A World Worth Protecting

It was a barren space. There seemed to be nothing besides shattered pieces of meteorites. Forget about any signs of planets, there was no wreckage or life.

There was little light around them, and space was pitch-black.

The Divine Eye civilization is like a swarm of locusts. Who knows the number of times they have plundered… the civilizations around them. Wang Baole looked around him. He had expected this, but he still couldn’t help but sigh.

I’ll have to go somewhere further… Wang Baole fell into a contemplative silence. From the corner of his eye, he could see the donkey eying the interior of the locust with shining eyes. It licked its lips uncontrollably while its drool began to pool on the floor…

Little Wu sat next to the donkey, staring into space. He seemed to be in a fugue state. Wang Baole had no idea what he was thinking.

Wang Baole ignored Little Wu and glared at the donkey. There was no need for him to say anything, the look was warning enough. The donkey got the message and looked down pitifully. It stuck its tongue out and lapped up the pool of drool…

With the knowledge that the donkey knew its place, Wang Baole retracted his threatening look and then formed a hand seal. His fleet clustered around him immediately, the battleships vanishing one after another as they were pulled into his storage bracelet. Only the locust remained, speeding towards the distant cosmos.

The direction he had chosen to be teleported to was different from the one that the Holy Crest Sect had chosen. Wang Baole was familiar with the route the Holy Crest Sect had taken, but the territory had been plundered. That was why Wang Baole had decided to try his luck with another direction.

Wang Baole had the star map to this region, but it wasn’t of much use. It only told Wang Baole the extent of the Divine Eye civilization’s exploration in this region. With the speed that the locust was going, they reached the edge of that explored territory within two weeks. The star map became completely useless then.

The territory that we’re heading into is unrecorded territory. There’s still a chance that it might have been plundered by the Divine Eye civilization, but the further we go, the lower those chances are. Wang Baole perked up. He steered the locust and charged ahead.

However… luck didn’t seem to be on Wang Baole’s side for this particular expedition. Another two weeks went by, and the cosmos around them remained pitch-black, with no planets in sight.

Wang Baole simmered in frustration. Seeming to sense the terrible mood that Wang Baole was in, the donkey didn’t lick the insides of the Dharmic Battleship as frequently. Even so, whenever Wang Baole noticed drool dripping uncontrollably from the donkey’s lips, he would glare at the creature.

“Little Wu!”

“I’m here, Daddy!” Little Wu had been in a fugue state for an entire month. Upon hearing Wang Baole’s voice, he bounced to his feet and shouted.

“I’m handing you a mission. Watch the donkey and make sure it keeps its mouth clean. It’s not allowed to eat anything!”

Little Wu was instantly torn when he heard that. He had become well aware of the donkey’s strange culinary taste and had learned that there was nothing in this world that the donkey wasn’t capable of eating. In fact, Little Wu secretly thought that the donkey might even turn its teeth on him if it got too hungry…

He had even reached the conclusion that the donkey, given the right conditions, could gobble up the entire Black Earth Empire…

He looked at the donkey, then looked at Wang Baole. Then, with a pitiful look on his face, he murmured, “Daddy, I can’t stop Second Master. He’s my senior…”

“I’ll have a bite of you for every bite it takes!” Wang Baole gave Little Wu a fierce glare, causing him to shudder. He was sure that Wang Baole was capable of doing exactly what he had said. The look on his face turned serious immediately, and he replied loudly.

“Don’t worry, Daddy. I’ll stop Second Master from doing anything wrong!”

Wang Baole snorted and retracted his glare. He ignored Little Wu and his troubled look as the latter negotiated with the donkey and begged the creature to control its urges.

Time went by as Wang Baole rode the locust through the dark cosmic space. Like a solitary beast, he traveled from galaxy to galaxy. All of them were the same, shriveled and drained, without any signs of life or ruined remnants of civilization.

The journey, dry and boring and without direction, began to stir doubts in Wang Baole’s mind. He wondered if he should stop wasting his time, turn back, and choose another route. Things might turn out better.

Just as doubt began to build inside Wang Baole, the cosmic landscape before him started to look different. It was no longer complete darkness. There appeared to be light shimmering in the distance.

Shimmering lights! The discovery energized Wang Baole. The presence of light meant the existence of an Eternal Star somewhere in the area. He had no idea the state the Eternal Star was in, but he knew that an Eternal Star was the core of every civilization. Where there was an Eternal Star, the chances of there being life were great.

The discovery had Wang Baole shifting the direction he was going excitedly. He charged towards the source of light at full speed, the journey taking him ten days. As the light grew brighter, Wang Baole could finally make out a huge Eternal Star lying ahead of him in the distance!

The Eternal Star was larger than the one in the Divine Eye civilization. However, the light it was giving off wasn’t as bright. In fact, he could hardly feel any heat from the light. The Eternal Star appeared to have undergone some kind of structural transformation. It looked fossilized.

However, the source of light within its core hadn’t yet extinguished. The light penetrated the Eternal Star’s outer fossilized walls and flooded outward into space, lighting up the cosmic region.

Wang Baole’s heart raced as he observed the sight from a distance. Without any hesitation, he stopped the locust in its tracks. Then, he raised his right hand and, with a wave, pulled out a compass.

The compass was of the Divine Eye civilization. It was able to perform a scan of a cosmic region and reconstruct a star map from the scan. The cultivators from the Divine Eye civilization who had invaded the Federation had used something similar to perform a scan on the Solar System.

The compass that Wang Baole was now holding was far superior compared to their compass, though, in both its accuracy and the radius of the area scanned. It was an essential item that the Divine Sovereign Justice Sect distributed to its armies.

“Red, orange, yellow, cyan, green, blue, and purple. Red means an energy signature from an Eternal Star realm, orange means one from a Planet realm, bright yellow is for the Spirit Immortal realm… light yellow for the Soul Conduit realm…” Wang Baole muttered to himself as he fiddled with the compass. His eyes stayed fixed on the compass as five planets appeared above it!

The largest one was the Eternal Star that Wang Baole was looking at. His senses had been right. A great portion of it had become fossilized. The remaining four planets in this galaxy were at the Planet realm and had all become fossils!

The extent of their fossilization exceeded that of the Eternal Star. They were almost fully fossilized. Instead of calling them planets, one might… view them as four enormous meteoroids floating in space!

As for the color of these planets… while the compass couldn’t discern the color of the Eternal Star, it indicated the color of the remaining planets as black. That meant that there weren’t any signs of Spirit Qi on the planets. Wang Baole frowned at the results.

Could it be another mutant civilization? Wang Baole fell into a thoughtful silence as he slowly steered the locust towards the galaxy. He then activated his cultivation and unleashed the full power of the locust, ready to speed up or unleash a counterattack at a moment’s notice.

The locust approached the new galaxy steadily under Wang Baole’s focused and watchful eyes. When he finally entered the galaxy, shock flashed across his face, and the locust came to an abrupt stop!

Earlier on… he hadn’t been able to get a good look because of the distance. In addition, a strange power appeared to be cloaking the galaxy and preventing his compass from obtaining a more detailed scan of the area. Now that he had entered the galaxy, his eyes began to take in the scene before him…

It was a killing field!

Countless bodies floated in space, alongside numerous parts from battleship wreckages and damaged Dharmic treasures. They drifted in space and filled the entire cosmic region… as far as the eye could see!

Where am I? Shock flickered across Wang Baole’s face, and he felt incredibly uneasy. He could feel danger creeping in and surrounding him from all sides!