A World Worth Protecting

“First, the self-destructing battleships…” Wang Baole muttered as he sat in his Dharmic Battleship. After setting the course the Dharmic Battleship was to take, he rubbed at his forehead. Ideas began to fill his head.

It was going to take them some time to get back to the Divine Eye Star System. Looking at how long they had taken to travel out, they needed at least three months for the return journey. This was the best time for him to rebuild his arsenal.

Building self-destructing battleships will be easy. Besides, I still have plenty of puppets to order around. The important thing is maximizing the power released from each self-destructive explosion, but that’s not difficult to deal with either. If I use materials of a better grade to build these battleships, the power that they’ll release when they self-destruct will naturally increase.

Besides, I still have the Divine Justice Shield… Wang Baole narrowed his eyes. Having decided what he had to do, he started to work, pulling out his puppets from his storage bag and retreating into seclusion.

Time passed steadily. Hundreds of brand-new small battleships appeared behind the Dharmic Battleship. They were black in color and exuded waves of relatively powerful spirit energy. Every battleship appeared to be as powerful as a perfected Nascent Soul realm cultivator.

Their numbers increased as the days went by, and the rate of this increase crept up steadily as well, from the initial addition of a few hundred new battleships to a few thousand new battleships every day!

After two weeks, a massive fleet of more than ten thousand battleships could be seen trailing behind the Dharmic Battleship. Every battleship was equipped with its own Divine Justice Shield. It was an awesome sight to behold. Travelers from other civilizations who saw the fleet shuddered at the sight of it and quickly hid in the hopes that their presence wouldn’t be discovered.

Their reactions were understandable… besides the ten thousand strong Nascent Soul realm battleships, Wang Baole had gone all out and used up a thousand Red Crystals to build… a thousand super battleships that would release Soul Conduit realm level power when they were blown up!

These battleships looked exactly the same as the other battleships in Wang Baole’s fleet. No one would be able to tell the difference without a closer look. Gathered together in a massive fleet, the battleships clearly posed a menacing threat to everyone in the area.

Wang Baole’s current fleet looked majestic and powerful. It was many times stronger than the fleet that he had started out with. In addition, he now had the Emperor Armor, which gave him combat strength that rivaled a Spirit Immortal realm cultivator. Ordinary early-stage Spirit Immortal realm cultivators wouldn’t be a match for him. Even if his opponent were to have a Dharmic Battleship, victory would still not be guaranteed.

If his opponent had no Dharmic Battleship, Wang Baole would be willing to duke it out with them even if his opponent were at the mid-stage Spirit Immortal realm. After all, he still had the jade token from the Flame Patriarch, who had sealed a curse inside before giving it to him.

The culmination of everything led to his brimming sense of confidence. It would be an exaggeration to say that he could now reign over the cosmos with ease, but it wouldn’t be a stretch to call him a rising star in the Divine Eye civilization.

He had rebuilt his Divine Justice Shield as well. To prevent history from repeating itself, he used up a considerable portion of his vast hordes of materials just to refine Divine Justice Shields for his personal protection. He made a hundred of them in a single shot!

“Money’s all I’ve got!” Wang Baole burst out into laughter after getting a sense of how much more powerful he now was with his full arsenal of weaponry and artifacts. The donkey brayed a few times and started to beg for treats. Its braying got louder after it successfully earned a few supreme-grade Spirit Stones from Wang Baole.

Little Wu, on the other hand, continued to remain in a daze. There was a lost look in his eyes. He seemed to be contemplating life, who he was, where he had come from, and where he was to go next.

This child… is quite pitiful, actually. Wang Baole sighed as he eyed Little Wu. He realized that he had been too harsh on the kid. But life was cultivation. One had to go through all kinds of hardships in order to emerge stronger and more powerful. The thought of that made Wang Baole feel considerably better.

Kid, I’m doing this for your own good. You still need more training. It’s okay, your daddy will help you. Wang Baole coughed and looked away. After calculating how long the remaining return journey was going to take, he pulled out the partially maimed palm that had belonged to the Never-Ending Clan Planet realm cultivator.

Only three fingers remained on the palm, all of which had turned black. However, they showed no signs of decomposition, and a strong Planet realm aura still remained within the palm. The mere sight of the palm made Wang Baole feel stifled. The feeling wasn’t as bad as facing a Planet realm cultivator, but it was bad enough.

