As time slowly passed,
the four who were waiting for Qi Tian to return and announce his decision had already been waiting in the Holy Temple for several hours.
They weren't in any hurry. The planet was now on the right track, and every city had powerful members of the Gold Soul Clan stationed there, so they didn't have to worry about the citizens' lives being in danger.
Besides, the population couldn't be increased in a day or two. It would take hundreds of years of growth to increase the number of humans across the planet.
"Whoosh."
Just as the group was discussing the state of the planet, Qi Tian appeared on the altar in the Holy Temple.
"Greetings, Buddha Lord."
When the four saw Qi Tian appear, they immediately stopped talking and knelt before him in greeting.
Qi Tian nodded and said, "Rise. From now on, unless you're in front of the entire clan, you don't need to kneel when you see me."
"Yes, Buddha Lord."
Qi Jingshi and the others answered in unison, joy rising in their hearts. Qi Tian's attitude showed that their standing in his eyes had risen once again.
"I called you here today to announce something about the Gold Soul Clan's bloodline," Qi Tian said.
Hearing this, the four below the altar tensed slightly. Anything concerning the clan was bound to be important.
"Please speak, Buddha Lord."
Qi Tian thought for a moment, then said, "The bloodline of my Gold Soul Clan is restricted by the laws of heaven and earth. At present, our numbers are limited to 10,081. Once that number is reached, the bloodline of any newborns will be sealed."
The four were all shocked. The Gold Soul Clan already had few descendants, and now the Buddha Lord was saying that their population could only reach 10,081.
Seeing the panic on their faces, Qi Tian continued, "After all, every member of my Gold Soul Clan who possesses our bloodline can use their innate transformation to assume the Golden Buddha Form, multiplying their combat strength several times over. How could a bloodline like this not have restrictions?"
The four below had personally experienced the power of their bloodline talent, and they all nodded in agreement. Still, as the current clan leader, Qi Shixuan was concerned about the clan's future, so he asked, "May I ask, Buddha Lord, will our bloodline numbers be able to increase in the future?"
That was what Qi Jingshi and the others wanted to ask as well. Qi Tian nodded at once.
"Of course. It won't be long before I can break through the laws of heaven and earth and increase the number of bloodline holders."
"But for future members of the clan to awaken their bloodline, they must first earn the recognition of our bloodline. The more devoted they are to our clan, the easier it will be for them to awaken."
The four nodded. That was good news, as far as they were concerned.
Although, according to Qi Tian, awakening the Gold Soul Clan's bloodline would be more difficult in the future, a little hardship was no great problem as long as it allowed the clan to grow.
Besides, it was a good thing that only those devoted to the clan could awaken their bloodline. Otherwise, as the clan grew, there might be people who showed no respect for their elders. Wouldn't awakening their bloodline just make them a menace?
Seeing that they had accepted this, Qi Tian felt somewhat reassured. In truth, earning the bloodline's recognition through devotion to the clan meant meeting the threshold for faith in him.
He, Qi Tian, was the master of the Gold Soul Clan. Whether they qualified or not was for him to decide.
In the boundless starry sky,
a sleek, black flying saucer-shaped spacecraft, a hundred meters wide, traveled through space at near-light speed, occasionally dodging enormous asteroids drifting through the void.
In the spacecraft's captain's quarters, several crew members performed routine manual maintenance at the control panels. The spacecraft itself sped along its route under the control of its intelligent system.
"Beep!"
After finishing the day's maintenance, an operator was about to enter the Virtual Universe to play a game when he noticed a red marker on the spacecraft's detector, almost directly on their current route.
Then, the control panel displayed the image of a beautiful woman, and a soft voice announced, "A special target has been detected ahead."
The spacecraft's intelligence, Timas, had barely finished speaking when the operators took notice.
Normally, if the spacecraft encountered an obstacle, its intelligence would automatically steer around it. The obstacle might appear as a green marker, but there would be no audible alert.
A red marker accompanied by an alert meant one of three things: a sharp energy fluctuation, an unfamiliar monitoring signal, or a life-bearing planet.
The spacecraft currently underway was only C1-class, and its detector wasn't very powerful. Its scanning range was limited, so they would have to get closer to investigate the situation.
Just then, the sound of an airlock opening came from the captain's quarters. It was Captain Mikita, who had hurried over from the lounge after hearing the intelligence's alert.
"What did you find?" Mikita asked as he quickly took his seat, addressing the spacecraft's intelligence, Timas.
"Reporting to the captain: a life-bearing planet may have been detected ahead. The planet is too far away to scan accurately," the spacecraft's intelligence, Timas, replied in a gentle voice.
As soon as he finished speaking, the many crew members in the control room erupted with excitement. To Star Level explorers like them, discovering an unclaimed life-bearing planet meant discovering a fortune.
"A life-bearing planet?"
"Don't get excited yet. Check whether anyone has claimed it."
"Heh, the spacecraft's intelligence already has the star charts for this region. There isn't a single life-bearing planet marked along this route."
"That means it's an undiscovered life-bearing planet. We're rich!"
While everyone cheered, Captain Mikita remained calm.
"Quiet!"
Mikita's commanding voice from the captain's seat instantly silenced the other crew members.
He was a Universe Level powerhouse. Discovering an unclaimed life-bearing planet would bring him a decent profit, but that was all.
Besides, the purpose of his trip was more important. If he could find the secret realm and enter it safely, his gains would be unimaginable—at least hundreds or thousands of times greater than the value of this unclaimed life-bearing planet.
Mikita thought carefully. According to the coordinates on the token he had obtained, the secret realm's entrance changed once every 256 days. Each time it refreshed, the token required a large amount of Universe Crystals to activate.
Activating the token this time had already consumed most of his accumulated wealth. If he missed this chance, he wouldn't be able to gather the funds to activate the token again in a short time after the entrance refreshed.
"There are 181 days and 21 hours until the entrance refreshes. The rest of the journey will take 106 days and 13 hours, so there's still enough time."
After weighing the pros and cons, Mikita decided to take a detour and inspect this newly discovered life-bearing planet.
I'll claim the secret realm's treasures, and I'll claim this unclaimed life-bearing planet too, Mikita thought greedily.
Once he had made up his mind, Mikita immediately ordered the spacecraft's intelligence, "Timas, approach the target planet first and activate the spacecraft's anti-detection system. The rest of you, enter the Virtual Universe and check the registration status of the planets in this region again."
"Yes, Captain."
Seeing that Mikita intended to investigate the life-bearing planet, the crew grew even more excited. They quickly suppressed their excitement and logged into the virtual network to search for information.
Before you continue