Ten thousand years of harvesting.
In the Qingyuan Minor Immortal Realm, it wasn't just the nearby Void that had been stripped clean—even the farther regions had been scoured until asteroids were scarce. To reduce the travel time for immortals, the Three Dao Lords refined super-grade teleportation gates, allowing expeditions to reach extremely distant sectors of the Void more efficiently.
Each teleportation hub consisted of one mother gate paired with three child gates—convenient, fast, and strategically invaluable.
The gate Luo Yu guarded was one of those child gates. It was a cushy post, and the "oil" was plentiful.
After Mo Xuan's transport vessel entered the child gate, it felt like plunging into a deep ocean current—rising and falling, the hull shuddering slightly as if riding invisible turbulence.
Mo Xuan shot Xiao Ba a glare. "Spit it out. Now."
Xiao Ba trembled and hurriedly shrank its body, releasing the little sun. It tried its best to compress itself back down, but even at maximum shrinking, it was still clearly a whole size larger than before.
Mo Xuan snorted.
Xiao Ba pleaded in panic, "Master, I really didn't mean it! I was just cleaning dust, I wasn't trying to eat it. I only held it in my mouth for a moment… it melted a little."
"Let it happen again and you won't get a second warning."
Mo Xuan glanced at the little sun and then at Xiao Ba. Oddly enough, the mistake had saved him—if Uncle-Master Luo had seen that treasure, it would have been a disaster.
He weighed the three pill bottles in his hand and smiled with satisfaction. He hadn't expected Luo Yu to have so many good goods. Earth Immortals truly had deep foundations. Most Earth Immortal paradises weren't even a quarter the size of Luo Yu's. Teacher Kong's was only about a third. Uncle-Master Luo was a true immortal tycoon.
The vessel jolted—
and burst out of the mother gate.
The Qingyuan Minor Immortal Realm appeared ahead: a colossal continent floating in the Void.
Three point two million kilometers long. One point eight million kilometers wide. More than a hundred times the combined landmass of Earth.
Mo Xuan couldn't even imagine how something this immense could have been only a remote corner of the original Greater Immortal Realm.
Near the mother gate floated three miniature islands—one about three hundred meters wide, another only a hundred.
These were Immortal Gardens.
Each had a similar layout: half a lake, a small section of spirit fields, a spirit tree, a meditation cushion beneath it, the owner cultivating on the cushion… and one or two asteroids soaking in the lake to be digested.
Three thoughts projected into Mo Xuan's vessel from the islands:
"Junior Brother Mo Xuan, you're back already?""Your vessel is damaged—are you hurt?""Good that you returned safely."
"Senior Sister Fang Qing, Senior Brothers Fan Ya and Luo Heng—thank you for your concern," Mo Xuan replied. "I'm fine. I was careless and got ambushed by a few minor Void beasts. The harvest was decent."
As he spoke, he sent three prepared offerings—three B-grade Tier One cores roughly a meter across—sweeping them out with the vessel's appendages toward the three Immortal Gardens.
Fang Qing's eyes brightened. She smiled lightly and pointed with slender fingers. The core drifted gently down into the center of her lake.
Fan Ya and Luo Heng accepted theirs as well, nodding in approval. Their gazes toward Mo Xuan softened noticeably.
"Senior Sister, Senior Brothers—I'll take my leave first."
"Mm.""Safe travels.""Let's meet sometime."
Home pulled at him like an arrow. Mo Xuan accelerated toward Qingyuan.
Though it looked close, it was still far—the realm was simply too vast. He performed two short-range void-jumps before truly nearing it.
Only then did he feel the full weight of the colossal scale.
The most dazzling sight was the three gigantic floating landmasses high above—positioned like the points of a trident. Each was over a thousand kilometers across. They could no longer be called islands.
They were continents.
Mountain ranges stretching hundreds of miles. Vast lakes like inland seas. Millions of mu of A-rank spirit fields planted with spirit herbs and immortal grasses. Divine birds and spirit beasts everywhere, full of thriving life. In the mist, enormous palaces appeared and vanished. Faint immortal music echoed through the air.
These were higher than paradises.
Immortal Heavens.
Owned by the Three Dao Lords.
Mo Xuan steered toward a smaller Immortal Heaven below and between them—about fifty kilometers across. It wasn't small at all, only "small" compared to the three grand Immortal Heavens.
This was the Immortal Heaven of Jiang Zou, eldest disciple of Dao Lord Qianzao.
Qianzao was the only female Dao Lord among the three—legendary for beauty capable of toppling kingdoms, though her personality was famously bold and straightforward. Her disciples were mostly women. Jiang Zou was also a peerless beauty, known for a generous figure, and pursued by several male Heaven Immortals—including Xitian, eldest disciple of Dao Lord Taiyi, and Jumano, eldest disciple of Dao Lord Guxin.
At the lower right of the Immortal Heaven was an enormous plaza, large enough to park over a thousand transport vessels. Yet only two transport vessels were docked—along with a massive warship more than twice the size of a transport vessel.
That was a Hongwu-class warship, the Qingyuan Realm's mainline battle vessel. Above it were stronger star battleships, and beyond even those, a single Ark-class strategic vessel.
Beside the plaza was a huge dockyard—the Asteroid Workshop, where energy cores were unloaded and classified. During his Academy years, Mo Xuan had worked here often for merit points.
He piloted into the workshop. At Dock One, another transport vessel was already unloading—apparently returned not long ago.
