Arrival

Outside the blue Gold Soul Planet, a spaceship hovered in the pitch-black starry sky.

"What a beautiful planet. Even among the life planets under the captain's command, there isn't a single one as beautiful as this."

"Haha, could it be a planet of the highest grade? If so, we'll be rich."

Inside the spaceship's control room, Captain Mikita, dressed in a black combat suit, looked at the planet before him with satisfaction. His crew had been right: most of the life planets under his command had harsh living conditions.

Only the planet where his own base was located had pleasant scenery. A planet of this caliber, like the one before him, would be hard to buy even if he could afford it—unless he paid a hefty premium.

"Keep the anti-detection system on, and activate 'stealth' mode. Slowly descend over the ocean, far from land."

"Yes, Captain."

The spaceship's AI, Timas, received Mikita's order. After activating "stealth" mode, she guided the ship down to the surface of the sea. Under the veil of dusk, it was like a ghost.

"Hm? Has something descended from the starry sky?" Qi Tian, seated cross-legged inside the Gold Soul Clan Holy Temple, suddenly sensed a disturbance on the planet.

Qi Tian's mental power could cover the entire Gold Soul Planet and even extend a little beyond it, but at its maximum range, he could only sense a vague shadow.

When a spaceship descended, as it had now, Qi Tian could only vaguely sense that an outside object had entered the planet, along with several energy sources clustered together.

"This energy signature doesn't seem like a meteorite or anything like that. Could it be aliens?" Curious, Qi Tian decided to get up and take a look.

The Soul-Suppressing Buddha Bead protected his sea of consciousness and kept his aura from leaking out. If the other side wasn't too powerful, they wouldn't be able to detect his presence.

If they were as powerful as Blood Cloud Palace Master, then even the Soul-Suppressing Buddha Bead wouldn't help. He wouldn't be able to escape anyway, so he might as well go and see.

Flying at full speed, Qi Tian reached a spot about a hundred kilometers from the target in just a few dozen seconds and watched from there.

"A spaceship? So aliens really have arrived."

Inside the spaceship's captain's quarters, the AI Timas's female avatar appeared on the screen and reported her initial findings about the planet to Mikita.

"Based on our estimates, this planet is nearly spherical, with a radius of almost 27,000 kilometers. Its surface area is 9.16 billion square kilometers, of which 31.3% is land and 68.7% is water."

"The surface gravity is approximately 0.48 universal standard gravity units. The atmospheric composition is..."

Mikita was quite pleased as he listened to the spaceship's AI report the planet's data. A planet like this was highly suitable for the Human Race to thrive on, so the great wealth he'd spent on this trip would more than pay for itself.

After Timas finished her report, the crew members who had logged into the Virtual Universe confirmed once again that no life planets were officially registered in this star region. In other words, this life planet truly belonged to no one.

"Excellent."

After hearing the crew's report, Mikita gazed at the simulated image of Gold Soul Planet on the screen. He already considered it his.

"An unclaimed life planet represents wealth, but also the danger of the unknown. No one knows whether it might have powerful natives."

"Go to the ship's lower hold and bring up a few slaves. Have them scout ahead."

The crew agreed with the captain's order. For adventurers like them, caution was the key to staying alive longer.

Besides, there had been plenty of cases where people had been caught off guard.

The Universe Mercenary Alliance was rife with similar stories: a spacefaring adventuring party would discover a native planet, then get careless and be killed by its powerful inhabitants!

"The captain's right. Not long ago, I heard a story at Ofta Tavern. The Ganwu Universe Kingdom, which borders my Noah Universe Kingdom, recently discovered a powerful native planet."

"Word is, that planet had a Domain Lord and twelve Universe Level fighters. The natives could all reach Planetary Level as soon as they came of age."

Some of the crew had only just heard this story and couldn't help questioning it.

"Seriously? How come I've never heard such explosive news?"

"Come on, this happened in the Ganwu Universe Kingdom. It's the sort of thing that spreads among mercenaries. How would you know, when all you care about is finance?"

Mikita had been busy preparing to explore a secret realm lately, so he hadn't heard the story. Hearing it now surprised him.

It also strengthened his resolve to act cautiously. He was about to claim an unowned planet, and a huge opportunity in an unknown secret realm also awaited him. He couldn't afford to get careless and be caught off guard.

"Enough. Arrange for the slaves to explore the land at once." Mikita's authoritative voice rang out, silencing the crew members who had been discussing the matter.

A few minutes later, under Qi Tian's silent watch, the spaceship's hatch opened. Several aliens of different appearances flew out, then stepped onto flying devices resembling skateboards and sped toward the land.

Qi Tian watched them disappear into the distance, his gaze sharpening slightly. He looked at the spaceship still hovering in place and decided to stay where he was. At the same time, he sent a telepathic message to Qi Jingshi and Qi Shixuan.

"Jingshi, outsiders have entered Gold Soul Planet. Make sure the clan members in the sacred land stay safe."

"Shixuan, outsiders have invaded. Arrange for the clan members with the greatest strength to guard the other cities. Don't reveal any specific details."

Qi Jingshi, who was cultivating and seeking insight inside the Holy Temple, heard Qi Tian's telepathic message and immediately called over Qi Tianshou and Qi Shangye, then relayed Qi Tian's words.

At the same time, he spread his mental power across the city where the Gold Soul Clan Sacred Land was located, waiting for the outsiders to arrive.

Meanwhile, the Gold Soul Clan's leader, Qi Shixuan, was overseeing affairs in another tribal city when he received Qi Tian's telepathic message. His expression changed at once.

He hurriedly called over the Inspector accompanying him and sent them off to the most distant town. Then he rushed back to the sacred land to organize others to head to the remaining towns.

Following Qi Tian's instructions, the Gold Soul Clan members quickly mobilized, but they stuck to their policy of holding their positions and taking no action. They simply stationed themselves in the various towns.

The slaves riding flying devices did nothing either. They had been ordered to use miniature detectors to gather information on the native humans at close range.

The detector installed on Mikita's spaceship was designed to detect fluctuations in energy sources. It couldn't directly pick up living beings that weren't engaged in combat.

After several hours of investigation, the information gathered by the detectors carried by the Planetary Level slaves had been rapidly compiled by the spaceship's AI, Timas, and was now displayed before Mikita.