The Enemy Approaches

As time slowly ticked by.

The four individuals waiting for Qi Tian to return and make his announcement had already been in the sanctuary for over several hours.

They were in no rush; now that the planet was on the right track, experts from the Gold Soul Clan were stationed in every city, so there was no fear of the populace being in any mortal danger.

Furthermore, the issue of reproduction could not be solved in a day or two. To bolster the human population across the entire planet, it would require the accumulation of hundreds of years.

"Swish."

Just as the group was discussing the general state of the planet, Qi Tian's figure instantly flashed onto the altar of the sanctuary.

"Greetings, Buddha Lord."

Seeing Qi Tian appear, the four immediately ceased their discussion and knelt to pay their respects.

Qi Tian nodded and spoke, "Rise. Unless we are in front of the entire clan, there is no need to kneel when you see me."

"Yes, Buddha Lord."

Qi Jingshi and the others replied in unison, joy rising in their hearts; such an attitude from Qi Tian indicated that their standing in his eyes had been elevated once more.

"I have called you here today to announce something regarding the bloodline of the Gold Soul Clan," Qi Tian began.

The four beneath the altar felt a slight tightening in their chests; anything concerning the clan was surely no small matter.

"Please speak, Buddha Lord."

Qi Tian pondered for a moment before saying, "The bloodline of my Gold Soul Clan is constrained by the laws of heaven and earth. Currently, it is limited to a count of 10,081. Once this number is reached, the bloodline of any newborn will be sealed."

The four were shocked to hear this. The Gold Soul Clan already had few descendants, and now the Buddha Lord was saying there could only be 10,081 of them.

Seeing the panic on their faces, Qi Tian continued, "After all, every clansman who possesses the bloodline of my Gold Soul Clan can manifest the innate Golden Buddha Form, increasing their combat power several times over. How could such a bloodline not have its limits?"

The four below deeply understood the power of this innate bloodline and nodded in agreement, but Qi Shixuan, as the current patriarch, remained concerned about the future of the clan and asked.

"May I ask, Buddha Lord, will our clan be able to increase the number of bloodline holders in the future?"

This was the same question Qi Jingshi and the others wanted to ask, and upon hearing it, Qi Tian nodded immediately.

"Of course. It will not be long before I break the shackles of heaven and earth, allowing the number of bloodline holders to increase."

"However, future clansmen who wish to awaken the bloodline must first receive the recognition of our clan's bloodline. The more one cares for our clan, the easier it will be to awaken."

The four nodded upon hearing this; to them, this was considered good news.

Although, according to Qi Tian, the difficulty of awakening the Gold Soul Clan bloodline would increase in the future, as long as the clan could grow, a little hardship was not a major problem.

Besides, it was a good thing that one had to care for the clan to awaken the bloodline. Otherwise, once the population grew, if there were those who lacked respect for their elders, wouldn't such people awakening the bloodline just be adding more scourges to the world?

Seeing that they accepted it, Qi Tian felt somewhat reassured. The so-called "recognition of the bloodline through caring for the clan" was, in reality, a measure of their level of faith in him.

He, Qi Tian, was the master of the Gold Soul Clan. Whether something worked or not was for him to decide.

In the boundless starry sky.

A bright black, disc-shaped spaceship, a hundred meters wide, was traversing the stars at sub-light speed, occasionally dodging massive meteorites floating in space.

In the ship's bridge, several crew members were performing simple manual maintenance at the control consoles, while the ship sped along its path under the control of its intelligent system.

"Beep!"

After finishing the day's maintenance, an operator was preparing to enter the virtual universe to play a game when he noticed a red marker on the ship's detector, located right along their flight path—nearly grazing it.

Then, the avatar of a beautiful woman appeared on the console screen, emitting a soft voice, "Special target detected ahead on the path."

As soon as the ship's intelligence, Timas, finished speaking, it drew the attention of the crew.

Normally, when encountering obstacles, the ship's intelligence would automatically control the vessel to steer clear; while a green marker would appear, it would not issue a vocal warning.

A red marker accompanied by a vocal warning meant either intense energy fluctuations, an unknown monitoring signal, or, in one specific case, a life-bearing planet.

The ship currently in transit was only a C1-class vessel; the specifications of its detector were not high, and its scanning range was limited. Therefore, to investigate the specific situation, the ship would have to move closer.

At this moment, the sound of a valve opening echoed in the bridge. The person who arrived was the captain, Mikita, who had rushed over from the lounge after hearing the intelligence's warning.

"What did you find?" Mikita asked the ship's intelligence, "Timas," after quickly taking his seat.

"Reporting, Captain. A suspected life-bearing planet has been discovered ahead. Due to the excessive distance, it is impossible to accurately probe the planet's conditions," Timas said softly.

As soon as the words fell, the many crew members in the control room were ecstatic. For explorers at the Star Level like them, discovering an ownerless life-bearing planet meant discovering wealth.

"A life-bearing planet?"

"Don't get excited yet. Check if it has an owner."

"Heh, the ship's intelligence already has the star map for this region loaded. There is no life-bearing planet marked on this route at all."

"That means this is an undiscovered life-bearing planet. Haha, we're rich!"

While the others cheered and jumped for joy, Captain Mikita remained calm.

"Quiet!"

In the captain's chair, Mikita's authoritative voice made the other crew members fall silent instantly.

He was a Universe-level powerhouse. Discovering an ownerless life-bearing planet was a decent source of income for him, but that was all it was.

Moreover, the purpose of his current journey was far more important; if he could successfully locate the secret realm and enter it safely, his gains would be beyond imagination—at the very least, a thousand times the value of this ownerless life-bearing planet.

The level-headed Mikita pondered. The coordinate token he had obtained indicated that the entrance to the secret realm shifted every 256 days, and each time the entrance reset, the coordinate token required a massive amount of cosmic crystals as energy to activate.

Activating the token this time had already consumed the majority of the wealth he had accumulated. If he missed this opportunity, he would have no way to gather the funds to reactivate the coordinate token in a short period once the entrance reset again.

"There are 181 days and 21 hours left until the next entrance reset, and the remaining journey will take 106 days and 13 hours; the time is still sufficient."

After weighing the pros and cons in his mind, Mikita decided to take a detour to inspect this newly discovered life-bearing planet.

I will take the treasures of the secret realm, and I will also occupy this ownerless life-bearing planet, Mikita thought greedily.

Having made up his mind, Mikita issued a direct command to the ship's intelligence, "Timas, approach the target planet first, activate the ship's anti-detection system, and have the others enter the Virtual Universe to re-verify the registration status of planets in this region."

"Understood, Captain."

Seeing that Mikita intended to make contact with this life-bearing planet, the crew members immediately grew excited, then suppressed their agitation as they hurriedly logged into the virtual network to query the data.