The nebula where the legion is located is a military stronghold, and even the Sihali Kingdom cannot come and go freely.
But Baili Qiu was different. He went out on a negotiation mission. Although Xuan Qingzi didn't care about his life or death, since he came back alive, he had the right and obligation to go back and report.
For Li Xingkong, getting inside was even simpler. It was a giant molecular cloud, not some small galaxy, which could be completely transformed and obscured.
No civilization has the audacity to completely seal off a nebula hundreds of light-years in size.
Even the Sihali Kingdom wouldn't work.
If it can't be completely sealed off, then it can't stop Li Xingkong. Although the Earth-Traversing Golden Light has failed many times, it is still a great supernatural power. The failure is only because Li Xingkong. No wonder the supernatural power is not good.
After going through a tedious inspection process to verify his identity, Baili Qiu left, while Li Xingkong used his supernatural powers to slip directly into the nebula.
Due to the massive churning of dust and matter, coupled with the rampant flow of various energy streams, the overall environment within the nebula is far more threatening than that in normal space.
While waiting for Baili Qiu to pass by, Li Xingkong first learned a little about the situation within the nebula.
Perhaps due to the years of management by the Sihali Kingdom, the interior of this nebula appears chaotic, but in reality, there are still quite a few "safe zones." These safe zones are either half-formed planets or entire large continents, standing within this nebula under the protection of shields and high-tech equipment.
There were people inside these safe zones, but they weren't the formal army Li Xingkong had imagined; instead, they seemed like a group of ordinary people.
If they weren't in such a harsh environment, Li Xingkong would really have mistaken them for ordinary people. But being inside this nebula, how could the Sihali Kingdom possibly go to such great lengths to allow ordinary people to live here?
After observing for a while, Li Xingkong noticed something amiss.
The city and its inhabitants here are mostly engaged in the same industry: gaming.
Aside from their daily routines, rest, and exercise, most of them spend their days primarily inside the gaming pods, participating in so-called virtual games.
Recalling the tactics that the Sihali Kingdom had used against him, Li Xingkong suddenly realized.
These people may appear to be ordinary people, but they are actually cannon fodder troops of the Sihali Kingdom, also known as players.
Their task was to continuously participate in the game and use projections to get involved in the actions of the Sihali Kingdom.
Players themselves are highly unpredictable and will have different choices regarding team compositions in the game, but the players living in this nebula are completely different.
While there may seem to be many choices, once one's actions differ from the collective will of the Sihali Kingdom, personal livelihood becomes a problem.
If you want to live a peaceful and stable life, you have to control your temper.
Many of them only understand the world within their current safe zone, and are completely unaware of what the world outside the safe zone is like.
Or rather, they all believed it was just a virtual world.
This way of cultivating players is indeed interesting. In the virtual world, very few people can still maintain moral standards. As long as there are task guidelines, no matter what they do, they have no psychological burden.
After observing the nearby safe zones, Li Xingkong had gained some understanding of the players' lives.
They are like a knife, a weapon, without any will of their own, nor any conventional sense of good and evil.
Baili Qiu's review process lasted for nearly two days before he was finally allowed in.
Li Xingkong followed behind him the moment he passed by.
There was no other reason than that, upon learning that Baili Qiu had returned alive, Xuan Qingzi naturally wouldn't let him roam freely. The first thing he wanted to do after returning to Xingyun was to go and report to Xuan Qingzi.
This is also an opportunity for Li Xingkong. Finding Xuan Qingzi in such a vast nebula would be quite difficult for him.
The team accompanying Baili Qiu on his mission quickly grew larger.
It was less of an escort and more of an escort. After receiving orders, an elite Phantom Legion handed Baili Qiu over at the entrance and led him onto a passage leading into the depths of the nebula.
Li Xingkong naturally wouldn't go straight into this passage; who knows if there were any checks inside?
But this doesn't mean Li Xingkong can't keep up. The moment the passage opened, he had already calculated the entrance and exit of the passage through Hexagram.
Then, using his familiarity with the space, he created a "shortcut" to get to his destination.
Although space jumps, and many other space technologies, are commonplace in the universe, not everyone can directly observe space-related structures. Li Xingkong Divine Sense, but others do not.
Without constant monitoring instruments, and given the inherent instability within the nebula, tracking Li Xingkong's movements would be virtually impossible.
Baili Qiu and his group led the way, with Li Xingkong following closely behind. After several jumps, they arrived at the core area of the nebula.
A colossal planet appeared before them, and with just one glance, Li Xingkong knew they had arrived at their destination.
The planet was heavily guarded, with a dense fleet patrolling back and forth. On the planet, Li Xingkong also sensed many powerful weapons, many of which made Li Xingkong feel a little uneasy.
Fortunately, Li Xingkong didn't come here to promote the entire planet; he only wanted to take down Xuan Qingzi.
With a clear purpose in mind, Baili Qiu and his group soon entered a grand hall within the planet.
Li Xingkong quietly followed behind, arriving near the main hall.
With Divine Sense present, there was absolutely no need for him to get too close.
"I didn't expect that the Divine Land would still value old friendships; they've already released him."
Xuan Qingzi smiled the moment he saw Baili Qiu.
Originally, when the Phantom Legion withdrew, he left Li Xingkong with a big surprise. Judging from the last data transmitted back from the anchor point, Li Xingkong had most likely perished.
Even so, Baili Qiu still came back alive.
There's only one possibility then: those people in Divine Land are showing him weakness.
After all, he wasn't there in person and didn't know that Li Xingkong had brought Baili Qiu into the space. Based on all the information he could get, the most logical deduction was that after Li Xingkong's death, Divine Land wanted to ease its relationship with him.
Only then was Baili Qiu brought back.
Normally speaking, Xuan Qingzi's deduction is indeed correct, since that's what the information he has told him.
However, intelligence was both his strength and his weakness. After Li Xingkong and Fang Ritu reached an agreement, Xuan Qingzi had far less intelligence at his disposal.
Without the support of intelligence, his deductions were naturally far off.