The fourth level of the third Trial Tower.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~~~
Jiang Luo swung the longsword in his hand.
Rain pattered down, countless droplets surrounding him and condensing into layers of water walls.
One ferocious Flying Hou after another slammed into the walls, sending ripples across them.
Although Jiang Luo wielded his longsword and performed the sword techniques of the Rainwater Sutra to their utmost, he still couldn't withstand the ferocious attacks of the Flying Hou.
Thud! One Flying Hou opened its jaws and bit down on Jiang Luo. Two more pounced in succession and tore him to pieces.
His score stopped at 3,162,000, placing him 571st among the Star Level disciples.
The space before Jiang Luo shifted, and he appeared in the empty hall of Ancient Wheel Hall.
Ji Chen, his purple hair gleaming, smiled at him. "Not bad. To reach this score on your first attempt at the Trial Tower, right after entering Ancient Wheel Hall, is already quite impressive.
"It shows that although you haven't grasped much of the Water Origin Law, this sword art is powerful. It lets you bring out the full might of the Law of Water."
Jiang Luo remained calm. After all, he had only just crossed the threshold of the Water Origin Law.
But which of the geniuses in Ancient Wheel Hall hadn't crossed a law threshold?
If the Rainwater Sutra hadn't been so profound, he might not even have made it to the fourth level of the third Trial Tower.
What made him happiest, though, was naturally the score.
3.16 million points was equivalent to 31.6 Hunyuan Units!
That was about as much as many Peak World Lords were worth in total.
An ordinary star system cost only tens of thousands of billions of Universe Coins.
How many star systems could he buy with that?
And how much faith would they bring him?
Of course, if Jiang Luo wanted to cultivate the faith of mortals across a star system, he would have to relocate a great many Universe Citizens.
Even as the lord of a star system, he couldn't simply do whatever he pleased.
Only someone as powerful as the Blood Demon King, a Peak King, could truly rule like an emperor, even setting up something like the Blood Demon Trial without fear of interference from the Universe Country.
The lords of many life planets were Domain Lords or even World Lords. Even as the lord of a star system, he couldn't just order them to move away.
The manpower and resources needed to spread and cultivate faith would also be astronomical.
And if Jiang Luo bought a large number of star systems, he would naturally prefer ones that bordered each other and formed a connected territory.
Rather than star systems scattered all over the place.
That would surely come at a premium.
Ji Chen's expression suddenly shifted. He interrupted Jiang Luo's thoughts. "Teacher wants to see you. Come with me."
Ji Chen's teacher?
Jiang Luo was taken aback. Led by Ji Chen, he arrived at a teleportation point inside Ancient Wheel Hall.
"Through this teleportation point, disciples of Ancient Wheel Hall can return directly to the Virtual Universe region or island where their star sector is located."
Ji Chen briefly explained, then activated the teleportation point.
Whoosh!
The next instant, they appeared on a floating island.
The scenery was beautiful, with flowers and plants everywhere.
Looking out, Jiang Luo could see an endless continent stretching below the island.
It was Gulun Continent!
This floating island was far smaller than Gulun Sacred Island, and held only one ancient-looking palace.
Ji Chen led Jiang Luo into the palace.
The first person Jiang Luo saw was the silver-skinned elder, Bu Li.
Bu Li stood respectfully beside a young man.
A red dot marked the young man's forehead. It seemed to possess some strange power of attraction, drawing Jiang Luo's gaze and Spiritual Force toward it.
He felt an urge to throw himself into that red dot, like a moth to a flame, and devote his entire being to it.
But this is the Virtual Universe Network... Jiang Luo was startled.
That alone showed how terrifying the young man was.
"Greetings, Teacher!"
Ji Chen gestured toward Jiang Luo. "This is my teacher, the lord of Huanming Star Sector, Marquis Huanming."
Jiang Luo wasn't too surprised this time. He had already guessed as much when he saw Bu Li.
"Greetings, my lord!" Jiang Luo bowed respectfully.
All of Huanming Star Sector was Marquis Huanming's personal territory. In theory, every Universe Citizen within it was his subject.
Marquis Huanming was so powerful that even the seventeen top factions combined couldn't stand against him.
Marquis Huanming's expression was calm, giving nothing away. "You're the third genius from my Huanming Star Sector of this generation to enter Ancient Wheel Hall.
"By tradition, I give a reward to every genius who makes it into Ancient Wheel Hall.
"As a disciple of Ancient Wheel Hall, you shouldn't be short of Universe Coins, so I'll give you a treasure instead.
"Here's the list of rewards. Many of the treasures on it aren't even available at the Gulun Auction; no amount of money can buy them. You may choose any one."
Jiang Luo immediately received an email containing a long list.
Most of the items were mental-force weapons and Origin Force weapons.
There were also some rare metals, materials, fruits, and seeds of special plants.
There were even more than a hundred secret techniques and inheritances.
Though they were the fewest in number, Jiang Luo knew that the most valuable items on the list were those more than one hundred secret technique inheritances.
If he didn't have the Wordless Seal, which could condense愿力 and manifest divine abilities and techniques, he would probably have chosen one of those inheritances.
Jiang Luo browsed the list of treasures. Suddenly, his gaze stopped on one item.
The special plant life, the Ten Thousand Feather Tree.
After reading the brief description on the list, Jiang Luo immediately looked up detailed information about the Ten Thousand Feather Tree.
As a disciple of Ancient Wheel Hall, his access level had risen dramatically. Sure enough, he quickly found detailed information about the tree.
After reading through it, he couldn't help feeling delighted.
The Ten Thousand Feather Tree was a special plant life, similar in life level to the Cloud-Touching Vine and the Conch-Spiral Flower.
It was far inferior to the Star-Eating Grass and the Blood Demon Flower.
But the Ten Thousand Feather Tree was far rarer than the Star-Eating Grass and the Blood Demon Flower.
It also had an extremely rare ability: it could produce offshoots.
Each offshoot was both an offspring of the mother tree and one of its clones.
The Ten Thousand Feather Tree could expend its life essence to form offshoots that looked like a cross between dandelion seeds and feathers.
These offshoots could leave the mother tree and act independently, while still remaining under its control.
That was why it was called the Ten Thousand Feather Tree.
Its relationship with its offshoots was somewhat similar to that between the Insect Queen and her Zerg Warriors.
However, the Ten Thousand Feather Tree couldn't coordinate its attacks as perfectly as the Insect Race. Besides, producing offshoots consumed many resources and weakened the mother tree.
As a result, the Ten Thousand Feather Tree was somewhat useless to truly powerful beings.
But for Jiang Luo, it was just what he needed.
He had been worrying about how to guard the life planets he planned to buy.
Faith was the foundation of his power and his greatest secret.
Only slaves under his absolute control could earn his trust.
But aside from how many slaves he would need once he controlled more life planets, just how many life planets were there in a single star system?
More importantly, even slaves had their limits.
Once a Universe Level slave broke through to Domain Lord, the Control Chip stopped working.
So the only ones he could fully trust were Insect Queens, subordinates he had subjected to Soul Enslavement, or clones of his own.
The Soul Enslavement Secret Art usually had a limit on the number of targets. It was impossible to use Soul Control on tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even more subordinates.
And how many clones could he create?
As for an Insect Queen, he couldn't buy one even if he wanted to. In fact, he had no way of making contact with one right now. He could probably only hope to encounter one through sheer chance.
And even if he did find one, he still wouldn't be strong enough to enslave her.
That made the Ten Thousand Feather Tree the best alternative.
Before you continue