Lu Sheng naturally had no idea what Anon Turing was thinking, nor did he have any interest in finding out. After accepting the three items Zi Yanxin had given him, he followed her personally to the spaceship he would be transferring to. It was a medium-sized cruiser, shaped like a beautiful, multifaceted crystal, with an overall silver-gray hue. It had a lovely name: the Meteor.
Among the fleet of sub-ships within the Immortal-class Star Spirit Flower, it was considered the most luxurious. As Lu Sheng stepped onto the Meteor, he was suddenly struck by a realization.
His own ship, the White Hole Shuttle—touted as the top-of-the-line model in the Little Forest Star Region—seemed, when compared to the Meteor before him, no different from the dilapidated vessel he had boarded when leaving the Interdimensional Battlefield.
This is the universe; this is the cosmos. The gap between civilizations was vast—far greater than the difference between a modern metropolis and a primitive tribe.
The Meteor was brimming with artificial intelligence and was staffed by several crew members transferred from the Star Spirit Flower.
As Sheng and Anon entered the ship, they didn't spot Haiji Dao, but they did see Pablo and his daughter Zoe. Since he had already met the two of them once aboard the Star Spirit Flower, Sheng didn't say anything. He exchanged a brief greeting with Anon behind him and headed straight for his own rest area.
Just as Sheng turned away, Pablo, who had been about to step forward, froze in his tracks and awkwardly withdrew the foot he had already extended.
"That guy… he's way too arrogant!"
Zoe, the blue-haired woman beside him, ground her teeth slightly in displeasure at Sheng's retreating back. Pablo shook his head and chuckled, "He's a genius—arrogance is only natural. Aren't you arrogant yourself? Besides, he's way stronger than me. He really doesn't need to go out of his way to be friendly with us…"
"We're still in the same line of work, after all. He doesn't have any manners at all."
"Don't forget we're hitching a ride on his ship. This spaceship was specially arranged for him by Star Spirit Flower."
"Hmph!"
Zoe understood the logic, but she still felt annoyed. Suddenly, as if she'd remembered something, her sapphire-blue eyes lit up, and she whispered, "I heard that the Eye of the Storm has produced a so-called once-in-a-hundred-million-years martial arts prodigy—with a Blood on the verge of Sovereign-level. The head of the Celestial Serpent Clan personally recruited him. That person is bound to show up for this Hunting Bow's Celestial Throne selection. The Extreme-Rank Laws are indeed formidable, but surely they can't be stronger than the legendary Sovereign-level Blood, right? Hehe."
Zoe must have imagined some incredibly amusing scene, because she couldn't help but laugh, looking just like a cat that had stolen a fish. "Sooner or later, I'll get to see him get crushed and humiliated."
Pablo, standing beside her, looked visibly shaken the moment Zoe finished speaking, his expression one of sheer astonishment.
"A Sovereign-class Blood? Are you sure? Has another Sovereign-class Blood really emerged?"
Zoe nodded, replying with certainty, "Could the news published in the *Hunting Star Weekly* possibly be false? Though not a true Sovereign-level one—apparently, it merely exhibits the signs of a Sovereign, still just a tiny, tiny sapling."
"Of course…" Zoe seemed somewhat deflated as she sighed, "To an Immortal, that sapling is already as towering as a giant tree."
Pablo's expression grew grave, and he didn't say a word. Zoe noticed that his expression was completely different from what she had expected, and she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Father, you seem worried about something. Could it be that you're still worried about that guy?"
Zoe subconsciously looked in the direction Sheng had departed, somewhat puzzled.
Pablo merely shook his head. "Of course not. I was just reminded of something else."
"What?"
"I once heard a rumor…" Pablo spoke softly, his gaze growing complex. His eyes seemed to pierce through the thick, sturdy walls of the Meteor spacecraft, focusing on the very center of the distant Hunting Bow. Immediately afterward, Zoe heard the second half of Pablo's low, distant voice.
"In a galaxy… The birth of a new king… Is always accompanied by the aging and demise of the old king."
