Li Qing and Xia Qi both let out a muffled grunt as a Subspace Creature’s scheming, mocking laughter rang out in their minds.
A hint of unease rose in Xia Qi’s heart, but a smile appeared on Li Qing’s psionic-covered face.
The threads of light that had been burrowing into his body had stopped at some point and instead retreated back out.
The psionic orb of light separated from him and reformed into a figure of black-red radiance.
It looked around, a trace of confusion on its face:
“Where is this?”
At some point, the scenery outside the Escort Ship’s bridge glass had changed.
The Escort Ship and Destroyer that had been facing Ning Xi had vanished, replaced by an unfamiliar starfield.
The unknown Subspace Creature suddenly shot skyward.
The hardened alloy of the Warship’s bridge ceiling could not stop it at all.
Leaving the Escort Ship, the unknown Subspace Creature appeared in the void of the Palm Universe.
Gazing at the enormous Star Witness Higher-Dimensional Fortress at the center of the universe, its black-red radiance trembled violently.
Suddenly, it turned to look at the Escort Ship, dove back inside, and arrived at the bridge—only to freeze.
Li Qing, who had been sitting in the command room just seconds ago, had vanished.
It abruptly raised its head, fury on its face, its psionic power surging and violently exploding outward.
In the void, the Escort Ship suddenly shook violently, and the next second it exploded with a roar.
A silver Psionic Storm tore the Escort Ship to shreds, turning it into a silver tide surging in all directions.
“Clap, clap, clap!”
Threads of starlight in the void converged to form Li Qing’s figure.
He clapped lightly and sighed in admiration:
“What a powerful Psionic Storm. Just a fragment of will possesses such powerful psionic energy—I wonder how strong your true body is.”
At the center of the Psionic Storm, silver light gathered and reformed into an enormous head.
It stared fixedly at Li Qing, then slightly lowered its raised head and spoke in a deep voice:
“Heir of a Transcendence-level Civilization, please forgive my earlier rudeness. Allow me to introduce myself once more.”
It paused briefly, then spoke in a cadenced voice like an aria:
“Dubois Breg. You may also call me ‘Xin,’ or the Soul Devourer.”
Li Qing shook his head with a smile:
“I have no interest in your name.”
The Soul Devourer called ‘Xin’ slightly changed its expression and said again:
“Perhaps we can renegotiate. I recall there is a rule in human society: the noble may purchase their own lives with sufficient wealth. I am willing to offer riches befitting my status and beg you to let me leave.”
Li Qing watched it with a smile, gazing at its enormous face and the slowly contracting Psionic Storm, which soon condensed into its body, becoming a giant silver figure of light suspended in the void.
The Soul Devourer ‘Xin’ suppressed the anger in its heart and named its terms:
“Based on my understanding of humanity, I can offer the following in exchange for this fragment of will’s departure. I can awaken your psionic power, guarantee your Psionic Ascension, and provide three methods to unlock the second stage of Psionic Ascension. I can provide you with a lost High-grade Lost Relic, and I also know the whereabouts of a lost Ancient Titan.”
“And if you are not in a hurry, I can also provide you with the coordinates of a Psionic Saint lost in the Psionic Realm.”
Having said all this, Xin looked at Li Qing expectantly, only to see him still gazing at it with the same smile from before.
It said with a hint of displeasure:
“According to the rules of equivalent exchange, this would be enough to buy my life—and this is merely one of my wills.”
“Heh heh!”
Li Qing laughed out loud for the first time.
He felt great.
This was the first time he had caught such a big fish with the Palm Universe.
It was also because this fellow had been far too careless, not putting an ordinary human in its eyes at all, to the point that he directly opened the Palm Universe’s passage and swallowed the Escort Ship.
It had clearly sensed something was wrong, but hadn’t escaped immediately.
By the time it reacted, it was already too late.
“My turf, my rules!”
Out there, he was nothing but an ant in the eyes of Immaterium beings, but within the Palm Universe, he was god.
Xin’s offer was indeed tempting, but Li Qing wasn’t tempted at all—not only were most of those offers all show and no substance.
If you give me a Titan, can I even pilot it?
Could I afford to maintain it?
What use are the coordinates of a Psionic Saint?
These were all traps, all pits.
They looked beautiful, but none were practical.
It would be better to just give me a trillion in money outright.
Never mind that a Titan Super-Flagship is worth more than a trillion—the point is, could he even get his hands on it?
It had been lost until now without being discovered, so its location was surely a death zone.
