twitched.
In the universe, strength ruled. Weakness was a sin.
A spaceship shaped like a long sword flew through the Dark Universe at five times the speed of light.
"This trip should take about two months," Chunqiu said. He was no longer as he had once been; after Qishan's upgrades, he had most of the emotions a normal person should have. He looked at Chen Beixun with a grin. "Boss, why not visit Hongdu Planet?"
Chen Beixun was savoring some fine wine. He glanced at Chunqiu from the corner of his eye and flicked him with two fingers.
"Ah!" The one-inch snail shot away like an arrow loosed from a bow and struck the metal wall with a clang.
"You've got a bit of a human look now, and you're already getting cheeky," Chen Beixun said, exasperated. "You could act like anyone, but you just had to take after that damned bastard."
"Hongdu Planet is a commercial planet, at least," Chunqiu protested.
"Right, right. A commercial planet that sells slaves!" Chen Beixun propped his feet on the table and gazed at the Gold Soul Stone in his hand.
Chen Beixun was especially sensitive about the word "slave." A former friend of his had once given him the nickname "slave owner." That friend had never cared about what Chen Beixun had been through, or treated him like a person.
Later, that friend's family was wiped out, and he himself was captured and sold into slavery.
When Chen Beixun heard about it, he made inquiries everywhere. Only then did he learn that his friend had been bought by his enemy and tortured to death.
"What a cheeky little bastard." Chen Beixun sighed, then sent his consciousness entirely into the Slaughter Arena in the Virtual Universe.
Slaughter Arena.
"You pick the map." Chen Beixun calmly watched the burly man in front of him, who was fuming with rage.
"A Kewu Race member? Looks like this'll be a tough fight," Chen Beixun thought.
Members of the Kewu Race reached Universe Level as adults, and the entire race loved fighting and bloodshed.
Beep, beep... Loading scene...
A flash of white light passed, and Chen Beixun suddenly opened his eyes. "A grassy plain? He's far too confident in himself." When he saw the weapon in the burly man's hand, he couldn't help but startle.
"A God-Splitting Weapon?" Chen Beixun tensed at once, his body trembling.
He was incredibly excited! It was rare to find a worthy opponent.
A streak of rainbow light shot forward, kicking up a hundred meters of dust. In an instant, it reached the burly man. The long blade in Chen Beixun's hand traced an arc as it slashed toward him.
Just as the blade was about to land, the burly man vanished. The blade cut through empty air, and that single strike whipped up a gale that tore up hundreds of kilometers of grass.
"Not good!" Chen Beixun was startled and scattered into a hundred afterimages. Even so, a streak of cyan light from nowhere struck him.
His body flew backward.
"So fast." Chen Beixun ignored the pain as several flying blades appeared beside him. He activated the second stage of the Tianqu Cone.
White spread across more than ten thousand miles. Millions of ice spikes burst from the ground. Chen Beixun brought his hands together, and the spikes exploded. A violent gale surged upward, carrying shards of ice like countless sharp blades as it ravaged the plain.
Tens of thousands of golden blades of light streaked down from the gloomy sky, cutting long trenches into the ground.
With a wet splatter, Chen Beixun looked back and saw a blood-red ice flower blooming across the white wasteland.
"Relying on borrowed power." Chen Beixun frowned. "This won't do. I have to raise the intensity."
The fights he was betting on clearly no longer offered enough of a challenge. Even so, it was impossible to win both the fights and the money in a wager battle. To raise the intensity, he would have to increase the stakes. Chen Beixun was still only fighting in relatively low-level wager battles. He couldn't win in high-level ones.
Chen Beixun was only using the fights to hone himself. Wager battles let him make money, and they were exciting; he enjoyed fighting even more that way.
The trip would take about two months, so he could enjoy the battles to his heart's content.
Two months later...
Inside the D-class spaceship...
"Is that Hehong Planet? One of the twelve major free-trade planets in the Xuyu Universe Kingdom?"
Hehong Planet was famous throughout the Xuyu Universe Kingdom, mainly because it had relatively low taxes and a favorable location, attracting investors in droves.
"The docking fees here are outrageous, too—50,000 Xuyu Coins a month," Qishan said. "Your teacher came here to shop when he was at World Lord Level."
Chen Beixun studied the green planet drawing closer before him.
As they approached, more and more spaceships passed nearby.
"That's an F6-class spaceship." Qishan pointed to a crimson ship. "It's made entirely of Tuoyu Tin Gold. Based on its size, it's probably worth about 1.56 million Hunyuan Units."
"Oh?" Chen Beixun examined the ship, then asked, "What metal was your teacher's ship made of?"
"An F9-class spaceship, the Linkong. It was made entirely of Cyan Geng Metal and cost 6.5 million Hunyuan Units to build," Qishan replied coolly, standing with his hands behind his back.
Chen Beixun nodded and turned his gaze outside again. "There's such a huge difference between F6-class and F9-class metals."
"That's normal. People are different, too," Qishan said coldly. "And we're almost there."
"Head to Docking Port 15 first."
A few minutes later...
Hehong Planet, Docking Port 15.
"Please come this way, sir," said a staff member at Docking Port 15.
Chen Beixun's gaze fell on the staff member. "Universe Level Third Order? A Red Flame Race member." He couldn't help feeling a little shocked.
"Two months of docking." He extended his arm toward the red-skinned staff member.
Beep, beep...
(Identity confirmed... automatic deduction from Universe First Bank... 100,000 Xuyu Coins.)
"Please," the Red Flame Race staff member said, with utmost deference.
Out in the wider universe, Universe Level powerhouses roamed freely, yet here one was working as a spaceship attendant.
This stirred Chen Beixun's curiosity.
With that curiosity in mind, he walked outside.
Chen Beixun walked down the street, finding everything here quite novel.
He looked up now and then at the towering skyscrapers that rose above the skyline. Two Red Gold Guards followed behind him, drawing plenty of attention. Most of the people on the street were Domain Lords, with a few World Lords among them.
"Those are Red Gold Guards, aren't they?" a green-faced Domain Lord said to his companion.
"Looks like the young master of some big family."
"We can only dream of affording Red Gold Guards!"
Chen Beixun sensed the gazes of passersby and frowned slightly. Isn't this a bit too conspicuous? I usually think things through before acting!
Qishan had told them to bring out the Red Gold Guards.
Seeing how reserved Chen Beixun was, Qishan couldn't help saying, "What are you afraid of? This is the territory of the immortal Marquis Longda! No one would dare cause trouble."
Hearing that, Chen Beixun relaxed a little, and his pace quickened.