The Little Sanzi Lu Qingshan spoke of was named Lu San.
He was one of the descendants of the Maple Leaf Star clansmen Lu Qingshan had rescued over the past few thousand years.
Back then, Lu San's ancestor had been sold to a Star Pirates stronghold, and the bloodline he left behind was likewise kept under the organization's iron grip. Lu San had never directly taken part in interstellar plundering; his job had been to help the Star Pirates train new recruits.
After bringing him back to Maple Leaf Star and assessing him for a time, Lu Qingshan had entrusted him with the task of cultivating talent for the Maple Leaf Empire.
The fellow had some ability and had not disappointed the ancestor who thought highly of him. Over these few thousand years, he had built a mature training system for the Maple Leaf Empire.
He had single-handedly established Young Eagle Star as a talent-training base.
He had even persuaded Lu Qingshan, the ancestor himself, to make time once every century to give pointers to the young talents from Young Eagle Star.
The cavern's heavy metal hatch gave a low hum and slowly slid open.
Lu San entered first, with five young men and women following close behind him.
The moment they stepped into this space, an invisible pressure that seemed to originate from the very source of life crashed down like deep-sea waters of immeasurable weight, instantly choking their breath.
"Ancestor!"
Without the slightest hesitation, Lu San dropped to his knees with a thud.
The five youths behind him were shaken even more deeply. Unable to muster even the slightest courage to look up at the figure seated high upon the stone seat, they hurriedly followed Lu San in prostrating themselves.
"Rise, all of you."
Only when a gentle voice rang out did they feel as though they had been granted a pardon, finally daring to rise with trembling caution.
One bolder young talent stole a glance upward and was even more astonished. It was hard to imagine that the terrifying energy that had nearly crushed his soul had come from the kindly young man with fathomless eyes seated upon the stone seat.
"Lu San." Lu Qingshan's gaze settled on the gray-robed man, his voice carrying an almost imperceptible sigh.
"Several thousand years have passed, yet you remain trapped at Star Level Nine. Training new blood for the empire is certainly important, but you must not neglect your own cultivation either. If you cannot break through to Universe Level, your lifespan... I fear you have only this final thousand years left."
Over tens of thousands of years, Lu Qingshan had constantly worked to repair his own foundations. A long illness made a good physician, and his sense for lifespans had now become extremely precise.
Without outside intervention, Lu San's lifespan would end within these thousand years.
Lu San raised his head. There was no panic on his face, only the calm left by the vicissitudes of life. "Had you not saved me back then, Ancestor, this disciple would probably have perished with the Star Pirates long ago. Being able to live these extra few thousand years was already a stroke of luck. Universe Level... this disciple gave up that thought long ago. Rather than expend the empire's precious resources gambling on that faint hope, I would rather devote all my energy to Young Eagle Star. Watching generation after generation of seedlings grow is enough to satisfy this disciple."
Lu Qingshan heard the flagging drive to advance in his words and said no more. He could barely protect himself now, was utterly penniless, and even owed debts. Even if Lu San had the will, he had no resources to offer him.
His gaze turned toward the five somewhat ill-at-ease young talents.
There were three boys and two girls. Four possessed ordinary human bloodlines, while one boy stood out in particular.
The boy had a pair of short, dark-purple horns on his head, with faint arcs of electricity coursing around them. He was a descendant of the Horned Thunder Clan, an extremely rare race within Maple Leaf Star's territory, and possessed a seventh-class bloodline in the universe.
His attention had been on Lu San earlier, and he had not examined them closely. Now, Lu Qingshan's powerful spiritual force instantly enveloped all five, probing them in the finest detail.
Suddenly, something stirred in his heart, and he let out a soft "Hm?"
Within his spiritual perception, nothing was unusual about the other four. Only above the head of Lei Ming, the Horned Thunder Clan boy, did several lines of strange text appear without warning, flickering with a faint glow as though formed from the laws of the universe themselves:
[Name: Lei Ming] [Age: 28] [Level: Planet Level Nine] [Evaluation: Third-class talent (eligible for disciple recruitment). Base return multiplier: 100 times.]
A golden finger?
As a Universe Level 9 powerhouse who had lived ninety thousand years and stood only a step away from Domain Lord, Lu Qingshan did not believe this was an illusion.
Unless some Immortal Level existence proficient in illusions was toying with him.
But that thought was even more absurd.
Then... there could only be one answer! This belated opportunity was actually real.
But... hadn't this golden finger arrived far too late?
The corner of Lu Qingshan's mouth could not help twitching, and a surge of indescribably mixed feelings welled up within him.
Fortunately, he had not refused to receive Lu San and the others this time because of his failed breakthrough. Otherwise, he might never have discovered this golden finger, even by the time he died.
If that had happened, it would have been far too tragic.
Was this system an inanimate thing? It hadn't even given a single notification.
The atmosphere had grown somewhat heavy.
Lu Qingshan's gaze swept repeatedly over the young talents as though it had substance, lingering longest on Lei Ming in particular.
Lei Ming felt as though all his secrets had been stripped bare and he stood exposed beneath an invisible searchlight. His heart pounded wildly, and his palms were covered in cold sweat.
Lu San keenly sensed something amiss as well, and his heart lurched.
Could there be something wrong with Lei Ming?
If I really overlooked something and brought someone problematic here... The moment the thought arose, cold sweat instantly soaked the lining of his gray robe.