With his current abilities, how would he get it out?
Even if he got in, how would he get out?
You had to admit, these things from the Immaterium had schemed their whole lives and instinctively wanted to hold something back in everything they did.
Fortunately, Li Qing had never intended to make this deal, or he really might have been tempted.
Compared to these all-show-no-substance deals, it was better to just refine it directly.
At this thought, his brow lifted.
Xin immediately sensed his killing intent and hurriedly said:
“With the Four Gods of the Void Realm as witnesses, if you release me, I will deliver everything I promised into your hands within one year.”
As soon as the words fell, the giant silver figure of light suddenly froze, then burst into flames of light, its massive body rapidly disintegrating and shrinking.
The silver figure roared in agony.
The powerful psionic energy forming its body swelled violently, waves of heart-palpitating fluctuations surging out, but all were firmly suppressed by an invisible force, forcibly torn apart and collapsed back into a vast tide of psionic storm spread across the void.
From a distance, it looked like a giant silver cloud layer several kilometers in diameter.
Transparent flames appeared out of thin air, and the silver cloud rapidly evaporated and shrank.
A massive transparent silhouette struggled desperately, but was bound tightly by an invisible force within the silver cloud, helplessly watching as the cloud was rapidly evaporated, smaller and smaller.
After who knows how long, the silver cloud that had once spanned several kilometers had shrunk to only a dozen or so meters, its color slowly shifting from silver to transparent clarity.
Li Qing watched expressionlessly at the equally transparent phantom within that clear, translucent stream of light.
With a wave of his hand, he and the transparent phantom together turned into a streak of light flying toward the Witness of the Stars Hyper-dimensional Fortress, plunging directly into it.
In the fortress’s core space, Li Qing and the ball of clear light appeared simultaneously.
Immediately, more than a dozen chains formed of starlight descended, shooting into the clear light, locking down both the ball of light and the transparent figure within it, and then—
A ripple of invisible force swept through, and the transparent figure suddenly threw back its head in a soundless roar.
In that instant, Li Qing felt the power of the Palm Universe travel along a thread imperceptible to the naked eye, crossing the plane of the Material Universe and emerging into a region of endlessly twisting, shifting Chaos.
Through some deep, instinctive Perception, he knew that one end of that thread was connected to the transparent phantom sealed within the Palm Universe, while the other end reached into the depths of that ever-distorting Chaos.
An endless stream of Chaos power burrowed into the transparent thread, transforming into pulses of spiritual light that surged toward the thread’s source.
Almost instantly, Li Qing felt a strange force pour into his body.
His eyes lit up as he vaguely sensed an invisible valve within himself—one that could never be seen with the naked eye—slowly loosening.
He understood: before long, once enough power had been drawn from the Psionic Realm, not only would the Palm Universe grow ever stronger, but he himself would awaken Psionic Power on his own.
Yes—what he was doing right now was using this avatar of will from an unknown, powerful being of the Psionic Realm as a guide, tracing the connection between the avatar and its true body to locate the coordinates of the Psionic Realm, then using the Palm Universe’s power to forcibly siphon energy from the Psionic Realm through that coordinate link, strengthening both the Palm Universe and himself.
This was the main reason he hadn’t been tempted at all.
However good ‘Xin’s’ offer was, it couldn’t compare to this.
Endlessly drawing energy from the Void Realm would not only slowly repair the Palm Universe’s damaged origin, but also continuously strengthen his Psionic Power.
With this, he would be like the dragons of legend—even if he did nothing but eat and sleep, day after day, his Psionic Power would keep growing stronger.
Li Qing made a rough estimate: in less than a month, the constant stream of refined energy would forcibly break through the barrier and awaken his Psionic Power.
And once he awakened Psionic Power—
Put it this way: not only in the Qinghe Li Clan, but in every Warlord Clan across the United Empire of Humanity, one who awakened Psionic Power was regarded as a genius second only to those born with a Purple Epic Innate Talent—someone the clan would absolutely be willing to invest resources in cultivating.
Once he awakened Psionic Power, Li Qing’s standing in the Qinghe Li Clan would surely rise dramatically.
The moment he returned and reported it, he would immediately receive support from the clan’s standard cultivation fund.
Even the blank period between his birth and his departure to pioneer—the years when his status and position had been too low—would be retroactively compensated according to current standards.
There was no doubt it was real.
No great noble house would ever be stingy in cultivating truly elite descendants.
But for now, Li Qing hadn’t yet decided whether to report back to the clan.