"Uh…" Zoe froze for a moment. A few seconds later, her expression turned stunned and horrified as she abruptly looked toward the center of the Hunting Bow.
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The recreational area on the Meteor was enormous. It was even larger than the one on the Star Spirit Flower. The entire lounge was divided into sixteen distinct zones—jungle, ocean, desert, city... These were not holographic projections, but genuine, physical landscapes. Each zone covered an area of over a million acres, truly pushing the limits of space compression and expansion technology.
Sheng sat cross-legged on a rock by the sea, feeling the damp sea breeze blow against his face. In his hand, he was fiddling with the auxiliary communicator he had just received from Zi Yanxin. Dozens of purple stars of varying sizes seemed to flow like streams of light beneath the skin of his right hand as he attempted to contact Dong Qingxue.
It went more smoothly than he had anticipated. In less than a second, the connection was established. Before Lu Sheng appeared a simple, elegant little room. The large floor-to-ceiling windows on the side of the room were wide open, and a gentle breeze blew in from outside, rustling the pure white sheer curtains on both sides. On the large bed in the center of the room, Dong Qingxue lay quietly, her lower abdomen slightly raised. Her eyelashes were lowered, and she was sleeping peacefully. Everything seemed so serene and beautiful.
Sheng's eyes flickered slightly. Only then did he realize that the capabilities of this communicator were far greater than he had imagined. To forcibly connect a video feed without the other party's consent was, to say the least, rather overbearing.
As Sheng's thoughts shifted, the scene before him began to zoom out. His gaze broke free from the room and rapidly expanded outward. He quickly spotted his mother, Zheng Yufen. She was in the living room of the house next door, watching TV and chatting with a few women. They were all young and beautiful "girls," yet their every gesture betrayed an unmistakable air of middle-aged women. They were likely his mother's old friends—the ones who had taken the genetic enhancement serum after moving away from planet Azure.
Then there was his father, Lu Dahai, and his sister Lu Qinghe. They were found not far away, within a mountain range, alongside several familiar faces from Lu Sheng's circle, seemingly engaged in martial arts training.
His father, Dahai, had undergone a significant transformation—he had actually reached the Seventh-Rank Grandmaster Realm. Young and robust, every movement exuded the intense confidence unique to a middle-aged man.
Martial arts truly "nurture" a person. That saying really rings true. Who would have thought? That ordinary man who used to haul goods, his back aching from exhaustion every day, would one day become a martial arts Grandmaster.
Lu Sheng continued to cast his gaze further into the distance. The entire planet Pregnancy came into view. Compared to when he had left, his family's home planet had changed significantly. It wasn't due to the development efforts of outsiders like them, but rather because of the actions of the natives of planet Pregnancy themselves.
The power dynamics among the planet's native factions had undergone a massive shift. Sheng even spotted a colossal statue under construction; judging by its form, it bore a striking resemblance to him. It was likely due to the immense commotion caused by his cultivation of the Immortal Dao back then—a twist of fate that had led certain natives of this planet to adopt a new faith.
Sheng smiled faintly and paid it no mind. He tried to cast his gaze toward the distant cosmos, but found that establishing a signal in that region was proving difficult. So he abandoned the idea. To be able to monitor the real-time activities of a planet across thousands of star systems and countless light-years... The communicator Zi Yanxin had given him was truly incredible.
Now that he had the ability to contact his family in real time, Lu Sheng no longer felt such urgency to speak with them. In fact, most of the time, simply watching them was enough. The few people on this tiny planet were his greatest source of strength. Like an untraceable "divinity," Lu Sheng quietly "stayed with" his family for a while before disconnecting the signal.
He began to refocus his energy on himself. Zi Yanxin had sent him a full twenty third-tier Star Cores. He felt it was necessary to attempt a breakthrough to level 13.
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Translation notes by dhoo
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Meteor
陨星号 (trad. 隕星號), yǔnxīng hào: 陨星 meteorite 号 marker for a ship name