Immortal Invitation

"Connecting to the Virtual Universe..."

"Your retirement from the Extraterrestrial Battlefield system has been detected. Your login permissions for the Virtual Universe's War Continent have been temporarily frozen. Please reselect your login location."

Bai Yue's crisp and melodious voice reminded Li Che to choose his landing point in the Virtual Universe this time.

This did not come as a surprise to Li Che.

As the product of a terrifying secret art that blanketed almost the entire Primitive Universe, the Virtual Universe—regulated by a certain Machine Race Universe Master enslaved by the Origin Ancestor—managed human territories with extreme systematic efficiency.

The company divided the 1,008 universe countries into 1,008 continents, while the medium civilization nations under the jurisdiction of the universe countries were islands built around the continents, completely avoiding any issues of administrative chaos.

As for the virtual continent named War Continent where Li Che previously resided, it was an independent continent specially opened up by the Virtual Universe Company for the Extraterrestrial Battlefield, numbered from the first to the eleventh to correspond with humanity's eleven external battlefields.

Because of the existence of the War Continent, powerful individuals within the human race possessed extremely high intelligence-sharing efficiency on the Extraterrestrial Battlefield. Cooperation, requests for rescue, trade, and the distribution of spoils could all be completed within the Virtual Universe.

"For the login location, I choose my private villa on Rong Bing Island in the Ganwu Continent," Li Che said.

"Understood. Ganwu Continent, Rong Bing Island selected. Virtual Universe connection successful..."

As Bai Yue's voice trailed off, Li Che immediately felt the scenery before his eyes blur slightly. When it grew clear again, he had arrived amidst a sprawling garden.

All around, cluster upon cluster of beautiful, dark purple flowers were blooming to their fullest. A faint pollen carrying an elegant, secluded fragrance drifted into Li Che's nose, making his gaze seem noticeably sharper.

This was a Virtual Universe property personally bestowed upon Li Che by the Rong Bing Country Lord after he stepped into the stellar level. It was said to carry a hefty price tag; even within the Virtual Universe alone, its value approached one trillion universe coins.

"It's been a while."

Taking a deep breath of the exotic pollen renowned for assisting in the comprehension of the Earth Origin Law, Li Che stood up from the tranquil little garden, forcefully stretching his virtual physical body.

"Sir, two guests outside your villa are requesting entry. They are the Divine Master Rongbing and her guest. Shall I grant them passage?" Bai Yue's voice arrived right on cue.

"Please let them in." Li Che nodded slightly.

A moment later, he changed into a loose, pitch-black robe and flickered a few times, arriving at the main hall of the massive villa.

Here, within the noble and elegant villa hall, two female figures stood side by side.

One of them stood nearly ten meters tall, with flawless white skin, exquisite features, and form-fitting battle armor forged from frigid ice. She was none other than the master of Li Che's homeland, the Rongbing Empire: the Undying Deity, Divine Master Rongbing.

Standing beside her was a winged-race woman about two meters in height. Her figure was slender and graceful, with four pairs of wings unfurled behind her, shedding the boundless and sacred light law.

Clearly, this was also an Undying Deity.

At the moment, the two immortals were admiring a massive scroll personally brushed by Li Che.

The theme of the scroll was a terrifying celestial body located in a vast, empty expanse of space. It was not particularly massive, yet by virtue of the unimaginably colossal gravitational field surrounding it, it became the absolute protagonist of the surrounding space and time. Including light, once anything was captured by that terrifying gravitational field, escape was utterly impossible.

It was a black hole!

"Divine Master, Divine Master Qiyao, sorry for the wait." Li Che stepped forward, taking the initiative to greet the two female Undying Deities.

Aside from his own divine master, he also recognized the other Divine Master Qiyao. The other party was the master of the other of their Rongbing Empire's two immortal holy lands-the Qiyao Holy Land.

"As expected of someone rated by the Extraterrestrial Battlefield military system as a Military Lord-level World Lord. From this Black Hole Painting, I can already discern your profound mastery of the Earth Origin Law."

Seeing Li Che approach, Divine Master Rongbing nodded slightly. Her cold, freezing gaze returned to Li Che's Black Hole Painting, her tone carrying a hint of emotion.

The other, Divine Master Qiyao, looked at Li Che with a very stern gaze. It was not the gaze of an Undying Deity looking down upon a little fellow at the World Master Level, but rather the look one reserved for an Undying Deity of the same tier.

