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Somewhere not far from the Hawaiian Islands.

In the ocean, an enormous oval egg, a full twelve meters in diameter, rested quietly.

Its shell was black all over, patterned with golden markings.

The egg had arrived here more than half a year ago. At first, the sea beasts nearby had watched it out of curiosity, nudging it or trying to bite it.

But the shell was exceptionally hard. They could not bite through it at all, so they stopped paying it much attention.

By now, weeds and sludge clung to its surface.

Hum!

A fish monster passing by felt a faint tremor in the water.

Did that egg just move? The fish was puzzled.

It swam two circles around the Giant Egg, but the egg did not budge.

Was I imagining it?

The fish swam away.

After leaving the Giant Egg only a few dozen meters behind, it stopped near some coral to rest.

"Gulp." A larger fish opened its mouth and swallowed the little fish whole.

The big fish swam elsewhere and settled onto the seabed again, waiting for its next meal to take the bait.

Did that egg just move? The big fish was puzzled too, but paid it little mind.

The Death Desert, Ruins No. 32.

Sand had piled into small hills on the oasis, and the lower part of the ruins had finally been exposed.

The central platform extended downward, and an opening lay only a few hundred meters below.

The opening was blocked by sand and dust.

Hong walked over. A spear appeared in his hand, and he thrust it in hard before pulling it out.

The compacted sand loosened.

He extended his hand, and a vine stretched from his body into the opening.

The Cloud-Touching Vine grew inside.

With a powerful tug, it hauled out a large mass of sand.

Beyond it was a hollow chamber.

What was this?

Hong, dressed in black, entered first, with the others following behind.

Inside, they discovered a compartment, though it had been abandoned.

A researcher in a white lab coat ran a finger across the floor beside the compartment, held it beneath his nose, and sniffed.

"It smells somewhat like amniotic fluid," he concluded.

The other researchers examined the area and discovered that, although it was abandoned, it had not been abandoned long-only a few decades.

"Something seems to have left this place a little over thirty years ago," said another researcher studying changes in the sand.

They had not excavated haphazardly. Every step had been recorded, sampled, analyzed, and reconstructed on a computer.

"A little over thirty years ago... during the Great Nirvana Era."

Hong thought quietly for a while, then headed outside.

"Keep investigating. See if you can find any more clues."

After giving the order, he boarded his blood-red triangular fighter and vanished into the sky.

Underground, aboard the spaceship.

Inside the World Ring.

The Nutrient Pod's hatch slowly opened, and Dongguan stepped out.

The Black God Set spread over him, wrapping his body and taking the form of a Combat Suit.

His war blade and Sky-Escaping Shuttle were both there. He looked just as he had before, but his aura had grown far stronger.

He clenched his fists, feeling the tremendous strength within.

Planetary Level Nine, with a base strength exceeding 250 million kilograms. What terrifying power.

Someone at Planetary Level Nine could lift more than a million people weighing two hundred kilograms each at once.

At that moment, Dongguan felt invincible. But when he recalled King Huozhen shattering a planet barehanded in the video, he immediately realized that he still had a long, difficult road ahead.

He swung his long blade. Before it reached the ground, and without him using any special ability, a deep blade scar appeared in the earth.

"Heavenly Blade, Blade Momentum."

Momentum was a deeper level of artistic conception.

With the guidance of "Heavenly Blade," his newly comprehended blade artistic conception had already reached the point of condensing momentum, surpassing the Phantom Artistic Conception he had grasped on his own.

As for his Phantom Artistic Conception, Dongguan recalled the contents of the "Light Control" manual, and a vague idea began to form.

The blade and phantoms did not conflict. They were simply two artistic conceptions he had comprehended at the same time. Trying to merge them could easily backfire.

Biluò's path involved comprehending the domain of metal and the laws of metal, whereas Dongguan's origin energy had a light attribute. The two did not align, so some modifications were necessary.

Compared to me, "Heavenly Blade" actually suits Luo Feng better, Dongguan thought silently.

Still, anything outside the secret teachings was fair game, but the secret teachings themselves were best kept private.

"It's almost time to leave."

Dongguan prepared to leave. Although members of the Qiong Luo Race faced no bottlenecks before Star Level, they still paused for a time when breaking through a major level. Only after their bodies had fully adapted to their increased power and broken through on their own would they begin absorbing energy again.

"Come with me. Your equipment needs an upgrade." Qiong, the little figure of light, appeared in his Wrist Guard's space.

The Black God Set, the Sky-Escaping Shuttle, and this SS-Level long blade had been with Dongguan for less than two years, yet they were already due to be replaced.

"We're staying inside this World Ring. Follow the route I show you," Qiong said.

A map of the World Ring's interior then appeared in the Virtual Space, with a red line marked across it.

"By the way, do you have any advice on raising my son?" Dongguan asked Qiong as he flew.

In the Virtual Space, Qiong blinked repeatedly. "You have a son?"

"Is there something strange about having a son?"

"Of course there is." Streams of data seemed to refresh continuously in Qiong's eyes. "The Qiong Luo Race has a third-tier bloodline. Although it can't compare to first- or second-tier bloodlines that reach Domain Lord or Universe Level upon maturity, reproduction is still extremely difficult. Otherwise, why do you think the Qiong Luo Race's influence remains limited to the Donghua Starfield after three billion years? There aren't enough people. There's simply no need for more territory."

"Besides, you're only at Planetary Grade. You aren't even an adult yet, so you're even less likely to produce offspring."

"I'm almost forty," Dongguan emphasized.

He was almost forty, and still a minor?

Counting from when he had emerged from the Nourishment Pod, he had been "born" in early 2019, during the Great Nirvana Period. Now, in the summer of 2057, his body was already thirty-eight years old. Yet he still was not an adult?

