Emberlight World

Dong Yu Star was a powerful Life Planet ranked among the top hundred in prosperity across the entire Eternal Starfield.

At Dong Yu Star's slave market.

Qi Yuan, Old Wu, and six other Star Traveller Tier 7 and Tier 8 Guards followed behind Hugo, browsing through the premises of one slave merchant group after another.

At present, among Hugo's subordinates, only Old Wu had reached Star Traveller Tier 9.

The other six Guards consisted of two Star Traveller Tier 8s and four Star Traveller Tier 7s.

As for Qi Yuan, with an ample supply of Dragon Vein Fruits, he had actually broken through again the day before departure, successfully advancing to Star Traveller Tier 7!

In a single year, he had gone from Star Traveller Tier 4 to Star Traveller Tier 7!

The moment Hugo learned the news, he had nearly thought that his and Qi Yuan's identities had been switched!

As a direct descendant of the Ortega Family, he possessed the enormous wealth generated by Lei Bao Star every year.

Over the past year, he had used countless expensive treasures such as B9-Grade Nutrient Fluid, yet he had only barely advanced from Star Traveller Tier 1 to the verge of breaking through to Star Traveller Tier 3.

Yet Qi Yuan, a native slave he had bought on a whim, received only a small amount of Wood Sap Crystals and Earth Soul Liquid each month as cultivation resources, but had broken through three stages in a row, soaring all the way to Star Traveller Tier 7!

At Star Traveller Tier 7, coupled with the support of his domain, Qi Yuan could now be regarded entirely as a top-tier Star Traveller Tier 9 warrior!

With such an absurd comparison, it would perhaps make more sense to say that Qi Yuan was the master, while Hugo was the native slave!

One Star Traveller Tier 9, two Star Traveller Tier 8s, and five Star Traveller Tier 7s, including Qi Yuan, a Star Traveller Tier 7 who had comprehended the Thunder Domain!

If such a lineup were placed in an ordinary star system, it would likely be enough to sweep through the entire system!

However, the place they were heading to this time was the incomparably dangerous "Lord of Domain World"!

Among the competitors taking part in the Apprentice Mercenary Assessment within the Lord of Domain World alone, there were an unknown number of Star Traveller Tier 9 experts, not to mention the dangers of the Lord of Domain World itself.

With even a moment of carelessness, they might be buried forever in the Lord of Domain World, unable to return.

For safety's sake, Hugo had decided to buy several more powerful Star Traveller Tier 9 slaves before entering the assessment world.

For this decision, he had not only sold off a third-grade mid-level psionic weapon that he had won from the Seventh Prince of the Eternal Empire last time.

He had also used the hundred-year mining rights to Lei Bao Star as collateral to secure an enormous loan of thirty billion Eternal Coins!

Now that Hugo was carrying such a massive amount of cash, he was exceptionally bold, immediately asking whether they had any Star Traveller Tier 9 slaves who had mastered a domain.

However, when he heard the price quoted by the slave trader, his high spirits collapsed in an instant!

"What the hell? That expensive? Are you kidding me? Do I look like I'm worth that much money from head to toe?!"

"Can't afford it. I'm out, I'm out."

Very quickly, Hugo honestly lowered his sights to ordinary Star Traveller Tier 9 slaves.

"Four Star Traveller Tier 9 warriors of the Zhalin Race, and two Star Traveller Tier 9 Psychic Masters of the Wuxia Race."

After lowering his standards, Hugo swiftly selected the "goods" he wanted this time.

The Zhalin Race was a unique race whose entire bodies, including their faces, were covered in vicious black scales. They resembled humanoid pangolins somewhat. The Zhalin Race possessed tremendous strength and defense, making them highly suited to serving as personal Guards.

The two Wuxia Race members, meanwhile, had human bodies but bizarre heads resembling those of birds or beasts. They were born Psychic Masters.

After the newly purchased slaves had been transferred, Qi Yuan secretly used the system function to inspect their "aptitude."

To his surprise, one of the Wuxia Race slaves had a base return multiplier of twenty-nine times!

Qi Yuan had followed Hugo to Lanka Star and secretly used the system function to observe quite a few people.

Yet aside from Hugo and the Seventh Prince of the Eternal Empire, whose base return multipliers had exceeded thirty times, he had not seen anyone else capable of reaching thirty times.

The other Star Traveller Tier 9s were generally around eighteen or nineteen times, occasionally exceeding twenty.

Yet this Wuxia Race slave's base return multiplier had reached a full twenty-nine times!

Though he had not crossed the threshold of thirty times, he still far exceeded the average level of ordinary Star Traveller cultivators!

Was this kid Hugo just lucky, or did he really possess some special talent for judging people? It would be a waste if that luck didn't go toward buying lottery tickets.

After completing the slave transfer procedures, Hugo's group went to the Universe Mercenary Alliance branch on Dong Yu Star to register as adventurers and apply for the Apprentice Mercenary Assessment.

Only then did they board a spacecraft and fly toward Tai Shi Star, where this mission world was located.

Inside the spacecraft, Hugo and the others quickly read through the details of this Apprentice Mercenary Assessment.

The assessment content was largely similar to the one Luo Feng and the others had participated in in the original work.

"Enter Emberlight World on Tai Shi Star, obtain the Poison Sting of one Ghost Face Scorpion and three Aurora Stones, then hand them to the assessment personnel at the exit to complete the mission."

Emberlight World was a Small World created hundreds of millions of years ago by a highly renowned Emberlight Lord of Domain.

Later, after the Emberlight Lord of Domain fell, the Universe Mercenary Alliance transformed this Small World into a venue for the Apprentice Mercenary Assessment.

The content of their assessment this time was to enter Emberlight World and complete the trials of the two missions: "elimination" and "exploration."

"The Poison Sting of a Ghost Face Scorpion can be acquired by killing a Ghost Face Scorpion in the Brilliant Stone Wasteland."

"Aurora Stones are strange crystals rich in the unique energy of Emberlight World. They must be obtained in the Aurora Corridor region."

"The environment inside the Aurora Corridor is too complex, and we don't know how much time it will waste. We'll first go to the Brilliant Stone Wasteland to hunt Ghost Face Scorpions, then head to the Aurora Corridor after completing the mission."

Based on the information they had gathered, Hugo and the others rapidly formulated their next course of action.

Meanwhile, in a room at an inn on Tai Shi Star, not far from the entrance to the "assessment world," a group of people waited anxiously.

"San Yan, is the information from that side reliable? How long have we been squatting here? We still haven't seen the target show up!"

A burly figure wearing standard-issue black Battle Armor and possessing four arms communicated telepathically with his companion beside him.

"Tai Shi Star is way too expensive. The lodging fee for this room alone has cost me over a million Eternal Coins. I don't even know whether it can be reimbursed later."

The companion called San Yan did not even raise his eyelids. He replied coldly, "It's a mission assigned by the boss. If you have a problem, ask him yourself!"

"Damn, I wouldn't dare go stir up the boss when he's in a bad mood."

The Four Arms figure smiled awkwardly, then carefully transmitted, "Hey, this mission target has no ordinary identity. He must have plenty of good things on him. When the time comes, the two of us—"

Before he could finish, San Yan suddenly froze as he looked into the distance, then instantly rose to his feet!

"Get ready. The target has arrived!"

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