Tamu Star!

Eight kilometers above Earth, amid the clouds.

A black, saucer-shaped spaceship bearing a dragon emblem hovered within the clouds. None of Earth's satellites detected anything unusual.

Beep!

The outer hatch opened automatically.

A streak of light shot up from below and flew inside, passing through the laser corridor and the inner hatch before quickly reaching the command room.

"Five months, and I finally got it fixed!"

Dressed in casual clothes, Yang Zheng stood before the console screen. Babata's little face appeared on it, grinning and baring its fangs as its triumphant voice echoed through the command room.

"Where's Luo Feng?"

Yang Zheng glanced around but saw no sign of Luo Feng.

"Hmph, that guy's on his honeymoon. Forget about him!" Babata curled its lip. The moment Luo Feng got married, he had kicked it aside.

"Yang Zheng, let's get ready to leave. I left Luo Feng a little duplicate of myself. It's more than enough to teach him."

At the thought of returning to the vast universe, Babata could hardly wait.

It had been too long.

It had spent far too long underground.

Although its consciousness could still connect to the Virtual Universe Network, the account linked to Hu Yanbo had long since expired. As the assistant attached to Hu Yanbo's Virtual Universe account, it could only play offline.

At first, there had been a few anonymous accounts, but those accounts had time limits and couldn't be renewed. Once their terms expired, they were automatically invalidated.

"All right, let's set off!"

Yang Zheng had only left his parents a message saying he was entering secluded cultivation. He had also left a Flowing Silver Guard at home to handle any emergencies, while the other two Flowing Silver Guards were with Luo Feng.

To be precise.

They were with Babata's duplicate.

The boundless universe stirred Yang Zheng's blood as well. Earth was still too small. That vast universe was his true battlefield.

Hum!

Yang Zheng felt only a faint tremor. He knew the spaceship was rapidly tearing through the atmosphere toward outer space.

The tables, chairs, floor, and console vanished from view, and a massive blue planet gradually appeared before him.

Then.

The blue planet grew smaller and smaller, and a planet that seemed to burn with flames came into view.

"Ten seconds until we reach light speed!"

"Nine!"

"Eight!"

On the console screen, Babata's little face was solemn as it counted down. The planets outside were no longer visible. The surrounding stars blurred completely, gradually fading into darkness.

"Three... two... one!" Babata shouted.

Suddenly-

Space rippled slightly amid the vast sea of stars, and the now-blurred black spaceship vanished.

The Dark Universe!

This was another layer of space, independent of the Original Universe, but its coordinates corresponded one-to-one with those of the Original Universe.

In the Original Universe, light speed was an insurmountable limit. The physical laws of the Dark Universe were different, however, allowing spaceships to exceed light speed and travel vast interstellar distances.

Whether a powerful being or a spaceship, anything that reached light speed would instantly be kicked out of the Original Universe and into the Dark Universe. Only by coming to a complete stop could it return to the Original Universe.

The usual ratio between the Dark Universe and the Original Universe was 1 to 10.081 million.

The Dark Universe.

It was a vast expanse filled only with points of light that glowed like fireflies. Aside from those beautiful lights, there was nothing else in this immense space.

"Yang Zheng, our destination this time is Tamu Star, 970,000 light-years from Earth. Estimated arrival time: 29.3 days."

Babata's voice echoed through the command room. The Black Dragon Spaceship traveled at a constant 1.2 times light speed, both to conserve energy and to prevent any mishaps aboard the newly repaired ship.

"Tamu Star..."

Information about Tamu Star swiftly surfaced in Yang Zheng's mind. Of the five planets Babata had recommended, some were naturally closer than Tamu Star, but he had ultimately chosen it.

This trip into the universe wasn't just to sell the Immortal Corpse. He also needed to buy Universe Level slaves.

Tamu Star was one of the planets with the most thriving slave markets, and it was also one of the Black Dragon Mountain Empire's administrative planets.

Only here could Yang Zheng acquire slaves at Universe Level 7 or higher as quickly as possible. On other planets, even if Universe Level slaves were available, they would only be at the first or second level.

Babata wanted to capture the Golden Horned Beast, and Yang Zheng shared that goal. He also wanted to prepare in advance for the Nolan Mountain Family's fleet. Only high-ranking Universe Level slaves would be enough to deter them.

"Almost thirty days. I should cultivate. I can't waste that much time." Yang Zheng rose, left the command room, and entered the cultivation room to begin training.

Travel through the Dark Universe was monotonous. In the blink of an eye, more than twenty days passed.

Inside the Black Dragon Spaceship's cultivation room, Yang Zheng sat cross-legged in meditation. Waves of spiritual force swirled around him, sometimes condensing, sometimes dispersing, sometimes sharp as needles, sometimes supple as silk.

The Nine Basic Techniques-condense, disperse, sharpen, toughen, soften, harden, dance, illude, and meld-formed the foundation of the Controller path, teaching precise control over spiritual force.

In just one month, Yang Zheng had achieved minor mastery of five of the Nine Basic Techniques: condense, disperse, sharpen, toughen, and soften. He wouldn't even need another month to attain minor mastery of the remaining four.

"Yang Zheng, Yang Zheng, twenty minutes until the Cosmic Shuttle takes us to Tamu Star." Babata's voice echoed through the cultivation room, waking Yang Zheng from his absorption in training.

"All right, I'll be right there!" Yang Zheng ended his cultivation and headed toward the command room while turning his awareness inward.

[Force Amplitude] (23%)

[Mental Power Amplitude] (17%)

[Shadowless Light and Shadow: Basic Section] (19%)

[Movement Technique: Artistic Conception Level] (100%)

[Spirit Thorn] (100%)

[Nine Control Techniques] (50%)

[Soul Seal: Basic Section] (2%)

(I'll overwrite anything that no longer helps the protagonist at his current strength, so no one says I'm padding the word count.)

Over the past several months, Yang Zheng had not only successfully transformed his mental power and made breakthroughs in his spiritual force and physical fitness, but had also advanced several of his activated progress bars.

His physical force amplitude had reached a full twenty-three times, his mental power amplitude had reached seventeen times, and he had grasped the basics of the saber technique Shadowless Light and Shadow.

At that moment,

Even if he were asked to challenge Hong, who possessed a domain, he would dare to try without using the Crimson Chaos Copper Mother Fragment.

A Planetary Level fighter with a domain could be considered invincible within the Planetary Level. But that so-called invincibility only meant they wouldn't be defeated by a Planetary Level fighter of the same rank. It didn't mean they could kill every Planetary Level opponent.

In the Dark Universe, the spaceship gradually decelerated from 1.2 times light speed to a complete stop. Yang Zheng felt the ship beneath his feet tremble slightly. The trembling lasted about ten seconds before everything settled.

"Cosmic Shuttle successful. We've returned to the Original Universe." Babata's voice echoed through the command room.

"Babata, set the external view simulation to one hundred percent," Yang Zheng said immediately.

The next moment.

He saw the vast starry sky around him. Far ahead lay a planet that looked like emerald, with an enormous ring-shaped spaceport beside it.