To put it without exaggeration, if this Black Hole Painting were further refined, it would be fully qualified to become the holy land treasure of an Undying Deity's divine kingdom. From powerhouses at the World Lord level down to little fellows at the stellar level, any of them might glean the power of the origin laws from this scroll.

"Just a casual creation from eight or nine thousand years ago."

Li Che wore a smile, inviting Divine Master Rongbing and Divine Master Qiyao to be seated in the hall, and instructed the smart butler in the villa to serve exotic beverages and peculiar fruits to both sides before bringing up business.

"Divine Master, can you give me the specifics on the war with the Hufeng Empire?"

Divine Master Rongbing nodded.

With a motion of her eyes, the smart assistant shaped like a tiny sprite on her shoulder immediately lit up with light in its eyes, streams of data weaving together into the shape of a small star system.

It was a small star system centered around two stars, binding twenty-seven planets of varying sizes with gravity. In the vast universe, such stellar systems were utterly unremarkable. To speak solely of the primary civilization nations under the jurisdiction of the Rongbing Starfield, they possessed at least several hundred billion such stellar systems.

"A while ago, a team of cosmic adventurers found this small star system nestled between the Rongbing Starfield and the Hufeng Starfield. They detected interference signals from a spaceship on the sixth planet of that system, and after exploring, learned that the signal came from an F-grade spaceship that had crashed several hundred epochs ago."

"That batch of cosmic adventurers successfully activated the Intelligent Lifeform on that F-grade spaceship, and learned that the ship once belonged to a supremely powerful lone-ranger Marquis-level Undying Deity. That Undying Deity had their soul severely injured by a Zerg queen on the Extraterrestrial Battlefield, leaving their spacecraft parked on this planet on the verge of death, while entrusting their legacy to the Intelligent Lifeform..."

Divine Master Rongbing recounted the story that had once taken place on that planet, listening as Li Che's expression grew increasingly bizarre.

A lone-ranger Undying Deity had their soul severely injured, came to a closed planet on the verge of death, and entrusted their legacy to an Intelligent Lifeform to await a successor?

This plot sounded awfully familiar!

"That batch of cosmic adventurers underwent tests and failed to gain the acknowledgment of that Intelligent Lifeform. They simply decided to sell this intelligence to our Rongbing Empire in exchange for a hefty reward."

"But that group of cosmic adventurers clearly wasn't of one mind. Another faction contacted the official authorities of the Hufeng Empire on the other side..."

As Divine Master Rongbing spoke, she could not help letting out a sigh.

"So, the current issue is the conflict between you and that Divine Master Hufeng, fighting over the legacy of a Marquis-level Undying Deity?"

Li Che indicated his understanding.

"That Marquis existence prepared to hand the vast majority of their legacy over to the successor of their secret art, but that's not a major issue. I plan to bundle that Intelligent Lifeform along with the legacy and sell them to the Universe Mercenary Alliance. They are quite fond of taking in such situations, and their quotes are also very fair."

Divine Master Rongbing continued explaining to Li Che.

"That Divine Master Hufeng and I have had quite a few frictions over the years. That person simply doesn't want to share the profits from selling the legacy with me, and even went so far as to find that Master of Yunmo Star just to suppress me."

Li Che listened to his divine master's account, finding it hard not to feel a trace of emotion in his heart.

If, in the original timeline, the Intelligent Lifeform and legacy left behind on Earth after the death of the Master of Yunmo Star had been discovered by cosmic adventurers, they probably would have caught the attention of the Black Dragon Mountain Divine Lord in the very first instance, and most likely would have been sold off by the Black Dragon Mountain Divine Lord as well.

"Therefore, for this anticipated profit exceeding five million Hunyuan Units, Divine Master Hufeng and I have chosen to go to war. The victor gets everything, and the loser gets nothing."

Divine Master Rongbing's voice continued to ring out.

"Li Che, I hope you can participate in this war and help me. If we succeed, I will reward you with a certain percentage according to the sale price of that legacy. Even if we fail, I will still compensate you with twenty hundred thousand mixed elements."

Clearly, Divine Master Rongbing had no intention of underestimating Li Che at all. Even though Li Che was still nominally the first prince of her Rongbing Empire at this time, she had still offered quite generous remuneration.

"The problem is, if two medium civilization nations directly erupt into large-scale warfare, won't the official authorities of the Ganwu Universe Country step in to stop it?"

Faced with Hunyuan Units, Li Che would be lying if he said he wasn't tempted, but he remained very cautious and asked.