Just as Lu San was about to venture a cautious question in his unease, Lu Qingshan spoke first, his tone carrying a rare trace of approval. "Lu San, you... have done well."
"Ancestor!" The great stone weighing on Lu San's heart dropped away, immediately replaced by tremendous delight. "Could it be... that among these talents, there is an unpolished gem who has caught your eye?"
"Show me your strongest moves." Rather than answer Lu San directly, Lu Qingshan swept his lightning-sharp gaze over the five young talents.
Looking at the cavern, which was riddled with cracks, they hesitated.
"Don't worry. It may look dilapidated, but even if you use your full strength, you won't be able to damage it in the slightest."
Upon hearing this,
the young talents began unleashing their respective strongest moves.
Dividing his attention among them, Lu Qingshan soon watched everyone's strongest moves.
"Stop."
His voice was not loud, yet it clearly cut through every explosive roar of energy. All five immediately withdrew their power. One boy stopped too abruptly and suffered an Origin Force backlash. His face paled, and regret filled his heart.
"This move of yours..." Lu Qingshan raised a hand and pointed from afar at the pale-faced boy. An energy attack identical to the one the boy had just performed condensed out of thin air. Yet in Lu Qingshan's hands, the attack underwent an earth-shaking transformation. Beneath its fierce, forceful exterior, layers upon layers of energy flowed without end.
"Commit this move to memory. If you can reproduce even a tenth of what I did, your grasp of intent will reach its peak."
"Thank you for your guidance, Ancestor!" The boy's voice trembled with excitement. This was a move he had created himself, yet when the ancestor performed it, it was as though it had been reborn, its power and intent enhanced far more than a hundredfold.
This simple demonstration was like opening a new door before him, worth far more than ten years of arduous cultivation!
As expected, guiding these ordinary talents whom the system had not marked produced no special feedback.
In the past, when he received the talents from Young Eagle Star, he had mostly offered a few words of encouragement and rarely demonstrated techniques himself. After all, compared to the universe's true monstrous geniuses, these so-called talents selected once every century on Maple Leaf Star were simply too ordinary. Barring unforeseen circumstances, the vast majority would struggle all their lives to break free of the shackles of Star Level Nine, and their chance of reaching Universe Level was less than one in ten thousand.
The universe was boundless, and its civilizations were strictly ranked. Universe Level powerhouses might be mere cannon fodder charging into battle on the brutal Outer Domain Battlefield, but within the territory of this low-tier Universe Country to which Maple Leaf Star belonged, they were already supreme existences capable of holding sway over an entire region. For a vast galaxy with hundreds of thousands of inhabited planets, producing one or two Universe Level powerhouses was already considered a sign of flourishing fortune.
Someone like Lu Qingshan, who had lived ninety thousand years and remained stuck at Universe Level 9 with the end of his lifespan approaching, might be an utter failure compared to those true geniuses of the universe. Yet within this Maple Leaf Empire, which of its trillion living beings would dare not address him as Ancestor?
Next, Lu Qingshan demonstrated the other talents' strongest moves in turn, saving them at least ten years of arduous cultivation.
This filled all the talents with admiration.
With just a single look, the ancestor could effortlessly reproduce all their signature techniques. Such accumulated knowledge and strength already lay far beyond their imagination.
Lei Ming in particular had been the strongest of the five and had long since reached a bottleneck, unable to advance any further. But when Lu Qingshan casually condensed a nascent Lightning Domain and showed him the mysteries within, where unceasing life flowed and destruction intertwined with creation, Lei Ming felt a thunderclap explode in his mind. The firm barrier that had trapped him for so long was forcibly split by that bolt of lightning, opening a crack.
The limit of intent was a domain, a domain...
A broad, radiant road leading to a higher realm suddenly unfolded before his eyes.
"You, what is your name?"
The calm voice rang out beside Lei Ming's ear, yet sounded like music from the heavens.
"In... in answer to the Ancestor, this disciple is Lei Ming, from Horned Thunder Star!" Lei Ming hurriedly bowed, his voice trembling slightly with excitement.
The other four talents' gazes instantly converged on him, filled with envy they could hardly conceal.
"Your talent is passable." A gentle smile appeared on Lu Qingshan's face. "Would you be willing... to become my disciple?"
"Ah?" Lei Ming was utterly stunned, his mind a complete blank.
"Lei Ming, the Ancestor is asking you a question!"
Lu San hurriedly reminded him.
How many years had it been since the ancestor last took a disciple? What was this fool still hesitating for?
Lei Ming snapped out of his daze as though waking from a dream. He dropped to his knees with a thud and knocked his forehead heavily against the cold ground. "Ancestor, I am willing!"
"Rise." Lu Qingshan's smile deepened, and he grew a little fonder of this somewhat wooden, guileless boy with passable talent. "Still calling me Ancestor?"
"T... Teacher!" Lei Ming raised his head, his voice loud and resolute.
The instant their status as master and disciple was established...
Hum!
An unfathomably profound fluctuation of laws silently swept across the source of Lu Qingshan's soul. Countless exquisite insights into the Lightning Domain emerged out of thin air and, like a hundred rivers returning to the sea, branded themselves directly into the depths of his consciousness.
[Your disciple Lei Ming has gained some insights into the nascent Lightning Domain, triggering a hundredfold return. Your understanding of the Lightning Domain has improved.]
(End of chapter)