Reporting would indeed bring powerful support, but gains and obligations were always equal.
With the clan investing so many resources, they would never support him for nothing—once he grew up, he would inevitably have to fulfill his obligations.
Li Qing accepted that principle readily.
But—
With a Palm Universe in his grasp, he was destined to rise and stand at the pinnacle of the sea of stars.
He had no interest in returning to the clan—not even for the strong likelihood of defeating all other competitors to become Patriarch of the Qinghe Li Clan, commanding the nearly hundred billion people of Qinghe Province, its billions of players, and a Division-level Fleet. Get faster updates on novelping(.)com.
In the United Empire of Humanity, any ambitious super-elite’s goal was never to return home and inherit the family business, but to strike out on their own, establish their own territory, and ultimately build a new province with their own hands, becoming a new Military Lord of the Empire to prove themselves.
Only those who failed to establish territory abroad would settle for second best and return home to inherit the family estate.
In any era, those capable of pioneering new territory and becoming a new Military Lord were the favored children of their age, and the ones most likely to challenge for the rank of Starsea Lord and become the true rulers of the United Empire of Humanity.
With a Palm Universe in hand, if you asked me what my goal was, it certainly wouldn’t be going home to inherit the family business.
So…
“How am I supposed to get back now?”
Another problem presented itself before Li Qing.
Earlier, that Soul Devourer’s psionic power had erupted, blowing the Escort Ship apart and killing everyone aboard.
Being inside the Palm Universe for now was fine, but what was he supposed to do when he went out?
Never mind that he hadn’t awakened his psionic power yet—even if he had, freshly awakened psionic power wouldn’t be enough to let him survive in the vacuum.
And with the ship destroyed and all the crew dead, he’d have to prepare a hefty sum of compensation payments when he returned to Jinmen Province.
“My head hurts!”
The joy of being on the verge of awakening psionic power was instantly halved.
The result was death.
There was no other way.
He couldn’t communicate with the outside from within the Palm Universe.
Back when he was aboard the Escort Ship, the fleet with Xia Qi and the others had been only a few kilometers away—a distance of mere ship-lengths for a Warship, but for a tiny individual, a few kilometers was extremely far.
Sound couldn’t travel through space, and no one would hear him no matter how loudly he shouted.
When he came out of the Palm Universe, there’d be a ‘bang,’ and he’d drop dead on the spot.
When he revived, he’d already be at a base dozens of star systems away.
Without a set revival point, the default was one’s own territory or personal base.
If there was no base nearby, the second default was the nearest Space Outpost or Star Fortress City.
If those were truly too far away, one would revive at a random nearby location—not limited to abandoned space stations or other warships—anywhere that could accommodate a physical body.
One would never revive in open space.
Each death and revival cost a certain amount of lifespan, generally a minimum of five years, with no upper limit.
Dying in the cold of space, like he had, counted the same as dying in normal combat—a loss of only the minimum five years.
But dying at the hands of those evil Immaterium beings was another matter entirely.
It could be decades at the least, or a hundred or even several hundred years at most.
And if you were unlucky enough to die at the hands of the Four Gods of the Void Realm, chances were you’d be done for good.
Everything at the base was as usual.
Beyond the satellites’ orbit, an Escort Ship from Yang Yunbo was still parked—he really had sent one over to help watch the base, which touched Li Qing quite a bit.
Through the base’s radar, he reopened communications and sent a message to everyone.
A minute later, Yang Yunbo replied:
“Brother Li Qing, you’re back so early—did something happen?”
Li Qing smiled bitterly:
“Indeed. Something happened halfway—my ship blew up.”
“That’s a real shame. What about the others?”
“Not sure. They might still be fighting, or they may have escaped.”
“So what are you planning to do now? Buy another ship? Or I could sell you one.”
Li Qing thought for a moment, then nodded:
“Then I’ll trouble you, Brother Yang.”
“You’re welcome. By the way, most of the warships I have here are Level 2 or Level 3 configurations. Since you want two, I’ll sell them to you at market price.”
“Level 3, then.”
Although he would have preferred Level 5 configurations, he figured Yang Yunbo probably didn’t have many on hand either.
“Alright, I’ll send them over to you later.”
“Thanks, Brother Yang.”
“Oh, right, I don’t have that much cash on hand right now. Can I pay with ore instead?”
“Mm, that works. That’ll be thirty-three million in total.”
“Okay.”
Closing the communication, Li Qing rubbed his chin, deciding that once Yang Yunbo’s ship arrived, he would make a trip back to Jinmen.