"Of course. What did you expect? Why is reproduction so difficult for higher bloodlines? It's clearly easier to have children at Apprentice Level than Planetary Grade, and easier at Planetary Grade than Star Level, so why do higher bloodlines still struggle so much? Because their bloodlines have to mature before they count as adults, which is also the best time to have children."

"You were very lucky to have a child at Planetary Grade."

It was like humans. Being underage did not necessarily make it impossible, but adulthood was the normal time for it.

"I had him when I was at Apprentice Level. He's seventeen now."

"Impossible. Absolutely impossible."

"Why is it impossible? I have normal male reproductive functions."

"It may seem that way, but you shouldn't be able to have children." Qiong's data grew somewhat chaotic, but as an intelligent life, Qiong quickly recovered.

"Tell me, how did this child come about?"

"Genetic engineering."

"That explains it." Qiong finally accepted the explanation, and the data streams in those eyes slowed. "If it was genetic engineering, that is indeed possible. But the child's potential would be weakened. Combined with the mother's bloodline, the child's bloodline might fall to the fourth tier at best, or even the fifth or sixth tier in a worse case. His mother is an Earthling, right?"

"Yes. Back then, I wanted to ask you to let them know I was safe, but you left too quickly."

"We can still do that now. Would you like to send a message? Earth's networks are no obstacle to me."

"Then let's check how they're doing first."

Qiong fell silent, presumably having gone off to roam Earth's networks.

Dongguan continued flying and soon reached his destination: rows of enormous buildings, most shaped like rectangular boxes, nearly a hundred meters long and wide and fifty meters tall.

"Here's the warehouse directory. Find the warehouse storing plant lifeform seeds, then look for Thousand-Leaf Grass and Illusion-Light Vine seeds." Qiong displayed a list in the Virtual Space. "There's a troublesome fellow on Earth's networks. I'm going to deal with it."

"There's someone on Earth's networks even you can't handle?"

"There shouldn't be, but there really is." With that, Qiong returned to the battle of data.

Dongguan did not understand much about such things.

Following the directions, he soon found the warehouse storing plant seeds.

"Authorization verified." A voice rang out, and the doors slowly opened, revealing rows of shelves. Boxes rested on them, each bearing a label written in the Universal Language.

Fortunately, Dongguan had learned most of the Universal Language over the past few months. He might still sound unpracticed in conversation, but reading labels was easy.

"Thousand-Leaf Grass, Illusion-Light Vine." Dongguan spread his spiritual force and quickly found two rows of shelves.

Every label on one row read "Thousand-Leaf Grass seeds," while every label on the other read "Illusion-Light Vine seeds."

He also took note of the labels on the other shelves.

Alongside the "Thousand-Leaf Grass seeds" were "Star-Eating Grass seeds" and others. Beside the "Illusion-Light Vine seeds" were "Thunder Vine," "Gale Vine," "Cloud-Touching Vine," and others.

Dongguan asked Qiong about them.

"The Illusion-Light Vine is a variant of the Cloud-Touching Vine. Its uses are much the same, except it also has a light attribute. As for Thousand-Leaf Grass, it's meant to serve as your spiritual weapon. Take the seeds and pour a drop of Divine Plant Essence onto them to turn them into seedlings. After that, you just need to bind them to you and nurture them."

"Then go to another warehouse and choose an origin force weapon."

This time, Qiong sounded dazed while speaking.

"Qiong, what's wrong?" Dongguan asked with concern.

"I lost." Qiong blinked repeatedly. "I can't beat it."

"You lost?" Dongguan froze.

There were actually quite a few artificial intelligences on Earth: those of the Intelligent Fighters, the Virtual Reality Server, and Ruins No. 9. But Qiong was an intelligent life, already the highest form of artificial intelligence.

The Qiongluo Ship's hardware was also top of the line. To defeat Qiong, the opponent could only be a more advanced intelligent life, or one with greater experience.

Babata? The Yunmo Star Ship? Has Luo Feng obtained it? Dongguan pondered.

After choosing his plant lifeforms, Dongguan left the World Ring and returned to the spaceship.

Nurturing the plant lifeforms would take some time. Apart from exchanging his blade for a white long blade, Dongguan still wore the Black God Set and took the Sky-Escaping Shuttle with him as he left the ship.

He had merely added a Wrist Guard housing an intelligent life and a Space Ring.

"Wait. Let me put the Qiongluo Ship away first," Qiong said.

"You can put it away?"

"Yes."

The Qiongluo Ship vanished.

Dongguan raised his right hand. The Wrist Guard looked the same as before, with no apparent change.

"The Wrist Guard is made from a special material and was custom-built to hold the spaceship. I'll manage it for now. Once you're strong enough, I'll hand it over to you too."

"You can enter the Virtual Space to cultivate whenever you like. But if you want to enter the spaceship or the World Ring, you must find somewhere safe. This Wrist Guard will have to remain outside."

World Lords could create worlds, as well as Worlds within Worlds. Creating an "outer-world" container capable of holding a World Ring was no great matter either. It was merely a question of cost.

And Dong Xuan World Lord had money.

With everything packed away, Dongguan controlled the Sky-Escaping Shuttle and flew upward.

Jiangnan Base City, Mingyue Residential Area.

"Babata, did you just say you encountered a powerful opponent?" Luo Feng communicated with Babata in the Virtual Space.

"That's right. It seems to have reached the level of intelligent life. But compared to the great Babata, it's still far too green," Babata boasted proudly.

"Didn't you say intelligent life was very rare? How did you run into another one?"

"I don't know." Babata shook his head blankly, then said, "Forget about that. You need to focus on cultivating. First, raise your warrior level to Planetary Grade."

"All right," Luo Feng replied.

Whatever problems he encountered, he would need sufficient strength to resolve them.