Do all dismembered body parts of a Planet realm cultivator feel as powerful… Wang Baole studied the palm before him solemnly. He considered merging it with his Emperor Armor so that he might be able to wield a tiny bit of Planet realm power.

However, such methods seemed too coarse and brutish. In fact, it would be a waste to use the palm like that. Wang Baole was torn. After some consideration, he set the palm aside and took out the storage ring again.

Do I have to be at the Planet realm before I can unlock this thing? Is there really anything valuable inside… Maybe I can ask Xie Haiyang to try unlocking it as a last resort? Wang Baole frowned. He cleared his mind and was about to study the storage ring in detail when he suddenly heard heavy panting. He looked up in surprise and saw the donkey standing a short distance away. It was staring unblinkingly at the storage ring in his hand.

Its drool had dripped to the floor and formed a puddle…

The donkey’s eyes reddened. Without warning, it dashed towards Wang Baole, opened its mouth, and aimed for the storage ring, snapping its teeth shut.

A loud crunch rang out as the donkey bit into thin air!

If Wang Baole hadn’t been quick enough, the donkey would have bitten off his hand as well. The thought of that made him furious. Just as he was getting to his feet, the donkey made a second charge at him. It seemed to only have eyes for the storage ring. It was going to fight for the ring again.

“Are you trying to revolt?” Wang Baole sent his leg flying and landed a kick on the donkey’s stomach. The donkey cried out as it was flung into the distance.

It might have looked like a rather heavy kick, but Wang Baole had controlled the force of the blow. His intention had been to get the donkey away from him, not injure the creature. The blow seemed to have kicked some sense into the donkey. It sprawled on the floor and stared pitifully at Wang Baole. It seemed to realize that it had done something wrong. Even so, drool… continued to drip from its mouth uncontrollably.

Wang Baole glared at the donkey, then looked down at the storage ring in his palm. A strange light flickered in his eyes. He knew the donkey’s character. The creature had eaten its fill of materials since it had been young, and it had grown to be picky about its food. It had also cultivated a great sense of smell for high-grade materials. Its crazed behavior was proof that… there was something extraordinary hidden inside the storage ring.

Did I just strike gold? Wang Baole’s breathing stuttered. He then looked up and stared at the donkey. This time, he extended his Divine Sense and started to communicate with the creature.

The donkey couldn’t give a detailed description of what was inside the storage ring, but Wang Baole could sense its emotions clearly. There was an aura inside the storage ring that was driving the donkey mad. It was an aura that had squashed the donkey’s reason, brought its primal instincts to the forefront, and led to the creature’s offensive actions against its wonderful and dashing President Daddy.

“Save your explanations. Are you still trying to kiss my a**? You’re just greedy!” Wang Baole snorted. He decided that he couldn’t hand this ring to Xie Haiyang. The safest way was for him to unlock the ring himself when he had become powerful enough to do so. He was about to store the ring and the Planet realm palm into his storage bag when Little Wu, who had been in a silent daze, suddenly spoke.

“Daddy, I know a way to refine this palm into a powerful artifact. It’ll be able to unleash a power that’s almost as powerful as an attack from a Planet realm cultivator. I can share this knowledge with you, but I want you to do one thing for me in return…”

“Hmm?” Wang Baole cocked his head towards Little Wu immediately and narrowed his eyes. He had his guesses about the secret surrounding Little Wu’s origins. He hadn’t managed to find any memories inside the boy’s head after searching his soul. What he knew was that the refinement technique that Little Wu had shared with him was an extremely powerful technique.

Could he really be some prince from somewhere? Wang Baole blinked. That didn’t seem likely, though. A prince was supposed to look something like Wang Baole, right?

“Little Wu, be a good boy and tell Daddy. I promise that I won’t ever lock you up in the future.” A smile appeared on Wang Baole’s face at that thought. He looked at Little Wu kindly as he spoke to the boy.

Little Wu eyed Wang Baole’s smiling face with some hesitation. After a moment, he gritted his teeth and replied, “Daddy, this artifact refinement technique is called the Black Earth Star Refinement Art!”

“Theoretically speaking, you can use it to refine planets and stars…” Little Wu stuck his right hand out and pulled out a jade slip. He imprinted a seal on it, then threw it towards Wang Baole. Wang Baole caught the jade slip and scanned it with his Divine Sense. His eyes widened instantly, and shock rippled through his thoughts. He looked up and stared at Little Wu.

“What do you want me to do for you?”

“Promise to send me home when I ask you to in the future!”