An Academy instructor was leading twelve students through a classification lesson: the students performed hands-on sorting while the instructor commented and guided.
Mo Xuan parked at Dock Two. Five apprentice workers ran over. After Mo Xuan reported his identity, one apprentice recorded details on a jade platter, and unloading began.
The apprentices weighed, logged, and sorted rapidly—one core after another.
Then their eyes widened.
So many A-grade and B-grade cores… and huge, too!
It didn't take long to alarm the workshop supervisor: Immortal Maiden Du Min.
Du Min recognized the vessel as Senior Brother Kong Jian's transport ship. But Kong Jian was still recovering—meaning the pilot must be his "poetry prodigy" little disciple, Mo Xuan.
Du Min checked the jade platter. Only one year and three months had passed. Not bad luck indeed.
Dock One, by contrast, was mostly C-grade and D-grade cores. B-grade was rare, and the cores were small and hard to identify at a glance.
Before long, the unloading from Dock One finished.
Ding Yu stepped off his transport vessel and bowed to the instructor. "Disciple Ding Yu greets Teacher Cui." He also nodded politely to the twelve students.
Teacher Cui returned a small nod and handed him the jade platter. "This ship is from your family. By regulation, the realm takes twenty percent. The remaining eighty percent is yours to allocate."
Ding Yu accepted the platter. He glanced at the totals and calculated quickly.
His materials for building an Immortal Garden were mostly complete. The remaining key components could only be redeemed through Academy points—meaning he needed a large amount of points.
This batch of cores was mediocre and not worth keeping.
So he converted all of it into points: 12,578.
Still far from enough.
He sighed.
Back then, he had become immortal in only fifty years—so proud, so bright. In a blink, one hundred and fifty more years had passed, and he still hadn't built his Immortal Garden.
Ding Yu steadied his mind. Truthfully, he was already doing very well. He had entered the Academy as the top scorer of Qing Mountain Commandery. His family supported him, and an Earth Immortal ancestor backed him. He didn't need to rent a transport vessel at all.
If he had to rent?
Sixty percent to the ship fee. Thirty percent to debt.
Only ten percent left.
How many years would it take to gather Immortal Garden materials then?
He smiled faintly, and his thoughts drifted to Mo Xuan—his old contemporary from the same commandery.
Mo Xuan was the truly miserable one. "Twin wonders of poetry," glorious on the surface, but with no real backing. A hundred years passed, and all their peers had become immortal—only Mo Xuan remained stuck grinding at the Academy.
Whenever Ding Yu felt the Void's loneliness gnaw at him, he only had to think of Mo Xuan, and his mood improved instantly.
Then he frowned.
Whose ship was unloading at Dock Two? That harvest looked… extremely good.
Teacher Cui took back the jade platter and walked the students toward Dock Two.
With nothing urgent to do, Ding Yu followed, intending to greet the newly returned immortal and perhaps propose teaming up in the future.
As he approached, he stared.
These cores were huge—so easy to distinguish. The students stared too, eyes wide with curiosity.
Teacher Cui asked Du Min, "Senior Sister Du—who is this immortal?"
Du Min smiled. "This one is quite famous in the Academy. Newly advanced Immortal Mo Xuan."
Teacher Cui nodded with realization. So it was that slippery fellow.
The twelve students were openly amazed. The legendary Mo Xuan Senior Brother—"Twin wonders of poetry." For students without strong family resources, Mo Xuan's story was a living inspiration. If he could become immortal, then so could they—work harder, cultivate faster, go into the Void, harvest asteroids, support their families…
Ding Yu froze.
Mo Xuan became immortal?
He had been in the Void for five years and had only just returned. He hadn't heard. Still, he wasn't too shocked. Two hundred years had passed. Mo Xuan was overdue.
He glanced at the vessel.
The defensive hull was warped. Half the whip-appendages were broken. He must have run into Void beasts.
Ding Yu had never encountered them even once.
Since they were old contemporaries, Ding Yu greeted him naturally. "Junior Brother Mo—congratulations. You finally became immortal."
"Senior Brother Ding—long time no see," Mo Xuan replied, genuinely pleased.
Ding Yu looked at the stream of cores and praised, "Your harvest this time is impressive."
Mo Xuan stayed modest. "It's alright. I got lucky."
Ding Yu was about to leave—until he kept seeing more and more.
So many?
Did Mo Xuan… find an asteroid belt?
Ding Yu had endured five bitter years in the Void, catching scattered asteroids—three here, five there, ten if he was fortunate. After all that, he had harvested fewer than five hundred.
How was Mo Xuan unloading this much in a single trip?
One core after another.
More apprentices rushed over to help. Even the twelve students joined in. Still they struggled to keep up.
Ding Yu watched in stunned silence.
In one hundred and fifty years of harvesting, he had never seen a haul like this.
Du Min and Teacher Cui were also quietly shocked.
A true bumper harvest.
One core after another.
Dock Two turned into organized chaos. Do it fast, do it faster—if they didn't, the entire workshop road would be blocked. Du Min and Teacher Cui even helped direct the flow.
Ding Yu forced a bitter smile.
At least Mo Xuan had rented his ship—sixty percent would be taken as fee, thirty percent toward Academy debt, leaving only ten percent for himself.
That thought… restored a bit of balance.
At last, the enormous hold was nearly empty.
Only one item remained.
The dazzling little sun.
Mo Xuan stroked his chin, hesitating again and again.
Should he hand it over… or not?